DrKoob

No they don't. They dock at Pier 66. NCL put millions into Pier 66 to be the only company (with all their subsidiaries including Oceania) to use it for embarkation and disembarkation. I have a close friend who works there. She only gets NCL and Oceania. This has been true for about five years. And to answer the OP question, it is a VERY easy walk and one of the safest in Seattle. I can walk it with luggage in less than 10 minutes, all flat surface.

You are correct. My mistake.

Viking's smaller ships are old R class ships once owned by Renaissance Cruises who went out of business long ago. They had quite a few of them. Azamara sails four of them, Princess used to have one and Oceania has three (of which Regatta is one). They were great ships once but kind of dated now and I would in no way compare them to Viking's fleet. Oceanias three newest ships including the Vista that we sailed on are much improved. I would never have done a comparison if those were just the only Oceania ship I had been on.

I think you nailed the correct answer. We are long-time temperpedic sleepers and we found the beds on Viking Ocean to be horrid. Even with a mattress topper. Did 21 nights in the Med with only about four hours a night of sleep. That's all my back could stand and I have never had a bad back. Most miserable part of the cruise. I was kind of starting to get used to them towards the end...or maybe I was so tired I just had to sleep. We did our first Viking River cruise in December and had no problems with those beds. Very comfortable.

This was absolutely true for us as well. The Restaurant is just too darned loud. I think it's the low ceilings but we had dinner there three nights out of 21 and couldn't hear the other people at our table for four. Love the World Cafe! Besides, if the weather is good, you can eat outside. Always a plus.

I bet it would be. I would not be a happy camper. Ours is still showing Greenwich. We have non-refundable hotel reservations at a place in Greenwich. Hope ours stays the same. Have a great time.

Can I ask what sailing you are on? And where you found this out. We are on the June 14 departure and we have our own hotels reserved for two nights in Greenwich. Hoping ours is still there.

Absolutely. On our 21-night Med cruise (Athens to Barcelona) my wife got food poisoning (along with other people) at Manfredis and she was down for two days so we cancelled our shore excursions for those two days. Then a week later we got COVID and were quarantined for four more days and we had shore excursions on every one of those days. Cancelled those as well.

Based on the amount of snail mail and e-mail I get from Viking, they have a sale on something pretty much every single day of every single year. 😜

You hit the nail on the head. Viking puts the final payment that far out because...they can. People complain but their ships are always full. We have a river cruise in October and there is not a single stateroom available on the entire river (the Douro) during that time. It's amazing. Loyal Viking customers just keep coming back. We finally bit the bullet a couple of years ago and just did one. Going back again in June. Keep in mind that you get a shorter date when you already have one booked. For instance, we booked our next river cruise with them while on our first ocean cruise. That gave us one that was paid for, so our next ocean we got to wait until six months before to pay in full. That's the June ocean cruise. And since it is paid for, we have until the end of next month to pay for our October cruise. We will probably buy one while we are on the ocean cruise so we will then have one paid for (the October river) and that will make the next one six months as well.

I will do me but it appears you want to do everyone else. Or at least to force your opinion on everyone, not just yourself. I have two problems with your stance: 1) How does it hurt you if someone decorates their door, their room or any other place that is theirs on the cruise? No public areas other than a hallway. We used to decorate our doors years ago when we were traveling with 20+ people. But that was on Celebrity and not VIkng and we wouldn't do it anymore. But we aren't offended by those that do. 2) The real question here is not whether they should or should not have ducks or decorate doors but why you would take the time on a cruise to create a thread (which has turned into a total laugh riot) about it. Seriously, go walk around town or eat or have a drink or socialize or anything but starting a Cruise Critic thread about things that just don't matter.

So let me understand here. You are in the middle of an awesome cruise and you took time out to insult what some others like to do on their cruises? I bet you can find something better to comment on about your cruise. Not sure why you thought this was important enough to start a Cruise Critic thread about. Have the people who like the rubber duck thing ever forced you to participate? Made fun of you because they didn't? Started a Cruise Critic thread to insult you for NOT bringing rubber ducks on board? Come on. Let people do what they want on cruises. It's not hurting you, is it?

There it is right there. I don't compare Viking to Seabourn, Regent and Windstar. I compare Viking to Azamara and Oceania and when you do that, those are about right on the money.

Back in 2005, we met a bunch of incredible people on a Cruise Critic roll call. We started cruising together. First, there were six of us (three couples), but as we cruised and others saw how much fun we were having, we added a few more each trip, and the new folks started traveling with us as well. We have lost a few over the years (some of passed away, others ghosted us) but we are still going strong. Our biggest group on a cruise was 17 on Celebrity Solstice to Alaska in 2017. That was fun. In all that time, we have never had a problem with "doing things together." In many cases, we would plan excursions together that we could never have done alone. Saved us a ton of money and were almost always awesome. We tried to always get together for cocktails and dinner. You should have seen us when there were 17 of us. A table for 10 and one for 7 right next to each other. The one regret we have now is that we don't meet a lot of new people anymore but part of that is that Viking Roll calls are pretty sparse and we used to meet a lot of people who became good friends during early/late seating assigned dining. But very few cruise ships do that any more.

I never understand those people who don't come back on time. As soon as you start it, is says how much time it will take. Set an alarm on your phone or watch (or ask Siri to do it) and come back five minutes before to check it. I don't get inconsiderate people, but I have used washers and dryers they have left clothes in for 20 or 30 minutes.

I think that all the cruise lines are still playing catch up from the pandemic. In two ways. First, they are having trouble finding qualified crew. We have experienced this on Viking, Vista, HAL and Celebrity. Secondly, they are still recovering financially and NCL is the cruise line that got hit the hardest in that way.

Why is it that cruise ships, restaurants, hotels and so many other venues think we want music playing all the time? We did Oceania last year and my biggest complaint was that there was nowhere that the seven of us traveling together could go and have a cocktail and talk. Since we come from all over the country and only see each other on cruises, this is important to us. But there was not a single place where we could do have a conversation without yelling at each other over music. This is the one thing (well there's the beds) that absolutely stops me from ever sailing with Virgin. Give me the piece and quiet of a before dinner cocktail and conversation in the Explorer's Lounge every single day of the week.

Are you saying you thought gratuities were included until you got onboard and found that they weren't? We just pay them in advance, and then it is all-inclusive. We just automatically remember we need to pay them. Then it truly is one price.

I would stick with Virgin. You are right. The stuff we are hearing out there about NCL is NOT good. I think you will have a better time. When you are older (like sixties or seventies) and food means more to you than dancing, partying, etc. come on back to Oceania. But until then, go have fun on Virgin.

I write a daily blog when we are on a cruise. I did our 21 day Sky Med trip last fall. Never had a single problem uploading tons of photos and being able to post them...but I am a very early riser and I found if I started writing at 4:00 am and finished by 6:30 or so when I went to work out, there was never a problem with speed. I did speed tests like yours from time to time and found I could get about 15 both up and down. I know a lot of the vlogging guys who upload video to YouTube do the same because I see them sometimes when I am up to write, uploading their videos.

Hot and REALLY humid. Anytime you are outside, you will sweat profusely. Inside you will (depending on where you are from) freeze.

I totally agree. My brother ordered a ribeye. What he got was NOT a ribeye. Neither of Viking's specialty restaurants passes what I call the Steve Test. That's the way to rate a ship's restaurant. It works like this: " If you eat in a restaurant while traveling, and that restaurant is near you once you get home, would you go there again? In the case of both specialty restaurants on Viking ships, the answer would be no. That's not to say they are not good, just that they aren't that special. But most cruise ship specialty restaurants have devolved to that level. At least Viking lets me try them for free. We used to sail exclusively on Celebrity and they had a restaurant on their Infinity called The United States Dining Room (named after the United States cruise ship). Great specialty restaurant. They had another call Qsine that was great until they turned it into a cartoon show. Some great meals there. We loved Toscana Grille on Oceania, Tamarind on HAL and a few others a lot more than the two Viking choices but again, they are free.

"If it was food poisoning"?How about the only 11 people who ordered the swordfish in Mafnredis that night who were sicker than dogs all night long? And what did Viking do? Quarantined my wife for three days (missed three ports) because she made the mistake of going to the infirmary to ask for some Imodium. We later got a full apology but that didn't make us feel better at the time. As to the Chef's Table, what they need to do is publish the menus on the website before you make the reservation. Or at least have disclaimers that say something like, "this meal contains shellfish as its main component" and then you could pick a different night to go.

We did Viking Sky from Athens to Barcelona for three weeks. The cruise had started in Istanbul and was actually sold as a one-, two-, three-, and four-week cruise. We had friends who were on the four-week version. They were able to make one reservation in both restaurants for each week they were on the ship. We were able to make three. We thought it was great until we got on board and ate there, and my wife (and about 10 other people) got food poisoning in Manfredis, and we wound up in Chef's Table with a menu my wife could not eat due to allergies, so we canceled the rest of ours. The biggest problem was for those who were on the last leg (Rome to Barcelona). By the time their reservation date came, there as nothing left except 9:00 pm reservations. But that turned out OK because by the end of the cruise, you could go down any night and get right in.