Stay away from Viking. We had a Danube cruise in late June -- planned 1600 miles on the Danube. The day before we left, Viking contacted us that because of flooding, they'd be changing the itinerary, but would try to take us to all the places. They offered to let us cancel, but come on, one day before leaving.
Well, they didn't get us to many of the major places they promised. What they didn't tell us was that the ship was stuck 1/2 way up the river, so we missed half the cruise. What they also didn't tell us, but we found out, is that they knew a week ahead of time that there was no way they'd get under the bridge. So why do you think they let us know the day before the trip?
They offered a 25% credit on a future cruise, but come on -- we missed 50% of the river. Their rationale was that they offered to let us cancel.
My advice is to take the Danube cruise, but to do it on Avalon or Uniglobe or Ama Waterways. But avoid Viking. They are not honest or ethical.

sorry you had such a bad experience. Some of my friends have done several Viking River Cruises and loved them. We are going to China with them in a month so hopefully we won't run into any problems. Some things are out of their control - like weather.Perhaps they were hoping things would clear up. But not informing you until the last minute was not a good thing.

A couple of years back we did a Galapagos Island tour with Linblad/National Geographic. They had a problem with the new ship not being done on time and told us that we were going to be taking an older ship and the date had to be moved by a couple of weeks. They offered to let cancel (many months in advance) or take the older ship with a discount. We took the discount and loved our excursion. it just so happened that the older ship was the same one we did Costa Rica and Panama Canal with them. Not informing you until the last minute is poor customer service. I'd try again talking with them...Good reason to buy travel insurance I guess - do you ever buy it?..

Allow me, first off, to disclose that I work for Viking. We will have a second look at Steve_Toner's concern, but some clarification at this point may be useful. In a case where a ship gets stuck due to high or low water, a few inches more or less can make an enormous difference. We apply many years of experience and expertise to forecasting water levels, but this is not entirely failsafe. water levels easily drop several feet within days, so to expect a solid prediction weeks out is not realistic. On the positive side, the situation as our ship encountered it in Serbia is much more exception thatn rule, and the overwhelming majority of cruises take place exactly as planned. We believe we provided the best possible solution under the circumstances.

Now that is a nice reply from someone who works for Viking. I hope it all works out....

I wish you the best Steve and that you and Viking will come to an amicable agreement. We did a Russian cruise with Viking about three years ago and have absolutely no complaints. We had rain but it didn't cause us to miss any ports. No complaints regarding our experience with Viking.

We took an Around the Horn cruise with Princess in January and missed our stop in the Falklands because of bad weather. We also sailed very late (because of bad weather on the previous cruise) so had limited time in our first port. Do I blame Princess? No, but lots of passengers were furious with the line. I was furious with Mother Nature and said so in my trip report on Cruise Critic.

We also sailed with Princess a year ago April to the Mexican Riviera. Our cruise was almost over when we heard about the Swine Flu breakout. Subsequent cruises stayed away from Mexican ports and visited California cities instead. We were fortunate to be the ;ast cruise before all this started. However, we did miss our call in Zijuatinajo/Ixtapa because of drug violence. Once again, I don't see how a passenger can blame a cruise line for a sudden breakout of disease or criminal violence. Disappointed, maybe, but thankful they're trying to keep us safe.