We decided to book this cruise as an early 50th wedding anniversary celebration (we just passed our 48th anniversary) to take advantage of the reasonably good health we are enjoying now.

We couldn't be more pleased with our trip. We spent four days in France (that we arranged) ahead of the Viking cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam via the Viking Skadi. Everything about our trip was enjoyable; the food, the friendliness, service, and hospitality of the Viking staff, the good friends that we met as we cruised, the shore excursions we took part in, the beauty and charm of the European countryside and cities/villages, and even the weather - all contributed to this trip of a lifetime.

In retrospect, being as this was our first river cruise, we should probably not have booked so many of the additional (extra cost) shore excursions - as we were unaware of how tired we would become. As a result of occasional weariness, we skipped (and had to pay for) excursions that we were unable to cancel (due to Viking cancellation policies). We don't consider this a Viking problem, but rather a result of our being inexperienced world travelers. Read more