The ship is new and very elegant. Never feels crowded. Pop up bar on top deck is great when you have nice weather. We were in lowest level room and it was equivalent to higher rooms on other ships. Don’t be afraid to book the least expensive option. While small, it was just fine. Only criticism of the room is the toilet is a little difficult to use if you are large. There is a very large shower but a squished toilet and small sink. Beds extremely comfortable and they even brought me a temperpedic pillow when I wanted more support. We have been on Ama, Uniworld and Scenic. Food and wine on Crystal and Ama were equally good and consistent. I won’t go on Uniworld or Scenic again because the food was disappointing. Crystal is a little fancier on presentation than Ama but I think Ama overall was slightly better food. Both very good culinary treats! Crystal provides drinks all day vs Ama lunch and dinner only with having to pay rest of time. If you are a big drinker, crystal may be a better deal. Entertainment was good, with the violinist exceptional. I don’t expect great entertainment on river ship. Jed did a nice job with Elton John night. Service exceptional but I expected that from Crystal. They even anticipated some needs. Saw my husband had a c-pap machine and brought distilled water. Overall, great trip although the Rhine isn’t my favorite river. Strasbourg is beautiful and the UNESCO world heritage part of the river is lovely but the rest is ho-hum and dependent on good weather. If you only do one river cruise, I’d take the Seine any day over the Rhine. Read Less

our first cruise on Viking loved every minute would do another one sometime the food was great the entertainment was wonderful the scenery was awesome .The service was great and room service was very prompt when needed the food was very good and had a good selection and my husband has sugar diabetes was plenty for him to choose from . everyone was so knowledgeable about where we were and what was going to go on each day we liked that it was a smaller ship and not many people we got to know our table mates as we sat together every night we found out we lived in the same neighborhood at home in lakewood cololrado, small world and ship. we loved walking on the upper deck at night and seen the night lights along the land and also we have never ben on a ship that we had to go through the locks that was very interesting most were at night but we could still see and also touch the slimmy walls it was very interesting ,. we did see some during the day also so we seen how they worked we jad a great time Read Less

This is our third barge we've been aboard with European Waterways. Each barge was very different, but the experience, service and cuisine were superb! It was especially fun to meet Florian and Judith again after our trip in 2015 aboard La Belle Epoque. We brought along two other couples who were new to hotel barges. Now they are as excited as we are about this experience. Our chef on this trip, Ollie, made the experience special. His mantra "butter, butter and more butter" will ring in our ears for a very long time. His cooking is magical! If you want to be spoiled, pampered (11 guests with 6 staff to indulge your every whim) then European Waterways will exceed all expectations. The boats are kept in bristol-fashion. Shore excursions were fun, especially going to Thursday morning market with Ollie to gather food for the day's meals. Two luxury Mercedes passenger vans shadow each barge, ready to take you anywhere you would like to go. It was also great fun and welcome exercise to hop off the barge on one of the bikes provided for each guest. We immediately began planning for our next trip with European Waterways. An excellent value for money! Read Less