claranda

We’re boarding Mariner on 17 September and were strangely cheered by your review, despite the downsides! W must try to see the funny side! 🤭

Sorry, the details of the one-way trip we did doesn’t really help you, as you’re planning the return. That’s a long trip, but I wouldn’t worry too much about missing Bergen; just make sure you do the Flam/Gudvangen leg. Actually, Voss and the train trip from Voss to Bergen are not that interesting. You could always get the shuttle back to Flam from Gudvangen or alternatively take the train from Voss back to Oslo and leave Bergen out if you’re only going to see the station!

We did it independently in May, Oslo to Bergen, everything booked on-line in advance. It is cheaper than the NIN offer, especially if you are senior citizens. Express train from Oslo airport to central station, hotel a few minutes walk (Comfort Xpress, cheap and quite comfortable), left our big bags in reception for early morning pick up by Porterservice. Took the midday train down to Myrdal and then on to Flam (booked 90 days in advance, best seats on both trains on the left side of the train as you face the direction of travel). Overnight in the Flamsbrygga Hotel, nice dinner. 10am fjord cruise down to Gudvangen (as someone said, much more impressive than the Flam railway, which is nearly all tunnels), bus waiting to take us on to Voss (again, left hand side), which doesn’t link up well with the train to Bergen, so we had time for lunch there before the one hour trip, then walked the 15 minutes to our hotel with our hand baggage (Thon Orion, very comfortable and well-placed for next day boarding.) Simples!

Very probably! Mea culpa…🙃

The interesting thing is that both the regular and premium wines at Chef’s Table are on the wine list at $8 a glass. We didn’t notice this last time we ate there but this time the sommelier’s choices of so-called ‘premium’ wine were so poorly matched to the Chinese menu, that we opted for the regular, which were more robust. We then compared all the CT wines with the full wine list, and there they all were at $8! So, in effect, if you don’t have the SSBP the only reason for paying $25 is if you prefer those wines - you’re not getting anything special or different. The more we thought about this the more it annoyed us. It is very misleading to give SSBP passengers the impression that they are getting something special when they are not. There are several bottles on the Virgin wine list at between $30 - $45; we think they should be opening those as an attempt to offer something premium.

Am sitting with my feet up in Jupiter 8004 at this moment on an at sea day, the last of our Viking Fjords and Shores cruise. There’s been not a hint of smoke, noise from the Explorer Lounge or from people walking round the deck above. But we are at present getting the odd thump from above with people using ( I think) the bocce court. It’s not a big problem, although in a more pleasant climate than that provided by the North Sea it may be more common and more of an annoyance. We love the space in the PJS and deck 8 but would probably book one a bit further back next time. Oh, and being at the top of the ship we undoubtedly had more movement on the one roughish night of the cruise!

I was just looking at the old list against the new to see what the main changes are. They used to offer 17 whites by the glass, now 13. Have dropped the three French, two of the four Italians and two of the three USAs; the Aussie Chardonnay has also gone. Have added two from Spain and one from Germany(!). They used to offer 15 reds by the glass, now 13. Have dropped three of the five Italians and the single bottles from Portugal, New Zealand, Australia and S Africa. Have added two from Spain and one from Chile. I’m not making any judgements on this, although I’ll miss the Italian Primitivo! I think Viking is still offering a good range of wines for SSBP purchasers. And I think it’s nice to see the list changing, in hope that the changes are not based only on price but on quaffability….

A big thank you, Amelia 3171, for going to such trouble to post the full list! Cheers!

I read recently that Viking has cut the number of wines it offers. Can someone on board very kindly post the current wine list?

Sorry to dominate this thread, but apparently Porterservice does deliver to cruise ships in Bergen; just needs the passenger name/reservation number. They also pick up from the ship but you have to be dockside early to hand over the bags.

They charge NOK 400 per bag, by the way.

We’re using the Norwegian company Porterservice - https://www.porterservice.no They’re picking up our bags in the early hours from our hotel reception in Oslo and delivering them to our hotel in Bergen, who’ll store them until we check in two days later. They gave us an on-line quote per bag and will send us an invoice to pay the day before they pick up. They say they provide the service for people doing Norway in a Nutshell; we’re doing the trip independently, no problem. I don’t know, however, if they will deliver to the ship….

I’m afraid MOH thinks these are fine, but since we’re long retired and his main occupation is golf, I despair of him reaching any level of sartorial elegance now….

Viking Shores and Fjords…

Hi All I just tried a dummy booking for 16 June, no problem. YES, it says this day is more than 60 days out, BUT look below and you will see the prices are there and you can click on the train you want and buy your tickets. All it’s really saying is check back to make sure the time of your train hasn’t changed because they only firm up on the timetable 60 days ahead. Good luck!

Good post, thanks. Couple of comments for those who are doing this independently: you can book on Vy 90 days ahead if you’re over 67 remember to save 50% on the fare by selecting Senior tickets.

You’re right, of course: 17 MAY…..

Hi tybeelucy2, I think it’s a pretty packed ship! We’ve booked provisionally on one of the Viking walkabouts of Stavanger and will take it from there. It should b a lovely day - as long as it’s not raining!

We did the included walking tour last year and were happy with it. We had an informative guide, responsive to questions, a small group with good mobility. The tour focussed on Diocletian’s palace and then branched into the more picturesque of the old town streets. We stayed in town for lunch in a wine bar and bought some nice, reasonably priced olive wood bowls. Nice place.

It’s very difficult, I agree. I think, however that perhaps the UK/European system of having a national living/minimum wage (itself a controversial subject) plus the opportunity for the customer to tip 10-12.5% for service, can bolster the dignity and lower the stress levels of the server. I find the US system a little feudal in comparison, but respect that’s the way it is and ‘will comply’ whilst there!

Thanks! It’s usually the volume that matters; above a certain level the music draws your attention away from your reading or your conversation, and we couldn’t get the volume adjusted on our first Viking cruise, even when we were the only people there - which in itself makes for more volume. But you’re right, there are silent spaces on Viking, though they tend to be out of the way and less desirable. Go on a cruise line with tannoy and children!? Never, my dear!!

Tight smile…. We’re boarding Mariner in NYC in September but are flying in to Philadelphia for a couple of nights pre-cruise in an attempt to prevent my husband becoming quite so apoplectic after our first and last New York visit a few years ago when he was charged 20% by a bartender who walked three steps to serve him a beer. Of course, it doesn’t help that the Pound is so weak against the dollar so US prices are high for us. Oh well, I’ll take charge of the payments and we’ll put it all down to experience - with gritted teeth!

We find the noise pollution on all cruise ships to be annoying and intrusive, and few provide a comfortable ‘quiet area’ to which those of us who cannot tolerate piped ‘musak’ may retire. On Viking we would have liked to lunch at Mamsens and spend the odd morning reading The Times up in the Explorer Lounge, but were driven out by the inane and irritating noise.

We’re on a New York to Montreal cruise with Regent in September and chose Regent a) because we had to, having pulled out of another Regent cruise to Oz because we couldn’t get the reward flights we wanted, and b) because we’ve never been up the east Atlantic coast and thought having the included excursions might be handy. We’ve got the excursions we wanted and are hoping there aren’t too many duds among them, especially as they are mostly several hours long! So, considering that just about every cruise line does this route, we definitely opted for Regent because of the convenience of included excursions. However, we are well used to making our own touring arrangements and Regent is not our usual first choice.

Hi MarciAnn, look back in these posts and you’ll find a similar question asked a few days ago and my answer to it. We’ve only done one Viking so far and a good few Seabourn. I found the service on Viking a bit more informal/friendly and, to my surprise, a bit more efficient/professional than our last cruise on Encore, which admittedly was Seabourn’s first after Covid. Food - hmm. I think Seabourn has the edge with quality and choice, but Viking was fine, especially the Chef’s table offerings. Viking is as responsive as Seabourn, certainly…in my mid-cruise feedback on Viking I mentioned that I was not seeing much in the way of ‘prime’ cuts or foie gras. Well, a chateaubriand was immediately scheduled and we found it hard to escape foie gras from then on, even being offered it as an extra course in the Asian Chef’s Table menu!