Viking Cruise
 

We are signed up for a cruise on Viking Panorma between Budapest and Bucharest. We have not done a river cruise before and we hear mostly good about Viking, but also some bits that are not so good. What experiences have others had and and what advice do you have to offer. What is particularly good and what is bad? We have done several cruises on HAL and Celebrity.

We cruised with Viking four years ago from Moscow to St. Petersburg. We thoroughly enjoyed it. The ship we were on has been fully renovated and no doubt much nicer than when we were aboard.

We had a main guide who was on board with us and she accompanied us on each of our port visits, where we also had a local guide. We found all of the (included) excursions interesting and informative.

While there weren't the amenities or entertainment we've had on our ocean cruises, there was a nice lounge we enjoyed. There were lots of activities: Vodka tasting, caviar tasting, etc. The food was fine and we had open seating at every meal. The crew was friendly and helpful.

In our opinion, Viking was great and we'd love to go with them again. We have our eye on the Amsterdam to Budapest trip if we can ever afford it!

We did the Roof of the World trip with Viking for China and Tibet. We had a very positive experience with them.

The best place to get input on the cruise your signed up for is at www.cruisecritic.com where there are a lot of threads about Viking on their travel boards.

We've had positive experiences on their Russia and Danube trips. We like to be independent and they gave us entrance tickets to museums or chruches if we didn't want to go on their city or town tours.
You can return to the ship during the day for a break if you wish as you are docked in the town center.You also can eat in town on your own instead of going back to the boat for lunch..Lots of options.

We returned a month ago from our first cruise with Viking, we did the Imperial Jewels of China tour and thoroughly enjoyed it all. They do a wonderful job, food on the ship was good and plentiful, tours, guides, all of our accommodations were first class. We enjoyed Viking so much that we have booked a river cruise from Basel to Amsterdam this December. We have done European river cruises with two other companies and all are good in their own way but I think we'll be using Viking from now on. Enjoy your trip.
Susan

Also very positive experience with Viking. Oct 2010 Imperial Jewels of China. The agent we worked with(Tristin) was very helpful as we wanted to arrive in China 3 days earlier than tour - He arranged to get us Viking prices on the hotel (Ritz Carlton) - saved us a few bucks. Whenever I had a question, all I had to do was call him and my questions were answered. The only complaint I had was that the information they sent on luggage weight and size was not accurate. I bought new luggage so that I would be within the limits for the smaller airlines within China but our luggage was never weighed nor measured. Information probably needs to be updated. But I'm glad I bought the new luggage as I love it! We will use them again in a few years for River cruise in Europe.

We also had a very positive experience with them! Loved our Viking cruise so much we just booked another for next year. Treasures of the Rhine – can’t wait! http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/ri...itinerary.aspx