Heard great things about Viking river cruise. Viking supposedly rated the best which would justify the huge cost. This was to have been the vacation of a lifetime and a celebration of our 44th wedding anniversary. It didn't come close.

First, the good things: Food was excellent with a lot of variety. Ship was kept extremely clean. Modi crew was excellent - Skirnir crew was bad. Viking handled transfers to and from airport very well.

Now, the not so good. Prague pre cruise 3 day extension was OK except for an 8 hour bus ride from Prague to Budapest - this wasted one whole day of the extension. Initially when I asked how we would be transferred from hotel to boat I was told a 5 to 6 hour luxurious bus ride. We were required to transfer from the Modi to the Skirnir since ships could not make it due to water levels and very little rain. Viking would not confirm or deny that we would have ship changes even though they were very aware it would be necessary. Transfer to new ship was seamless except for having to pack and unpack. We were unable to do any of our Budapest excursions and missed out on several others. Crew on Modi knew my name by second day and were always smiling. Stateroom person was terrible on Skirnir - most always our room was not serviced until late afternoon. The Modi bartenders were always interacting with passengers and had no problems with making any kind of cocktail. The Skirnir bartenders never interacted and were rude most times. One instance was when I asked for a chocolate martini - he said they didn't make them. I then asked for a shot of vodka and a shot of Baileys as a substitute. He said they didn't have a vanilla vodka - which I had not asked for. Another passenger stepped in and told him just mix what was asked for which he eventually did. This was noted by several people and several comments were made to Anthony. Also several times the bartenders rolled their eyes at passengers and spoke in their own language which appeared they were dissing the passengers. We paid quite a bit of money for this trip and the last week was not near as enjoyable as the first week. Just saying - Viking knew weeks in advance that we would need at least one ship change yet they would not tell us until the day before the shift. They did give us a 15% voucher but felt it should have been at least 25%