River Cruises - Europe Cruise Reviews

From embarkation in bicycle-crazy Amsterdam until disembarkation in Basel, we had a wonderful week cruising the Rhine.  The entire staff of the Amalyra seemed totally focused on making the trip enjoyable.  The excursion guides were all terrific.  By the end of the cruise passengers who had been strangers were good friends!  

Really a great experience!

Just back from France after a fantastic cruise on the Seine River from Paris to Normandy. This is our second cruise with AmaWaterways and the Company continues to exceed expectations! We look forward to our next river cruise with

AmaWaterways.

This was our first river cruise, and Viking certainly lived up to it;s reputation of being one of the finest.  We were very happy with the ship, staff, itinerary and side trips.  From the time we were picked up at the airport by the Viking staff until our departure, we were well cared for both on and off the ship.  The cruise director, captain and crew, waiters, room stewards, and the entire staff did everything possible to make sure that we were enjoying our trip.  

Our visit to the Lazar Horse Farm outside Budapest was the perfect end to a wonderful vacation.  This was my new best friend, it was love at first sight.

Enjoyable and relaxing. Silver beverage package provided for a large number of intoxicated seniors trying to ensure they got the money’s worth on the last few days. Salsburg excursion was lengthly by bus. Nearly four hours. Needed time for bathroom breaks that tour guide did not want to provide. Food provided very mediocre. Not enough wait staff. Entertainment great.

We thoroughly enjoyed Viking and the Rhine! It was a pleasure meeting people on a smaller ship and Viking went out of their way to accommodate the guests. I can't complain about any part of this cruise!

My Viking journey began with a booking number. From the moment my reservation was confirmed I was able to log into myvikingjourney.com and start getting excited about my upcoming trip by viewing and reserving various shore excursions as long as I first completed my Guest Registration Form. There is a free excursion available in every port we visited and there were also extra optional excursions that could be purchased for a reasonable amount. Some of the optional excursions were planned around the free one so a guest could book more than one outing in a day, where others took the entire day or would conflict with the timing of the free ones so choices had to be made. Outside of browsing excursions the only other thing I needed to do was get familiar with the travel protocols for each of the countries that I was going to visit. The Viking website made it easy to navigate to the different countries’ websites to fill out various forms. I was taking the Rhine Getaway from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, The Netherlands. It’s a tour that visits four different countries throughout the 8 day, 7 night itinerary. Once I had registered with the countries I was going to visit and picked my shore excursions, the only thing I had to do was wait for my flights to be scheduled and purchased. I had a few weeks from the time I received my flight information and the time I was to leave. My flights were favorable with only one stop in Paris on the way to the ship and a non-stop flight home from Amsterdam. It felt as though most of the passengers on the plane were on their way to a Viking vacation, and I was able to make some friends who would be on the same ship as I was before I even left the ground in Atlanta! The flights were smooth and we were greeted at baggage claim by Viking representatives who instructed us to take our bags to the bus where we would wait to get to the ship. It was around 11:30 am when we arrived and the rooms weren’t made up yet, so we were given a laminated piece of paper with our room numbers on them and told that we could go to The Restaurant where we could grab some lunch and wait for them to finish making up the rooms. By the time we finished eating lunch all of our rooms were ready. It was perfect timing since there was a walking tour at 1:30 or 3:30 and we were able to go to our staterooms long enough to freshen up before leaving for the excursion. I knew it would be tough after such a long day of traveling, but the shower upon our return was going to feel so good! Little did I know until I was ready to take that shower that I was going to love stepping into the bathroom just for the heated floor. The cities along the Rhine all have so much history and character. The guides that provide our tours throughout the itinerary were all excellent and were able to put a personal touch on their stories to help us gain a better understanding of what it is like to live in or near those regions. The fact that excursions were all staffed by people wearing Viking logoed shirts and the transportation was always in a Viking branded bus made me feel that there was a lot of thought and care in selecting what we experienced. I’ve taken other tours through other cruise lines and it was obvious that they just hired an outside company instead of investing their own resources to make sure that the guest would have the best possible experience. The ship didn’t have a lot of extras, in fact there was only one lounge and one restaurant. On the top deck there were many chairs for relaxing and watching the scenery as we went up the river along with a walking track. For games there was only shuffle board and a putting green. The library was small, but every day was so full that I never felt like taking out the book I had brought with me. We were usually off the ship early in the morning for the first tour and wouldn’t get back until dinner time. Depending on the city we were in and how far we had to go next we would either stay in port late or leave during dinner. There was always nightly entertainment on board, but the days we were in port late I opted to explore the towns on my own. I always slept great since I was so busy each day! I should have opted to stay in Amsterdam for at least a day at the end of the cruise. My flight was at 8:00 AM so I disembarked at 4:00 AM to head to the airport. Needless to say, I didn’t get to see much of Amsterdam so it was a good thing that I was at least able to see the windmills in Kinderdijk the day before. Leaving as early as we did, the kitchen wasn’t open for breakfast yet, but they did have hot sandwiches and coffee for us. The transfer to the ship was smooth and I was lucky to not have any issues on my return flight either. We landed a bit before noon so I was able to still have a full day to get ready for regular life.

Flight Scheduling was Awful! Lost our Luggage & Viking was of no help getting it back! Too much time spent on hot busses to the tour sites and to the airport! The Ship wasn't prepared for injuries. No medical staff, dressings or help getting what was needed. We had to take a cab to a pharmacy. Entertainment consisted of one Show the night before we left. Tours were Great, but too much walking in the heat! The room, Shower & Balcony were cramped! Meals were OK and plentiful. Waiters, Stewards and Staff were very attentive. I did not like their refund policy which required us to spend the refund on the ship or lose it. All in All, I didn't get my money's worth as compared to other cruises I have taken.

This Viking cruise was our first river cruise. We can’t wait to do another. The ports were great. It was very relaxing. The food, staff and the clientele were great.

Booking #2530155 Booking #2530146 My family and I were thrilled when we learned that Uniworld was going to be doing a Generation cruise. We had always wanted to do a River Cruise in Europe but were restricted because we had children, and most River cruises do not allow Kids. Silly rule anyway. We finally had a cruise line and boat we could book and were so excited. For almost 2 years we counted down the days til we hopped on a plane and crossed the ocean for an adventure of a lifetime. Boy were we wrong. Let me start by saying my family and I have been on probably 10+ cruises in our short lifetime and have had bad, good, and great experiences. The Uniworld experience was one of the worst. I had done my research and found Uniworld to be one of the best, if not the highest rated cruise line for our purposes so I felt confident in booking this trip for my family. As we departed the plane, collected our bags and found our Uniworld representative to take us to the bus, our excitement grew. We had traveled almost 15 hours and couldn't wait to get on the River Princess. As we drove into downtown Vienna, we were informed of a change of plans. Our cruise would be delayed a couple days because the water level in some parts on the Danube were low. Ughh. So the new plan was to stay in a hotel for 2 nights, then travel by bus(3-4 hours) to a future city port. Not what we signed up for. There was also no childrens programs that we expected with the Generations cruise in Vienna. We finally arrive at the boat on day 3 only to learn that the boat would not be sailing for another 2 days. That's 4 of the 8 total days did not get to experience the boat. We also learned that our cruise would miss 3 of the small town ports we so wanted to explore. We would take more buses to backtrack the Danube to visit Passau. What a Disaster! I will now just list the other disappointments with this trip as to not just ramble on: 1. Rooms are the smallest of any oat we have ever been on. Expected more for the price. Hair in sink when we first opened room. Room had an odor of sewage and we could hear every flush of other rooms toilets. 2. River Princess was severely understaffed and undertrained. Dinner took almost 2 1/2 hours to complete. The dining room staff did their best, just not enough staff to go around for a boat that was only 75% capacity. 3. Captain and his staff were not very friendly or helpful. Many times sitting at front desk on phones, paying no attention to travelers waiting patiently to ask questions. My wife once went to front desk to ask how far a bike ride it would be from the boat into town and was met with the reply from the Captain, " You can find it on google." Wow, not what we expected from the highest rated cruise line and from the Head of the Ship. 4. Viking Cruise line was in all the ports our ship seemed not to be able to get to. There were some pros to the trip. Unranked staff were nice and pleasant. They were trying to do their best, just not enough of them. Food was pretty good. Overall ship was aged but still pretty in common areas. I was wanting this trip to be a once in a lifetime vacation that my wife and children would always remember. A trip for the Generations!! Unfortunately it did not live up to the hype or expectations we had expected. Uniworld cruise line might never get past my generation for a repeat trip. wrote to cruise line and never got a response

A great way to visit various European cities with great educational tours On ship briefings about next day tour was outstanding.

This is really about the Viking ODIN. The AEGIR was in an accident one week before our cruise (search Viking Aegir Accident). Viking substituted the ODIN for the AEGIR. We don't think Viking management properly checked out the vessel. Major issues included: toilets stopped working, both my wife and I were trapped in our bathroom due to a faulty door (engineers worked on it four times), the ship lost power near Nuremburg and was adrift (losing toilets and water pressure at the same time, this time). The local police sequestered the vessel until it was deemed cruise-worthy again, various electrical problems in our suite, water leaking from our bathroom to our sleeping area floor saturated the carpet so it was squishy most of the time. Guest Services personnel got a bit frustrated with passengers due to the large number of complaints. Other issues. It was a shame because our prior Viking cruise was wonderful. We feel they made a poor decision to continue this cruise after the AEGIR accident.

The trip brings a wonderful knowledge of what our troops went through to liberate Europe.

Although we have been on many enjoyable ocean cruises over the past 30 years, they just don't compare with the intimacy and relaxed environment of a Viking river cruise. It was a wonderful experience for us and we can't wait to go on another Viking river cruise.

I recently returned from the worse cruise experience of my life and I blame it on Viking River Cruises. Viking is not the image they advertise! Their website didn't work for months before my cruise. It took an hour to get through the phones. My flight back -which Viking arranged - was canceled and they never informed me (Luckily I looked at the airline schedule so I could find my own flight. I was still charge for their air assistance). The day after I arrived, Eastern Europe closed down for another pandemic breakout. Surely experienced Viking knew about the closedown 24 hours before. They should have told me the morning of my departure and I could have avoided the hell I went through. Viking mishandled 90% of my Elegant Elbe River Cruise. Viking boasts how they've does business in that part of the for years and are the best. Most of our advertised main river stops were closed to us. Instead, Vikiing took us on buses to dreary non-tourist cities and left us at repetitive small local Xmas markets; a few kiosks, sausages and candy every time. They didn't even use Google to tell us interesting facts. The ship was dreary, not a touch of a decoration or color, zilch entertainment except for an afternoon piano and the worst TV of any cruise I've experienced. "Happy Hour" was peanuts and a piano player. Meals were not creative or interesting. When they used their metal gangplank there was no rubber mat to prevent us from slipping on the wet surface. One passenger was badly injured and they didn’t have a doctor or a medical kit onboard. Every excursion (except for Prague) was about WWII, nazis and walls from bombed buildings. Never could our guide come up with a recommendation for a place to eat or trip (haven't they heard of Trip Advisor?)! This was one of their most costly cruises. When I returned, I received a voucher I'll never use for 25% of my $10,000 cruise! Online, I read they they hand out vouchers like candy and no one receives compensation a cruise that went sour, very sour.

2 days in Amsterdam, cruised down the Rhine, Main & Dandu. The entire trip FAR, FAR exceeded both of our expectations. Will definitely booked another Viking cruise. Already looking into a Russian River cruise.

This cruise was a bit different even for Viking as the Rhine was closed to traffic due to low water levels midway through our cruise. But Viking had the wherewithal to create an alternate plan which enabled us to complete our voyage with only a loss of half day when they had to bus us from Strasbourg to Rudesheim. My hats off to Viking for coming up with a plan in a half day's time and executing it flawlessly.

All the staff were excellent. Helpful when you needed it. Our cabins were clean (a little small), food was excellent. Tours were very informative. Did not like to have to wear a mask while on ship, especially that everyone was vaccinated, so did not understand the mask mandate. Over-all everything was great

Black Forest stop took us to a commercial store beside a highway 👎 Views while cruising are nonexistent until Middle Rhine. 👎. Lots of walking needed at each port to get to the transportation. Too much $ for fine dining. We prefer land travel to be closer in towns. Next time we would take a local day ship in the Middle Rhine & travel by train in the region!!! Too much ship time, not enough local time without paying more for the optional trips 👎

Ship was clean and comfortable. Itinerary had many nice ports of call and sitting on the top deck to nice watch the countries go by. Service and food were very good. I have never had a disappointing Viking cruise.

This was one of the best vacations we've ever had. Enjoyed every moment.