The Grand European Cruise
Viking Gymir Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 4
Helpful Votes: 66
14 Night Grand European Tour Eastbound (Amsterdam To Budapest)
Sail date: November 13, 2024
Ship: Viking Gymir
Traveled as: Large Group
Reviewed: 22 days ago
Review summary
Our original ship was swapped by the Edgir about a week prior to cruise. All Viking Longships are basically the same throughout the fleet. The crew was great!Embarkation
Very easy and simple.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Food was good and plentiful. We tried different regional foods on the menu. The soups were amazing!
Onboard Activities
4 game nights and we enjoye them all. Attened all activities.
Entertainment
We enjoyed the pianisteery night and enjoyed the local talent shows.
Service and Staff
Nothing to decribe how well we were treated. This is the key to Viking's success!
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Pretty small and tight. 135ft sq feet. Kept clean twice a day and our stewardress was absolutely amazing. A lot of interaction. The bathroom was clean but extremely small. I would do the Veranda room on same floor again for 205 sq feet. Just my preference.
Ship tip
We were on the Edgir instead.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Day 2 on the Grand European River Cruise.Today was pretty laid back as we sailed in the afternoon. Spent the morning at Kinderdijk which is a site of the Netherland's windmills. We also got a tour of our pilot house aboard our Longboat. Fun day.!
Day 11 on the Grand European River Cruise. Melk and Krems, Austria. Today was sunny but cold. We did the Melk Abby included excursion. It was really an exceptional outing. We were bussed up to the Abby for a guided tour. Afterwards, there was an option to walk back to rhe ship. If you walked back, you got to wander around the quaint village of Melk. It was about a 30 minute leisurely walk. The ship cruise down the Danube through the Wachau Valley. Great day to be on the Sun Deck. We docked in Krems and had free time to wander through the Christmas Market. Had a great day!
Day 11 on the Grand European River Cruise. Melk and Krems, Austria. Today was sunny but cold. We did the Melk Abby included excursion. It was really an exceptional outing. We were bussed up to the Abby for a guided tour. Afterwards, there was an option to walk back to rhe ship. If you walked back, you got to wander around the quaint village of Melk. It was about a 30 minute leisurely walk. The ship cruise down the Danube through the Wachau Valley. Great day to be on the Sun Deck. We docked in Krems and had free time to wander through the Christmas Market. Had a great day!
Day 9 on the Grand European River Cruise. Regensburgh, Germany. We cruised up/down the Main-Danube Canal last night waking up in Regensburgh on the Danube. We were met with snow showers most of the morning. We took the 2 hour optional walking tour "Regensburgh and the Jewish Experience". It was a good tour but weather conditions made it less than perfect for some of the group. Weather did improve throughout the day. Went back into town several times. Our ship was in the last docking area so it was about a 15 minute walk to the old bridge.
Day 14 on the Grand European River Cruise. Budapest, Hungary. This was our last full day on this wonderful cruise. I highly recommend it. We were lucky with no water issues. We did have sun, clouds, rain and even snow on our 14 day adventure. The temperatures ranged from 28f to 42f degrees during the entire trip. It is November, so that was expected. The crew was fantastic and the ship was full. Excursions were generally very good, both included and optional. Safe travels to all till next time!
Day 4 on the Grand European River Cruise. We briefly docked in Koblenz to offload all of us to do our excursions. The Ship left us to meet later up the Rhine. Very seemless and no issues. We chose not to go to Marksburgh Castle as we have some mobility issues. We took an Optional tour to Ehrenbreitstein, the Fortress of Koblenz. The original plan was to take an aerial tram across to the river to the Fortress. They were donig some work on it so we were bussed to the Fortress. It was a very interesting and entertaining tour. They have guides to portray a English fellow (Sir John Humphrey Humphreys) to take you along a journey! After meeting our ship, we sailed the Middle Rhine to see all of the castles. The weather was cold and overcast but no rain. We still had pretty good views.
Day 7 on the Grand European River Cruise. Bamberg, Germany. We spent a 4 hour delightful afternoon in Bamberg today. We took the "Leisure Included Tour". Instead of walking up to the main church, we walked around to the market area. After our leisurely walk over several small bridges, we had a couple of hours on our own. Found a nice place for coffee! It was slightly raining most of the afternoon. We did see the sun peeking through once today!
Day 8 on the Grand European River Cruise. Nuremberg, Germany. We did the 4 hour included city tour in the morning. It was an hour long panoramic mororcoach ride showing the major areas followed by a one and a half hour walking tour. We then had 1 hour free time in the square. This was a really good included tour!
We came back to ship for lunch and then a 3 hour optional tour of Nuremberg and the Arts during WW2. Great guide and I would highly recommend it. It lightly snowed during the afternoon. Seven hours of touring today.
Day three on the Grand European River Cruise. Just left Cologne, Germany at 11pm, our time. Overcast all day but no rain. Took an included walking tour of the city to get the lay of the land. Most of the streets and sidewalks were cobbelstone. Did include about 20 minutes inside the massive cathedral. We opted to walk the riverbank back to our boat. Because our boat was getting replenish, we were parked about a 20 minute walk. You do have an option to take shuttles. We also had 2 local musicians play some classical music onboard tonight.
Day 10 on the Grand European River Cruise. Passau, Germany. This is definitely one of my favorite cities. We did the included tour. The Guide was outstanding had she shared a lot of good information. Afterwards, I wondered around town. Walked up to the point of convergent of the three rivers.
Day 5 on the Grand European River Cruise. Miltinburgh, Germany. We mostly cruised the Main River today but made a brief stop in Miltinburgh and took a 2 hour walking tour through this typical German Town. It was Sunday so most places were closed. There is a lot of interesting buildings in the Market Area.
Days 12 and 13 on the Grand European River Cruise. Vienna, Austria. We did our own thing during day 12 in Vienna. We had been here in 2017. We did do the the optional excursion "Mozart Concert" and really enjoyed the 2 hours of classical music, ballet and opera.
On day 13, we did the optional tour of visiting Bratislava, Solvakia. Another great excursion. We got to wander around the Christmas Market.
Day 6 on the Grand European River Cruise. We sailed the Main River untill 1:30 pm. Many locks on this section of the Main. Our included tour of Wurzburgh was great. About 3 hours. A lot of cobblestone but manageable.
Part of our pre-excursion included a very delightful Canal Boat in Amsterdam. The weather has been cool but mostly dry.
Disembarkation
Very streamlined and easy