In Blog #2 of our annual vacation on a Viking River Cruise on the Danube River in Europe, we'll tell you about the ship experience on the Viking Prestige. It was AWESOME. We highly recommend it. We saw 5 countries in 8 days and never repacked a suitcase and were super-spoiled by the crew.  |
| handsome Boris in his tight shirt |
Several of the crew remembered our names pretty quickly, and that surprised me on a ship of 180 guests. We favored two waiters, who were amazing: Tommy, and Nikoli. They also seemed to favor us, too, and greeted us every time. Tom made sure that we always sat in their section and they totally spoiled us! We got a picture with each of them and acknowledged their service with a bonus when we left. Just incredible service.
COVERED EVERYTHING - The crew prepared everyone for land excursions. They gave out bottled water at each landing point. Made umbrellas available to everyone (it did rain several days), and handed out labeled cards with a number and letter, to correspond with the buses at ports to take people to their excursions of choice. VERY, VERY ORGANIZED.
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| Rob, Tommy the waiter, Tom |
FOOD - The food was fantastic!!! There were two menus for lunch and dinners. One menu was standard fare served every day. The other menu was regional favorites of the countries were were visiting... the food included starters, main course and desserts. ALL of it was delicious.- and the win flowed continuously! Meals were all included.
CABINS: There were three floors of cabins. The bottom deck had small portholes just above the water line. We were on the second deck with a sliding glass window, that provided a great view of the river banks and we opened the window to get fresh, cool air inside from time to time (it was always in the 40s or 50s at night and ranged from the upper 50s to the upper 60s during the days). The third deck had the same room configuration.
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| Rob, Nikoli, Tom |
The beds were large, and although some thought they were uncomfortable, we slept well. Even the pillows were comfortable. They did have two twin sized comforters on top of the king-sized bed, so each of us had our own. I was good with that (because Tom steals the covers and then tosses them off later).
BATHROOMS - There was a closet in each room with blankets and life jackets. The bathroom was small but practical, although with rounded shower doors that opened in 2 pieces it was hard to figure how to get into it (but eventually we did). They ALWAYS had hot water (which I thought was amazing).
TELEVISION and WIFI INTERNET- Yes, they had TV if you needed it. CNN, History Channel BBC news and a couple of others, but we didn't watch it. Internet was decent, although as expected on any moving vehicle it could be spotty, but Tom enjoyed his Netflix shows every night, so it wasn't that bad!
the cabin
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| the Cabin |
TOP DECK - If it were warmer, it would have been a nice place to get sun, but it was cool (or wet) for the entire trip. There is a walking track, so we did use that, and we went up there to enjoy some of the riverbank sites.
EXTRA SPECIAL LENGTHS TO KEEP PEOPLE SAFE - The Danube was experiencing flooding, and some of the river walks in Passau, Germany were even under water (when we got their by bus). The Captain and Crew were Especially cognizant of the flooding , and for safety reasons, we docked 20 miles south of Passau, Germany and they arranged Buses to take us there for the excursion. When we saw the flooding, we were so grateful for VIKING'S Safety procedures. They also had assessed that with the river flooding, we would not have made it under the bridge to get the ship into the Passau port..
OVERALL IMPRESSION - Fantastic Vacation. Best crew EVER, great FOOD, Excellent EXCURSIONS, Great Tour guides, Comfortable rooms, 5 countries in 8 days.
NEXT: Exploring the City of Budapest, (actually cities of Buda and Pesht), Hungary
