For our first cruise or organized trip of any kind, my wife and I started in July, 2014 with Viking's Grand European trip from Amsterdam to Budapest. After 34 vacations abroad strictly on our own where we set the pace and chose the places, it was a bit hard getting used to leaving the boat by 8:30 or so every morning. But we've since taken two more Viking trips (China - THE best trip we've ever taken and France, not nearly as good as the Grand European), have one more paid for (Russia) and one in planning (Portugal), so, as you can see, we LOVE Viking and have gotten into their daily rhythm fine.
Overall, the best parts of this and every Viking voyage are the people we meet and the new friends we make. On this cruise, we got to know a wonderfully diverse crowd from a New Jersey FBI detective in his 50s to a Polish Jew in her 80s, now living in Canada, who escaped the Nazis with her family. From morning to night, the Viking meals are long and leisurely providing plenty of time for lots of great conversations.
And speaking of meals, the breakfasts (great brown breads and wonderfully cheeses) and lunches (super salads and made-fresh pastas) were dependably delicious. On the other hand, the chef tried too hard at dinner to be experimental. We had many dishes he labeled "deconstructed" this or that, e.g. well known dishes with their layers all flipped around. Still he had more successes than failures.
The veranda staterooms on Viking are perfect. Every inch is well designed and well utilized. We could not have been happier with our room. I still remember the time we pulled with an another boat into the queue for a lock. Across the veranda where I was sitting comfortably was the veranda on another company's boat. For 15 minutes I talked with a really nice gentleman from Perth, Australia on his veranda. And, then the boats moved, so I never saw him again.