We are experienced cruisers with many Ocean cruise under our belts. This was our third river cruise, the second with Viking. Our experience was overwhelmingly positive. The transfers between the airports and hotels and between the hotels and the ship went off very smoothly. So too did the full day bus transfers between the ship and hotels but these were very tiring even though the included tours of Luxemburg and Nurenberg provided variety. It was sad to see that McDonalds has the restaurant concessions on the freeways where we had breaks en route to the ship and Prague. Our stays in the Meridien Etoile in Paris and the Hilton in Prague were very pleasant with excellent breakfasts. Two beautiful hotels, but both were a little outside of the city centres for easy walking to the attractions.

The Alsvin longboat was immaculate and the entire crew very helpful and friendly. The Program Director, Carla, was charming, efficient and compassionate. We cannot fault the onboard meals and service and in our opinion Viking’s choice of wines was very good. Our French balcony room was perfectly adequate. As it was late in the year and cool so we did not miss the additional balcony space we had on last year’s Grand European Tour from Budapest to Amsterdam.

We enjoyed the evening entertainments especially the glassblower and the piano and violin duet. Although small in scale compared to ocean cruising the quality of the entertainment was first class. Read more