B2B Viking River and Princess Cruises - A Comparison

[lovevacadays]

Thank you for your review. I really enjoyed reading it. River cruising sounds terrific.:):):)

[sammiedawg]

I enjoyed the review. We did our first river cruise this past June, the 14 night Viking Grand European. We have not sailed Royal but we are experienced ocean cruisers. Vikings included tours provided nice overviews and the Viking buses were new and very clean . We thought the included wine with meals was great and certainly made the food taste better than it really was. We thought a few of the Viking entrees were excellent but overall did not find the dinners that good. Small portions, limited choices and very little fresh fruit and vegetables were the negatives. Also French fries were the only starch available most nights, I really missed simple things like baked potatoes. We thought the breakfast and lunch buffet was good for the size of the riverboat but in no way compared to what Princess offers.

I really missed the spaciousness of an ocean cruise ship, especially on days the sun deck was closed. There were not enough seats in the lounge for all passengers and they brought in folding chairs to hold the crowd.

I thought the Viking suggested tip amounts were a little high and they expected a separate tip for the program director. Tips paid in euros. We paid the suggested amounts but did not feel the service was as good as on an ocean ship due to the limited number of employees, fifty crew members for 190 passengers. The dining room was a little short staffed with long waits in between courses, but there was little else to do so we didn't care. Fellow passengers were lovely.

We loved the free wifi and were impressed on how well it worked.

We enjoyed the river cruise and would recommend others to try it out as a great way to see Central Europe. I would recommend that you shop hard for a good deal, we got a last minute inclusive deal for air, transfers and the cruise for a great price.

[newbie53]

I'd like to add my thanks for your review. I was also thinking about trying to combine a river cruise with a transatlantic. I have to admit though I was disappointed to hear that they are not very friendly for mobility impaired passengers. I can't say I'm surprised, based on the types of excursions I was reading. It just means it wouldn't be a good match for us. There's plenty of other options though. :rolleyes:

[loge23]

Terrific post, Wayne, and one that really resonated with us. We are also long-time Princess cruisers and enjoy the perks of being so. We are eagerly anticipating our upcoming Holiday cruise on the Royal.

We also recently returned from our third Viking cruise, so your comments really rang true and we agree with many of your points.

I recall after our first river cruise (on Viking) that we were ready to swear off ocean cruising, but we have learned to appreciate the difference in each of the experiences.

I think your comments regarding Princess could have been made by just about anyone these days. The incessant hawking, the generally declining food service, and the limitations of the Royal (particularly the promenade deck loss) are troubling but we still enjoy - and have adapted - to the changes since we first chose Princess, in 1992.

But as a final grade, Viking just kills Princess but this is due to the passenger count mainly where the Viking crew really get to know their guests.

As for the other correctable annoyances, Princess would be well-served to recognize their passengers as well and stop confusing them with tacky design, disappoint them with a declining food service, and harass them with endless sales pitches. As your price comparison aptly revealed - it's not all about price.

[CI66774]

Thanks for the comparison. I've been on the Royal twice (booked again for next year) and still maintain the toilet paper location is a non-issue. I agree about the noise in the Piazza - would like it to be a little quieter. I'd really love to do a river cruise as soon as my child is old enough (maybe in her mid-teens) to experience the vacation without the necessity of a kids club. Thanks again for the review.

[PunkiC]

Thank you!

 

We are pretty committed Princess cruisers, but really want to do a Viking Eastern Europe cruise, and maybe a Black Sea cruise as well, but we may do that on Cunard.

 

We won't sail the Regal or the Royal because they don't have real dance floors, and also worry about not being able to dance on Viking. Does Viking offer any dance opportunities?

[Pam in CA]

I have never seen dancing or live band on any of my Viking cruises. You're up early in the morning, touring at least three hours (lots of walking tours) and attending a lecture so it's a relatively long, busy day. Most of the time, people linger over dinner, perhaps have a nightcap and call it a night.

[PescadoAmarillo]

This was very helpful, and thank you for posting it! And very timely for us; DH has been saying for a year that he wants to try a river cruise in Europe. Also, I very much agree with your comments on the noise in the Piazza on the Royal Princess. They have made it the heart of the ship and now are making it impossible to stay there very long.

[nana&papagotosea]

A river cruise is definitely on our bucket list. Thanks for posting this trip comparison Wayne. I haven't ever really been interested in sailing on one of the bigger ships, so I don't think The Royal is in my future, but Viking has been in my sights. One question Wayne, this is the first time we are trying anytime dining on a Princess cruise, is it usual to have to have long waits for dinner? I like the idea of going anytime, but I wonder if we will miss the extra care we got with the same wait staff.

 

 

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[paul929207]

We have had Anytime Dining on the Grand (49 days) and the Crown (36 days). We like to eat about 7:30pm. We never made a reservation and never waited more than 2 or 3 minutes. We were never given a pager. We asked for a table for 6.

[goofy559]

Thank you!

 

We are pretty committed Princess cruisers, but really want to do a Viking Eastern Europe cruise, and maybe a Black Sea cruise as well, but we may do that on Cunard.

 

We won't sail the Regal or the Royal because they don't have real dance floors, and also worry about not being able to dance on Viking. Does Viking offer any dance opportunities?

 

We did the Viking eastern Europe this summer. There is a small dance floor in the lounge area. We had a fabulous singer/piano player and he had folks up dancing every night. We had a large group from west point on our cruise and they were the main dancers. The cruise was very interesting. It was my mom and I. Shes 86 I'm 48. We covered the high and low end of the age spectrum. Im glad we did the trip. Its an area we otherwise wouldn't likely visit.

 

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[mreasier]

A river cruise is definitely on our bucket list. Thanks for posting this trip comparison Wayne. I haven't ever really been interested in sailing on one of the bigger ships, so I don't think The Royal is in my future, but Viking has been in my sights. One question Wayne, this is the first time we are trying anytime dining on a Princess cruise, is it usual to have to have long waits for dinner? I like the idea of going anytime, but I wonder if we will miss the extra care we got with the same wait staff.

 

 

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The Royal was the 1st ship where we have had a problem. It did get better as the cruise went on. We are doing anytime on the Island an don't expect it to be a problem.

[caribill]

Dining Room

 

We were disappointed with the service in the Royal Princess. We did anytime dining. The 1st night we made reservations and had to wait 15 minutes while they sat people who just walked up without reservations. Once we got seated we had to wait over 30 minutes to order. We finally got our drinks and ordered our food 45 minutes after our reservation time. Service was OK but impersonal. The next time we went to the dining room we arrived at 8:30. We have never had to wait at that time on any other Princess ship but we had to get a pager and wait. The food was OK, but not exceptional. Service did get better as the cruise went on but we ended up going to the buffet more frequently than the dining room. Dining on Viking is kind of like a combination of anytime and traditional on Princess. Everyone eats around 7:00PM but it is not fixed seating. You can sit where and with whom you want. Service was always fast, attentive, and personal. The food was excellent. Some of the meals we had were among the best we had had on land or sea. The chateaubriand was to die for. As mentioned earlier, beer and wine are complimentary with lunch and dinner. They never let my wine glass get empty.

 

Big plus for Viking

 

One difference is that 100% of the Viking passengers can eat in the same dining room at the same time. On Princess (and other cruise lines), 100% of the passengers cannot fit into the main dining room(s) at the same time.

 

We were on Viking in China, not Europe, and our experience there might be different.

 

Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all scheduled the same way with one time for everybody to eat each meal. As the OP says, you could sit where and with whomever you wanted. On our Viking trip, a group that had the same group guide tended to sit together at meals just because they knew each other better.

 

The group guide (about 35 passengers assigned to the same guide for the entire trip) was outstanding. Every passenger with a different group guide usually says their guide is "the best ever." Our group guide told us that the guides with the least number of favorable comments for a season do not have a job for the next season with Viking. This means even a great guide can lose his/her job if all the other good guides get more favorable comments after the cruise. I do not know if it works the same in Europe.

[cruzsnooze]

There is no auto tip on Viking. The "recommended" gratuity is 12 Euros per day for the staff and 2 Euros per day for the cruise director. 14 Euros comes to about $17.50 - 6 dollars more per day than Princess. At the end of the cruise you can pay whatever you think is appropriate in cash (Euros) or credit card. Tipping for tour guides/drivers was additional and fully discretionary. The "recommended" gratuity is 2 Euros for the guide and 1 Euro for the driver.

When the Brits come here they say they tip because it is our custom but not theirs. Why did the custom change when we go there? Are they taking advantage of American tipping customs?

[born2cruize]

When the Brits come here they say they tip because it is our custom but not theirs. Why did the custom change when we go there? Are they taking advantage of American tipping customs?

 

We spent 6 days in London before and after our B2B, maybe Brits don't tip but they have their hands our for tips from tourists! Without fail Brits in service industries expected a tip.

[caribill]

We spent 6 days in London before and after our B2B, maybe Brits don't tip but they have their hands our for tips from tourists! Without fail Brits in service industries expected a tip.

 

Which they may get from Americans, but not from other UK folk.

 

In India, American tourists have to some degree changed the culture by tipping. Once Indian providers got used to getting tips from Americans, they refused to serve the local non-tipping Indian population in order to seek out tipping foreigners.

[geoherb]

Additionally, Viking provides complimentary tours in each port. These are typically 3 to 4 hour walking tours with perhaps a short bus ride. This type of tour on Princess usually runs about $100 to $150.

I don't think that type of Princess excursion costs that much, even on the European itineraries. The ones in that price range seem to be longer tours and ones that involve transportation away from the port city. Walking tours are in the $49 to $69 range.

[IECalCruiser]

Thanks for the review. Having taken several Viking River cruises and sailed on the Royal twice, I concur with most of your impressions.

 

The T/A last year on the Royal was quite different from this year's T/A (which I was on with you) in that last year was a southern route and there were far more outdoor activities plus both pools were in use and crowded so that the Piazza was used far less for entertainment. It was for the most part quiet and peaceful. Not so this year where there was something scheduled every hour, most of which included loud music.

 

I can't say enough good things about Viking. I've had some terrific cruises with them.

We were recently on the Regal and the noise level in the Piazza was painfully loud much of the time. I commented about the loudness at Passenger Services and the reply was that when there were more people in the Piazza they had to turn up the volume so everyone could hear the music :eek: There was no way you could carry on a conversation anywhere on Plaza deck when there were entertainers performing. Calypso Cove is separated from the Piazza above the Casino on the Promenade deck two decks above the entertainment in the adjacent Piazza. The noise was so loud in the Calypso Cove that DW could not tolerate shopping there. Princess lost some revenue as a result. I had a conversation with the supervisor in Sabatini's and was told the noise from the Piazza is a major problem in Sabatini's. Acoustics in the Crown Grill were also bad. It was hard to have a conversation at diner and this was before the piano player started in the adjacent Wheelhouse Bar. I have a love/hate relationship with the Regal and the noise level in the Piazza and other areas is a major contributor to the hate portion. I was looking forward to enjoying the Piazza but unfortunately was an area that we had to avoid most of the time.

 

 

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[mreasier]

I don't think that type of Princess excursion costs that much, even on the European itineraries. The ones in that price range seem to be longer tours and ones that involve transportation away from the port city. Walking tours are in the $49 to $69 range.

The 3.5 hour walking tour on Cobh Ireland cost $99.00. It did include one Irish coffee.

[In Retirement]

Just found this topic: hope people are still following. Last summer we did a 3-segment (or maybe 4-segment) vacation with Amsterdam as the hub: Basel to Amsterdam (Rhine with Viking), train visit to Ghent and Brugge Belgium, visit to Rijksmuseum (day before ocean cruise) and day in college town of Leiden (day before flight home): the highlight of the vacation was a 12-night Celebrity cruise of Norway.

 

If I would give a global impression of this specific river cruise (our only) with the Celebrity Constellation/Norway is that I remember the river boat and meals, the bus and walking, walking, walking for the Rhine, while our Norway experience (in which I researched and selected for each port) we had amazing trips to and up mountains, cruises (ship and other boats) through fjords and waterfalls, very wonderful days in Bergen and Oslo (in spite of expense of Norway, we had already located the housewares store in Bergen and found a half-price sale on beautiful stainless that we brought home as gifts). There is the question of what you are about and what counts for you.

 

I am the kind of person who reads Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor, guide books, DVD lectures, absorbs internet information and plans with a good map what we do at ports and what we do in cities for multiple-night stays. I found preparation for the river cruise only led to frustration. Folks, people who are into food and drink and entertainment and life in/near a city in the US or Canada -- stay home? If you are into the "ambiance" and like to be surprised by your trip (no preparation) and you like to walk by buildings and go somewhere that will not cost anything or much, maybe a river cruise is for you. We had one several-hour experience in middle-Rhine to see the robber baron castles, were in three towns/cities where we arranged to visit art museums. Can't complain about food as you have the chance to see how limited the kitchens are. Really like to know if balconies are ever useful on any river cruise as they were a major waste of money on Basel/Amsterdam. Please remember the Viking is a privately owned company that has been able to grow from a few to many river boats and also ocean ships (800 passenger) in just a couple of years, so the profit margins have to be gigantic. "Tours" are designed to be most cost-efficient and expect that your priority is on wine and beer. My thought is if you are a wine/beer person you go visit late Fall and just rent a car! The fun isn't on the boat, its on land. I don't feel that we had a "unique experience" to visit "the river" (yes, we visited the ducks and swans), and because we returned to the boat for lunch (something we almost never did on an ocean cruise except for 1/2 day port visits) you basically had a one-hour port visit. For example, in the probably lovely city of Cologne we walked from the boat to the cathedral and back to the boat -- this was our given experience in Cologne! After lunch we spent a couple hours in their wonderful art museum (no one else did). Basically your vacation in France and Germany occurred between breakfast (which was good) and lunch (OK) and then back for dinner. Each lunch and dinner was a stress to arrange who to eat with and a major effort was made to get us to pay tips and the Program Director obviously made his salary from them (thankfully the captain was paid a salary that kept him on the ship!). My thought is if you enjoy the vacation of people cooking and cleaning for you and enjoy sitting on a balcony, you can get wise and pick good values.

 

I watch Viking TV and hear Viking radio adds every day and they are a wonder. If you "fall" for them, you do not critically evaluate what you see and hear: bits and pieces of all experiences are thrown together in 30 seconds to a couple of minutes and do not represent anything except for a wonderful commercial.

 

In comparison, we select everywhere, given calendar restrictions, where we are going and we plan what we are going to do when we arrive. Being diabetic, walking is good for me, while wine and beer are not. I'm very aware of attempts to make money and like in the rest of my life, I decide when to spend it. We have enjoyed 4-7 night stays in London, Paris, Barcelona and Amsterdam that we pair with a 12-night cruise and are happy to have selections and better service than in our home! I had selected this 7-night Viking cruise because it fit with a visit to Belgium and then this Norway experience (wonderful) and now wonder if any other river cruise company provide a better land experience? I have reviewed several Rhine/Germany travel TV shows and realize a rental car or a train with maybe three or four stops would have been the way to go (three nights our window and balcony was blocked by another Viking ship so they saved money and absolutely knew this would happen).

 

This summer I am giving my oldest grandchild a vacation (now being 14) and we will take his family and my sister-in-law on a 12-night Barcelona to Venice cruise on the Island Princess (3/15 June). We have private tours scheduled at each port, have a plan for Barcelona and have a lead for a day trip out of Venice as well.

 

I guess if you want some control over what you do on vacation and consider an European vacation an opportunity to experience culture and learn history and geography, this sort of river experience may not be for you. As a comparison, on the Viking ocean ship, a port visit to London is a roundtrip bus from Southampton in one day and a walking tour! Apparently they can attract people with money who find this what a trip to London is what it is all about (our last visit to London, in contrast, included days before and after a 12-night British Isles Princess cruise that included visits to Hampton Court by train, a visit to Kew Gardens by tube, a visit to the British museum by coach, and a day with Premier Tours to multiple areas eat of London including Canterbury and Dover. My concern is not the quality and volume of the wine, but a rich vacation experience that makes the horrible transatlantic flights almost bearable!

 

I'm really interested in hearing about any river cruises where you remember your tours and have an experience also where you have time to watch the land go by. Considering the state of the world, we can all wonder what are options will be like in the near future?

My best,

DJ:)

[sammiedawg]

I have mixed feelings about our 14 night Viking River cruise. The included tours were short overview type tours, probably OK in most of the small river ports visited. But I want something comprehensive in major ports and cities of the world, We've had great luck on ocean cruises hiring private guides or DIY touring, we want to see much more than a Viking drive by or short walking tour can offer. Therefore I don't agree with some of the cost comparisons on the value of included tours.

The free wine, soda, bottled water and Internet were great.

The Viking food was a mixed bag and didn't compare favorably to any ocean cruise line we've been on. Selections were very limited, as someone mentioned fresh fruits and vegetables were not in abundance. Simple things like baked potatoes were not offered.

Service on Viking was OK but the staff to passenger ratio was 1 staff member to every 4 passengers. Apples and oranges to ocean cruising. The suggested tips seemed high for the level of service offered, however we complied with the suggested amount. I was surprised they wanted a separate tip for the program director, two Euros per day per passenger. We complied and paid it. Ocean cruisers are not expected to tip the CD.

Overall we enjoyed our river cruise but it is apples and oranges to Princess or any ocean line. I'm not sure if I will do another one but it was a great experience to do one time.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Interesting comparison. Thanks for the review/comments. :)

[In Retirement]

Pleased that some are still following. I'm considering posting a detailed discussion on river cruise forum, but don't want to start anything with river cruise company that will get me into trouble with them or Cruise Critic. I would say that a good number of people who post on CC are serious about travel preparation, while others just select a bus ride from the cruise line. Viking provides a product maybe even less and on the Rhine all tours were about three hours inclusive. Just watched a Rick Steve's 1/2 hour on TV and felt I got more out of program than the cruise. The TV and radio ads grow in frequency and people are buying! My thought is that even the casual retired traveler wouldn't want to do the same thing twice? I'm feeling quite limited, and maybe would consider another company in France (not interested in a return to Russia/Ukraine, or the pollution of China).

 

Would appreciate any other reactions to my original post.

DJ:)

[paul929207]

We haven't been on Viking, but have done about 6 or 8 trips with Grand Circle including a cruise across Europe. While there are a few differences fro what was posted about Viking, all in all I would say they sound similar. Of course, some things are easy to compare between your experience and ours, like how many entrees for dinner. Others like the quality of those entrees are more difficult.

[land lover]

Gambling, people, Gambling there is no Gambling on most river cruises...

and pax...not many on a river cruise our largest 170 smallest 90.

The intimacy of a river cruise can't be beat.

 

......a comparison of dollar and cents but that is as far as I think it can go, I don't even think they are comparable, but I do think Wayne did a good job of breaking things down and a good job on food comparison. Food is not important to me, so I would not have included that and I always forget this is a make and break with so many people on vacation. However on river cruises there is alot more ethnic cusine, also local beers and wines..which I enjoy rather then the same old menus again, and again and again.....

 

I did my first Viking cruise to China in 2007...positive: hotel stay on both ends..cultural experience out weighs any ocean cruise. Next river cruise was Russia..again hotel stays on both sides then a Christmas Market cruise...River Cruising is just a total different experience for me.....

 

I still love land vacations BEST. For me Ocean Cruises are either transportation or entertainment depending on my selection of itinerary. River cruises are a cultural and educational experience. And land trips are discovery.......I still like discovery the best........but I also like gambling.....

 

so glad we have so many options......

Edited January 17, 2015 by land lover