France River Cruises Reviews

This was my first River Cruise and my first Viking Cruise, and the experience did not disappoint! We did experience a minor snag while sailing as our air conditioning went out on the ship but to no fault of the crew. I wholeheartedly blame Mother Nature as France and most of the world was experiencing an extreme heat wave. The ships A/C condenser just could not handle the weather. That being said, ...

This was our second cruise with Viking and on the Rhine. Having loved our first trip on the longer Grand European cruise, we wanted to return to the beautiful Rhine Middle Valley but didn't want to repeat the entire trip; so, this was the obvious choice. We also added the pre-extension option to Lake Como, Italy. From the U.S. we flew to Milan and were met (after a slight bit of delay and ...

Emerald Liberte was a slightly smaller ship to those that Emerald have on the Rhine and Danube - but still had the covered swimming pool at the back end of Horizon Deck and the relaxing area around it. My favourite place on these ships and one reason I prefer Emerald. The schedule also included a tour to Beaune from Chalon-sur-Saone, with a visit to its amazing Hospices de Beaune. Not offered on ...

We had done this cruise before but in reverse order and had convinced friends to try it. when they booked it we agreed to go with them. I did not enjoy my time in town going this way though. When you go from Amsterdam to Basel you are going upstream and it slows the boat down. this does not allow the same amount of time to visit the towns you stop in. Not having time in town means the walking tour ...

First time going on a river cruise and Viking did a great job all around. We lucked out with mostly very favorable weather and only had one issue with low river levels forcing a stop at Mannheim/Ludvigshafen (not much of great interest to see) as the port near Speyer (intended destination) could not support the Rolf. We're experienced travelers in our 60's and have been on a number of ocean ...

We chose the cruise because it fit with our other travel plans. We have always wanted to try a Viking river cruise. Got to visit 4 countries. I was nice being able to travel and not have to unpack suitcases. I'm glad we payed up and picked the room with the veranda balcony, not French balcony. The rooms are rather small. The balcony makes it feel less claustrophobic. Lots of storage and suitcases ...

The cruise and accommodations were nice. Viking needs to work on their air travel department and flight policy. Viking can't have a first class cruise and not have first class service from the air department when working on making your air travel for the cruise. We ended up spending hours on the phone with the airlines to make corrections on our flights after no success with the Viking Air ...

Let me just say the crew deserves 6 stars, they were all phenomenal! Buffet breakfasts and lunches were terrific, omelet maker Ridho I believe his name was had the best smile everyone morning and was a pure joy to be around. He literally made my day start off on the best note and I would gladly sail on the Avalon Vista again if I knew he was going to still be there, he was that great! By the ...

The cruise was wonderful . However , the cruise was designated as a "Bordeaux Wine Cruise." The wines that were featured by the wine expert were California wines. These wines were very good, however I expected Bordeaux wines to be featured on a Bordeaux wine cruise. If I were cruising in Napa or Sonoma, I would not expect Bordeaux wines to be featured. This is the third time we sailed on an ...

The Viking Cruise was an amazing mix of interesting places with good guides, wonderful people (fellow customers and service staff) nice facilities and exceptionally well managed operations and activities. Our only problem was with the reservation staff and travel planning. (A 24-hour two transfer plane trip from Europe was the longest ever for us.) Their performance was unfortunately mediocre ...