A Pleasant Surprize

Viking Osfrid Cruise Review to River Cruises - Europe

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 63

Overall rating:

4.9 out of 5
Viking Osfrid

9 Night Portugals River Of Gold (Lisbon To Porto)

Sail date: November 25, 2018

Ship: Viking Osfrid

Cabin type: Oceanview

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Portugal was not our first choice for the cruise - the Rhone cruise to the south of France was the first choice. However, because the Portugal cruise was the only one available in our desired time schedule we took it and boy, were we surpirized. It was a great cruise. Portugal was magnificent and our guides were exceptional as they were Portugese who are very proud of their country and did their utmost to show us the best that their country had to offer. They did a fantastic job. So, we got a great replacement for the Rhone which we will do at a later date. Porto, Lisbon and the Duoro Valley were definitely worth the visit. I am not a wine enthusiast but Port wines were great.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5
Activities on these river cruises are minimal but was not unexpected. Entertainment was a piano player and karaoke. On the last night we had traditional Portugese music sung by the Tuna which is a University of Porto vocal group. They were excellent and I wished they had performed longer than the hour that they did.

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Ship tip

It's a smaller ship than the ones that cruise the Rhine. However, it certainly meets all our needs especially since the crew and service staff were friendly, efficient and very knowledgeable.

Ports of call

Lisbon, Portugal

5 out of 5

VILA NOVA DE GAIA (PORTO), PORTUGAL

5 out of 5

Regua, Portugal

5 out of 5

Pinhao, Portugal

5 out of 5

Vega De Terron (Salamanca), Spain

5 out of 5
This worked out to be a very pleasant and fortuitous surprize. Ordinarily we would cruise through the last two locks to the Spanish border and spend a day in Salamanca. Because the last two locks were undergoing scheduled maintenance we were bused to Salamanca and spent an overnight there. We got a more in-depth visit to the city - one that we would not have gotten and we did not miss the most scenic part of the Douro river which ended at the first of the last two locks. I much preferred this change in the irinerary.

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
Viking has this process down pat. Also you are not allowed to board the departure bus until you identified which are your luggages.
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1 Comment

Gwbigdog     4 months ago

Thanks for sharing