I wanted to try a river cruise as I don't want to sail the ocean. It looked like so much fun. I wanted to see Europe from the water. In most of the commercials we would see the huge building in Budapest with the red roofs. I wanted to go there and see that. We saw it from a bus ride through Buda and Pest. We slept on a boat docked on the Danube near the Chain bridge. It was beautiful and magical. The next morning we took a bus tour around Budapest and then took a 3+ hour bus ride to Vienna.

This would be wonderful trip turned out to be a huge disappointment. We met lots of new people who all felt like we did. This is not what we were sold, not what we expected or what we paid for. The water level was low on the Danube but it had been all summer. Viking didn't let us know until days before we were to embark that levels were low. They did not give us the option to cancel our trip. We were on 3 ships in 7 days and traveled half the river by bus and the other half at night with the exception of one afternoon and one late evening. We upgraded to a Veranda room so we could enjoy the river from there but that was a waste of money. What a major disappointment. It wasn't relaxing. We couldn't unpack and kick back. We were on the go all the time. We had to get up early and put our bags in the hallway to be ready for the next ship change.. Not much of a vacation.

The food was ok. The ships were clean. We saw some beautiful and interesting sites. The staff did their best to make the trip pleasant. They seemed understaffed on the last ship and not as attentive however. We'd get our disappointing news in the evening about what the next day would bring. Read more