Red Lip Society

Every time a Viking River Cruise commercial comes on the television I lean in a little bit. You know the one I mean. The lovely couple sitting on the deck watching the castles go by. Imagine my surprise when one evening my husband surprised me with a trip!

For my 40th birthday, which was in April, we took a Viking River Cruise that started in Zurich, Switzerland and ended in Paris, France. I know lots of my friends had questions about the experience. To be fair, Viking River Cruises seem to be marketed to a more mature audience. Honestly, I was absolutely the youngest person on the ship. I would say that the average age on our particular trip was around 70 years old. We met some very lovely and interesting people.

I wanted to share our experience with you because I really do feel like the younger crowd is missing out on Viking River Cruising.

Booking

Admittedly, I didn’t really have much to do with booking this trip. As I said, my husband surprised me with it for my 40th birthday. We did call when we had some general questions about the trip and I can attest that customer service was some of the best I have experienced: friendly, informative, and patient with all of our questions. They booked all of our flights, hotels, and transportation.

Before the trip, Viking emailed us a very thorough itinerary that included detailed flight information, hotel names with addresses, and the excursions we had chosen. We had all the information we needed!

Accommodations

Our trip had hotel stays on the front and back end of the trip. The hotels were very nice and clean with very friendly staff that in our experience went above and beyond to make the Viking guests stay the best it could be. Both hotels were also in good locations, and it was very easy to get to things we wanted to see in those cities.

As far as the ship is concerned, we enjoyed our room. We did not choose a balcony room for this trip. When we travel, we don’t spend a lot of time in the room, so we normally don’t see that as a need for us. The room was very clean and even though I wouldn’t say it was large, the lay out and how it was decorated made it feel spacious. The bathroom was really good for the size. The heated floors were wonderful, and we learned that if we ever build our own home, heated floors in our bathroom are definitely on our dream list. The shower also had a glass door and if you knew how much I despised a shower curtain you would be able to appreciate what a big deal that was to me.

The room was attended to twice a day. Every evening after dinner we would enter our room to find the lights turned on low and the bed turned back and I’m really a fan of turn down service. It just feels special!

Food

If you enjoy good food, you will not be disappointed on a Viking River Cruise. Every night there was about six delicious sounding main course options. I wasn’t disappointed with anything I ate while on the ship! I will say don’t go into this thinking that there is going to be some kind of food available 24/7 like on ocean cruise ships. There are three dining times on the ship: breakfast, lunch and dinner times.

They did have a coffee machine on board which I used daily. When we would come in from our adventures, I would get a cup of hot chocolate out of the machine and go sit on the sun deck and sip on it while taking in the beautiful river views waiting for dinner time.

Excursions

Each stop had an included excursion. Most of the ones on our trip were walking tours that included visiting different churches or castles with very knowledgeable tour guides. Our rooms came with personal listening devices which made hearing our guides so easy.

There were also excursions you would purchase. We only did this one day. We took a day trip to the Swiss Alps. They were beautiful! The day included a ride on a cogwheel train up into the mountains, lunch at a ski lodge, and the ride back down the mountain in a gondola. The views were spectacular!

I really loved seeing the old buildings and hearing the history. Europe is so much older than America and it at times seemed surreal to me to hear the tour guides talk about things that took place in years that ended with BC. America is so young comparatively.

If you are like me and love beautiful, old, dusty buildings and history, you will love the included guided tours. Two times on our trip, we politely stepped away from the guided tour and went exploring on our own. You can do that every day if you would like. The tours are not a requirement.

Would We Take Another Viking River Cruise?

We have already been talking about taking another Viking River Cruise in the future. The question is where do we want to go? What do we want to see? Normandy? Amsterdam? The Nile? China? So many places to see!

I highly encourage you to look into experiencing a Viking River Cruise for yourself. Let me know what questions you might have about the trip. I am happy to answer them! It has been a couple months since this trip, and I am still talking about it. If you have been on a Viking River Cruise let me know which trip you went on….because like I said earlier, I am already trying to book another one. XOXO – Scarlett