David T.
Google
Viking River Cruises – Elbe, Rhine & Moselle, and Seine (November–December 2025)
To be clear from the outset, this is a first-world problem. In the context of everything else happening in the world, it is minor. Life moves on. That said, when you pay a premium price for a premium product, expectations matter.
We travelled on three Viking river cruises between November and December 2025: the Elbe, the Rhine & Moselle, and the Seine.
There is much to commend Viking on. The ships are clean, modern, and stylish. The cabins are well designed. The crew, without exception, were helpful, polite, and genuinely attentive. Operationally, Viking runs a very tight ship.
Where the experience fell apart for us was cultural.
Viking markets itself aggressively across English-speaking countries, implying a shared culture and shared expectations. In reality, the onboard experience is overwhelmingly—and at times exclusively—American. Announcements, commentary, humour, food choices, tour framing, and social norms were 110% USA-centric. If you are not American, you are very much a passenger on someone else’s holiday.
Food and drink expectations differ. Tour pacing and commentary differ. Even social interactions differ. That gap is not acknowledged or managed by Viking. The assumption appears to be that English language equals cultural alignment. It does not.
At times, we jokingly referred to our experience as “Australian leprosy”—not because anyone was overtly rude, but because people simply kept their distance. Once you moved past those initial differences, many of the American passengers we met were actually great people. But the default setting onboard did not encourage integration or inclusivity beyond one dominant audience.
What truly cemented our decision not to travel with Viking again was how issues were handled. Requests to transfer between tours or to be assisted to a train station were flatly refused, while similar requests from American passengers were accommodated without hesitation. Whether intentional or not, the perception of preferential treatment was impossible to ignore, and it left a sour taste after an otherwise well-run operation.
In summary: Viking delivers a polished, efficient product—for Americans travelling with Americans. If that is you, you will likely have a very good time.
For us, it is not what we are looking for. We value diversity, shared history, and a mix of cultures—New Zealanders, Canadians, British, Europeans, Australians—where conversation flows without having to explain Federation, kangaroos, or which local animals might kill you.
We won’t travel with Viking again. There are too many other operators who offer a more internationally balanced experience, which is ultimately what river cruising through Europe should be about.
