Viking River Cruise Danube

We go on a River Cruise once a year - we've been on all the lines - Viking, AMA, Avalon, Tauck, Uniworld, Scenic - Viking is our least favorite for so many reasons. Viking advertises the most and floods our mailbox with brochures, so it's the one most book with - but it certainly isn't the best - there are so many other better options.

Welcome, first time poster.

I went on the Viking Danube Waltz cruise two weeks ago and I loved everything about it.

We had the next room up from the Veranda Staterooom (the one with the separate sitting room) and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I spent a lot of time on the balcony while we were cruising. Docking time next to other ships was minimal; sometimes we were the inside ship and other times we were the outer ship. This wasn't specific to Viking; we were docked with multiple other cruise lines. If I was actually on the ship and wanted to look outside, I went up to the upper deck.

I didn't spend any time watching TV so I can't comment on that aspect of our cruise.
I didn't order any soft drinks either. When I had a glass of wine outside of meal hours I thought the price was extremely reasonable. I think the pre-cruise materials state that soft drinks are covered by the Silver Spirits package (which I didn't need and didn't buy).

The only excursions cancelled on our cruise were two of the three biking excursions, cancelled by the local provider due to rain. There were other excursions available both days.

Our stateroom and bathroom was immaculate and very comfortable and well cared for by our lovely room steward (who, along with the rest of the crew, was wonderful and really spoiled us.)

No weird smells on our ship, but in Bratislava when walking through another line's ship's common area (Emerald, I think) to to go into the city, there was quite a terrible sewage smell that I didn't smell on our ship at all.

Our docking location in Budapest was next to the Chain Bridge, which was super convenient to the city center. It looked like there was sort of an outdoor nightclubby place next to the docking location, but I never heard any music of any kind from it.

What I spent on my cruise was 100% worth it and I would love to do another one with Viking. I have my eye on the Eastern European Danube cruise, though they have far fewer sailings for that route and many are already nearly sold out for 2025.

How many times someone has posted is immaterial. You paid a lot of money for what turned out to be a crappy experience. But those commercials on Masterpiece are really impressive.

A lot of people love Viking River Cruises, and I admit to being tempted; but at the end of the day I think I'll pass

How long did you stay in Budapest after arrival on the ship?

The first day was in Budapest. That night was a tour. The next day was a day tour there as well, then off to Bratislava that night.
So a day, a night, a day…then ship moved on.

thx. now i understand.

We aren’t huge TV watchers, but when you are thinking of taking public transportation in a foreign country on the anniversary of 9/11, I want to flip on the news. TV wasn’t working and had limited choices. Oh yeah, it worked at one point to hear the music in the lounge. Once we heard that there was a dancing Conga Line, we turned it off.
Also, the standard shore excursions were just short walks into a city square. And church, after church, after cathedral, after Abbey. There are other things to see when traveling.
Viking should plan for cold rain with alternate choices. They did not. I guess cruises aren’t my choice of travel. I don’t care about the ship’s menu. I want to eat in the community where we are docked and dine onboard occasionally.
Had some great Goulash.
Happy that the ship wasn’t loaded with TikTok sycophants, selfie professionals and social media zombies.
Adults only.
If you insist on Viking, my recommendations…purchase a lower cost stateroom (only laying your head there) and get off the ship the moment you can. Explore the area thoroughly and make memories. Board again when it’s time to depart. When booking, spend anything extra on business class airfare.
Well, lesson learned. Good luck all!

Thank you for this report. I am booked on that cruise - the Viking Romantic Danube in Oct. 2025. I am a solo cruiser, but still have reserved the same Veranda B stateroom - I like my space.

I have purchased the Silver Sippers (whatever it's called) drink package, as for me, it will pay off. My plan at each port is to disembark the ship ASAP and spend my time engaging in as much as I can.

As for the troubles with the cabin itself, I guess I'll find out.

I signed up for this when a couple who are my best friends did a Viking river cruise in France and came back with glowing reports and saying this is right up my alley. I like the idea that the cruise is more adult-themed, without casinos or discos or screaming children (of any age...) But, then again, I'm not dead yet.

v/r
Paul

Sounds good Paul. It wasn’t all bad, but it just wasn’t for us.
We traveled extensively prior to this first cruise. We just find it easier to take a train or rental car between destinations. We can enjoy the countryside and stop into out of the way shops and restaurants. Good luck and have fun!

Does anyone know of a small ship that does the Danube? You know, less than 100 people, but first class?

Tauck is a little bit over 100 px and considered high end. Some friends selected Tauck because it was all-inclusive and had excellent service and they loved it.

If I do it, that's the way I do it. Thank you

danmazza1,
I'm sorry you had a negative experience, that's a lot of money for poor treatment. I've never had bad experiences with Viking (I've only taken one river cruise with them). They recently went from a private company to public this year.
I've booked the Danube Waltz next year. What Viking ship did you sail on?
They will give you a chance to rate your experience....do so.

Correction to my previous post - Romantic Danube is booked for next year.

Hello,
I did provide a rating, but it seemed to not matter. We traveled on the Aegir.
Again, not ALL bad, but wouldn’t do it again.

I have taken a couple of Viking River Cruises, a Budapest to Passau Danube River cruise in 2013 and just debarked (Dec 2024) from a Moselle and Rhine River Christmas Market cruise. The Danube I remember as excellent and casual. I took my mother shortly before her passing so we weren’t able to do much.

There was an awful transfer of eight hours from Paris to Trier on an uncomfortable cramped bus. My partner and I decided we would just take the high speed train and cut five hours off of that so we skipped this nasty transfer. Without exception, our friends really hated the poor quality and length of the transfer. Viking, do better.

I’ll direct my comments mainly to the Viking Herja that we just debarked. Our weather was unfortunately dismal. As other posters pointed out there is no Plan B for excursions. Overall, the mass herding of passengers and Viking River cruising style in this trip did not fit me or my spouse very well. We are also not drinkers, and since the wine flows freely at lunch and dinner, there are a lot of people who drink in my opinion quite heavily.

Heavy and noisy drinkers detracted from the overall dining experience. On several nights, Viking was basically handing out shots to celebrate this and that. I was able to get a Virgin bloody Mary several times, but always with the wrong garnishes which was sort of amusing. In my younger years, I used to work in the restaurant business and I would have to say the dining was pretty disorganized. The staff is very nice. I believe they mean well but meh. Viking really needs to address alternatives for non-drinkers. I also did not appreciate subsidizing all of that alcohol.

I would also say we had two nights of excellent food and five nights of very poor to middling quality. Lunches and breakfast were OK but nothing special. The most variety occurs at breakfast. At lunch and dinner very limited selections are on offer. Also, the food did not tend to be very hot. The food quality seems to be super variable from ship to ship. Service was surprisingly slow on some nights.

I think the walking tours that are the bulk of the included tours are cheaper for Viking to offer, but are of variable quality and also miserable in bad weather. We started skipping them after a while. I think in good weather it would be fine, but still, they could improve on this too and offer a wider variety of pay extra tours. The dinner out we had in Rűdesheim as well as the cabaret dinner in Paris was excellent, but extra $$.

Staff are super friendly and our room, a Veranda A and was well appointed and comfortable. Cleaning staff is the best I have experienced in over 50 cruises. Amazing.

We had an issue with a broken river lock and had to be bussed around it, but those sorts of things happen in travel and I don’t hold that against the cruise line.

We’re going to do one more river cruise from Bucharest to Budapest next November. I hope it is better.

rcwhitejr =

We used to cruise Viking as we only knew of them since they advertise the most. Then we discovered AMA and Avalon and saw a whole new perspective - so much better than Viking.

Now we go with Tauck which is ALL INCLUSIVE and is our favorite.

If Tauck is too expensive for you = please look at AMA & Avalon before giving up on River Cruises.

We take at least one River Cruise per year - here is our order of favorites
Tauck
Scenic
Uniworld
AMA = Avalon
Gate1 = Viking