Good cruise, won't be using Viking again though

Item: Viking Kara
Rating: 4.4
Author: mlc1

Viking Kara Cruise Review to River Cruises - Europe

mlc1

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 4

Helpful Votes: 161

Overall rating:

4.4 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Rhine Getaway Northbound (Basel To Amsterdam)

Sail date: August 04, 2019

Ship: Viking Kara

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 106

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 4 years ago

Review summary

The cruise was very nice and the service incredible. We won't be taking another Viking cruise because of how they handle expenses and credits on board. Your credits are converted to US dollars but the expenses aren't converted and only relabeled as euros so you wind up with paying more for what would have been an even exchange. That's Viking's policy. Example - $300 on board credit is reduced to 264 euros. $300 cost for excursion becomes 300 euros instead of being converted to actual euros, it's just relabeled. You wind up paying $36 US additional due to the way they handle the onboard invoice. In the future we will go with another cruise line.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Food was average.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

There was entertainment in the lounge later in the evening and many passengers enjoyed it but we choose to linger over dinner with friends.

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Cabin was small but had plenty of storage so was fine for a 7 night cruise. Very clean.

Ports of call

Basel, Switzerland

3 out of 5

Ship leaves from Basel on a Sunday and most everything is closed. The dock was right in the city which was a good location.

Thumbs Up 0

Breisach Am Rhine, Germany

5 out of 5

Took the WW2 Colmar excursion and it was excellent. My husband took the E-bike excursion and said it was also excellent.

Thumbs Up 1

Strasbourg, France

5 out of 5

Took the included tour which was good.

Thumbs Up 1

Speyer (Heidelberg), Germany

5 out of 5

Took the included excursion and enjoyed it very much. Could have used more time afterwards for shopping.

Thumbs Up 2

Cruise Middle Rhine River

5 out of 5

Beautiful

Thumbs Up 1

Koblenz, Germany

5 out of 5

Rudesheim, Germany

5 out of 5

Cologne, Germany

5 out of 5

Kinderdijk, Netherlands

5 out of 5

Unfortunately it was a very windy day so the vendor cancelled our Windmills by Barge which was understandable. Instead redid the walking tour to the windmills which was very interesting.

Thumbs Up 1

Amsterdam, Netherlands

5 out of 5

The train station is very close to where we docked so we just walked there and took the train to Paris. Had been to Amsterdam before and it's a great city with so much to do.

Thumbs Up 5

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Very easy and we weren't rushed at all.

Good cruise, won't be using Viking again though

Overall rating:

Review summary

Embarkation

Ship experiences

Ports of call

Disembarkation

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