Viking Var Review

Very Well Organized!

Review for Europe River Cruise on Viking Var
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Beachlver
2-5 Cruises • Age 50s

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Sail Date: Jul 2015

I want to say upfront I did like it, but it was really not for my age group. I went with a family member who really wanted to go and not be alone. I personally prefer to have a private guide an/or see places on my own. That being said, there is no way we could have seen all of these places in 8 days!

Overall Viking is VERY well run! Most are upper 50's- 80 years old. They really cater to this age group with food and tours. The food is good. This Viking River Cruise was only about 200 people on the cruise, I don't even think that many. At meals it's open seating at 6 and 8 people per table. This is where you chat with others. Mostly Americans, but a good handful of Brits. It's nice hearing about where everyone is from. It was interesting to hear everyones stories and participate in different types of conversation, then maybe one would with friends.

Each morning you woke up to go to breakfast by 7:30/8 because by 8:30 and sometimes, if we were lucky, by 9, we had to meet in the lobby to leave the ship for our morning city tour. Each city tour had a local guide. There were 4-5 busses to take you into the city and each bus had their own local guide. We never had a bad guide. Others told us they sometimes didn’t like their guide. We always tipped our bus driver and guide because they work so hard and were always full of information and wonderful stories. A shame we couldn’t hear more in some of the cities. We usually got free time to look at the shops. Mostly tourisy junk, but in some cities there were up market shops ie: Zara, Hugo Boss and other great shops to look at. The free time was always rushed. Some people opted to go shopping when we were in a better shopping city, but then they missed the rich history. One had to give and take I guess. And that is where I was a bit frustrated. Sometimes free time was only an hour and a half, which seems long but by the time you go into the shop look around and choose, you may have time for 1 more shop. The free time is clearly for the tourist shops where there is not a whole lot of thinking.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

Nuremberg

Lots of very sad, but important history here.

Regensburg

A nice town. We had 2 guides, one for the city tour and another for the extra 1/2 Jewish Tour. Both were young girls and I really thought "this will be bad", but the girls were very knowledgeable!

Passau

The guide was great! Dressed in a traditional German outfit. She was like a school teacher with many "surprises". What a surprise, nice little town. Shops were cute and touristy, but lots to see.

Melk

This was a waste. I guess they needed a place to stop to take a break between the long cruising. All we saw was an Abby and a little town, no different to the other towns. Really nothing to see.

Budapest

Very rushed here. One really needed to come ahead of time. We didn't and felt we missed out on Budapest. The Viking tour was really a taste and Budapest needed at least 2 days (or more). It was beautiful and so much to see in the 1/2 day they gave us. Viking agreed that we needed to do the pre-tour to really see it.

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