Viking River Cruises
Reviews and Complaints

My wife and I booked a river cruise with Viking. The Rhine Getaway from Amsterdam to Basel, Switzerland on the longship Idi, starting 11-07-2015. Or at least the first days were on the Idi. Then after the Marksburg Castle we were cattle-car loaded onto a day boat with the passengers from another Viking boat for a 5 hour run up and back on a part of the river that the ship couldn't handle. 5 hours in one seat with a fried pork chop, canned mixed vegetables, french fries and cake.. No stop in Rudesheim. No German meal and music. No evening in Speyer after a short trip to Heidelberg. Instead we got a 3 hour bus ride to the middle of nowhere and feeble lounge entertainment. In the morning there was a 3 and 1/2 hour bus ride to Heidelberg and the same back to a matching Viking ship, the Kvistar, in the middle of nowhere. The next day, from the same nowhere, there was another bus ride to Strasburg. Back to the boat to get to Basel to just sit there to wait for the morning and a trip to the airport. Without a word from Viking, my wife and I took a rainy walk into Basel. If Viking says water level in the river was beyond their control I can accept that, it's obvious. But what troubles me is the fact that we bought their own travel insurance with the more expensive option of cancelling for any reason. They knew the water levels were extremely low before our trip even left the first port. On the night they finally told us we would be bus-ing it, they told us that the ship on the week before had hit the bottom of the river. If they had told us that we would not have gone and made the claim under the insurance. We complained to the Hotel manager on board and to the concierge. We told them to get us a plane home. They said we were 3 hours from any airport and that the cost would be entirely on us because we started the trip. They said we would find little if any recourse with "corporate" in California. We filled out their form at the end of the trip, asking to be contacted. It's been two weeks and not a word. We want and are entitled to financial compensation for their deceit. I have now done the on-line research about this company I should have done before booking the trip. If you look at you tube it is all smiles and positives, but look closer - looks to me like it's all done by Viking. I'm down-loading the you tube App so I can post reality. People deserve to be forewarned about this company.

We are leaving on a Rhine Getaway December 11th, 2015. This is our second trip with Viking. Our first was a very positive experience. Booking Number 2805035. We are traveling with friends. Last week we all got on a call and realized that we will not be arriving to our ship in Basil until after 5PM. We fly from Miami to London, then have a 4 plus hour layover, then fly to Basil. While our friends are all wandering the Christmas markets as promised in the advertisement, we will be enjoying the beautiful sights of the Heathrow airport. This may have been a good deal for Viking Air, it really ruins the first day of our trip. Flights are still available on Lufthansa that would get us there by noon. The Viking would not even speak with me because this was booked through a travel agent. The travel agent was on Vacation until today, however there is nothing he can do at this late date. Whom do I speak to about getting the first day of my trip back? At what point was it a good idea to fly us from Miami to London to fly us back to Switzerland? Our Viking Cruise last year at this same time was such a positive experience. Poor planning by Viking Air now has us second guessing if we should even go. The viking agent I did speak with was as sweet as puppies and ice cream and wanted to make sure I gave her all 5's on the survey, however they did nothing to remedy the situation

Romantic Danube River Cruse that became a Bus Tour November 1 to 8, 2015 My wife and I took the Viking Romantic Danube River Cruise departing Nuremberg (Erlangen) on 01-Nov-2015. After the second day of the cruise we were informed a decision had just been made that due to low water levels in the river, instead of sailing for the next two segments of the trip, we would be transferred by bus 1.5 hours to tour Passau and return by bus 1.5 hours to the docked ship for the night. The following day we boarded busses for the 4 hour ride to tour the Melk Abby and transferred to the Jarl’s sister ship the Atla. We were informed that a decision had just then been made that again due to low water levels, the ship could not make it to Budapest. Therefore, we were told that after our tour of Vienna the following day, we would return to the ship for the night. The following morning, we were again put on busses for the 4 hour bus ride to Budapest and installed in the Marriott hotel for the final night. My wife and I were staying on for two additional nights in Budapest at the Intercontinental Hotel and we requested that we be put there instead of the Marriott to avoid unpacking and packing again, but this request was not honored. During the Cruise, we were led to believe that the low water issue was a last minute occurrence and resulted in a last minute decision by the company to transfer us by bus. We ran into a number of other travelers during our stops in Regensburg and Vienna that had similar experiences with bus transfers and switching ships. Upon our return, we have read the various complaint boards and learned that the low water issue has been ongoing for part of the summer and in reality, this was not a last minute occurrence. We feel that we should have been notified in advance of our departure of the low water issue and been given the option to cancel our trip for a full refund. We specifically purchased the river cruise ($6, 235.99) to avoid having to pack, unpack, and repack multiple times as we traveled. We were also keen on the idea of SAILING along the Danube River! If we had desired a bus tour, we would have purchased a bus tour at substantially lower cost. We respectfully requested a refund of 50% of the cost of the River Cruise ($6, 235.99/2= $3117.99). We did received a call from Viking customer service offering us a $1000 credit on a future cruise. Obviously they don’t take customer service very seriously.

Had booked a Viking River Cruise for two (Danube Waltz) far in advance for cruise to start on 10/11/15 from Passau to Budapest. Deposit made and contract called for bal some 3 months prior to cruise. But 11 months before the cruise, was advised my booking was being cancelled due to non payment of $ due. Pointed out the written contract but still got cancelled out. Got 80% refunded w/20% taken as a penalty. Thank goodness the deposit had been put on a credit card and I got that 20% by filing claim w/the credit card co. Was upset at the cancellation as I had already booked my own airline tickets to/from Europe, forcing me to convert the trip to a land tour. But the land tour turned out really great, getting in all the major sights + more that was to be on the cruise. And it was done $3, 500 cheaper! After reading all the horror stories on Viking River Cruises, I am now very happy that they cancelled out my booking. Thank you Viking River Cruises! Thank you! You'll never see any more of my $.

My husband and I have received a change of itinerary for our 11/14/15 Danube Waltz cruise on extremely short notice. Viking is apparently aware of low water levels since before we booked this summer but we were not informed that a change may take place. The change involves checking in and out of a hotel and bus trips. I did not book a river cruise to take bus trips. I've been on the phone with Viking (getting customer relations on the phone was difficult) and they offer absolutely nothing to compensate for the inconvenience. I believe that's it's extremely unfair and unethical for Viking to not keep their travelers informed of circumstances that are a probable occurrence and not providing some sort of perk/compensation shows a lack of concern/commitment about the satisfaction of their travelers.

We booked a river cruise from Paris to Normandy for our 40th wedding anniversary which sailed Oct. 26, 2015 to Nov. 2, 2015. Our suite on the Viking Rinda was beautiful, although the pillows way too soft, the staff was very competent and the food good. However, one big problem was that we were docked in Le Pecq, France, not Paris as advertised in the Viking brochure. While Viking did advise us of this change a couple of months before departure, we were also told shuttle buses would be provided to and from Paris. However, there was a very limited number of buses provided to and from Paris i.e. one bus in the morning and two returning in the afternoon. If you are supposed to be docked in Paris and not the "parking lot" which was LePecq, there should have been multiple shuttle buses provided for the passengers. At the end of the cruise, those of us who booked a post tour extension to Paris were rushed off the boat on the morning of Nov. 2. The 24 passengers were on the shuttle to Paris at 9:15 am to arrive at the Paris hotel at 10:00am where the rooms were not ready until 3pm. While we understand they had to get the boat ready for the arriving passengers, we could have stayed in the lounge until later in the morning. Or, they could have provided a bus tour of Paris on the way to the hotel if they needed us off the boat so early in the morning. This was a very disappointing end to the cruise. Also, the day trip to Normandy included a two hour bus ride to and from Normandy which was not mentioned in the brochure. That meant 4 hours of bus time for a 10 hour day trip to Normandy. We were taken to the American cemetary and Omaha beach the last 2-1/2 hours of the tour. We should have been given more time at these sites.

As a previous traveler with Viking I was very disturbed that after booking reservations for three of us, Viking Air Department changed the reservations so that we could no longer travel together as we had been informed when our flight reservations were confirmed 2months ago. When Viking was contacted they said there "was nothing that they could do" to restore the flights that had been changed to separate our party. After numerous phone calls and frustrating conversations with the Air Department and promises to" call back and correct the problem", ( which never occurred). We were forced to book a flight directly with the air- carrier at additional costs. When Viking air Department was asked to problem solve the problem they created they failed miserably and refused to correct the problem. After a few minutes with the carrier the problem was solved by changing one leg of the flights which Viking could have easily done if they had attempted to problem solve rather than refuse to assist me as a customer, my attitude would be different. Incidentally the change of reservations was not discovered until after the deadline to cancel the cruise. The only option we were given was to cancel the air portion and trust that Viking would do the right thing, unfortunately the trust in Viking had already been destroyed. WE will not let the incompetence of the Viking Air Department ruin our trip even though we have paid for air transportation twice in order to travel together as planned . WE Have requested a full refund of the air portion of our trip on the Viking Star and we were told that the refund may not be possible by the agent at Viking. Please document any similar experiences that you may have had with this company, especially the viking air department.

As many previous reviews have expressed my husband and I were lured in by romantic commercials and false promises of a "cruise" Viking knew they would not deliver. We contracted for an Elegant Elbe" cruise from Prague to Berlin from September 17, 2015 to October 2nd. The company did not inform us that no ships had sailed since late June due to low water on the Elbe until Sept 11th when we were already in Europe and could not change our plans. I guess we were lucky (?) because many of the passengers were not informed at all. We were housed on their boats (2) and fed but spent many hours on buses for our daily excursions. To ease our collective unhappiness we were offered $1, 000 vouchers for future Viking cruises. To echo another disgruntled customer, "most expensive bus trip we've ever taken." Not only is Viking deceitful, it is stupid not to care about the amount of negative advertising it is getting as there have been hundreds of us just this fall alone. We all have friends, relatives, coworkers, etc.

Viking cruises booking 2530994 berlin to prague 10 september 2015. My wife and I recently completed this 'cruise'. We could have and should have been given more notice of the low water problem, but overall we enjoyed our viking experience, although we paid far too much for the coach tour that we experienced. The notice received only just before we left advised we would each receive a aud1, 000 voucher for future travel. (our booking was through the australian office). My complaint is that the guests on board from the usa were advised that they would receive a usd1, 000 voucher (about aud1, 400). Our travel agent took it up with the viking australia and got nowhere. Was told that the credit is for 1,000 in the currency of booking. Not only is this grossly unfair, it is also incorrect. The uk guests were advised that they would receive the equivalent of usd1,000 in uk currency.

My wife and I, along with friends, took a Viking Cruise on the Danube departing September 25th, 2015 from Nuremberg, Germany. It was planned to arrive in Budapest on October 1st. It did not. Our Viking Cruise was a total disappointment, with a significant under delivery in overall customer experience due to: 1) the excessive use of bus transportation with “claimed” low waters in the Danube, 2) Viking's lack of communication on this issue prior to our trip commencement and during its duration 3) a requirement to change ships (Viking Var/Tor) for the second half of the cruise, and 4) no completion of the trip in Budapest where we were promised an evening cruise to view this magnificent city by night. Viking well in advance of our departure knew of the low water levels. No option of canceling our trip was given. Here are the details. 1. We did not have a full and fulfilling River cruise, using bus transportation for the bulk of the trip to access towns and cities, including Passau, Melk and Budapest. Our cruise became the most expensive BUS trip we have ever experienced. The extent of our bus transportation reduced our time to experience these major cites to well below the quality that Viking committed to. One bus trip exceeded 4 hours. We even missed the first evening in Vienna and much more that was promised. 2. The extent of our river cruising on the Danube was approximately 90 minutes completing the Wachau Valley, disappointingly at the end of the day, in dark lighting. This was hardly the time to see this wonderful scenery, take great photos, and see the promised beauty of the rest of this leg of the river. This part of the cruise was promised to start at lunchtime. It did not. 3. Our trip was not completed. We did not finish our voyage with a promised evening River Cruise on the Danube in Budapest. Luckily, we had extended our trip, and purchased an evening cruise in Budapest with a local operator and experienced this magnificent city from the river, but incurred the additional cost. Viking could have figured out a way to deliver this end piece of the journey. We, as has many of our cruise colleagues have, informed Viking of our negative experiences with their Danube Viking Cruise, asking for refunds and credits. We have communicated via email to Joost Ouendag, VP Customer Relations, Jason Pashko, Head of North America, and Torstein Hagen, CEO of Viking. We have heard no replies after requesting for personal phone calls to better describe our experience. We have been left with Customer Relations Case Managers who have offered us a 25% credit on a future trip. Consistent with Viking's “divide and conquer” approach to customer complaints, they refuse requests for taking the issue to senior management, and have offered credits ranging from 20% to 35% on a future Viking Cruise for our cruise colleagues. This is ridiculous. Why would an organization the size of Viking offer differing compensation levels across customers on the same cruise, all experiencing the same shortfall in experience? How DISAPPOINTING!

Trip to Southern France on Sept 8, 2015. Three days into trip ship's generators broke down and stuck on the bank for 4 days. Replacement tours offered were a 3 hour bus ride for a 45 minute tour of a town and then a 3 hour bus ride back. Sat on the boat for 3 days, program director provided no other options-guests to discuss local products, tours to local areas, etc. Requested additional tours--only at additional price. Hotel Manager insensitive--"We didn't do this on purpose!" Offered "voucher" minimal amount that must be used in one year. Lack of sensitivity, caring, compassion by Customer Service-gave company line and run around. All they are interested in is booking and making money. Severe Acute Food Poisoning: Third day became very ill from food poisoning-ate no other food than what was on the ship-could not have contacted contaminated food from any other source. Several other passengers also became ill. Lack of sanitary conditions in food prep.

We just returned from a Grand European River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. Since we had heard rumors about water levels being low and some itineraries were being changed we contacted Viking several times prior to our departure. Each time we were told that out itinerary was NOT affected by low water levels and that we could be assured that we would sail from Amsterdam to Budapest. We even called the day before boarding and were told that our ship (the Mimr) was docked and waiting for our arrival the next day. When we arrived at the dock our ship was not there but a sister ship (The Vili). This was the first sign of trouble. Upon questioning the cruise director we were assured again that even though this was a sister ship there was no change in the itinerary. However, halfway through the trip we were told that we would be changing ships and would be bussed to our new ship location. This entailed packing, losing a day of the trip on the transfer bus and then unpacking on a new ship. Then two days before we were to end the trip in Budapest we were told that the water level did not allow us to go on. We were docked alongside 4 other Viking boats in a run down town and dock and spent 3 1/2 hours on a bus to Budapest and back to spend the night just to have to do it all over again the next day to disembark the boat. We understand that Viking has not control over the water levels but they should be honest about it so we could have chosen to take advantage of our cancellation insurance if we so chose. The ships and crew members were very nice and as advertised, but because of the deception and lies we do not recommend using this cruise line. Unfortunately we will not be taking the ocean cruise we were planning to take with them because of this experience.

We just returned from a much anticipated relaxing first River Cruise. We so looked forward to seeing the sights advertised by Viking not having to pack and unpack for a week. That didn't happen. The problem was low water in the Danube which caused us to miss many of the sights. No beautiful lit cities at night. No cruising into beautiful ports and having to change ships 3 days into cruise. We were not advised about the ship change until day before when they had to do this the previous 8 trips.After a total of 22 hours riding on busses in 8 days and very little free time (which was advertised) this trip was not so affectionately dubbed the "Romantic Autoban" by fellow cruisers. We had originally planned this trip for last April but were convinced by Viking sales that September would be better sailing. Wrong! Had we known we would have changed our date. (Trip insurance also)The staff was accommodating to a fault. They knew about the "deviation" but could not reply when asked about previous trips. Yeah, one day we got an extra free tour, a lunch and free wine/beer but it is our last Viking cruise. This was not a good value for the amount paid Viking. It is too bad that the highlight of the cruise was the three days prior we spent in Prague and the flight home. Very Disappointed! Feel cheated!

We returned on September 21, 2015 from the Budapest, cruise, post Prague trip and were very disappointed that we had to change ships midway through the cruise down the Danube. Not only did we have to pack all of our belongings, but we were subjected to another 4 hour bus ride! When we asked for compensation, we were basically ignored! The thing that is so disconcerting is the fact that this cruise was so expensive and the company knew well in advance that we would have to change ships. Upon reading complaints from other travelers, the situation has been repeating itself over and over. Deceit and dishonesty-we certainly will not be recommending Viking to any of our friends, nor will we be taking another cruise on that line.

We booked the Romantic Danube Cruise that departed August 28, 2015 from Nuremburg scheduled to Budapest. Three days prior to departure we were told of a vessel change but were not told that it was because the water levels were low and the boat could not get upriver. We had paid $12000 for one of the seven suites with balcony. The room was great but we were repetitively lied to by the cruise director about river conditions and the implications for the trip. Other than the Industrial Canal we had three one hour cruises in daylight rather than the promoted river cruising on our upgraded balcony. The boat never cruised south of Regensburg. The trip to Passau was an all day bus trip there and back. We had to pack and change boats from Viking Var to the originally scheduled Viking Tor which we met at Melk after another four hour bus trip. The next day we were told now we would also not cruise to Budapest but be bused in from 2 hours outside town and back again which meant almost no time in Budapest and no vaunted nighttime cruise under the romantic lights of Budapest. Every day the trip briefing was more bus tours and no cruising. All the bus trips also meant meals in moderate bus tour restaurants rather than the boat dining room The actual trip was nothing like the marketing. We had booked our own pre/post trip in Munich and Prague and they were great. I would have been happy to defer the cruise to another year or a different part of Europe had we been informed. The real disgust was finding out that the boats had not been down river for over a month-this was not some sudden change-it was avarice and disregard for customer loyalty. This was a bus tour not a cruise.

Booking #2357172. We are requesting a refund. We depart from 8/25/2015 at 11:25am on our way to krakow, poland for the 1st leg of our supposedly leisurely vacation. At 2:25 pm 8/25/2105 I received an email from, senior mgr, cust relations, viking cruises informing us that it would be unlikely that our ship would be able to sail, the itinerary changes and that is we wish to cancel our trip to call customer relations. Well it's is a little hard to cancel when you when you are inflight over the atlantic ocean. We later found out that the ships had not sailed for several weeks. Viking knew about this! Plus the fact the viking didn't even give us any notice until we had already left the usa. Viking can say well your cruise didn't start 8/29/2015 so we gave you plenty of notice by sending you the email on 8/25. We had booked with viking krakow pre-cruisetour extension... So doesn't viking keep track of us.
I'd say the problem with all of this is with viking cooperate didn't want to lose any money on this failed excursion and all the other people dissatisfied with being stuck in dry dock. It all comes down to the money!
Our flight out of chicago was delayed by 2 hrs causing us to miss our connection in frankfurt. We arrived at the krakow airport late. No one from viking to meet and take us to our hotel, transfers included. We tried calling different 800#s so that we could get someone to help us, but the numbers either didn't work or it was after hours. We finally found a lady that and she would call our hotel for us and the hotel sent out a car to get us. We wasted 2 hrs in the krakow airport! Again where was our viking rep?
Once we got to prague, we were told by our viking program director, that someone from viking would come and talk to us about our options and what was going to be done to make this trip right. We were told this many times and no viking rep ever showed! Viking never intended to have anyone come talk to us.
We spent extra money to have a nice room with a view and a sliding door that opened out so that we could enjoy the cruise down the river. Instead we were stuck in dry dock looking at brick wall on the beyla and on the astrild a muddy bank.
Also because you couldn't sail we had to get up early in the morning to go on these bus tours we didn't pay for a bus trip of germany... That is not a leisurely vacation in my book. If we had been notified in a timely matter I would have cancelled this trip and rescheduled.
The $1000 voucher each to spent on next years cruise. This trip cost us $14000. We are retired and how long do you think it took us to save up for this trip so what makes you think that we can afford another one next year!

We just arrived home from our cruise on Viking, from Nuremburg to Budapest. I have not yet contacted Viking or our travel agent with our complaints, but will be doing so later this weekend.

Viking was well aware of water levels for all rivers this season. There were postings on their site but were somewhat vague. I had been checking all sites about water levels before we left on our trip. Our travel agent also checked and assured us there were no issues. When we were at the airport in Boston waiting for our flight to Germany we received a call from our travel agent stating Viking just informed them we would have to change ships midway through cruise. But, no major interruption to itineraries. Ok, not too concerned, changing ships is not to bad, if we get the complete cruise experience.

We arrive at Nuremberg, ship docks in industrial area, ugly scenery. Ok, no worries. Tour of this area ok, ship staff ok. We start sailing, enjoyed sail to next port... this is when things got lousy. Had to start bus trip to and from ship, missed much of time we should have had in Passau. Ended up on bus for many hours to get to and from land tours. When we were docked we were "doubled" docked meaning a ship was next to us so our balcony view, which we paid extra for was the stateroom of the ship next to us. I felt like we were living in a cave.

When we approached Budapest we could not go into dock at Budapest, so had to dock an hour and a half away by bus, six hours cruise time. Saw hardly anything of Budapest, we were going to stay a few extra days to tour on our own but the cruise took the energy out of us, and we are young! We have traveled all over the world on our own, and realize one of our issues is we are not group travel people.

The food was ok, not superior. Staff was good, I would not want their job, especially when you have a ship of unhappy people.

One other issue, if you want a trip to meet people from other parts of the world this is not what you get. Almost 100% from northern America, which is fine, but not unique.

We understand Viking cannot control water levels or mother nature, but they can control notifying customers in a timely manner and giving options for later sailings. If we were aware of all the time spent on a bus and missing time spent in cities we would have rebooked for next year.

I would not recommend Viking. I feel like we wasted a lot of money. We could have had an exceptional trip in 5 star hotel's if we did a train or driving tour on our own.

Happy to be home!

Avoid Viking River Cruises. Failed to notify customers that its ships can cruise on the Elbe River.
Last year I booked a trip with Viking from Berlin to Prague for September 26. I selected Viking because of its advertising and supposed reputation.
Today, I was exploring their site and discovered a "change in itinerary" for our trip next week. The change is that their ships are docked and cannot travel on the Elbe River due to low water. The "river cruise" would have consisted of staying in a small floating hotel tied to a dock and bus trips across East Germany and the Czech Republic.
I was very disappointed that we were not advised of the water levels earlier in the summer when the problem first arose. Now that I have looked into it, it appears that the condition has existed all summer and Viking has not "cruised" on the Elbe River for a long time.
Viking "claims" that it had previously sent me a notification of the change in itinerary. That is simply false. However, I did get such a notification by email after I cancelled the trip.
A responsible company concerned with maintaining good customer relationships would have warned its customers of the expected difficulties at a time that would have allowed them to make other travel plans.
I am supposed to get a full refund but that doesn't compensate for ruining our long-planned vacation.

First I would like to tell you how disappointed we are with this. It started out that we did not receive your email on this until we were over the atlantic on our way to kraków. Second our flight was late leaving chicago due to mechanical problems so when we arrived in frankfurt we had missed our connecting flight. We called our travel insurance company who in turn told us to get in touch with viking. I attempted to contact viking, but it was 10 am in frankfurt so viking was not open yet. Third, when we finally arrived in kraków, no one from viking was there to transfer us. 2 hours later and several phone calls, someone finally came. Fourth, I contacted my travel agent in the states and she informed me that we were still sailing.. We did not sign up for land tour! Getting up and needing to have luggage out by 730, and on a bus by 8 is not a relaxing trip. This is not a relaxing trip. It has been stressful. If given the chance and time, we would have cancelled this trip, but since we were not notified in a timely manner, we were obligated to stay. Now you are offering a 1, 000 voucher on another cruise. This is unacceptable. We feel that since this has been going on for 6 weeks, a refund is in order. You have us pay for our trip 6 months before departing, I feel that you are obligated to give us more notice than days before we depart, especially since we added onto our trip months before we left. Please do not tell me that you wait until a few days in case the river goes back up. We all know that it would take days even weeks for this to happen. Now since we have changed ships, we are stuck in the middle of no where cannot walk into town, as it is 30 minutes walk! Stuck on a ship that is sitting on a smelly river until our motor coach comes to take us on the land tour.

We were informed that someone would be contacting us when we got home. We were also informed when we got to prague that a representative from viking would be at our welcoming meeting to visit with the people who were upset. No one from viking showed up except our program director. We have been home for 2 days and no one has bothered to call. This is also unacceptable. If I do not hear anything soon, I will be calling them! This was a joke of a vacation. We each spent $13, 944 plus (now tipping two boats staffs and bus drivers and tour directors) for a trip that was suppose to be a trip of a lifetime. I would have rather been on a land tour bus. This way we would have seen different parts of each country (and only would have to tip 2 people). But no, we were stuck on a dry docked hotel with a view of a cement wall at dresdan and a mud bank at wittenberg. Then with viking offering a $1, 000 voucher each. That is a slap in the face. I have to scrape and save for 2 years for a vacation like this. The land tours that they did do were all reptative. I could take a test on martin luther and ace it. There was also no time for shopping for souvieners. They did give us an opportunity on saturday in wittenberg from 3-430 pm to take us into the market, only problem with this is that the majority of the shops close at 2! The brochures that they print are very misleading, stating you have free time at the ports to do whatever you like. Bs! Maybe if we sailed this would have been true, but we were stuck at 2 ports, not several different ports. I am also upset that we had to pay extra to have viking change our flights, due to them not ticketing us for europe in a timely manner. You at least had us booked from des moines to chicago and back. If and when the contact us - or us contacting them, I will be asking for a monetary refund. This had been going on for 6 weeks, the boats had been drydocked since july, trying to move once and almost getting stuck. You can't tell us we are the only ones that are upset about this. I know of at least 90% of the passengers on the boat are just as upset if not more. It is not like the elbe dried up on our way to krakow. Even if it had started to rain the middle of the following week before we got there, it still would not have sailed.

ALERT! Before you go on a river cruise with Viking, hear my story.
Rhine river cruise from Amsterdam to Basel. Aug. 11th to Aug 18th on the Viking boat Hlin. My wife and I (and reportedly half the boat) got sick on Aug. 13th. We were both throwing up and I had diarrhea. My wife started to slowly get better after a few days but I didn't. I was in my cabin for the rest of the trip. I had cold shakes, but my body was hot. I started to hic cup with stomach acid coming up with every hic cup at 4 second intervals. My throat was burning along with my whole stomach. For 5 days I managed to eat a few crackers and drank a lot of water to try and relieve the stomach acid that was coming up. The Captain told everyone that there was an intestinal bug that was going around that their final report stated only lasted 24 hours. I got home and saw my doctor ( Aug.20th) and had blood work done. It showed that I had an internal infection caused by food poisoning. It has taken two rounds of antibiotics for two weeks to clear up this infection. Viking is taking no responsibility for the illness of their passengers. They are standing behind (with no doctor aboard) the Captains report of a 24 hour intestinal bug with only 5 percent of the boat getting sick.