coconut thunder

1 hour ago, Commodore Stubing said:

Past that, there are a few folks who are simply on vacation, who love to film cruising.  Zero corporate affiliation; just self-paid tourism with a passion for cinematography.  Like us.
 

Very true. I had my GoPro with me too for no other reason than to record our adventures and general silliness. Cameras are important on vacation and it's great to see the product of someone who is skilled at cinematography and /or editing.  

11 hours ago, Blackduck59 said:

@coconut thunder I took a moment to peruse the thread by a CC editor and clearly she didn't miss out on anything, including the submarine. Interesting the display of fine beef in the cold case. I didn't see anything like that on Orion even in Manfredi's.

This sort of illustrates why some people have a great time and others not so much. I wonder if the member on the other thread had trouble getting their reservations for dinner? Was she covering her voyage anonymously as a paying customer or covering as a guest of Viking with Viking's full knowledge they would be posting on CC? 

While I didn't speak to the CC editor directly so I don't want to accuse her of being biased, I can tell you, without a doubt, that there were many on board at Viking's invite who have a smaller subscription base than the editor's husband on Youtube and they were riding for free.  I know this because they were discussing it across the bar from one another in the Explorers lounge (not next to one another, across the bar!).  A similar conversation was had down in the Hide, again from one side to the other, between two different "media" folks.  She may not have ID'd herself as a CC editor but there is no doubt there were miles between what my bill looked like vs. others.  There were also several passengers on board who mentioned that Cruise Critic was on board so if they knew I'm pretty sure the crew knew.

I am certainly not casting blame on Viking for inviting people on board to spread the word.  Not at all. It's good marketing.  I am fulling blaming them for providing those folks with the experience that I and a few other passengers, some Viking regulars, had paid for and didn't get.

12 minutes ago, shadowlover said:

That is upsetting to not get what you paid for.  I think comparing a caribbean cruise to an antarctic cruise even if within the same line though is just not fair.   It is just really tough to make a caribbean trip that exciting but again I acknowledge the lack of service found by some on board recent viking trips.  

That's a big part of my issue and where I won't cut any slack.  This was supposed to be sailing the Caribbean on an expedition ship with all of the toys included.  If it had been advertised as a standard Caribbean cruise we would've chosen a different trip. The fact that people who were on board for free got to use all of the stuff that I paid for makes me extremely angry.   When it comes to food and wine, that could be subjective and differ from person to person. Same with the design elements on board (like that tiny couch and terrible excuse for a "balcony"), but not getting what was paid for is 100% Viking's fault and leaves a bad taste behind.  I now know that that is their standard and I'm way less likely to invest in them again. 

@shadowlover We were on another expedition ship in December 2021 for an Antarctic cruise on the Crystal Endeavor and it was flawless.  Outside of Covid precautions like a travel bubble chartered flight from MIA to USH, a battery of nasal swabs and crew wearing masks, you would not have known there was a pandemic.  
With this Viking cruise we were sold something we didn’t get. While I would be inclined to cut slack for Covid related issues, the shortfalls on this cruise seemed to be extremely poor planning as well as leaving us feeling mislead.  I don’t want to sound like I’m just here to bash Viking, it was a pleasant cruise. It just wasn’t the one I paid for.

11 hours ago, SJD117 said:

You're right -- it was wordy. Very wordy.

Thank you for your insightful and witty comment! Now get back under your bridge. I’m sure there are some billy goats that need to be quizzed.

9 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

OP, I hope you include all these points in your post cruise evaluation, as in our experience, Viking take notice when things don't go right.

We did.  Actually we filled out the questionnaire on day 7 or 8.  We haven’t received anything post cruise to fill out. Is that the norm?

It’s been a few days since we got back from our 9-day expedition (?) voyage from Barbados home to NYC on Viking Octantis and we’re certainly missing the warm, sunny Caribbean.  After spending a few days catching up on work I sat down to jot a review of the ship, the Caribbean Connections trip and Viking.  It’s a bit wordy but hopefully it’ll help set expectations for those who are on the reverse trip in October.  I know the Viking loyalists will be dipping their arrows into the fire to flame some opinions below so have at it. The flames will keep me warm.

The Ship-

Nice, shiny and new.  It’s a pleasant sized ship with nothing being too far away.  Plenty of elevators but the ship is small enough to take the stairs everywhere. On day two the top deck (Deck 6) was kitted out with loungers, couches, chairs and sitting areas to enjoy the sunshine which was really nice. The Hide at the front of the ship is a cool place to sit on sea days to watch the water level view (not for those who easily get seasick).  The Living Room is a nice sized and comfortable place to hang out, play cards, read etc. The Explorers Lounge is a nice two-story place to grab a drink and watch the scenery go by.  The booze selection is on the rather limited side, which applies to the entire ship.  The Finse Terrace on the rear of the ship is an inviting place to sit and with it’s dual fire pits and rear facing couches. It’s definitely suited for cold weather destinations but it works in sunny climates too.  The Aula is the theater/lecture hall at the rear of the ship.  It’s a well designed and useful space with movable walls and screens  that reveal expansive windows, depending on what’s needed.  Below The Aula is the Hangar holding all of the toys and the Science Lab.  The outdoor pool is terribly lacking. It’s about the size of a dunk tank at a school carnival flanked by a similar sized cold pool (called the Frigidarium) and a hot tub.  Together these three questionable water features had some horrendously designed vents/drains/filters that made quite a racket so you would get in and out quickly before your ears were pummeled into submission.  It was like sitting next to a giant airplane bathroom.  There is a covered, indoor section of the pool that is connected to the “dunk tank”.  Great for Antarctica, not so much for the Caribbean, but many people enjoyed lounging in that area.

The crew was great.  Very friendly and courteous.  They were definitely the highlight of the ship.  The officers and the expedition staff were all great as well.  We were always greeted, often by name, which is a nice touch.

The Room-

We stayed in a Deluxe Nordic Balcony.  It’s nicely laid out and roomy enough, complete with a large, two door closet with a passport safe and a drying closet.  Plenty of US/UKpower sockets and a wireless charging point on each nightstand (although only one worked and even then charging was excruciatingly slow).  Next to each side of the bed are the light controls which turn on ceiling lights or night lights, which is a nice touch.  The bathroom was roomy with a well designed shower whose seal held the water in when showering during rolling seas. 

The two main drawbacks to this room are the dollhouse sized L-shaped couch and the ultimate in design blunder in cruise ship history, the Nordic Balcony.  This design is trash and it’s not just Viking who fell for this farce, as I understand Celebrity has too on it’s newer ships.  It’s just a window with a long name.  Even in Antarctica this design is a fail.  There is no peeking out the window to check the view or weather in the morning without raising the blackout shade, complete with the loud whirring that does not bring joy to a sleeping wife’s face.  If it’s hot out and you want to enjoy a bit of fresh air on the “balcony”, your air-conditioned air will escape as will all peace and quiet in your stateroom.  If your significant other is working or napping or basically enjoying the cool air an unpleasant moment will arise as you wait forever to raise the window. If that window is dropped for a photo op in Antarctica (which you will certainly miss if you’re trying to photograph wildlife due to the glacial pace that it moves) everyone in that stateroom had better be bundled up because the heat won’t hang out long, much like your significant other’s good mood.  The ship is small enough that you can head out to a deck in a pinch, but the convenience of a balcony can’t be compared. This design should be taken behind the barn and shot.

Other room issues included a Nespresso-like coffee maker that never worked properly and a TV remote that you needed two hands to operate (one to push on the battery, after removing the door, and the other to repeatedly mash the desired button).

The World Café-

A nicely laid out buffet, including a sushi bar. Caribbean night was great.  The homemade habanero hot sauce was outstanding, especially with the tasty jerk chicken.  Standouts from other nights were the Pork Lok Lak, all of the curry dishes served and the Beef Wellington.  Breakfast here was solid although you couldn’t get diced peppers in your omelet (which I thought was kind of a universal omelet ingredient) but not a big deal.   Coffee on board was pretty awful throughout with the exception of cappuccinos or iced coffee in the Living Room.

The Grill-

I loved the look of the meat locker and all of the cuts featured but was disappointed that everything we ordered from here was basically pre-prepared and warmed up on the grill or in a salamander.  I understand that this is done for speed but who would complain if you had to wait a bit to get an actual freshly grilled piece of meat?

Manfredi’s-

This was a strange experience.  We had heard so many great things about this restaurant and we were excited to try it. After sitting for about 10 minutes someone brought us water and some menus. 3 seconds later someone else arrived and asked what we would like and then came back every 3 seconds until we ordered.  We requested to see the wine list and were told there isn’t one. A waitress brought over two bottles of red for us to taste and poured a glass of our choosing. We had no idea if we were drinking the house wine or the next level up that comes with the SSBP that we purchased.  This went on for the entire cruise even though we were told on night one that they just refilled their wine stock and were still putting the list together.  The uneven service continued through out the whole meal with large gaps between courses and then a sort of pressured feeling to eat up. The lasagna was postage stamp sized and the filet had that sort of wedding banquet cooked en masse and heated up on the plate taste.  Edible but definitely didn’t live up to the hype.  The duck breast was huge but totally overcooked. We canceled our second reservation.

The Restaurant –

Service here was amazing.  We checked in at the front desk and they apologized and asked us if we would mind waiting a few minutes, which wasn’t a problem as we’re on vacation.  They apologized profusely for the wait and we said it really wasn’t necessary but appreciated.  The bread, water and menus quickly followed in a professional and efficient manner, not a harried one like we experienced at Manfredi’s previously.  We purchased some wine while walking around St. Barts and brought it with us to enjoy, which wasn’t a problem.  The food here was good.  The only exception was my steak.  The inside was cooked to perfection but strangely the outside had a glass like texture that when chewed, shards of the “crust” would painfully pierce your gums.  I can only assume that the steak is pre-prepared, brushed with oil or butter and then placed under a salamander like at the Grill. My piece may have spent a few minutes too close to the burner.  We did enjoy our experience here and booked an additional night. We brought our own bottle of wine that night too and when they asked us to wait to be seated we said no worries and asked if they could please open our bottle to let it breathe.  When we got to our table our wine was decanted which was unexpected and a very nice touch. Everything we had on our second night was well prepared and tasty.  The service again was great.

Room Service-

We don’t typically order room service on land or at sea but on our first lazy sea day we went for it.  The timing was fast and efficient.  The fried chicken and corn on the cob was some of the best we’ve had anywhere.  We liked it so much we ordered one portion again on our final night (we didn’t feel like leaving the room due to packing) with an order of spaghetti Bolognese.  The pasta tasted homemade and the sauce was delicious. Another room service homerun. 

Ports of Call-

We enjoyed all of the ports and we had nearly perfect weather throughout. St Lucia and St Barts were two new stops for us and we can’t wait to go back.  The shore staff on all of our excursions were fantastic. The beach day in St Kitts was really nice and relaxing, except for the tender docking at the beach, and Old San Juan was as beautiful as it was prior to the hurricanes.  It’s great to see all of the new restaurants and bars in the area.

The Viking experience-

We’re not at retirement age but we’re at a point where we can almost see it on the horizon.  We are considering a World Cruise to kick off our first year of retirement and decided to try out some potential cruise lines before parting with a massive sum of cash without knowing the food and service.  Scanning different forums and hearing ringing endorsements from family members we jumped at the chance to book a trip on Viking’s expedition cruise from Barbados back home to NYC, especially with a great itinerary including a place I’ve always wanted to visit, Montserrat.  After looking at the included excursions we pulled the trigger in July 2021. We’re very experienced travelers and have always booked directly when making travel arrangements and this time was no different. Periodically we’d check in on the ships capacity by going online and entering a booking.  We noticed that the price had dropped  by $1500. I called our Viking rep and after she put me on hold for a few minutes came back and said “I’ll adjust it for you this time.” That wording struck me as weird but thanked her and went on with my day. With about a month to go before final payment the price dropped again.  This time by $1000.  I called our rep back and she said “Yes, it has.”.  I asked what could be done and sounding bored with the inquiry said “Nothing.”. I then asked if canceling the cruise rebooking would be the answer and the response was along the lines of do whatever you want to do.  If we hadn’t been cancelling trip after trip and going through the hassle of getting refunds and dealing with disappointment I would’ve (should’ve) punched out of this one. We thought it over for a while and reasoned we were prepared to pay the original price so let’s keep going forward since we’ll still have an adventure with the toys and islands. Final payments are made and a few weeks before our cabin type can book dining we’re notified that Montserrat is off the itinerary, replaced by St Kitts.  The email said the reason is “The pier at Montserrat won’t be ready in time”. My first thought is we’re on an expedition ship, who needs a pier when you have a hangar full of zodiacs? Why can’t we just storm the beaches like a bunch of geriatric special forces?  Dinner reservations opened up and we booked as directed so no issues there, but all of the included excursions have either disappeared or have become “additional cost” on MVJ.  After contacting Viking again we’re told not to worry that it’s just a glitch and everyone will get the excursions they want.  Weeks later we receive PDF’s for our journey and listed on it are the “included” excursions we wanted with the words “Sold Out” next to each.  Another call to Viking and another reassurance that “you can book it when you board”.  Long story short, we could not.  To add insult to injury, we found out on board that there were several people (“media” types who post YouTube vids and Insta photos) traveling on this trip for free (in exchange for positive write ups/videos/photos which makes sense because who would have a complaint if they paid nothing and got everything?) who were on all of the excursions we were denied.  I don’t mind losing a reservation based on first come – first served basis, but at least give us an even playing field.  For the entire 9 day cruise we never once got on anything other than a giant tender to go to shore like we were Carnies heading to Senior Frogs on Cozumel.   This expedition cruise became a small ship cruise with a science lab.  We would not have booked this cruise if that’s all it was.  Many Viking regulars on board shared our frustration with the excursions and told us not to give up on Viking and that this wasn’t up to typical Viking standards.  I hope not because it wasn’t up to ours either. 

As a side note, the owner of the Viking brand, Torstein Hagen, joined the ship in San Juan for the trip to NYC.  In one of his media interviews he mentioned that this trip was a “one time repositioning trip” or something to that effect to get the ship up to the great lakes and several of the “media” types jumped on it and started using that description.  ****.  We were sold an expedition cruise in the Caribbean, to go where the big boats can’t go complete with all of the toys. While it was a very nice cruise, it was just wasn’t what we paid for and left us with a “bait & switch” feeling towards Viking.  On the plus side, our list of World Cruise choices may have just gotten a bit shorter.

We’ve sailed on Royal Carib once (Adventure of the Seas), Celebrity twice (Zenith & Equinox) and the Crystal Esprit. We chose to book VV because it checked a many of our boxes. No kids, Good food, an itinerary we haven’t done before as well as a killer room (Sweet Aft Suite) all combined to make the choice pretty easy. 

8 minutes ago, PaulMCO said:

Things change daily.   Came across this today... J&J and Janssen are the same.  Dated 6 October so definitely new.

 

https://www.infobae.com/salud/2021/10/06/covid-19-la-anmat-aprobo-el-uso-de-emergencia-de-la-vacuna-de-janssen/

 

Thank you for posting that. I’ve been digging around a lot but hadn’t come across that article. That definitely eased my mind a bit.

I’m starting to get a bit panicky with the whole Argentina reopening.  We’re scheduled to cruise in December but we’ve got the J&J vaccine which is the only one not listed on the Argentine update. I’d hate to have to flex to the “cancel anytime”  clause in my trip insurance but I can’t sit in an Argentine quarantine on top of my cruise time. Has anyone heard/read anything?

1 hour ago, karmamule said:

My partner Rich and I love cruising, and are looking to get back to it with a vengeance as we ease out of the shutdown into the new normal. We've sailed together on NCL Escape and MSC Seaside and Meraviglia. We had excellent times on all 3 cruises and are now completely addicted. We've been accumulating cruise reservations over the last few months and up until a couple weeks ago we had:

• RCL Allure of the Seas Western Caribbean October 2021 (Almost here!!!)
• MSC Seashore Eastern Caribbean January 2022
• NCL Joy Bermuda May 2022
• Carnival Mardi Gras Western Caribbean October 2022
• NCL Prima Western Caribbean January 2023

We've been intrigued by Virgin and wanted to hear initial reviews. If they sounded good and we liked what we saw we figured we'd schedule something. After a couple months of seeing some wonderful YouTube videos about Scarlet Lady we decided to go ahead and now are thrilled to add to the above list one more:

• Virgin Voyages Resilient Lady Transatlantic San Juan to Lisbon April 2023!!!

We went whole hog and booked the Posh Suite. It's a good thing we have those other cruises in between now and then because otherwise the wait would be unbearable. 😊

 

Things that appeal in no particular order:

• No kids
• Fun attitude
• Lots of smaller interesting eating venues
• No specialty restaurant venues you have to pay extra to dine at
• No dress code or formal nights. (We like both dress-to-relax and dress-to-impress, but appreciate getting to choose when we do which as the mood strikes)
• We love unlimited drinks packages, and one reason we sprang for the Posh Suite is because between its bottomless in-suite drinks and 'reasonable' bar tab for the rest of the ship we should be more than well covered. (I read on a post elsewhere that this covers drinks priced $25 or less or wine bottles $90 or less)
• Some fun entertainment that's a little bolder than more traditional cruise lines
• Passengers look to be a good mix of ages

Judging from the forum activity most of the people being drawn to sailing on Virgin seem like fun people we'd like to hang out with, and we're very eager to meet some of you in person in about a year and a half. Until then we look forward to hearing everyone's experiences!

Reading your post, my wife pointed out that I typed 6 paragraphs and tripped at the finish line! We’re on the same cruise! On the plus side, my cruise is one year closer than I thought. 😄  We’ll see you up at Richard’s Rooftop!

In normal times we would travel 3 to 4 times per year booking everything ourselves and stretching our airline miles and hotel/Credit card points to their breaking point.  When covid hit and the world shut down we spent days listening to hold music while we tried to get refunds and credits for adventures that just weren’t meant to be.  We have cruised in the past (twice on Celebrity, once on Royal Carib, and once luckily enough on the Crystal Esprit) and we have a dream cruise coming up this December to Antarctica.  While we paced around our apartment and biting our nails hoping that another trip won’t get canceled we discussed our upcoming cruise and how much nicer it will be to be in a fully vaxed environment. We agreed that our future land adventures will have to wait until things become a bit more normal (I don’t want to fly all the way to a place like Spain or Thailand to find out most restaurants are closed or can’t serve alcohol, or that a curfew will cut the amount of time available to get to know a place and it’s people).  We decided to see what else is going on on the high seas.

We drew up a sea going bucket list that had things like “Small boat (about 900 people max)”, “Great food (subjective requires thorough research)” and the “trip has to be something unique to us (Panama Canal transit, Australian Circumnavigation, French Polynesia, an Ocean Crossing). We found the Panama transit trip pretty quickly. Australia and French Polynesia both wound up falling into the “put a pin in it until things become a bit more normal” bucket. We then focused all of our attention on Ocean Crossings.  

There are shiploads of options out there for a crossing so we started to pare it down. We began with price because you can certainly trim the list quickly when you pull out the ones that cost as much as a small car. Next was room size. Having lived in a Manhattan apartment we have a pretty good idea of what can make or break a happy marriage.  We want a decent amount of space with a decent sized balcony. The list was getting narrower and when we added “no kids” into the equation only a few ships remained standing, but one that resonated strongly with me.

I didn’t recognize the name of the ship (Resilient Lady) but I’m very familiar with the Virgin brand as I’ve been lucky enough to work for two of their companies in the past. I know the caliber of the people they would hire and I know the mood of the ship will be less stuffy than some of the other options were available to us.  We scored a Sweet Aft Suite (big balcony!) for an East bound transatlantic crossing and couldn’t be more excited. The thought of watching sunsets over the wake while sitting in the hammock is the stuff of dreams. 

We love the fact that there is no main dining room or pointless formal night.  The only thing I don’t like is the lack of a drink package.  Not that I’m looking to drink my body weight in booze daily, but I also don’t want to count my beverages or be hit with a shocking surprise at the end of a great trip.  

Watching all the videos of the summer UK trips and the press coverage here in NYC really has me excited and jealous of all of you hopping on board soon. Please take & post lots of videos and photos so that we can live vicariously through your travels. We have to wait until 2024 (and for our ship to be built!) so Bon Voyage to you all!