This was our 3rd Viking River Cruise. We love Viking and have had great experiences on 2 previous cruises, one on the Rhine River and the other on the Danube. We booked this cruise to go from Paris to Normandy and back to Paris on the Seine, where we then took a high speed train to Lyon, and embarked on the Viking Heimdal to the south of France on the Rhone River to Avignon. We extended our stay on the French Riviera in Nice for three days.

The trip on the Viking Radgrid was wonderful. The staff were all very accommodating the shore excursions were great. We especially like the Normand Beaches tour and also the Rouen Tapestry.

The second part of the trip "Frances Finest" was great, except for our experiences on the Viking Heimdal. The Heimdal was showing it's age and did not appear to be tip-top shape. The crew did not have the same enthusiasm as the crew of the Radgrid. They didn't provide the same level of service as the Radgrid, which was disappointing. There were sever stand outs among the servers in the lounge and restaurant, but they were obviously understaffed and stretched to the limit. Management on the ship seemed not to notice or care about service or the understaffing.