Viking cruise

Cruises are one of those things you either like or dislike. If you like going off and doing things on your own and eating in local restaurants, then don’t go for the cruise. If your comfort zone is traveling with a group of people with all your activities preplanned, you eat on the ship, and visit (but not experience) places, have mobility issues, then a cruise might be better. We did a Viking cruise a couple years ago (Budapest to Nuremberg) just because we were interested to see what they were like, and decided they are not for us. The cruise itself was very good, but not the way my wife and I prefer to travel. Our biggest issue was being on a schedule for everything. When you go on the pre planned tours, you’re going at the same time as every other river cruise boat in port, so there may be 40 groups of 25 people all being led around a town. Also, with Viking cruises, every tour guide and bus driver expect a tip at the tour’s end, so you continually feel like under pressure to give a tip.

It all depends on your preferred "travel style". River cruises are great if you are traveling with a large group, with a wide range of ages/interests/activity levels within a group, or if you have physical limitations that prevent you from exploring independently for lengths of time (and miles on cobblestones!). Also, the cruises can be a great introduction to European travel as they include local tours with local guides at each stop. Another plus is that you get to unpack for an entire week! The food is delicious; there is usually at least one local specialty available for dinner each evening. If you prefer planning your own trips and exploring independently--especially on your own schedule--then it is not a best fit. If you do decide to take a river cruise, be sure to arrive at least two days before AND plan for two additional days after your cruise--most of the cruises do not provide very much time to explore the cities where the trips begin and end. Believe me, you will want more! Regarding train from Berlin to Munich--very easy. Travel time is about 4.5-5.5 hours, depending on time of day/number of changes. If you can commit to a travel date in advance (up to six months), tickets are available on a direct ICE train for as little as 29.90 Euros/person. If you have not traveled by train in Europe, a wealth of information is available on www.seat61.com. Hope this helps!

To save a few Euro, buy your train ticket in advance at www.bahn.com. But I guess if you can afford the cruise, ....

I haven't done this cruise but we did take a Viking cruise about 5 years ago with 2 other couples. We have also had about 17 trips to various locations in Europe on our own and planned by us. We are currently making plans for a trip to China in September. I have to say the knocks on Viking always baffle me. If you pay attention and are a little flexible, you can do many cruises for $2500 pp or less with airfare for free or less than $500. (In fact our Danube Waltz cost us $1500 per person and airfare was free)

Certainly the cruise sets the itinerary but how much control of you give up of what you do and see is totally in your hands. The ships are usually berthed somewhere convenient to the city center and pubic transportation. We usually had breakfast on the ship and then joined the bus tour for the AM tour, which was often an overview of the city with stops. We told our guide and left the trip in the city center or close to it before the bus returned to the ship at lunch time. We never ate lunch on the ship and rarely ate dinner there either, so we were most often on our own exploring for 6-8 hours a day and eating our meals at local places, experiencing local food.. We got familiar enough with public transport where it was available that we used it to get around and get back to the ship before its departure. Our itinerary included Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna and Linz which at that time was the start of a 90 minute bus ride to Saltzburg for the day. They were all places we wanted to see but not enough to want to build our own trip around them.

There were local tours with local guides at each stop in our time, the bus overview in the morning and another more focused in the afternoon (which we skipped in favor of our own planning). Unpacking once and having your hotel move with you was great and we did enjoy the cruising portions of the trip which, as I recall were mostly at night but also 2 mornings. We found the staff engaging, stunningly well travelled and so willing to share their tips about where to eat and what special off the beaten track spots there were in each city/town.

And it was some time ago, but no tour guide or bus driver had their hand out for a trip. There was no expectation of tipping and, as far as I can recall, no tipping. At the end of the cruise, there was a letter from the cruise line about tipping your room, dining and bar staff. Their suggestion was to tip x put it on your ship's bill and it would be distributed. We talked to the bar guy we like and the woman who cleaned our room and they said they did. in fact, get that money. So we did that, handing out some additional to the people who had been so helpful to us during the cruise.

So is it perfect? no. But when I plan our 3 week trips I sadly admit that none of them have been perfect either. We didn't stay long enough in York, we stayed way too long in Tuscany, We were stupid about food in Bayeux, we spent hours trying to return our rental car in Granada and it took us a very long time to figure out how to get to the top of the cliffs at Etretat, Overall, I would say that river cruises have strengths and weaknesses, just like every other form of travel you chose. But don't let anyone convince you that it is deeply flawed way to travel and that you are sort of a less curious traveler.

Kate, I wasn’t knocking Viking, I said the cruise was fine; just not our traveling style. We took our cruise in 2015. We too got the envelop at trip’s end. One for the cruise director and one for other staff. Unfortunately and without exception, it was mentioned on every tour that tipping was appreciated. While nobody literally pressured anyone to tip, the staff was positioned in such a fashion that you had to pass the guide and driver on the way off the bus. They didn’t open the bus’ back door so you had to go out the front past the staff. We very much felt that there was an expectation of tipping. The cost of a cruise is irrevelant since that is dependent on a number of factors, as is the cost of non-cruise traveling. We did an additional 3 days in Prague and Viking did an excellent job with the arrangements and transportation. Glad you take advantage of traveling. More people should travel. We try to travel overseas at least twice a year and are getting ready for our 28th trip since 2002.

Mgeerkev.

I see this is your first post on this forum.
If you have read RS books, you'll know that most folks here like it cheap and do it yourself.
Our first trip in Europe was a river cruise in Europe up the Danube from Budapest to Prague on AMA. I would encourage you to look into the various river cruise companies.
We LOVED it! No stress, No issues in finding food. We ate on board B,L, D... WOW the food was great. We were not with a large group, but found very like souls and ending up having dinner with them every evening.
We all took various tours during the day.. my husband liked the alternative biking tour. And we had options for Active, Average or Gentle tours.
We have not done this particular tour... I might add that train travel in Germany.. get the stuff right, they don't mess around. We were in Munich in the fall.
We have taken 2 more river cruises after this first one. We have gone on a RS Tour. And we have taken Road Scholar tours. We are going totally rogue this year!

Thank you all for your input.