We did the Grand European from Amsterdam to Budapest. It was perfect. They take total care of you. You meet wonderful people. Great ambiance. Several choices of activities at each port. It was wonderful and I am so happy we did it.
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Blueberries, that sounds amazing 
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The speaker at the Viking presentation said some of their core Rhine River tours are the most popular, especially for first timers on Viking. Our AAA agent was also there, and she said the Grand European Tour is fantastic if you can afford a 14 day itinerary. (Ha, actually not sure yet if we can afford 7day tour… the prices look a bit high in the brochure but I think in reality most times cost, incl air, is almost double that. Considering a 7 day, plus self-planned days in Amsterdam).
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We joke about Viking cruises every day, my parents went on one over 20 years ago, when they were alive their mail was forwarded to me (after my mom passed and my dad had Alzheimer’s). We get at least one Viking market almost daily. They did enjoy their cruise.
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We get a lot of Viking stuff in the mail too. I remember seeing the Viking commercials on PBS too.
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Oh yes, every Sunday night for me.
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Yep! Their trips do look neat, but they’re not really our style.
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Some friends did a five country cruise from Hungary to England (not sure what the itinerary was called) and the photos were AMAZING. They had a fantastic time. A European Viking cruise is definitely on my travel bucket list.
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I think that traditional cruises aren’t our style. RV’s aren’t our style. Sitting on the beach isn’t our style.
I’m being cranky but I don’t go on the beach vacation threads and say they aren’t my style.
I loved our Viking cruise. It’s our style. We aren’t old and we aren’t stodgy. Everyone doesn’t need to like everything.
I had someone say this to me in my real life. Maybe when I get too old to do such and such, maybe we will do a Viking cruise. I am younger than her. It just rubbed me the wrong way.
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As a novice to a trip like a Viking cruise I would have never known this bias. It’s kind of silly that we set stereotypes for trips!
Life is short and for most of us there is t unlimited $ to travel all the places we’d love to travel. Do the trip(s) you want and that appeal to you!!
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Agree–Viking is our style as well. There are about a hundred things about ocean cruises that would annoy the heck out of me (photographers, announcements every few minutes, lectures that are really sale spiels, paying for wifi, thousands of other passengers, etc). The low-key nature of VRC based on history, culture, education, is right up our alley.
On the ocean, it’s all about the ship, on a river, it’s all about the ports. If we were to book an ocean cruise, it would be with Viking—same model on the ocean as on rivers.
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Our desired vacation priorities are variable (though most years it is just hanging with family on Cape Cod).
We actually don’t mind the vibe of a traditional ocean cruise (or Mexican all-inclusive, detailed in a recent thread) . But not for every trip since we do like focus on history and culture. On our 2012 Western Med cruise, we found it hard to enjoy the ship amenities and get up early for shore excursions to places we wanted to see…. which often included lengthy bus rides. A few years later we took a Caribbean cruise to do more of the cruise thing. Our next trip back to Europe was self-touring with the kids (Rome AirBnB, Venice, Munich - train travel). And then a few years later a grand tour with two other couples - Barcelona apartment rental, 1 week together on a 3 bedroom houseboat on Canal Du Midi, 1 week in apartment in Paris).
In my mind, I was saving the Viking splurge until older and less able to do the more adventurous planning and exploring. But my husband is 7 years older than me (60), and our traveling friends are in their 70s. We all do love the idea of being on a river, close to the sightseeing.
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It’s an extremely active vacation. It’s not that leisurely. The stateroom are small, smaller than on an ocean cruise. But you are never in them.
Before we went, my husband and I walked 4 miles a day. I think because of that we were able to enjoy all of the walking and touring.
The river cruise we did was not long bus rides. It was no buses or short bus rides with a walking tour of the city. There are no ADA accommodations in Europe so no ramps or accessible bathrooms. The streets are often not smooth. They are not easy for those mobility impaired although Viking does offer a slower moving group. We were very happy we went at the ages we are.
What river cruises are not. No casino. One restaurant. You dine with others. Although there’s a bar and a festive atmosphere, the clientele is usually tired after an active day so not a ton of nightlife.
It’s not for everyone. It’s more for a person who wants a taste of the area. We did a trip to Europe on our own. It was nice but we enjoyed having guided tours and the low effort to find places we enjoyed. Instead of floundering a bit with an independent tour. We like seeing historical sites, places we haven’t been.
I think we would equate it with a Rick Steve’s guided tour. Although we haven’t done one, I investigated it. We had a specific time we wanted to vacation and I think the tours we wanted through Rick Steve’s weren’t offered or were sold out.
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There’s an equality on river cruises in that, with a single dining room, the couple in the deluxe suite could end up dining with the couple staying in the cheapest cabin.
And like @deb922 stated, you are only in your room to change your clothing or to sleep. For any scenic sailing you want to be on the top deck outside, or in the lounge with its floor-to-ceiling windows. Both riverbanks are always in view, and we were told during the safety drill that if the ship should sink, the keel would sit on the river bottom but the top decks would be above water–just wade to shore!!
Beer and wine included with lunch and dinner is just fine for us. We don’t miss the broadway-style shows as the excursions made us so tired, that after dinner we ended watching a bit of TV then conking out! The night they had a trio on board to play German music from various time periods, we stayed out until 10 PM!!
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Cruises aren’t our style, but a river cruise might be something we would do when we are a bit older and aren’t as mobile and don’t want to take care of stuff ourselves.
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If the cruise is port intensive, you are likely to walk more than you would on any land tours. Cruisers who have mobility issues won’t be able to see much of the towns. We did a lot of ocean cruises when the kids were young because everyone can be entertained one way or another and I usually lost weight, up to 5 lbs after a cruise(and I ate everything) because I did so much walking in ports. We don’t like the ones with many at sea days.
We are now retired and I can still do a lot of walking but not standing around so I’ve recently bought this ultra light-weight stool so I can rest my legs. It’s especially helpful for museums and waiting in lines.
https://a.co/d/dWFLmcl
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In my opinion, ocean cruise ships are more more “friendly” to the mobility impaired than are river longships. I’ve only been on one river cruise so far (Amsterdam to Budapest on Scenic) but I was surprised to learn that the longships often dock in parallel so if your ship is, for example, the 3rd one out, you have to walk across the other ships to reach the dock. This happened to us several times and can involve going up and down a flight of stairs on each ship as you hop from one to another.
If all the ships are from the same company and same class, each lobby perfectly lines up, so passing can be done on one level. However, when the brands and ship orientations vary, it’s not uncommon to climb the stairs to the sun deck, where all the ships match in height, in order to hop between.
It’s definitely a bit of a bizarre experience to walk through brand A’s lobby to get to brand B’s—like having to stroll through a Hyatt and/or Hilton to reach a Marriott.
https://www.travelpulse.com/news/cruise/the-curious-case-of-adjacent-riverboat-docking.html
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@candyl , what did I write that made you angry??? Hoping you just clicked on the wrong emoji???
I’ve definitely been guilty of picking wrong emoji on my finicky ipad. Not sure I always catch the mistake though.
Learning lots here - thanks for all the info!
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I’ve noticed that Viking seems expensive….AMA Waterways and Avalon not as much. I don’t know that Viking is actually better. Think that I would look at a number of comparable river cruises and not just focus on one company, I’d look for the deals.
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