Viking River Cruise – Part 3 – The Things We Didn’t Like
Last week I talked about the things we liked on our Viking River Cruise down the Danube, now let’s talk about the things that we didn’t love! Ok, my husband said the weather – but as I reminded him, we were in Bavaria in the winter, so yes, he needed shoes and socks and a jacket.
Let me start this off by saying I am no spring chicken, as the saying goes. Both my hubby and I are 60, but we are very active and don’t sit around much. And for us the absolute worst thing was the average age and mobility of those on the cruise. According to the Viking website, the average age of those who are on these river cruises is around 70. We had some people well under the age of 70 (including us, we brought the average down on our ship) but there were many people who were clearly in their 80’s. We knew this going in, because let’s face it, the cost of these cruises is pretty much a guarantee to limit the number of younger people. And most of those we met on the cruise were extremely well traveled – again something that comes mostly with age and being at “that point” in your life.
As I mentioned last week, the included excursions and city tours were great, but when you get a lot of older people, the pace of those tours was extremely slow. I will also say with the group tours that I often felt like one of those people we always make fun of when we travel ourselves; the dreaded tour group with a guide holding a flag and with everyone wearing their earpieces to hear the guide. Naturally these groups were always standing in the way of other tourists and locals. This often made the tours feel like they were very impersonal and that we didn’t get the whole tour because of time limits for the guides. Because of this, if we do a future river cruise, we will probably consider planning our own private tours for each of the cities we visit.
For my husband another issue was the seating arrangement at meals. Let me start by saying my husband is super social – he will literally talk to anyone, anywhere about anything, at any time. He is that guy who talks to people in elevators. The way the Dining room is arranged on the Viking river ships is in group tables – starting at 6 and going up from there. So, there is no table for two for that quiet dinner after a long day touring, and even for Mr. Social this got to be too much. He didn’t like not having the choice to sit by ourselves. We were lucky enough to meet 2 couples traveling together who were from Australia who ended up eating with us each night, so we became fast friends and this helped us avoid the uncomfortable yet inevitable political conversations that we could hear around us from our 90% American shipmates.
One of the things others on our cruise didn’t like were the size of some of the rooms. We booked a room that was one of the 2 largest suites on the ship, so we were fine but we heard many others complain that the rooms were small, so make sure you take that into consideration when booking and of course, the bigger suites are more expensive so it may be a budget issue. But I can tell you if we do another, we will book the same suite.
And for people who are used to doing ocean cruises, the lack of casinos, showrooms, theaters, stores, pools and nonstop food and drink are a big issue. But since our ship was pretty much asleep by 10pm I don’t think its that big of an issue.
One other item that is often complained about with river cruises in general, is the rivers themselves, but that is out of control of the river cruise line. The water levels of the rivers where these cruises occur can change based on weather conditions and sometimes the river cruises cannot make it under the bridges which could cause a disruption in the timing of the cruise line. This is just something to be aware of when doing your planning.
All of our experiences are based on a single Viking River trip – but from talking to others who have done different river cruises, it’s pretty much the same across all of the brands. And since Viking is considered the creator of modern river cruises, we figured it was the safest bet to start with them.
So, yes, we would probably do it again, in warmer weather for sure. And it’s highly likely we will go back to Viking. But now we know that we can tailor the experience into what we like and that would make it a much more personal experience for us.
