Our party of 6 adults did a Viking River Cruise on the Danube in September. There was an unexpected lock closure on the river which caused an interruption in our scheduled itinerary. Of course, Viking was not responsible for the lock closure; but, the choices they made in response to the closure resulted in providing a much more marginal vacation experience than it could have been.

Viking could (should) have transferred us by motor coach to Vienna and put us up in a hotel for a night or two. This would have allowed us to spend time in one of the "highlight" places on our itinerary -- a place with many things to see and do. Instead, we spent two days in small towns none of us had ever heard of and with minimal activities of interest. We had just 4 hours in Vienna, while some of our "trip-highlight" activities were cancelled entirely. A great deal of time was spent on motor coaches and tours were very crowded. We were docked alongside other ships in several locations -- sometimes 4-deep. This prevented the opening of stateroom curtains as the view would be into the stateroom of the adjacent ship. We actually saw very little of the river, between the closed curtains and night-time sailing.

The final disappointment was Viking's customer service response. Their sole attempt at appeasement was to offer us 15%-20% off of a future Viking cruise, to be used within one year. Really? We will not be sailing with Viking again. If you are considering it, I suggest you have a high-tolerance for changing plans that could result in a very different trip (perhaps inferior) from the one you anticipate.