Was it good? No. Was it bad? No. I need to make it clear from the outset that to some extent we were comparing this cruise to our only other river cruise, which was on Scenic. So business class to economy is probably the best explanation I can provide. Similar price differential.

Viva departs from St Denis, which is more than 5 miles from the city centre of Paris. It shares a wharf with a cement company. Apparently it's too big a vessel to navigate into the more interesting areas of the city. No mention of this when booking. As we had been to Paris several times before this was not a big loss to us, but if you were expecting to glide past the tower etc .... some grumbling heard. So don't book this cruise if you want to sail through Paris.

We spent our first day sitting at St Denis in this middle of nowhere because of a strike somewhere. Nothing the ship could do about that but it did provide some short notice excursions, so credit due (that doesn't mean they were free!). Read more