SailorPaulH

DAY 4 - 9/13/2022, Sea Day Today we had Room Service Breakfast for an easy start to the day. With a Sea Day ahead of us we decided to combine decadence with activity. We would get a lot of walking in today - using the Promenade on Deck 2, and also the open air Decks 8 & 9. After our first walk, we took some time at the Spa (hot tub, pool, etc.) before heading to the Pool Grill for lunch (a nice venue and with the weather being nice enough, the pool roof was opened partially). A note about the included house wines (and beer) - there was sufficient changes day by day and not a single poor choice overall through the two weeks that I rarely ordered anything during the trip except for 1-2 beers. Also, our cabin staff had substituted red wine in our cabin instead of the unwanted hard booze. Our bar tab at the end was mainly some pre-dinner cocktails ordered by DW, so as we suspected the drinks package was not a worthwhile option for us. Some more deck walking after lunch, before we hit up Wintergarden again (and somehow a piece of apple cake from Mamsen's also found its way to me). This evening was our first visit to Manfredi's. Staff was great, met some nice people at a neighboring table. Overall, we felt Manfredi's was OK, but not up to the hype. Nevertheless, we decided to give them another try and kept our two other reservations for Manfredi's active. The pasta dishes in particular were a miss on this evening. I do like that you can order half-portions at this venue. One thing we found was that with the schedule we were keeping, we never fit in any of the on-board entertainment (e.g., the concerts in the Star Theater) or the Port Talks. However, we would take in some info in our room at night about upcoming ports and excursions, etc. There was one solo guitarist/singer we would catch at various venues around the ship (Explorer Lounge, Pool ...) who was quite good.

I have been to Iceland in winter-time, my experience (as a hiker): Layers are (VERY) important (including thermal, long-legged, long-sleeved underwear) Wool socks (Merino works best) Wool cap and/or headband, balaclava. Gloves. Light-weight water-proof jacket & leggings Solid, waterproof hiking boots (or shoes). I also took a pair of crampons. Best way not to have to pack hiking boots on a plane is to wear them. Take them off on the plane and slip on something like sneakers that are in your carry-on. Trekking poles. Goggles. Chapstick. I tend to over-prepare .....

DAY 3 - 9/12/22, Mariehamn, Aland Islands (Finland) Today was an early sail in to the port city of Mariehamn in the Aland Islands. Mariehamn is a substitute port of call on the Viking Homelands cruise when earlier this year - as has been well-documented - Viking removed St. Petersburg, Helsinki and Tallinn from the itinerary in view of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Aland is a sparsely populated (about 30,000) autonomous region of Finland. Its official language is Swedish and like Finland (but unlike Sweden) has the Euro as its currency. Aland has some 6,700 islands in its archipelago, of which about 60 are inhabited. The capital city of Mariehamn (population about 12,000) is an important ferry port - not only for commutes between various smaller islands, but also as a point of contact with Stockholm, Helsinki and Tallinn. We docked just before sunrise - a deft spin around and reverse parking by Captain Larsen. After breakfast at World Cafe, we set out on our optional excursion, "Aland Islands by Bike." This was one of two bike excursions we had planned for this cruise. The Excursion menu for Mariehamn seemed a little sparse, but we had chosen this excursion as part of our pledge to keep active (both DW and I are active hikers and bikers). Our guide (of Finnish descent) was very knowledgeable about her home islands and led us (about 15 cyclists) off on a tour of the town and then out to the countryside. Just a word of warning: the generic bikes on this excursion are not that comfortable and shake the bones somewhat (a far cry from my road and mountain bikes at home), but the trade-off is fresh air, beautiful Scandinavian Fall weather and a pleasant ride through the Alandic countryside (specifically the Jarso peninsula). During the return by bike to the Jupiter, we stopped at a small cafe/inn called Solhem for cake and coffee (picture - DW is in the foreground on the white bike at this location). By the time we got back to the ship, we had cycled about 12-13 miles. After lunch at World Cafe, DW set off for her pre-booked massage at the Spa, I decided to try the included amenities at the Spa for myself. Originally, I was going to try this a novelty, but ended up using the Spa 6-7 times over 2 weeks, getting into the various hot/cold/hot/cold cycles. This felt great after long walks and bike tours. I wish Viking would have this Spa open after 8 pm - it would be a great experience before turning in for the night. Today was our first venture into Wintergarden - we enjoyed it a lot and met some nice couples there. Dinner again at the Restaurant was very good - followed by an additional raid for gelato at the World Cafe.

DAY 2 - 9/11/22, Stockholm (Sweden) & Departure Our time in Stockholm would be limited, so we had decided on taking the optional excursion, "Vasa Museum & Stockholm by Boat". After a brief motor coach ride through Stockholm we reached the island of Djurgarden to visit the Vasa Museum. This is a beautiful, expansive museum dedicated to the recovery and history of a 17th century Swedish warship that sank on its maiden voyage (less than a mile from port) in 1628. The sunken ship was recovered in 1961 and the remarkably intact and preserved ship is now on display in this museum. From here our guide took us to a nearby restaurant (Villa Godthem) for a traditional Swedish lunch - including Swedish meatballs: very enjoyable. We returned to Viking Jupiter by way of a harbor tourist boat that allowed us to see various sights from a different perspective. So our cruise proper began at about 2:30 pm local time and Jupiter made its way to open sea via the Stockholm Archipelago - this is great sail-away and a delight for photographers. The weather has been holding up nicely - any reports of rain (typical for Scandinavian Fall) have been proven false so far. Dinner at The Restaurant was very good - I had Poached Salmon (from the always available menu) and DW went with the Boar Sausage Ragout. We soon came to the conclusion that the extra calories from the desserts could become a problem - especially as we had planned some late night gelato raids at the World Cafe. So we repledged ourselves to being as active as possible on this cruise! That evening. we saw a Full Moon rise with the planet Jupiter in close attendance.

On our cruise we were docked at Stadsgarden Cruise Ship Terminal. It's very close to Gaml Stan (the old town).

Just to avoid any confusion I may have created - we have returned home from our cruise and I am adding some reports as I have the time. We loved the cruise!

This was our first ever VOC cruise and after reviewing our notes and photos here are our lasting impressions: DAY 1 - 9/10/22, Stockholm (Sweden) We knew the first day was going to be tough as our flight schedule had been updated. We flew from Newark, NJ to Frankfurt, Germany (Lufthansa - overnight) as anticipated arriving early morning local time. Instead of an original 2 hour layover we had instead a 6.5 hour layover for our connecting Lufthansa flight to Stockholm. Lufthansa had re-schedule or changed flights after a few weeks of strategic strikes by staff. We made the best of it - having a nice Italian breakfast at the airport upon arrival, followed by snacks and German beer before departure to Stockholm. We were not the only late arrivals to Viking Jupiter as about 50-60 passengers were bussed at our time of arrival from Stockholm Arlanda to the ship's berth. Embarkation was very efficient and uneventful and we were finally in our cabin around 5:45 pm on Day 1 (Sept 10th). Residual jet lag, the need to unpack and to have something to eat basically eliminated any opportunity to venture into Stockholm that evening. First impression of cabin: excellent and elegantly simple. Plenty of room for storage, and a sizeable, comfortable bathroom. We met our cabin attendants for the first time - cheerful, attentive and helpful (they would get an A+ from me and I made sure to let Customer Services know how great these two people were). They quickly took care of our first request - replacing the hard booze in our fridge with a preference for replenishment with red wine. After freshening up, we decided to eat in the World Cafe that evening. This was the only time we ate in the World Cafe at dinner time on the cruise, but I think the selection and quality makes it a perfectly viable dinner alternative. I would go to World Cafe for dinner more frequently if left to my own devices, but I had agreed with DW that dinner would be The Restaurant (or Manfredi's) on this cruise. Over the next two weeks our dining habits turned out as follows: Early Coffee/Snacks: Viking Bar Breakfast: World Cafe or Room Service (on Sea Days, early Shore Excursion departure days, Dis-embarkation day). Room service was punctual and the food was always hot where appropriate. Lunch: World Cafe, sometimes Pool Grill. We had two lunches on-shore (Oslo, Bergen) when doing our own thing, and we had three lunches during Viking Shore excursions [Stockholm, Berlin, Flam (Voss)] - more on these in later reports. Afternoon: occasionally Wintergarden when Shore Excursion schedule allowed Dinner: World Cafe (once), The Restaurant (ten times), Manfredi's (three times). We decided not to do Chef's Table (allegies to certain dishes on all 5 rotating menus made that decision for us and we preferred the variety available at other menus). Overall. I would say our dining experience was very good (and occasionally excellent). There were a few duds along the way (one overcooked steak, a couple of chewy pasta dishes and a couple other minor items) but we enjoyed the variety and I think the quality is high. We thought Manfredi's was very average as an Italian restaurant goes but as I mentioned elsewhere I live close to some great Italian restaurants so I am spoiled in this regard - we may even just skip Manfredi's on our next cruise. For what it is worth here are our grades: World Cafe: A- Room Service (breakfast): A- Mamsen's/Wintergarden: A The Restaurant: B+ Manfredi's: B- I will add the future day reviews (Day 2 being our first real ventures) as time allows.

I witnessed some amazing docking sequences on my recent VOC - example: the captain spun the ship around in a small harbor area in Stavanger and then reverse parked the ship right next to an AIDA cruise ship. However, when we were in Flam, I photographed the starboard tail of the Jupiter and what looks like a fender bender. Anybody know when and what happened here?

We just concluded a 14-day Vikings Homeland cruise and this what we experienced: 1. We had a Junior Penthouse Suite, and there was space for one bottle of wine. I asked our cabin attendant to take away the replenishable spirits in our fridge (we don't drink them) and they replenished us a bottle of (house) red wine about 3 times as I recall- and I think it would have been more often than that if we had consumed more. 2. 1 red + 1 white. 3. Sometimes, usually not. 4. Nearly every day they were changed - I had reds from Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Australia and US. Wifey usually had whites (Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc ....). House wines were very good, some were excellent. 5. Don't know - did not have package. With the house wines and fridge re-stock, our bar tab was only about $50 for the entire cruise (some cocktails).

Update to the above: Stavanger: we went on the Pulpit Rock Cruise - we liked this a lot, and our guide was excellent. Note: as the stay in Stavanger is short, you will not have time to do anything else if you do this Lysefjorden cruise. Flam: the reason we booked the Full-Day Train to Voss excursion was it was advertised as including a visit to the world-famous Stalheim Hotel, an important historical sight that was of great interest to us. Instead of boarding the train in Flam as advertised, we were bussed to Voss, completely side-stepping Stalheim. Our tour instead concluded with a descent by train to Flam after a lunch in Voss. Some elements of this tour were very enjoyable, but I was beyond annoyed to miss Stalheim and feel this Excursion was improperly advertised. Our guide was below average also. I sent a complaint about this mis-leading advertising to tellus@vikingcruises.com. No response as yet. Bergen: we did our own thing. Booked our own Floibanen train tickets, booked our own Mt. Ulriken cable car tickets, hiked in both areas at the top. Explored Bryggen, the town center and had an amazing lunch at Fjellskal. No need for the Viking excursions here for Bergen-centric explorations, IMO - but next time we are in Bergen we will likely do the Dale of Norway excursion. Also a note about the spa: I thought I would try this one time as a novelty - instead I ended up there 6-7 times after long day, hike or cycling days. The hot/cold/hot/cold cycles work great. I got more use out of the spa than I would have thought. Wifey had 3 massages at the spa during our cruise and loved it.

What we did: Stockholm: Vasa Museum and port cruise. Nice lunch. Mariehamn: we went cycling. If you are used to real hybrid or road bikes, these bikes are uncomfortable and make things harder than it needs to be, but for us a 10-12 mile ride in the Aland/Finnish countryside was a positive. Gdansk: we did the town walk and Malbork Castle tour. Excellent and our guide was great. Borholm: missed port (weather). We had planned to go cycling. Berlin: It's a long day with the train rides, but worth it. You see a lot in a compressed time frame (coach then river cruise), and our guide was very good. Copenhagen: did the included walking tour in the morning. Good photo opps and good guide. We did the Palace and Tivoli in the afternoon - very good. Aalborg - we enjoyed the included walking tour, we had a fantastic guide on this one. Oslo - did our own thing, putting our research to good use. Gothenburg - did the included Panorama tour in the morning, could take this or leave it, but guide was good. Did the Gunnebo House tour in afternoon. Interesting history, good guide and the host at the house was great. We plan to do a Lysefjord cruise at Stavanger. For this visit to Flam, we will do the all day train (to Voss). A future visit we have other activities planned (hiking, cycling). In Bergen, we will do our own thing (booked our Floibanen independently), some hiking and booked lunch at Fjellskal. Hope that helps.

Just heading into Stavanger during the closing days of our first VOC (Viking Homelands). Here are our impressions: Our cabin is really quiet and comfortable (we have a deck 7 PS). Excellent cabin attendants. Great ship. We usually do WC (and sometimes room service) for breakfast - overall very good. The Restaurant - we have had great meals here every evening. Lots of regional variety. Manfredis - hit and miss. Good veal, steak. Mushroom soup was very good. One pasta dish was a bad miss. For me, being spoilt by some great Italian restaurants near my home, I would say Manfredi's is about average. Have not tried Chef's Table - its not our thing, but fellow pax like it a lot. Fortunately, we both like to exercise a lot, or we would be in trouble with all these extra calories! We have enjoyed all the ports - we like this itinerary and we look forward to the remaining ones. Guides have been very good to excellent. In Oslo, we did our own thing and for a $12 all day tram ticket and 10 miles of walking got to see a lot. We will be in Oslo (and Bergen) for more than a week in the future, so we are getting a taste now. Looking forward to our re-re-scheduled VOC Norway/FI/Iceland cruise in 2024. Will even have same cabin on Venus. Viking has a new satisfied VOC customer.

Service has been exceptional on our current Viking Jupiter Viking Homelands cruise (863 pax). Other observations: crew is masked, very few passengers masking (I would say less than 5%) - haven't heard any rumors or indications of sickness on board.

Viking Jupiter (Viking Homelands 9/10-9/24) = 863 passengers.

I figured that, and it's OK. I would imagine small island ports like Bornholm, Aland, Faroes are vulnerable to such conditions. I am trapped on a Viking Cruise ship, lol. What can I eat and drink next?

We got to Mariehamn, and did the cycling excursion. Unfortunately, wind levels prevented docking at Bornholm, so basically another Sea Day. Viking refunded our prepaid bike excursion on Bornholm quickly to our onboard account. What happens when a port is missed with a sea day substituted? Does Viking issue any kind of credit? P.S. Loving every aspect of our first VOC. This Viking Homelands is a nice itinerary. I can't believe how quiet our cabin is, and most of the time it feels like there is hardly anyone on board.

We made it! Our outbound flights made for a long day as we had a 6-hour layover in Frankfurt. Viking Jupiter is a great ship and the crew have been attentive and excellent. Really like our cabin. Good food in all locations we tried - trying Mandredi's tonight. Stockholm and Mariehamn were first two stops, good excursions. Sea day today, getting a lot of use out of spa. So far, so great .

How far from the ship do you think you need to be for this not to be a possibility? For example, if you are in a port and you may want to access a local cellular service.

It's the "Important - Viking Final E-Document" (one for each guest: PDF format) that is part of an e-mail package that get sent about two weeks before embarkation.

After having our 2021 Iceland's Majestic Landscapes cancelled (COVID) and then the same cancelled in 2022 (injury), we are now 5 days away from our outbound flight for a hastily rescheduled substitute Viking Homelands cruise - so this is the closest we have made it to our first VOC! Hopefully, there won't be a Lufthansa strike to screw it up this upcoming weekend (although I assume Viking has a contingency plan for things like that). Looking forward to being an official member of the VOC family!

I have seen questions similar to this asked before, but can't seem to find feedback on the boards, so forgive me for asking this again. Using cell phone on VOC in Europe (Viking Homelands) to text or call USA...... I have an Android, Verizon as provider and I have Travelpass (and my domestic plan includes unlimited talk and text). My question is what is the best way to use this - what should I turn on/off etc.? Use differently on ship or shore? Use Wi-fi (turn on/off what?) Any really simply explained instructions would be greatly appreciated!

Viking Saturn is projected to run rings round its older sister ships.

So I read that Viking Jupiter (and Orion) have planetariums, but can't find out anything about them - any input or a link would be appreciated. My basic questions: What kind of and how many shows are there? Is it easy to book them? I guess you have to wait until you are on board?

Once you get on board, are you able to see the wine list and drinks list for that cruise? If I see something I want to try I would be OK asking for it. The package is not for us, as my wife hardly drinks and I can't see myself drinking enough for the both of us to make it 'worthwhile' - so I am assuming you can charge a drink to your room and square up at end of cruise? Same would apply to shop purchases or expenses incurred in the spa, yes?

Great info as always Heidi13. One interesting resource that I found that is close to the gates where Lufthansa flights from US arrive at Frankfurt is the transit hotel MyCloud - apparently you can book this by the hour (😏) - could be useful after an overnight flight with a 6-hour layover to follow. Anyone ever tried this? Startseite - MYCLOUD Hotel