Viking River Cruise not worth the time or money

I’m so sorry. I guess you just reinforced the need that we all should do extensive homework before any traveling these days. I had read before that there’s been problems with river levels and as you mentioned the boats all dock up against one another, not exactly the image shown in their advertising. Thank you again for sharing.

Sorry the whole experience was not what you had hoped for but thanks for sharing as it provides food for thought.

A European river cruise has been on my radar and it is instructive to hear all stories, positive and negative, surrounding them.

I have reached the stage in my life where the juice has to be worth the squeeze. Of course there's no guarantees in travel (or life) but I do want to make the most informed decision possible beforehand.

Sorry you were disappointed with your trip. The vast majority of your complaints are unfortunately problems with all river cruises, and isn't confined to Viking.

Same thing happened to a friend, buses and more buses. But a cousin booked a river cruise with Uniworld. The levels were too low and the company emailed them before they left. They had the option to cancel with a full refund. Which they did.

Sorry your trip wasn’t what you had planned. Hopefully your next trip will more than make up for this one.

I think Cruise Critic readers would appreciate reading your review.

Your report does not surprise me. We don’t care for Viking for many reasons but most of the problems you encountered would be the same on any river cruise. Water levels are up to nature.
Being berthed right next to another ship is a risk you take with river cruises. It happens frequently.

Thank you for this report. It is helpful to know what little compensation Viking offered AND, most importantly, that they knew of the river conditions and failed to inform you. I have read about water levels being problematic and that there is the possibility of berthing next to another boat. The berthing wouldn’t bother me much because I would be on excursions during the day anyway. Viking not being upfront about the water levels is VERY disappointing indeed. My cousin and I may rethink the idea of a river cruise with Viking. We were interested in the 8 day Regensburg to Budapest tour.

For others considering Viking, there are plenty of Youtube videos on European river cruises, most of which will mention some of the problems you mentioned, especially docking side by side.

I doubt that you are entitled to any refund. It sounds as if they got you from your start point to your end point and provided you with all meals and accommodation as booked.

They actually incurred extra costs in chartering buses and other boats.

All Ocean and River cruise lines have a catch all clause that they can amend all or any points of call, and the means of transportation at any time and for any reason, either before or during the cruise. Sure it's all in the small print, but the onus is on the customer to read that small print. You will have ticked a box to confirm that you did so.

River Levels (low or high) can change at some pace due to the weather, and may well be so at different sections of the river.

I am no lover of the Viking style of cruising by the way and the dominance they have in the river market.

While the OP may be have been able to alleviate some of this with more research, it sounds like Viking really dropped the ball by failing to disclose the water level issues. Please keep that in mind

Also keep in mind that the Viking commercials, which I see everytime I watch Masterpiece Theatre on PBS, certainly do not show the conditions that the OP spoke of. We all realize that ads are exaggerated but we still get sucked into the romance and sometimes get screwed. No reason to lash out at someone because they didn't do enough research to please you.

So sorry that this trip was a disappointment for you.

For others who may still think that they might like to try a river cruise, I am going to suggest considering Nicko River Cruises. This is a German Company that provides similar itineraries at a fraction of the price. I have not gone on one (yet), but the you tube reviews I have seen have been excellent. The cruise is bi-lingual with everything in both German and English.

https://www.nicko-cruises.de/en

I’m sorry for your experience. A river cruise is not at all appealing to us for this reason (the huge cost and the water level issue). My mother is an avid ocean cruiser, but gave a Viking river cruise a try and she did not care for it at all. She said there were no good public areas to play cards and the food was not good.

These issues with Viking have come up before on this board, but it's a good to post your experience for newcomers to see. I am so sorry this happened to you.

By the way, a few years ago another Viking passenger posted that they ended up with a bus trip that stayed in hotels on the outskirts of cities. Their boat couldn't navigate at all, but they saw boats from other companies sailing without problem. In response, someone wrote that the European companies have less difficulty with low water because their boats are designed to be able to continue sailing in the low water, unlike the Viking riverboats.

...the Viking commercials, which I see everytime I watch Masterpiece Theatre on PBS, certainly do not show the conditions that the OP spoke of. We all realize that ads are exaggerated but we still get sucked into the romance and sometimes get screwed. No reason to lash out at someone because they didn't do enough research to please you.

So true Mardee. Those commercials never show people climbing over other boats to get to the dock, or riding around on buses.

I am just going to say that I have relatives who’ve taken about 10 Viking cruises and I’ve seen the videos and the pictures so every cruise does not go through this experience( they would never have gotten back on after the first cruise if they got this experience.)

Now, they call before the cruise and ask about water levels because of a bad experience on another cruise line. And did get told when they called one time that water levels were a problem they went anyway and their cruise worked OK but the one behind them was a disaster because of water levels. They may not be willing to call you, but you can call them .

Sadly the river level issue is here to stay. As the Alps have lost their glaciers, rather than a slow release of water, a fast thaw is seen, so flooding in the Spring, and low water levels the rest of the year. Just changing patterns.

I agree Viking (and other cruises) needs to be more up front about the issue, they skim over it as an "occasional problem" rather than a frequent problem, I do not recall a recent year where water levels were sufficient for the season.

They probably also feel that actions like using buses, switching boats, moving parts of the cruise to smaller excursion craft, are "providing equivalent options", and they probably state something to that effect in the T&C s of the cruise fine print; so not requiring any compensation.

We have no concrete plans yet but we do want to give river cruising a try. We'll probably do the Rhine cruise from Amsterdam to Basel and follow it up with a trip through Colmar and maybe up to Vimy Ridge Memorial (bucket list) before flying out of Paris; or perhaps meander our way back to Amsterdam.

Hi maddieroman2, sorry you had a bad experience. We’ve done 8 Viking cruises (5 ocean, 1 expedition, and 2 river), and found that the company is a good fit for us.

Honestly, I think customer service is one of the company’s strengths. We were on an ocean cruise to New Zealand and Australia in March 2020. Australia closed its borders mid-way through our cruise and Viking went far beyond what we expected to be sure everyone got home safely. We made our own air reservations but Viking offered to fly us home (for free) if we were unable to change our reservations. A few days later they contacted us and offered a very generous credit. We were never asked to sign a non disclosure statement.

I guess we were lucky with our 2 river cruises. We didn’t have any issues with water levels but we were aware that it could happen. In all our cruises, we never missed any ports.

If you do decide to cruise again, check out Cruise Critic. You’ll find good info and helpful people. I’ve learned a lot from them.

So sorry for your very dissapointing river cruise. We have done 2 Viking river and one ocean cruise. We enjoyed them all. We were fortunate the river levels and locks allowed us to make all our destinations. We knew beforehand there was a risk involved with river levels. A risk you take and I was sure hoping we did not need to be bussed and change ships! And no surprise that ships have to pull up next to each other to dock. I think river cruising is not your thing. I hope you find a trip next time that meets your expectations and you have wonderful experiences to share.

Thank you for sharing your experiences, maddieroman2. I haven’t taken a Viking river cruise, and, despite the lavish appearance on their commercials, don’t believe I’ll be first in line to take one now. For over $30,000 one might expect a sublime tour, or at least not what turned out to have elements resembling a Viator bus tour.

Way back when I owned a sailboat, it wasn’t uncommon for boats to raft up, tying alongside one another. I’m stunned to read that that’s common practice with luxury river cruises, and would never have expected that on a Viking ship!

Reading about what you encountered, and using some food analogies to describe some of it, it’s as if you ordered Chateaubriand, and were served a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Or instead of oysters on the half shell, receiving a discarded tuna cat treat. Or even instead of getting a small cup of gelato, getting a wad of used gum.

And signing an NDA!?!?! Clearly they’ve got things they want to remain hidden. That’s so generous of them to issue a 3 1/3 percent credit for future tours. It’s often said that you get what you paid for, although you really did’t.

After all that, it could’ve actually been worse … it could’ve been your luggage that they lost!

Amsterdam has 5 river cruise ports, because of the number of river cruise ships now in use. But at the main one, between the Ocean terminal and Central Station, it is quite usual to see vessels breasted up for embarkation and disembarkation.

On peak days there are probably more river cruise passengers in Amsterdam than Ocean cruise.

All those ships end up on fairly similar itineraries. If they berthed in a line at the popular ports on the way east you would need very long docks, and then have complaints about the walking involved.
River cruising has burgeoned and evolved. With it comes inevitable capacity issues with berthing. It never used to be the luxury style that many of the main river lines are now, or so port intensive.

Also the major rivers of Europe are first and foremost trading rivers. If things are congested (especially at locks) freight takes priority, just as on American railroads.

@Bets comments are interesting, suggesting that Viking ships may be deeper drafted than the European competition, so needing more water depth.

I like the looks of Nicko cruises, given by Carol NR. There are some very interesting cruises on there, along some of the less well known rivers- which will have far less overcrowding of vessels, and the North German rivers should have less issues with water levels, but be no less interesting a cruise scenically, and by way of port calls.
I am really interested to see that their Ocean ship is the Vasco da Gama, ex the Pacific Eden of P and O Australia, ex Cruise and Maritime Voyages (the only one of their ships still in service). A really lovely ocean ship with a style all her own. I am so pleased to hear that she survived the CMV collapse and still thrives.
At the start of Covid she and CMV Columbus had a mass and probably unique transfer of passengers at sea as CMV tried to repatriate passengers after ports worldwide closed.
I was one of those on the voting panel to rename her when she moved to CMV, from a shortlist of 3 or 4 explorers names.
If the V da G is also their river style there is much to recommend them there. They have a different price point, and it sounds like a style more akin to what I think of as authentic river cruising.

I think the OP had logical expectations and did logical research in planning a trip that should have gone better if Viking had made a greater attempt to make lemonade out of those sour lemons.

Regarding the notion of researching water levels before a cruise, if I told you the river level in Budapest today, could you actually tell me if the boats would be sailing? There are something like 14 locks between Budapest an Passau, so you would have to make the same analytical evaluation between each set of locks. That “research” would take a university degree on the subject.

The river is lower now because the glaciers are gone out of the alps;
and now we just get flooding.

First, no they are not gone.
Second the alps make up a tiny, tiny, tiny bit of the Danube watershed and there are 18 sets of locks between the alps and Budapest.
Third, there has been no increase in flooding. Flooding is rare and localized when it does happen (again, 18 sets of locks).

Viking boats have a greater draft.

True. As much a couple of feet more than many similar boats. And? Having run the hydraulic calculations on 18 locations along the Danube river and crossed referenced that with sailing dates and schedules I have come to the conclusion that I have absolutely no idea of the affect of two additional feet of draft. Maybe on a rare occasion Viking sits in dock when smaller boats don’t; maybe it happens a lot. No idea.

What is true is water levels tend to be higher in the Spring after the thaws and as a result of Spring rains. Also true that if the river is way up, like it was here a few weeks back, the boats get stuck because they cant get under the bridges or maybe some were stuck because the current was too great (it was pretty amazing). So, its always a crap shoot. I would tend to favor smaller boats then a Viking in hopes of a little better service when things do come up.

Sorry for your disappointing trip.
1) Viking should have warned you about the water levels prior to boarding. However, I know all the river cruise companies WARN you when you sign up for the cruise that water levels may result in bussing or shifting to another ship.
2) We have done five river cruises and all were great. Even when we did the Douro River with another company there were some issues with water levels, but we simply boarded the ship at another port. Still, our cruise was great. Don't give up on river cruises they are great. Loved the one in Russia and the Nile.
3) 30K for two, WOW, we have never spent that for a cruise of any kind. Our most expensive one was a Celebrity cruise and tour to the Galapagos Islands and it was about half that. We find that we spend little time in our cabin. The smaller river cruise ships have great areas to see the countryside in a spacious bar/entertainment area. Consider cheaper options next time.
4) Viking has generally excellent reviews, but we have never used them since we always compare Viking with several other river cruise companies. For example, we had a wonderful Egypt tour that included two three day Nile cruises as well as land tours. Viking was almost double the price of what we paid Gate 1 Travel for virtually the same tour.

We took a Viking river cruise in 2015 because it was something we were curious about. Afterwards we know it’s not our type of vacation. Our cruise also had low water levels and we too had to swap ships. We had an ok time, but for the price, it wasn’t worth it. Live and learn.

I actually priced some Viking River cruises for this coming spring because. I was thinking about but decided not to go that route.

But I do have to admit the price the poster is quoting seems very high from what I was seeing Now they probably paid for a top-tier cabin, and that’s the difference, but having a top-tier cabin Won’t change some of these facts

The other thing that seems low is the compensation. One of my neighbors did have a bad experience on the cruise line. I don’t know what happened because I don’t remember. But basically the end result of their complaint to Viking was practically a new cruise this summer for free. And because they’ve done several cruises with them before they are more than happy with the outcome I do know but they told us what was going on so I doubt an NDA was actually involved.

I don’t think they’re really for me, but I think for the right person they’re probably a good option. My aunt and uncle for example, they older and both have some vision problems so driving in Europe is no longer possible. They found this much better than any bus type tour they had ever tried considered - so for them it was a really good option.

People start making reservations a year in advance. It's pretty hard to predict water levels that far in the future. Our Rhine cruise (and I suspect other rivers) did the majority of cruising at night so as to maximize the day time in port cities. Port cities do not all have pretty, scenic docking areas. They were pretty busy industrial zones on most of our stops, and much of the river was too, for that matter. And there are a ton of other boats doing the same thing at the same time. I don't think Viking can control most of that.

I am friends with a couple who paid just as much for their Viking cruise, in fact a bit more, than the OP.

On their cruise, they had to spend a few nights at the Ritz Carlton in Budapest instead of on the boat. This must have been a common enough occurrence that the Ritz Carlton had enough rooms for all the passengers with what the passengers thought was short notice.

There are only 2 cabins for that 15-day itinerary at the rate the OP quoted. For example, for the May 26, 2024 sailing the explorer suite is $17,999 and the veranda suite AA is $14,999. Standard cabins are $5,999. There are 61 cabins on a river cruise and, once on board, everyone is treated exactly the same.

I failed to mentioned in my previous post our Viking cruises were nowhere near the price the OP paid. We prefer lowest cost staterooms. On a small ship we book inside cabins. One can easily spend time on various decks outside of cabin. Much less costly!

Yikes, $30K, or even higher. Yowza.

Vikings: Causing headaches across Europe for over a thousand years.

You'd think that by now, people would have figured out that we are nothing but trouble.

(Sorry, couldn't resist. Spoken with pride, from this descendant of Norwegians 🇳🇴)

I think these river cruises are not for me, despite my ancestry. Gotta admit, though, their commercials on PBS are indeed very well done.

Thanks for the interesting and revealing trip report! This confirms my attitude about river cruises and I don't plan to ever take one!

I seriously considered a river cruise for my fall 2024 trip and I researched probably 10 different cruise lines. I also was initially looking at Viking but quickly struck them off the list. Why? Because of negative reviews on YouTube, CruiseCritic and this site. (And thanks to you all who suggested Youtube and CruiseCritic). There are so many other lines that are not advertised in the US. And I agree the PBS adverts are appealing.

I must say I was shocked by the cost of the river cruises. I also did not care for the structured environment with meals as I tend to be a night owl. Also, the boats docked side by side was a negative for me. In the end, for less than 1/2 of a 7 night river cruise I will be spending 14 nights on a Med cruise. Does the med cruise hit all the areas I wanted to visit without an hours long bus trip? No. But I get 14 nights on the Med with stops I can enjoy on my own.

These river cruise lines wouldn't be successful without people signing up. Definitely one way to travel. They are just not for me. Same reason I have not signed uo for an escorted land tour.

Thank you for sharing your experience and sorry about the would’ve/should’ve comments! It’s good to hear about some of the issues first-hand when a boat tour is very dependent on river levels. There were water level issues back in 2003 when we were on a Rick Steves tour that was possibly going to affect our afternoon river excursion. But, we were able to go.

I saw some of the side-by-side docking on a river in Europe and agree, that’s not what anyone would enjoy! My quick glance looked like the balconies were totally in a dark shade because of that arrangement, too.

I am sorry for your experience.

Unfortunately there have been difficulties due to low water levels for at least the past several years. Enough so that even I, who have never taken a river cruise, have reminded people who posted here to be sure to look into that when considering signing up for a river cruise.

I hate that because I think I would love to do one along the Rhine or the Danube - especially to have taken my parents on one as an easier means of traveling for them (but now it wouldn't be possible for them to even make the journey to Europe, much less make any kind of trip once here).

I took the Luciole Barge River cruise about 6 years ago. It was lovely. The food was great. We never rafted up with other boats. It's a slo-mo way of travel. There are cruises throughout Europe and the UK. I can't vouch for any others, but I am wondering if the flat bottomed barges might have an easier time when the water level drops.
Just a thought.

Our neighbors also got the "bus and hotels on the outskirts of town" treatment when taking a Viking river cruise, according to my neighbor. But you can see and do a lot more things for a fraction of the cost with a little self-initiative.

We can take about five trips to Europe for $30K. A standard cabin for $6K? We do better than that for 10 days in Europe including airfare. And I'm not playing a guessing game with water levels. Not worth the risk.

Sign an NDA lol? Nope. That's just sad.

Regarding commentary about the cost of the trip vs the cost of travel more frequently discussed in this forum...

Absolutely two different travel styles.

Absolutely no right way / wrong way - just the best way for each individual.

Hello all,
Wow I didn’t think many people would have very strong opinions on an honest opinion haha.
Look, I’m not online that much and honestly probably won’t come back to this but I just wanted to say something about my experience in case anyone else is on the fence about taking a Viking cruise.
I don’t expect any commiseration or sympathy, we still had an ok vacation, but had I read something like this first, I may have opted to take a less expensive cabin or travel differently.
I left the review here because normally I’m a traveler in the Rick Steves style… immersion and exploration with a guidebook and good walking shoes.
This time we tried something different and I found it lacking. That’s all. Take it how you like. Safe and wonderful travels to all.

maddieroman2, thank you for sharing. I have heard about the low water levels as well, but have still entertained the thought of a river cruise. Your post, and the subsequent posts (minus a few comments) have been a helpful emphasis for extensive research should we decide to take a chance on a river cruise. (I know I am not interested in an ocean cruise.)

I’m glad you came back, OP, and glad you made the post. We took this tour in 2018 and at that point I never read anything about boats parking next to each other. Like you, I was disappointed to be staring into a cabin on another boat as opposed to a view. On our Viking cruise last summer we opted for the French balcony instead. Knowing about the impact of the high or low water levels and then seeing how it actually changes your trip are different things.

Even scrolling through Cruise Critic doesn’t necessarily give you details related to your situation. The more information people have, the better chance they have of selecting an experience that meets their expectations. We’ve done three Viking cruises and I’ve been disappointed not to be able to find more reviews of their shore excursions. In one case for us, a Viking shore excursion promoted a visit to the Lipinzzaners in Vienna. We got to visit the empty arena and then walk by the horses in the barn (no touching). Viking wasn’t wrong in their advertising, but we pictured something more engaging. So, the more you know, the better choice you can make.

Naddieroman2-If my post was considered "snarky" I apologize. It was not intended to be. I wanted to point out that there are SO many cruise lines not familiar to many US citizens and that the recommendations to look at YouTube videos and logging on to CruiseCritic were helpful to me.

maddieroman2

Your post is why there is a forum. I think you had reasonable expectations about your cruise and it sounds like you knew going into the cruise these things could happen. More or deeper research would not have prevented the issues you encountered. It is unfortunate this happened on a 25th anniversary celebration. I think your review is a good warning about the possibilities of a low water chain reaction of problems.

It always comes down to how a vendor handles the mishaps. It sounds like Viking tried, but they fell short on providing a satisfactory experience. The last thing vendor's part with is money because they have to cover their expenses. They had a chance to really make your special trip better after the fact and failed to satisfy again. $1k credit on $30k is insulting. Massive upgrades and at least 10% of your spend on another Viking cruise would have been worth an NDA.

Your review should give a pause to those contemplating a river cruise because your experience isn't that unusual. Happy 25th anyway.

On the low water issues. I looked and looked and looked trying to find how often that messed up a trip. I couldnt find any statistics at all. So I just looked at the news feeds for a number of years. It seems that the cancleations and land tour substitutes are so few that they are news worthy. I found the news in 3 out of the last 10 years. So, at a minimum, for some short period of time (week? month?) at some point on the Danube, once every 3 to 4 years boats have issues.

the newly reworded Community Guideline number 9 reads like this:

Observe the following with unsolicited bad reviews. For the Original
Poster (OP) sharing their experience: Your review should be 100%
focused on what will help others, not an outlet for you to complain or
seek emotional support. Stick to the facts and strongly avoid any
emotionally charged statements and broad generalizations. Expect
questions about your experience to find out exactly how or why
something went wrong. Expect replies that give advice about how the
experience could have been avoided. Expect replies that consider the
other side of the story and not yours. These responses are helpful for
our community so that they can make the best decision for themselves.
For replies: Replies should avoid any form of judgement. Don't pile
on. An obvious mistake to you was not obvious to them, so don't be
rude about it.

I think that what is discussed in that guideline is exactly what happened here, in most respects.

it is a shame that maddieroman2 didn't see the Community Guideline 9 before posting because the Webmaster makes clear what sort of replies a first post as unsolicited bad review would likely get. I'm sorry but written words feel different than when you can see and or hear the other person. As you see from the guideline, the posts are meant well.

it is a shame that maddieroman2 didn't see the Community Guideline 9.

The only time I've ever read the Community Guidelines is when the Forum Seniors quote them. Or when the Webby writes me to say Nuh-uh. Highly unlikely a 1st timer would even think to go there.

Nigel, I get that but I think periscope is right in that very few people read the Community Guidelines until they've been here for awhile. And I would point out that the guideline also says the following:

For replies: Replies should avoid any form of judgement. Don't pile on. An obvious mistake to you was not obvious to them, so don't be rude about it.

I do think many of the replies here were a bit judgmental.

Mardee, you are correct.

Personally, I dont think the OP made a mistake. Low water can happen anytime of the year and no amount of research will change that. I noticed that none of our experts mentioned the threat of high water? There are no statistics that I can find on how often this happens, so it must not be too terrible or I would be reading "Viking cruises go by bus 38% of the time". Instead I read "ive taken 8 viking cruises and never happened to me". Well, how do you research that? Its a crap shoot. And generally speakig the reviews are pretty good. But "stuff happens"

Thank you maddieroman2 for your report on Viking. It pushed me over the top and I’ve decided not to book a river cruise in the foreseeable future. With global warming, who knows what the river water levels will be today compared with 2-3 years ago. Again, I appreciated your critique.

Hi everyone,

I almost just deleted this whole thing. For the sake of retaining the OPs efforts so that others can learn from her experience, I've cleaned out a lot in this thread. Folks, this takes HOURS to handle. Far too many posts required some form of change. Some posts were preserved with an adjustment in tone. Others removed. Others adjusted because the reference was removed. Others adjusted because they were commenting on and furthering discussion about the problems (Guideline #4). I did retain Nigel's post because I'm using it and a few replies after as a reminder of the expectation re Guideline #9. To the OP and others reading along, I hope you find that reading through this thread is copacetic and helpful.

Unsolicited negative reviews are always troublesome in our forum format. We all need to do our best to ensure that our posts are not just intended to be polite, but are received politely by the OP and others given the negative context of the OP's experience. I'm not asking for folks to gush and only provide emotional support. The first reply here is a good example of how you can indicate that taking extra time for research is good advice without making it something else as others did. Avoid judgement, dismissive comments, and be a bit extra polite if you have to with such reviews (many did that, thank you!)

Lots of good advice is typically shared in response to these threads, and the OP's experience is valuable. All that is threatened when Guideline #9 is not followed. We just don't have time to deal with tone issues across a whole thread.

Thanks to everyone for doing their best moving forward. I recognize the scenario of negative reviews is inherently problematic, but its worth doing our best to keep these for the benefit it provides other travelers. Thanks everyone!