The Complete Guide to a Viking River Cruise (2023)

Ever consider a Viking European river cruise? River cruises are very popular choices for people who like the idea of traveling to new places in the comfort of a floating hotel. That is, you sleep and eat on the ship and are transported to your destinations along a river. It’s certainly a relaxing way to travel. Plus, Viking offers several excursions each day that the ship is in port.

Here’s an overview of a Viking river cruise. The general experience is the same, no matter what ship you’re on, although this information is from our Grand European Tour from Amsterdam to Budapest on the Skirnir and Modi (more on the two ships later!).

To learn more about the places visited on the Viking Grand European Tour, read this.

NOTE: This post was written prior to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Some procedures and protocols on cruise ships have changed to address public health concerns (since this article was published). Check with your Viking agent (or travelagent) to learn the latest on the cruise you choose. In spite of some scheduling tweaks, the information in this article will surely help prepare you for your Viking excursion. Enjoy!

Planning Your Viking River Cruise

Once you’ve booked a Viking river cruise, you’ll have access to their online portal, MyVikingJourney.com. There you’ll find a countdown to departure, background on each port of call, the entire list of excursions available (some are complimentary; others cost extra) that you can book online, a calendar showing your itinerary for each day, and other helpful information about the cruise.

You will receive your final travel documents along with Viking luggage tags about three weeks prior to the trip. Included is a packet of information specific to your ship (including phone numbers on the ship plus embarkation location information) and itinerary.

Disclaimer: My husband, Pop, and I paid forour Viking river cruise ourselves. We did not receive any compensation or discounts fromViking or any otherorganization. I merely want to share our experience on a river cruise with my readers.

Some travelers prefer to book through Viking itself. We opted to book through our travel agent with whom we could meet face-to-face, ask questions, and learn from her knowledge of cruising and different cruise companies. Since we booked through her, Viking sent her the final travel documents, and she checked them over before passing them on to us.

Embarkation

Staterooms are typically ready at 3:00 pm. (If you have a suite, you may be able to get in earlier.) In any case, if you arrive before 3:00 pm, you can spend time in the Lounge or leave your luggage on the ship and begin to explore the city on your own. There is a light buffet available in the Lounge around midday, so you’ll be able to recharge a bit before the cruise begins later that day — a nice treat if you just got off a long flight from North America or Australia.

Viking River Cruise Staterooms

The staterooms and bathrooms are efficiently designed to maximize usable space. Here are some highlights of the rooms:

• A safe with an electronic keypad is provided in each room. You set the code, so it’s a cinch to remember. It easily holds passports and other travel documents along with jewelry and money. One tip we learned is to put a shoe (just one!) in the safe the day before you check out. Having to look for the shoe on the last day will remind you to open the safe so you don’t forget your passport and other items.
• There are 110V and 220V electrical outlets in staterooms, so you can plug in whichever fits your needs. We took a universal travel adaptor with 4 USB plugs and 4 outlets and used just one outlet for all of our electronics (smartphones, camera, tablet, and iWatch). That saved precious counter space.
• No need to bring a hair dryer. There’s a full-sizehair dryer with a German Schuko 2-pin plug that matches the 2-prong outlet in the bathroom.
• There are sturdy wooden hangers in your closet upon arrival; if you need more, just ask, and they will be delivered promptly.

  

• A complete supply of Freyja toiletries including shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and body lotion along with a shower cap and vanity set awaits you in the bathroom. These supplies are replenished as needed.
• The bathroom has a laundry line in the shower that is handy for hanging hand-washed garments.
• Laundry can be sent out to be done. It is usually returned within 24 hours, although it is often returned earlier than that. You can choose to have your garments washed and ironed or ironed only. For an idea of costs for cleaning and ironing, pants are 6 Euros, a blouse is 5 Euros, a polo shirt is 3.50 Euros. Guests in an Explorer Suite or Veranda Suite receive complimentary laundry services.
• There’s a mini-fridge in your room. Whatever you drink will be replenished when the staff cleans your room.
• There is a large glass bottle of water in your room (along with glasses) that will be replenished as needed. (You will also be offered bottled water as you leave for each excursion.)

  

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• There are two listening devices on lanyards along with an earpiece (for your left ear) for each device. Keep these devices in the chargers when not in use, so they are fully charged for excursions.

  

• All rooms have a color TV with live TV channels, complimentary movies, and Viking programming. We used the TV for weather updates and a map that always shows the ship’s location; this was very handy as we navigated the rivers in between ports of call.
• Housekeeping will visit your room in the morning to clean it. When you return to your room, you will notice the dinner menus for that evening. More information on menu choices is below under Meals.
• Housekeeping will revisit your room while you’re at dinner. When you return to your room later that evening, you’ll notice the Viking Daily on your bed. This publication outlines the schedule for the next day, with all included and optional excursions as well as suggestions on where to visit and eat during your free time the next day.
• There’s room under the bed to store suitcases after unpacking.

Viking River Cruise Common Areas

In addition to your stateroom, there are public areas on the longships:

• The Lounge and bar area. There’s ample comfortable seating here — upholstered chairs and sofas — with large windows to enjoy the views. During lunch, prior to and after dinner, there’s usually live music in the Lounge. On each of the two ships we were on, there was a duo in the evening that included a vocalist and a pianist. The bar is on one end of the lounge; there’s wait service in the Lounge during lunch and in the late afternoon and evening.

• The sun deck. This is a relaxing area with chairs, tables, and lounge chairs. In addition, there’s a walking trail, shuffleboard, and a putting green. There’s plenty of covered space to protect against the harsh summer sun. If we were sailing during the day, the program director narrated scenic highlights along the river as we continued our journey. There are times that the sun deck is closed to guests. This happens when bridges are too low to safely pass under with guests on the sun deck. The crew actually collapses the awnings, chairs and tables and the ship’s bridge recedes into the ship — all to reduce the ship’s height.

• The Aquavit Terrace on the longships, just in front of the Lounge to the bow of the ship, is a place to relax on warm days and enjoy a lunch buffet while taking in the views. Also, dinner is served on the Aquavit Terrace; service begins 15 minutes after dinner service starts in the restaurant.

• The dining room has a variety of tables that can seat 6, 8, or 10 people.There are large windows on the port and starboard sides so views are available while dining.
• The library, located off a main corridor, has books you may borrow while aboard as well as abridged newspapers that are prepared for Viking guests daily. On our ships, there were separate newspaper versions for Australia, Canada, and the U.S.A. It is a quick way to catch up on national and international news as well as to get financial market and sports updates.
• The internet cafe, located off a main corridor, has a couple of internet desktop computers that are always available for guest use.
• The coffee station offers a variety of coffee and tea plus baked goods to accompany your beverage. The coffee station is always available, although the baked goods tend to be gobbled up in the late afternoon. The good thing is … there’s always tomorrow’s treats to look forward to!

• There is an elevator onboard so it’s easy to travel from floor to floor if you don’t want to use the stairs.

The ships were very clean. We noticed that the crew was cleaning the common areas early in the morning, as soon as we left for excursions, and in our rooms while guests were enjoying dinner.

Viking Staff

The Viking onboard staff — from the captain, hotel manager, program director to the housekeeping and wait staff — were all positive, upbeat folks: smiling, accommodating, and helpful. Also, the onboard staff and the local guides speak English well. We encountered some local guides with thick accents, but that didn’t interfere with us understanding them.

Tipping

Tipping is the universal way to thank someone for providing excellent service — and you will find excellent service on Viking. You can choose to pre-pay gratuities which we did. Prepaid gratuities come to 18 Euros per guest per day. If you choose not to prepay the gratuity, Viking will add a discretionary service charge of 15 Euros per guest per day to your shipboard account. The tips cover all onboard staff. We also took along some thank you cards and put in some extra cash to give to those whom we felt went above and beyond during our cruise.

On excursions, the recommended tipping is 2 Euros per person per excursion for local guides, and 1 Euro per person per excursion for bus drivers.

Viking Onboard Account

Viking keeps track of your expenses during the cruise including bar items, laundry, phone calls, and purchases from the Viking shop (logo wear and souvenirs). When the cruise ends, you settle your account in cash (U.S. dollars or Euros) or by credit card.

Safety

Naturally, safety is a primary concern of travelers and the crew. There was a mandatory safety drill on our first full day of the river cruise. Life vests are under the beds, but prior to the drill, they were placed on our beds while we were at lunch. Just before the drill, we were all asked to return to our staterooms and don our life vests. After that, we went to an assigned group on the upper deck (groups are determined by what floor the staterooms are on), and we had to give our stateroom number to the staff at the assigned location (for roll call). Once everyone was accounted for, we were able to leave, return our life vests to our stateroom, and resume what we were doing.

Each time you leave the ship, you get your name card (with the name of your ship, your name, and your stateroom number) from the front desk. When you return to the ship, you hand over your name card. This is one way the crew can account for all guests. Before leaving a dock, there are announcements asking for guests in certain rooms to let the staff know they are on the ship. (It’s not uncommon for someone to forget to return the name card when returning to the ship.)

Meals on a Viking River Cruise

Three meals are included each day at the following times:

• Breakfast: 7:00-9:00 am
• Lunch: 12:00-2:00 pm
• Dinner: 7:00 pm

Soda, beer and house wine are available at lunch and dinner at no charge.

Travelers who purchase the Silver Spirits beverage package (price varies depending on the length of your cruise) can get whatever alcoholic beverage they want during lunch, dinner, and whenever else the bar is staffed (afternoons and evenings) at no additional charge. The Silver Spirits package is complimentary for guests in an Explorer Suite.

If you have dietary restrictions, let Viking know when you book. You should also alert the Maitre d’ once on board.

The river cruises have open seating, so that means you aren’t assigned any table mates. Each time you enter the dining room, you find a table that you want to sit at. We enjoyed sitting with different people; it gave us a chance to learn about their travel experiences and lives a bit. You never know what you’ll learn or who you’ll meet!

Lunch

Although lunch is available in the dining room, we favored the Aquavit Terrace (at the front of the ship) for lunch. It’s relaxed, has an abundant food buffet with soup, a variety of salads, meats, warm sandwiches (paninis, Cuban sandwiches), fruit and dessert. There’s always ice tea — often with different flavors everyday. Servers come to take your drink orders (sodas, beer, wine) and freshen up your glass when it is empty. Just inside is the Lounge where we ate one rainy lunchtime. The Aquavit Terrace is one advantage Viking has over its competition. This is a great venue for enjoying the passing landscape on travel days and relaxed dining everyday.

Dinner

Prior to dinner, the chef personally introduces the options including his/her recommendations. On our cruise, this was done in the Lounge just after the evening port talk by the program director. Dinner begins at 7:00 pm in the dining room. If you choose to eat on the Aquavit Terrace, dinner begins at 7:15 pm with all of the same options as in the dining room.

On one side of the menu are the “classics” or options that are always available. On our cruise, the “classics” included Caesar salad as a starter; steak, salmon, and chicken as entrees, and Creme Brûlée, a selection of cheeses, a fruit plate, and ice cream for dessert.

On the other side of the menu are “regional specialties” or options that are focused on our destinations. Examples were creamy potato soup, Wiener Schnitzel, and Sacher cake when in Vienna; while in Budapest, the menu featured Hungarian Farmer Salad, Fogas Karpathy (perch and shrimp in white wine sauce), and Zserbo (a layered walnut and chocolate cake).

Without a doubt, we give Viking chefs top marks for the presentation and flavor of the food they serve. We always enjoyed the variety of food from the local areas we were visiting. After all, we travel to experience new places, new food, and new people, so we like to eat the local food whenever possible. We were never disappointed with our meal selections. Whichever side of the menu you order from, the meals for the entire table are served at the same time.

Guests & Socializing

Cruising is a social experience as you get to talking with fellow passengers on excursions, at the social hour before dinner in the Lounge, and at meals. An easy way to begin a conversation is to ask where people are from, about their past travel experiences, and what excursions interest them the most. We’ve found there are a lot of commonalities as well as interesting folks to meet.

River cruises are designed for the mature traveler, and guests must be 18 years old to travel on a Viking river cruise. Many of the guests are retired, but there were quite a few still working or recently retired.

Attire

Attire on a river cruise is casual. During the day on excursions, travelers dress very comfortably as they leave the ship to explore a destination. However, guests do dress up a bit with a smart casual look for dinner. Leave your dressy clothes at home; there are no formal nights on a Viking river cruise.

Excursions on a Viking River Cruise

You can sign up for excursions from your account on MyVikingJourney.com prior to your trip. Sometimes optional excursions sell out, although there are usually some available once you’re on the ship. Please note that Viking requires at least 48 hours cancellation notice if you are on the ship and decide not to go on an optional excursion.

There are three activity levels for excursions:

• Easy means the walking will be on mostly smooth (not cobbled) surfaces, there are few steps, and the tours will be 1.5 hours or less.
• Moderate means the walking could be a little more strenuous or have more stairs or inclines. Total time on these outings could be 1.5 to 3 hours.
• Demanding means extensive walking, hiking or biking. Walking could be on unpaved or uneven surfaces and may involve many steps or steep inclines. Total time on these outings could be longer than 3 hours.

Prior to Excursions

About 15 minutes prior to each excursion, there is an announcement to remind guests that it is almost time to leave and to remember the listening devices. These devices are attached to lanyards with earpieces.

Before leaving the ship, you need to go to the reception desk and get your name card and your excursion card. You always pick up your name card when you leave the ship and return it when you board the ship. This is the Viking’s way of accounting for all guests. If, for example, Reception does not have all the cards back when the ship is ready to leave the dock, there will be an announcement asking for guests in a certain room number to call or walk to the reception desk to let them know they are there.

The excursion card is a plastic card with a number and a letter. The number indicates which ship you’re on. (This is handy because you might encounter tour groups from other Viking ships that are docked in the same city at the same time.) The letter indicates which excursion group you’re on. Since there are often different excursions leaving at the same time, this is an efficient way to find which tour guide to meet as you disembark the ship. The buses and tour guides for your group are each clearly marked: the bus has a placard with the same number and letter to let you know you need to board that bus; the tour guide has a red and white sign on a paddle to indicate that group, as well.

As you leave the ship, you are handed a bottle of water. To conserve resources, you could easily fill a plastic water bottle from home with water in the rooms. There are also bright red full-size Viking umbrellas to take along on excursions if it’s raining. Next time, I’ll take a small collapsable umbrella to stuff in my backpack; that way, I won’t be carrying the big Viking umbrella around after the rain has stopped while we’re sightseeing.

A Few Important Excursion Notes

It’s important to note that when the ship docks somewhere in the morning and you go on an excursion, you sometimes will be brought back to the ship in a different location — another city further down the river. This taught me to take pictures when I first see a scenic sight just in case I wasn’t going to have the opportunity again.

There is precise timing to docking and excursions. For example, we arrived in Cologne at 9:30 am and our walking tour began at 10:00 am. Viking is very efficient with their timing. Likewise, when the ship is ready to leave, it leaves — as long as all the guests are accounted for.

Not everyone needs to go on excursions. Some guests preferred to stay in the Lounge and simply relax, read a book, or enjoy the view beyond the big plate glass window or take in the views from the sun deck.

Big City Lesson

One thing we learned is that although some excursions will guide you through a large city, if it is inland a bit, you may be spending a significant amount of time traveling from the ship to the city — and comparatively modest amounts of time actually in the city itself. We learned this the hard way one day, and we realized that we actually prefer exploring the little towns that we dock at more. Our preferred day at a town where we were docked included a morning walking tour (an included excursion) to get the lay of the land. In the afternoon, we followed up on some of the suggestions the local guide from the morning had as far as how to spend the remainder of the day. That worked well as we enjoyed some nice non-touristy lunches and other walks and tours on our own.

Transferring Ships

There are times when Viking (and other cruise companies) has to have guests disembark a ship and then board a sister ship. Sometimes the river level may be too low (this happened in 2018 with a lot of European river cruises due to the lack of sufficient rain that summer) and Viking has to transfer guests to another ship further along the river. For us, it happened because there was a damaged lock on the Main River (between the Rhine and Danube rivers. We went through over 60 locks on our Grand European cruise — most at night while we were asleep.)

Here’s our story. We were sailing from Amsterdam to Budapest. There was a broken lock near Regensburg, about halfway between the two big cities. Viking had a sister ship sailing the same journey in the opposite direction — from Budapest to Amsterdam — so we switched ships. We got off our ship, the Skirnir, in Nuremberg (one of our scheduled ports) before the damaged lock. The guests on the other ship, the Modi, got off the ship at Regensburg, on the other side of the damaged lock. Essentially, each ship then turned around and went back to the city from which it originated. Suffice it to say that Viking has this all figured out and has contingency plans firmly in place.

What it meant for guests was a minor inconvenience. We had to have our luggage packed and placed outside our stateroom door by 7:00 am on the day of the switch. Viking collected the luggage (with different colored tags for the three different floors of the ship) and trucked it to where the Modi, our new ship, was docked. All guests left the ship for excursions (the times of the excursions were modified that day so they would all be timed for the same number of hours). After the excursions, we all met at a restaurant in Nuremberg for lunch, had a little free time, and then we were bussed to the new ship in the late afternoon. As we arrived at the ship, we were warmly greeted and we went to our rooms (which were intentionally left unlocked). Our luggage was waiting for us, and our new room keys were on the dresser.

Since they are sister ships, they are exactly the same, so the only thing that changed was the crew. The one exception was the program director who made the move with us. Otherwise, we had a brand new crew. We had grown to like the crew on the Skirnir, but we quickly came to like the new ones as well.

Parallel Parked Ships

Sometimes there’s a lot of river cruise ship traffic in popular cities. This was true in Passau, a city of over 50,000, and especially true in heavyweights like Vienna and Budapest. When this happens, the cruise ship parks parallel to another cruise ship. This means that your ship could be the first, second, or third ship docked. Furthermore, this means that you may have to walk through another ship to get to shore or people are walking through your ship to get to and from theirs. The ships are designed for this — to have travelers walk through the common spaces. And our experience was that we were usually parked next to other Viking ships, so we were walking through familiar spaces.

Having to dock the ship next to another cruise ship also means that the view from your stateroom could be blocked and your cabin could be a bit dark. This happened several times on our 15-day cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. It’s not a deal breaker for us, but it’s something every river cruise guest should be forewarned about.

Exercising on a River Cruise

There is no fitness center or spa on Viking river cruise ships; the space that could be a fitness center is instead put to use in the common areas and staterooms. (European river cruise ships are limited in size due to the rivers they cruise on, so they have the same overall dimensions. Some companies may take space from common areas to put into spas and fitness centers; others, like Viking, use all that available space for staterooms and common areas.)

To burn off some of the calories ingested by the delicious food onboard, I walked in the morning around the sun deck track. 12.5 laps = 1 mile. Viking asks that guests not walk on the sun deck from 10:00 pm to 7:00 am as a courtesy to those whose cabins are just below the sun deck. Getting my heart rate up while enjoying beautiful scenery pass by while the ship made its way down a river was a win-win. You’ll soon discover that walking while the ship is moving tends to confuse Fitbits and similar devices because you’re moving while the ship is moving; hence, your minute per mile calculation is not entirely accurate! But you can still keep track of your number of steps/distance accurately.

Pop prefers to jog each morning, and he was able to when we were docked in the early morning before excursions began. Other times, we were still sailing, so he could not. A good idea if you’re a runner is to check with the reception desk to map out when there will be time in the morning to leave the ship for a jog or run before excursions begin.

Viking Communication

We found the onboard communication to be excellent. This includes the Viking Daily that provides information for each new day and the evening updates by the program director in the Lounge prior to dinner. There are also announcements throughout the day with information on docking and reminders about impending excursion departures.

The crew communicates with each other quite well. For example, once the crew knows that everyone is accounted for (by way of the name cards that are turned into the reception area after an excursion), the ship is sailing within minutes of the anticipated departure (as noted in the Viking Daily).

Little Touches by Viking

Viking has perfected hospitality on many levels. Their staff is well trained and genuinely seems to want to make you happy. There are lots of smiles and offers of help. They also are known for providing little touches that many guests appreciate. Here are some examples:

• After morning housekeeping, you’ll notice some fresh fruit and baked treats waiting for you in your room.
• Viking is happy to celebrate your birthdays and anniversaries while onboard. There were many people who were serenaded during dinner and special treats made nice surprises. We celebrated a big anniversary on our cruise and were delighted with champagne and a special dessert awaiting us in our room after dinner one night.

• I borrowed some books from the ship’s library and left them on a table in our room. When I returned, I noticed two Viking bookmarks resting on top of the books. Likewise, a few days later,I had just started reading a different book and placed it on my night table next on top of my Kindle. When I returned to the room, I noticed another bookmark was placed on top of it.
• Every once in a while, you may be treated to a little “extra” like a refreshing drink served on the sun deck while sailing one day.

Disembarkation

Viking has guest departures timed to match their future travel plans. Viking assigns different colored luggage tags to guests depending on what their next travel destination is (a post-excursion through Viking, a trip independent of Viking, or a flight home). The tags have the time the luggage must be outside the staterooms as well as the time that guests are expected to depart the ship. (Viking asks that luggage not be placed outside the staterooms when going to bed the previous night due to safety concerns — should there be an emergency, having bags in the narrow corridors would pose a safety risk.)

On our cruise, some guests had to put their luggage outside their staterooms as early as 2:45 am and leave the ship at 3:30 am to go to the airport. Regardless of their next destinations, all guests had to place their luggage outside their rooms no later than 9:00 am. After that point, guests still on board could use the common areas (Lounge or sun deck) until their transfer to the airport or other destination. That way, Viking could clean the staterooms and ready the ship for the passengers boarding later that day for the next cruise.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We thoroughly enjoyed our Viking river cruise. We met interesting people; visited fascinating places; sampled new foods, wines and beer; and appreciated the convenience and gracious hospitality offered by Viking. We can’t say enough about how well run and maintained the ships are. Although we have some other trips planned (that we organize ourselves, as we often do), we are contemplating which Viking cruise — river or ocean — we will be booking next.

To make sure you remember all the great experiences on your cruise, take lots of pictures and create a photo book of your journey when you return home. You’ll be glad you did!

COMMENTS?

If you have taken a Viking river cruise and would like to share your experiences, please do so in the comment area below.