Positives: Cruise director Marco was exceptional, specially considering the many issues encountered.
Food service was vey good with adequate selections.
Personnel on the Baldur during the first half of the cruise were very friendly, After changing to the Magni there was a considerable reduced friendliness from the Bar and dining room service personnel with exception of Ivan who was very friendly and helpful.
The first excursion to Kinderdijk was very disappointing, though the guide we had tried to do his best in the allotted time of about one hour. While from Amsterdam to Kinderdijk is only just over one hour drive, we were told that due to low water conditions the ship would go on to Emmerich in Germany and then a bus would take us to Kinderdijk. The bus trip was nearly 3.5 hours each way to and from, when arriving at Kinderdijk we were immediately told we would not be able to visit or go close to the windmill due to time restriction set by Viking. To top it all of there was another Viking cruise ship moored at kinderdijk with another tour group. So obviously low water was not an issue for them.
Similar issues were experienced throughout the cruise where we would moor at less than desirable docks often with extreme slopes for embarking and disembarking, most often away from the towns we were to visit. The upper deck was not available for over half of the cruise due to locks and low bridges.
We asked Marco about checking the filtration system on the contracted busses since we noticed considerable coughing by various guests. And yes we started coughing after a few days though we did use our masks most all the time while in the various busses, when arriving at home we confirmed we had Covid with an at-home test kit.
We did ask at the beginning of the cruise with the customer service desk for a potential upgrade since we were in cabin 106. We were told that his would cost us $1500 to do so to a French Balcony. After the next several stops, we were glad we did not take them up on this “offer” since it would only have added to the disappointment and frustration. As was also noted by other friends, the only time they were able to use their balcony was while cruising down the river (which was mostly at night) since while at the various docks we were most often docked between other vessels causing the windows and balconies exactly to line up with the same balconies on the other ships making use of the windows and balconies very uncomfortable while looking into other passenger’s cabins.
While some excursion guides were very informed and knowledgeable about the cities and buildings some were less than informative and not very good.
