Viking Idi Review

4.0 / 5.0
195 reviews

Rhine River Cruise with Lake Como pretour extension

Review for Europe River Cruise on Viking Idi
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barbierahrah
6-10 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: May 2018
Cabin: Veranda Stateroom

This cruise was a wonderful opportunity to visit some special, smaller areas of Germany and France in a relaxed, easy and comfortable manner. We thoroughly enjoyed Colmar and Strasbourg with the colorful buildings and winding streets. It was so nice to be able to get off the boat and just walk around the river port areas and towns, and we always felt very safe. The boat itself was extremely compact, clean and comfortable with everything we needed and the staff were friendly and very accommodating. The dining room menu had a good variety of options at all meals, with plenty of simple and quick items also available on the small buffet at breakfast and lunch. Having just one dining seating time and not the huge overabundance of food (as on the large ocean ships) was perfect. It was nice to get everyone together in the lounge for our nightly overviews, hear about everyone's day and then proceed to dinner. The musical entertainment was mellow and not overpowering and the game nights were fun. This is our style, as was the casual attire and general atmosphere, although the dining room was top notch as far as service, tableware, etc. The included wine and beer was very, very nice and made things so easy. We could have a single glass of wine and not feel like we were wasting the rest of the bottle. There was always a nice view while dining. We enjoyed time on deck when sailing to see the scenery -- the cute little towns, the locks and bridges, houses and churches, churches everywhere! The day we were viewing the Rhine castles, it POURED rain!!! The nice, large canopy on the top deck gave us brave souls a place to view and photograph and still stay relatively dry. Others enjoyed the view from the lounge or their balconies. The dining staff even came up on deck and braved the storm with welcome cups of hot cocoa!!! On another warmer day they appeared with glasses of iced water. The bottles of water as we went off on tours each day were a nice touch, as were the little treats we'd get as we were welcomed back on board each day. The coffee stations with the pastry and cookie items were way too tempting. We enjoyed all our excursions, but did feel just a bit rushed at the Black Forest and in Heidelberg. We would definitely have liked more time in Heidelberg. Rudesheim was simply adorable, and it would have been nice to arrive there earlier in the day to be able to take the ferry across the river and the gondola up to the monument. On the other hand, we felt we had too much time in Cologne. The walking tour was brief and we had things we were able to see and do on our own, but as we were not interested in beer hall hopping, the day turned out to be more "relaxing" than we planned. Of course, I guess we were there in Cologne on some sort of holiday, so a lot of museums and things were closed down. Overall it was a spectacular trip. Our Lake Como precruise extension was fantastic, and we had a wonderful tour director there and enjoyed our excursions and free time. It was a great way to get acclimated and in to the whole vacation mindset, plus become acquainted with the smaller group of people before boarding the ship a few days later. Our stop in Lucerne on the drive to Basel was an unexpected and very pleasant surprise. I would have liked to have known about it when we booked the Como extension, but Viking could only tell me that we'd stop "somewhere" for lunch between Como and Basel. We stayed on in Amsterdam on our own for several days, and then flew on to Munich for a few days before heading home. Viking made those flight arrangements for us. Although we had to manage getting to hotels and the airports and other transportation on our own, it was a lot of fun, too. It might have been nice to be able to add on the walking tour in Amsterdam the day we disembarked there, but we were told that was not possible. We had planned to do this Rhine cruise last year, and we're so happy we followed through and went on it this year. We'd definitely consider doing another Viking cruise itinerary, and the Egypt tour sounds very, very tempting!

Cabin Review

Veranda Stateroom

Cabin B

The cabin was compact but had absolutely everything we needed. There were plenty of outlets, mirror space, lighting was good. Closet and drawer space was more than adequate and the bathroom was larger than it looked with a very, very nice shower. Water pressure and temperature was great. Our cabin steward kept us supplied with water and toiletries and fresh towels. It was nice to enjoy the view from the sliding door and sit on the deck as time permitted.

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