Viking River Cruises Archives - Richard M. Langworth

Hillsdale’s Alaska on “Crystal Serenity”

27 August 2016

North to Alaska

The 2016 Hillsdale College cruise of southwest Alaska aboard Crystal Serenity (27 July-3 August) provided an impressive visit to a spectacular state. Accompanying the fine dining and entertainment was a crew which could not have done more. Crystal Cruises seems to own all the highest ratings in the business, and it’s easy to see why. There’s no separate bar bill, and they’ll deliver up to two bottles a day to your stateroom. No one could drink this much! Tips are included, nobody duns you for handouts, and you’re not presented with a list of “estimated gratuities” on your last day aboard.…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (6): Passau

27 July 2015

June 6: Passau, Germany

continued from part 5… Once called “Batavia” or “Batavis,” Passau is a charmer of a medieval Bavarian town at the confluence of the Danube, Inn and Ilz, the last out of the Black Forest, spewing dark peaty water into the larger, faster-moving rivers.

With a population the same as Manchester, New Hampshire, it draws 1.6 million visitors per year, compared to 1 million down at Durnstein, population 400 and a tenth the size. Result: you can move around without masses of crowds and enjoy the transition architecture, Gothic to Baroque.

St. Stefan’s Cathedral has one of the largest organs in the world and the recital there is tremendous.…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (5): Salzburg and Linz

19 July 2015

June 5: Linz, Salzburg and Viking Cuisine

continued from part 4… Visiting Linz and Salzburg….

The quality of Viking’s Danube Waltz cuisine is uniformly high. There is always a choice of three or four first and main courses, nicely balanced between meat, fish and vegetarian, with excellent soups (and again, there’s no reason why you can’t order both a starter and soup). At dinner, several staple items always accompany the choices: Caesar salad, sautéed salmon fillet and rib eye steak. Meats tend to be overcooked, so specify medium-rare if you mean medium—and some are tough, for which there are two solutions: send it back and ask for another (never a problem), or bring your own steak knives (unless they’ve accepted our suggestion that these be provided.)…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (4): More Austria

13 July 2015

June 4: Durnstein and Melk, Austria

Cruising Austria …continued from part 3… Viking encourages you to buy local wine and beer and stash it in your stateroom cooler. In practice this is superfluous because there is so much of it aboard, especially with the premium drinks package. You only have to lift a finger or a wine list, and it’s there 24/7.

However, if you’re serious about wine or cocktails, the premium “Silver Spirits” package is worth $300 per cabin. (It also includes espresso and other specialty coffees, juices and mineral water.)

Acceptable house wine and beer are poured freely, but not the premium stuff, and mixed drinks cost extra.…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (3): Vienna

11 July 2015

Vienna, Austria

continued from part 2….

June 3:

Viking’s cuisine is generally first-rate, highly varied, and the breakfasts lack nothing we could think of except the odd blintz. For example, there were three different styles of yogurt, eggs any way you want them including custom-made omelets, smoked salmon, fish, cheese, cold cuts, champagne by the glass, a dozen or more varieties of bread and rolls, pastry galore, all the usual things you find under hot plates, and everything of uniform high quality. For items you order from the table, like Eggs Benedict or pancakes, servings are small, but this is a plus for two reasons: it gives you more room to try different things, and if you want more of anything, a waiter will happily bring you a second serving.…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (2): Bratislava

2 July 2015

Bratislava

continued from Part 1….

June 2: Bratislava, Slovakia

If the Viking Legend is any example, you don’t need to worry about table service. The wait staff, mostly Filipino, could not have been more attentive, but at the same time never struck us as fawning or gratuitous. Our favorite waiter’s name tag read “Neri.” It turned out that he’d opted for that because his real name wouldn’t fit: Aldefonso Neria. He and his colleagues were gems, always looking out for us, and soon began to save a nice place for four by throwing napkins over chair backs at a well-situated table.…

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Viking’s Danube Waltz (1) Budapest

30 June 2015

We Cruising alternative

If your idea of a cruise is floating around the sea with thousands of people and 24/7 entertainment, food and drink, a Viking River Cruise is not for you. Which is exactly why we took one, with two congenial friends and 180 fellow passengers, from May 31 to June 7 aboard Viking Legend, starting in Budapest, with three days’ optional side trip to Prague, staying at the Hilton. We came away highly satisfied and impressed with the crew and organizers, even though organized leisure is not our thing. We like to get out into a country and nibble the grass, as Churchill said, going where whim and the road take us.…

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