DrKoob

24 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Agree with you about the noise.  We used to go to the restaurant dining room, but as my wife now has hearing issues, it has become unbearable from a noise point of view, such that it is not even a pleasant place anymore.  Add in the often 2-2.5 hours to get through a meal without being able to hear ourselves or any people we've eaten with, and we've come to the conclusion - why?  And the World Cafe has nearly all the same selections - plus you can try all kinds of things to see what you like ....   AND it has the best view around.  Often if the weather is nice, we eat out on the fantail too.  Wonderful time had by all.    But each to his own.  Some don't appear to be bothered by the cacophony.   It's nice to have choices so everyone has what they want!

We were long-time main dining room people. Like for 30+ cruises (on other lines). We think the noise level is from the low ceilings as opposed to most ocean ships where the ceilings are very high. 
 

One other thing we have discovered is that we eat less. In the MDR, it takes so long between courses and while waiting to order that we just eat bread. Lots of bread. In the World Cafe we get what we want, can hear each other and that's it. Great servers up there that kept our wine glasses full or brought us cocktails. Never got to eat outside. Where we were, it was just too hot. Hope to next month when we sail on Venus.

22 hours ago, bkalmans said:

I know there are many topics on this but looked and couldn't find an answer to this.  I know in the dining room in the evenings jeans are not permitted.  What about khaki style jeans (I call them my dress jeans) for men.  Would that still apply and it is required to wear slacks?  Have no issues either way just want to make sure I pack correctly.

Wore exactly what you are talking about on our Viking Ocean cruise. But after three meals in the loudest dining room I have ever been in, with strange and inconsistent service we ate the rest of the 21 night cruise either in the buffet, room service (we were quarantined for four days) or the specialty restaurants. 

1 hour ago, Syd58 said:

If the ship design doesn't work, then why do many of their ships have a few accessible penthouse junior suites? Clearly, it does work - part of the issue is that passengers who need accessible cabins cannot book a regular veranda cabin on some of their ships, rather have to pay considerably more for a penthouse junior suite.

I'm not saying the ship design doesn't work. I am saying that Viking would rather not have to deal with it but so they can say they do deal with it, they provide some fairly high priced staterooms where there is more room to accommodate a few. Then they can say that they are "accessible." 

Please don't interpret my explaining their business as endorsing their policies. I am just saying that as a person retired from the travel industry and from another marketing position, they do what they want because the CAN do it. They will continue to do it until they no longer have people who want their product. 

As far as being "socially responsible," they feel that they have done that because they have high-priced suites that they can show as being open to those with accessible needs.

36 minutes ago, Cienfuegos said:

Companies are often very aware of customer attitudes, and will adjust policies as they feel appropriate. However, companies are also sensitive to the needs of distributors / sales agencies, etc.

 

When travel agents, booking groups, etc begin to complain or divert business elsewhere, it will be noticed.

Absolutely it will but that hasn't happened yet because of the quality of the cruising world in general. And Viking makes sure that TAs absolutely love them. As a former TA, I can tell you that they are the BEST at paying commissions because they pay commission on EVERYTHING! And they have the best phone reps in the industry. They ALWAYS answer the phones before the third ring and you never get a hold time that exceeds a very few minutes. I have sat on hold with some of the mainstream lines for more than an hour. 

9 hours ago, Syd58 said:

Of course, any business can do 'whatever' it wants to do, at least in the short-run, but this doesn't mean it is the 'right' thing to do. Have you heard of the term 'social responsibility'? 

Social responsibility really does not apply here. You have a choice as to which cruise you take. If you have wants or needs that do not fit the Viking model, you should go elsewhere. If Viking was the only cruise line in the world, then yes, they should allow for some leeway. But there are plenty of other cruise lines (many have been listed here) that would be happy to take your money. 

9 hours ago, Syd58 said:

Corporate policies are not stagnant. They change relative to internal and external factors, including customer demands and preferences, competition, regulations, laws, environment, etc. For example, if enough people said they were not going to pay a deposit as far in advance as Viking requires, Viking would have to modify this policy.

You are correct. Some corporate policies can be changed like the deposit/final payment situation. But they won't be changed until their ships start sailing with a lot of empty staterooms. So far, even with all the complaining, that hasn't happened yet. I tell friends about Viking and they complain about the deposit/final payment policy but lo and behold, they are on the cruise with me. Because they like the Viking experience. 

Other corporate policies can't be changed because of the physical environment. For example, ship design can only change with new ship builds. God knows, Viking likes to build ships but Tor discovered you can save a buttload of money by reusing the same plans over and over again. And that some people don't care (the ones he wants to attract) that every ship looks the same. They don't need the whiz-bang water slides and the platforms that go up and down on the side of the ship. They just want to go to cool places, on beautiful ships, see the ocean and not get nickeled and dimed to death. That said, the ship design doesn't really work with scooters and chairs, so they won't push for that particular guest. They will continue to do what they do in their niche. And those who love them will come back because they are in that niche.

4 minutes ago, TableGirl said:

I think HAL is not keeping enough staff/crew onboard to maintain any kind of standard.  I've heard people think the problem is visas but I don't think that is the problem as I work for the DoS and crew visas are the easiest to renew.  

 

I think HAL, along with other cruise lines are so deeply in debt that they are cutting back on staff, among other things, to save money.  It IS sad.  However, cruise demand is so high they don't seem to be suffering.  I read an article on the TPG recently that basically said, don't believe the cruise line ads that say "offer ends soon" because all the offers keep getting extended despite the high demand.  I am still cruising on HAL in June/July for a 28 day "Legendary" Voyage and am scheduled (but haven't paid yet) for a Hawaii cruise from Vancouver to San Diego.  I'm going on Viking in March next year.  There are fewer and fewer reasons to travel on HAL and I'm certainly trying other lines.  It's just as a solo traveler it is cheaper to pay for a room on HAL than my preferred lines.

You should try Windstar. They have a lot of single staterooms without a single supplement. And there are a lot of lines that now have single staterooms. 

And I totally agree with your assessment of the cruise industry in general. Even though ships are sailing full, they are still hurting from the pandemic and from trying to keep their shareholders happy.

On 4/28/2024 at 7:16 PM, Syd58 said:

My point was on the Viking ships I’ve considered booking, in order to get an accessible cabin, you must book a penthouse junior suite, which is a good bit higher in price than a regular veranda cabin.  This is in sharp contrast to Oceania, Seabourn, Silversea, and Celebrity who all offer larger accessible cabins at the basic veranda level.

If anyone wants to know why Viking does not encourage scooters or wheelchairs, you should realize it is the same reason they make us pay deposits a year ahead in most cases. It's because they can. 

When Tor started Viking Cruises, he decided to do a cruise line he would want to take, add all the things he would want and not worry about the things he wouldn't. Then, provide such a great product that loyal customers would put up with a few things being missing. If you want to go on Seabourn, Regent, Oceania or which ever other cruise line because you can take a scooter or get an accessible stateroom lower than a suite or pay a deposit only 3-6 months in advance, Viking is willing to have you do that because they have lots of other people who will take your place. Their ships and riverboats always seem to sail full or they do a last minute sale. Either way, not a lot of empty staterooms around, just a bunch of very loyal cruisers. 

On 5/2/2024 at 11:07 AM, TableGirl said:

@Gray Area - Who has the best burger at sea?   I love a Dive - In burger on HAL and the lunch time burger at the Pinnacle but I thought it was awful on Regent, Oceania, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian.

While I love the burger at the Dive-In, on our last HAL trip (on Koningsdam in May of last year) the wait for one was more than an hour between 11:00 am and 2:00 pm. They only had three people working. It was horrid. I finally got one and it was cold. My best buddy ordered a simple hot dog and never got it. Sad.

1 hour ago, fruitmachine said:

Yes for Uber, AFAIK no for Lyft

Thanks so much for coming back to answer.

We are stopping there off Viking Venus in June. We signed up for the early morning included excursion which will get us into the city. We will just stay in and then make our own way back via taxi or train/shuttle.

While I am here, it's been a few years since we were in Edinburgh, are either Uber or Lyft available? 

20 hours ago, slewis7 said:

We have taken a number of Viking ocean cruises and the food and service is pretty consistent and has varied from good to great.  Viking is an excellent line and we know what to expect when we take it.
 

Our one Oceania experience, aboard their smallest class of ship (the Insignia) was pretty disappointing: the food was just OK and if your tagline is “best cuisine at sea”, that is unacceptable.  Service was fine, but the ship was pretty dated. 

You should have at least tried Vista. Those older R class ships are just that...old. A brand new ship has a vibe of its own. And the food we had on Vista was better in the specialty restaurants...even Embers (that I didn't like that much) than in Manfredis (where my wife got food poisoning) and the Chef's Table (but that's just because I don't like fixed menus. 

20 hours ago, basor said:

In the past, Oceania has docked d at Smith Cove Pier and not Pier 66 so not walkable.

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.

2 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

I think that you meant Oceania’s smaller ships. Viking has no R class ships. 
We always very much enjoyed our Viking experiences. Ocean and River. We have not yet tried Oceania, however there are itineraries and price points that we are looking at for next year. I have followed both for quite a while, and I think we would enjoy Oceania.  Seabourn last year was a great experience.  I think we would sail on any of them given the right sailing, and price,  during our window of travel. I’ve also looked at Azamara due to their itineraries. Their ships give me hesitation as we would absolutely need to book a suite due to cabin size. 

You are correct. My mistake.

On 4/12/2024 at 6:42 PM, odblnt said:

I had the opportunity yesterday to do a "ship tour" of the Regatta while it spent the night in port. They hosted one of our local travel agencies as well as the local AAA office and they, in turn, invited interested customers. Now this was one of their old, small ships, but I really noticed several of those items in your review.

 

We started out in the lounge, and it sure was dark (granted, they were showing a PowerPoint presentation, but...). Even the stairs going up from the gangway level to the lounge were like an old hotel. We then split into small groups to see a variety of cabins. I noticed what you meant about size. I thought it was about European riverboat cabin size on some of those. I haven't been on VO yet (we are going this October), but we did do the Mississippi which has the same categories of cabins and we loved our PV. The V-Miss is sort of "VO Light" in its layout and we loved it. Last night I was looking at the website for the VO ships and we just loved the Scandinavian design. 

 

They did take us in for a very delightful lunch. If I was on an Oceania ship for any length of time, I'd have to spend a lot of time in the fitness center.

 

It would have to be a very good itinerary that would woo me away from Viking.

 

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.

13 hours ago, wine-wine-wine said:

Love the beds. We use a topper at home.  I’m wondering if those that like temperpedic (spelling) have issues with the Viking beds?

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. 

2 hours ago, WanderingBrit said:

We took all our meals at World Cafe except for one Manfredi's and one Chef's Table on our last cruise. We found the environment to be quieter than The Restaurant, and enjoyed the opportunity to "name our own adventure" by selecting only the items and quantities that we wanted. Comparing to the menu for The Restaurant it looked as if both were serving largely the same dishes each day.

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. 

12 minutes ago, vacationprincess said:

We are on the April 19 sailing. We just received an email about the port change a week ago. I had already planned our day in Greenwich so it was a bit of a surprise to find out only 2 weeks before sailing.

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.

8 hours ago, vacationprincess said:

Our Venus embarkation port was changed from Greenwich to Tilbury. We had planned to visit the Cutty Sark, Greenwich Market and the Queens House. Is it worth it to take the train from Tilbury to Greenwich? It doesn’t look like there is much to see or do in Tilbury.

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.

18 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

People get sick on board and do cancel excursions.

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. 😜

14 hours ago, oakridger said:

Tor Hagen is filling the ships, so he's not worried about me and likeminded folks.

 

~Nancy

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.

4 hours ago, hutch1994 said:

You do you, I will do me.  Think it's a juvenile thing.  Expect better on Viking with their age specifics.

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. 

3 hours ago, hutch1994 said:

On the Star doing the transatlantic crossing and haven't encountered the silly duck phenomenon on board.  Hooray!!

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?

19 hours ago, mwike said:

Your analysis is what drove us to book cruises on other lines after using Viking products exclusively for the past 5 years.  We currently have cruises booked with Seabourn, Regent and Windstar with the understanding that Windstar may a bit down-market as compared to Viking.  But just wanted to try the smaller ship.

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.