River Cruises - Europe Cruise Reviews

This was our first Viking cruise. I would give it a 4/5 overall. Don’t plan on being entertained. Much more chill than I expected. Also, much older clientele than I expected. Average 60+ It’s a great way to see multiple cities and beautiful scenery along the way.

We enjoyed it very much. Can’t say I would do extensions again, however. Expensive and if hotel is far from sites it gets too complicated.

Overall, the cruise was outstanding. The food was very good. Service was excellent. The excursions were educational with excellent guides. Only disappointment was after being transported to the basil airport. There was no Viking agent available as promised to help with check-in and navigating the airport. Likewise on arrival in Heathrow, there was no Viking agent available as we had been led to believe.

We have ocean cruised 188 nights and this was our first river cruise. We paid for the best room on the ship but found out it was not worth the cost. We would have been fine in a smaller room. This was not a quiet cruise for the educated person. There were at least 4 large groups of people on this cruise and therefore it was a loud and drunken cruise. Not quiet elegance. The main dining room was loud and had only large tables. The food was ok but our friends said the fish was wonderful every night.

The cruise far exceeded our expectations and friends told us it would be great. The pace was perfect for us. All excursions exceeded expectations except the diamond thing. The staff were excellent, friendly and helpful. We highly recommend it. One issue was the flight reservations. I requested an upgrade and got tickets in main cabin. It required over 20 phone calls and my wife and I did not get seats together. Please review this process. Also I was told my name is incorrect in your database. How can I change this?

Overall, It was a wonderful time. Viking has got it together! I did want to note that your program director "Kane" was a phenomenal person. He sings, He gave one of the most fascinating talks on the life and works of Mozart. And is very personable and makes everyone feel he's there for them.

We had attended another river cruise which was much better than this cruise. Based on this cruise experience, we will stick with ocean cruises which had much better foods/drinks, ship board activities, and excursions.

This was supposed to be our first Viking River cruise in 2019 but got cancelled due to COVID. We're very happy to finally do this trip. It did not disappoint. The Lipizzaner Stable tour in Vienna was fantastic.

We had a fabulous time. The crew on the Impression did everything to make our trip first class all the way. The excursions were a great way to see each port and we also had some time on our own in each place to explore if we wanted to. The food on board was amazing and I appreciated that they always had a local authentic option to choose from. My only regret is it wasn't longer!

It was the least enjoyable river cruise that we have taken. But we are booked for another one in October and we will see how it goes. We are planning to take a Viking Ocean Cruise in 2025. One last thing. I booked my flights through Viking and somehow I never got the seats I picked. On this cruise I tried calling , Viking and was assured of my seats and that did not happen.

Viking knows how to do it. NO casinos or fancy shows. Instead, you get to experience each port on foot, with an experienced guide. Even in the short time you have, you get to see and do A LOT! Highly recommend

Beautiful boat, excellent service, good food. Relaxing atmosphere great trip

Traveling by river on a longship is a much more intimate experience than ocean cruising. We highly recommend it. Viking does an excellent job of coordinating this type of cruising and offering their passengers a high quality onboard and onshore experience.

A great first time river cruise. We had an excellent staff and made friends o board. We thought we would be the youngest at 30 but there were several people our age that made us feel at ease. The Christmas markets were great, food on board was amazing, only downside to the whole trip was the rainy weather.

This was our first Viking cruise. The itinerary was outstanding, the staff worked very hard and there were no additional charge excursions at every port. The smallness of the ship was both a plus and a minus. You were always surrounded by people, met lots of the cruisers . This was fun but not always— little space for solitude. Similarly the entertainment was limited due to lack of facilities and resources. I expected more , from the commercials about Viking on PBS.

The daily excursions to the Christmas markets and the towns were delightful.  The quiet vox headsets are the best!   Plenty of free time in each port before dinner is served at 7:00 pm most nights.  One night it was served at 7:30 pm.   A barge stranded on the day we sailed the Middle Rhine. It delayed our leaving Mannheim for 8 hours, but it was foggy that morning, so no real concern.  The fog mostly lifted for our afternoon sailing to Koblenz, (see picture), but we arrived just before dinner and many passengers did not leave the ship for that city despite the excellent docking in town.   There were a couple of times that we had to dock away from the city, as in Strasbourg and Freiburg, and take a bus, but I enjoyed seeing the countryside, or a 15-20 minute walk to the city center like in Cologne where we were docked across the river.  Rudesheim was my favorite town, and the ship was docked so you could walk back easily after a long evening in the Christmas Market.   The most surprising and delightful town was Dordrecht.  We skipped the excursion. I enjoyed walking the streets, visiting the museum, and enjoying a local pub.   Very compact and easy to get around on your own, and the ship was conveniently docked in town. 

First time on river cruise. Glad we had the suite, the other rooms looked small. Did not like always eating with other people especially with COVID still going on.

Overall amazing experience. Particularly enjoyed Budapest. We were blessed to have snow for the Christmas experience.

Very nice Christmas market cruise. Viking was mostly high quality as usual, but some details were not up to their standard. Difficulty level of excursions was listed as the same as summer. Expect greater difficulty on snowy days.

The expectation for a Viking River cruise was it was tuned for a older crowd which was the case. We may do another in the future but will likely stick with our other brands ocean cruises.