After sailing on more than a dozen ocean cruises, my wife and I took the plunge on a river cruise. Our only regret is that we did not do so sooner. From the time of initial conversation with a Viking booking representative through completion of our journey in Amsterdam, our Viking experience has been awesome.
We traveled to Basel on our own a full day before the Hlin's departure, staying at the Hotel Wettstein (highly recommended because of its location, price, and superior quality). A side note, many fellow Hlin passengers arrived in Basel the day of departure and to a person were suffering from lack of sleep after long trans-Atlantic flights.
To do justice to the entire experience on the Hlin, I would need to write pages and pages. Therefore, I will only provide highlights:
The cabin more than met our needs and wants. At no time did we experience any outside noises as has often been the case on ocean cruises.
Basel is an interesting city to explore.
Aside from the cathedral, be sure to visit the bakery around the corner.