Moonlion

Day 8 (May 16th, Belfast): another fantastic day! Wow, we are having a fabulous time on this cruise! The weather gods continue to shine down on us. Another day with rain in the forecast but the morning was clear, sunny at times, with at most a few sprinkles in the afternoon. The sea remains amazingly calm. We took another independent excursion today: Odyssey Coach Tours, Giants Causeway Tour from Belfast Port - Extra Legroom Bus (£53 pp). Tour went 8 hours from 8 AM to 4 PM and there were only 10 of us on the bus, all from the Viking Neptune. We covered a good amount of Northern Ireland during the tour including the Giants Causeway (breathtaking, highly recommend!), Dunluce Castle, beautiful scenic drive along the Antrim Coast Road and stopped at several other scenic sites including a lunch stop in Bushmill. The countryside of Northern Ireland is vibrantly green and beautiful at this time of year. We ended up in Belfast in the afternoon and toured the city including the Peace Walls separating the British and Irish areas of Belfast - fascinating history! Our driver/guide was an interesting Irish Catholic gentleman from Belfast who really opened our eyes to the Irish viewpoint of the Troubles history. We had dinner again tonight in the Restaurant and everything was excellent, perfectly prepared and delicious - including orders of filet mignon and a regional lamb stew. We sat next to another couple who ordered different dishes and said they were also excellent. I’m happy to report that The Restaurant has redeemed itself 😉.

They had a French wine tasting on Day 2 or 3, but we missed it unfortunately.

Between DH and me, we’ve requested about 10 different wines on the list and they’ve all been available. Here is the wine list on this cruise, more reds by the glass than whites:

Totally agree. The secret is figuring out the “crowd“ behavior early on on a cruise, and then do the opposite. With fairly minor adjustments, we are so much happier.

Yes, the ship is fully booked. Not sure whether shared tables are an option in the Restaurant. We didn’t ask and the hostess must have assumed we wanted a table for two (she didn’t ask if we wanted to share a table last night). Tonight, we arrived a little past 8 PM and waited less than 5 minutes for them to clear a window table for us; honestly, after touring all day and having lunch ashore, we weren’t ready to eat by 5:45 PM. Beautiful sunset this evening while we dined! The Restaurant was almost empty after 8 PM and we got exceptional service. Both our meals tonight in the Restaurant were very good to excellent. Based on the last two data points, it seems things are improving in the Restaurant…at least for us. Other updates: The crew continue to be outstanding! They are what makes Viking an exceptional cruise line without a doubt in our opinion. We’ve also met many lovely guests on this cruise. The mattresses are perfect for us, not too soft or hard. Our room steward said they now add a mattress topper. We’ve not seen any “service” dogs on this cruise.

We went to the Restaurant again last night and…shock of all shocks…both our orders were very good including an order of beef chateaubriand. Our faith in Viking has been restored 🤣😂🙃. We got to the Restaurant around 7:30 PM and there was a 15-20 minute wait. No problem, we went to the Living Room bar and had a glass of wine while waiting. By 7:45 to 8:00 PM, tables open up again. By the way, people start queuing for the Restaurant well before 6 PM and they start seating people before 5:45! DH walked by the Restaurant around 6 PM tonight and there was a LONG line already formed. So, if you don’t want to deal with lines, show up before 5:45 or after 7:45 PM. There was another excellent performance by Ben Mills last night at 9 PM. We got there a little late finishing up dinner. Oddly, no Beatles performances last night or tonight despite stopping in Liverpool today. What’s going on?? The weather has been wonderful despite forecasts of rain a couple of days ago. Today was mid 50s, no rain and even sunny on and off through the day. The sea has been very calm while sailing and there are times when I’m not even aware we are cruising. Today (Day 7, May 15th, Liverpool), we did another independent tour, Mad Day Out Beatles Taxi Tour with Ian Doyle (£130 for the entire taxi, not per person, which can comfortably hold 4 adults or squeeze in up to 6). Another couple on our CC roll call joined us today. Ian is passionate about everything Beatles and a walking encyclopedia of knowledge! He is a musician himself and friends with Pete Best, the original Beatles drummer who was replaced by Ringo Starr just before they became famous. He took us to the usual Beatles sites but also some lesser known places. We can HIGHLY recommend this tour which gets 5 stars on TripAdvisor. You need to book months in advance, however, since he only does 2 tours a day and they sell out fast! After the tour, we had lunch at the Cavern Club and visited the Liverpool Beatles Museum on Mathew Street near the Cavern Club. Ian strongly recommended this museum over the Beatles Story one near the port. Another FAB day!

We’ve had no problem getting alcohol onboard while still at port, nor with purchasing alcohol while ashore. Curious why there would be any restrictions at UK ports? The Brits are well known for their love of a pint or two.

To be clear, we were on Busy Bus Tours (at £64 pp), not with John from Boutique Tours.

BRILLIANT day today!! And Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums on CC 💕 Day 6 (May 14th, Holyhead, Wales): we went on an independent excursion today with Busy Bus Tours (Sightseeing Day Tour to North Wales from Holyhead Cruise Terminal). We loved, LOVED this tour! There were only 8 of us on this excursion. Our guide, Shellie, was excellent - funny, knowledgeable, told us interesting stories about sheep farming in Wales (learned about black sheep) and shared several Welsh folk tales, played a few Welsh songs while driving, talked about the history and geography of region. Even though we docked at Holyhead, it took awhile to get to the cruise terminal from where the ship was docked. Passengers are not permitted to walk from the ship to the cruise terminal for safety reasons, plus it’s quite a distance. For those not taking Viking excursions, there is a free shuttle from the ship to the terminal. However, we had to wait until all the Viking buses cleared out for the morning excursions. Shellie waited patiently for us to arrive at the terminal and said it is common for passengers to arrive a little late waiting for the shuttle. In our 7-hour tour (£64 pp), we drove in a small bus through the beautiful Welsh countryside and made stops at Conwy (charming Welsh village with a medieval castle), Betws-Y-Coed where we had lunch (DH and I went to Y Stablau and tried some local dishes and the Welsh rarebit which was delicious), Ogwen in Snowdonia National Park (absolutely beautiful!), and Caernarfon (another charming village with a castle - the Prince of Wales is coronated here). We spent from 45 to 75 minutes at each site so much more than a quick photoshop. Although the weather forecast predicted rain today, it stayed clear until around 4 PM. Shellie got us back to the ship before 5 PM as promised. We really enjoyed this tour and had a lovely day.

Agree, very inconsistent. DH and I ordered the exact same item, a Peruvian pork chop, last night in the Restaurant. One serving came out perfectly prepared, the other was thinner, dry and tough. We keep trying the Restaurant hoping to see improvement. What’s the definition of insanity again? 😂 Mich3544, hope to meet up with you on ship sometime.

Merrion Square, just across from the National Gallery of Ireland.

The good, bad and unfortunate… The quality of our meal last night in the Restaurant was again mixed. The swordfish was very good and the prime rib disappointing - thin slice, overcooked (not the medium rare we ordered) and half fat. It seems they can do seafood well but not beef (the Beef Wellington a couple of days ago was also disappointing). I think it’s difficult to cook such thin slices of beef to medium rare. From our experiences so far, the food quality in the Restaurant has noticeably declined compared to our Viking cruise in January 2022 on the Venus. We reported our concerns to the Restaurant Manager in the hopes that things may improve. There was a guest entertainer last night in the Star Theater, Ben Mills, who was excellent (did modern renditions of 60s to 80s music). The husband and wife “Contemporary Duo” in Torshavn were also very enjoyable and DH even danced with me (and he’s not the dancing type). Still no sign of Abba or Beatles performances. Day 5 (May 13th, Dublin): our final documents said we would dock in Dun Laoghaire but, once onboard, it was listed as a tender port. We had booked the early morning included tour and were instructed to be in the Star Theater at 7 AM. So, we ordered breakfast through room service to arrive by 6:15 AM. Yikes, we were still in bed when our breakfast arrived at 5:45 AM! The waiter apologized for arriving so early but apparently half the ship had the same idea to order early morning room service. They got most of our order correct and it arrived hot. We arrived in the Star Theater at 7 AM sharp and then waited and waited and waited… Because of dense fog in the harbor, the harbor master would not permit the tenders to run for safety reasons (completely understandable). We were finally able to start boarding the tender boats at 10:30 AM and didn’t get into Dublin until after 11:30 AM. Unfortunately, I had booked tickets online for a tour of Kilmainham Gaol. Our entry time was 11:30 AM which of course we didn’t make. The tickets were not that expensive so no great financial loss but we were really looking forward to this tour. Since we got such a late start, Viking extended the ship departure time by a couple of hours. We had fantastic weather in Dublin, sunny and relatively warm. The included excursion, City Views of Dublin, was basically a bus tour around the city with 3 brief photo stops. It took about 30 minutes to get from Dun Laoghaire to the Dublin city center and the drive around the city took about an hour and a half. Our guide was OK, not terrible and not great. She pointed out a few architectural details and talked about Guinness and its role in shaping modern Dublin. Disappointing to us, she didn’t really cover Ireland’s turbulent history (e.g., the Easter Rising of 1916), Dublin’s rich literary history, Trinity College or the Old Library with the Book of Kells. We left the tour before the bus headed back to the port and explored the city on our own for a couple of hours. Viking had a free shuttle from Dublin to Dun Laoghaire. In retrospect, I think we should have taken the Dart train or Viking’s shuttle into Dublin and done one of the Hop on Hop off tours.

So far, they’ve had everything we’ve asked for…but we haven’t truly tested the limits yet of wine availability onboard. We usually order wine at dinner and ask the wine steward to recommend a pairing with our meal that evening. I’ll post back when we have more data points.

General perceptions (cont.): Dinner service in the Restaurant and Manfredies has been very good to excellent. Waitstaff have been friendly, attentive and efficient. Since we have the beverage package, we asked for and received the specialty wine menu and advice on wine pairings with our meal. It’s generally taken about an hour and a half to complete dinner at the Restaurant and Manfredies, a leisurely pace which is fine with us. For breakfast the previous two days, we’ve ordered room service since we’ve had early morning excursions. Our order has arrived exactly on time, perfectly prepared and hot. A word of warning: today (a sea day), we had breakfast in the Restaurant and it took forever to get our eggs and omelet. The server apologized and advised us not to have breakfast at the Restaurant on sea days since the kitchen can get backed up. Despite the weather forecast (before we left) predicting rain, rain, rain in London, the weather - knock on wood - has been fantastic! We’ve had sunny, relatively warm days (mid 60s) with at worst some misting in the late afternoon or evening. The sea has been very calm, like being on a river cruise. The weather has been so nice that today we had lunch outside on the Aquavit Terrace wearing long sleeve tee shirts. The guest historian onboard, Dr. Caroline Malloy, has a PhD in British history. We’ve really enjoyed her lectures (but we’re admittedly nerds when it comes to Viking enrichment lectures). DH went down to Torshavn a couple of nights ago and said the duo on board are really good. So far, no evidence of Abba on the Neptune. Excursions: we booked a combination of Viking included, optional and independently booked excursions for this cruise. Day 2 (May 10th, Greenwich): we took the Viking included excursion, Royal Greenwich by Foot, a walking tour of Greenwich which lasts a little over an hour. Our guide was lively and entertaining so we enjoyed the tour. After the tour, we visited the National Maritime Museum and the Queen’s house on our own - easy walk from ship, both interesting and free. We enjoyed the day. Viking had a sail-away party on the Aquavit deck in the afternoon which was a lot of fun. Day 3 (May 11th, Dover): we took the Viking included excursion, Historic Canterbury, in the morning which involved a 30 minute bus ride to Canterbury and a walking tour of the historic areas of the city. Our guide was excellent so we really enjoyed this tour. She suggested that those who wanted to go inside the Canterbury Cathedral (15 £ pp) could peel off from last part of tour and the group would catch up with us at the end. We did, and really enjoyed touring the Cathedral - it’s beautiful and worth a visit in our opinion! In the afternoon, we went to the Dover Castle on our own. Viking offers a free shuttle from the port into Dover which continues to the Castle. We thoroughly enjoyed the Castle which includes representations of medieval life in a castle. The views are gorgeous from the castle and you can see the Viking ship off in the distance. We lucked out and there were no lines to tour the Secret WWII War Tunnels at the Castle. This is a fascinating tour (included with the Dover Castle admission price) that we highly recommend! We made it back to the ship in plenty of time and had a fantastic day! Day 4 (May 12th, sea day): nice to have a break after traveling and several busy days. We’ve had no problem finding sea-facing lounge chairs in the pool area in the afternoon, even today a sea day. This is a port intensive cruise so no more relaxing sea days! I’ll try to keep you posted on the rest of our excursions.

We boarded the Neptune on Tuesday, May 9th, for BIE cruise, Greenwich to Bergen. Happy to share our experiences. Pre-cruise (on our own): we booked flights using points and arrived at Heathrow on Monday morning at 6:30 AM. We got through passport control and retrieved our luggage in 30 minutes which I understand is quite fast for Heathrow. I had prearranged a cab (LHR to Greenwich) for $98 USD through Booking.com. We met our driver and got to Greenwich in about 40 minutes…very little traffic since Monday was a bank holiday. We stayed at the Admiral Hardy Inn which is a stone’s throw from the pier. The Inn is basically a pub with 7 rooms on the upper floors, but it served our purposes for a one-night stay. Day 1 (May 9): Boarding ship at Greenwich, a tender port, was extremely efficient! Viking set up a tent in the Cutty Sark gardens, next to the pier, and started checking in passengers around 10:30 AM. Viking staff took our luggage outside the the tent, and it took at most 5 minutes to check in, get room key (and we hadn’t done the pre check in). Viking uses Uber water taxis to transfer passengers to ship. The water taxis run every 20 minutes and it takes about 3 minutes to get to the ship. After checking in, you can tender to ship right away or explore Greenwich before boarding. We toured the Cutty Sark before boarding ship. As soon as we boarded ship (and after muster drill in the Restaurant), we checked out the Chef’s Table menus and booked our dining reservations. They are rotating through about 5 different CT menus on our 14 night cruise (menus change every 3 days). We had no problem whatsoever getting the reservations we wanted at CT and Manfredies and at the times we wanted (6 or 6:30). General perceptions so far: the ship is beautiful and, despite being sold out, doesn’t feel crowded…at least the places we’ve visited. The staff are outstanding! After boarding and waiting for our cabin to be ready, we ordered classic Margaritas with fresh lime juice (instead of mix). The bartender made them perfectly…so we signed up for the beverage package. We’ve dined two nights at the Restaurant and food ranged from good (Dover sole) to excellent (a destination lamb stew) to “meh” (a disappointing cut of Beef Wellington). Last night at Manfredies, the food was excellent (we ordered the rib eye steak and Osso Bucca). Speaking of food, DH is getting hungry 😉 but more to come after lunch.

What about receiving/sending emails using Verizon's cellular? Does that kick in the $10 for the day?

Although it can be less expensive to book directly with tour company, I often book with TripAdvisor because their cancellation policy is usually more generous (full refund if cancelled up to 24 hours before tour). The price difference between booking directly with company vs. TripAdvisor is usually not that large (10-20%) and I have had no problems communicating directly with tour operator through TripAdvisor's online platform. For our upcoming BIE cruise (departs in less than a week!), I have 3 excursions booked through TripAdvisor and 2 booked directly with company. We'll see how it goes...

For excursions that offer multiple times (for example, included excursions often have 4-5 time slots available), you can't see what other times are available once you've booked the excursion. If you cancel your booking, only then can you see all the other available or sold out times. When I used the chat function, even the online agent was surprised that we couldn't see the other available times once booked. The agent was able to look up on their system what was left for the excursion.

The MVJ website is very clunky. Once you book an excursion, you can't see what other times are available unless you cancel your reservation. Then you have to hope that, if another time you want is sold out, you can get your original time back. Alternatively, you can use the chat function and ask the online agent if there is availability at other times. I've done that several times and it usually works well.

3032 is near the forward lifts and stairs, and should be a good location, not over Torshavn or the Theater. On our January 2022 cruise, we were in 3039 and loved our cabin (no noise from below and very convenient to the stairs/elevators).

If someone requires a service animal because they are blind or have a life threatening condition (labile diabetes, severe seizures or allergic reactions, etc.), then the animal will need to remain with the individual at all times including at night in their cabin (having kennels would not work in these cases); however, the person would also need to bring the animal on excursions to assist them with these conditions. If the individual is able to go on excursions, while leaving animal in cabin, a reasonable person could question the motivations.

The more I think about this, I'm puzzled why Viking can't charge fare for the animal, even if discounted. For example, there are individuals with severe physical or cognitive disabilities who require (human) caretakers to assist them with daily living activities. Does Viking allow a human caretaker on board without charging some kind of fare? If not, then they are discriminating against those passengers who require a human caretaker versus a service animal to assist with their disabilities. My brother, for example, has severe cerebral palsy and would not be able to go on a cruise without a companion to help him. Also, given that some people are severely allergic to dogs, I would suggest that Viking designate one of two cabins that can accommodate service animals. If the ship is sold out except for the cabins allowing service animals, passengers can be informed that these types of cabins are sill available, and perhaps be charged a discounted fare (unless they bring a service animal of course).

For World Cruisers (past, present and future), the travel section of CNN has an article about two sisters who went on the "first" World Cruise 100 years ago: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/laconia-world-cruise-1922-1923-eleanor-claudia-phelps/index.html. Interesting.

This is the difference between expecting to "go on vacation" versus "travel." Both are legitimate, but can be very different experiences.