Clay Clayton

Just found your thread again as we are contemplating doing Antartica this coming January. Some friends from the World Cruise are booked and Viking has a promo on that makes it about as good a deal as it will get on Viking. Reading your posts about the problem with landings does give us pause as it appears Atlas Ocean Cruises has similarly luxurious ships but with under 200 passengers and they are all inclusive for the same or less money than Viking. Such a tough decision for what I know will be a once in a lifetime trip. Thanks for all your posts which will help us make a decision.

Jazz is correct, they make as many landings as possible. Skiingj is also correct about only 100 at a time, but Viking also has a “Special Operations Boat” that carries 12 passengers and a number of 2 person kayaks that are used simultaneously so it’s my understanding that each passenger on board has the opportunity to be on the weather twice a day-either kayaking, landing, or touring the ocean and icebergs aboard the SOB.

Can anyone offer comparisons between AOC and Viking Expeditions? TIA!

If you want a shorter cruise, you can also do a full transit to/from Panama City. Additionally, both expedition ships do full transits.

Haven’t listened to the whole interview-but I think it was before the implementation was delayed.

Open up that candy wrapper and you get another story! Unless you’re fluent in Norwegian you’ll have to use Google image to translate it, but each wrapper has the fairy tail that is illustrated on the front. (fyi, I had been sailing on Viking for 6 years before I learned this).

https://www.viking.com/promotions/us/en/portal/H9A.html?cid=EML|AJO|999|Email+-+240828_multiproduct_h9a&utm_source=email&utm_medium=AJO&utm_content=Email+-+240828_multiproduct_h9a&correlationId=bd4b31df-6ca4-4d34-98ee-9fdc739d28ae-0

Norway just delayed the environmental requirements that (as I understand it) drove the changes that resulted in Vela. So I wonder if like the ferry service Owner mentioned in this article he is mad. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidnikel/2024/08/28/norway-allows-cruise-ships-in-world-heritage-fjords-until-2032/

FWIW, we regularly had breakfast in the WC with some friends. One of them drank green tea and the other a cappuccino. They always asked a server to bring them their drinks. They would get a pot of tea and the cappuccino as quickly as the server could gather it. Seems like sometimes they would join the table, ask the server and then go get their breakfast. Usually the tea would be waiting when they got back.

Have you not read all the other threads on this forum???? People don’t get dresses anymore, just throw on your robe and go anywhere you want😂

I agree with you about the made to order in the Living Room but once I learned that the best coffee for my taste was using the WC machines to make an americano with an extra shot of espresso, I stopped making coffee in the room.

Some folks prefer sliding doors, while others prefer hinged ones. If you’re not picky then shouldn’t make a lot of difference.

Ours used to not show up until after we boarded, but on our last two cruises it was in our MVJ account a month or two before embarking even though we couldn’t see it. We booked some optional excursions using a credit card on the first day our window opened. A month or so later, I had a credit from Viking appear on my statement. After digging into it, discovered that they used the credit from the travel agent to pay for the excursion. I’ve learned that Viking’s financial systems make little or no sense so hard to say what you may experience.

Ask and ye shall receive! Have fun, I’ll stick with Viking.

Have you tried asking for a quiet table? We’ve found that those near the stern tend to be less noisy.

Same thing happens on one of the Fort Lauderdale to Valparaiso sailing. When you click on it, it shows full price staterooms of which there are only a few. But the other sailing has availability at pretty good pricing for Viking’s expedition ships- around $300/person/night rather than the more typical $550-1000/pp/nt

You’re right! I apologize for my mistake. I could have sworn it was $18. And I googled it and that what came up. Just went to Viking site and it clearly says $17. Sorry.

That’s because it has a separate noodle bar near the aquavit liquor bar. My comment was for the older ships that didn’t have this station included when they were built. But based on a report from Sea, using the pool grill ans a noodle bar in the evening isn’t Fleet wide.

Mamsen’s was open until 11 on our last cruise was that not the case on yours?

Maybe it was just a World Cruise thing🤔 Not everything, just somethings 😂

I don’t remember if there was more than one included excursion or not in Ísafjördur. The excursion took us to Bolungarvik where we had a snack of smoked reindeer on tasty bread and heard an Icelandic singer, the Ósvör Maritime Museum which I showed pictures of previously and a stop at a beautiful creek flowing down a steep hillside whose water was supposed to extend your life or maybe improve your sex life. I can’t remember which but I know we all had a big drink!

In Ísafjördur, we were able to get on Viking’s excursion to Vigur Island-it was great- puffins, Arctic terns, and eiderdown ducks! We also were able to take the included excursion here which was enjoyable. It visited an example of ancient fishing houses and had an interpreter who told us about it.

Welcome to Viking! some thoughts: -unless Viking recently reduced the daily gratuities, it’s $18 pp/day not $17. We book with a travel agent who kicks back the maximum Viking allows as a refundable onboard credit ($150pp on cruises up to 7 nights; $300pp on 8-14 night cruises: and $500pp on cruises 15 nights or more) so those amounts typically cover our gratuities and leave a little left over for the bar tab if we don’t get the Silver Spirits package ($25pp/day which means each guest needs to drink between 2.5-3 cocktails each day to break even) -the mini bottles are not premium and are limited. As I recall, gin, vodka, rum. I know when we upgraded on a promo to a PV once, we didn’t use the mini bottles as we preferred a higher quality liquor and enjoyed it better with friends at a lounge. -having not sailed Regent I can’t compare (but hope to change that someday) but we have found some of the food very memorable. Grilled lamb chops for breakfast, Chilean Sea Bass, Exotic Wave dessert (all in the Restaurant) and the Lotus Menu at the Chef’s Table being some that come immediately to mind. If you want to see some of the other Chef’s table menus:this thread has attempted to list them all: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2861105-21-chef’s-table-menus/ -if you haven’t already, recommend checking out this thread which has lots of advice and tips for Viking newbies: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2416372-tips-for-new-viking-ocean-cruisers/page/62/#comment-62141739

They also will make it at The Living Room bar.

Welcome to Viking and you’ve picked a great cruise to start with. We did it last summer and had a great time. If you haven’t been to Iceland before and can make it work with your time and budget, I highly recommend flying in early as you will only get a tiny taste of Iceland from your one port stop. I’ve included a picture of Gullfoss (Golden Falls) which is one stop on the Golden Circle tour-easily doable at various price points as a day trip from Reykjavik. And I wouldn’t get your hopes too high regarding Northern Lights-we were gone from the third week in July until the first week in August and never saw the sunset …which means it’s usually too light to see the northern ones. The other phot below was taken on night at midnight. This was as low as we ever saw the sun.