23 Day Viking Cruise or Not?

We are planning a retirement celebration trip for the fall of 2019. A river cruise is a bucket list item. If we go I want to get the most out of the trip because most likely it will be a once in a lifetime event. We are considering the 23 day Viking cruise. The question is would we be better off doing this or going on a shorter cruise with a couple of pre and post trips to see the country?

just about your very question here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2484620

summary: caution, river cruising is not for everyone ... booking a LONG anything that you've never done b4 has risks ....

see also the specific river cruise forums herein ....

I'm a fan of breaking a long trip into parts where, well if one part turns out to be a mistake it doesn't make the entire trip a bummer. Downside is more packing and unpacking!

We are planning a retirement celebration trip for the fall of 2019. A river cruise is a bucket list item. If we go I want to get the most out of the trip because most likely it will be a once in a lifetime event. We are considering the 23 day Viking cruise. The question is would we be better off doing this or going on a shorter cruise with a couple of pre and post trips to see the country?

Our policy is that we never do just cruises. We always combine them with a week or so DIY both before and after the cruise, especially if the start and end ports for the cruise are different. I am not working on planning a 14 day New Zealand cruise which will morph into 2+ land in New Zealand before the cruise and a week land in Australia after the cruise.

DON

I would break it to pre and post trips, too. 23 days on a river boat is a very long time.

In our world, 23 days is simply too short :). That being said, if you can spare the money (and time) do the 23 day cruise and also add some pre/post time on land. When we retired it was like kids in a candy store. We would do a transatlantic repo cruise and usually make it longer with back to back. Once off the ship we would rent a car and spend at least another months driving in various parts of Europe. Others will stay in Europe and use trains..or tours.

Hank

I think 23 days is too long for any kind of first time cruise. What if you don't care for it and end up feeling miserable for the whole trip?

Roz