Ironcity

I have read that the rain and snow helped to return water levels to "normal" for a change. We board the Atla on the 6th and am concerned that the levels are once again dropping and may impact our trip. Any updates would be greatly appreciated.

Anyone in Regensburg after dusk, I highly recommend the Thurn and Taxis castle market. There is a small charge for entering, but it is well worth it.

Many thanks to everyone for the suggestions and information. We're About 3 days away from Passau and will check out all of the places you suggest.

Cheers!

Greetings all... Does anyone in or around Passau know whether Zum Gruen Baum (Hollgasse 7) has reopened post flooding?

It's our favorite spot to eat, we'll be there in a few days via the Viking Bragi, but things don't look hopeful from the restaurant's website.

If not, any suggestions for a similar substitute?

Cheers!

We have taken several Christmas market river cruises and we are thinking of an Azamara Cruise for next year with my mother in law and our 7 year old daughter. Does anyone have any experience on this line with children on board? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

One of the many great things about river cruising is the ability to bring food, wine, beer etc back onto the ship. As a Coke fanatic myself I am always happy on board when I can have a bottle with my breakfast.

We have met many interesting people (both younger and older) while on these cruises. They are much smaller ships and everyone does eat dinner at the same time, so you see your fellow cruisers more often and recognize everyone after a few days. Even when you dock in a fairly large city you will run into your shipmates while in town. If you realize that you will not have the same entertainment options on board (no casino, no shows, no nightclubs etc) you would probably have a great time.

We will be soon be on our 5th Viking cruise in the last 7 years. We have noticed that the average age has gradually been getting younger each year. I am 50 and my wife is 44. We have never been the youngest people on board, and each year it seems there are more people our age. Seems word is getting around that this can be a great alternative to doing several countries on your own.

My experience has been the opposite. We are booked on our 5th Christmas market cruise, all with Viking. The quality of the rooms and the food has gone up in our opinion. I think that is partly due to the high expectations of people who have done ocean cruises, as well as Viking adding so many new ships to their fleet. There has never been an issue with overcrowding as the boats are all almost the same size, dictated by the dimensions of the locks. We have been very satisfied when things beyond Vikings control (high or low water) have had an impact on our cruise and Vikings response to these issues.

I have to say that I'm surprised by your post and experience. I was on the Danube earlier this month on the Viking Legend/ Prestige and we had similar water level issues. Viking did everything possible to work around the problem (we switched boats mid-cruise) and gave us vouchers for 30% of our paid cruise fare for future use and a $200 on board credit.

There are historically low water levels this year. Not much Viking can do about that.

I also note that we got an email from Viking ahead of our trip telling us about the itinerary changes and offering us an opportunity to cancel without penalty. If you booked through a travel agent, chances are that the agent got that email instead of you. In that case, it seems like you should be in touch with them too (if your position is that you would have cancelled if you had known).