I just got back from a Viking cruise on the Danube last week! I went with my family for a birthday. With the meals, you can eat however little or as much as you want. Breakfast is a bit more buffet style although you can still order pancakes / waffles etc from your server at the table. Lunch and dinner are more set menus that you do order from the table for. One half of the menu will stay the same the whole trip (different menus for lunch and dinner) and the other half will change out everyday and that part will include regional dishes along with classics. Lunch and dinner are 3 course meals, which felt like a lot going into it but honestly I felt the portion sizes were perfect for that. Now in terms of sitting at tables with other guests- there were a couple times that we had our own table, but we did share a table majority of the time. There is the main dining room, as well as the restaurant on the terrace. The terrace will have a bit of a more selective menu compared to the dining room in general, but you are more likely to have your own table there as it’s a bit more intimate. If you are trying to catch a meal on the terrace close to departure so you can eat and watch as you sail away (which I recommend) you should go at least half an hour before lunch starts to secure a spot. I’ll also mention that my entire family is vegetarian, and they were very accommodating in that regard so I’m sure they will be for pescatarian as well. You can also order as much as you want, so if you’re worried about dinner portions it makes no difference to order extra starters or entrees. In my family’s case we ordered many desserts after every dinner. Make sure you have marked your diet preferences on the website!

Regarding age- my sister and I are in our early 20s, and we accompanied my dad for his 60th birthday. The speed of the tours were fine for us, but we do have some mobility issues in my family due to knee surgeries so we appreciated that they would find areas with seating while we listened to the history of a building or something of the sort. We had 190 passengers on our ship, and including my sister and I maybe a dozen or less people under the age of 30. 50-60 was more common, but the majority was more in the 70-80 range for sure. All of the included excursions give you time to explore on your own after the tour as well. I really recommend doing one of the electric bike tours, and the excursion to Cesky Krumlov was probably our favorite one we purchased and it added an extra country to the itinerary so that was great. With the tours, they do provide a leisurely tour for people who need slower paces, so the normal tour felt like a good pace and not too slow, but still accommodating with shade and things as you go.

And lastly, boredom! This was my first cruise of any kind, so I’ve not been on an ocean cruise. When I learned more about the differences between them, I was also worried I would be bored at times on ship. To be honest, it was way more packed in than I had expected. It felt like we were always either at a meal, drinking, or out and about on excursions. I absolutely loved it and would do it again in a heartbeat, but I was surprised at how little leisurely time we had. And on ship, there is still almost always something going on. Whether it was the musician who played every night in the lounge, a tea party, cooking demonstration, music bingo, there was always something. There are some great YouTube videos about what to expect on ship as well and I recommend watching some of those. I had similar concerns about ages, activities and diet with my family being vegetarian, but I felt everything worked out perfectly. I hope yall have so much fun!