Eggtuary

I have only been on the one Viking cruise (Mediterranean Odyssey last year). Before signing up, I was a little worried that I would run into snobbishness on a luxury cruise. However, I saw numerous posts here saying that Viking is more of a “laid-back luxury” line, and as such generally attracts a clientele that wants nice things but isn’t overly showy, pretentious or stand-offish. We went and found that a very apt description. I never had to wear a coat or tie at even the nicest restaurants. I wore khakis/twill and a collared shirt. That’s hardly stuffy or onerous in my book. And we had wonderful conversations with nearby tables pretty much every night, so I never felt maligned for my clothing choices. Hope that helps!

We definitely enjoyed this excursion. The wine estate is very pretty and the people there did a great job explaining the process of making wine. The neatest part may have been after the winery, when they took us up to a high point on the coast. It was unfortunately quite foggy our day there, but even so it was an amazing view. The excursion is also short enough that you have plenty of time to go back to the ship and then take the shuttle to Old Town. I wouldn’t have wanted to spend the whole day there, but a couple of hours exploring was quite nice.

One of my favorite things on the Viking Ocean boards has been following the various live blogs posted here ... so I'm going to try to pay it forward! My wife and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary by taking our first Viking Cruise later this month, which is also only our 2nd cruise ever (previously did a 3 night Disney cruise to the Caribbean) and will be our first time to Europe! We fly out Friday the 25th (another first -- lie-flat seats!), arriving in Venice on the 26th. We will stay two nights at Hotel Antiche Figure directly on the Grand Canal before boarding the Sky on the 28th. Since we're arriving on a Saturday afternoon and don't want to spend our Monday morning scrambling to get a COVID test, we're taking the rapid PCR test here in the US on the morning of our flight out. Below are the excursions we selected. We realize we could have booked with independent operators, but we decided to play it super safe and do all Viking excursions. All are optional, except for the included one in Venice. Venice, Italy - At a Glance: St. Mark's Sure Split, Croatia - Krka National Park & Dubrava Falconry Center Dubrovnik - Dalmatian Coast Wine & Food Tasting Corfu, Greece - Scenic Corfu and Theotoky Estate & Winery Naples - Sorrento & Pompeii Rome - Highlights of Rome & the Colosseum Florence/Tuscany - Cooking in a Tuscan Castle Monte Carlo - Nice, Èze & Monte Carlo Marseille, France - Le Castellet & Wine Tasting Barcelona - Gaudí Architecture & La Sagrada Família (morning) An Evening of Flamenco (evening) Almost hard to believe we'll be in Venice in less than a week!