This was our second Viking cruise - this time, we took along my sister and brother-in-law, so there were 4 of us, we had 2 rooms on top level. The veranda rooms are terrific, roomy enough, although you're not in the room for long. The room service was impeccable - rooms were cleaned/straightened/fresh towels/cloths/water multiple times a day. The Viking excursions ran like a clock. Specific meeting times, group assignments, which bus to board - all coded and easy. The provided headphone/earbuds "listening device" they call it - worked great. The local guides were very knowledgeable, especially Vladmir (sp) who provided a very comprehensive walking tour of Strasbourg France! The guide we had in Cologne however was not so personable, he claimed he had a "cold" but it was almost as if he was avoiding us at the meetup! He soldiered on to the meeting point, didn't have his paddle raised, only when he reached the destination did he turn around and introduce himself AND raise his paddle (which showed our Group #) Good thing some of us saw his paddle number in the beginning and followed him! But overall, he gave a splendid enlightening tour that included the diverse people that live in Cologne.

The food served onboard seemed even better than the Danube Tour we did in 2019. One of the "daily highlighted" Dinner Menu offerings was rib-eye steak with steak fries - expertly prepared. All of the daily "regional highlight" Dinner offerings were sublime and tastefully prepared. All the servers were skilled, friendly, and attentive. We had dinner (and lunch) more than once on the Aquavit Terrace (which for dinner, only seats about 16 people, so arrive EARLY!) We would typically listen to the next-day preview from the Aquavit Terrace, so our butts were already firmly planted at the tables for dinner afterwards - hint, hint!

One of the value items one gets with Viking is the airfare/flights. Ours was listed as $399 per person. When I later checked all the flight/times/airlines etc, I found that if I purchased the airfare on my own, it would've cost $2200 per person! The ONLY glitch we had - which I was somewhat aware of from the beginning...our connecting flight in London/Heathrow to Philadelphia, at the end of our trip. Our BA flight from Basel was supposed to land into LHR at 12:45pm, it departed 30 minutes late. Our flight from LHR to PHL departed at 2:25pm, so we only had 1 hour and 10 minutes to get shuttled from Terminal 5 to Terminal 3 (?), and huge lines - no, not really lines, it was utter madness, only ONE agent at Customs to process hundreds, then VERY SLOW going at TSA. So we ended up barreling through and LONG hike to the gate, only to find our flight was closed 10 minutes ago. ( door locked ) The agent at the Customer Service/Rebooking desk was very helpful, and got us on another flight just 2.5 hours later, not bad. And that flight (American Airlines arrived into PHL around 3pm FYI) was only 1/3 full. So, lesson learned, and heed my warning, if you have ANY connecting flight through LHR, allow AT LEAST 2 HOURS! Anything less, and you will NOT make your connection.