My thoughts and photos of our Viking river cruise on the Danube

[thetravelsofmrsb]

Hi all,

 

Its been over a month now since my husband and I returned home from our Viking river cruise sailing along the Danube (which we absolutely loved!), it was our first river cruise after 5 ocean cruises.

 

We did quite a bit of research into Viking and cruising the Danube and were so happy we chose Viking and the Danube Waltz.

 

I have written a few blog posts on our cruise for anyone that would like to have a read.

 

This one is about the ship itself, Viking Rinda . . .

https://thetravelsofmrsb.com/2022/07/05/a-danube-river-cruise-sailing-on-viking-rinda/

 

And this post is about our itinerary sailing the Danube . . .

https://thetravelsofmrsb.com/2022/07/13/danube-waltz-itinerary-viking-river-cruise/

 

Just want add a note to say I’m not a professional writer I just write for fun. I do always double check and try my best but please excuse any grammatical errors 😊

 

I'm planning to write a few more about the food and drink we had on our sailing so I will be sure to share those once I have them complete.

[pontac]

Excellent posts, lovely photos. They answer many questions visitors here ask, including whether all the passengers are ancient. 🙂

 

One typo you may want to correct is in the second sentence of the first paragraph of the itinerary post 

- saw us vising six different ports

[thetravelsofmrsb]

@pontac Just amended that typo, thank you for spotting it and letting me know and thank you for your kind words about my posts, it means a lot 😊

[pontac]

@thetravelsofmrsb I'm looking forward to your view - and photos - of food and drink on the cruise. Please post here with a link when ready.

 

When we started cruising with Viking 10 years ago the house white was Gruner Veltliner and the red Blaeur Zweigelt both from Wachau's Morwald winery. Now Viking have 80+ river cruisers they serve different wine. I thought the Austrian wines particularly good.

 

Anyway, last time we went through the Wachau Valley (On Danube Waltz in 2018) we took an excursion to Morwald winery where the very jolly owner Erhardt Morwald, pictured below, treated us right royally. He supplied 35,000 bottles annually to Viking and implored us to drink more!

Edited July 15, 2022 by pontac

[rcaruso]

Lovely blog, we were on the Rinda in November of 2021.  I believe the Restaurant Manager Alex is the same, and Super Mario is serving in the restaurant.  Bogdan is wonderful, we had also Dani in the bar and he was fantastic.  Good Ship, we so enjoyed our time on the Rinda, although we did miss all of Austria due to Covid retrictions.

[meg1021]

On 7/15/2022 at 11:37 AM, thetravelsofmrsb said:

Hi all,

 

Its been over a month now since my husband and I returned home from our Viking river cruise sailing along the Danube (which we absolutely loved!), it was our first river cruise after 5 ocean cruises.

 

We did quite a bit of research into Viking and cruising the Danube and were so happy we chose Viking and the Danube Waltz.

 

I have written a few blog posts on our cruise for anyone that would like to have a read.

 

This one is about the ship itself, Viking Rinda . . .

https://thetravelsofmrsb.com/2022/07/05/a-danube-river-cruise-sailing-on-viking-rinda/

 

And this post is about our itinerary sailing the Danube . . .

https://thetravelsofmrsb.com/2022/07/13/danube-waltz-itinerary-viking-river-cruise/

 

Just want add a note to say I’m not a professional writer I just write for fun. I do always double check and try my best but please excuse any grammatical errors 😊

 

I'm planning to write a few more about the food and drink we had on our sailing so I will be sure to share those once I have them complete.

 

On 7/15/2022 at 11:37 AM, thetravelsofmrsb said:

Hi all,

 

Its been over a month now since my husband and I returned home from our Viking river cruise sailing along the Danube (which we absolutely loved!), it was our first river cruise after 5 ocean cruises.

 

We did quite a bit of research into Viking and cruising the Danube and were so happy we chose Viking and the Danube Waltz.

 

I have written a few blog posts on our cruise for anyone that would like to have a read.

 

This one is about the ship itself, Viking Rinda . . .

https://thetravelsofmrsb.com/2022/07/05/a-danube-river-cruise-sailing-on-viking-rinda/

 

And this post is about our itinerary sailing the Danube . . .

https://thetravelsofmrsb.com/2022/07/13/danube-waltz-itinerary-viking-river-cruise/

 

Just want add a note to say I’m not a professional writer I just write for fun. I do always double check and try my best but please excuse any grammatical errors 😊

 

I'm planning to write a few more about the food and drink we had on our sailing so I will be sure to share those once I have them complete.

Thanks for your great posts!  I'm looking forward to your post on the food available on your cruise!

[notamermaid]

On 7/15/2022 at 5:37 PM, thetravelsofmrsb said:

I have written a few blog posts on our cruise for anyone that would like to have a read.

Thank you. A joy to read.

 

I see you have been on the MS Raymonde. That will be my next read.

 

notamermaid

 

[CT-Edin]

What a great blog, thanks for sharing, looks like a fabulous trip!  We're doing an Avalon Danube cruise next week from Bucharest to Budapest (our first) but this section of the Danube also looks lovely!

[Greysandy]

Thanks so much for posting. I enjoyed all 3 blog posts. We are doing the 3 week European Sojourn in June 2023 and are even more excited after reading about your travels!

[English Tim]

Thank you very much for your comprehensive posts and your beautiful pictures. We are going on the Danube with scenic in the middle of August

[Canal archive]

Hi thetravelsofmrsb your blogs are the nearest I’ve got to actually thinking of considering a Viking cruise, really good blog’s although the food didn’t look so good (just my opinion of course). Thank you, just wish I could do it for Scenic!

[taylortime05]

On 7/27/2022 at 6:05 PM, Greysandy said:

Thanks so much for posting. I enjoyed all 3 blog posts. We are doing the 3 week European Sojourn in June 2023 and are even more excited after reading about your travels!

I’m starting to research the 3 week European Sojourn cruise.  Did you take this cruise?  Would you recommend it?  Thank you.  

[Greysandy]

14 hours ago, taylortime05 said:

I’m starting to research the 3 week European Sojourn cruise.  Did you take this cruise?  Would you recommend it?  Thank you.  

I would definitely recommend the 3 weeks rather than 10/11 days.

 

Here’s my long and opinionated review that I wrote once we returned:

Overall a great trip and we will probably take another Viking trip in 7-8 years or so. I just wasn’t as blown away as I expected to be for the price difference from a decent ocean cruise. We have designed several of our own European city tours and of course domestic tours so we have really high standards and expectations, compared to most. And maybe paying for the ease isn’t the best value for us. So we will definitely stay with HAL for future cruises. I had expected to want to switch to Viking for ocean trips but that didn’t happen. 

 

Swan view level 1 room - not bad, for the price I would continue to book this level again. I did go look at the other rooms when we got to Budapest and half the passengers got off. The French balcony rooms seemed the same size even though the brochure lists them as smaller than level 1. Beds are pretty hard. Swooshing water noises throughout the night which didn’t bother me. Going through the locks (60+) could make it noisy but still not a big deal to me but I am a good sleeper. Plenty of storage for 3 weeks. 

 

Food - for the first week in Eastern Europe I was mesmerized by how amazing, creative, regional and flavorful the food was. The chef (from Bulgaria) on the Lofn went on vacation after week one and the new one was nowhere near as good. It could be that I just really love Balkan food, especially done by a chef that is local. We switched ships at Nuremberg to the Lif and the food was still just okay. The food for the last 2 weeks seemed to be comparable to ocean dining room food (not anywhere near as good as specialty restaurants) where it all just tasted the same after a while. The sauces for the pork and beef dishes tasted exactly the same even with different creative names. The fish dishes were probably the better meals I had in the last 2 weeks of the cruise. 

 

Itinerary/docking times and locations - this is where the slick marketing department really romanticized the trip. The reality was that out of 3 weeks there were really only 7 ports where we could casually walk off the ship and meander around the towns. There were many days where we were bussed from our included excursion to meet the ship up river, and there was no real option to get off and wander around. There was so much more bussing than I expected even for the walking tours. Tour guides mostly amazing. Also it seems as though the sun deck is always closed for 3-4 days from Regensburg to Rhine scenic cruising because in the canals the water level is consistent and even with it being low, they needed to close the sun deck. Doing Eastern Europe first is definitely the way to go. It just isn’t as spectacular as the Rhine. 

 

Shore excursions- Generally very good, we only paid for a few optional ones, a few bike excursions and the thermal spa (which we could have done on our own, but it was spectacular and worth it).

 

Silver Spirits package- we didn’t do it the first week, then added it for the last two weeks. If you like to drink $30-50 bottles of wine rather than $5 bottles then it was the best value ever. The wine selections were local and fabulous. 

 

Service - overall very good, with the Lofn being extraordinary (bartender knew our names and room number after two orders, remembered how we like our cocktails) and the Lif being acceptable. The Lofn seemed like a very well organized and bonded team that took pride in giving the best service possible with an upbeat and positive attitude. The Lif just seemed to be doing a job, although they got better after a few days. 

 

Entertainment - the local musicians brought on board and guest lecturers were all fabulous. The piano player (and Karaoke style singer) was not my favorite. 

 

Open seating at tables of 6-8 at dinner, generally a great idea, but after a few weeks it was exhausting and felt like high school trying to figure out who to sit with.