A Celebrity fan does another river cruise...

As a way of introduction, I have done over 50 cruises--on 8 different cruise lines. My favorite is Celebrity...but we often cruise other lines due to itinerary, timing and other factors. Over the past few weeks, we have done an Alaska cruise on Millennium (our third with Celebrity), followed, 7 days later, by a river cruise on the Danube from Prague to Bucharest, with Viking. This was our second experience with a Viking River cruise, the first being a few years ago in China.

When one takes such different cruises that close in time, one can't help but to compare. Of course, both experiences are far different. Any river cruise is going to have certain limitations since the ships are small. But, my wife gets a little tired of repeating the same itineraries, so, the river cruise gave us some opportunity to visit some places new to us.

Also, let me acknowledge that there are a lot of river cruise aficionados out there who think that nothing beats a river cruise. Of course, we all have different standards and criteria...and so, we all might come to different conclusions. This post is really based just on what I look for in a cruise vacation. Also, note that these opinions are based on cruising with Viking. I have never tried AMA, Uniworld, Scenic, Avalon or any of the other many river cruise providers out there...so, though the experience may be similar, certain aspects may differ line to line.

First thing to notice is that, if you are just looking for value, Celebrity is a FAR greater value. Trying to economize a bit on this one, we opted for the lowest cost window cabin...and our price for a 13 night package--3 nights in Prague in a hotel followed by two in Budapest, then 7 nights on a river ship and one last night in a hotel in Bucharest--ran well over $10,000 including airfare from LAX...Adding in gratuities and a few "optional" excursions, the bill for the 13 nights came out to around $1,000 per day. The Celebrity Alaska cruise we took just before that, we paid around $1,800 for a Concierge class cabin for a 7 night cruise--FOR TWO. Total...including port taxes. Airfare cost us less than $350 pp round trip (yeah, a little shorter flight than flying to Eastern Europe). Throw in our port tours and gratuities and we spent about $3500 total--so, overall, about half the price per person per day. Of course, yes, apples and oranges. But, last summer, we did 14 nights on RCCL back-to-backs in the Med--in a "hump" balcony--for only $4000 for two...and paid $745 pp for round trip air LAX to Rome...Add in gratuities and port tours and we were still several thousand less than we paid for Viking.. So, it IS a bit pricey in comparison. PLUS, believe it or not, Viking requires you to pay for the entire cruise IN ADVANCE...So, they had OUR money for over a year!

Of course, if you want to see Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, et al, your choices are either a "land trip" or a river cruise...so, do what you must.

One good thing about booking with Viking is, basically, they do virtually everything for you. They took care of the flights, the ground transportation, the hotels, most of the shore excursions (and the others are handled by them as well--just at an additional charge). About the only things we had to worry about were meals in Prague, Budapest and Bucharest.

So, when we arrived at Prague Airport, a Viking rep was standing right by the exit from baggage claim waiting for us. He led us to a van--and off to the hotel. The Prague hotel --the "Art Nouveau Palace Hotel" was not great...nowhere near the caliber of hotel Viking put us in when we did their China trip. I guess I would call it "okay"...small room, decent but not impressive breakfast, small lobby. But this is the worst part: Our flight arrived at 11:30 am...so we were at the hotel shortly after noon. And we were informed that "check-in" wasn't until 3:00 pm. But were told to check back at 2:00--that some rooms may be ready. But, we were exhausted after a couple of long flights and weren't going anywhere. So, we waited with many others in the small crowded lobby. At 2:00 pm, we were told that, no, our room was not yet available. I went back to try checking in again at 2:30, 2:45 and again at 3:00...had to wait in a long line each time...and, each time, sorry, not ready. we finally got our keys to the room shortly before 4:00 pm. Infuriating. Killed an entire afternoon in Prague waiting for a room.

The next two mornings we had, first, a bus tour of Prague, and, second, an "optional" walking tour of the Jewish Quarter...and, at night, an "optional" (read "overpriced") "Folklore Dinner"--bad food with local "entertainment"...

Third morning, it was an eight hour bus ride to Budapest. Yup, 8 hour bus ride. When we did China with Viking, they flew us from city to city. Here they put you in a bus--which stops once for a bathroom break at a gas station...and later for "lunch"--at yet another gas station (on our own dime, of course sandwiches or soup that's been sitting under the heat lamps all day.

At least, the hotel in Budapest was very good--the Hilton Castle District. The following day was an included bus tour of Budapest. No real stops--just trying to take photos from the wrong side of the moving bus. Next morning, we checked out EARLY and did the optional Dohany Street Synagogue tour...which then dropped us at the ship.

When you are accustomed to Celebrity ships, these ships seem tiny in comparison. Hallways are VERY narrow. Rooms are very small. There are only three real "common area" rooms--a dining room, a lounge with bar and an open upper deck. No swimming pool, no jacuzzi, no exercise room. There actually IS an elevator...BUT it only goes between decks 2 and 3. To get to our cabin on deck 1, you use the stairs. To get to the open upper deck, you need to use the stairs. The elevator, therefore, is pretty much worthless. I never saw anyone actually use it.

Our cabin was TINY. Allegedly 150 square feet. But from years in the real estate bis, I know there are several different standards for the measurement of floor area. And I don't think they used any of them. The bed pretty much took up the entire room. One person at a time could sidle around the bed. If two of you wanted to get dressed at the same time, one of you may have to go dress in the hallway. Some loyal river cruiser told me "Oh, you should have gotten a balcony cabin, they are much bigger". Really? Ummm...one step allegedly up from ours was the "French Balcony" cabin. Those, however, are actually SMALLER--advertised as a mere 135 square feet. And "French Balcony"?" Not really a balcony at all--merely a window that opens. Two steps up are the "Veranda" cabins--allegedly 205 square feet. But don't mistake that for being larger than the 190 square feet we had on Millennium. They are clearly including the balcony in the measurement...and, again, probably using some bad standard of measurement and miscalculating that. The veranda rooms themselves had about the same layout as our window cabin--with maybe about two more feet towards the sliding door--in which they've places a small chair.

The bathroom had, at least, glass shower doors...which leaked badly, leaving a major puddle on the floor after each shower. Best thing about the cabin is that we didn't spend much time in it.

Entertainment on the ship was virtually nonexistent. They had a small musical combo made up of a guitarist and a pianist. One night they actually performed (badly) mostly country music. Another evening, while docked in a town, they brought on some local teenagers to dance. Other nights, the cruise director (or whatever they call him), Stefan, gave slide presentations on "Growing up in Eastern Europe" and on "Dracula"...actually, those two were at least fairly entertaining. Other than that, no real activities on the schedule.

Pretty much, five days out of six were fairly identical: Wake up early, breakfast at 7:00 am, pick up your shore excursion assignments (which bus you are assigned to--they mixed it up each day) and be out to the bus by 8:15. Most excursions were 40 people on a bus and a lot of driving. In one port, they took us to a horse ranch to watch a very mediocre "show" of guys riding around on horses...followed by some horse cart rides around the ranch and a walk through the stables...then a trip to the local church where the 82 year old organist played a few pieces for us.

I am accustomed to arranging my own small group private tours, so, for me, most of these tours were a bit underwhelming--loading and unloading 40 people on and off a bus, driving past a lot of places I might have wanted to stop to take a photo or two. One day was "scenic" cruising through the "Iron Gate"...at least we could relax a little and not spend the day on a crowded bus. Instead, we all crowded up onto the top deck.

The Food and Dining Room: All dinners were at a set time--7:00 pm. And the mob descended on the dining room quickly. We tended to walk down leisurely...maybe arriving at 7:01...So, each night when we got there, all of the seats at the oval tables along the windows on either side were gone (I think we managed to get to one of those tables for two meals the entire week)...So, we were typically relegated to the long tables toward the interior on either side of the buffet. The menu each night was a bit sparse--nowhere near the selection one gets on Celebrity. Every night there was a section describing what was available on the buffet--usually a local specialty, a local appetizer and some salad items and a soup. The "menu" items were VERY limited--maybe two unique entrees each night plus an "always available" steak and salmon. I tried the steak one night...and it was absolutely AWFUL...mostly fat and gristle, largely inedible...I ate about a third of it, never ordered it again. So few choices that one night I actually ordered the sea bass. My wife of 37 years will tell you that she has NEVER seen me order fish before--anywhere... but the options were so limited, I felt I had no choice. Surprisingly, it was quite good--one of the better dinners I had onboard. Another night, I ordered the Scallops...It arrived as 3 small scallops on a plate with some sauce over it...no rice, no potatoes. They tasted good, but I was so unsatisfied that I had the waiter bring me an order of french fries just to fill me up (the french fries WERE good).

But, I think the most surprising thing to me about dinner was the service. I expected, with a small ship and high prices, that the service would be exceptional. FAR from it. Remember, I just got off a Celebrity cruise, so comparisons were easy--Celebrity service is, typically, excellent. On this one:

1) The waiter usually failed to notice you when you sat down and were very slow to bring you a menu--almost hoping you'd just get up and eat from the buffet.

2) When they did bring food, they'd often bring multiple courses at once.

3) Silverware was not replaced after each course. waiters were not consistent as to from which side they served and cleared.

4) They would often neglect to bring something you'd ordered. Once, upon first contact with the waiter, I asked for a beer (beer and wine are included with meals). When the food came, I reminded him that I never got my beer., Still nothing. I later saw another waiter and asked him. Finally my waiter came with my beer, said "I'm sorry" and mumbled something about it being a long walk from the kitchen! One morning, I ordered French Toast...and never got it...

5) The "buffet" section was badly laid out. It was a square of tables in the middle of the dining room. In the mornings, a long line formed for omelets. In the dinner hour, the line was for whatever the local specialty was--which was being carved or doled out right next to the soup. One time, I got up to just get a bowl of soup--but had to stand in line behind about 15 people waiting to be served some main course. When I finally got close to the soup (on the side of the square rather than the front of it...and was still about the 8th person in line--with all 7 in front of me waiting for the main course), I said to the soup guy "Could I just get a bowl of soup?" ...thinking, since he was just standing there doing nothing, he could easily have just ladled out a cup of soup and handed it to me as I was at his side. But, no, he said, I would have to wait until I got to the front of the line! NO ONE in front of me was waiting for soup...I was the only person in line for soup...

6) With less than 200 passengers and the same few waiters seeing us every day, every meal, you'd think they might remember something about you. On Celebrity (or Royal Caribbean...or Princess, etc,), by the second or third day--even in "select" or "anytime" dining, the waiters seem to remember a whole lot--like they bring me iced tea without my asking...or know I always want constant refills...or that I require sugar-free ice cream--but don't like strawberry or nuts...OIn my Celebrity Alaska cruise, my waiters brought me sugar-free chocolate ice cream every night--even when not on the menu (of course, on Viking, with the limited menu, the only sugar fee ice cream they had--every night--was Neapolitan--which I don't eat). The waiters here never caught on that I wanted a draft beer with every dinner...or that I needed sugar fee syrup with my french toast. I'd sit at the same tables 80% of the time, so same couple of waiters...and every meal was a complete mystery to them.

Also, the waiters seemed short-staffed and the dining room seemed crowded and disorganized. It was more like a modified buffet than an elegant sit-down restaurant.

Okay, all that out of the way, there was, of course some good:

We met and shared time with a lot of great fellow cruisers. The ship seemed to be about 50% Americans, 50% from the UK and virtually no one from anywhere else (though I think I remember one woman saying she was from Brazil). We were surprised a bit that there were as many people with ages under 80 (someone had told us beforehand to be prepared to be the youngest people on the ship). There was one 13 year-old onboard (traveling with his grandmother, uncle and aunt) and there were a few younger adults-perhaps in their 20s/early 30s often traveling with parents...and, for us, we were very pleased that there were a number of couples in the 50-65 age range...far more than I expected...Not that there's anything wrong with older folks--we are arriving there pretty quickly ourselves after all...

About half the ship were repeat Viking cruisers. They had a reception one evening--but, there being only one lounge and no one checking invites, hard to tell who all showed up to that...but, they did send us, as repeats, a gift of free Viking Aquavit shot glasses to the cabin ...I only wished they would have sent a packing box with them--we had to pack them carefully to get them home without breaking.

Of course, one of the best things about this cruise was the opportunity to visit parts of the world we'd never get to on an ocean cruise--Prague, Budapest, the interior part of Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania...heck, the bus ride from Prague to Budapest actually had us pass through Slovakia as well--though we never really got a chance to see anything but the highway...The towns and the history are intriguing. We learned all about the era of Soviet domination and about the Yugoslav wars as the country split apart--with far different versions of who the good guys and bad guys were from our guides in Croatia and Serbia, respectively.

Some other notes, as I think about them:

Don't even bother shopping for a decent souvenir T-shirt in these countries. I don't think the locals think it appropriate dress for an adult. In Bucharest, for example, just about every T-Shirt sold was some sort of cartoon version of Dracula.

The towns visited in Croatia and Serbia still have all of the scars from the civil war 20 years ago. I guess it's a badge of honor to show everyone all of the holes in buildings caused by artillery shelling, bombs and land mines.

The major cities' skylines are dominated by some of the ugliest communist era cement tilt-up apartment blocks you've ever seen.

McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Subway and Pizza Hut have invaded almost everywhere...

Budapest is incredibly beautiful lit up at night...great vies from near the Hilton...and from the ship as you pull away and down the river...

Okay...despite all of my gripes, am I happy we did it? Yes...

Are we booking another Viking River Cruise anytime soon? Probably not...If we try another river cruise, we might try a different line next time...In the meanwhile, the next three are back on Celebrity...

Thanks. This was very informative.

If I took a river cruise, it would be Scenic.

Thanks for the review. You pretty much confirmed my concerns regarding river cruises. I think they probably work well for travelers who are itinerary/port focused, but for those of us who see the onboard experience as, or even more, important it's probably not a good choice.

Thank you for the review. It also confirmed why we haven't done a river cruise on Viking. Your comments were very similar to what a friend said.

We tried a Viking river cruise and i swore i would never do another one. Our experience was similar to yours. Not sure river cruises are our thing but if we decided to try again it would definitely be a different company.

As a way of introduction, I have done over 50 cruises--on 8 different cruise lines. My favorite is Celebrity...but we often cruise other lines due to itinerary, timing and other factors. Over the past few weeks, we have done an Alaska cruise on Millennium (our third with Celebrity), followed, 7 days later, by a river cruise on the Danube from Prague to Bucharest, with Viking. This was our second experience with a Viking River cruise, the first being a few years ago in China.

 

When one takes such different cruises that close in time, one can't help but to compare. Of course, both experiences are far different. Any river cruise is going to have certain limitations since the ships are small. But, my wife gets a little tired of repeating the same itineraries, so, the river cruise gave us some opportunity to visit some places new to us.

 

Also, let me acknowledge that there are a lot of river cruise aficionados out there who think that nothing beats a river cruise. Of course, we all have different standards and criteria...and so, we all might come to different conclusions. This post is really based just on what I look for in a cruise vacation. Also, note that these opinions are based on cruising with Viking. I have never tried AMA, Uniworld, Scenic, Avalon or any of the other many river cruise providers out there...so, though the experience may be similar, certain aspects may differ line to line.

 

First thing to notice is that, if you are just looking for value, Celebrity is a FAR greater value. Trying to economize a bit on this one, we opted for the lowest cost window cabin...and our price for a 13 night package--3 nights in Prague in a hotel followed by two in Budapest, then 7 nights on a river ship and one last night in a hotel in Bucharest--ran well over $10,000 including airfare from LAX...Adding in gratuities and a few "optional" excursions, the bill for the 13 nights came out to around $1,000 per day. The Celebrity Alaska cruise we took just before that, we paid around $1,800 for a Concierge class cabin for a 7 night cruise--FOR TWO. Total...including port taxes. Airfare cost us less than $350 pp round trip (yeah, a little shorter flight than flying to Eastern Europe). Throw in our port tours and gratuities and we spent about $3500 total--so, overall, about half the price per person per day. Of course, yes, apples and oranges. But, last summer, we did 14 nights on RCCL back-to-backs in the Med--in a "hump" balcony--for only $4000 for two...and paid $745 pp for round trip air LAX to Rome...Add in gratuities and port tours and we were still several thousand less than we paid for Viking.. So, it IS a bit pricey in comparison. PLUS, believe it or not, Viking requires you to pay for the entire cruise IN ADVANCE...So, they had OUR money for over a year!

 

Of course, if you want to see Prague, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, et al, your choices are either a "land trip" or a river cruise...so, do what you must.

 

One good thing about booking with Viking is, basically, they do virtually everything for you. They took care of the flights, the ground transportation, the hotels, most of the shore excursions (and the others are handled by them as well--just at an additional charge). About the only things we had to worry about were meals in Prague, Budapest and Bucharest.

 

So, when we arrived at Prague Airport, a Viking rep was standing right by the exit from baggage claim waiting for us. He led us to a van--and off to the hotel. The Prague hotel --the "Art Nouveau Palace Hotel" was not great...nowhere near the caliber of hotel Viking put us in when we did their China trip. I guess I would call it "okay"...small room, decent but not impressive breakfast, small lobby. But this is the worst part: Our flight arrived at 11:30 am...so we were at the hotel shortly after noon. And we were informed that "check-in" wasn't until 3:00 pm. But were told to check back at 2:00--that some rooms may be ready. But, we were exhausted after a couple of long flights and weren't going anywhere. So, we waited with many others in the small crowded lobby. At 2:00 pm, we were told that, no, our room was not yet available. I went back to try checking in again at 2:30, 2:45 and again at 3:00...had to wait in a long line each time...and, each time, sorry, not ready. we finally got our keys to the room shortly before 4:00 pm. Infuriating. Killed an entire afternoon in Prague waiting for a room.

 

The next two mornings we had, first, a bus tour of Prague, and, second, an "optional" walking tour of the Jewish Quarter...and, at night, an "optional" (read "overpriced") "Folklore Dinner"--bad food with local "entertainment"...

 

Third morning, it was an eight hour bus ride to Budapest. Yup, 8 hour bus ride. When we did China with Viking, they flew us from city to city. Here they put you in a bus--which stops once for a bathroom break at a gas station...and later for "lunch"--at yet another gas station (on our own dime, of course sandwiches or soup that's been sitting under the heat lamps all day.

 

At least, the hotel in Budapest was very good--the Hilton Castle District. The following day was an included bus tour of Budapest. No real stops--just trying to take photos from the wrong side of the moving bus. Next morning, we checked out EARLY and did the optional Dohany Street Synagogue tour...which then dropped us at the ship.

 

When you are accustomed to Celebrity ships, these ships seem tiny in comparison. Hallways are VERY narrow. Rooms are very small. There are only three real "common area" rooms--a dining room, a lounge with bar and an open upper deck. No swimming pool, no jacuzzi, no exercise room. There actually IS an elevator...BUT it only goes between decks 2 and 3. To get to our cabin on deck 1, you use the stairs. To get to the open upper deck, you need to use the stairs. The elevator, therefore, is pretty much worthless. I never saw anyone actually use it.

 

Our cabin was TINY. Allegedly 150 square feet. But from years in the real estate bis, I know there are several different standards for the measurement of floor area. And I don't think they used any of them. The bed pretty much took up the entire room. One person at a time could sidle around the bed. If two of you wanted to get dressed at the same time, one of you may have to go dress in the hallway. Some loyal river cruiser told me "Oh, you should have gotten a balcony cabin, they are much bigger". Really? Ummm...one step allegedly up from ours was the "French Balcony" cabin. Those, however, are actually SMALLER--advertised as a mere 135 square feet. And "French Balcony"?" Not really a balcony at all--merely a window that opens. Two steps up are the "Veranda" cabins--allegedly 205 square feet. But don't mistake that for being larger than the 190 square feet we had on Millennium. They are clearly including the balcony in the measurement...and, again, probably using some bad standard of measurement and miscalculating that. The veranda rooms themselves had about the same layout as our window cabin--with maybe about two more feet towards the sliding door--in which they've places a small chair.

 

The bathroom had, at least, glass shower doors...which leaked badly, leaving a major puddle on the floor after each shower. Best thing about the cabin is that we didn't spend much time in it.

 

Entertainment on the ship was virtually nonexistent. They had a small musical combo made up of a guitarist and a pianist. One night they actually performed (badly) mostly country music. Another evening, while docked in a town, they brought on some local teenagers to dance. Other nights, the cruise director (or whatever they call him), Stefan, gave slide presentations on "Growing up in Eastern Europe" and on "Dracula"...actually, those two were at least fairly entertaining. Other than that, no real activities on the schedule.

 

Pretty much, five days out of six were fairly identical: Wake up early, breakfast at 7:00 am, pick up your shore excursion assignments (which bus you are assigned to--they mixed it up each day) and be out to the bus by 8:15. Most excursions were 40 people on a bus and a lot of driving. In one port, they took us to a horse ranch to watch a very mediocre "show" of guys riding around on horses...followed by some horse cart rides around the ranch and a walk through the stables...then a trip to the local church where the 82 year old organist played a few pieces for us.

 

I am accustomed to arranging my own small group private tours, so, for me, most of these tours were a bit underwhelming--loading and unloading 40 people on and off a bus, driving past a lot of places I might have wanted to stop to take a photo or two. One day was "scenic" cruising through the "Iron Gate"...at least we could relax a little and not spend the day on a crowded bus. Instead, we all crowded up onto the top deck.

 

The Food and Dining Room: All dinners were at a set time--7:00 pm. And the mob descended on the dining room quickly. We tended to walk down leisurely...maybe arriving at 7:01...So, each night when we got there, all of the seats at the oval tables along the windows on either side were gone (I think we managed to get to one of those tables for two meals the entire week)...So, we were typically relegated to the long tables toward the interior on either side of the buffet. The menu each night was a bit sparse--nowhere near the selection one gets on Celebrity. Every night there was a section describing what was available on the buffet--usually a local specialty, a local appetizer and some salad items and a soup. The "menu" items were VERY limited--maybe two unique entrees each night plus an "always available" steak and salmon. I tried the steak one night...and it was absolutely AWFUL...mostly fat and gristle, largely inedible...I ate about a third of it, never ordered it again. So few choices that one night I actually ordered the sea bass. My wife of 37 years will tell you that she has NEVER seen me order fish before--anywhere... but the options were so limited, I felt I had no choice. Surprisingly, it was quite good--one of the better dinners I had onboard. Another night, I ordered the Scallops...It arrived as 3 small scallops on a plate with some sauce over it...no rice, no potatoes. They tasted good, but I was so unsatisfied that I had the waiter bring me an order of french fries just to fill me up (the french fries WERE good).

 

But, I think the most surprising thing to me about dinner was the service. I expected, with a small ship and high prices, that the service would be exceptional. FAR from it. Remember, I just got off a Celebrity cruise, so comparisons were easy--Celebrity service is, typically, excellent. On this one:

1) The waiter usually failed to notice you when you sat down and were very slow to bring you a menu--almost hoping you'd just get up and eat from the buffet.

2) When they did bring food, they'd often bring multiple courses at once.

3) Silverware was not replaced after each course. waiters were not consistent as to from which side they served and cleared.

 

4) They would often neglect to bring something you'd ordered. Once, upon first contact with the waiter, I asked for a beer (beer and wine are included with meals). When the food came, I reminded him that I never got my beer., Still nothing. I later saw another waiter and asked him. Finally my waiter came with my beer, said "I'm sorry" and mumbled something about it being a long walk from the kitchen! One morning, I ordered French Toast...and never got it...

5) The "buffet" section was badly laid out. It was a square of tables in the middle of the dining room. In the mornings, a long line formed for omelets. In the dinner hour, the line was for whatever the local specialty was--which was being carved or doled out right next to the soup. One time, I got up to just get a bowl of soup--but had to stand in line behind about 15 people waiting to be served some main course. When I finally got close to the soup (on the side of the square rather than the front of it...and was still about the 8th person in line--with all 7 in front of me waiting for the main course), I said to the soup guy "Could I just get a bowl of soup?" ...thinking, since he was just standing there doing nothing, he could easily have just ladled out a cup of soup and handed it to me as I was at his side. But, no, he said, I would have to wait until I got to the front of the line! NO ONE in front of me was waiting for soup...I was the only person in line for soup...

6) With less than 200 passengers and the same few waiters seeing us every day, every meal, you'd think they might remember something about you. On Celebrity (or Royal Caribbean...or Princess, etc,), by the second or third day--even in "select" or "anytime" dining, the waiters seem to remember a whole lot--like they bring me iced tea without my asking...or know I always want constant refills...or that I require sugar-free ice cream--but don't like strawberry or nuts...OIn my Celebrity Alaska cruise, my waiters brought me sugar-free chocolate ice cream every night--even when not on the menu (of course, on Viking, with the limited menu, the only sugar fee ice cream they had--every night--was Neapolitan--which I don't eat). The waiters here never caught on that I wanted a draft beer with every dinner...or that I needed sugar fee syrup with my french toast. I'd sit at the same tables 80% of the time, so same couple of waiters...and every meal was a complete mystery to them.

 

Also, the waiters seemed short-staffed and the dining room seemed crowded and disorganized. It was more like a modified buffet than an elegant sit-down restaurant.

 

Okay, all that out of the way, there was, of course some good:

We met and shared time with a lot of great fellow cruisers. The ship seemed to be about 50% Americans, 50% from the UK and virtually no one from anywhere else (though I think I remember one woman saying she was from Brazil). We were surprised a bit that there were as many people with ages under 80 (someone had told us beforehand to be prepared to be the youngest people on the ship). There was one 13 year-old onboard (traveling with his grandmother, uncle and aunt) and there were a few younger adults-perhaps in their 20s/early 30s often traveling with parents...and, for us, we were very pleased that there were a number of couples in the 50-65 age range...far more than I expected...Not that there's anything wrong with older folks--we are arriving there pretty quickly ourselves after all...

 

About half the ship were repeat Viking cruisers. They had a reception one evening--but, there being only one lounge and no one checking invites, hard to tell who all showed up to that...but, they did send us, as repeats, a gift of free Viking Aquavit shot glasses to the cabin ...I only wished they would have sent a packing box with them--we had to pack them carefully to get them home without breaking.

 

Of course, one of the best things about this cruise was the opportunity to visit parts of the world we'd never get to on an ocean cruise--Prague, Budapest, the interior part of Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania...heck, the bus ride from Prague to Budapest actually had us pass through Slovakia as well--though we never really got a chance to see anything but the highway...The towns and the history are intriguing. We learned all about the era of Soviet domination and about the Yugoslav wars as the country split apart--with far different versions of who the good guys and bad guys were from our guides in Croatia and Serbia, respectively.

 

Some other notes, as I think about them:

Don't even bother shopping for a decent souvenir T-shirt in these countries. I don't think the locals think it appropriate dress for an adult. In Bucharest, for example, just about every T-Shirt sold was some sort of cartoon version of Dracula.

 

The towns visited in Croatia and Serbia still have all of the scars from the civil war 20 years ago. I guess it's a badge of honor to show everyone all of the holes in buildings caused by artillery shelling, bombs and land mines.

 

The major cities' skylines are dominated by some of the ugliest communist era cement tilt-up apartment blocks you've ever seen.

 

McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Subway and Pizza Hut have invaded almost everywhere...

 

Budapest is incredibly beautiful lit up at night...great vies from near the Hilton...and from the ship as you pull away and down the river...

 

Okay...despite all of my gripes, am I happy we did it? Yes...

Are we booking another Viking River Cruise anytime soon? Probably not...If we try another river cruise, we might try a different line next time...In the meanwhile, the next three are back on Celebrity...

Well done, Steve....we've done 8 river cruises with Vantage and it appears we both did the Budapest to the Black Sea cruise. We loved river cruising with Vantage but I must disagree with a few points: First our cabin was quite comfortable with plenty of storage and space to walk around and you made me laugh with the "french balcony"....what it's really good for is leaning out your door to take unobstructed photos!! We found the food exceptionally good and dining room service exceptional...it does take a little getting used to finding a seat, especially if you're with another couple, but you do get to meet everybody. I know it sounds like I'm working for Vantage but I do recommend them....everyone we dealt with from front office to tour guides and transportation was wonderful and since I tend to be a control freak I liked dealing with them directly and not through a travel agent. So why did we stop doing river cruises? It's not for the faint of heart.....the brochures all show people "of a certain age:o" but those pictures are taken in the morning! They don't show us crawling up the gangway before dinner and the reason they don't have a lot of evening entertainment is because we're all in bed by 10!!! But aren't Budapest and Prague wonderful. We also saw the Cossack horsemen with vodka tasting....what a rip off...but I did get the best buy on paprika there!

Now we're about to embark on our 8th cruise with Celebrity on Sunday....I love that there's so much to do or NOT to do on a cruise ship. I love sitting on my balcony and reading in total peace and quiet. I love having the same dinner table, companions and waiters every night and I love the idea that I can do whatever I please with respect to on shore excursions and there's so many choices for people with limited mobility and I've finally found a travel agent who understands my need for control:D.

Wonderful post, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for this very informative review. We also are getting bored with ocean cruising and have checked into some river cruises. Was set back with the prices even with the so called "specials".

Our next resort is possibly doing more escorted land tours. Have done a few in the past and have enjoyed them.

We have cruised on vantage (14 days germany to hungary) and Grand Circle (Nile). Both were enjoyable in their own ways but it's a major error to think that a river cruise experience will be anything like a cruise ship experience and neither will be like joining a tour on land which will be different from your touring on your own...etc. Comparing a river cruise to a cruise ship is like comparing visiting New York City to visiting Marrakesh. Steve came at his cruise from a big cruise ship experience....and his review clearly shows he didn't get that same experience on the river cruise he chose.

I can tell you that it's more important to research your river cruise company and ship...there's far more variation, levels of service, size of cabins.... than cruise ships. Vantage and GCT are not five star quality cruise lines...but they do a great job of providing relatively affordable river cruises with reasonable food and service. Frankly, I'm not sure that the food on Celebrity is any better...there's just more of a choice. I'd recommend GCT, OAG and Vantage as very cost effective, comfortable ways to travel...and we'd use any of them again without hesitation.

I would encourage anyone who hasn't tried a river cruise to do one....maybe do the classic 7 day danube cruise...or maybe try something where it's the only way to see some things....the Irrawaddy, the Mekong, the upper amazon and the Nile come to mind. You may find that you like it as an alternative way to vacation...or you may find that you just like the big ship experience. While you're in the experiment on new ways to travel, consider renting a house in Tuscany or Bordeaux for a week...shop locally, grill dinners you don't eat out, enjoy the local wine. Finally, there's the tour.....we did an Overseas Adventure Travel tour in India....fascinating....would never go to India on our own. Hotels were clean, but certainly not luxury, food was so-so (tourist restaurants), guide was outstanding and so on. I didn't mention the Club Med/Sandals experience...but that's a whole different way to vacation.

There are lots of ways to spend your travel dollars.....you just have to find the ways that make sense for you....and everyone is a different you.

Hydrokitty, is Vantage a sister company or something of Viking? Or was it autocorrect?

I appreciate your feedback on your experience. I had a different experience with Viking. We took our first river cruise last year on Viking. We had previously done about 13 ocean cruises. (our first Celebrity is coming up in October).

We did the 13 day St Petersberg to Moscow cruise. I purchased it fairly late (6 months prior) and got what I considered to be a good deal. We paid 5k per person for a veranda cabin. (the viking rep actually gave us $500 less than the advertised special price without us asking.) This included RT air fare from Seattle.

We found the food and service to be outstanding. Most of the excursions were excellent including the included folklore performance, the ballet, and the concert of Russian musicians playing Russian instruments. Supposedly the Russian ships are not as nice as the newer European ships on Viking.

Eventually we want to do the 15 day Budapest to Amsterdam trip. We would not hesitate to do Viking or any of the other lines. ( I will add that in St Petersburg we did an extension for two days and paid for our own private guide for two days that took us to many of the "extra" excursions offered by Viking and saved money on top of getting a personal tour.) Also, for $200 extra Viking allowed us to pick from many European cities for stopovers prior to the trip (we chose Amsterdam) and so we added 5 extra days in Amsterdam for the extra $200 stopover charge for our Airfare.

We have done 6 Celebrity cruises (more booked) and 3 Viking river cruises (plus one Viking Ocean) and have enjoyed every one. We also found the food and service to be good on all of our cruises, but I would say that the food budget on Viking is probably higher per person. We had a French balcony only once, but never again - the Viking true balcony cabins are much roomier and are very comfortable.

As others have noted, the two types of cruises are not comparable. You do find many devotees of Viking river cruises, and as the OP mentioned, they are not cheap, and therefore they must be doing many things right!

However, it was interesting to read the account of the OP’s river cruise, especially as we have not done that itinerary.

Thanks for a comprehensive review and to others for their comments...

We'd love to do one to see Tulips and Wundmalls...someday, but expectations not as high for river compared to Ocean..

Hydrokitty, is Vantage a sister company or something of Viking? Or was it autocorrect?

I was wondering the same thing, but I see that Vantage is a river cruise company. It’s just not one of those I researched.

I'm sorry you had a poor experience. What ship did you sail? Last April we sailed the Viking Legend from Passau to Budapest. The trip started with three days in Prague and they then bused us to Passau. I'm certain that you were on a different ship because the Legend had no elevator at all. It was incredibly expensive but a first class experience all the way. The room was tiny and we were on the oldest ship in the fleet but the staff was incredible, I think everyone knew our names by the second day. The entertainment was lame but the food was great. In both Prague and Budapest, we had excellent hotels.

We enjoyed the other passengers but I kept hearing "you'll never take another ocean cruise". Yeah, I will. It was a terrific experience but we like the variety and value of an ocean ship.

Bruin Steve, thanks very much for your review. I found it quite helpful. Like you, I’ve researched river cruises as a product, fully realizing ocean and river cruises are completely different, but I’ve not yet taken the plunge lol. Viking is one of the lines I’ve considered, but I’ve been lukewarm on them because most of my river cruising friends prefer other lines.

To those of you you mentioned Vantage, thank you. That is not one of the lines I’ve investigated, but I’ll do so now.

I was wondering the same thing, but I see that Vantage is a river cruise company. It’s just not one of those I researched.

NO, Vantage is not a sister company to Viking . You must book Vantage direct with the company.. they do not work with travel agents.

We did the 15 day Budapest to Amsterdam last year. I was able to upgrade at a very reasonable price to a suite. We had a very enjoyable river cruise but would not do it again. Tours were great, food was sub par, service was OK.. nothing at all to do in the evening, we made our own entertainment with couples we met. We did not go to bed at 10:00pm, even tho we are in our early 70’s, and quite active.

We cruised the Adriatic on Viking Ocean this past year. Beautiful ship, great food, good tours, wonderful staff.. probably would book again if I got a the great deal again..but the con was really very little entertainment in the evening.

We have sailed on Celebrity 11 times amd 2 more booked for next year..so I guess you know who we prefer.

We have cruised on vantage (14 days germany to hungary) and Grand Circle (Nile). Both were enjoyable in their own ways but it's a major error to think that a river cruise experience will be anything like a cruise ship experience and neither will be like joining a tour on land which will be different from your touring on your own...etc. Comparing a river cruise to a cruise ship is like comparing visiting New York City to visiting Marrakesh. Steve came at his cruise from a big cruise ship experience....and his review clearly shows he didn't get that same experience on the river cruise he chose.

 

I can tell you that it's more important to research your river cruise company and ship...there's far more variation, levels of service, size of cabins.... than cruise ships. Vantage and GCT are not five star quality cruise lines...but they do a great job of providing relatively affordable river cruises with reasonable food and service. Frankly, I'm not sure that the food on Celebrity is any better...there's just more of a choice. I'd recommend GCT, OAG and Vantage as very cost effective, comfortable ways to travel...and we'd use any of them again without hesitation.

 

I would encourage anyone who hasn't tried a river cruise to do one....maybe do the classic 7 day danube cruise...or maybe try something where it's the only way to see some things....the Irrawaddy, the Mekong, the upper amazon and the Nile come to mind. You may find that you like it as an alternative way to vacation...or you may find that you just like the big ship experience. While you're in the experiment on new ways to travel, consider renting a house in Tuscany or Bordeaux for a week...shop locally, grill dinners you don't eat out, enjoy the local wine. Finally, there's the tour.....we did an Overseas Adventure Travel tour in India....fascinating....would never go to India on our own. Hotels were clean, but certainly not luxury, food was so-so (tourist restaurants), guide was outstanding and so on. I didn't mention the Club Med/Sandals experience...but that's a whole different way to vacation.

 

There are lots of ways to spend your travel dollars.....you just have to find the ways that make sense for you....and everyone is a different you.

We love Vantage World Travel. Their prices always beat AMA and Viking. I consider Vantage in the same class as Viking.

Our best Vantage trip with a river cruise was China. Three weeks in China including a four night river cruise on the Yangtze for two for $10,000. That was in 2012, so price might be a bit higher now.

River cruising is more about the itinerary, but the smaller ship experience is more intimate and you get to know a large number of the other passengers. We have found the food to be on par with what you get in the MDR on major cruise lines. The variety is not as good, usually there are three main entrees in the evening to choose from. Breakast and Lunch is a buffet, with great choices of eggs cooked to order.

Our last experience with Vantage and a river cruise was the amazing Douro River Valley in Northern Portugal. Don't miss it.

NO, Vantage is not a sister company to Viking . You must book Vantage direct with the company.. they do not work with travel agents.

We did the 15 day Budapest to Amsterdam last year. I was able to upgrade at a very reasonable price to a suite. We had a very enjoyable river cruise but would not do it again. Tours were great, food was sub par, service was OK.. nothing at all to do in the evening, we made our own entertainment with couples we met. We did not go to bed at 10:00pm, even tho we are in our early 70’s, and quite active.

We cruised the Adriatic on Viking Ocean this past year. Beautiful ship, great food, good tours, wonderful staff.. probably would book again if I got a the great deal again..but the con was really very little entertainment in the evening.

We have sailed on Celebrity 11 times amd 2 more booked for next year..so I guess you know who we prefer.

I did not think Vantage and Viking were sister companies. Like warmwinds, I did wonder if “Viking” had been autocorrected to “Vantage”.

I have heard about river cruise experiences from two of my dear friends. One used AMA and said it was a nice ship with very good food, but she was put off by all the barges and views that were not very appealing at times. She is definitely an ocean cruise person. In addition, my other friend just did Avalon. She enjoyed it, but a barge ended up blocking the narrow part of the river, so they were bussed around four days of their seven day cruise; they had hotels on the front and back end of the cruise and covered Prague etc. Actually, The AMA Cruise was similar in itinerary to the OP's too, but several weeks in duration.

What I found interesting from my friend using Avalon was that due to the barge blocking the river, they received 3,500 back from Avalon! To me that speaks volumes about the company from my standpoint.

Will I ever do a river cruise in the future...most likely, but not for quite a few years, as I have done a lot of research so I know they are not for me at this point in my life and I still enjoy Celebrity and am booked on Edge!

I want to thank the OP for his opinion of Viking and his river cruise experience. The more information provided on these boards, the more information I am able to gather...I am sure I will do their ocean cruise experience and not their river cruise...just me based on my research so far...everything is subjective.

***One point that I found in my research; there is a company in New York that allows Viking experiences to not provide final payment as early as the company states. I am sorry, but I did not write down the name of it. However, if I found it, I am sure you could too if that is keeping you from trying Viking in either capacity...

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Thanks. This was very informative.

If I took a river cruise, it would be Scenic.

Going on my first ever river cruise with Scenic in April and we’re looking forward to it very much. Nice to read that Scenic would be your preference too.

Thank you for the interesting review - echoed our experience but we were on GCT (Grand Circle Tours) which I thought was pretty much the river cruise budget option but from your description of the Viking experience, they would seem quite similar (except in price)! Plus our cabins were more spacious. We did the Danube (same as yours) but flew into Budapest, went to Passau? and then about a 3 hour bus ride to Prague.

We also did an optional folkloric experience in Prague (well out in the country) and it was so bad, it has become one of our favorite memories. The food was horrific - one slice of ham and watery mashed potates. About 100 people were crammed into a barn divided into two rooms and the family runnning the "show" would run back and forth between the two rooms. We were told there would be dancing - well sort of - the family put on a show and the best part was the young madiens making ear shattering whoops to cajole a partner. The family must have racked in a fair amount of money (they were capitalists at heart) and my husband and I laugh about it to this day.

Yes river cruises work to take you places the big ships cannot go for a higher price!) but comparing a river cruise to the beauty of a X ship is really like pitiful apples to a gorgeous orange!

Wow, wow, wow. We are going on our 5th Celebrity cruise (Adriatic) in May followed by our first Viking River cruise in September. Our itinerary is the same as yours was but in reverse. The more I hear about river cruises in general, I am wondering now if I should have even booked it :( It is very pricey but I was lured in by the "it covers everything" line. It doesn't. Our airfare was additional, gratuities aren't included, and drinks are only included WITH meals. Also, I guess some of the excursions are rather short. Up until now I didn't realize all the meals at the hotels aren't included. If we weren't going with friends, I would cancel.

We have a bit of onboard credit. Can you give me a ballpark for optional excursions, or do you know if you can utilize it toward gratuities?

Thanks so much for this review!

Miriam

Thank you so much for this review of your Viking river cruise. DH and I are talking about going on one as he wants to see Normandy. Very interesting comparisons and differences (which are very informative).

Thanks for your insightful review. I also had a completely opposite experience on the Viking Bragi, 15 day Budapest to Amsterdam. We spent two days in Budapest prior to departure and two days in Amsterdam at the conclusion. Agree that Budapest is fabulous!!

We were in "steerage" with just a long window. Small but very adequate. We also thought all the "cool people" were in cabins down with us!

The meals were self serve, with lots of selections in the MDR and a smaller food station was located at the front of the riverboat with seating outside and in. Meals, and snacks put out during the day were very fine.

The "cruise director" loved her job and it showed. Information always available and perfect coordination on daily excursions. All the tour guides were local and probably the best tour guides we ever had on any cruise - been on 31 ocean cruises. It was also nice that they had "regular pace" tours, or for those who were less ambulatory, groups for "slower pace." While I was in my late 60's at the time, I really appreciated not being held back by those that often cannot keep up.

Indeed the evening programs, when they had them, were local talent who came on board - several were actually quite good.

We found the entire crew to be very helpful and friendly as well as all our fellow passengers. Not sure I even heard a single soul complain about anything - a real change from most ocean cruises.

Hi Steve! My only river cruise experience has been on Uniworld, I think I’ll stick with them after reading this I nteresting review!

Take care

LB

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