Christmas Markets Cruise on the Danube by Viking River

Call Viking with your question to get a correct answer.

I did call Viking. Their answer was vague.

Doesnt look like there is much help on the first question. But you are here now, so use the forum for a little planning.

I am guessing that you are doing one of the tours below.

The first itinerary, I presume you sail at night and arrive in morning or during the night or …. But I assume you have all of Day 7 in Budapest. Day 8 they throw you off the boat? I don’t know, never did a cruise. But is that departure day? Because that means one day in Budapest.

The second reverse itinerary, I presume you arrive in Budapest and board the boat on Day 1. You pretty much lost that day. So you have Day 2 in Budapest. Again, that means one day in Budapest.

Regardless, you will need no less than three full days in Budapest (and most don’t run out of things to do with 5 days). So, extend the time. I have had friends do that through Viking and they paid a significant amount to do so and the Viking hotel was not a good choice. Plan your own extension.

Day 6 — Vienna, Austria, Day 7 — Budapest, Hungary, Day 8 — Budapest,
Hungary

or

Day 1 — Budapest, Hungary, Day 2 — Budapest, Hungary, Day 3 — Vienna,
Austria

Information on the Christmas markets: Christmas Markets:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/hungary/the-christmas-markets-open-soon-in-budapest

Question- please comment if you been on a Viking river cruise. We have
an excursion, through Viking, that doesn’t return until 7:45 pm. I am
hoping we’ll still get dinner:)

For goodness sakes you are in Budapest. Dont eat on the ship.

Restaurants:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/hungary/restaurants-in-budapest-revisited

We are arriving early so we have lots of dining opportunities. I am paying for the cruise so no need to spend more money than I have to

Hi puffycloudtsravel and welcome to the forum. It’s perfectly understandable you don’t want to spend more money than you already do. Are you familiar with the Cruise Critic forum? It’s a forum dedicated to all things about cruise travel. They even have specific forum about Viking river cruises https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?type=forums_topic&search_and_or=or&search_in=titles&nodes=115&q=Viking
You’ll have a better chance of finding someone who can help you there.