Viking did everything right to make this trip even more special for us. We knew we picked the right cruise company for our river adventure when we found out that we were going to be in Amsterdam on "King's Day". Heck, we didn't know what "King's Day meant until they told us. All roads in and out of the city are shut down by 8am for motor traffic and don't open again until the next day. King's Day was the day we were to meet our ship, the Embla, to start our 14-day voyage! Our Amsterdam hotel learned about our predicament and arranged a special driver to take us to our riverboat, but we had to leave the hotel about 7 am and we arrived at the EMBLA about 7:30am, almost 5-hours before we were to check in. What happened next was incredible. The tour director for our cruise actually was waiting for us on the dock, and just said "Welcome Home"! She then told us to just leave our bags on the dock and they would take care of them, go on board, have a coffee or breakfast and mingle with the guests who hadn't yet departed. We were "Home"! We continually had those same type of experiences throughout our two-week journey on the Embla.

The hotel accommodations on board the Embla were great. The food was consistently incredible and yummy. The entertainment, music and exhibitions on board seemed to be just about perfect to meet the needs for almost anyone and either prepared us for places we were going, helped reflect on the places we just visited, or just to have fun. The staff, in every part of our Embla experience, were absolutely WONDERFUL (friendly, courteous, and always ready to help). We actually wanted to adopt one of the crew (Dani). He was one of the servers in the lounge who also helped at lunch time on the forward terrace and during dinner in the main dining room. He made us feel special every time we saw him. The local tour guides also provided unbelievable history and ambiance to always set the right image for the specific experience.

We loved everything about our experience aboard the Embla and we are already planning our next Viking trip in 2020.