River Cruises - Europe Cruise Reviews

The staff were wonderful and very helpful.  The stateroom was very nice.  The trip was relaxing and stress free.  The food was very good.  I tried some foods I had never tasted before.  The evening entertainment was enjoyable.  The informational talks helped making the various tours more meaningful.

When I did my evaluation on board for AMAWaterways, I commented that the expected attire needed to be clearer.  Two days before the conclusion of the cruise, it was announced that the next evening's attire would be formal.  They must have received some negative responses for the next afternoon it was announced for women to wear their little black dresses.

While Gerri and I were on the cruise, we decided to extend on optional tour for another day.  We asked the cruise manager if he had received the needed material from Doug.  He said that he had and that evening we would get the update.  That was a day before we disembarked.  We asked the next day and were told we would receive it that night.  We finally received the material the night before we flew out the next day.  I did not like knowing the time of our flight until the night before we left.  

We really enjoyed everything about our Viking River cruise. The staff was attentive and went out of their way to exceed our expectations.  The tour guides were fun  and knowledgable and added so much substance to everything we were seeing. Our tour director was marvelous, and I never saw him without a smile on his face. It was an excellent experience and  my husband and I are looking forward to booking another Viking Cruise in the future. Viking has picked the right person for every single job on the ship!

The included excursions were pretty good for the most part.  The guides were kind of hit or miss and having a good one made all the difference.  Do a lot of research on your own on each destination before you go and have a game plan.  Use the underground in the big cities.  Cheap, clean and safe.  If the included excursion sounds like a clunker... take off on your own.

I give an excellent to all personnell, facilities, activities on board and side trips.  Especially enjoyed Guamaires (? Sp), the medieval town and Pinhao.  Sure recommend Portugal as a destination.  The marine museum in Lisbon is over and above others I have seen in the world.  

This cruise was made exceptional by Viking.  Their staff is very well trained, experienced and very personable.  The staff appears to be enjoying their jobs, which, in my opinion, is a sign of a well managed organization.  Everything under their control went smoothly, however when something not within their control (delays at the locks) the staff went out of their way to be sure the passengers were impacted as little as possible.  We really felt we were important and and appreciated as passengers.  We have already booked a Viking Ocean Cruise because of this experience. 

It's hard to choose the best part of this cruise because all of it was superb.  We've been on many large ship cruises before but, for our next one, wanted to do a river cruise. Our first Viking cruise was for one week in France. We enjoyed it so much we decided to do the two week Grand European cruise.

Really enjoyed this cruise, the service was perfect, the food quite good, and the itinerary was very enjoyable.  We would have preferred more French cuisine choices, but given our fellow passengers, I understand why it is set up this way.  We would have preferred more active day-trip activities, but, again, given our fellow passengers, I understand why.

It's all about making it easy and comfortable for a client set that is predominantly older American and Canadian travelers who are a bit slower than they were in their younger days.  And this is not a criticism, I am commenting on it in this review so that the reader understands what the cruise is all about.  Indeed, some of this pampering was to our benefit, as my wife has multiple food allergies and the staff were stellar in remembering, and working with her, on these allergies.

This cruise was a good one BUT we have had better Viking cruises.It is a matter of expectations. Food was wonderful and the staff was as usual friendly, attentive and caring. The black forest and Colone tours were excellent as was the da

y of sailing the middle Rhine. However the Heidelburg and Stratsburg tours were a little light.

We travel a lot, this one is rank one of our favorites, if not THE favorite trip.  We cruise often as well, there is less in the way of activities of a large cruise ship, but you can't beat the intimacy and the fact that you can actually find a quiet place on the boat to sit and relax.  I would recommend AmaWaterways anytime!

This cruise did not meet our expectations for the following reasons:

1. The boat has a top deck area with covered seating, a few games (poorly maintained two hole putt-putt course and shuffle board) and a walking track.  However after day two until approximately day 12, the top deck was not available because of danger due to low bridges on the Rhine, Main, and Danube.

2. It seemed that every day we were being "nickel and dimed" (actually 80 to 100 Euros) for additional/optional tours and events. We were also asked to pay significant (voluntary? gratuities) to the crew and social director. We paid a lot of money for this cruise. We are aware of other tour operators who bill for everything up front so there are no "hidden, unexpected, and annoying extra charges. 

3. We paid extra money to assure that we could fly our intercontinental flights on United Airlines so that we could accrue miles and use our previoiusly accumulated miles to upgrade. We were accommodated, and we did spend miles plus money to get the desired upgraded airline seats. However, when we returned to the US we were only awarded half of the traveled miles. When we asked why, we were told that the tickets were "highly discounted" so they only gave us half the miles. No one told us this before hand. It was not printed in any of the travel information, and our United Cruise Lines concierge expressed surprise as well. Viking responded with a discount voucher for our next cruise (which we will NEVER take) so we essentially received nothing for the lost miles. 

4. The food was average

The Bright Side: The crew and service on the boat were excellent!!

My wife and I were very impressed with the excellent organization and customer service on our Viking cruise. The attention to detail was outstanding --- MANY KUDOS TO VIKING!!!

Great Viking Cruise, would do it again in a heart beat. The greatest service I have ever received, was treated like royalty. Beautiful countries. 

lots of walking to see everything but, its worthed I loved it all.

The Normandy beach day is very special.  Monet's garden in Giverny was a knock out.   Paris will always be Paris!!!

The Program director and crew were outstanding, very high quality of service and cleanliness.  The food was the best of any of the river cruises we have been on.

It was a real pleasure to sit on the upper deck as you watched the world pass by.

The climb to the castle ruins in Les Andelys was much harder for anyone who lacks stamina or has heart problems. 

this was our first River cruise.  Our expectations were exceeded.  Enjoyed seeing wonderful sites along the Danube River.  Food and service were great. Room and view from room were awesome.  

As with my previous experience on the Danube cruise with Amawaterways I had a wonderful cruise.  The ship was always clean, meals were absolutely fantastic with a wide variety of things to eat and even the health conscious had a large selection of foods to choose from.  The staff were always helpful and courteous, always smiling and friendly, answering questions.  The itinerary was great and the local guides were very nice and knowledgeable.  Our tour manager was absolutely wonderful, Friendly, Caring, helpful, great sense of humor, on top of everything during our tours as well as on board and very down to earth which was appreciated by everyone.  The Captains, Hotel Manager and crew working on the ship to get us around were all hard working and very efficient in their jobs.  The top deck with some covered lounge chairs, regular chairs and lounge chairs in the sun, pool, Jacuzzi, walking track and free WiFi was a treat.

The ports of call were fabulous.  The crew was professional, and provided extraordinary service from start to finish.  The food preparation, presentation, and quality was exceptional.  The private Mozart and Strauss concert in Vienna was so good that it was pretty much a spiritual experience for anyone who enjoys classical music (like me).  Every shore excursion had wonderful, well-informed guides, who made the experience in each port informative and fun.  I'm not sure how much better this experience could have been.

The most important think about our cruise was all the new places we visited.  The small towns, the local people and all the historic places we visited were astonishing, and our guides were so informative we learned so much.

Would recommend  to others.  Wine and port tastings at various places exceeded expectations for the most part.  All were noteworthy.Trip to Salamanca was too long a. Ride for the time spent there?

Good

The crew on board loves their job.

Stateroom is very clean and size similar to ocean liner

Food is exceptional and regionalized as we travel

The local tour guides are excellent.

Complimantary wine and beer at meal time

Improvement

Arrvial experiences.  No meet and greet at the dock

Better communicate on arrival docking.  6 ships in Budepest no one knows where you dock.  You could have send out a email.

No one answer the phone # provided in the cruise package

Better entertainment.  The piano player could be a one man show like on the cruise ship rather than back ground music. The regional show is poor lounge is half empty.

Do more activities on top deck.

Have some low impact exercises equiptment available.  Like yoga mat, bar bell, cords etc.

Need better TV selection.  Some American channels

Your air travel department should be rename NO NO NO. And additional fee 

Great planning by Mike.  Great execution by Cesario.

Food presentation was outstanding, but not great tasting.  We are "meat and three" people who like it simple.