duquephart

You'd think ship and shore times would coincide.

I wear what amounts to cargo pants and a nice shirt to dinner. And I feel just fine.

3 hours ago, KBs mum said:

I once encountered fresh squeezed made from concentrate! The concentrate was made from freshly squeezed fruit, apparently. 

I gave up on it as a bad idea 

No such thing as "fresh squeezed made from concentrate" - think about it.

6 minutes ago, May B said:

I’m only 77 y.o., but I’ve never heard of, nor been subjected to, powdered o.j. When I googled, I found it, by mail order. I also found Tang, which of course isn’t juice.

 

I don’t know what “long life with bits” refers to, either. Do you mean bits of pulp?

I don't think powdered oj is juice either.

11 minutes ago, Sailor Sam 407 said:

We did the Bergen to Reykjavik cruise last July. Viking excursion prices were absurd. We booked many excursions, often with the same company that Viking was using, on our own and saved a bundle. It was definitely worth the time to research yourself.

As always.

You would think so - but Viking isn't very good at giving money back.

Dress code is for dining venues. Explorers Lounge is not a dining venue.

14 minutes ago, Lemondrops said:

To each his own.  This particular shop had so many amazing clocks and special, made in Germany, trinkets. It was jam packed with people admiring all the hand made items.  I was really disappointed that we didn't have more time there!  Definitely not your typical souvenir shop but more of an artisans paradise.

Have Oliver Zinapold in Triberg (https://www.olisschnitzstube.de/en/) make you a cuckoo clock. Then you will have an authentic/traditional/classic Black Forest cuckoo clock rather than some tourist tat.

A cuckoo clock shop in Berlin? Better off missing it.

2 hours ago, Hobson1754 said:

 

We have very recently returned from our 3rd Viking Ocean cruise and would like to give a brief summary of our impressions.

Firstly the Pros:-

We had been on Saturn last September and it was exactly as we remembered it. Felt a little like ‘coming home’, although I know that Viking ships are all exactly the same. Ship is beautiful and attention to detail, especially upkeep from housekeeping is second to none.

All Staff are exceptional in regards to service, courtesy and friendliness - it was really nice to see some crew who we met last September and who remembered us. Maitre D’ and waiters in Restaurant were excellent.

In our opinion the food in the Restaurant was better this cruise than on our previous cruises - not that it had been bad before - but it seemed as if they’d ‘upped their game’. There was a new Executive Chef and a new menu.  On our last cruise we ate 3 times in Chefs Table and twice in Manfredi’s - this time we only used them once each as we enjoyed the restaurant so much. Last cruise I’d had a problem with fish being over cooked on a few occasions - this cruise every time was perfect.

Whilst we don’t tend to use the theatre much we do like to sit and listen to the classical duo/artist, pianist, guitarist/singer and often the Viking Band in Torshavn. This cruise we felt was the best we’ve seen especially the classical duo Pablo and Zsofia (violinist and classical guitarist). They were so talented.

We were very pleasantly surprised by the good weather for a lot of the cruise - this was a real bonus in February and the roof was even opened on a couple of occasions on pool deck during lunch.

Loved a lot of the Ports even though we’d been to a lot of them before and most of the included tours were OK.  The walking tour of Naples was really good and we really enjoyed the paid for tour of Lucca. We ditched Venice tour as it poured and we didn’t fancy being there for hours getting soaked, so a bit of a disappointment there although we have visited before.

 

Now for the Cons.:-

Dress Code or lack of it!! I’ve never, in over 20 cruises, seen such a lack of dress code in restaurants on board a ship. I mentioned it to the Maitre D’ and was told that ‘Americans don’t like to dress up and as long as the jeans aren’t ripped they are allowed in’. It wasn’t just jeans. I’m certainly not advocating formal attire for Viking, but as I stated in another post, one night I saw 3 women all very casual, exiting Manfredi’s after dinner and one had on baggy joggers tucked into UGG boots. To say a lot of people were very casual is an understatement - what is the point of a dress code if it’s not being enforced. It is a slippery slope to allowing shorts & swim wear in.

 

We and others we spoke to, felt that the ship was very loud and noisy, more so than the other Viking cruises we’ve been on. Especially around the bar areas - there seemed to be people shouting & talking very loud and, if the guitarist or classical duo was performing their voices were raised even more so that it was difficult to hear the entertainment. So rude. At times we just left Torshavn or Explorers lounge.  Restaurant was also very loud - people can’t seem to talk in a normal voice and, I know I’m probably going to be lambasted for this, but the voices were always American. There seemed to be a different mix of ages on this cruise and lots of first time cruisers. I don’t know if it was to do with the 4 separate weeks/legs of this cruise - lots of people got off in Rome after just a week. I had heard that there were late offers for separate legs of this cruise so maybe that is related to dress & noise.

 

All in all we had a great time and, as we’re going on Viking Homelands in May ‘25, we can only hope that Viking can sort out the niggles otherwise don’t know if we’ll be booking another. Fingers crossed🤞

 

" ---  I know that Viking ships are all exactly the same."

Broad. And untrue.

Didn't Laurel & Hardy do a film: Slobs at Sea?

Most of the tipping I saw being done on Homelands was in $$$. I believe the $$$ are easily converted to local and gladly received. I have heard that most just wait until they have enough to bother converting.

OP asking about guides & drivers.

1 hour ago, moatenote said:

We're taking this cruise in July (can't wait!!).  I emailed Viking Guest Services and they said we can use US $ for tips.  Quite a relief since most of those countries have their own version of the krona.

You can use whatever you choose. The tenor of the question is in regard to what's the best choice.

10 minutes ago, KDN2024 said:

We will be taking this cruise in the spring.  Do we need any local currency (euros etc.) for tipping of tour guides/bus drivers?

They'll take anything of course - but prefer local.

37 minutes ago, zalusky said:

 

My wife is diabetic and a kidney transplant recipient who takes a lot of drugs would that qualify as an exception to the both person muyst purchase rule?

Maybe ask Viking? Just a thought.

It's always amazed me how many (thousands) of places have the best onion rings ever.

2 hours ago, pavementends said:

I only bought ONE drink on a recent cruise.

 

I found the prices reasonable but the drink (martini) was weak.

Maybe too diluted? It's not possible to make a weak martini unless water is added.

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

 

They have ceased sending such things... and I am thankful, because I don't like waste and we have so many of the felt zipper bags!

 

I have seen on CC the fact that people sell the red leather luggage tags on EBay for significant money!

 

I have routinely seen two tags for $30'ish dollars plus shipping.  Don't know how many people actually sell, but hey...

 

People "sell" the little white plastic goat "charms" that come with a bottle of Ayinger Celebrator. Doesn't mean people buy them.

On Homelands last summer the code was clearly not enforced. Jeans often, if not common, in restaurant.

1 hour ago, CCWineLover said:

🙂  OK OK DQ - perhaps "Sloppy" wasn't the best choice of words.  But this trip most are going very very very casual, as in pool resort style - which is just fine with me at World Cafe - just not in the 2 specialty restaurants.

 

Again - the main point was simply that Viking is very inconsistent in any enforcement of their dress codes.

Hosts having dress code discretion might not be a good thing. Maybe more concerned about "tips" than policy?

And ----- you won't like the price.

"sloppy World Cafe style dressing"

?????????????????

17 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

You stated the distribution of tips to staff is a fantasy - and your reason is others here challenge Viking’s policy as stated on their website. So the challengers are right and Viking is wrong. Yeah.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2630344-gratuities/

Start at post #29.

Ask Viking: Are the tips collected from customers on a given/particular cruise distributed to the crew of that given/particular cruise at the end of the given/particular cruise?