Why did we pick this cruise? Two reasons. First, we always wanted to see Belgium and the Netherlands. We booked in 2019 for 2020, and covid postponed it. Viking rebooked us for 2021 ... and covid postponed it again. So after 3 years we were beyond desperate to finally go. The second reason is we love Viking river cruises so much we'd have taken a cruise to Saturn without spacesuits as long as it was on Viking. And there's a bonus: The people you meet and socialize with on a cruise. We made great friends with six other couples. And the crew is just fantastic. On both cruises we've been on we have had the best dining room waiters ever, Anett on the Paris-Normandy run and Andre on the Amsterdam run-- both fun. And the daily day trips are wonderful. The food is always wonderful, with just enough choices to satisfy everyone without being too fancy or hoity-toity. We always get the drinks upgrade package, well woth it on Viking but not so much on other cruise lines we've been on.
Contrary to some travelers we tend to pick smaller, less expensive cabins and don't care at all about windows -- because we are almost never IN the room except to shower and sleep, and who needs windows for that? If we are aboard, we are always in one of the common spaces, and on the top deck if the weather is good. The lounge is always a great place to hang out. We also don't care at all about smoke-filled casinos, rock-climbing walls, discos, etc., and wouldn't be caught dead on one of the mega-monstrosities full of 5,000 people, many of them children. Even the smaller, modest rooms on Viking are terrific.