CCWineLover

On specialty wines, did they have most of them on the menu onboard? Hopefully their stocking and supply problem is gone. In January probably 70% of the specialty wines were not in stock and they kept running out of those left very disappointing.

Andy - our last Viking cruise we played trivia and one of the questions was name the Viking Ocean ships in order of their roll out (Saturn had not rolled out yet). Our group was the only one to get it all correct since I felt we needed to include Sun. (Others left it off). Irony is, we'd just been talking about the order the day before and said that'd make a good trivia question!

I know that story, as my great-grandparents were among those that did that! (Denmark/Germany to Iowa and Minnesota). 🙂

We always use WhatsApp and find it quite convenient! We even use it to connect with independent foreign tour operators for coordination - works great as they all seem to use it.

I personally like: Andromeda

Or Uranus?

NO Microwaves. Quite dangerous.

Peregrina is correct. There often can be 4 different legs in each direction between Barcelona and Istanbul. A passenger can book any individual leg (1, 2, 3, or 4) or combination 1,2,3 1,2 2,3,4 2,3 3,4 We discovered this when booking out cruise for Feb/Mar 2024. (We are doing legs 2,3 of 4 legs). As such, Cruise Critic administrators suggested we all create separate Roll Calls (one for each leg) rather than 1+2+3 or 2+3, etc. That way passengers can easily look at any specific one. However, when researching the Jupiter for your specific itinerary, I discovered that uniquely, the Jupiter is only doing Legs 1, 2, 3 Barcelona-Rome-Venice-Athens and then does NOT go on to Istanbul but instead goes back to Barcelona. So your ship only has 3 legs. (skipping Istanbul) Leg 1: Barcelona to Rome Sep 20-27 Leg 2: Rome to Venice Sep 27-Oct 4 Leg 3: Venice to Athens Oct 4-11 The ships then reverse direction. Looking at Jupiter Roll calls for your itinerary, it appears you have: Leg 1: Barcelona to Rome - Sep 20-27 no Roll Call yet Leg 2: Rome to Venice - Sep 27-Oct 4 - Roll Call exists https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2861969-viking-jupiter-italian-sojourn-rome-civitavecchia-september-27-2023-october-04-2023-venice/#comment-63453678 Leg 3: Venice to Athens - Oct 4-11 this Roll Call that you (randibee) created Note: Someone also created a Roll Call for the combo Legs 2-3 Rome-Athens Sep 27-Oct 11 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2884240-viking-jupiter-september-27-october-11-italy-the-adriatic-and-greece/#comment-64047001 Hope this helps you all! And I learned something too. (Not all ships do the entire 4 legs, some only do 3 legs).

Clay - I've enjoyed following your trip! Thank you so much. You and Mike have a wonderful time in Paris! One of these days our paths will cross on Viking I'm sure. We disembark in Reykjavik on June 21 and spend several days touring before heading home. Will let you know how Iceland goes. Kent

Yes they are usually $100 apart from each other, but occasionally there is a $200 difference between each PV. We've been in all 3 but like the PV2's a lot. You might also consider that half the PV's have slider doors to the balconies and half of them have swing open doorknob doors. Lots of threads on Cruise Critic on which people prefer and why. People have posted diagrams of which rooms have sliders and which have doors. Basically they lay out 2 sliders, then 2 doors, then 2 sliders, and so on.

They all have the same layout, same square footage, same amenities/benefits. Only difference is location on the ship. The descriptions are lumped together, for example, for 1, 2, and 3: https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/ships/viking-saturn.html PV1: Forware and aft on Deck 6, aft on Deck 5 PV2: Forward on Deck 5 PV3: Forward on Deck 4

We've done many many ocean cruises. We've always found the mattresses to be very good! Always so tired at the end of the day, always get a good night's sleep. As in people's opinions on the various food and restaurants, and SSBP, everyone will have a different opinion and experience!

Lorna - I also did the Photo tour. Ray's pics brought back great memories of Ronnie and his tour. One of the best tours I've taken on Viking! Recognize all those spots! Glad to see he's still going and survived COVID. As for crowds, we were just lucky (February 2019) I guess. The terminal was pretty empty and we had no crowds - amazing. Here's a couple shots from the pier of Viking Sea. I think only 1 other ship was in port and was in a completely different pier.

Excellent, Loiva! You are a wonderful wealth of knowledge! This is all good news for those of us who've done many Viking Ocean cruises and have more coming up. We are on one in June, so perhaps we actually we go see ABBA and/or Beatles, just for old times sake, knowing that's it. 🙂

Thanks, Lorna, for taking the time to do this very good, thorough, and I'm sure very honest review so far! Much appreciated!! Will look forward to the other episodes in this "Cruise Critic Series" 🙂

Excellent! Not so sure about a pool deck dancing show - but it will be great for some! Now a classic rock show is my style - looking forward to that. Wonder if it is just Jupiter or will be rolled out to the other ships and if so, when? Obviously they need to get performers, etc... (or have current ones practice new things)

So sorry for your loss. Some grieving time will help.

We've been to Bruges on a Sunday twice while on a cruise - once in April and once in October. The weather was perfect both times and all restaurants and shops were open. That won't be your issue though - Sundays were really crowded! Sometimes so much so it was difficult to walk around, particularly the main square. If you wanted to go to a restaurant you might have a wait. Just be patient and keep that in mind!

So sorry to hear of your difficulties. All I can speak for is my own experiences and I've not ever had any issues or difficulties in dealing with or communicating with Viking. We don't use Viking Air, however (which seems to be a great deal of issues). I guess we've all had different experiences.

Revisiting this thread on behalf of a friend who is considering booking one of these 3rd deck aft facing Explorers Suites. So many nice reviews and comments about no noise at all from The Restaurant. However, the question is: Since these are above the Aft Promenade of Deck 2, has anyone felt there was noise from there? (aft of the Restaurant). People walk through there all the times, and there are tables and chairs set up. My personal experience only in using the aft area to read and watch the wake, is that it is pretty quiet! However, if anyone who actually stayed in 3094/3095 has any comments, thanks so much!

Interesting! Yes, please let us know how it goes! As a note - we generally only book tours where the cancellation policy is good. There are still many out there, particularly those who cater to cruise passengers, as they realize that is what the cruise people are looking for.

So sorry to hear of your troubles - one of thousands sadly. Unfortunately, that is the problem with going via bulk air (Viking or any other 3rd party) rather than doing it yourselves. There really is no free lunch. Air may be free or cheap but you will pay somewhere (in $ or in hassle/stress) is our experience. I was on the phone with my Travel Agent today and she let me know that effective last Monday, Viking is now no longer doing coordination among different couples for flights. Apparently too much of a hassle with the airlines (maybe what you experience). So even that is gone. That is again why if you are savvy travelers, you are better off booking yourselves (or via a TA). You give up the airport transfers, and the theoretical Viking help should things go wrong enroute. However, you gain control over exactly what you wish to do. Not for everyone, but as I said, for savvy travelers, people might keep that in mind.

I never book with Trip Advisor as they are Viator. I use Trip Advisor to read reviews, see what's top rated and by whom. As I said, I contact the individual companies via their websites or emails.

Viator is merely a travel consolidator. They contract with individual tours. So it is hard to "rate" Viator itself. We usually use Trip Advisor to find individual tour providers, read their reviews, go to the tour operator's websites, learn more about them. Have had wonderful success that way. Travel Agents who are experienced in a specific area such as Douro Portugal would also be a help. Regarding the Viking cruise itself, you can certainly book through Viking. You can also use a Travel Agent to do so (or book through Viking and transfer the booking to a Travel Agent within 30 days). Many Travel Agents do provide you OBC's (Onboard Credits), some up to the limit that Viking allows depending on cruise length. There are a number of threads that discuss the pros and cons of this. We personally have a favorite Viking agent and often book the cruise with them and then transfer to our favorite Travel Agent. That way they both get compensated. The benefit is that the Viking agents have real-time access to all cabins available (unlike the Viking website which just lists a few per category).

Same here Dee! We'll take any offer that comes up - especially ones that others don't want and can't take.