[Doug E]

My wife and I recently did a 7-night Viking cruise on the Rhine in late-May ... we went from Basel to Amsterdam. We had a great time and would definitely cruise with them again.

This was our first river cruise and we thought the food, service, boat, accommodations, excursions and fellow passengers were great. It definitely wasn't like an ocean cruise, which we have done several of and wanted something different.

Regarding the excursions, part of the Viking package (not sure about Avalon) is that you can do both 'included' excursions (no additional cost) or 'additional' excursions (for which there is added cost). We just did the 'included' and thought they were more than sufficient.

My wife did the initial research and decided on Viking over Avalon. Can't remember specifically why but believe it came down to pricing. IIRC, we paid 20% upfront last Sep/Oct, then the balance in November. Airfare was included but take a look at the options, seems like there are always promotions going on.

Only call-out I have is to be aware of the potential for 'rafting', as mentioned above when 2 or 3 boats tie up together at a dock. This wasn't something we had thought about so the first time it happened it took us by surprise. We quickly learned 'rafting' is done by all cruise lines, not just Viking. We lost the full use of our balcony for about a day and half, total, when we were rafted on our side of the boat. The rest of the time our side of the boat luckily had the better view when docked and we had some spectacular ones. Viking also seemed to own more of the docks I saw (i.e., they had they specific branding and logos on them) than other cruise lines, which I guess could help reduce the potential for rafting.

Stomachmonkey - feel free to send me a PM with any specific questions, be glad to share more information.