CWGordon

Viking generally does a good job. They were not so good on last years trip that included Normandy. They parked the bus about 5 minutes from the beach and told us we had 18 minutes to get to the beach, see it, and be back on the bus! My Dad had been there during the Assault, talked not at all about it. I needed more time. Many on the cruise had fathers who had been there. They seemed displeased as well. Though we will try them yet again, we may start looking at other cruise companies for future trips. There are so many tour companies in all different price points, it is just amazing.
We loved Amsterdam and the Netherlands. We did a week there prior to taking the train to Paris to meet our Viking ship. I was never big on Ocean cruises, but love the never-ending scenery on River cruises.

StevenG Loc: Long Island, NY

Nice shots! They bring back wonderful memories. Did the same trip in reverse a few years ago. I posted many photos on this site, if you’re interested.
Steve

EdJ0307 Loc: out west someplace

Nice photos but I especially like your Kinderdijk and the first day sunrise pictures.

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

Very good series.

jpgto Loc: North East Tennessee

Very nice images. Looks like you had a great vacation.

srfmhg Loc: Marin County, CA

Great set. Love the bicycles.

marsdad Loc: NE Florida

Excellent photos, we took that trip last summer with Vantage, supposed to go all the way to Bucharest but ran out of water depth before Budapest. You should have no problem this year look like plenty of river. Wish you a terrific voyage.

Photogirl17 Loc: Glenwood, Ark.

Great set Thanks for sharing your trip.

photophile Loc: Lakewood, Ohio, USA

I like Kinderdijk and Viking Skirnir.

Sylvias Loc: North Yorkshire England

Excellent and interesting series.

OneShot1 Loc: Wichita, KS, USA

Great pix! Would you mind sharing what cruise-line you used? Any booking or room selection tips? Thanks.

raymondh Loc: Walker, MI

A beautifully photographed travelog!

mikee

I've done 3 viking river cruises (Rhine, Seine, and Danube). Also 1 Viking ocean cruise around Italy. All were great. I highly recommend them. Great food, and at least one "free" shore excursion at every port. Consider adding an extension on at the front and back of your trip. When we finished in Rome, we never saw Rome. We got off the boat at 5 AM to catch an early flight.

On the Normandy excursion (my wife and I opted for another option ) passengers came back covered in sand! Wind was blowing 30. Apparently it is quite a bus ride getting there. Sorry you didn't have a good experience.

CWGordon

Our first Viking was great. It was the reason we took the second. The food was terrific the 1st time. Second: Stew almost every day. Our scheduled Chef did not even show up for the first several days. Service on first trip was incredible. Made friends with virtually every crew member. They were great! Second time, crew was aloof, not friendly at all. Passengers noticed this. People began congregating in the one corner of dining area where the one or two pleasant servers were. The rest of the dining room was sparsely seated. Tours first time were great. Second time around they seemed like they did ones that were inexpensive and had no real meaning. One was in a tiny town w/nothing going on. If you wanted to, you could walk up a trail to see an old castle. The trail was so long and so steep it would have killed most of the passengers had they even tried it. Some of the Paris tours were poorly planned for rush hour. Time inefficient. When we got to the ship on second cruise they told it was too bad we missed the Paris tour and lunch that was scheduled. Problem was, it was never put on our itinerary and we had no knowledge there was a tour that day!
There were never any apologies and no efforts to make things better. I spent much time after trip trying to get management to do something to make me feel a bit better about the experience. Eventually, they offerred and I accepted a moderate discount on any future trip scheduled to occur w/in next 2 years. After the first trip they offerred a larger discount without being asked because the water was too high to get us under the last bridges before Nuremburg. They bussed us into the city instead. This was not something we would ever have complained about. Surely, Viking cannot control water levels on a river. My point is they did everything they could for ALL of us. They made us feel like they cared and really wanted us to enjoy our trip. We thought Viking was incredible. This was our Budapest-Nuremburg trip. After our France (Paris/Nuremburg) trip we realized that had seemingly changed! The few minutes we were allowed at the D-Day (Omaha) Beach was totally un acceptable. No apology for that.
Many of us came to believe that the new Ocean cruise portion of the Company was siphoning off the better Chefs and crew from the River cruises. Some of the more ordinary land tours offerred as part of the packages seemingly were more cost-effective for the company, thereby off-setting many of what must have been exorbitant startup costs for the new ocean ships and tours. Hopefully, they are beginning to fill-in with better chefs, food choices, crew, and servers now that they have a few years under their belt with the Ocean cruises and start-up costs.
We are planning to do another Viking tour although no destination choice has been finalized. We are hopeful a third cruise will be more reminiscent of our wonderful first cruise than the second and disappointing French cruise. It would please us greatly to have our faith in Viking restored.
I hope that others merely be aware that there is very real competition for your cruise ship travel dollars. There are less expensive and more expensive options available.

CWGordon

I mentioned in previous comments that our second cruise was Paris/Nuremburg. Sorry, that was incorrect! I meant to type Normandy not Nuremburg. Must have been that “N” thing! The alternative reason is not a welcome thought.