We were contemplating a Rhine or Danube cruise. We chose the Rhine Getaway because (1) we liked the 8 day duration, and (2) one of us had been to some of the Danube River Port cities already on previous vacations. Rhine provided both of us new cities, even if not new countries. It was an excellent experience for first time river cruisers! We travelled the Basel to Amsterdam direction and added the Lucerne add-on at the outset. Now that I've experienced the itinerary, I'm SO happy we chose that direction! In Lucerne we were able to see Mt. Pilatus, Mt. Titlus, some Lucerne city highlights, take a lake cruise, and (as a Viking shore excursion) do the Stanserhorn cable car. I really enjoyed the Lucerne add-on and felt it was good value. Note that doing the Lucerne add-on doesn't leave time to discover the city of Basel pre-embarkation though. So, that's a trade-off. In my opinion the ports of highlight on the Rhine Getaway are Rudesheim, Koblenz and Cologne. The cities I enjoyed the most were Colmar, Strasbourg, Speyer and Cologne. We did paid for shore excursions everyday except for one. Those shore excursions I enjoyed the most were the Black Forest hike, Medeival Colmar, Top of Cologne, Dine in Rudesheim, e-bike tour in Kinderdijk, and Cologne Beer Tour. I travelled with a friend, not my partner, so our choice to book the Explorer Suite was also a good one. It gave us space to fully unpack, not live out of suitcases, provided the storage we needed in each room, and gave us space to have personal time when needed. It also enabled us to enjoy the middle Rhine castle portion in our own space and not on the upper deck since we could see both banks from our back balcony. Laundry and room service were also a great perk of that suite. We did stay in Amsterdam post-cruise for three night but didn't do it as the Viking add-on. By day 11 we were ready to have less of an itinerary. As well, Amsterdam is very easy to find travel information for. In summary, we had a great time and will cruise with Viking again!