This is a long review. I've tried to be fair with my criticisms and compliments. Here goes... We just got home from our third Viking cruise (1 river, 2 ocean) sailing from Amsterdam to Barcelona on Viking Sky, departing on October 6, 2018. We booked the cruise over a year ago and were initially very excited. It seemed to hit a lot of high spots for us--2 days in Amsterdam, 1 day in Paris, 1 day in England, several days in Spain including Barcelona, and passage through the Strait of Gibraltar.
A few months out we noticed that the itinerary was changing. What had originally been marketed as 2 days in Amsterdam changed to arrival day only in Amsterdam and the 2nd day was now sailing at 7:00 a.m. This meant that since we arrived from the airport at about 3:00 p.m., and we knew there would be a mandatory safety drill, we would have only that evening for touring on our own as no excursions were offered. (Interestingly enough, the Viking Daily for day 2 in Amsterdam mentioned that the best way to get around Amsterdam was on foot. Really?? We were at sea!)
Our day in England had originally been marketed with as many as 13 tours including Stone Henge and a tour of London as well as a number of other tours that all sounded wonderful. Checking the website before we were able to book our tours we saw that there were only two options--a walking tour of Portsmouth Port where we would be docking (and in fairness, those who took this tour were really impressed) and a bus trip to Winchester to tour the cathedral with a second stop to see King Arthur's round table (spoiler alert--NOT!).
Clean. Staff was thorough. Small but that is to be expected.
Lunch in the Eiffel Tower. Loved the experience
Wine tasting. Enjoyed!
Really liked. Toured Sagarada Familia. Spectacular. Second time to Gaudi-designed park. Learned moire this time.
Only 1/2 day. Too fast.