Viking River Cruises

Background: This was our first river cruise. My wife and I have been on most major ocean cruises (45) to nearly all continents. Point being is that we are no novice at cruising. We have been on excellent to bad cruises and have rolled with the punches.

We selected three day pre-cruise in Prague. The hotel Corinthia was not the newest but the accommodations were nice and Prague was one of the best cities I have ever been in. Highly recommend.

Got an email from Viking that the river was low and we had to go to Passau to board the boat. I got this email only because the Corinthia Hotel had outstanding Wifi. I even made a face book call back to the USA in the bar which was a treat. Point being here was the email from Viking was the only warning that the trip was going south.

Got bused to Passau. Viking should advertised this "cruise" as a sit in port then bus. We spend hours on various buses trying to "make the best of it". I came to hate the phrase as the Viking entertainment director seem to like it a lot. We sat in Passau next to an industrial site with a view of the dumpster for three days. My balcony view was a concrete wall. I requested to leave the ship and get credit. Was told by ship's personnel that they could not make that decision. Only "corporate" could make that decision and corporate would contact us 5 business days after the cruise. This meant the very distinct and as it turned out likely possibility of paying twice. Go back to Prague or stay on the ship was the choice. Did not have the guts to take a $7000 hit so stayed on the ship.

After three days of a seven day cruise, we were not in the best of moods so that may have colored our judgement somewhat. Here are some other observations:

Food : Poor to mediocre. Served hot dogs for lunch. Now that is real luxury dining for you. Viking gives the impression of gourmet dining. I have been on cheap ocean cruise ships serving 2, 000 people that did a better job. I was served as an appetizer at dinner a half of a breaded chicken wing on a very large plate. Must be the large plate made it special. Could go on but you get the idea. Think the gourmet chef was on holiday.

Room: Cabin was nice so no complaints. The cabin was even wired with 110 volt American style outlets.

Entertainment: Small ship so did not expect much in the way of entertainment. Had a piano player that was good.

Bar: Spend a lot of time at the bar as we were not cruising. Made a pretty good margarita.

Main complaint is we lost three days of the cruise and have hear absolutely nothing from Viking. Seems this low river has been going on for six weeks prior to our arrival. If I had know that this was going on, I would have cancelled before I got there. Viking informed us the day after we arrived and we were told we "had to make the best of it". Very poor customer relations. Based on the food, lack of cruising, over priced for what you get, and poor customer relations, I recommend that you stay far away from Viking as you can.