We had researched cruises and felt Viking would be a good fit for us and the Homelands itinerary of great interest. We met wonderful people, the service was unbelievable and the overall ambience was perfect for us. We felt the variety of excursions offered was good. Two of our excursions fell a bit short of expectations due to time constraints and train breakdowns. Our room steward was exemplary as was our favorite waiter in The Restaurant. All of the wait staff and bartenders were very professional and accomodating. Our only disappointment in staff was the spa director and sone of his staff were silly and into themselves with banter and revelry instead of taking care of their guests. A couple of the Customer Service staff seemed a bit disinterested in us. The staff directly involved with us on a daily basis were THE BEST, which made up for the ones we felt fell short. We were celebrating our 40th anniversary and our children and also our TA had alerted the appropriate dept of this ahead of time, but we were not acknowledged in any way. That was a bit disappointing, but ok.