Viking River Cruises review: Viking Christmas on the Rhine and Moselle

My wife and I booked the Viking Christmas on the Rhine and Moselle cruise (booking number 7310910) from December 20th to the 31st (with the actual cruise dates of the 22nd to the 29th). Vikking advertised it as a scenic river cruise with stops to visit traditional Christmas markets, historic sites, and medevial cathedrals. It sounded like a great opportunity to celebrate our birthdays and Christmas in a relaxing environment.

The day before our departure Viking emailed us that water levels might be too high for some portions of the cruise to take place as scheduled. Although Viking cannot be held responsible for the river state they certainly are responsible for their response. Instead of giving us the option of re-scheduling they stated there might be some modifications to the schedule. The modifications turned out to be switching us to another ship, the Viking Idi, and using the ship as a semi-mobile hotel for three days as they sent us out to do the tours on a bus. The day after Christmas they transfered the passengers to another ship, the Alsvin, which they continued to use as a base to conduct bus trips.

As it turned out, our relaxing cruise became a series of uncomfortable bus rides to abbreviated tours (40 min tours with 15 or 20 minutes of free time on to the end) before enduring another bus ride back to the ship. During the "cruise" we never had the opportunity to enjoy the scenic river as we generally moved at night.

Probably the best example was our Mainz tour where we took a 70 kilometer bus ride to the city for a 45 minute tour followed immediately by a 70 kilometer ride back to the ship. That night they moved the ship to Mainz where we were permitted to visit the Gutenberg Museum (it had been closed the day before) as long as we provided our own transportation and were back at the ship for its 12:30 sailing. Since the museum didn't open until 11:00 that left roughly 20 minutes for the visit. Two days dedicated to this farce!

Several of the Christmas Markets were closed (which Viking has to know in advance) and those that were still open consisted of sausage stands, beer and imported knick-nacks and woolen goods from China. Our scenic cruise through the middle Rhine consisted of a bus trip without the benefit of a guide.

The trip was made even worse by the poor food and spotty service on both ships. They ran out of several beer labels, diet coke and specific tea types no less than three times during the cruise (its a river cruise, re-supply shouldn't be so dificult). Viking knew many of the Christmas markets and attractions would be closed and they knew the cruise would not be even close to the experience advertised.

Vikings reputation led me to believe this would be a much better experience. I paid for a relaxing scenic river cruise and received a hectic, disorganized, third rate bus tour that left us more exhausted than before the trip began. I wouldn't even mention the confidence loss after the crew ran the ship into a bridge.