My wife and I are planning for our 30th wedding anniversary for next year.
So far it is a toss up between a Princess Alaskan cruise or a Viking River Cruise.
We have all the info we need for Alaska from friends and relatives but not much about Viking.
Both cruises are going to be about the same number of days between land and cruising, also they will be about the same total cost.
The river cruise would be during the Christmas season and would run between Amsterdam and Basel Switzerland. We would be doing possibly two days in Amsterdam pre cruise and two days post cruise in Basel.
So has anyone done any part or all of this itinerary that could give us any information that will help us decide?

Thanks

There was a thread here in 2015 asking much the same question. Interesting comments... all positive although many said they opted out of some of the offered tours and did their own thing instead.

My stepsister and her hubby took a Viking cruise in the Fall of 2014 through Eastern Europe and really enjoyed it.

We've done two river cruises with Viking, no complaints at all.

https://www.vikingrivercruises...i-beijing/index.html

https://www.vikingrivercruises...bucharest/index.html

Those first two we booked directly with Viking, for Russia (see below) we're using a travel agent and getting pretty much the same price.

We've booked this for spring of 2020:

https://www.vikingrivercruises...etersburg/index.html

You're wise to do a two or three day add on before any cruise. It gives your body time to catch up, same for your luggage (thankfully, we've never had late bags). Amsterdam is a great city for a pre-trip add on, it's easy to get around, there's plenty to do, and everyone speaks English. They'll put you in the same hotel the tour starts from. Make reservations to see the Anne Frank house long before you leave home:

https://www.annefrank.org/en/

We've visited Alaska, but it was on our own with a rental vehicle. You have a real short window for tourism there, Europe you can go pretty much year round.

We were on a Bordeaux river cruise with Viking the first part of April. I can highly recommend them. The trip was excellent and the service and staff were fantastic.

We did Viking this past Fall and loved it. Different river (Danube), but it was an amazing experience. We'd do river cruises with them again in a heartbeat.

Consider taking a look at Tauck river cruises.

Wife and I did the Danube Viking Cruise December ‘16. Prague to Budapest. Both pre and post cruise extra days. Viking is outstanding. The river ships are not large, carrying about 190 passengers and maybe half that in crew. It is a comfortable size where you quickly get to recognize if not know other passengers and crew. While the rooms are not large I would not call them small either - they are well thought out.

There is virtually no uncomfortable movement of the ship while on the river. I spent 4 years in the US Navy. I have seen HIGH seas in the North Atlantic in the winter. Some SERIOUS heavy weather. The Viking river ship - it was hard to tell you weren’t tied up to the pier the whole time. Couldn’t tell the engines were on or off.

Not sure what your interests are. We have not done an Alaska cruise. Lots of nature? Most time spent on the ship?

Europe is lots of old cities, beautiful history, interesting people and excellent food - both ashore and aboard.

Bald1 above is right. Sometimes the tour in the morning gets old - “This is down town, this is the big church, government buildings,” etc.etc. It is easy to decide not to go on the scheduled tour and go off and do your own thing. I decided to look into industrial/technical museums. Search the web (WiFi throughout the ship) for “Museums, Amsterdam”. It will produce a long list of all the local museums. Pick and choose, find what you like. We finished a Viking Ocean Cruise last month. Did the Scandinavian trip from Denmark to Sweden, Norway Germany and finished in Holland (Amsterdam). Excellent museums in Amsterdam by the way - Rijks Museum and a branch of the Hermitage (world renowned museum from Moscow).
We spent several days walking around Amsterdam. Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, walking, shopping, people watching, meals on the canals. Recommend taking a canal boat tour - we got details about the city, the canals, some history and about canal boat living.

Wife has done a river Cruise with Uniworld a year ago. France, Paris to Normandy and back. Frilly, fancy but nothing better than Viking. I found Viking to be extremely well thought out as far as customer comfort and needs. Modern, tasteful appointments but nothing in excess.

We will be doing other Viking cruises. Probably the one you are considering Amsterdam to Basel. Might do a Mediterranean cruise in the future. Viking is developing more ocean cruises as well as some state side and elsewhere in the world.

Do whatever interests you. If it involves Viking I don’t believe you will ever be disappointed.

We did your same itinerary in reverse (Basel to Amsterdam).

It was fantastic. The Viking folks really know what they are doing.

We skipped the scheduled tour in Cologne since I am there all the time for work and we went on my own tour. The Christmas market will be going in Cologne when you are there and it is a lot of fun.

Definitely get there a couple of days early and stay a couple of extra days if you can.

In Amsterdam if you want to see the Anne Frank museum you definitely want tickets with a set time to enter. That way you skip the line and go in a separate entrance. They sell out quickly online but there is an official tourism office right near where the ship docks and the main train station - they hold back tickets every day and you can walk up and buy them for the same day. Get there early - they are gone by 9:30 AM or so.

When you finish the cruise you can spend the rest of the day in Basel, and Zurich is a short train ride away if you want to see another city for a day or two.

We met two fantastic couples - one from England and one from North Carolina. By the second day we had our waiter trained to bring us a beer as soon as we sat down for a meal and to order the second beer immediately.

Enjoy!

I've not done Viking, but I have done 2 river cruises by Avalon Waterways (a competitor, now part of the Globus organization). I suspect that the Avalon and Viking cruises between Amsterdam and Budapest (both feature them) are virtually identical. I did the 15-day Budapest to Amsterdam cruise in 2010, and really enjoyed it. I did a cruise of the Seine River, 9 days from and back to Paris in 2015, and it was great, too.

I don't think it matters a lot which cruise company you engage, but I think you'd enjoy a river cruise. Unlike ocean cruises, there is always something just along the river to see, and the frequent shore stops are interesting. The food is not as varied or continuously available as on the big cruise ships, but it is adequate and very good. I found the cabins very comfortable and each one had a full-sized picture window looking toward the shore. My photos of the 2010 cruise of the Danube, Main, and Rhine rivers are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/...s/72157624729863909/. The 2015 cruise of the Seine is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/...s/72157654100280263/.

Have fun!
flashguy

If you don't have passports apply sooner and not later:

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...0601935/m/8460047654

Back to Viking, this was our long ship for Amsterdam to Bucharest last summer. As others have said, they're just the right size.

https://www.vikingrivercruises...ps/viking-aegir.html

These fill up fast, the longer you wait the fewer choices you'll have. We've already booked Viking's St Petersburg to Moscow cruise for next May.

Thank you for the information.
I had looked at a past post I had last year about taking a vacation of a life time. Some had mentioned Viking River Cruise.
This is why I had asked about viking.
As of right now we have booked both Viking and Princess for our anniversary.
It looks like Viking is going to be it.
Once again Thank you for all your input and suggestions.