We took the Danube Christmas Market Cruise in November of 2019. This primed us for taking the Rhine Getaway during the Christmas season. The standard Viking on ship experiences were mainly still there. Immaculately clean, walk out to breakfast and the cabin was finished before we came back to gather our cameras to go on the tour. The food was as good as ever. Top Notch! Except for the spinach ravioli. I would never get that again. The entertainment and tours were a HUGE disappointment. German night was on the sixth night of the cruise. The captain, manager of the bar were in Lederhosen, three of the female servers were in dirndl's and the food was fabulous. The entertainment manager had promised German dress, music and dancing. The music was the same as every night by the 60'ish piano player. Dean Martin, Neal Diamond and Frank Sinatra. There was never any deviation from that music. No regional music, no regional performers. The Entertainment manager did perform "Sinatra Plus" one evening. That was refreshing and different..not! The first evening the Entertainment manager did lead a kind of Trivia game with 10 questions and awarded a bottle of Champagne to the winning team. The local information/demonstrations were conducted during the afternoon when many of the guests were on tours/walks or on the middle Rhine were up top watching the Castles of the Middle Rhine. They could have had this after dinner for all the guests. Decorate the tree with Viking balls was a bust and the gingerbread house mysteriously appeared on the last night in the lobby. Why weren't the guests allowed to help? The biggest failing was on the tours. The tour of Cologne took us on a bus to downtown, walked around the block and up the stairs to the Cathedral. We were given 15 minutes to go into the Cathedral on our own,(tour groups not allowed) and after the 15 minutes we walked 8 blocks discussing the shopping that was available and taking us past 3 Christmas Markets and ending at the river where we were showed where our boat was at. Total tour time. 45 minutes. I guess there just isn't much to do in Cologne. Koblenz is a small town with little to do or see but our guide did a great job of it. I would suggest changing the tour to Trier. It is not that far and has much more to offer. The optional Heidleburg tour with lunch with students is a bust and should be avoided. Bus ride to the ruins of the castle, lunch in an average Brauhaus with 3 professional students in their late 20s to early 30s and an 8 block walk down the mainstreet with minimal discussions. From what we were told, take the Speyer walk, it was better.

Strasbourg was beautiful as was the Black Forest (snowed and was picture card beautiful) and Colmar was also magnificent. Never saw the Entertainment manager in any town except the dinner in Rhudisheim. He did enjoy the food and drink. The dinner was great and very entertaining. Take it. Would I go back? No, not to the Rhine River. Not enough to see to make me want to go back, and then it would only be if we had a better entertainment manager.