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So, I booked the Danube Cataracts cruise on the MS Thomas Hardy departing Passau on 8/23. Let me give you an idea of how this has all gone. I started looking at Viva because I saw a YouTube video of someone who is taking a river cruise on Viva for under $1000 and I liked the look of the ship. The company’s website was pretty easy to use especially since it automatically changed to English as soon as I got to the homepage. I did not feel like the site was lacking any information. Cruises and ships were described well. The only error I saw was a notation of the wrong day of the week for the cruise start. As I’m traveling alone, it seemed very easy for me to toggle between a one person or two person fare. I was able to see all cabins and discovered that there was no single supplement for the Suite on this cruise. Considering the price as a solo, it was much cheaper than a similar cabin on other lines. Therefore, I booked the cabin. The one hitch is that it wasn’t an instant booking. Viva would send me my invoice within 24 hours from when I booked it last night. The arrival of the invoice is when the interesting things happened. First, the sent me the invoice in German. I emailed them back and asked for an invoice in English and they sent one an hour later. When I looked at the invoice, the price was lower than on the website for by quite a bit. It was about two thirds of the price quoted on the website. What I did not see was how to pay. I then tealized, being a German company, they expected a wire transfer. I remembered that this was common in Germany but not all that frequent in the US. Unfortunately, my main bank doesn’t do international transfers so I’d have to get money from that bank the bring it to my secondary bank to wire. I wanted to make sure this was required so I called their US number at 8 AM and left a message because they don’t open until 9. At 9:30, I called again and spoke to their US representative. When I asked about whether I could use a credit card, he said that I could but it would take a bit to get it set up since they’re just establishing themselves in the US. I breathed a sigh of relief because the nearest branch of my main bank is a half hour away. The rep told me he’d call me later today. I also wanted to make sure there would be no additional charges and he stated there wouldn’t unless I booked excursions as they’re a la carte now but should be included next year. When I didn’t hear back, I called at 16:30 to make sure I didn’t need to do anything today. The rep said that they were working on it. Though payment was due today, they won’t cancel the booking. He should call me tomorrow morning to process the charge. All in all, I’m pleased with the price and the response from the main office. I think there’s only one rep in the US and he’s doing the best he can. I will report if there are any other issues.

My former employer is HQed in Wesel and I visited many times. Always wondered if any of the ships actually stopped there.

The Germans on the boat would be less likely to stab me in the back than my former coworkers. Needed to talk to the boss since I’m a few days short on vacation but can work half days from the boat.

Thanks for the comments. Used to work for a German company so I’m used to being around a lot of Germans. I don’t have enough vacation to cover the entire time so I might have to work during some of it. The cruise leaves on 8/23 and returns on 9/3 which is just before my 55th birthday. If we had to bus to some of the areas I’d be okay.

Has anyone taken a Viva Cruises Danube River cruise? I’m looking at one in a few weeks due to the fact that their single supplements are low to non-existent, if you book a suite, right now.