PatriciaF

Great you had the flexibility to reschedule. During my working days, I would not have been able to do this.

So sorry for the abrupt change in plans--but there is so much to do in the Barcelona area. The food, spa, and accommodations are wonderful on board--so you do have a floating 5 star all inclusive resort to stay on.

Sitges, a little beach town not too far away, is my husband's great grandfather's home town before he emigrated to Cuba!

With our fogged in Venice port and now this, Viking has had lot of extra expenses it hadn't planned on for the Sea.

PatriciaF,

I also received an email concerning Viking compensation for our Venice debarkation inconvenience. It was not a fully-paid future cruise, but a $250 per person credit towards the cost of a future Viking cruise. Maybe your offer was more generous than the one that was made to me.

DrBanjo

P.S. Yes, since returning home, I have been playing my banjo and guitars quite often. I missed doing that when we were on the ship.

Sorry for the confusion--it was NOT a credit for a full cruise, but $250/person for any Viking cruise, river or ocean.

It wasn't much of a problem for us. We were spending two nights in Venice after the cruise, knew how to get to the hotel from the port, and, to be honest, it was so cold, we really didn't have two days of walking around to do. I wanted to go to the outer islands, but with the cold and rough looking seas, I decided I really didn't want to do it.

I have since received an email saying we would receive a credit for a future Viking cruise--river or ocean. The email also asked me to call to discuss the problem I discussed with our customer representative. I haven't called and probably won't.

It sounds like it all went really sideways.....and at that time of night even more frustrating. I am sorry you all experienced that.

 

Have you contacted Viiking since your return? I honestly believe that they will want to hear from you. They want very much to have their passengers wanting to come back.....and it might be worth your time to speak live with them about your experience.

I got a call this evening from the Viking representative that booked this cruise for us. I told him everything was great with the cruise BUT the last day had some major problems and lots of disgruntled people. We knew how and where to get where we needed to in Venice, but many did not. I don't know if he was going to share the information up the line or not.

I agree with you, Cherylgrrl--it was a mess.

I was surprised with all the people who were taking water taxis--so expensive and usually on an open boat.

If you were the one who helped us find the people mover, thank you. Our hotel was right there in Piazalle Roma just steps from the people mover. I know some people thought we had lost our mind when we walked into the parking garage, but that's where they did late check in. If we didn't arrive by 1 AM, we would have had to find a place to sleep.

I asked what train station of one of the Viking reps on our bus--I was told THE train station. I said there are two--Mestre on the mainland and Santa Lucia actually in Venice--which I thought wasn't accessible by vehicle. She repeated her answer.

People had a very bad taste in their mouth after our disastrous last day.

On our recent Athens to Venice cruise I was in the elevator with a couple using FaceTime with their son in NY.

I don't know if the Baltic would have better or worse internet service as I don't know how Viking gets such great service compared to other cruiselines.

How was the stability of the ship? Did you feel the Sea rocking and rolling? I enjoyed the Viking river cruises partly because of the smooth ride and I am booked on the Sea in May in the Baltic. I forget that seasickness may become an issue. 😳 How was 'the ride'?

We had pretty smooth seas (and really great weather for the time of the year). I took a bonine the evening before we were to arrive in Santorini as I knew we would be tendering into port. But really not needed.

We were in a deck 6 very aft cabin, there was some motion at times, but pretty smooth.

BUT--if there were heavy seas, I'm sure I would have been taking bonine every night before bed.

We did cruise the Baltic with HAL a few years ago at the end of May and had smooth seas the entire cruise.

Based on our cruise, you and your wife will be one of the youngest couples on board. But any winter, non-Caribbean cruise, is going to skew older--us retirees have the time to do these cruises and no longer need to schedule vacations around school schedules.

If you are looking for a high party atmosphere--with lots of dancing, entertainment venues, I don't think Viking is for you.

Did they decorate the ship for Christmas?

Yes, the ship had some Christmas trees up and some artificial pine garland with lights up. Not over the top. We have never sailed at Christmas time so I can't compare it to another line.

We had a great cruise, great weather for the time of year, very good to excellent included shore excursions, good to excellent dining.

There are only 3 washers and dryers on each deck. I recommend that if you want to do laundry do it early in the morning, right after return from a shore excursion (and before lunch), or late at night. The laundrette on our floor was the busiest place I saw on the ship.

I have cruised about 30 times, first time ever ship did NOT arrive at disembarkation port when scheduled. We ended up sailing to Trieste and being bused back to Venice. We got to our Venice hotel at 945 PM--when we had expected to be there around 9 AM. Viking rebooked air and paid for hotel rooms for those who booked their airfare from them. If you booked your own, you could ask them for help or use the internet to do it. Any additional cost was on you (or you could later submit to your travel insurance company if purchased and included travel delays.) We will have to consider if we want to roll the dice on arriving back on time in the future. People on board seemed to take the change pretty calmly--I think most were experienced travelers and knew you can't control the weather.

World Cruise--we were in port every day and not back from the included shore excursion until 1 PM or later (we were usually on the second one of the day). There wasn't much scheduled to do and oftentimes, what you wanted to do overlapped with another--tea was at 4 PM--which you should do at least once and so was the port talk. I didn't find the enrichment lectures very interesting, geology (no real interest); photography (pretty basic); and ancient warfare of the area (my husband loved it.) You can watch these later on the TV. I don't know what would keep you busy during the many sea days the WC would have. I like to read, but how much do you want to read during the day? I don't like being away from home for more than 2 1/2 weeks, so not for me.

Interactive screens are all over the ship for the menus, weather, news, tabletop games (Texas Hold'em, Blackjack, Chess, etc.). The TV was interactive too with live TV (pretty much just worldwide news channels), movies on demand, and some TV shows, like Caribbean Life on demand.

Food--Manfredi's was the best but Chef's Table a close second. The Restaurant (AKA main dining room) was good to very good. The buffet had some great selections and some theme nights, but for breakfast and lunch pretty repetitive with a rather small selection if you are use to sailing to bigger ships as we were.

We paid a bargain rate for this cruise especially after our Viking past cruiser discount. I don't know if we would do it again and more than 3 times what we paid for the cabin we received.

We were planning to spend two nights in Venice, so other than losing a day of sightseeing did not impact us. We may have a late arrival check in fee as our hotel is very small. If so, I will submit it to our travel insurance if I think it is worth the bother for 25 euros.

It was a very expensive day for Viking for the buses, extra hotel nights and airfare change fees for those that had booked through them, and the fuel to stayed moored so long and travel to Trieste and to travel back to Venice during the night.

I have cruised about 30 times and while I have had a couple of skipped ports, one changed itinerary due to a hurricane, I have never had this as at disembarkation.

I was surprised Viking would sail the Med over winter, seeing the usual cruise lines leave. Nice to know they were able to get most of the passengers back home.

If you booked your airfare through a Viking, they rebooked the flight home and paid any additional cost plus a hotel for Tuesday night. If you did not, any additional costs were on you, but it would help you rebook.

People made fun of us going into the Auto Park at the hotel just steps from the end of the People Mover, but we were in our rooms within 10 minutes of getting off it. We went out for dinner, really just a snack, and people were rolling their suitcases from the People Mover until almost 11 PM.

We finally made it to our Venice hotel at 945 PM, 12 hours later than planned.

Conditions in Venice are worsening, so we sailing to Trieste which one passenger remarked you can see from Koper, yesterday's port.

Hope we at our hotel inVenice by 6 pm!

We are on the Viking Sea now. There are some decorations and we had a local a capella group from Koper sing Christmas carols before we departed. Have never sailed this close to Christmas so I can't compare to other ships.

Thanks for sharing your impressions with us. Could you please post the drink list that is included in the silver spirits package? We are specially interested on the wines being offered.

Premium wines by the glass in The Reaturant

Prosecco Riondo 5.50

White

Tommasi Le Rose Pinot Grigio 6.00

Domaine Uby, Colombard, Ugni Blanc, 6.00

Red

Valpolicella, Corvinone Rondinella 6.00

Papa Luna, Shiraz, Motoro, La Mancha. 6.00

Note with the Silver Spirits package you will receive the premium wine pairings in Chefs Table at no additional cost, usually 25.00

I did not see any card at Manfredi's.

While you may be limited to the number of reservations you can make on line before the cruise, there is no limit once on board. Manfredi's appears to fill up faster than Chefs Table. It takes about 2 hours for dinner in either specialty restaurant compared to only one in The Restaurant.

Due to heavy fog, the port of Venice is closed.

It's 923 am and we haven't moved for hours. If passengers booked their air through Viking, it will be rebooking you. If not, it is your responsibility but difficult to do as we still don't know when we might dock. We are two hours away from our berth.

We had planned two extra days in Venice and have notified our hotel that we still plan to check in.

It is great to have the free and fairly speedy internet service.

Thanks for sharing your impressions with us. Could you please post the drink list that is included in the silver spirits package? We are specially interested on the wines being offered.

The Reataurant, aka main dining, has a table topper that lists 5 wines by the glass, one prosecco, two whites, two reds. I haven't had any luck posting photos, but will take a picture and write the names down. All have an asterisk stating available on silver spirits package.

We are in the last cabin on deck six aft except for the suites. I tried to post a picture taken on my iPad from our balcony, but it is not loading. We have had some noise, but not much of furniture? Being moved around early in the AM.

If you are sailing in the summer, you may have a shaded balcony depending on the alignment of the ship to the sun and my reduce the solar gain.

For us in December, it just blocks the view

Patricia,

 

If you have a moment I would love the answers to a couple of questions about the Sea as I will be sailing her in a couple of months.

 

Is it true the "library" collection is primarily non-fiction books? Does the ship have a paperback exchange section anywhere?

 

Most of the books I have seen around the book appear to be non fiction. I have seen a couple of popular fiction paperbacks on the shelves. I have not seen a paperback trade section. I bring my Kindle and borrow ebooks from my library using the Overdrive app.

 

What hours are the pools and gym open?

 

Today's Viking Daily states that the gym is open from 6am to 10 pm. The Nordic Spa with the inside pool, hot tub, steam,a d snow room is open from 8 am to 8 pm. The infinity pool and large pool have been open but have few users.

 

Thanks so much.

See my answers above. The spa facilities are first class including a swimsuit spinner so you can dry your suit before returning to your cabin.

We were assigned a penthouse veranda and had paid for a veranda. I really like the extra space but the amenities don't make that much of a difference to us.

More thoughts

Received new Quiet Vox systems. Much lighter weight than the older ones, but would prefer ones you could clip on versus having the hanging from your neck.

I admire some of the guests that are doing the walking with walkers, canes, and wheel chairs. Surfaces are irregular, lots of elevation changes, and stairs. If you are a couch potato like I am, start walking now. According to our phones, we walked over 3 1/2 miles on our tour of Olympia. Very few places to sit so be prepared to stand over an hour.

Some comments regarding the itinerary, ship, and amenities

There is a future cruise desk and offers additional discounts if you book onboard. Does not have open booking, you have to pick a cruise and date. Additional $200 to $500 discount per person in addition to your repeat cruiser discount. Will match the current discounts being advertised on line.

Minibar. We are in a Penthouse Veranda cabin. Mini bar had a bottle of champagne, four mini liquors (vodka, gin, whiskey, and one more, I believe was a cognac), two each Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, and Schwepps Tonic, two small candy bars. I had it changed out to all vodka, 2 cokes, 4 diet cokes, and 2 bitter lemons. A small package of potato chips were by the coffee maker.

Coffee maker has 6 pods, Parisian, decaf, and espresso. Also can switch out to what you want.

Coffee bar on 1 forward has the best coffee.

Food is good to very good. Service is good to very good but if the world cafe is busy, the servers quickly get behind.

Full room service menu so if you don't want to stand in line and the restaurant (main dining room) isn't open until after your shore excursion starts, it's a good option.

Wifi is good to very good.

Yesterday we were the only ship in Santorini and it seemed busy. Can't imagine if six or more ships are in port what the crowds are like. But it was a very short wait for the cable car down to the tenders unlike the last time we were here and the Equinox was the last ship to leave and we had to wait 45 minutes to get the cable car.

Take a swimsuit, the spa area is unbelievable must do.

In Katakolon today, signing off.

We just got on aboard the Viking Sea. Gorgeous ship, friendly staff!