Viking River Cruises?

Looked at Viking a couple of times over the years, found better deals at Gate 1 Travel and Grand Circle Travel. Both are sightseeing oriented with only real social activites being the supper table.

Hi Diane

In the summer of 2007 we (my wife and myself and our 2 daughters) went on a Uniworld Rhine River Cruise. Began in Amsterdam and ended in Basel Switzerland.

We very much enjoyed the trip, including our daughters who were 18 & 20 at the time. It was a very busy excursion with much to see. Social events, such as they were which wasn't alot, were optional. Some of the sightseeing excursions were also optional.

You can certainly avoid alot of the social events and keep to yourself as much as you want, but you will undoubtedly meet many people on the boat. It's always a bit of the unknown as to who else will be onboard, but we found we constantly were meeting new people as the week progressed. We made some nice friends and still keep in touch with a few.

The average age on our trip was probably around 55. We obviously had our 2 girls, there were a few other families there, but mostly an adult crowd.

Uniworld has many options as far as cruises and lengths of the cruises. The crew was fantastic and friendly and really tried to make our trip enjoyable. the food was excellent also.

Best of luck in your investigation of options.

Diane,

We have done two Viking cruises. One was in 2004 in France on the Rhone/ Saone and the other was in 2009 on the Danube. Both were excellent cruises which I would highly recommend.

The tours are all included, which is nice. Guides all speak very good English and the ship is divided into small groups of about 15 people each. Generally, we joined the tour in the morning, then spent the remainder of the day exploring on our own.

The people on the ship range from singles to couples, and a few families. Ages vary widely, but tended to be on the side over 50.

I felt like both trips were great for seeing smaller towns that I probably would have missed taking trains around the country.

If you want more details, feel free to PM me and I'm happy to share!

Thanks for the replies! One concern is that I like having the opportunity to meet people from other countries when I travel. On my last trip to Scotland, I encountered very few Americans. Are the guests primarily Americans on these cruises?

Hi Diane

On our cruise the majority of the other passengers were American. We did have people from other countries too (for instance Australia), but not many. The captain and crew were all from Europe and from all parts of Europe. We had alot of fun meeting them and really enjoyed getting to know them.

Several of those cruise companies advertise very heavily here in Australia, so I would think at times there must be a significant number of Aussies on certain cruises

I often do local guided tours in the Wachau Valley with passengers from ships, both from Uniworld and Viking.
The passengers are usually mixed, many Australians and Americans, with sprinkles of Newzealanders and a few British.
The ships are all similar in style and comfort, in very good shape.

The excursions are very well planned, but tight in scheduling, I often feel bad that visitors have so little time to stroll and/or shop, unless they forgo the tours and set out on their own.

I have also done a tour on a ship called the Rousse Prestige, to Budapest back to the Wachau Valley. I was recruited by a friend of mine to play personal guide to a wonderful Australian couple who had been mistakingly booked on a cruise with all German passengers. Also to see if the life as cruise director would appeal to me.
I was very impressed by the overall organization of the land excursions and the service on board.
For me it was also a great thrill to experience parts of my beloved Danube river I had not seen before. I grew up just outside of the Iron Curtain in the 70s and 80s, and even though only a stone's throw away, Eastern Europe was literally in a different galaxy. My dream is to ship down the entire course of the Danube one day, from Passau to the Black Sea.

River cruising is most certainly a wonderful way to see a lot in a short time in luxury and comfort. A kind of window shopping, with the opportunity to pick favorite places to return later to spend more time there.
The draw-back for me is that the contact to locals is restricted to your tour guides and organizers of events, that there is relatively little personal time once on land, and that the ships zip along the Danube during the night to be in the next port city by morning.

When the time is right for me, I will opt for a longer cruise on a smaller European ship, so I will have the chance to explore the river itself, and the cultures along its course.

Regarding American or other nationalities; yes, they are primarily American because Viking has other ships that are marketed to the European countries. On the other hand, all the staff speak very good English, and we were able to become well acquainted with some of them.

Diane, I am your age and enjoy river cruising. I've done trips with both Grand Circle and Vantage and like both. You can be with the group- about 35-40 to a group- on the walking tours of the town and you can split off whenever you like. You can stay for the guided portion with a local tour guide and then do your own thing. You can enjoy dinner on board with whomever you like or choose to eat in town on your own. It is true that most passengers are American. Both of these cruise lines have good single rates and Grand CIrcle has many trips with no single supplement. There are usually about 160 passengers total. Give it a try!! JKR