June 24, 2025. Would you pay $9000 per person for 14 day Grand European river cruise Amsterdam to Budapest? We paid for a 205 sq ft full balcony Veranda 9 months before departure. $7000 for a 150 sq ft standard room with only a foot wide window across the ceiling. $8000 for a 135 sq ft french balcony room with a railing to look out the floor to ceiling window. Other river cruise companies like Overseas Adventures have discounts closer to departure time. But the choice of rooms becomes more limited, and the price of airfare goes up. Flew United airlines business class from San Francisco to Amsterdam, at $2000 apiece, roughly half the fare if we had purchased it 2 month in advance. Seamless transfer by Viking from airport to cruise ship. Our river cruise was open to board noon of the first day, with rooms available in the early afternoon. Brought 30 five dollar bills for tipping drivers and tour guides for the next 7 days. And you will need coins in Euros or florins for bathrooms on shore. Packed quick drying clothes. Stretch a provided plastic clothes line with clothes pins in the bathroom for drying. Queen size bed, with space for sitting chair next to the floor to ceiling window with sliding door. Mini fridge with electronic safe and drawers for folding clothes, and closet for hanging clothes. No microwave oven. Standard rooms, French balcony rooms and Veranda rooms with full balconies have the same cramped bathroom design with shower. Shower panes fold inside or outside, so there's elbow room on the toilet. Housekeeping comes at 7am and 6pm to change towels and vacuum the unit. We sailed during the heat wave of 2025, and used the balcony when sailing late afternoons into the night. Our cabin faced the starboard side, and was usually anchored next to shore. Often when anchoring for the day the ship will be side by side to other cruise ships, with a balcony view of the other ship's quarters. Once I got on the wrong boat as had to remember the name of the other boats if crossing over to your boat, as your boat would not be visible from shore. No kids, no casinos, on Viking river and ocean cruise ships. Only Viking ocean cruise ships have pools, laundry facilities and exercise rooms. Daytime excursions in the morning, as early as 8am. Fees $90 to $1000 for optional excursions. Viking provides luxury coaches to bus you from the dock to the town centers, picking up to return to the boat. Once, the bus had to turn back and pick up a couple who missed the pickup. Dining room can hold 140 people, and sun deck or lounge 100 people. At the Rhine Gorge all 100 of those chairs were occupied with people looking at the 24 castles going by. Buffet breakfast, and three choices of lunch and dinner served in the dining room at set times. Unlimited wine, beer, soft drinks and orange, apple, grapefruit, tomato juices. Drinks served in the bar at the lounge are at user's expense. Evening music and other entertainment shown in the lounge part of cruise price. Many drinkers paid in advance the $27 per day silver spirits drink package, or $400 for the entire 15 day trip. Cruise price does not include gratuity to the crew, nor to the tour guides and bus drivers. Suggested tip is 20 euros per person per day. 560 euros for the two of us, or $650 in tips. There is a 140 meter oval walking track on the sun deck. I did some running on it, until passengers downstairs complained of heavy footfalls shaking their ceilings. Three consecutive days when the sun deck was closed due to innumerable low bridges The temperatures were so hot that the river levels were too low for passage on the water. At Nuremberg we had to pack and transfer from one boat, and take a 3 hour bus trip on the autobahn to another boat at Passau. At least one couple overslept and missed the bus. 600 euro taxi fare, but in the interests of PR Viking paid the tab. In each year 2024, 2025,2026 I got one cold. Every time on Viking river cruises. The seniors and communal dining and lounging, and bus rides in close quarters meant colds were common and spread quickly. Crew members mainly in their 20s had stronger immune systems to ward off colds. Low waters meant we had to anchor two days 90 minutes bus trip outside of Budapest. At the last moment we were able to dock in Budapest, arriving after midnight, the day of departure to the airport. I got up at 3am to take pictures of lights of Budapest at night from our prime anchoring spot,as daylight by 430am. On the last day, Viking had buses take passengers, who flew with Viking arranged flights, to the airport, starting at 4am. Others left their luggage out before 8am to be loaded onto taxis for later flights. 9am all room card keys expire, although some stayed for lunch. Public restrooms on third floor outside of the lounge became the most popular rooms after 9am. read more

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Fifteen day Viking River Cruise. You pay for a suite with a balcony but don't know there will be a boat moored on both sides of you. Your view is the boat beside of yours much of the time. The dining room with low ceilings and a boat moored on both sides feels like a dungeon. They know the river is too low for passage but don't tell you until it's time to be bused around the low water to another boat. One of the selling points of cruising is not packing/unpacking but that's what we did. So we are on the new boat and during a heat wave, our air conditioner isn't working. Our whole floor. Our last two cruises were on Oceania and Regent. We had suites on both that were far superior to Viking. I keep flipping between two and three stars so I'll stay at three but it's a weak three. One of the buses they used today didn't have a working air conditioner. I understand things happen but a world class company has to stay on top of maintenance in an attempt to keep calamities from happening. It's June. If they are having these mechanical issues this early, August may be tough. Perhaps the solution is less river time and more maintenance. And demand better service from the buses you charter. Throwing up your hands and saying we can't help it is poor customer service. I also haven't been impressed with the excursions. Most of our European trips have been land based and the quality of the tours were stronger with entrance passes and expert tour guide to the Sistine Chapel for example. Here they show you the exterior and then give you free time to buy your pass and visit. And the day is very structured. Food is only available at set meal times. Far too regimented for my taste. But everybody loves Viking so I expect the problem is me. One last thing. For lunch. I ordered the salad and asked the waiter to leave off the meat. And to replace it with a plant based patty which they have. I asked the waiter if he understood and he assured me he did. He didn't. My food was delivered a long time after the others at my table. No patty. I'm a vegetarian and have been disappointed with my protein options overall. Oceania and Regent had much better food options. Heck, the Norwegian Epic was far superior. In conclusion, European land based tours fit me better than Viking River Cruises and Oceania and Regent fit me better on the water. Cost wise, Viking is a very expensive option especially the suite package. I don't think the level of service and mechanical integrity warrants the cost. But now I know. Life is a learning experience. It's hot! Day 2 without air conditioning. Rating down to two stars and dropping quickly. 102 degrees F. It's hot ladies and gentlemen. But that isn't the ships mission. Getting to Amsterdam to pick up another load of travelers is job one. Ice machines are empty. Logic would dictate docking and getting a team to fix the problem but that goes against job one - the next cruise. We are merely collateral damage as surely after this voyage aboard the Vili, Viking knows we won't be making this mistake again. But please don't let the minor problem of 102 degrees on a metal inferno without air conditioning be your concern. It's the general lack of quality service that is my main concern. Wife and I are relatively healthy so we should survive. I do worry about older travelers, heavier travelers and unhealthy travelers but it appears Viking is worried about getting to Amsterdam by Friday. When do they stop plodding ahead, risking the health of their passengers? Is a catastrophic health situation worth making it to Amsterdam on Friday? Not to me but you will have to ask Viking for their answer. read more

We had a great experience on Viking. We had booked an 8 night river cruise from Passau, Germany to Budapest, Hungary. All the river vessels are pretty much identical, we got a balcony suite with a separate living area, balcony, bedroom and bathroom. We found it very spacious and the nice little fridge was constantly being refilled with beer, soda or wine. This cabin offers free laundry service, so that was a great benefit. The food onboard was outstanding as well as the walking tours offered. This is mostly an older adult crowd since there is no casino, no "Vegas" shows, no shopping mall, no workout gym....Just a relaxing trip. Overall a great experience ! read more

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We took a Budapest to Amsterdam cruise in Sept/ Oct (15 days, plus 2 day extension in Budapest). We were on the Viking Lif. From start to finish were were impressed with this operation! The transfer from the airport to the hotel (Dorothea) and from the hotel to the ship where flawless. Our stateroom was well organized with plenty of storage. We unpacked everything and found places to put it. The crew was hardworking and friendly. Our room was always made up while we were at breakfast. The dining room staff were also amazing. They always seemed to know what we liked. The food was well prepared and they generally had a nice wine paired with dinner. The cruise director (Tao) was amazing. The outings were well organized. The guides were well versed in the cities and sights. The on ship enrichment was great. In the Wachau Valley there was a great castle talk as we cruised past 21 castles and many beautiful churches. I could go on, but we will definitely be taking another Viking cruise! read more

We had some issues with the airline reservations. Viking issued two 300.00 credits to be used on a future trip. They refused to honor the credits. read more

I had gone on a couple of Viking cruises. So when I received a Special Sale postcard from Viking with FREE AIRFARE (Mar-Jun) and only $25 deposit, I phoned an agent. Problem #1: The May cruise that I was interested in, was not include. Only the March cruise. I was also told that the final payment was due in Feb 2026. A week after I signed up for a cruise, I received a notice that final payment was due Dec 2025. Problem #2: When I wrote to Customer Relations, I was told that details & disclaimers were in the "finer print" .On the postcard reverse in teeny-tiny print were various exceptions --- the ads for FREE AIRFARE were in big-bold print on the postcard front. Viking is no longer the cruise of choice. Buyers beware of the "finer print" read more

I have an upcoming cruise on Viking on the Rhine River. I have an issue with my flights that Viking provides and contacted Viking several times trying to resolve the issue. Without being able to resolve the issue then submitted a review here on October 2. Viking responded to my review and asked me to email them further information. I emailed the information with all my contact info and have yet to have any response. They have my money and apparently got what they want so do not feel the need to respond. I suggest using a different cruise line that has customer service. read more

This was our first River cruise which my wife and I planned to take in retirement. We arrived in Amsterdam and we were greeted at the airport by a Viking representative who escorted our group to the Viking bus to the ship. Our luggage was tagged with Viking supplied tags and loaded onto the bus by Viking reps and bus driver. We arrived at the ship and were told our luggage would be delivered to our room. Upon getting to our room we noticed one of our bags was missing. We were told it probably was delivered to the wrong room and would show up eventually. It never did show up with half our clothes missing. Unfortunately, this cast a shadow on the rest of our trip. Viking contacted us after the trip and offered a small credit on a future trip but we would be hesitant to use them again. We were treated well by the staff and crew and the experience would have been excellent except for this unfortunate situation. read more

Love Viking cruises, have been on 3 river and 3 ocean cruises now and this is now the only cruise line we will use. Exceptional service! Fantastic food. Love everything about them! read more

Hubby and I took the Romantic Danube riverboat Cruise. It went from Budapest to Germany with stops along the way. The staff was amazing and food definitely amazing! The included tours were great ! The tour guides were very knowledgeable in the history of each town we visited. My favorite excursion was The Mozart Symphony orchestras performance. We did the extra three nights in Prague. The hotel was situated perfectly in the downtown area. The room was huge and very comfortable. All the transfers to and from the airports were made by Viking, as well as the airlines, and that went smoothly as well . read more

Viking River Cruise - Dining room - Travel Services Near Me

My wife and I took the Viking Grand European River Cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam on Viking Skirnir, ending on October 14, 2024. The cruise was delightful until the very end after passenger reviews were turned in. The Viking bus dropped us off over half a mile away from Schiphol airport in Amsterdam in an unmarked remote area, while other buses dropped their passengers off right at the airport departure entrance. 70+ year olds had to drag their heavy suitcases over streets and curbs at a brisk pace set by the young Viking guide. My partially disabled 72 year old wife with an artificial shoulder, dragging two suitcases behind her, didn't see one of the many curbs at the halfway point. A wheel caught the curb and turned the suitcase into her ankle, causing her to fall heavily onto the pavement. She suffered knee and arm injuries, with her arm injury bleeding through her blouse. The suitcase wheel was broken beyond repair. Two other kind passengers took her suitcases and we all struggled on with no medical assistance made available. The guide left us at departures sweaty, worn out, and hurting, and recommended she get medical attention. Until this last crucial point in our trip, we would have rated Viking five out of five stars. But Viking turned the trip into a one-star nightmare. read more

UPDATE - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE be sure to read my original review for details regarding the scheduling issue where Viking misrepresented a "Christmas in Germany" cruise I took with my mother from 24 November - 01 December 2017 misleading the paying customers who flew on Thanksgiving night expecting to see Christmas markets in Nuremberg, Bamberg, Wurzburg, Koblenz and Cologne Germany on a 7-day cruise. Our first nightly port call we were all informed that we would not see Cologne, Bamberg, and Wurzburg leaving us only two unless we paid extra to go on add-on excursions like to Heidelberg. (I had spent $10,000 just to be there so I didn't want to pay MORE to see things that were supposedly included) Some stats on me: I've been a Yelp Elite since 2013 and have left 1099 reviews in that time. Only 32 have been 1-star reviews with the overwhelming majority being mostly positive - 966 in fact are 3-star and above. So I do not go around only leaving bad reviews. Viking deserves ZERO stars for how they've handled this issue and others it appears. A note about Advent: The church calendar did not change abruptly. It takes at least three committees to vote in agreement to have a committee study changing the liturgical calendar. Spoiler Alert: the Church calendar is set in stone. Advent always starts four Sundays before Christmas. It started a week later as Christmas was on a Sunday this year. Something Viking should have known! I also left that same review on their Facebook site - it has generated a lot of comments and likes from friends and other viewers. Today, 30 December 2017, Viking disabled reviews on their Facebook page - they however cannot delete it - so here is the link to the original Facebook review. Original Link: https://www.facebook.com/alison.mccombs/posts/10104486688307539:0 I have spoken to a number of agents of Viking who continue to offer a little more each time sticking to the notion they only give vouchers and they want me to shut up and sign an Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Also, one of them, indicated to me that they were only ever "offering" four markets on this trip - and Nuremberg (where we spent our first two days) was never one of them. News to me and EVERYONE else on the cruise who all expressed distress at the misleading marketing and money they were out due to this being scheduled during a time the markets weren't open. Nuremberg is on the brochure for the trip - when I mentioned this - the agent - a Rayna W. informed me that the photo is merely a random photo selected for marketing. Ha! What a joke! This market is one of the most famous in Germany. Shameful. I've added a photo for you to see what was sent to me with my cruise documents. Additionally, I spoke to the customer service agent mentioned in the comment Viking posted to my review about contacting me to resolve this to save face and here is the update on that: **Update 29 December 2017: I just spoke to the very polite and apologetic Viking agent who has been trying to contact me about this issue - I was now offered either 50% off a future cruise - or $500 in cash but both will require an NDA be signed. I'm not signing an NDA for a voucher Viking River Cruises. You owe me a cash refund and much more than $500. You misled every single passenger into thinking they were going to see all those Christmas markets and you are trying to cover the mistake up. There were a ton of elderly people on that cruise and most of them traveled on Thanksgiving day to be there. You should be ashamed. My mother and I spoke to dozens of people who were all furious and upset as they had only done this particular cruise for the markets. Now I'm being told Viking was only ever "offering" four. News to me. Even still, I only saw two. Do better. I appreciate the apology - but asking me to spend more money with you after a mistake this big - is nothing but bad business. read more

Taking the Vikings Grand European cruise. Very scenic, but the food is absolutely the worse. I've been on multiple ocean cruises, & this is the 3rd Vikings river cruise. However the food gets worse & worse with each of the Vikings cruise. Lunch menu everyday is very limited, pasta or some sort of sandwich every day. Much of the small platters (e.g. Some leftover meat from the previous day with like a piece of beet) already dished out are dried out & look like they've been sitting there for many hours. Dinner main course choices usually have 2 non-vegetarian & 1 vegetarian dish. One night they actually had chicken ala king ( probably with left over chicken), and a fish. Fish dishes are either tasteless or salted & dry. A braised beef "highly recommended" by the chef that day should be melt-in-your mouth. Yet, it could not even be cut with a knife. It was served with a beef empanadas which was DRY, DRY, DRY! Dinner bread is usually good, but one night it was hamburger buns cut in half - absolutely atrocious. Dessert menu usually has 5 choices - sounds good - but 3 of the 5 are usually an ice cream, a sorbet and sauces (sauces is listed as a dessert choice)!! Portions are also usually minuscule. We actually started planning to buy food on shore to bring back to supplement what's on board. read more

Folks, these are floating hotels not anything like a traditional cruise ship. On board you can eat (more about food later), sleep, drink, play scrabble or other older board games. When you book look carefully at the itinerary to see exactly when and where you will be during the trip. We travelled from Nuremberg to Budapest on a 7 night cruise. We spent the first and last 36 hours in port either at a dock or rafted up (tied to another boat). There is a big push to upsell you to optional shore excursions, which IMO are overpriced. We (wife and I) were traveling with her mother and another older woman. They did many of the organized free tours while we struck off on our own at each location. I highly recommend doing your research and doing your own thing at each port. Except for Vienna locals along the route were very friendly and helpful. We extended our trip for 2 extra days in Budapest. One of the greatest cities (IMO) to visit. Make a point to visit the Baths in the City Park. Now for the food...almost as good as summer camp food! Breakfast is the meal to fuel up on. Lunch and dinner are worth missing. These meals are prepared well in advance and there is little chance for substitutions. As a vegetarian I struggled and finally gave up in the on-board meals. Their idea of a vegetarian lunch and/or dinner is pasta. BYOB or buy it along the way. These cruises may be good for a certain segment of society and that is good for them. Not my cup of tea for many reasons. Take what they charge, plan your own trip and enjoy. read more

Don't travel during Covid with a connecting flight. We missed our connection due to a delayed flight and now we will miss our Viking pick up from the airport, Rome extension, our prebooked tour to the Vatican. read more

We just completed the Viking River Cruise from Nuremberg, Germany to Budapest , Hungary 8 days of wonderful cruising down the Danube! The boat was spotless, rooms were always clean and fresh. The food was five star every meal, and the beer, wine and soda were included! The tours each day where to die for! The crew was great but the Cruise Director Terry (The guy from the UK) was the best cruise director we have every met after 16 ocean cruise's. Viking your the Best!!!! I recommend this cruise to everyone it was the very BEST!!!!! read more

I have had a truly terrible experience making a reservation for a Viking cruise for my family of 4 and then - per their policy - cancelling because we had a conflict in our schedule. I told the reservation agent that we may need to cancel and he suggested trip insurance and said I could cancel the trip insurance and the cruise with minimal penalties- $100 per passenger. I did cancel within 30 days of making my reservations and now I'm told I'm stuck with the charge of almost $4000 in travel insurance PLUS penalties of $100 per passenger. I WILL NEVER EVER GO ON A VIKING RIVER CRUISE and believe the company to be fraudulent in their reservation practices. Stay away and book travel anywhere other than with Viking River Cruises. read more

We just completed a Viking ocean cruise of Venice, the Adriatic and Athens. During the course of the cruise we were unable to use our balcony and had cigarette smoke smell in our room due to the occupants next door smoking on their balcony. Smoking on board, except in designated area, is strictly verboten and is even called out in the mandatory safety briefing at the start of the cruise. We brought the smoking to the attention of increasing levels of management onboard the ship from day one of the cruise, but they did nothing to stop it. They claimed they could not disturb the occupants, as they had their "Privacy" hang-tag continuously on their door (obviously, as they were smoking inside!). I reported this to Customer Relations after we returned and got an apology for the "inconvenience", and a couple of future cruise vouchers. The restrictions on the vouchers were longer than Viking's apology for the "inconvenience". Customer Relations made no mention of the fire safety violation which was permitted to continue throughout the cruise, despite Viking's acknowledgement of the danger in their own safety briefing. Accordingly I resent my original comments to several members of Viking senior management, including the Customer Relations manager, and the CEO, hoping they would be concerned about an obvious breach of their own safety regulations. To date I have heard nothing from Viking senior management. Prior to this ocean cruise we had three river cruises on Viking and had come to expect more from them. And of course we are concerned about our safety onboard their ships. read more