This was a "Congratulations on Your Retirement" cruise to myself and I took one of my daughters. Very different to the two Ocean Cruises that I had take before, which I expected, and I welcomed the change of experience Most of the cruise was wonderful - see other sections of this review for specifics. We cruised from Paris (wonderful to see), and the end destination was the Beaches at Normandy which was so moving. Lots great stops along the way in small villages and at Monet's Garden - fabulous, brought a print home to remind me of this trip! Truly loved all of the old architecture.

Everything was wonderful about this vacation with the following exceptions:

One of the reasons that I booked this trip was the option to see "Downton Abbey", It ended up near the end of the booking that this side excursion was not available. It turned out that Viking knew all along that this excursion might not be an option, they just hoped it would be available for booking. I felt kind of duped, but such is life and our Travel Agent was able to book us on a similar experience. Read more