This was our first river cruise. We had originally planned for the Danube cruise in May, but with the war we decided to opt for our second choice.

Recommendation for all travelers who are planning to have a post trip adventure. I recommend that this be a pre adventure with the turbulence in air travel. Our United flight sat for 3 hours in SFO due to an illness of one of the flight crew. This caused us to miss our connecting flight from Frankfurt to Basel. The Lufthansa flight had left with no open seats for a direct flight that day to Basel. We were "offered" the potential to fly to Istanbul to Basel that day. The Lufthansa service desk was a joke having to run through Frankfurt airport for assistance. We decided to take the ICE from Frankfurt to Basel. The help number provided by Viking allowed us to be picked up at the Basel train station with an hour before the HLIN left the dock.

I cannot begin to thank the concierge crew in locating our missing luggage (hint pack three days' worth of clothes and cosmetics into a carryon bag). They were exceptional in getting our baggage to us a few days later. The quality of service was above anything that I expected. We had the AA veranda suite with the housekeeping staff who were attentive. We had complimentary laundry service which was not expected and was a godsend until our luggage was found. The food was excellent every day. We made extensive use of the breakfast buffet on the Aquavit Terrace. It was geared more as the European alternative than the seat down breakfast. The 24-hour coffee service was great. Read more