My husband and I won this trip at a local fundraising event in late 2017. We had never been on a cruise before and wanted to see what it was like. An ocean cruise was out of the question - we aren't interested in being in a huge floating hotel with thousands of guests. This trip from Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam for a week, with a total of 97 rooms seemed more our speed. We flew into Basel the day before the cruise began.
Probably the most important experience on any cruise is with your interactions with the crew and guests. Viking must have a great customer experience interview process because their people are fantastic! Everyone from the Captain to the waiters were really interested in giving each guest a great experience. This was especially important because unfortunately, two days before the end of the cruise, our propellers were damaged by some river debris and we had to transfer to buses for the final overnight to a hotel outside of Amsterdam. It really helped us all get over this unfortunate problem because the Viking crew really responded well to the situation and did everything they could to make us feel special.
The ship and our cabin were first rate - everything worked well and even though I'm very tall, I didn't feel cramped. That's important to me. The food was great and it was fun to have our chef explain the evening's specials to us beforehand. We had ample time to talk with the other guests who were mostly similar to us in background (probably would have been more interesting if some of the guests were of different ethnicities but that's the way it was). For many of the guests, this was their first cruise ever, just like us. Some had taken a number of trips with Viking before.
Great - plenty of storage and even though we are both fairly large guys, sufficient room to move around. The bathroom, while small, was efficient and amazingly, the shower never leaked water into the rest of the bathroom. Really nice!