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For those of you that think of moving on to Viking


jabrown40
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After much anticipation, we are finally on our Viking ocean cruise in the Caribbean. We decided to try Viking after reading all of the great reviews and seeing their numerous awards. Like many of you, we to get tired of jewelry sales, photographers, and the push to upsell.With that being said, after one week so far on the Viking Sea,my husband and I Are booking our next cruise again with celebrity. We have only taken one celebrity cruise in the past, on the silhouette, and we really enjoyed it. We are 58 and 70, and have found the average age on Viking to be higher than what we expected. I think the Viking product is great if you love to read, love classical music or quiet piano music. The evening entertainment is decent with a collection of singers, and the band excellent. But the songs so far have definitely appealed more to a older generation. Not really a club for dancing if you enjoy that. The pool is definitely quiet, no games, but no music either. Things we miss from Celebrity - Martini and Sunset bars. There was more activity, and more of a “vacation vibe”. I’m not looking for a raucous party, but I like to feel some sort of “hey, we’re on vacation!” spirit. It seems most everyone on Viking is retired, so maybe coming from a different perspective. We stayed in Aqua on celebrity, and I think our room was just as nice as what we have here on Viking. Balcony is just the same. A lot of people have talked about how good the Viking food is an over all it is good. However, there’s just nothing special about going to dinner on Viking. It’s almost too casual, And although some people like the clean Scandinavian design, I think it is rather cold. We felt that our dinners in blu and especially Murano were just as good as what we’ve had On board here. If anyone has more questions, I’d be glad to answer them but for now it’s off to one of our excursions here in Aruba!

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Thanks for your post. Everything you described about Viking is exactly why we just booked a cruise on the Viking Star next year.

 

"the Viking product is great if you love to read, love classical music or quiet piano music. The evening entertainment is decent with a collection of singers, and the band excellent. But the songs so far have definitely appealed more to a older generation. Not really a club for dancing if you enjoy that. The pool is definitely quiet, no games, but no music either"

 

Sounds like what cruising used to be before it turned into an over-amplified, alcohol-fueled, county fair with the Beverly Hillbillies and their feral children.

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Was your Celebrity cruise also in the Caribbean? We find Caribbean cruises, especially those departing from ft Lauderdale or Miami ( as well as longer cruises), to have the oldest demographics.

 

 

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Thanks for the post. We looked at Viking Ocean after a Viking River cruise but after comparing prices and your comments, will probably stay w Celebrity. I’ll find someway of ignoring all those Hillbillies and their farel children.....ouch. Not needed.

 

Den

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Great comments! I appreciate the insight and think I will stick to Celebrity, although the CONSTANT barrage of photographers is really tiresome.

 

We NEVER get our picture taken anymore (except for the Sea Pass :) - we just say no thank you and walk on by and no one has ever hassled us. Even when first boarding, "no thanks" and we're on our way.

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We NEVER get our picture taken anymore (except for the Sea Pass :) - we just say no thank you and walk on by and no one has ever hassled us. Even when first boarding, "no thanks" and we're on our way.

 

We never get a photo taken either, but I’ve found that I have to keep repeating no several times, with less and less of a smile, as they try to persuade us for the boarding photo and other photos on the first couple of days. After that, they will usually just ask once and then give up, which is fine.

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Have taken Viking River Cruise - 14 days - Budapest to Amsterdam. The food is very good and we enjoyed the daily tours in the European ports. We thought about taking a Viking Ocean cruise - but NOT in the Caribbean. We are not interested in tours of the Caribbean islands. Just enjoy taking a cab to a beach, and shopping.

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After much anticipation, we are finally on our Viking ocean cruise in the Caribbean. We decided to try Viking after reading all of the great reviews and seeing their numerous awards. Like many of you, we to get tired of jewelry sales, photographers, and the push to upsell.With that being said, after one week so far on the Viking Sea,my husband and I Are booking our next cruise again with celebrity. We have only taken one celebrity cruise in the past, on the silhouette, and we really enjoyed it. We are 58 and 70, and have found the average age on Viking to be higher than what we expected. I think the Viking product is great if you love to read, love classical music or quiet piano music. The evening entertainment is decent with a collection of singers, and the band excellent. But the songs so far have definitely appealed more to a older generation. Not really a club for dancing if you enjoy that. The pool is definitely quiet, no games, but no music either. Things we miss from Celebrity - Martini and Sunset bars. There was more activity, and more of a “vacation vibe”. I’m not looking for a raucous party, but I like to feel some sort of “hey, we’re on vacation!” spirit. It seems most everyone on Viking is retired, so maybe coming from a different perspective. We stayed in Aqua on celebrity, and I think our room was just as nice as what we have here on Viking. Balcony is just the same. A lot of people have talked about how good the Viking food is an over all it is good. However, there’s just nothing special about going to dinner on Viking. It’s almost too casual, And although some people like the clean Scandinavian design, I think it is rather cold. We felt that our dinners in blu and especially Murano were just as good as what we’ve had On board here. If anyone has more questions, I’d be glad to answer them but for now it’s off to one of our excursions here in Aruba!

 

Thank You for writing that, had toyed with the idea with Viking as some friends asked me to join them on a cruise this year. Didn't realize the demographics on Viking was that much different and even slower retired paced.

 

I love seeing good energy onboard as always find it refreshing to hear new music, and that vacation vibe like you mentioned.

 

Never felt pestered by photographers, a simple no thank you and they fade into the background.

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And just noticed there is no casino. Although we aren’t big gamblers (don’t we all say that!) it’s fun to step in and play a little video poker.

 

As for photographers, they seem less intrusive or we’ve learned to skirt by them. As they walk up to the dining table I just give them a ‘no-nod’ and they step away. Nice.

 

And who doesn’t want to jump into the middle of those $10 watch sales! I better not be too smarty, last cruise I bought a whole bunch of those cheap shoulder bags for gifts. Love them! Mine is a ‘Manbag’ I don’t care what others call them, it’s handy.

 

Den

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jabrown40, I too enjoyed your comparisons. We did one Viking Oceans Cruise last year with two more Viking Oceans this year. On ours we last year we found the age demographics to be mainly 40 to upper 60’s, maybe because it was in Northern Europe and an active cruise. We have also traveled with Celebrity several times and enjoyed that as well. I think your dislikes are more our likes, we love the size of the Viking ships, 922 passengers, the clean Scandinavian lines of the ship and cabins but we’re probably boring, we like the low keyed music, classical music, reading in a quiet atmosphere.

 

I hope this doesn’t come across wrong, it just shows everyone is different. One thing I will say, we will not do the megaships! Way too many people.

 

 

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To the OP,

Have you tried the Nordic spa yet? Is it easy to find seating at the pool deck anytime during the day? How is the on board lectures? The afternoon tea? The walk around deck or the bocce ball area up in top?

I have only sailed Celebrity and they have some interesting sailings about every other year. the ship board experience on a sea day is terrible on the M class ships and the S class pool area.

 

 

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Thanks for the post. We looked at Viking Ocean after a Viking River cruise but after comparing prices and your comments, will probably stay w Celebrity. I’ll find someway of ignoring all those Hillbillies and their farel children.....ouch. Not needed.

 

Den

 

Denny, just a note, good to see you on this board again.

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Thanks as well for your thoughts, likewise we have considered Viking but have decided to stay with Celebrity/Azamara (in Europe) for now. Even though our last Azamara cruise in January (Miami to Cuba, through the Canal and ending in Costa) was enjoyable, we (at 61 and 64) were on the younger side. We're not big gamblers but think we would miss not having the option to play the machines before or after dinner.

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We have been thinking about Viking for a Baltic cruise versus Celebrity. I like the idea of only 900 or so passengers versus 2000 plus. We have been told Viking can get closer to Estonia and St Petersburg for example, versus a Celebrity or HAL ship. Is this true? What about the shore excursions included with Viking? Are they worth it? I was disappointed with Celebrity shore excursions in Alaska. Thank you for your comments.

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Thanks for the review and your insight !

 

Viking sounds rather nice. We have been sailing with Celebrity for some time now and will be Zenith after the next cruise. We have been considering Oceana and Azamara. But ... your review makes us want to try Viking Ocean as well.

 

Thanks,

 

-- Don

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Denny, just a note, good to see you on this board again.

Hi Don (and all others)

 

Yup, stepped away for a little while. Still cruising. My wife and I are teaching a travel class in our local Center for LifeLong Learning (CLL) and have about 30 people in the classes. Fun to talk about it, and of course watching my wife try to control my overblown sea-stories!

 

Den

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Just to be clear, I am very happy to be on this cruise, and I think it would be great for Europe. Obviously, they are able to get to ports that the larger ships cannot, and they have offered the enrichment lectures daily. We don’t use the casino at all anyway. I am NOT trying to say one is better than the other, but just offering a descriptor of life on board to help others make choices depending on what they want from their trip.

 

 

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I loved our Viking Homelands cruise (May 2016) and considered it to be value for money because the only things we paid extra for in the whole 2 weeks were the occasional coffee ashore and an additional tour in St Petersburg. The guest speakers were excellent and the lectures well attended. The included tours or walks were well organised and interesting.

 

 

Our last Celebrity cruise (last month) was also in Aqua and although we like the food in Blu, we considered that Viking was even better.

 

 

We like Celebrity but if money were no object I would pick Viking, and yes it did go into at least one port that larger ships don’t visit (I believe it was in Denmark) and getting through passport control at St Petersburg was very easy, and far removed from the nightmare I have read about for bigger ships.

 

 

I thought that the OP was quite fair with her description of the entertainment on board, but I don’t think that whether a Viking cruise would suit is really age-related; more ‘horses for courses’.

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