Beachlover1989

Looking forward to following along! Thank you for doing the Live Report!

Looking forward to following along! We are supposed to do this the opposite direction, but like so many have mentioned, airfare has us thinking twice. Business class fares are astronomical!

We've sailed on M-, S-, and E-class ships. FWIW, we much prefer the S-class ships. I loved some of the new things about Apex in August, but many of the venues were extremely, uncomfortably crowded much of the time. So much so that we were unable to see shows in the Club, attend events in Eden, watch the band in the Martini Bar area, and even just sit and have a nice drink in the Retreat Lounge. I haven't watched the webinar yet, but it would have been interesting to hear if their new ships will address some of the overcrowding.

We were in Akureyri in August and our tour guide said they changed all their traffic lights to the hearts during Covid. They wanted to give everyone something to smile about and to remind us all to be kind to one another

Jim, when do you leave? I’m getting so excited to follow along on your new adventure!

Great! Thank you!

New to Viking - besides getting your hair done, can you get your nails done onboard?

I have to say I agree with ian441672 above. We were on Apex in August and were very disappointed in the Luminae experience. Most of the staff were wonderful and we felt the Sommelier was fantastic, but perhaps we were sadly a “favoured table”. However, it was crowded, loud, and the food was significantly underwhelming.

Thank you for another live review Jim! I hadn’t noticed it until page 8! I have been reading on the Viking forum lately as we, like you and many others, are going to be trying out other lines now. You put it very succinctly when you said “loyalty is a two way street”. We were on Apex in a CS in August and although the itinerary and staff were wonderful, we were very disillusioned by all the recent changes.

Please share your Viking cruise checklist!

Thank you!!!

If you don't mind me asking - is there a place on Viking's website that lists all the inclusions of each type of stateroom? I've had a heck of a time finding layouts and inclusions. TIA

Oh my gosh! Thank you so much! I never have much luck with the search feature on cruise critic, so thanks for sharing!!! Actually, the more I read about Viking, the more excited I get to put something on the books!!! We have only sailed Celebrity for many years, but have become disillusioned and disappointed by all of their recent changes....

Thank you for sharing your experiences, the Daily Programs, and the menus as well! We are planning on sailing Viking soon and are learning from all of your posts!

This is awesome! We are considering our first Viking Ocean cruise so I am devouring your information!

What were the types of included wine you did not like? TIA

We are in a Celebrity Suite

The crew is wonderful! But after so many wonderful retreat experiences, this one has taken a little to get used to. The retreat concierges are amazing!!!!! But we see our butler once a day if we’re lucky. The retreat lounge is often full. And dinner in Luminae is often loud and crowded.

Ours have been filled too. The only thing the butler is bringing in is the canned water.

Having had time to get through this whole thread yet, but we’re on Apex right now in a Celebrity Suite and one of the first things our butler said to us was - butlers are no longer filling the coolers. Whatever we want in there we have to get ourselves from the retreat lounge 😳 We were in a Celebrity Suite on Infinity in February and our Butler kept the cooler overflowing! Very disappointing

Really looking forward to following along! We get on when you disembark and I’m anxious to hear about the temperature on the ship (for packing purposes).

Can't wait to follow along! Thank you for doing this!

Thank you so much for your detailed review and synopsis! We're really looking forward to boarding Apex on Aug 9!

So excited to follow along on your review! We hope to take this itinerary in 2025. Thanks for taking the time!

Thank you so much! This is very helpful for our Aug 9 cruise on Apex!