Viking Skadi Rhine River Review From Reader Lisa D. From USA

Viking Skadi Rhine River Review.

Reviewer

Lisa Dechirico from USA.

Cruise Line

Viking.

Ship

190-pax Skadi.

Destination

Rhine River.

# of Nights

7.

Departure Port

Amsterdam.

Date of Cruise

2023.

Ratings

(5=excellent, 4=very good, 3=good, 2=poor, 1=terrible)

-Overall Experience Rating: 3

-Food Rating: 2

-Service/Crew Rating: 2

-Cabin Rating: 1

-Itinerary Rating: 4

Viking Skadi Cruise Review by Lisa D. * Photo: Lisa D

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Viking Skadi Review of Rhine River Cruise

River cruise blues

I don’t think I’ve ever read a bad review about Viking river cruises or even had a conversation with someone who had taken one that had nothing but great things to say. No wait there was one guy from our condo building who said there was no food other than a few cookies in between meals. Those are the kind of people I should be listening to. The kind of people who really tell you the truth. The kind of people that don’t want to make it out like everything is great even when it isn’t. The kind of people who are looking for great but admit when they don’t get it. The kind of people that don’t care what people think when they complain or find fault with things. Someone once shared this statement or sentiment.

‘Was everything good sir? Versus ‘Was anything good sir? Precisely the point. The likelihood of ‘everything’ being great is not great.

Here’s why:

Taking the redeye makes your first day very difficult unless you do a pre-cruise excursion. We intended on a post extension so we didn’t do that. So if you didn’t sleep on the plane as 95% of the passengers don’t then you’re starting your first day sleep deprived. Because you’re going on a cruise ship you won’t even get your cabin until late afternoon so there’s no chance to even take a nap. Not terrible but not ideal.

After doing a half a day in Amsterdam including the Anne Frank house. This was a highlight of the trip for me. When I was young I saw the movie The Diary of Anne Frank starring Millie Perkins that was made in the 1950s.

I’ve seen the movie many times. I’ve always wanted to see the annex where they lived those terrible years before they went to concentration camps all but Mr. Frank.
They were actually living in apartments above Mr. Frank’s office where he owned a company called Opetka.

So we had to climb stairs a few times. It was very quiet and solemn as people walked through and read some plaques on the wall. It was all sparse but the idea was to just experience the annex. At one point there was a small line and there was a foreign couple kissing each other loudly. Not only kissing on the lips laughing whispering and touching each other and it was all very awkward. Reminding me of the Seinfeld episode and the line ‘you were making out during Schindler’s list!’ Really!

They couldn’t have waited an hour to get to the street to make out.

I’m digressing…

After the museum tour we headed to the cruise ship terminal. So unlike the cruise ship terminals for ocean cruising. It was raining and as our taxi driver opened the door we saw the Viking ship Skadi a few dozen feet away.

I think it was around 230. It was very chaotic and there were suitcases everywhere. There were a few guys in red Viking jackets at the entrance dealing with luggage. Someone kept yelling at us ‘throw your luggage over there’ but I didn’t feel comfortable thinking it was going to wind up leaving the terminal versus going on the ship. Sure enough I saw it being thrown on a cart and I grabbed it. We were not greeted by anyone and we had to walk up to the desk which was also chaotic. Not a good start!

There is no official lobby on these ships as they are very small. There is a guest service desk but it’s very small and not like the ones on ocean cruises where you go for all issues. The girl working the desk spoke little English and didn’t understand what we wanted. I was trying to figure out if the cabin was ready. We were desperate for a nap before dinner. She called someone else. It was at least an hour before we got to speak to someone who eventually said we can go to the cabin.

We had a French balcony cabin and the room was 135 ft.². It was the smallest cabin I’ve ever been in.

We sailed on at least 25 cruise ships. This was small! There was literally no place to put our suitcases and I don’t like putting them under the bed. It’s annoying to pull them out and there was no place to put them. The luggage is dirty, the wheels are dirty and I didn’t want them on the bed. On top of that having such a small cabin means there’s no place to go. You really couldn’t spend any amount of time in this cabin.

It also became more apparent as the week passed that there is are few places to go on this cruise ship but the lounge area. The dining room is only open for breakfast and dinner. Even then they’re not open for long. So this one large room is where we were any time there was free time. Unfortunately there was a lot more free time than we expected.

Speaking with other friends who’d been on river cruises they spent a lot of time on the top deck. That may have been a better option but our weather was not great. In fact it rained almost every day. I think we got to spend a few hours on the open air top deck cruising the Rhine one afternoon. It wasn’t warm of course and it was still drizzling. We were all cold.

One of the biggest surprises was the lack of food. There were a few days we were back on the ship by early afternoon. They have coffee, tea some soft drinks and some cookies out all the time. But that’s it. We thought there would be a bar menu with snacks to order. We were willing to pay for a cheese plate or some appetizers. But there was nothing. There wasn’t even anything you could buy at the ‘gift shop’.

The gift shop in actuality is the few shelves across from the ‘so called’ guest services desk in the “lobby. I kid you not I don’t think it was 10 feet wide. I had forgotten one of our toothbrushes and asked if I could buy one and a crew member said they don’t have them on board.

Nothing. No sundries. No snacks. No medicine.

However they did have a dozen little stuffed dogs for sale. At least I think that’s what it was — a dog. I don’t know if it is the Viking mascot but it was annoying to see so many stuffed animals on display when I couldn’t buy a Twix bar or get an aspirin.

Speaking of food. There wasn’t much. Dinner was seven every night. You got what you got and there wasn’t much to choose from. You also got the feeling they wanted you out of there before 9 o’clock. ‘More than a feeling’ as the ‘Boston’ song goes. They were cleaning up pretty early.

Viking Skadi dining scene * Photo: By Lisa D

So there wasn’t much lingering and chatting over coffee. Back up to the lounge area which was getting old. In fact it looked old. You could see the frayed cushions on the sofas. The wood that needed tending to. It was dated and neglected.

We had been on a Cunard cruise to Canada six months before this. It was wonderful! They had people on board giving talks. These talks occurred almost every day for several hours. This was missing on the Viking river cruise. Some entertainment or activity. There were one or two talks but they weren’t nearly as good and fun and informative as the ones we experienced on the Queen Mary 2.

Considering how little there is to do when you’re back on board they should’ve offered some kind of alternative for entertainment in the day. How about having interesting talks about the destinations and the history of some of these destinations.

Lastly the locks. Many people asked me if I hadn’t read about them. I didn’t! I never thought about it. I figured that was the reason you went on the Panama Canal cruise  — to see the locks. I don’t recall anyone saying they were going to Germany to see locks.

When you are on an ocean cruise ship the captain always gives the passengers an update the night or day before for what’s ahead.

A weather update, entertainment update, anything of significance you might want to know for the day ahead. We got nothing on the Viking Skadi.

In fact I think if I bumped into the captain on the way to the dining room I wouldn’t have known who he was.

So on the first day of the locks I heard this loud grinding noise around 1 o’clock in the morning. At first I was thinking they were gassing up. They’ll do that on overnight trains sometimes in the middle of the night.

But it went on and on and on. I finally went over to the French door slider and opened it. Less than 12 inches from my face was a black cinderblock wall. When I looked up I couldn’t see the top. I was terrified. I shook my husband to get up. He said ‘oh that must be locks’. I am claustrophobic and the room was already so tiny. All I could think of was there was no way out if something went wrong. Of course there were no instructions either from any of the senior staff on the ship. All in all there were twelve locks from Amsterdam to Basel Switzerland. I was up almost every night . Some nights for hours. It is very, very loud!

I was thinking of the people that heard the iceberg cutting through the steel hull of the Titanic.

We did a Med cruise with NCL a few years before. It was great. It wasn’t the best cruise ship but it didn’t matter because we were out very late almost every night.

It’s difficult to compare but we experienced four different countries on that trip also. It was so much better of an experience overall.

I wish the Viking River cruise was great but it was just barely good and that was only because of the people we met in the different countries that wanted to share their stories.

I want to do the Danube river cruise some day. It looks like that won’t be on Viking.

How many small-ship cruises under 300 pax have you been on?

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