Capitals of Eastern Europe - Viking River Cruise review

[Steerpike58]

Cruise date - Oct 2023, Bucharest to Vienna plus pre- and post-extensions. Ship - Viking Rinda. 

 

Summary - Not the experience we expected.

 

This was our first river cruise, chosen with Viking after a near-perfect experience on a Viking Ocean cruise last year. 

 

For us, the ship was clean and functional, and carried the same ‘signature’ look and feel of the ocean ship, which we liked – the Scandinavian ‘minimalist’ design, bright and cheery spaces.  We had a Veranda Stateroom on the 3^rd floor, which was adequate (though there were always insects on the balcony which discouraged us from ever using it or leaving the window open – the bugs easily found their way into the rooms – something we never experienced on the ocean). We are both skinny, and found the shower ‘tight’; I can’t imagine how some of the heavier-set people on the cruise could cope with the tiny shower!  The food was excellent every day – lovely selection of items at breakfast (lots of pastries, fresh fruit, hot items, great toast, and an adequate espresso machine, plus someone to prepare fresh eggs / omelets to order) and the lunches and dinners were perfect. We had fish most nights, and it was always perfectly prepared.  Portion sizes were ideal (not too big).  We did, however, miss the ‘self serve’ / buffet aspect of the Ocean ships; it was quite difficult, when presented with an enticing menu offering first course, main course, and dessert at both lunch and dinner, to limit one’s intake compared to visiting the ‘World Café’ on the Ocean ship and just grabbing a soup / salad or other snack. The desserts in the ‘world café’ were also perfectly sized (small) compared to a full-blown dessert serving from the menu.

 

There were a tremendous number of people coughing and sneezing from day 1 (getting progressively worse towards mid-cruise), and it was almost impossible to avoid them. People seemed quite content to sit in the crowded pre-dinner ‘port talks’ and at dinner coughing away, making no attempt to cover their mouths, nor leave the crowded spaces until their coughing fit passed. This was quite a shock, with Coronavirus being such a recent memory. We tried to sit away from others at meals, but that’s almost impossible on the Rinda – only two ‘tables for two’ exist on the entire ship (this was the biggest contrast with the Viking Ocean ships). I quickly succumbed to the bug, and tried very hard to not talk to others, but people seem determined to talk. We resorted to ‘reserving’ one of the two ‘tables for two’ in the Aquavit terrace most nights by leaving a coat on the chairs, but we were occasionally beaten to it by others with the same goal.

 

The tour director Leonard was an amazing character and certainly made the trip memorable. His personal experience in Romania was extremely educational.

 

Where the trip fell short for us was in the destinations and the excursions. Now, you can’t get blood out of a stone, and you can’t manufacture fairytale picturesque villages out of bombed-out, communist-era cities and towns, but some of the destinations along the way were completely uninspiring and positively grim (imagine a cruise that has Detroit on the itinerary, perhaps).  I grew up learning about the post-war period in eastern Europe, and had some understanding of the post-1989 ‘fall of communism’ situation, and the collapse of Yugoslavia, but this trip was certainly an eye-opener from that perspective, and one that I did thoroughly appreciate (but not the vacation I expected).  Seeing first hand those endless blocks of drab gray concrete apartment blocks everywhere (eg, Bucharest) was educational, and hearing about how things didn’t necessarily get better for people after the fall of communism (eg, Serbia) was also educational. But after two or three such towns/cities, it became quite repetitive and the few traditional ‘sights’ (an old fortress here, a church there) were not exactly dramatic.  I was quite shocked to see the after-effects of the 1999 NATO bombing of Belgrade and Novi Sad (Serbia), and the things we saw in Vukovar (Croatia) – 80% of the city was destroyed by Serbia in 1991 – were dramatic reminders of the horrors of war, and all too recent.  So this was more of a social history lesson than a traditional vacation. Not until we visited Pecs in Hungary (port of Mohacs) did we see what I’d call a classic European town with beautiful buildings and interesting streets to walk around.

 

I would note that the Danube is not like the Rhine. The Rhine is dotted with hillsides, castles, mansions, vinyards, etc for a good part of its length. The Danube, by contrast, is largely flat and featureless, with simple trees lining both sides for much of its length (the obvious exception was the ‘Iron Gate’, which is a gorgeous mountainous stretch, but that was just for one day). Also, the port-towns we called at were in many cases positively grim, and just served as boarding locations for the excursion busses; not really anywhere to walk around in your free time.  And when you do find yourself docked in a half-decent looking place, chances are your ship it double- or triple-docked with other ships, meaning you open your curtains and look into another ship’s cabins.

 

Due to low water levels on the Danube, we were unable to join the ship at the Black Sea (Constanta), resulting in an extra day in Bucharest. Bucharest is not a city you want to spend an extra day in (we’d already spent a few nights there as part of our ‘pre-cruise’ excursion to Transylvania).  We were given the option of a coach trip to Constanta, but that was a long coach ride and a short visit so we declined and took the rather mediocre excursion to see a ‘Romanian Villages’ exhibit in Bucharest. We joined the ship after a 3 hour coach ride at some obscure industrial docking point on the Danube (Turnu Magurele), crossed over to Nikopol (Bulgaria) and spent the first night on the ship there, at which point we were back on schedule for the itinerary.

 

The low water levels hit us again as we approached Budapest. At the port-talk the night before Budapest, we learned that we would not be able to dock in Budapest. The plans changed a few times over the next 24 hours or so, and ultimately we stopped short of Budapest in a port named ‘Kalocsa’. This was a complete non-entity of a port, just a place to dock the ship and load up coaches; nowhere to explore on land. There was talk of the rest of the journey to Vienna being by coach/hotels, as the ship could not pass Budapest. We were given an unplanned ‘included’ excursion to see some horses perform in a field.  This was moderately entertaining, though the food and drinks were pretty pathetic and watching horses perform circus tricks is not a good substitute for Budapest in my opinion. By lunch time we were back at the ship and there was nothing planned for the afternoon, and we spent another boring night in Kalocsa instead of Budapest. After first being told we would get two nights in a hotel in Budapest, we learned at the last minute that we would get only one night at a hotel in Budapest, then we would re-join the ship at Komarom (so the ship was ultimately allowed to sail THROUGH Budapest, empty, but was not allowed to dock).  So we had a long coach ride into Budapest, but instead of dropping us at the hotel immediately (where we were to have our one and only night in Budapest) they insisted on feeding us – all 180 guests – at some random location in Budapest. Getting 180 people (4 coaches) into and out of a restaurant, and feeding them a 3-course meal, takes quite a bit of time and includes a lot of waiting around. The meal was only ‘average’ and I would have much rather been let loose in Budapest to find a cosy lunch spot on our own.

 

We finally got to the hotel and then had the anticipated ‘panorama’ tour of Budapest, which was fine, and then a mediocre buffet style dinner at the hotel (not up to Viking standards, and again, I would have preferred to head out into the city and find a good restaurant on my own).  The next morning, our luggage had to be ready for pickup by 8am, and the coach departed at 2pm, so we had basically 6 hours to explore Budapest on our own, which is nowhere near long enough to explore what was clearly the best destination so far on our itinerary. We got a taxi to the ‘Fisherman’s Bastion’, which was stunning, then walked around that area, taking the Funicular down to the chain bridge, another taxi to the Grand Market where we had a fantastic lunch, and a taxi back to the hotel – absolutely the highlight of the ‘cruise’ so far, and terribly disappointing to not have had more time there. After rejoining the ship in Komarom (where we had our 4^th pack/unpack event, not what you expect on a cruise) we sailed straight into Vienna – missing the scheduled visit to Bratislava due to the day lost doing nothing in Kalocsa. They did offer a coach trip to Bratislava to make up for it, but that would have eaten into the 2 days in Vienna so we declined.  The Viking excursion to the Schonbrunn palace was OK, but nowhere near as delightful as our own visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Our guide to the Schonbrunn palace was perhaps the worst of the entire trip (overall, the guides were decent with a few outstanding guides).

 

The highlights of the ‘cruise’ for us were the pre-and post-cruise extensions – Transylvania at the start, and Prague at the end. Transylvania is really a hidden gem, reminiscent of the Alps, with castles and pretty villages all over (though with the ubiquitous communist era apartment blocks and disused factories here and there to remind you where you were). Great food, as long as you like pork!  Prague is by far the most wonderful city I’ve ever seen in Europe, and we spent most of the time on our own exploring.  Annoyingly, we left Vienna at around 10am but instead of going straight to Prague, we spent 2.5 hours in some little village along the way (Mikulov) and were given 90 minutes of free time (it was Sunday and most shops were closed, so we saw all there was to see in about 15 minutes, and killed time having a snack).  I really felt like they were running down the clock, avoiding taking us into Prague directly, perhaps due to hotel check-in requirements. The problem is, we hit Prague at rush hour, and spent forever inching our way through traffic. In Prague, we first got dropped off at the Hilton, where most people were staying, then we got a second coach to our hotel – the Augustine in Mala Strana (which was lovely, and in a fabulous location), and didn’t manage to get out and hit the streets of Prague until almost 6pm, which meant we lost precious time in this most beautiful city (we could have been there at 2pm if they had taken us directly). We took an optional Viking excursion in Prague called the  ‘Prague folklore dinner’. This involved a long coach ride (45 mins) out of Prague to some remote barn, where we ate mediocre food, drank almost undrinkable wine, and watched a small group of performers sing and dance for a while.  The singers were truly second-rate, and the instruments seemed out of tune.  For this, we paid $109 each.  On our own, we found first rate restaurants in Prague that served fantastic food for under $100 for two. Overall, Viking’s excursions that include food are definitely questionable. Viking themselves know how to serve 180 people with a great varied menu but the typical ‘excursion destination’ serves food that is entirely forgettable. 

 

I should probably note the average age and mobility level of the guests. We are 65/70 and felt like the youngest, most mobile people on the ship. There were several people who for various reasons could barely walk half a mile (some had walking sticks, some were overweight), but they all joined the included excursions every day.  Viking anticipated this and created an ‘L’ version of each excursion, with ‘L’ being for ‘Leisurely’.  The problem is, they initially assigned everyone to groups A, B, C, D on their ‘excursion ticket’, and only casually announced the existence of the ‘L’ option at the last minute, which people had to go out of their way to request/join. So every single day, our ‘A’ group had half a dozen people who really struggled to keep up (with the tour guide having to go back and ‘rescue’ them), while the ‘L’ group was basically empty.  I mentioned this to the tour director, and he said they have to be careful not to insult people by offering them the ‘L’ option …  but my observation was that people just weren’t aware of the option. They need to do a better job of communicating this option and encouraging it’s use. Don’t get me wrong - it’s wonderful to see older people getting out and seeing the world, and we know we’ll be in that state soon enough … but simply make more effort to announce the ‘Leisurely’ option.

 

So we had some great experiences, but I feel like a lot of the time (and money) was wasted on second-rate destinations and second rate entertainments.  The uncertainties with the water levels adds another challenge – a huge attraction of a cruise is that you don’t have to pack/unpack, so having to get on coaches and stay at hotels really puts a dent into the experience. We didn’t see the Black Sea (Constanta), we only had a half-day in Budapest, and we missed Slovenia altogether, and had to pack / unpack two days in a row. We know Viking aren’t in control of river levels, but the way they handled Budapest in particular was bad; we’d have preferred to stay on the ship but given that we had to get off, staying in a hotel for two nights rather than just one would have been much better. Budapest is just too fine a city to explore in 6 hours. 

 

For us, it’s back to Ocean cruising. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Thank you for this comprehensive report, but I must say that this was an odd choice for a first river cruise – absolutely not one that would be recommended by anyone on this forum, and especially unlikely for a first Viking River cruise as it is so different from their ubiquitous PBS commercials of a leisurely afternoon passing beautiful vineyards and castles while enjoying a glass of wine on the top deck.

[moodyb1]

Steerpike,

I take exception to your view of Detroit. Apparently,  you have never been there or haven't been there in a while. I was there with a tour group in September and was amazingly surprised how fantastic it was. Like any city, there are problems, but compared to my hometown of LA, I saw less graffiti,  very few homeless people on the streets,  cleaner streets. Every where we went, I felt safe. 

We also took two river cruises in the spring,  and like you, I  am returning to ocean cruising. 

[Canal archive]

I’ve been river cruising since 2011 and I know that others on these boards discovered it many years before we did, I really feel for those who’s first try has been this year, somehow or other we’ve missed low/high water levels etc. We’ve had indifferent tour guides but never a bad one mostly good to absolutely excellent. I sympathise with your dislike of the lack of self service but it’s a throwback/ ruling from covid which for river cruise vessels may still be in place. Yes this year we had a couple make a b-line for us with the dreaded cough and snivelling, unluckily I have a heart condition so it didn’t turn out well for me but they insisted that they had tested themselves and were free of Covid - yes but not the sniffles and snuffles. Bonus I could do the cruise for a third time after a few others. We’ve made acquaintances from around the world wonderful people we would never have met otherwise. Afternoon sitting up front with a glass delivered by a very pleasant young person to a group of, okay yes getting on or nearly getting on members of the Commonwealth with a few honorary members from below the border nothing better. I’d say give it another try and enjoy. 

[notamermaid]

Thank you for your detailed review and your many comments on Eastern Europe. I was fascinated by seeing what was for me the gateway to the former Communist area on my cruise - Budapest. We did a coach ride through the outskirts of the city. The contrast between what was and what they have done since was great, but seeing it five time over may be a bit much for me. I also saw it in Bratislava on the return sail in a different way.

 

I need to comment on Viking. The demographic you describe matches what people have mentioned here often. Since Viking has been so successful with their ocean ship venture we read here about more and more people coming from there to Viking river cruises. That is fine and works for many people but it is a different kind of holiday.

 

The combination of company and itinerary may not have been the best for you. There are so many choices out there, give it some time and perhaps you may consider looking at river cruising again.

 

Again, thank you for your great review.

 

notamermaid

 

[twototravel]

@Steerpike58 Thank you for your detailed review. Hubby and I are on the Rinda taking this same trip in Feb 2025. Viking would not be our first choice in Europe (we love Gate 1) but the itinerary of this trip is exactly what we were looking for. We will be going Vienna to Bucharest to include the post trip to Transylvania. Although the optional excursions for our trip are not available for booking yet, these are the ones we are considering - Schonbrunn Palace, Budapest Thermal Bath, Hungarian Folklore Dinner, Wines of So. Hungary, Town of Ilok and wine tasting, Belgrade Bohemian Quarter, Highlights of Sofia and No. Bulgaria, Wines of So. Romania, and Sights and Flavors of Bucharest. Any comments about these? 

We booked cabin 209 which is a veranda stateroom. 

 

Just a comment about dining room seating. I think the two person tables are disappearing from most all river cruiselines. While we do enjoy meeting our travelmates over a meal since we don't do the happy hours, our preference (if available) would be to go for the two seat tables. We took one of Vantage's last cruises and the sides of the dining room by the windows were all two person tables, which was wonderful. 

[Steerpike58]

10 hours ago, moodyb1 said:

Steerpike,

I take exception to your view of Detroit. Apparently,  you have never been there or haven't been there in a while. I was there with a tour group in September and was amazingly surprised how fantastic it was. Like any city, there are problems, but compared to my hometown of LA, I saw less graffiti,  very few homeless people on the streets,  cleaner streets. Every where we went, I felt safe. 

We also took two river cruises in the spring,  and like you, I  am returning to ocean cruising. 

I will stand corrected!  I was there, but many years ago.  I personally hail from the post-industrial northwest of England originally (birthplace of the industrial revolution), and I can say with certainty that it's still a dump there, but I doubt many people know the northwest of England so I used Detroit as something of a stereotypical location. 

[Steerpike58]

9 hours ago, Canal archive said:

... I sympathise with your dislike of the lack of self service but it’s a throwback/ ruling from covid which for river cruise vessels may still be in place. ...

Actually, they had a lovely self-serve breakfast setup in the main dining room, and self-service in aquavit at breakfast; I think the problem with self-serve at dinner is, they just don't have enough room to offer that as an option. I've always hated buffets but the World Cafe changed my opinion entirely! 

[Steerpike58]

5 hours ago, twototravel said:

... We will be going Vienna to Bucharest to include the post trip to Transylvania ... Although the optional excursions for our trip are not available for booking yet, these are the ones we are considering - Schonbrunn Palace, Budapest Thermal Bath, Hungarian Folklore Dinner, Wines of So. Hungary, Town of Ilok and wine tasting, Belgrade Bohemian Quarter, Highlights of Sofia and No. Bulgaria, Wines of So. Romania, and Sights and Flavors of Bucharest. Any comments about these? 

We booked cabin 209 which is a veranda stateroom. 

Schonbrunn Palace was OK, but you don't get to see much of it, and you can't take pictures.  We much preferred the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which we visited on our own, riding the metro from the ship and walking a few blocks. Even though it's a museum (with the feature being art and artifacts), the building itself is stunningly beautiful and far nicer to look at than the interior of Schonbrunn.  Plus the art and artifacts are really great, and it has a lovely cafe!  We didn't see the baths but I've heard they are interesting.

 

We didn't do the 'Hungarian Folklore Dinner', but we did do the 'Prague Folklore Dinner' as I mentioned in my review, and it was one of the worst excursions we've experienced (though many seemed to enjoy it). We aren't big wine buffs so wine tasting wasn't on our list. We did the 'Dine in Belgrade's Bohemian Quarter' excursion and it was OK - basically they take you to a lively pedestrian street in Belgrade full of restaurants, then take you into a 'back room' of one of the bigger restaurants and feed you food and entertain you with a few singers/musicians. Long rows of tables, no chance of any privacy.

 

We also did the 'sights and flavors of Bucharest'; for this one, a coach takes you to three different restaurants around town where you have essentially an appetizer at the first (plus beer - the place was a brew-pub), main course at the second, dessert at the third. This one gave you some insight into what looked like the local dining scene.

 

Overall, we are food-lovers, and tend to prefer a personal dining experience at a private table, where we can choose from a menu, rather than being part of a group of 50 seated at long tables and with a set menu. 

 

The Transylvania extension was great. The drive from Bucharest to Brasov is lovely - you pass through lovely mountain scenery with pretty villages. We stayed at the Radisson, a lovely hotel walking distance to the center. Brasov is nice to explore and we found a fabulous restaurant (Sergiana) close to the hotel where you dine underground, recommended by the guide. Great food! (pork, pork, pork!).  The palaces/castles are good, but the town of Sighisoara was the best - a lovely town to walk around and explore.  Totally different from Bucharest! 

 

5 hours ago, twototravel said:

 

Just a comment about dining room seating. I think the two person tables are disappearing from most all river cruiselines. While we do enjoy meeting our travelmates over a meal since we don't do the happy hours, our preference (if available) would be to go for the two seat tables. We took one of Vantage's last cruises and the sides of the dining room by the windows were all two person tables, which was wonderful. 

We shamefully grabbed the two-seaters in Aquavit most nights by leaving our coats on the chairs earlier. Once dinner starts, the lounge is virtually empty and I don't know why they don't allow people to sit at some of the tables in the lounge and eat.  My partner is very hard of hearing so socializing for her is a chore, so we much prefer a table to ourselves. 

[CastleCritic]

Always interesting to see peoples take on things.

 

Definitely wouldn't not have been my first choice for a river cruise especially if you want to see "old and beautiful" Europe.

 

Yes Transylvania is probably a huge highlight of that trip.  I was there in May with AMAwaterways and I really wish we had stayed in that Brasov Raddison they had us out at the Kronwell by the train station, a good enough hotel but it was a LONG way from downtown 

But having done cruises to that point in "old" Europe I thought it was a good change of pace.  Yes seeing an ex communist country that is doing its best to modernize (Romania...proably better mobile internet than even France or Germany, did you ever NOT have a connection, even in Carpathians), and one that still wants to be in the 80s (Serbia, our cruise director said she, like most Serbians considers herself Yugoslavian) puts things in perspective  And then yes you get to Vukovar and HOPE that youre looking at Ukraine in 15 years.

 

Budapest is great, Ive been there to end a cruise in 2019 and start this one and still haven't seen enough of it.  I think I could have done another day in Bucharest as well.  But possibly thats because we didnt get to do the thing we were supposed to, the Parliament building due to protests.

 

Sad that you got sick, I have ended up getting sick either the day we left (not covid) and the day after I got home (no idea) the last two river cruises.  It definitely happens.

It does sound like that cruise missed the one good castle that is right there on the Danube at the start of the iron gates

 

[Kristelle]

7 hours ago, twototravel said:

Although the optional excursions for our trip are not available for booking yet, these are the ones we are considering - Schonbrunn Palace, Budapest Thermal Bath, Hungarian Folklore Dinner, Wines of So. Hungary, Town of Ilok and wine tasting, Belgrade Bohemian Quarter, Highlights of Sofia and No. Bulgaria, Wines of So. Romania, and Sights and Flavors of Bucharest. Any comments about these? 

 

 

Not sure if this is an option for you, but I will give a plug for Hospital in the Rock in Budapest - guided tour through old caves converted into hospital during WW2 and beyond - wax models recreating scenes of its use over time.

 

Maybe not everyone's thing but I found it very interesting and a nice change from castles, cathedrals, city walks.

[UDChE89]

5 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

Always interesting to see peoples take on things.

 

Definitely wouldn't not have been my first choice for a river cruise especially if you want to see "old and beautiful" Europe.

 

Yes Transylvania is probably a huge highlight of that trip.  I was there in May with AMAwaterways and I really wish we had stayed in that Brasov Raddison they had us out at the Kronwell by the train station, a good enough hotel but it was a LONG way from downtown 

But having done cruises to that point in "old" Europe I thought it was a good change of pace.  Yes seeing an ex communist country that is doing its best to modernize (Romania...proably better mobile internet than even France or Germany, did you ever NOT have a connection, even in Carpathians), and one that still wants to be in the 80s (Serbia, our cruise director said she, like most Serbians considers herself Yugoslavian) puts things in perspective  And then yes you get to Vukovar and HOPE that youre looking at Ukraine in 15 years.

 

Budapest is great, Ive been there to end a cruise in 2019 and start this one and still haven't seen enough of it.  I think I could have done another day in Bucharest as well.  But possibly thats because we didnt get to do the thing we were supposed to, the Parliament building due to protests.

 

Sad that you got sick, I have ended up getting sick either the day we left (not covid) and the day after I got home (no idea) the last two river cruises.  It definitely happens.

It does sound like that cruise missed the one good castle that is right there on the Danube at the start of the iron gates

 

Golubac Fortress…. Stopped there on my Viva cruise after visiting Lepenski Vir.  It was blazing hot but the fortress was a sight to behold with a clear blue sky.

 

[Steerpike58]

5 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

Always interesting to see peoples take on things.

 

Definitely wouldn't not have been my first choice for a river cruise especially if you want to see "old and beautiful" Europe.

Lesson learned 🙂 It was our first river cruise, but we've been to Europe 'on land' many times, so we were looking for something different, and different it was!  If the river itself had been more scenic, that would have helped, I guess (again, excepting the Iron Gate, which was truly spectacular).  

5 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

Yes Transylvania is probably a huge highlight of that trip.  I was there in May with AMAwaterways and I really wish we had stayed in that Brasov Raddison they had us out at the Kronwell by the train station, a good enough hotel but it was a LONG way from downtown 

 

Actually, Prague was the biggest highlight, but Transylvania was a close second. Stepping out of the hotel and being close to downtown is really vital, in my view.  Viking moved us around a few times with our hotel, and we didn't seem to have any say in the matter, but we landed a good location in both cities (Radisson's in both cases). 

 

The Bucharest Marriott Grand Hotel was a super-fancy hotel, but not close to much so we were quite isolated. 

5 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

...  And then yes you get to Vukovar and HOPE that youre looking at Ukraine in 15 years.

That's a great way to look at it. 

 

5 hours ago, CastleCritic said:

...  I think I could have done another day in Bucharest as well.  But possibly thats because we didnt get to do the thing we were supposed to, the Parliament building due to protests.

...

 

Viking offered an excursion to the Parliament Building but we didn't sign up for it. I ended up going on my own and getting in without any reservation.  Online, I couldn't get a ticket. I called, and got nowhere. So I went in person (a long walk!), and at first was told there were no openings, but I hung around and soon, the guy behind the desk asked me ... 'do you have your passport?' - I did, and he said I could join the next tour. Apparently a lot of people with reservations show up without their passport so get rejected, creating last minute openings. No-one seems to care whether you get in or not - they're not big on customer service.  I will say that the Viking tour sounded longer - seemed to be a few hours long, compared to my 'public' tour, which was about an hour and quite limited. So maybe Viking got a custom tour compared to the public. Not a bad tour. The next day we also did our own visit to the Causescu residence.  I couldn't get a reservation on my own but one of the Viking guides showed me how to find an opening, somehow (side-note - the Causescu mansion outside and inside is featured in a recent movie called "Protege"). 

[RobInMN]

@UDChE89, what a beautiful day! When we were there, it was a bit overcast. But maybe a little nicer than when @CastleCritic was there.

 

12 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

Actually, Prague was the biggest highlight, but Transylvania was a close second.

Agree! We loved Prague! And while I was also not a fan of the Kromwell, The Brasov extension was worth it.

 

Speaking of Vukovar.

We visited in 2005. And here's a comparison to 2023:

 

My full trip review if you're interested:

 

[CastleCritic]

sigh...yes I strongly dislike you both for your better weather luck at Golubac considering how much I love castles, yes we did the entire tour in the rain, then it was just dismal and overcast until we left.

 

Later in the day was better though

 

 

 

Also yes Prague rocks, we were just outside old town at the cosmopolitan when I went in 2021.

 

Bucharest we were at the intercontinental right across from the art museum, it was a pretty good spot.

Edited November 15, 2023 by CastleCritic

[Roz]

@Steerpike58, sorry your first river cruise was so disappointing.  I did a Bucharest to Budapest cruise on Uniworld, and Eastern Europe is definitely different than Western Europe.  It's not the same as visiting Germany, France, Switzerland, etc.  You have to adjust your expectations.  50 years of Communist rule did them no favors.  They're still trying to catch up with the West.

 

I grew up in a large northern city with Croats, Slovaks, Serbs, Czechs, Poles, Hungarians, and other Eastern Europeans.  I would hear people talk about their families still there and how they could never visit them, and in some cases, didn't even know if they were still alive.  I assumed I would never get to see these fascinating, hidden countries.

 

You have to take things at face value and not compare Eastern Europe to other parts of Europe.  A half day in Budapest isn't nearly enough time and I'm sorry you didn't get to experience more of what it has to offer.  I've been there twice, both times on a river cruise. 

 

I think a Budapest to Passau itinerary would have offered you more of what you were looking for. 

[twototravel]

For our March 2025 trip Transylvania extension, our paperwork says we are in the Radisson Blu in Bucharest and the Kronwell in Brasov.

[CastleCritic]

The Kronwell isnt bad, its just...weird and a little outside of town and keep in mind I had walked PAST the Radisson at the time I wrote what I said and that factored into the tone....

 

I had a lot to say about it on my cruise thread at the bottom of the first page.

(for the most part you would think RobinMN and I were the same person on the same trip..we weren't we just came to similar conclusions weeks apart).

 

 

[Roz]

40 minutes ago, twototravel said:

For our March 2025 trip Transylvania extension, our paperwork says we are in the Radisson Blu in Bucharest and the Kronwell in Brasov.

 

Uniworld used the Radisson Blu in Bucharest.  Stayed there for 2 nights and really enjoyed it.  Fabulous breakfast buffet.  Where else can you get eggplant salad for breakfast?  

[Steerpike58]

On 11/16/2023 at 9:11 AM, twototravel said:

For our March 2025 trip Transylvania extension, our paperwork says we are in the Radisson Blu in Bucharest and the Kronwell in Brasov.

Looking at the map now, I would say Radisson Blu is a MUCH better location than the JW Marriott in Bucharest, if you are the type to want to go out walking on your own and explore.  For me, the second I get checked in, I want to go out and explore the surroundings, and every evening after dinner I like to walk for a while. The Marriott is on a massive road interchange, with nothing really to see other than the new cathedral being built and the ugly parliament building behind it. The Radisson seems to be in a bustling neighborhood of bars and restaurants, and about a 15 minute walk to 'old town'.  I would probably have formed a better opinion of Bucharest had I stayed there!  

 

However - when we booked our cruise a year before, we were also assigned to the Radisson Blu, but it changed later to the Marriott - so you never know.  Also, I THINK we initially got assigned to a different hotel in Brasov and only ended up at the Radisson Blu quite late in the process.   I don't know if Viking give you any say whatsoever in the choice; it would be fantastic if they did. I'd happily pay a premium to have a say in the matter.  Now, the room at the Marriott was awesome - big, comfortable, etc - but location is almost everything to me.  I guess they want everyone in one location so they can corral everyone for the excursions.  As an aside, the day we were to arrive at the Marriott, Zelenskyy was making a surprise visit to Romania and was staying at the Marriott. So our 'transfer' from the airport was not allowed to drop us at the hotel (massive security operation in progress) - we were dropped around the corner and had to haul our luggage on the street! We were wondering why there were police at every single intersection as we approached the hotel! His motorcade was pulling out just as we arrived! 

Edited November 17, 2023 by Steerpike58

[tobique33040]

17 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

Looking at the map now, I would say Radisson Blu is a MUCH better location than the JW Marriott in Bucharest, if you are the type to want to go out walking on your own and explore.  For me, the second I get checked in, I want to go out and explore the surroundings, and every evening after dinner I like to walk for a while. The Marriott is on a massive road interchange, with nothing really to see other than the new cathedral being built and the ugly parliament building behind it. The Radisson seems to be in a bustling neighborhood of bars and restaurants, and about a 15 minute walk to 'old town'.  I would probably have formed a better opinion of Bucharest had I stayed there!  

 

However - when we booked our cruise a year before, we were also assigned to the Radisson Blu, but it changed later to the Marriott - so you never know.  Also, I THINK we initially got assigned to a different hotel in Brasov and only ended up at the Radisson Blu quite late in the process.   I don't know if Viking give you any say whatsoever in the choice; it would be fantastic if they did. I'd happily pay a premium to have a say in the matter.  Now, the room at the Marriott was awesome - big, comfortable, etc - but location is almost everything to me.  I guess they want everyone in one location so they can corral everyone for the excursions.  As an aside, the day we were to arrive at the Marriott, Zelenskyy was making a surprise visit to Romania and was staying at the Marriott. So our 'transfer' from the airport was not allowed to drop us at the hotel (massive security operation in progress) - we were dropped around the corner and had to haul our luggage on the street! We were wondering why there were police at every single intersection as we approached the hotel! His motorcade was pulling out just as we arrived! 

I stayed at the JW Marriott last year and I walked up to the town. It was about a half hour walk. There’s a lovely big park on the way, where I stopped and sat on a bench for awhile. I visited the Stavropoleos Church, which was very interesting, and just got a feel of the town. The Peoples Salvation Cathedral, across from the hotel, was over the top in my opinion, but there were a ton of people visiting. Yes, the Marriott isn’t in the middle of town, but for me, the walk over was informative. And the hotel itself was great for me because I was traveling alone and there were several restaurants onsite so I felt more comfortable eating there. 

[JourneyJim]

On 11/13/2023 at 5:52 PM, Steerpike58 said:

Cruise date - Oct 2023, Bucharest to Vienna plus pre- and post-extensions. Ship - Viking Rinda. 

 

Summary - Not the experience we expected.

 

This was our first river cruise, chosen with Viking after a near-perfect experience on a Viking Ocean cruise last year. 

 

For us, the ship was clean and functional, and carried the same ‘signature’ look and feel of the ocean ship, which we liked – the Scandinavian ‘minimalist’ design, bright and cheery spaces.  We had a Veranda Stateroom on the 3^rd floor, which was adequate (though there were always insects on the balcony which discouraged us from ever using it or leaving the window open – the bugs easily found their way into the rooms – something we never experienced on the ocean). We are both skinny, and found the shower ‘tight’; I can’t imagine how some of the heavier-set people on the cruise could cope with the tiny shower!  The food was excellent every day – lovely selection of items at breakfast (lots of pastries, fresh fruit, hot items, great toast, and an adequate espresso machine, plus someone to prepare fresh eggs / omelets to order) and the lunches and dinners were perfect. We had fish most nights, and it was always perfectly prepared.  Portion sizes were ideal (not too big).  We did, however, miss the ‘self serve’ / buffet aspect of the Ocean ships; it was quite difficult, when presented with an enticing menu offering first course, main course, and dessert at both lunch and dinner, to limit one’s intake compared to visiting the ‘World Café’ on the Ocean ship and just grabbing a soup / salad or other snack. The desserts in the ‘world café’ were also perfectly sized (small) compared to a full-blown dessert serving from the menu.

 

There were a tremendous number of people coughing and sneezing from day 1 (getting progressively worse towards mid-cruise), and it was almost impossible to avoid them. People seemed quite content to sit in the crowded pre-dinner ‘port talks’ and at dinner coughing away, making no attempt to cover their mouths, nor leave the crowded spaces until their coughing fit passed. This was quite a shock, with Coronavirus being such a recent memory. We tried to sit away from others at meals, but that’s almost impossible on the Rinda – only two ‘tables for two’ exist on the entire ship (this was the biggest contrast with the Viking Ocean ships). I quickly succumbed to the bug, and tried very hard to not talk to others, but people seem determined to talk. We resorted to ‘reserving’ one of the two ‘tables for two’ in the Aquavit terrace most nights by leaving a coat on the chairs, but we were occasionally beaten to it by others with the same goal.

 

The tour director Leonard was an amazing character and certainly made the trip memorable. His personal experience in Romania was extremely educational.

 

Where the trip fell short for us was in the destinations and the excursions. Now, you can’t get blood out of a stone, and you can’t manufacture fairytale picturesque villages out of bombed-out, communist-era cities and towns, but some of the destinations along the way were completely uninspiring and positively grim (imagine a cruise that has Detroit on the itinerary, perhaps).  I grew up learning about the post-war period in eastern Europe, and had some understanding of the post-1989 ‘fall of communism’ situation, and the collapse of Yugoslavia, but this trip was certainly an eye-opener from that perspective, and one that I did thoroughly appreciate (but not the vacation I expected).  Seeing first hand those endless blocks of drab gray concrete apartment blocks everywhere (eg, Bucharest) was educational, and hearing about how things didn’t necessarily get better for people after the fall of communism (eg, Serbia) was also educational. But after two or three such towns/cities, it became quite repetitive and the few traditional ‘sights’ (an old fortress here, a church there) were not exactly dramatic.  I was quite shocked to see the after-effects of the 1999 NATO bombing of Belgrade and Novi Sad (Serbia), and the things we saw in Vukovar (Croatia) – 80% of the city was destroyed by Serbia in 1991 – were dramatic reminders of the horrors of war, and all too recent.  So this was more of a social history lesson than a traditional vacation. Not until we visited Pecs in Hungary (port of Mohacs) did we see what I’d call a classic European town with beautiful buildings and interesting streets to walk around.

 

I would note that the Danube is not like the Rhine. The Rhine is dotted with hillsides, castles, mansions, vinyards, etc for a good part of its length. The Danube, by contrast, is largely flat and featureless, with simple trees lining both sides for much of its length (the obvious exception was the ‘Iron Gate’, which is a gorgeous mountainous stretch, but that was just for one day). Also, the port-towns we called at were in many cases positively grim, and just served as boarding locations for the excursion busses; not really anywhere to walk around in your free time.  And when you do find yourself docked in a half-decent looking place, chances are your ship it double- or triple-docked with other ships, meaning you open your curtains and look into another ship’s cabins.

 

Due to low water levels on the Danube, we were unable to join the ship at the Black Sea (Constanta), resulting in an extra day in Bucharest. Bucharest is not a city you want to spend an extra day in (we’d already spent a few nights there as part of our ‘pre-cruise’ excursion to Transylvania).  We were given the option of a coach trip to Constanta, but that was a long coach ride and a short visit so we declined and took the rather mediocre excursion to see a ‘Romanian Villages’ exhibit in Bucharest. We joined the ship after a 3 hour coach ride at some obscure industrial docking point on the Danube (Turnu Magurele), crossed over to Nikopol (Bulgaria) and spent the first night on the ship there, at which point we were back on schedule for the itinerary.

 

The low water levels hit us again as we approached Budapest. At the port-talk the night before Budapest, we learned that we would not be able to dock in Budapest. The plans changed a few times over the next 24 hours or so, and ultimately we stopped short of Budapest in a port named ‘Kalocsa’. This was a complete non-entity of a port, just a place to dock the ship and load up coaches; nowhere to explore on land. There was talk of the rest of the journey to Vienna being by coach/hotels, as the ship could not pass Budapest. We were given an unplanned ‘included’ excursion to see some horses perform in a field.  This was moderately entertaining, though the food and drinks were pretty pathetic and watching horses perform circus tricks is not a good substitute for Budapest in my opinion. By lunch time we were back at the ship and there was nothing planned for the afternoon, and we spent another boring night in Kalocsa instead of Budapest. After first being told we would get two nights in a hotel in Budapest, we learned at the last minute that we would get only one night at a hotel in Budapest, then we would re-join the ship at Komarom (so the ship was ultimately allowed to sail THROUGH Budapest, empty, but was not allowed to dock).  So we had a long coach ride into Budapest, but instead of dropping us at the hotel immediately (where we were to have our one and only night in Budapest) they insisted on feeding us – all 180 guests – at some random location in Budapest. Getting 180 people (4 coaches) into and out of a restaurant, and feeding them a 3-course meal, takes quite a bit of time and includes a lot of waiting around. The meal was only ‘average’ and I would have much rather been let loose in Budapest to find a cosy lunch spot on our own.

 

We finally got to the hotel and then had the anticipated ‘panorama’ tour of Budapest, which was fine, and then a mediocre buffet style dinner at the hotel (not up to Viking standards, and again, I would have preferred to head out into the city and find a good restaurant on my own).  The next morning, our luggage had to be ready for pickup by 8am, and the coach departed at 2pm, so we had basically 6 hours to explore Budapest on our own, which is nowhere near long enough to explore what was clearly the best destination so far on our itinerary. We got a taxi to the ‘Fisherman’s Bastion’, which was stunning, then walked around that area, taking the Funicular down to the chain bridge, another taxi to the Grand Market where we had a fantastic lunch, and a taxi back to the hotel – absolutely the highlight of the ‘cruise’ so far, and terribly disappointing to not have had more time there. After rejoining the ship in Komarom (where we had our 4^th pack/unpack event, not what you expect on a cruise) we sailed straight into Vienna – missing the scheduled visit to Bratislava due to the day lost doing nothing in Kalocsa. They did offer a coach trip to Bratislava to make up for it, but that would have eaten into the 2 days in Vienna so we declined.  The Viking excursion to the Schonbrunn palace was OK, but nowhere near as delightful as our own visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Our guide to the Schonbrunn palace was perhaps the worst of the entire trip (overall, the guides were decent with a few outstanding guides).

 

The highlights of the ‘cruise’ for us were the pre-and post-cruise extensions – Transylvania at the start, and Prague at the end. Transylvania is really a hidden gem, reminiscent of the Alps, with castles and pretty villages all over (though with the ubiquitous communist era apartment blocks and disused factories here and there to remind you where you were). Great food, as long as you like pork!  Prague is by far the most wonderful city I’ve ever seen in Europe, and we spent most of the time on our own exploring.  Annoyingly, we left Vienna at around 10am but instead of going straight to Prague, we spent 2.5 hours in some little village along the way (Mikulov) and were given 90 minutes of free time (it was Sunday and most shops were closed, so we saw all there was to see in about 15 minutes, and killed time having a snack).  I really felt like they were running down the clock, avoiding taking us into Prague directly, perhaps due to hotel check-in requirements. The problem is, we hit Prague at rush hour, and spent forever inching our way through traffic. In Prague, we first got dropped off at the Hilton, where most people were staying, then we got a second coach to our hotel – the Augustine in Mala Strana (which was lovely, and in a fabulous location), and didn’t manage to get out and hit the streets of Prague until almost 6pm, which meant we lost precious time in this most beautiful city (we could have been there at 2pm if they had taken us directly). We took an optional Viking excursion in Prague called the  ‘Prague folklore dinner’. This involved a long coach ride (45 mins) out of Prague to some remote barn, where we ate mediocre food, drank almost undrinkable wine, and watched a small group of performers sing and dance for a while.  The singers were truly second-rate, and the instruments seemed out of tune.  For this, we paid $109 each.  On our own, we found first rate restaurants in Prague that served fantastic food for under $100 for two. Overall, Viking’s excursions that include food are definitely questionable. Viking themselves know how to serve 180 people with a great varied menu but the typical ‘excursion destination’ serves food that is entirely forgettable. 

 

I should probably note the average age and mobility level of the guests. We are 65/70 and felt like the youngest, most mobile people on the ship. There were several people who for various reasons could barely walk half a mile (some had walking sticks, some were overweight), but they all joined the included excursions every day.  Viking anticipated this and created an ‘L’ version of each excursion, with ‘L’ being for ‘Leisurely’.  The problem is, they initially assigned everyone to groups A, B, C, D on their ‘excursion ticket’, and only casually announced the existence of the ‘L’ option at the last minute, which people had to go out of their way to request/join. So every single day, our ‘A’ group had half a dozen people who really struggled to keep up (with the tour guide having to go back and ‘rescue’ them), while the ‘L’ group was basically empty.  I mentioned this to the tour director, and he said they have to be careful not to insult people by offering them the ‘L’ option …  but my observation was that people just weren’t aware of the option. They need to do a better job of communicating this option and encouraging it’s use. Don’t get me wrong - it’s wonderful to see older people getting out and seeing the world, and we know we’ll be in that state soon enough … but simply make more effort to announce the ‘Leisurely’ option.

 

So we had some great experiences, but I feel like a lot of the time (and money) was wasted on second-rate destinations and second rate entertainments.  The uncertainties with the water levels adds another challenge – a huge attraction of a cruise is that you don’t have to pack/unpack, so having to get on coaches and stay at hotels really puts a dent into the experience. We didn’t see the Black Sea (Constanta), we only had a half-day in Budapest, and we missed Slovenia altogether, and had to pack / unpack two days in a row. We know Viking aren’t in control of river levels, but the way they handled Budapest in particular was bad; we’d have preferred to stay on the ship but given that we had to get off, staying in a hotel for two nights rather than just one would have been much better. Budapest is just too fine a city to explore in 6 hours. 

 

For us, it’s back to Ocean cruising. 

Thanks, @Steerpike58, for this detailed report! I'm thinking of going on this river cruise, but I'm also considering going on a trip to the Czech Republic only. You seem to really like Prague, and it seems there wasn't enough time to enjoy Prague during the river cruise. I was also reading up on Prague, and it seems like there is so much to see https://gowithguide.com/blog/tourism-in-czech-republic-statistics-2023-the-ultimate-guide-5565 😮 however, seeing a ton doesn’t always mean it’s a good thing. 😅 I wish to see Prague’s highlights at a relaxed pace, not just ticking off what’s already included on the tour. I know you already mentioned you’ll go back to ocean cruising, but if given the chance, would you go on a trip to Prague only?

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, JourneyJim said:

it seems there wasn't enough time to enjoy Prague during the river cruise

There is never enough time to see Prague during a river cruise, since it's only a gateway city.  But you are free to add as many days in Prague on your own pre-cruise (or post- as the case may be).  Same deal with Budapest on the other end.  The tricky one is Vienna, since it tends to be in the middle of cruises – unless you loop back from Budapest before flying home.

[ural guy]

12 hours ago, JourneyJim said:

Thanks, @Steerpike58, for this detailed report! I'm thinking of going on this river cruise, but I'm also considering going on a trip to the Czech Republic only. 

We did 9 days precruise in Czech Republic last November, highly recommend.

 

We spent 3 nights in Karlovy Vary, a beautiful old spa town, then 3 nights Pilsen and 3 nights Prague.  A nice triangle using a train/bus/airport transfer.  Plenty on Youtube about all three.

 

Bucharest:  Vantage put us up at the JW Marriot.  As other pointed out, it's a walk to the 'downtown'.  The old part being very small, as so much was destroyed for the Parliament and just because.

BUT, what a neat, huge hotel.  All the rich shops, weddings going on with people all dressed up.  Our CD was from Bucharest so it was nice hearing of what all the parties were.  

 

We later took the train to Brasov, and the Bucharest train station was the only place we felt creeped out.  That was in 2016, no idea of now.

[wtgraves]

On 11/13/2023 at 7:52 PM, Steerpike58 said:

Cruise date - Oct 2023, Bucharest to Vienna plus pre- and post-extensions. Ship - Viking Rinda. 

 

Summary - Not the experience we expected.

 

This was our first river cruise, chosen with Viking after a near-perfect experience on a Viking Ocean cruise last year. 

 

For us, the ship was clean and functional, and carried the same ‘signature’ look and feel of the ocean ship, which we liked – the Scandinavian ‘minimalist’ design, bright and cheery spaces.  We had a Veranda Stateroom on the 3^rd floor, which was adequate (though there were always insects on the balcony which discouraged us from ever using it or leaving the window open – the bugs easily found their way into the rooms – something we never experienced on the ocean). We are both skinny, and found the shower ‘tight’; I can’t imagine how some of the heavier-set people on the cruise could cope with the tiny shower!  The food was excellent every day – lovely selection of items at breakfast (lots of pastries, fresh fruit, hot items, great toast, and an adequate espresso machine, plus someone to prepare fresh eggs / omelets to order) and the lunches and dinners were perfect. We had fish most nights, and it was always perfectly prepared.  Portion sizes were ideal (not too big).  We did, however, miss the ‘self serve’ / buffet aspect of the Ocean ships; it was quite difficult, when presented with an enticing menu offering first course, main course, and dessert at both lunch and dinner, to limit one’s intake compared to visiting the ‘World Café’ on the Ocean ship and just grabbing a soup / salad or other snack. The desserts in the ‘world café’ were also perfectly sized (small) compared to a full-blown dessert serving from the menu.

 

There were a tremendous number of people coughing and sneezing from day 1 (getting progressively worse towards mid-cruise), and it was almost impossible to avoid them. People seemed quite content to sit in the crowded pre-dinner ‘port talks’ and at dinner coughing away, making no attempt to cover their mouths, nor leave the crowded spaces until their coughing fit passed. This was quite a shock, with Coronavirus being such a recent memory. We tried to sit away from others at meals, but that’s almost impossible on the Rinda – only two ‘tables for two’ exist on the entire ship (this was the biggest contrast with the Viking Ocean ships). I quickly succumbed to the bug, and tried very hard to not talk to others, but people seem determined to talk. We resorted to ‘reserving’ one of the two ‘tables for two’ in the Aquavit terrace most nights by leaving a coat on the chairs, but we were occasionally beaten to it by others with the same goal.

 

The tour director Leonard was an amazing character and certainly made the trip memorable. His personal experience in Romania was extremely educational.

 

Where the trip fell short for us was in the destinations and the excursions. Now, you can’t get blood out of a stone, and you can’t manufacture fairytale picturesque villages out of bombed-out, communist-era cities and towns, but some of the destinations along the way were completely uninspiring and positively grim (imagine a cruise that has Detroit on the itinerary, perhaps).  I grew up learning about the post-war period in eastern Europe, and had some understanding of the post-1989 ‘fall of communism’ situation, and the collapse of Yugoslavia, but this trip was certainly an eye-opener from that perspective, and one that I did thoroughly appreciate (but not the vacation I expected).  Seeing first hand those endless blocks of drab gray concrete apartment blocks everywhere (eg, Bucharest) was educational, and hearing about how things didn’t necessarily get better for people after the fall of communism (eg, Serbia) was also educational. But after two or three such towns/cities, it became quite repetitive and the few traditional ‘sights’ (an old fortress here, a church there) were not exactly dramatic.  I was quite shocked to see the after-effects of the 1999 NATO bombing of Belgrade and Novi Sad (Serbia), and the things we saw in Vukovar (Croatia) – 80% of the city was destroyed by Serbia in 1991 – were dramatic reminders of the horrors of war, and all too recent.  So this was more of a social history lesson than a traditional vacation. Not until we visited Pecs in Hungary (port of Mohacs) did we see what I’d call a classic European town with beautiful buildings and interesting streets to walk around.

 

I would note that the Danube is not like the Rhine. The Rhine is dotted with hillsides, castles, mansions, vinyards, etc for a good part of its length. The Danube, by contrast, is largely flat and featureless, with simple trees lining both sides for much of its length (the obvious exception was the ‘Iron Gate’, which is a gorgeous mountainous stretch, but that was just for one day). Also, the port-towns we called at were in many cases positively grim, and just served as boarding locations for the excursion busses; not really anywhere to walk around in your free time.  And when you do find yourself docked in a half-decent looking place, chances are your ship it double- or triple-docked with other ships, meaning you open your curtains and look into another ship’s cabins.

 

Due to low water levels on the Danube, we were unable to join the ship at the Black Sea (Constanta), resulting in an extra day in Bucharest. Bucharest is not a city you want to spend an extra day in (we’d already spent a few nights there as part of our ‘pre-cruise’ excursion to Transylvania).  We were given the option of a coach trip to Constanta, but that was a long coach ride and a short visit so we declined and took the rather mediocre excursion to see a ‘Romanian Villages’ exhibit in Bucharest. We joined the ship after a 3 hour coach ride at some obscure industrial docking point on the Danube (Turnu Magurele), crossed over to Nikopol (Bulgaria) and spent the first night on the ship there, at which point we were back on schedule for the itinerary.

 

The low water levels hit us again as we approached Budapest. At the port-talk the night before Budapest, we learned that we would not be able to dock in Budapest. The plans changed a few times over the next 24 hours or so, and ultimately we stopped short of Budapest in a port named ‘Kalocsa’. This was a complete non-entity of a port, just a place to dock the ship and load up coaches; nowhere to explore on land. There was talk of the rest of the journey to Vienna being by coach/hotels, as the ship could not pass Budapest. We were given an unplanned ‘included’ excursion to see some horses perform in a field.  This was moderately entertaining, though the food and drinks were pretty pathetic and watching horses perform circus tricks is not a good substitute for Budapest in my opinion. By lunch time we were back at the ship and there was nothing planned for the afternoon, and we spent another boring night in Kalocsa instead of Budapest. After first being told we would get two nights in a hotel in Budapest, we learned at the last minute that we would get only one night at a hotel in Budapest, then we would re-join the ship at Komarom (so the ship was ultimately allowed to sail THROUGH Budapest, empty, but was not allowed to dock).  So we had a long coach ride into Budapest, but instead of dropping us at the hotel immediately (where we were to have our one and only night in Budapest) they insisted on feeding us – all 180 guests – at some random location in Budapest. Getting 180 people (4 coaches) into and out of a restaurant, and feeding them a 3-course meal, takes quite a bit of time and includes a lot of waiting around. The meal was only ‘average’ and I would have much rather been let loose in Budapest to find a cosy lunch spot on our own.

 

We finally got to the hotel and then had the anticipated ‘panorama’ tour of Budapest, which was fine, and then a mediocre buffet style dinner at the hotel (not up to Viking standards, and again, I would have preferred to head out into the city and find a good restaurant on my own).  The next morning, our luggage had to be ready for pickup by 8am, and the coach departed at 2pm, so we had basically 6 hours to explore Budapest on our own, which is nowhere near long enough to explore what was clearly the best destination so far on our itinerary. We got a taxi to the ‘Fisherman’s Bastion’, which was stunning, then walked around that area, taking the Funicular down to the chain bridge, another taxi to the Grand Market where we had a fantastic lunch, and a taxi back to the hotel – absolutely the highlight of the ‘cruise’ so far, and terribly disappointing to not have had more time there. After rejoining the ship in Komarom (where we had our 4^th pack/unpack event, not what you expect on a cruise) we sailed straight into Vienna – missing the scheduled visit to Bratislava due to the day lost doing nothing in Kalocsa. They did offer a coach trip to Bratislava to make up for it, but that would have eaten into the 2 days in Vienna so we declined.  The Viking excursion to the Schonbrunn palace was OK, but nowhere near as delightful as our own visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. Our guide to the Schonbrunn palace was perhaps the worst of the entire trip (overall, the guides were decent with a few outstanding guides).

 

The highlights of the ‘cruise’ for us were the pre-and post-cruise extensions – Transylvania at the start, and Prague at the end. Transylvania is really a hidden gem, reminiscent of the Alps, with castles and pretty villages all over (though with the ubiquitous communist era apartment blocks and disused factories here and there to remind you where you were). Great food, as long as you like pork!  Prague is by far the most wonderful city I’ve ever seen in Europe, and we spent most of the time on our own exploring.  Annoyingly, we left Vienna at around 10am but instead of going straight to Prague, we spent 2.5 hours in some little village along the way (Mikulov) and were given 90 minutes of free time (it was Sunday and most shops were closed, so we saw all there was to see in about 15 minutes, and killed time having a snack).  I really felt like they were running down the clock, avoiding taking us into Prague directly, perhaps due to hotel check-in requirements. The problem is, we hit Prague at rush hour, and spent forever inching our way through traffic. In Prague, we first got dropped off at the Hilton, where most people were staying, then we got a second coach to our hotel – the Augustine in Mala Strana (which was lovely, and in a fabulous location), and didn’t manage to get out and hit the streets of Prague until almost 6pm, which meant we lost precious time in this most beautiful city (we could have been there at 2pm if they had taken us directly). We took an optional Viking excursion in Prague called the  ‘Prague folklore dinner’. This involved a long coach ride (45 mins) out of Prague to some remote barn, where we ate mediocre food, drank almost undrinkable wine, and watched a small group of performers sing and dance for a while.  The singers were truly second-rate, and the instruments seemed out of tune.  For this, we paid $109 each.  On our own, we found first rate restaurants in Prague that served fantastic food for under $100 for two. Overall, Viking’s excursions that include food are definitely questionable. Viking themselves know how to serve 180 people with a great varied menu but the typical ‘excursion destination’ serves food that is entirely forgettable. 

 

I should probably note the average age and mobility level of the guests. We are 65/70 and felt like the youngest, most mobile people on the ship. There were several people who for various reasons could barely walk half a mile (some had walking sticks, some were overweight), but they all joined the included excursions every day.  Viking anticipated this and created an ‘L’ version of each excursion, with ‘L’ being for ‘Leisurely’.  The problem is, they initially assigned everyone to groups A, B, C, D on their ‘excursion ticket’, and only casually announced the existence of the ‘L’ option at the last minute, which people had to go out of their way to request/join. So every single day, our ‘A’ group had half a dozen people who really struggled to keep up (with the tour guide having to go back and ‘rescue’ them), while the ‘L’ group was basically empty.  I mentioned this to the tour director, and he said they have to be careful not to insult people by offering them the ‘L’ option …  but my observation was that people just weren’t aware of the option. They need to do a better job of communicating this option and encouraging it’s use. Don’t get me wrong - it’s wonderful to see older people getting out and seeing the world, and we know we’ll be in that state soon enough … but simply make more effort to announce the ‘Leisurely’ option.

 

So we had some great experiences, but I feel like a lot of the time (and money) was wasted on second-rate destinations and second rate entertainments.  The uncertainties with the water levels adds another challenge – a huge attraction of a cruise is that you don’t have to pack/unpack, so having to get on coaches and stay at hotels really puts a dent into the experience. We didn’t see the Black Sea (Constanta), we only had a half-day in Budapest, and we missed Slovenia altogether, and had to pack / unpack two days in a row. We know Viking aren’t in control of river levels, but the way they handled Budapest in particular was bad; we’d have preferred to stay on the ship but given that we had to get off, staying in a hotel for two nights rather than just one would have been much better. Budapest is just too fine a city to explore in 6 hours. 

 

For us, it’s back to Ocean cruising. 

We can't tell you how much we appreciate you taking the time to write this excellent review. We took our first Viking river cruise in October, the Rhine, and though we enjoyed the entire trip (we spent time in Lake Como, Lucerne, and Amsterdam) we felt the river cruise itself was definitely lacking. We found the room (especially the bathroom) to be very small.  Even on that itinerary, some of the ports were uninspiring and we had to spend a lot of money to book our own guides to take us to more interesting cities that were nearby.

We've had the Eastern Capitals cruise booked for 2025 but have decided that it really isn't one we're interested in taking. The eastern bloc countries do provide a good history lesson but a day or two of that would be enough.  Your description of the Viking demographic is spot on (the L group!!). The only other river cruise we've taken was Gate 1 (Prague to Budapest) and it was quite good and the demographic was definitely younger. 

We returned from our Rhine cruise and said, just as you did, we think we need to stick to ocean cruising. We double booked ourselves with this Eastern Capitals cruise and then, just a week later, an Oceania cruise around South America. Your review makes our decision so, so much easier. Thanks so very much!