Previously we took the Viking Paris and the Heart of Normandy tour and had a fabulous time so we were excited about this Danube trip. The only problem was that the Legend was infected with a stomach virus bug and I got sick with vomiting and diarrhea on the day we got to Vienna. After the chamber music concert that evening I was back on the ship only 15 minutes before I sprinted for the bathroom. Another passenger actually threw up in her hands at the concert!What upsets me most is that Viking wouldn't acknowledge that they had a serious problem and thereby put profits over people. If I had been forewarned, I would have exercised my trip insurance and cancelled.I can personally name 15 other passengers who got sick and a fellow passenger said that the total was over 34. One told me that passengers leaving the ship as he got on said most of the passengers on that cruise got sick. I was unable to go to the abbey in Melk or the walking tour of Regensburg. Consomme isn't my idea of a cruise dinner but that's all I could hold down for 3 days. At the New Year's Eve party I was unable to drink and it galled me to be charged for a Ginger Ale in the Lounge Bar.
I thought that the crew seemed disengaged, tired, and ready to go home. They were going through the motions.On arriving from the airport at the dock in Budapest,we had to take our own bags down an extremely long and steep and dangerous gangway. The crew was nowhere in sight. I was also disappointed that Viking seems to arrange air travel routes which are the cheapest for Viking even if it means lengthy circuitous travel for the passenger. We left NYC at 10:40pm on Monday, 12/26 and finally arrived at the Legend in Budapest at 5:30pm Tuesday just in time for the nightly briefing and dinner but leaving no free time to see Budapest on our own. The next day Budapest tour was just a bus drive-by and didn't include the Terror Museum or going into St. Stephen's Basilica. At the end of our trip, we were told to have our bags outside our door at 3am with a 3;30am bus departure for Nuremberg Airport.The "breakfast" we were promised consisted of a pastry. No Viking staff member accompanied us to the airport, we weren't told where to go and the bus driver spoke no English.We were at the airport before 4am and the ticket counters didn't even open until 4:45am and our flight to Paris didn't start boarding till 6am. Next time I'll make my own travel arrangements.
In Vienna, after the bus tour we elected to stay in the center city instead of going back to the ship for lunch. This proved to be a smart move since it enabled us on our own to visit the Imperial Apartments, the National Library(you have to see this majestic room!), and the Sacher Hotel for a Sacher Torte.Be sure you sign up for the Schonbrunn Palace tour in Vienna. We were lucky because their Christmas Market stalls were still open after Christmas when we visited. In Nuremburg the WWII tour was great.