As a repeat cruiser on Viking, I was disappointed to find that low water levels on the Danube significantly changed almost every aspect of the cruise. We were notified that we could not cruise to the last two ports only 2 days before our departure and then found out when we got there that the ship could not even be at the embarkation point. It was a week of multi hour bus rides and required a total of 6 hours on a bus one day to reach our tour of Nuremberg. Although I realize the low water levels were not within Viking's control, I believe they should have given us the ability to cancel in advance. Once we got there, it was just a series of disappointments including docking at a port in Passau that was industrial with multiple Viking ships side by side so there was no view out our window except the ship next door. We were never in a situation where we could walk off the ship in a port in the evening and rarely docked for any longer than the time it took to do the excursions. A discount on a future cruise is not enough to compensate for the inability for us to make a choice to go on the trip as I have discovered through research that the water levels were dropping prior to that and should have triggered Viking to give us that choice. What we would do from day to day was a mystery until after dinner when we got the program. And then it was "where would we be bused to today".

I will say that the on-board crew did everything they possibly could to make up for it, especially the program director (Deborah) who worked very, very hard to coordinate a plan for every day, which was always changing.

We will never take a cruise on the Danube again and will think twice about committing to a Viking trip knowing that these type of major changes would not net us a choice to cancel.