Off Shore

You will be the youngest people on HAL; far better experience on Oceania...We all love Patrick!

9 Wall Street Garage is paid parking, with skyway to terminal.  Several days ago received call from Seattle police that their patrol discovered that my car window was smashed, and contents stolen.  Called the garage; they never called back.  So much for their 'safe and secure' parking....

Absolutely not!

Why should I gave up the advantage of being on the West Coast?

Avoid the bus tours; they are generally a waste of time. For us, this was true in Stockholm and Helsinki. The walking tours of Cadiz, Lisbon and Talinn were very good and moved at a nice pace.

Great to have an astronomer on board....

I can't bring my 8" Celestron, but perhaps my Astronomical binoculars???

We are on the Bali to Sydney cruise in November

Danny Weitz

It is fascinating that someone has so much time on their hands that they can dredge up a review that was written over a year ago. I am truly sorry that my typing does not satisfy the high standards of an emoji user. I stand by every comment that I made. Perhaps the poster should try Zumba, aerobic dancing, or Trivial Pursuit. In fact I strongly recommend that they peruse the excellent selection of books in the library; I'm sure they will find something enlightening. They also have a fine selection of dictionaries.

I must admit, that I am a bit confused, the Oceania website says:

"What is your alcohol policy for bringing bottles onboard?

The maximum of 3 bottles of independent wine (per stateroom, per cruise) can be brought on-board for the duration of the cruise."

Does this mean that ONLY 3 bottles may be brought onboard at embarkation?

If not, can we bring more?

I used a private car service rather than a taxi, mainly because I had used that company several times before

The one advantage is that they meet you and help with the luggage.

Air France lost our luggage (3rd time in 20 years!!!) and the driver was very patient.

Anyone know what airlines Viking Air would use on ta Los Angeles to Bali flight?

We formed our own small group(about 12) with Alla tours. They were fantastic small groups move fast and see more.

Erm maybe those people had 'british' accents because they were British!?

And they are British because????

As a retired historian and college lecturer (PhD in Classical History) I can tell you that the lecturers on all cruise ships are a mixed bag. I have known about 4 or 5 socially, and their knowledge ranges from outstanding (true, well-regarded experts in the field) to a gym teacher from Australia who was literally faking it. What I find amusing is the large number of speakers with 'British' accents which Americans are convinced add authenticity and veracity to their presentations.

I must admit, however, that the lecturers on Viking have all seemed excellent with presentations and interpretations that are about 95% accurate. Historians never totally agree with each other. By all means attend these presentations they are very well put together and are excellent presentations.

Of course, we didn't HAVE to take the bus tour in Paris; we skipped the one in Monte Carlo. It is that it was an odd choice for an expensive cruise line. Tauck put everyone, without asking them, on the smoking floor of the Fairmont Hotel. It was usually not possible to get the food with no or less sauce, believe me we asked. I was not asking them to be a taxi to take us to the museums, I know how to call a cab, and used them in France. I was trying to point out that this was not luxury treatment in Nice. We found our own restaurant using Yelp, and it was wonderful.

We have returned from a Tauck River cruise on the Saone and Rhone. I am sorry to say my wife and I were greatly disappointed for several reasons.

1)At the Fairmont in Monte Carlo Tauck placed all of us on the third floor which Fairmont informed us is the designated smoking floor. The Paris Intercontinental Grand's rooms were old and small.

2)The food on the ship ranged from good to poor, The fish was very poor quality: tilapia for lunch, and what looked like compressed cod one evening for dinner. Most dishes were served with cream sauces that were heavy. Even the pasta for lunch, while al denti seemed to always done with a cream sauce.

3)They took us to Nice on the bus between Avignon and Monte Carlo and dropped people off for 2 1/2 hours in a light rain with no list of restaurants. Why could they not have left us off at the Chagall or Matisse museums?

4)Everyone (all 71 passengers) had been to Paris before; but they started the cruise with a 9 AM bus tour of the city in heavy traffic.

I have included the negatives here, but will write a full review in a few days which will praise the beauty of the ship and the quality of the staff. To me it often seemed like a bus tour on a boat; as we can easily get by in French and have often gone to France on our own, for us,this trip was an error.

We got our documents about 60 days before.

My friends just returned from a Tauck river cruise and thought the food was wonderful. One of them worked for over 30 years with a well-regarded international catering firm, and is very critical of poor quality. We will be sailing on Tauck on the September 7th (Rhone River Cruise (Paris to Monaco tour). I am very critical of food, as you may see if you look up my most recent review of a Viking Sky cruise. I look forward to reviewing the food and trip.

Danny Weitz

Nipomo Califonia

This is good news!

We will be on the Emerald in Early September on the Paris- Monte Carlo trip.

We assembled a group of 16 and also used Alla tour in St Petersburg. They were outstanding.

1- What airlines would Viking use flying to Singapore or Bali; what would they use returning from Sydney?

2- If your connection has an overnight layover, do they provide a hotel?

The ship's WiFi was very good for a cruise ship; we had no trouble browsing or handling emails. Service was best early in the morning or late in the evening.

Tipsy-

How was laundry handled?

Can you have them do it?

1- We did return the lobster the second time and get steaks; and the 'grouper' was replaced by the house chicken. We have every right to expect excellence in the dining room, and that food should have flavor and be of the highest quality.

2- The included tours did vary in quality; but are best used as an introduction to a location.

3- As I said in the above comments, the pluses did far outnumber the minuses.

We are booked on the Emerald for the September Paris- Monte Carlo trip; we are really exceited!

Danny and Lori Weitz

We have just returned from the Viking Sky and havesome very positive, and some negative observations.

Embarkation was painless, and when we told thecustomer service desk that Air France ‘lost’ our luggage, they volunteered tohave an emergency laundry done of the clothing from our Paris stay, and we hadclean clothes before dinner! TheCustomer Service commitment consistently shown by these people was impressive. Theship’s décor is handsome; not pretty. Ienjoyed the ‘Viking’ theme of the ship, and the stairs were decorated with scenesfrom the Bayeaux tapestry; an odd choice as the Normans ceased being Vikingsseveral generations before… The theaterhad adequate seating as did the restaurant; we never had to wait for atable. Torshavn is nice, but it was jammed with furniture and the dance floor is much too small. The double-level Explorer Lounge (again atoo-small dance floor) was our favorite spot on the ship.

We had a PH3 cabin that was wonderful. Large and roomy there was adequate storagefor a three-week cruise and the luggage fit under the comfortable bed. The suite had two TVs, a couch, two chairs,and a desk. The bathroom, with itsheated floor was excellent. One problemwith the TV was that it did not have ESPN or HGTV which are popular withAmericans, who are the vast majority ofthe passengers or even a programmed music channel. Another problem was the ‘coffee’ machine,which had a complicated 10 step procedure to operate and produced undrinkablesludge.

Entertainment was excellent considering the size ofthe ship. The production shows had goodspecial effects and the ensemble cast was young, vigorous and talented. We enjoyed the dance band Synchrony inTorshavn. We felt that the sea dayscould have had more activities. Therewas no Zumba or aerobic dance class, but the Trivial Pursuit was a vigorouscompetition. The lectures werewell-attended, and featured the British accented experts that Americans find soimpressive.

The free ‘ship’s tours were not very good. The one in Stockholm was a awful as we nevergot off the bus and the driver kept on going up and down the same streets…Helsinki was almost as bad. The paidtrips were not very good either; the tour to Schwerin and to the ‘frontier’towns near Cadiz were poorly guided. Thebest ships’ tours were of Copenhagen and Amsterdam. We formed a group of 16 with others on CruiseCritic, and hired our own private guide in St Petersburg, Alla Tours, and thiswas the highlight of our trip.

The worst disappointment of the trip was the qualityof the food. With the exception ofMommsen’s for breakfast (excellent waffles and service), the food was bad inall venues. The problem starts with thepoor structure of the menus. There were onlyminiscule amounts of fresh fruit available, usually in the form of a diced-upfruit salad. At lunch, only one stationwas available to serve and prepare mixed green salads. Mixed green salads werealso a rarity at dinner. The food wasoften mislabeled at the buffet: what they called ‘salade nicoise’ lacked tuna,and the turkey breast was merely a compacted roll of mostly dark meat. In the main dining room they ruined theseafood. We ordered lobster on two differentnights, and they were mushy and inedible; we were told that the lobsters ’musthave been stressed’. What they claimedwas grouper had the rubbery consistency of an old handball, as knives and forksseemed to bounce off. Except for thehalf-broiled chicken on the standard menu, very little chicken was served; butit was quite good when it was available. The beef and veal were excellent. The wines while inexpensive were quitedrinkable. The ‘American style ribs’were excellent, as was on occasion the freshly prepared pasta dishes.

The worst problems were with the specialtyrestaurants. We had a suite and had madereservations for six seatings, but only atethree times in these venues. The Chef’s Table has a very limited menu thatcycles every three days, and has no choices. I liked the lamb, but the others in our party didn’t like the dish andthe four of us could never agree on a posted menu. We also objected that every dish seemed toeither be covered with or to float on a sea of foam. We had awful experiences in Manfredi’s . Our reservations were re-timed against ourwishes by the incredibly arrogant maitre’d who never seemed to be able to sitour party of four. We had no choice butto ask Customer Service to intervene to eat there a second time. After this we gave up on the poorly spicedfood that lacked any ‘kick’, and poorly prepared pasta dishes; and the tiramisuwas a joke; some indeterminate piece of cake covered in whip cream. There are innumerable Italian restaurants inalmost any town in America that serve better food; even my dishes are superior.

Disembarkation in the non-existent terminal inStockholm was handled very well; and the ship’s transfers to the airport workedout well.

In spite of the negatives, mainly with food, we had agreat time and booked another cruise while on board.

Patrick's English is excellent. his email is: spies.patrick@orange.Fr.