sunrocket

How was your room we will be staying here in a few weeks

Thanks, Sunrocket

Thanks Bill. We will be doing the reverse cruise in October.

Also staying in Barcelona at the El Palace at the end of our cruise. Would appreciate your review of hotel as well as cruise.

Have a safe trip.

Olivia

Becki

Thank you for your answer

Sunrocket

What cruise terminal were you docked at in Venice.

Thank you

Your ship is currently docked in Venice. It is close to the same location where we were docked aboard the Viking Star in April. I will try to attach its location at the end of this message. If it doesn't work, you can google "Marine Traffic" and click on AIS. On top right search for Viking Sea and select Passenger Ship. A picture of the Viking Sea should appear. Then select Live Maps at top and you should see her location in Venice.

 

Enjoy your cruise! We have booked again with Viking and will be going Into the Midnight Sun aboard the Viking Sky in June, 2017.

Does anyone know if you can use your own detergent in

the washing machines bypassing the automatic laundry

dispenser.

Thank you

Thank you for spending so much time with our inquiries.

Sunrocket

Sorry! The images didn't work very well. We're new to this so will try again.

If it is not too much trouble could you find out how much

they charge for a Cosmopolitan and Vodka Tonic with Grey Goose Vodka. Also do they have any other Vodka besides the Viking, Absolute and Grey Goose.

Glad you are having a great time. How have the excursions been.

Thank you so much for your help

Sunrocket

Hi all. We went into Torshavn this afternoon to ask about the silver spirits package use there. You can use the package in Torshavn for all drinks up to $9. The drinks prices are the same as everywhere else. The difference is that they have a lot of premium spirits which are not included in the package as they are above $9. We'll go in there tomorrow evening and take some photos of the drinks menu in Torshavn and upload them here. We are enjoying the cruise immensely. The Viking Sea is absolutely stunning and the service everywhere has been second to none. We're happy to seek the answers to any questions you all have, so feel free to ask.

Thank you for your help. If you get a chance could you find

out what brand of Vodka they have and prices.

Hope you are enjoying your cruise. Would love

to hear your overall comments. Thank you

We're on the Viking Sea at the moment and we asked yesterday if you could just pay the difference between the $9 limit on the silver spirits package and the cost of the more expensive drink and the answer was no. You have to pay the full amount of any drink over $9.

If you purchase the silver sprint package, does anyone know if you can pay the additional amount for drinks that are over $9.00. The vodka I drink is $9.50 including tip according to the bar menu.

Thank you.

We sailed June 19, 2016. This description of the package was in our stateroom. You can see that it is not good for drinks in Torshavn, for drinks that cost more than $9 or for bottles of wine.

 

 

 

 

Are the bar prices including tips.

Thank you

Thanks you for your replies.

I guess I did not explain my self correctly.

My question is when you arrive at the cruise port with your

luggage, do you go directly to the ship with your luggage or

does a Viking representative take the luggage to the ship for you.

Also did you notice taxis, shuttles driving directly to where the

ship is docked.

Thank you for your help.

How is luggage handled when boarding Viking Oceans Ship in

Venice. (Do you carry it yourself to the ship or can a private land taxi take you directly to the ship? If not is there a representative to help you with your luggage or can you hire a porter)

Thank you for your help

Will let know the parking situation when we return

That's a great question and I would love to know the answer but since your cruise is the FIRST one Summit is doing out of NJ since the new garage opened (it opened 10/22/2015) I would love it if you could come back and let us know how the parking situation worked out.

 

Thanks.

I noticed the Anthem is sailing on April 30 from the port, does

anyone know what the the parking situation will be i.e, will there be any available parking on May 1 for the Summit.

Thanks for your help

Thank you for your reply. How did you like the Anthem?

Where did you park in the new garage or old parking lot?

I noticed the Anthem is sailing on April 30 from the port, does

anyone know what the the parking situation will be i.e, will there be any available parking on May 1 for the Summit.

Thanks for your help

Sunday mornings are usually quiet. There is construction off the exit when you go through the toll. It is rerouted through to different streets.

 

Here is what I posted back on March 22nd after coming home from our Anthem cruise:

Driving from Maryland, Sunday May 1 is there still construction

at Exit 14A driving to Cape Liberty? We made this drive in late August without a lot of traffic, also on a Sunday morning. How

will the traffic be in May?

Thank you for your help.

Sunrocket

That looks interesting. It's very close to Exit 14A. Two of the 3 miles would be on the port road, so it's really close and convenient.

Shoalwater

Since you used the Laundromat, do you know if there is any way to omit the automatic Viking detergent and use your own?

Did you have any problems selecting the Viking excursions you wanted in advance. What did you think of the Viking excursions went on.

Thank you for your review

Sunrocket

After over 30 very enjoyable cruises aboard Princess ships we were invited by friends to join them on the Viking Star this past Feb. 21 out of Barcelona. I don't plan an exhaustive review or comparison between lines, but just some major points of observation in no particular order with a "winner" in the category determined.. We were in a DV4 cabin on deck 5.

 

Passenger load: Personal choice but we prefer smaller ships vs larger 3,000+ passenger loads. The Viking ships are set at 900 pax.

 

Cabin: Hard to compare because of different categories and we haven't sailed the newer Princess ships. However, the Viking mattresses were superior.

 

Bathroom: Viking. Large shower, room can accommodate 2, doesn't steam up, and the heated floor is great.

 

Passenger Services Desk: Viking by a smidgeon.Smaller passenger load allows for better individual service. No real desk, but friendly reps seated at tables with a computer. No real lines either.

 

Shore Excursion Desk: Hard to strictly compare, but again Viking by a nose. I was missing a pair of tickets discovered just at the meeting time and they printed them out on the spot, no questions asked.

 

Staff responsiveness: A subjective comparison for sure. I did write a note with a suggested area for improvement and received immediate feedback by phone from the dining room head and head of ship services. I was impressed at the speed and personal call. Viking wins here.

 

Food: Viking, no contest. however to be fair, the per diem cost of the viking cruise was significantly higher than Princess, so they have more to work with.

 

On board ambiance: Again hard to make a fair comparison because of the cruise fare. Viking has no photo department and no casino. Much of what princess pesters you for by way of extras (beer, wine, coffee etc) is included with Viking. however, Viking wins my preference because i am not asked continually to pay for these items. It is a personal preference, but IMHO worth the cost. You don't think twice about some things.

 

Specialty restaurants: Again hard to strictly compare, but my chips here go to Viking. Better food, great service, and no extra up-charge as it's all included. We ate in the Italian restaurant 3 times and twice at the chef's table. The included wines poured were from the port regions we had just visited and were of excellent quality.

 

Main dining room service: Princess without a doubt. Viking will figure it out, but our experience was the service at breakfast was abysmal. Orders were mixed up, came out piecemeal and waiters were hard to grab for more coffee or such. We tried breakfast twice but it was so disconcerting that it put us in a bad mood at the start of the day and so we used the buffet. Dinner was a little better, but slow.

 

Informational talks (port talks, enrichment): Princess. While available on demand on the Viking TV, we prefer to see them live. However they were scheduled during the 6-8PM time, when we like to eat dinner and so we never made a one. Of course with every day a port of call, it's operationally hard to schedule them otherwise, but we still prefer the Princess scheduling.

 

Entertainment: Hard to make a call, but for now I'll go with Princess. The Viking theater is intimate, more of a cabaret style and no glitzy production shows. Like Princess, they use computer graphics for sets and all recorded music (no band). The entertainers seemed less experienced than Princess' singers/dancers. but still put on enjoyable shows. Only one show per night, at 9PM. The theater was never filled.

 

Laundromat: Being Elite with Princess we enjoy complementary laundry, but the Viking laundromats are free, easy to use and even add their own detergent. Edge here goes to Viking because they're free with supplies.

Spa: While we don't use the spa proper, Viking has a superb salt water pool, sauna, steam room, and amenities. They provide robes, slippers, towels etc., all included with your fare. Very nicely done and the winner here is Viking.

 

There are probably other things I could compare, but these are my major highlights. We'll continue to sail Princess until they are fully engrossed in the mass market ship sizes with mega passenger loads, but have booked our next two new cruises with Viking. Quality pays...it doesn't cost.

We have cruises 2 times with Viking River. Next fall we are cruising with Viking Ocean to the Mediterranean. We used Viking pre-cruise in Amsterdam which was not worth the cost, hotel not convenient to anything, tour guide was horrible and so was the Viking representative at hotel. But the post-cruise package in Prague was worth the cost because it included transportation from Budapest to Prague, Hilton there was a great hotel, with breakfast and included Prague tour which was excellent. The second river cruise in France we did hotels on our own.

Transportation from/to the airport to the hotel on pre and post extended stays is not included unless you use Viking air. Transportation from Hotel to ship is included.

I also looked up cost for Venice Hilton and agree with you. If we decide to stay there, we will book ourselves.

We never use Viking air.

Sunrocket

My wife and I are doing our first cruise next year on the Istanbul-Venice run, September 25 - October 4. We were on this summer, but got pushed back because the ship was not ready. We are very much looking forward to this trip!

 

My question is about the extra stays on each end. I know in Istanbul they use the Conrad Istanbul Bosphorus Hotel and the two days costs $1,798 through Viking, including breakfast. I don't know what tour activities are planned.

 

Checking the website, I can get a King room with a park view for two nights, cancellable and changeable, for about $565 (depending on exchange rates, of course). That's a pretty darn big difference!

 

Likewise, in Venice they use the Hilton Molino Stuckey Venice and that two days is $1,998. I can get a King Deluxe room with a view, cancellable and changeable, today for about $910!

 

That's a $2,300 savings! I think the wife and I can occupy ourselves, tour-wise, pretty well on our own for that. Airfare is $1,490 for both of us (includes the $50 premium thing whatever that is).

 

I'm wondering if I'm missing something? Those differences seem to be ridiculous, but we have zero cruising experience. I'm wondering if we should just take the cruise and do our own air and hotels, or see if Viking will do the air on our extended dates and just leave the hotel stays to us?

 

Advice?

My husband also used a wheelchair in Frankfurt airport, fortunately this time we had a great experience as far as service and time. We flew on our own from France to Frankfurt on Lufthansa and Frankfurt to Dulles DC on United. I arranged the wheelchair before we left for France last year for our Viking River Cruise. We found a wheelchair a must if you can not walk long distances. We also had 4 hour layover. Much longer than needed, (but felt because of previous experience with Frankfurt airport almost missed our flight) any connection time under 2 hours would not work for anyone with walking distance issues.

James and

Anne

Where are you staying in Barcelona

Thank you so much for all the info. Look forward to viewing all your pictures. Glad you had a safe return.

Hi, yep, we live off Fairland and 29 so I've been to Columbia a bit. I didn't really ask about the Hilton but the location seemed great. The people staying there were able to see Star when she came in, and then she was assigned to the area where mostly really small ships are assigned, so people could see it from the roof. You might just want to post on our roll call to ask about private water taxis there, plus people thought of the Hilton, etc. I can't imagne it was bad, bUT im nit picky when it comes to hotels, so best to ask someone else. Just keep in mind that Viking doesn't control where they dock so you would ideally choose a place close to San Basilio AND Marittima port area, which is nearby but served by other vaporetto and Alilaguna boats. Alilaguna goes right to Hilton from airport but it's slow. Of course, lots of things are slow in Venice..hard to get around and hard to navigate.

 

We are budget travelers when it comes to hotels so I chose a little place near San Marco called Hotel Rio. We loved it but doubt too many other Viking Star passengers would find it ideal...pretty basic. At least we were able to get from the airport gate to hotel in less than an hour and a half, which isn't bad for Venice!

Thanks Roothy cant wait for your review when you return. Have a safe

trip

Roothy 123

Thanks for all your posts they have been great. We live in Columbia MD not far from you. Will be going on Viking next fall. Where did you stay in Venice? I read in your roll call several people were staying at the Hilton. How did that work out and did anyone take private water taxis from airport to Hilton Stucky and from Hilton to cruise port. I would prefer to do the Hilton on our own it is more cost effective I think. Enjoy the rest of your trip. Any other recommendations appreciated. Thank you Sunrocket

Where is the storage space in a Deluxe Veranda cabin. It is difficult to

tell by the cabin diagram.

Thank you

Does anyone know what the obstruction is and have they stayed

in one of those cabins on the Summit.

Thank you Sunrocket