In 2011 Susan and I set off on our first ever European River Cruise. The company we selected was Phoenix Holiday and the cruise was a combined Amsterdam and Tulip fields and a trip up the Rhine from Amsterdam to Rudeshiem (see here for the blog). On our travels we saw boats belonging to Viking River Cruises and they looked smart. Not that the boat we were on was not smart or the crew friendly because it was and they were. However we were disappointed on that cruise and on the second one so this year we booked on a Viking River Cruise up the Danube. The Cruise we selected was the Danube Waltz Cruise starting from Passau (Germany) and finishing at Budapest (Hungry). We contacted Viking River Cruise last September for this trip and were given a quote for the full holiday and paid our deposit. In January we were advised of a change to the cost, this was to our advantage as the cost had gone down. Having dealt with another company we expected to get a letter near the time advising that there would be a fuel surcharge due to the increase in costs etc. Nope, never happened, the final cost we paid was as per the adjusted cost in January. This covered our flights out of Edinburgh to Amsterdam, thence Amsterdam to Munich and transfer to the ship at Passau. It also included the transfer from ship to Budapest Airport for our flights back home.
Our good friend Sid took us to Edinburgh Airport at 4:30 to meet our flight at 6 a.m. I am pleased to say all went well. When we got to Munich we were met by the Viking Couriers and bussed to Passau to our home for a week, Viking Legend. She was built in 2009 and was a newish ship. We were greeted by the Hostess, hotel manager and crew, who made us all very welcome. Due to the fact we could not get to our rooms until 3 pm we had to sit in the Bar/Lounge and enjoy a nice meal and wine whilst the crew looked after our luggage.
The ship has 4 decks the Main, Middle, Top and Sun deck. The Middle deck is the reception area and used for embarkation and disembarkation. It also has the restaurant at the front of the ship, whilst the rear has staterooms, not cabins but staterooms. The picture on the right shows the two doors near the stairs to the restaurant. The stairs lead up to the Top deck and Coffee bar and of course the Bar / Lounge.
Our Stateroom was 100 on the main deck. We were really pleased with it and when we thought back to the cabin we had on the MS Arlene (small cabin with bunk beds) this was luxury. Apart from two super staterooms all other rooms were the same size, except those on Middle and Top decks had French Balconies and as we were at the waterline had small rectangle windows. This did not worry Susan and I at all it was a great room.
We we unpacked and stowed our gear we were all set for our trip down the Danube and all the adventure and meeting of new people, new countries and for me the first time I have been able to visit an ex-Warsaw Pact country.
To be continued……
