We enjoyed our entire 18 days in France. It feels like Viking is cutting corners on their river cruises. Our pre cruise hotel in Paris was on outskirts and surrounded by road construction. The ships had just OK food and way over worked service staff. The restaurant staff were great, but short handed. Given we travel a lot, we have a lot of cruises to compare this trip to. We enjoyed the trip, but are not planning to book another Viking trip in the next couple years. We find other similar priced travel options to be more to our liking.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Very quick and efficient check in . We reserved the explorer ship, so room and bags were ready for us on arrival.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
We dined almost entirely outside on front bow of ship for lunch and dinner. Room service for all breakfasts. Service crew were great, but always rushed and short staffed. Food quality was OK, not great. We were on two different ships during our 14 days. We experienced a very bad French night buffet in main dining room that gets award for worst night. Long lines, cold food and extremely crowded. Awful. We found that dining outside in the warm summer air the highlight of the trip. Actual food OK. Service staff great, but they needed MORE HELP! Wine selection on drink package was diverse and interesting. I would guess cost cuts have resulted in lower quality food and service.
Onboard Activities
2 out of 5
The only activities are eating and drinking.
Entertainment
2 out of 5
Entertainment was a piano player. We had one music duo each one week trip. They were enjoyable. Expert speakers were just our cruise directors. Once again I would guess cost cutting has resulted in less Entertainment.
Children's Programs
No children allowed
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
The individual service staff were great. The actual services were just OK because they were clearly short staffed. It felt like they needed more crew. Why would your bar manager be a full time waiter too?
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Ships was clean inside. Issue was cobwebs all over our balconies and furniture. They were not proactively cleaning balconies or French balconies. On second ship I had to request cleaning several times. All our windows were dirty and never cleaned on the outside. The inside was maintained very well. Once again, were they short crew?
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
We had the largest suite on the back of the ship. The diagrams of room layout are not to proper scale, thus making rooms look larger then they really are. Rooms are nicely designed, but small. Balconies are also very small with very little room for two people and the furniture provided. We are so glad we got the big explorer suite, as the other rooms were so much smaller.
Ship tip
Overall we enjoyed the trip as our suite came with many extras like breakfast room service and laundry. The rooms are SMALL!
Transfer "guides" were not that helpful. A few of us were seated separately from guides and we were not told what stop to get off on in Lyon. We enjoyed the train ride.
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