Viking Jarl

The food was delicious.  The cabins were immaculate.  The scenery was beautiful.  The only thing I would have changed were some of the city tours.   I understand the city tours were to give us a general overview or introduction to a city.  Too often, I felt the buses drove past sites that would have been great to explore in person.  Often, we didn't have enough time to come back on our own to explore the sites.

Good things - Beautiful ship, Service was outstanding, Food was outstanding. Part of the scenery while cruising was astonishing. Relaxing friendly atmosphere on ship...we easily made friends to enjoy our time with. Budapest was breath taking beautiful and made the whole trip worth going.

OK things. Many ( not all, buy many) of the ports of call had little to offer other than a church. Their "all inclusive" shore excursions amounted to  little more than walking around a small town with a guide struggling to think of something to say.. and then the rest of the afternoon "was on your own"...which really meant theree was no included excursion. There were things that you could do, but these were not "included"--see below comment.

Bad things - Some of the "optional" shore excursions really should have been part of the all inclusive package as the "included" excursions were really nothing.What was disturbing was one of the "optional" excursions that be paid $75 each for was what we understood to be an Viennese production of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro Opera. We found that we were transported not to the Opera district of Vienna but instead bussed 55 minutes to the very worst parts of town to an sweltering old building that they did not turn any ventilation on until the very end when people were complaining and watched a 90 minute performance by American college students. It was ok, but very amateurish and I think what else could we have done with $150 and a night in Vienna. The next day in the city we found several other "opera" companies trying to sell tickets for  what appeared to be similar or better  events at much nicer locations for almost half the price. So disappointing. I trusted Viking to make good decisions for me in a city that I knew little of and instead I felt they cheated me.

We knew about low water levels before leaving the UK. Viking offered us a full refund prior to travelling. However, we wanted to see the towns and cities, so went. We stayed in Budapest for an extra 2 days at the Intercontinental , this was amazing, and we paid extra to have a room with a view over the Danube - well worth it. We spent one night in a ship in Budapest and were bussed from Budapest to Vienna and remained in a second ship for the remainder of the cruise. This was early Dec and we were the first Viking ship since June to get through. The crew were faultless, food excellent, visits and Christmas markets were brilliant. We know river levels vary, so we kept an eye on it and went with an open mind and had an excellent time.