Go(ing) With the Flow

In the camping days of my youth, I’d get a kick out of dropping little sticks into the water and watching them float lazily downstream.  I’d imagine them as little boats, navigating uncharted waters on their way to some exotic destination.  I’d see how far those sticks could go, sometimes removing obstructions to create clear channels.  Perhaps it’s no surprise then, all these years later, I’m drawn to the adventure of Viking River Cruises.

Maybe you’ve seen their commercials.  Viking River Cruises advertise by showing you one of their elegant white ships cruising slowly down a pristine river, with dramatic terrain sloping up and away from the shorelines.  Viking “longships” are low, flat, and narrow; a  wholly refined version of my stick in the stream.  Take your pick: the Nile in Egypt, the Rhine in Germany, or the Mississippi in America, to name a few.  Viking has you covered when it comes to cruising the world’s rivers.

My wife and I just completed our second Viking cruise (well, “completed” doesn’t really cut it but I’ll get to that in a moment).  Our first, in 2019, down the Rhine River from the Netherlands through Germany to Switzerland, was so satisfying we were ready to sign up for another as soon as we were done.  Then the world went a little off the rails so we had to wait until the waters calmed again, so to speak.  A week ago then, we returned from Viking’s Danube River cruise; Hungary through Austria to Germany.

There are at least two reasons why Viking River Cruises don’t appeal to those who seek a vacation on the water.  First, you’ll find little more to do on the ship besides eat and sleep.  Yes, you’ll find live music in the lounge and an occasional cooking demonstration by the head chef, but for the most part a Viking ship is a floating hotel.  Second, the daily excursions off the boat are fast-paced guided looks at whatever is worth seeing, with only a little free time at the end for shopping and such.  Best to bring a comfortable pair of walking shoes to keep up.

Those same reasons are why Viking cruises do appeal to us.  We’ve been on one of those floating-city ocean cruises before (Carnival – ick), and everything from the buffet to the entertainment felt cheap and mass-produced.  A Viking river ship caters to only two hundred passengers, in rooms as nice as most anywhere we’ve stayed on shore.  As for the excursions, the tour guides are carefully chosen for their knowledge and personalities, adding so much more to the tour than if you were to go it alone.  Yes, you’re only getting a “taste” of each locale, but this means you see a lot in eight days of cruising, leaving you to choose if and where you might come back to for more in-depth looks.

Eight days is plenty of time to be on the river (at least in our book) but Viking offers several options twice as long, including a fifteen-day Grand European Tour covering the Rhine and the Danube.  You can also add “land-based” days to either end of a cruise, exploring the cities from where you embark and disembark.  Finally, Viking tailors its menus (and I do mean menus, not buffets) to the cuisine of the region you travel through.  From our experience, the food is excellent.

Passau, Germany (one of our destinations)

If this sounds like a ringing endorsement for a Viking River Cruise, let me silence that bell for just a moment.  Perhaps the only thing Viking can’t control is the water itself.  Unbeknownst to most Americans, the Danube River flooded its banks earlier this month, forcing the powers that be (and who exactly are those powers?) to “close” the river.  Residents in destinations downriver found themselves wading through four feet of water.  River ships couldn’t fit under low-flying bridges, let alone dock at the shores.  As a result, our cruise came to a premature halt in Vienna, Austria, with the remaining itinerary carried out with busses and hotels.

I’ll take the next several posts to dive deeper into our “Romantic Danube” Viking cruise.  We missed out on the time we expected on the river, but the destinations were no less impressive.  Budapest is a heck of an interesting city.  Gottweig Abbey (outside the Austrian town of Krems) is keeping apricots relevant.  So stick with me the next few weeks and you’ll find out more about what the Danube has to offer.  After all, river cruising is a whole lot more adventurous than floating a stick down a stream.

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Author: Dave

Five hundred posts would suggest I have something to say… This blog was born from a desire to elevate the English language, highlighting eloquent words from days gone by. The stories I share are snippets of life itself, and each comes with a bonus: a dusted-off word I hope you’ll go on to use more often. Read “Deutschland-ish Improvements” to learn about my backyard European wish list. Try “Slush Fun” for the throwback years of the 7-Eleven convenience store. Or drink in "Iced Coffee" to discover the plight of the rural French cafe. On the lighter side, read "Late Night Racquet Sports" for my adventures with our latest moth invasion. As Walt Whitman said, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Here then, my verse. Welcome to Life In A Word.

22 thoughts on “Go(ing) With the Flow”

  1. Curious, did they warn you ahead of time this was happening or did you get on the boat and then… Oops, there’s a flood, we go by land. Maybe that comes in your next posts. Look forward to the continuation.

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    1. No warning from Viking on the flooding. We “got on the boat and then…”, as you say. But Viking couldn’t have predicted the flooding downstream because it happened inside of a day. Even after reading the headlines we thought, “Oh, the water levels will just come back down by the time we get there. Nope; rivers don’t repair themselves that quickly 🙂

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  2. I’ve wondered how river cruises differed from ocean cruises, other than the obvious that they’re on different bodies of water. From your description I’d enjoy a river cruise for the reasons you mention other people dislike them. I look forward to reading more about your adventures.

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    1. I could’ve also added that rivers and smaller ships can reach destinations ocean cruises cannot. Not to say there aren’t some really enticing ocean/sea shoreline cruises out there as well (Spain-Monaco-Italy may be our next one!)

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  3. Like you, Viking’s Rhine River cruise was such a perfect experience for us that we didn’t hesitate to book the Danube with them as well. And like you, that one was not as perfect. I look forward to hearing all about your journey. Welcome home!

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    1. I remember reading your account of your Danube River cruise, and writing off the shortcomings to the pandemic. Honestly, I was more concerned about low water levels instead of high ones. It’s the chance you take with these kinds of adventures.

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  4. Looking forward to seeing more of your adventure!

    We took a 14 day trip on the Danube on the A-ROSA MIA in 2007. Half the trip took us from Passau to the Delta, the other half from the Delta back to Passau. The only downside was that the cruise was a German one, not an English speaking one. (The person who booked the trip for our group forgot to mention the English bit to the cruise line…) The Cruise line responded quickly to provide a mini bus and English guide for all our off shore trips. The rest of the passengers (all German speaking) did not take long to adopt the Canadian and American foreigners – most of them spoke enough English to communicate with us and we quickly picked up enough fractured German to keep them smiling…

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    1. I was impressed to see just how many river cruise lines there are, at least on the Danube. Many I’d never heard of before but I suspect they cater to Europeans more than Americans. We experienced a similar German immersion experience on the port tour in Hamburg. The English version was sold out and we really wanted to take the tour. Fortunately we had German friends along for the ride, who did their best to act as interpreters as the guide spoke to the locals.

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  5. My wife and I did that cruise many years ago and we lucky enough to not have to get off the ship. I know a couple of other people who’ve had either extremely dry years or flood and had to go by bus. Last fall we took one of their ocean cruises and liked that very much.

    Sorry to hear that you didn’t get the best experience.

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    1. As much as I’ll speak fondly to the excursions and other “land” adventures in upcoming posts, nothing can replace the cruising itself (as you know). One day on the Rhine River (our last cruise) was devoted to simply passing through the “castle region” – a whole day being lazy on the sundeck watching the sights go by. It was awesome. Add in the convenience of “moving in” on the ship and never having to pack up until the very last docking, and we missed a good portion of why we enjoy river cruises. But you can’t blame Viking for whatever Mother Nature chooses to do. We’ll take our chances and cruise another river some day.

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      1. We have booked another river cruise. Part of it is on the river and part is four days in London. Kind of a cross between a bus tour and cruise. The good part is that we don’t move hotels in London and just do day trips from there. We then go to Paris for a few days on the Seine. I’m hopeful that we won’t have a problem there.

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  6. I am sorry to hear of the misfortune on your trip Dave. I sure understand what it must have been like as we had torrential rain like I’ve never witnessed before a good part of today and the news was full of flooding and destruction. I watch our local PBS channel and their ads are all sponsored by Viking Longship cruises. I even found a good video on YouTube to learn more about them after seeing those commercials, so I saw how nice this holiday would be. I have also done cruises, three of them, but in the days before the cruise ships became overly large and nothing but floating resorts. That would not appeal to me either. I have heard Budapest is a beautiful and picturesque city. I have been to Austria a couple of times and liked it better than Germany – the people were friendly, the Alpen countryside and chalets were so quaint. I did go on a one-day Rhine River cruise, but it was nothing like the opulence of this boat. I’ll look forward to hearing more about the trip, which I hope will be accompanied by photos.

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    1. Plenty of photos to come! I only wish more of them were taken from the perspective of the ship. Viking did a remarkable job completing the itinerary without the river. Honestly, I can’t imagine the logistics of accommodating 200 people on busses, hotels, and in restaurants on the fly, not to mention getting all of us to our flights at the end as originally scheduled. Viking must have a heckuva team of fixers behind the scenes. They did a great job under unforeseen circumstances.

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      1. I will look forward to seeing your photos Dave. The commercials and that video I saw make the vacation, no matter the venue(s), look spectacular. As to the remarkable customer service by the Viking staff, one thing that stood out to me was Viking allowing passengers to board the ship one day ahead of the beginning of the cruise, so no angst if your flight was running behind and if you got there timely, then you had that time to relax or explore the home port city. It’s unfortunate you had to pack/unpack, since one plus of taking cruise is staying put and not schlepping your stuff around. It sounds wonderful.

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  7. Who would’ve ever thought a river would be closed, can’t predict that. Looking forward to hearing more about your cruise. I don’t find many cruises appealing, but I would love to do an Alaskan cruise one day. There are certain places in the world you just can’t reach except by boat, so that seems wroth the cruise. I also like being in charge of my itinerary, but I know people like just being able to show up and have a wonderful trip already planned for them. I suppose that would be Jon ha!

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    1. Now that you mention it Lyssy I have to agree; Viking’s approach probably wouldn’t appeal to you in that it’s almost completely planned out in advance. The only flexibility comes in choosing which excursions you’ll take and which you’ll pass on. Otherwise they pretty much control your time. People complain about the lack of free time but they also know what they signed up for in the first place. You and Jon are willing to put in the time and effort to design a really thorough, meaningful trip. It’d be hard for Viking to top that!

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    1. Filing away for future use – good idea. Were you to sign up for a cruise today, you might discover most of your fellow passengers are a little – ahem – “senior” for your tastes. Best to wait another ten years (at least) 🙂

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      1. Okay, so what age range are we talking here, Dave? Not that I had any intention of doing this any time soon, but since I am filing away ‘fo for the future, I might as well get the deets now.

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      2. Definitely the retired set and up, with a few younger exceptions. Still active and up for adventure, but plenty of grey hair to be seen 🙂

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