We have traveled on 2 other Viking cruises and had a wonderful time. Great wine choices, lots of local food offerings and beautiful ports of call that we were able to explore in the evening. Since we had heard so many wonderful things about Portugal, we thought the Douro would be a good choice.
None of these things held true for this trip. The same wine was served every night. Food was ...
The breakfast choices were not as expansive as other river cruises and coffee was poor. Lunch choices as well were limited. Dinner choices were limited and some menus were good but small portions with protein. Deserts were average in taste. If you don’t upgrade to silver spirits your wine will be poor. The ship service was good with the exception of dinner. The staff was slim for this ...
We are Windstar Cruise lovers so like a small ship. We wanted to take some first time cruiser friends with us and thought a river cruise would be the ticket. We were generally very disappointed with Viking. Some of the crew were great (activity director, piano player) but most of the dining room help were Eastern Europeans with an attitude. Front desk help, ditto. Everyone seemed overworked. ...
Cabin had sewer gas coming out of the shower drain. Made a terrible odor. Ship personnel knew about the situation but continued to book this and several others with the same issue. Apparently the sewer pipes gather under these cabins for the entire ship and the gases and odor rise up through the shower drains is several cabins on several decks. Ship was completely booked so no where to move ...
We chose is cruise to explore northern Portugal, starting in lisbon with a few nights stay at the hotel Tivoli and then onto porto for our river cruise. The room that we were alicated on-board was clean and well designed although we did notice a low drone of engines/generators running. The meals onboard were average at best. The evening entertainment was poor even by river cruise standards. The ...
We chose this cruise specifically to experience the Douro river valley and vineyards. Unfortunately, this cruise was not an ideal way to do so. The navigable part of the river is relatively short, two days of cruising each way. To make up the additional time Viking starts the trip with a full day in Lisbon followed by a full day riding a bus to Porto to meet the ship. You spend another full ...
This refurbished ship had its maiden voyage in March. This is relatively a small flat bottom boat. Our suite with open view balcony is on the second level of the ship. The foods on board was not up to standard. Cold dishes were served in the dining room. However, the officer of the dining room did his best to accommodate the diners.
Entertainment was minimal. Due to the water level of ...
We chose the Viking River of Gold cruise on recommendation by friends and in place of our Elbe River cruise in 2016 that was cancelled because of low water. In order to ensure we would have airport transfers to and from the ship we asked that Viking make our travel arrangements The start was a disaster. Viking had booked the last possible connection for us to Lisbon through Toronto which failed ...
Expected to see much more, although the writing up of the cruise was quite accurate in the brochure. A lot of time is spent sitting on board a coach for up to two hours and the sights and excursions are all very, very samey. Food was only O K with some cold dishes being served at room temperature (e.g salad / a prawn starter) and the variety was quite limited, and fairly uninspirational. Portion ...