My wife and I recently returned from a one week river cruise in Europe and I thought I'd share my thoughts on this trip with the members of the forum. I'll preface it by saying I am not a "cruise person". Prior to this vacation I was on only one cruise, a five day Royal Caribbean cruise to the Bahamas which I did not particularly enjoy. On that cruise we had a tiny, uncomfortable stateroom, felt the ever present crush of thousands of other travelers on the ship, endured plentiful but mundane at best food and other than a few enjoyable shore excursions felt no desire to ever repeat the "cruise experience". But going on the Viking River Cruise titled "The Romantic Danube", from Nurnberg, Germany to Budapest, Hungary was quite different, in a positive way. Of course, the total cost of this cruise was more than triple what we paid for the Caribbean cruise so maybe its not fair to make the comparison.
To start off, if you aren't willing to spend the extra bucks for "business class", be prepared for a long and uncomfortable flight. I try to avoid flying because I hate the hassle and the crowded seating, but decided it would be worthwhile to tolerate the flights so as to enjoy the cruise. The end result is a mixture of good and bad. The bad was how cramped the flights were, and for the length of flight it was a real discomfort. From Chicago to Berlin the flight time is about 9.5 hours. I don't sleep well on aircraft, especially when the cabin seemed to be filled with non-stop crying infants, both ways, so I suffered significant jet lag on both ends of the vacation. Security was not, however, the pain I feared it would be, with us passing through the TSA system at O'Hare Airport in about 30 minutes or less, and the same on the European end. However, going through U.S. Customs and whatever else the security forces call themselves, returning to the U.S., was not fun. We had to wait on multiple lines, all ending with quite abrupt and unfriendly U.S. agents. I know that security is important, especially for folks trying to enter the U.S., but having valid U.S. passports and zero criminal backgrounds I do not know why it took so much time, and why we were treated with what seemed like barely contained hostility, by our own government. Maybe as a retired U.S. Army officer I am more sensitive to this treatment than are others, but it was not the best part of the trip.
As to the cruise itself, Viking really knows what they are doing. The ship was fabulous. You really feel like you are going first class in every way. The stateroom was modern and roomy, with a small but usable balcony with seating for two. The food was awesome and the service by the staff at Ritz Carlton like level. The ships are long (about 450 feet) and narrow, sized to just fit into the locks as you go up or down the river and the channels used on the cruise. Big enough to offer what you would expect, and small enough to not be overwhelming such as found on ocean cruise ships. Everything was totally informal, with no "dress up" evenings, which was perfect for me. Most of the travelers were Americans, but there were a fair number of Brits (great company to travel with), some Germans and a smattering of others. The scenery that the ship travels through was beautiful, with the highlight being a lit-up Budapest for our final evening cruise/dinner. Everyday there are included excursions plus optional, extra cost excursions. While overall this part of the cruise was disappointing, especially for some of the expensive optional trips we signed up for, some of the walking tours in cities that we stopped at were great. Walking through the heart of Passau in particular, as well as Regensburg, and not so much in Vienna, I had the feeling of "I could live here!" more than once. It didn't hurt that Germany and Austria seemed filled with beautiful young women and almost, almost made me wish I were a young man again and not a happily married (50 years so far) senior citizen.
So overall it was a great vacation, but then again, anytime I would spend about $12,000 for a week's vacation I would expect it to be great. Would I take another river cruise? Maybe, but if I did I would not hesitate to use Viking again. The air travel was not fun, so if I could have broken it up with smaller flights with a few days in intermediate locations, like Greenland and then London, for example, maybe it would have been more fun. And for what it is worth, I never really felt uncomfortable being totally unarmed the entire trip. The cruise officials went out of their way to assure us that the places we were visiting were very safe, even for night time strolls, and the only warning was to be aware that there are pick pockets everywhere in Europe. Maybe they are sugar coating the reality, and in truth my wife and I did not go for unaccompanied evening strolls through any of the cities we visited, but I did in fact feel very safe and comfortable the entire time.
So overall I give the trip a thumbs up. I'll admit that for a week it was fun living like the rich (I would say the overwhelming majority of my fellow passengers, based upon our friendly conversations, were quite well-to-do if not actually very rich) and enjoying the good life. Throw in the beautiful scenery, the nice people we met and the good (and too available!) food and drink and I would say I recommend such a trip. And by the way, and this coming from a only occasional beer drinker, the German "brown" beers we drank were amazing (not to be confused with the bitter "bock" beer).
If you want, feel free to PM me for more info or details about this trip. Now, for me, its back to "normal" retired life in the Midwest.
To start off, if you aren't willing to spend the extra bucks for "business class", be prepared for a long and uncomfortable flight. I try to avoid flying because I hate the hassle and the crowded seating, but decided it would be worthwhile to tolerate the flights so as to enjoy the cruise. The end result is a mixture of good and bad. The bad was how cramped the flights were, and for the length of flight it was a real discomfort. From Chicago to Berlin the flight time is about 9.5 hours. I don't sleep well on aircraft, especially when the cabin seemed to be filled with non-stop crying infants, both ways, so I suffered significant jet lag on both ends of the vacation. Security was not, however, the pain I feared it would be, with us passing through the TSA system at O'Hare Airport in about 30 minutes or less, and the same on the European end. However, going through U.S. Customs and whatever else the security forces call themselves, returning to the U.S., was not fun. We had to wait on multiple lines, all ending with quite abrupt and unfriendly U.S. agents. I know that security is important, especially for folks trying to enter the U.S., but having valid U.S. passports and zero criminal backgrounds I do not know why it took so much time, and why we were treated with what seemed like barely contained hostility, by our own government. Maybe as a retired U.S. Army officer I am more sensitive to this treatment than are others, but it was not the best part of the trip.
As to the cruise itself, Viking really knows what they are doing. The ship was fabulous. You really feel like you are going first class in every way. The stateroom was modern and roomy, with a small but usable balcony with seating for two. The food was awesome and the service by the staff at Ritz Carlton like level. The ships are long (about 450 feet) and narrow, sized to just fit into the locks as you go up or down the river and the channels used on the cruise. Big enough to offer what you would expect, and small enough to not be overwhelming such as found on ocean cruise ships. Everything was totally informal, with no "dress up" evenings, which was perfect for me. Most of the travelers were Americans, but there were a fair number of Brits (great company to travel with), some Germans and a smattering of others. The scenery that the ship travels through was beautiful, with the highlight being a lit-up Budapest for our final evening cruise/dinner. Everyday there are included excursions plus optional, extra cost excursions. While overall this part of the cruise was disappointing, especially for some of the expensive optional trips we signed up for, some of the walking tours in cities that we stopped at were great. Walking through the heart of Passau in particular, as well as Regensburg, and not so much in Vienna, I had the feeling of "I could live here!" more than once. It didn't hurt that Germany and Austria seemed filled with beautiful young women and almost, almost made me wish I were a young man again and not a happily married (50 years so far) senior citizen.
So overall it was a great vacation, but then again, anytime I would spend about $12,000 for a week's vacation I would expect it to be great. Would I take another river cruise? Maybe, but if I did I would not hesitate to use Viking again. The air travel was not fun, so if I could have broken it up with smaller flights with a few days in intermediate locations, like Greenland and then London, for example, maybe it would have been more fun. And for what it is worth, I never really felt uncomfortable being totally unarmed the entire trip. The cruise officials went out of their way to assure us that the places we were visiting were very safe, even for night time strolls, and the only warning was to be aware that there are pick pockets everywhere in Europe. Maybe they are sugar coating the reality, and in truth my wife and I did not go for unaccompanied evening strolls through any of the cities we visited, but I did in fact feel very safe and comfortable the entire time.
So overall I give the trip a thumbs up. I'll admit that for a week it was fun living like the rich (I would say the overwhelming majority of my fellow passengers, based upon our friendly conversations, were quite well-to-do if not actually very rich) and enjoying the good life. Throw in the beautiful scenery, the nice people we met and the good (and too available!) food and drink and I would say I recommend such a trip. And by the way, and this coming from a only occasional beer drinker, the German "brown" beers we drank were amazing (not to be confused with the bitter "bock" beer).
If you want, feel free to PM me for more info or details about this trip. Now, for me, its back to "normal" retired life in the Midwest.
