Having enjoyed a cruise in Europe in 2006 and another in China in 2007, both with Viking River Cruises (Woodland Hills, CA; 800/706-1483), my husband, Tom, and I were puzzled by a subscriber’s critique of his “Romantic Rhine” cruise with Viking (“Found Anchorages Inconvenient,” May ’10, pg. 24).
We checked out his cruise on a Viking brochure we had at home and our interest was piqued. We booked the same itinerary, now called “Treasures of the Rhine,” aboard the Viking Sun, for Aug. 21-Sept. 4, 2011. It was most enjoyable. We loved the ship, crew, meals and entertainment.
The 15-day cruise sailed from Antwerp to Basel. Stops included Ghent, Kinderdijk, Amsterdam, Cologne, Braubach, Rudesheim, Strasbourg and Breisach, and the fare included a tour at each.
For the two of us in a category “B” cabin, the cruise fare was $10,523. We also took the three-day pre-cruise in Brussels ($1,098 for two). We got a discount for paying six months in advance.
The ship also had two computers to use for free and also kindly provided the password so we could log on with our own computer.
We have only three negative things to say about this cruise.
The information booklet we received before the trip said we could pay our shipboard account by credit card and that the bill would be converted to the current exchange rate. This wasn’t done, and we incurred a foreign-conversion fee from our credit card company.
Second, the stop in Koblenz was skipped, and one reason we took this cruise was Koblenz had been skipped on a previous Viking River cruise we took.
Lastly, two days before disembarkation we learned that the front desk could make arrangements for guests to take taxis to the airport. Since we hadn’t been informed of this, we had already made other arrangements.
While, as the above-mentioned subscriber wrote, there were some bus rides involved, these were apparent from viewing the map in the brochure. Nonetheless, without the subscriber’s comments, we might never have taken notice of this great cruise. We felt we got more than our money’s worth.
MARY LAHMON
Anaheim, CA
