Bear_Music

No, there is an unlisted cabin forward of 6000/6001 which I believe must be for the bridge officers.

Thanks very much, that's exactly what I wanted to see. Doesn't look too bad :-) That blog is terrific also. We sailed on Viking Star's Maiden from Istanbul to Barcelona, but not everything was fine-tuned at that time. It's good to see such a comprehensive overview of the ship and what's available on board.

If you've sailed in Stateroom 6000 or 6001 on any of the VO ships, can you share with me your thoughts on how obstructed the verandah view is (pix if you have 'em) and whether privacy is an issue? I'm suddenly realizing that the "wing decks" off the Explorer's Lounge may literally be overlooking our little private space in 6000? And the Bridge wings will certainly narrow our forward visibility to some degree.

I'm sure it's too late to do anything about this, but did we goof?

R

I wouldn't think it would be an issue. We've sailed in 8013 and spent a fair amount of time in the Explorer's Lounge and it was never noisy. They didn't do entertainment there, and it's a very civilized space. I don't *think* there's an entrance on the port side of the ship to the lower level of the lounge, and for SURE the main entrance is on the starboard side. On Deck 8 there IS an entrance to the upper level of the lounge at the end of the starboard corridor, but it was almost never used; I'm the only one I ever saw using it...

This week the ship's masthead light was clipped off as the Viking Star went under a bridge over the Cape Cod canal.

I actually got to watch that incident live as I live here on Cape Cod and wandered down to the Canal to say "Hi!" to the old Gal :-) Bizarre incident. We'll be on Sky from Norway to Montreal next September; I wonder what strangeness awaits us on THAT voyage?

You can power-walk a complete loop of Deck 8 too; I see people doing it all the time. Deck 8's exposed to the sky...

We are cabin twins Jan3! 8012 will be our cabin in March 2016 Venice to Istanbul ...How are you enjoying it?

 

Is your balcony a bit smaller/ narrower than the Penthouse Junior suites around it? What time were you able to access your cabin on embarkation day?

 

Have you found it OK for accessing the public spaces or has it been inconvenient for the restaurants etc? I would imagine it was great for getting to the Explorers Lounge.

 

Was there any noise from the retractable pool roof?

 

Apologies for the questions but I'm really excited! Enjoy your cruise in 'our' cabin.

We're in 8013, same cabin but Starboard side. Balcony's a fair bit smaller but it's perfectly usable. Navigation space between bed and wall has a couple doing "the dance" to navigate towards the sitting area and the verandah.

We were able to grab our cabin immediately up on the 8th deck, cuz it's surrounded by PS cabins and no sense not making them all up at the same time, only 20 cabins total in that module. Best bargain on the ship IMO.

We had some weather in transit last night and we swayed around a bit and a half, but I actually like that.

Instant access to Sports Deck, and floor of Explorer's Lounge, Pool Grill 1 Deck down and a very short walk aft. A little further aft, same deck, World Cafe. So you only ever have to leave your home territory for specific reasons, not in transit. Like, down to 2 for dinner, down for debarkation at ports.

It feels very uncrowded up here on 8.

R.

It's not that we aren't AWARE of some issues (Penny and I) but we knew there would be issues two years ago (it was to be expected) and took the plunge anyway. We're delighted with the ship; she's an absolute jewel. The food has been excellent. Restaurant staff is just now getting into the flow of things, so it's key to just relax and let it happen. They DO keep the wine flowing, and it's decent plonk to boot :-)

We definitely made the right choice grabbing one of the four DV1s on Deck 8. There's a sense of being on your own ship up here, only 10 cabins on our corridor. The weather deck is fantastic for shooting from, and we're just a deck away from the World Cafe, the Pool Bar, the Wintergarden, and so forth.

We just got into Piraeus (Athens) with the rising sun. Looking forward to our privately organized photo tour today :-)

Yup, she's beautiful. View from the weather deck is fantastic. We rode the viking bus in from the airport and they did our checkin via hand-held computer on the bus so that worked very well.

Buffet-style lunch in World Cafe was decent but not outstanding, but of course they were hammered. Dinner in The Restaurant was first-rate. Wine included with dinner will be 3 specific pours; a red, a white, and at least last. night a Rose. They will vary nightly.

There are various small glitches and snafus, but overall a great experience. OUR cabin was basically available as soon as we boarded, but we're on Deck and there aren't many up here....

I don't want to see all their itineraries.

 

I just want to know if they are booking any in December 2016.

 

I guess I have to call them.

From the page linked above, click CRUISES in the header bar, choose your location etc, and you'll get to a page that allows you to start booking.

Here's a screen cap from Vessel Tracking showing the whole incident in chilling detail; I had noticed this yesterday and not paid as much attention to it as I should have: that was a VERY close call.

Maybe he's just taking it easy. After all, it's not a real cruise with 900 plus passengers who have their hearts set on seeing gorgeous Santorini! Maybe he said the heck with it, as he was only planning to stop there 8 to 2 anyway! With the tendering, donkeys/cable car, etc., in my opinion it's barely worth the time to stop there for less than a whole day....

Plus, the weather's pretty nasty around there right now, rain squalls and 40 mph winds...

Have faith, Elizabeth. We'll see ya soon.

My "other" is what's been called "The Viking Experience". We were getting ready to pull the trigger on a river cruise when this came up, and this ship/trip *sounds* like a dream come true. A perfect fit (knock on wood).

I've not heard of The Explorers Lounge called 'Mamsen's' before. It's listed as a dinner spot along with the Aquavit Terrace.

Mamsen's is a Scandinavian-themed deli on the starboard side as you enter the Explorer's Lounge. They will apparently also be featuring a daily "waffle hour" as well :-)

It is interesting to note that the latest Viking Star picture is showing that she is now registered in Bergen, whereas some earlier pictures on Marine Traffic dated December 2014 during its sea trials showed that she was registered in Valletta in Malta. I wonder if she will change back again after her ceremony in Bergen?

I think the SHIPYARD registered her first, and they have a shell company in Malta to work around exorbitant taxation in Italy. She had to be registered while they did sea trials, but Viking hadn't taken ownership at that point. I think the permanent registration will be Norway. I could be wrong.

Here she is in Dubrovnik, from the Marine Traffic site. What's weird is there's NO sign of any passengers...

9th deck - right above our heads, along with the gym I think. Sure hope they put some limitations on opening and closing hours! I'm imagining thud, thud, thud at 4:00 am pounding on our ceiling. If so, I think Bear_Music and I will be down at the front desk the next morning. Are you with me Bear_Music?

Jejeje... I'm deaf, actually, won't bother ME. Penny might join you though :-)

There is no "running track" as such. Deck 2 has the 360-degree promenade; 4 laps is a mile. That's the same deck as the main restaurant. Deck 9, the "sports deck", is way too small for running. The two aft "peninsulas" of Deck 9, I believe, will have shuffleboard, putting green, etc. The larger area across the front, who knows?

Deck 8, the "weather deck", is your best deck for spotting stuff out to sea (or to shoreward) and zooming in on it. Although there won't be a dead-ahead view from the weather deck; that area's the upper part of the Explorer's Lounge. It's unclear whether we can access the Lounge from Deck 8; I hope not, because if we CAN then our corridors to those few cabins might become a thoroughfare...

As we will have a stateroom on weather deck my question is where in reality do the smokers congregate as I believe they will have a designated area to starboard on that deck, hopefully aft.

We're on the weather deck also. We've been told the designated area is starboard side, aft. I can't think where else they'd but it, really, as forward is all cabins and amidships overlooks the pool...

We booked 8:30 (we usually eat between 7 and 8 anyway) on the theory that a lot of these days we'll have been out trudging around and we'll want to relax a bit before getting into dinner mode. This is especially true of days like Florence and Rome, where we're spending the day well away from the ship.

There will be plenty of options if we want to eat earlier.

Should I set my alarm? We live on the east coast. Does the Booking Window open at midnight our time?

Viking Time = California Time, which means your window opens at 3 AM. We set OUR alarm, and we're glad we did. Whole process only took 15 minutes or so...

Yay! Elizabeth is another Tilley Hat person! Now I feel much better!

Tons of us; Penny and I are sharing those 2 legs with you, a bunch of crazies are doing the full 50 days. Look around in the threads for the ones that relate,m it's sort of chaotic in here :-)

There's gonna be an informal get-together of CC people at 4PM the day we sail at the Aquavit Terrace on the stern of Deck 7. Look for a couple tables with "Cruise Critic" placards on them, someone's gonna try to hold them :-)

See ya soon!

I'm pretty sure the reason we depart at 2PM is so we transit the Dardanelles in daylight; it's a spectacular and very historic strait, known as the "Hellespont" to the Greeks.