In March 2011 Irene & I were on the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas that has a length of 360 meters.  In April 2011 we were on the Viking Legend that has a length of 134.9 meters.  There is a huge difference in size but we enjoyed both.  We took the "Romantic Danube" cruise with the Viking cruise line and were joined by our friends Betty and Gerry.  Using our travel agent we booked the cruise as well as the air and 2 night pre-cruise hotel that was offered by Viking. All four of us have been on one river cruise prior to this and that was the "Paris to Normandy" offered by Viking cruise line.  The Viking Legend is a relatively new ship and I found the cabins were more like the ocean cruise cabins than they were on the cruise that we took out of Paris.  We booked the lowest category and had a small window to see the outside.  We were in cabin 125 and Betty and Gerry were in cabin 123.

This was a terrific cruise.  There is not much that I have to criticize.  The internet service was not very good but Viking indicated that the service could be slow.  Most of the time we could not get on the internet and when we did it was very slow.

The cruise started in Budapest and ended in Nuremberg Germany and passed through 25 locks on the way.  We left New Hampshire on April 27, 2011 for our flight out of Boston.  We arrived in Budapest Hungary and cleared customs and the terminal around 15:30 on April 28.  A Viking representative was there waiting for us and we got into a shuttle and headed off for the Budapest Hilton Hotel.  It was a 15 minute drive.  We were told that there was an Orientation Stroll leaving the hotel lobby at 16:00.  Check in literally took about 2 minutes.  We went to our room dropped our luggage and went to the lobby to join others from this cruise for a walking tour of nearby areas from the hotel.  Budapest is divided in half by the Danube river.  One side is Buda which is hilly and Pest which is flat.  As far as I know everyone with the cruise package was assigned a room overlooking the Danube.  The hotel is located in what is known as the Castle Hill district in Buda.  It was possible to look out of our window and see the Danube below us and Pest which was located across Danube.  We took the Orientation Stroll and found it very interesting.  After an hour the Viking representative said he would be going back to the hotel and we could join him or go on our own to do more touring.  We ended up on our own and went to dinner around 19:30.  By then we were exhausted and went to bed.

I was not aware ahead of time that Viking offered a couple of Optional tours on each of the next two days in Budapest.  On the 29th they offered a "Jewels of  Andrassy Avenue" tour for 39 euros per person.  On the 30th which is the day we board the ship they offered the "Art Nouveau in Budapest" tour for 34 euros per person.  Instead we hired a guide for a 10 hour tour of Budapest.  His name is Andras Novak and he was excellent and I would highly recommend him.  He has several options as to what you could do in Budapest and you can select what you want.  He has some unique options.  I found him through a tour company called "Tours by locals".  However he has his own web site and it is located at www.mypersonalbudapest.com .  You can  take some of his ideas or add something.  For example we wanted to go to the "House of Terror" in Budapest and that was not one of his options.  It was not a problem, he simply added that to our planned tour.  He has a lot of offerings where you can sit down and rest a little bit like a "piano house concert".  We wanted to see as much of Budapest as we could see and as a result we saw a lot but we walked a lot.  He picked us up at the hotel at 08:00 and we spent the whole day with him and ended the day with a Danube sightseeing boat tour.  Again I can only say it was a worthwhile day.

We boarded the ship on Sunday April 30.  They were very organized and the service is outstanding..  One of the differences with the river cruise versus the ocean cruises is the tipping procedure.  I am used to tipping the cabin steward, waiters etc.  You can still do this if you want.  Or they recommend a $10 - $12 a day per person for tipping.   That money is then divided equally among the 49 employees on board.  It is your choice.  When you went on tours you brought an audio device with head phones so that you could hear the guide clearly.  Each night you would put the audio device in a charging slot in the cabin. There were four optional tours and we signed up for three of them.  We did not sign up for the concert in Vienna.  We had a full day and at my age (71) I figured I would get settled in and fall a sleep during the concert so we chose to pass.

We saw much during the week and I think I remember about half of what I saw.  It seems as though for every photo I took I passed up two others.  I enjoyed every stop.  My favorite cities in Europe are Rome, Venice and Paris.  But I have to admit that Budapest has worked its way into being one of my favorites.  I am sure that having Andras as a guide had a lot to do in helping us to see the best of Budapest.  I have over 200 photos of our trip taken by Gerry, Irene & myself at: Webshots.com .  In order to see a slideshow of the photos at webshots simply click on "slideshow" to the right. of the photos.