Viking Sky - Cities of Antiquity & the Holy Lans - Nov 20, 2019

Did not see a Roll Call for this cruise yet. My wife, Audrey and I are excited about this cruise. Sailed in Aug 2017 on the Sky - Viking Homelands and are booked in May 2019 on the Sky for the Iceland Majestic Landscapes cruise. Hope to hear from other fellow travelers!!

If you can't find a roll call already started, may I suggest starting a thread in the Roll Board for your ship - just remember to include the date and cruise name.

We are looking at this exact cruise and may book it while on our Viking river cruise in France in November 2018. We'll talk to the folks at the Future Cruises desk and see what price they come up with. We love Viking and have been on one other Viking ocean cruise and three Viking river cruises so far. Number four coming up in just 95 days! Not that I'm counting or anything!

We did this cruise last year on "Star", and had a wonderful time. Some notes:

Jerusalem (Included Tour from Ashdod) -- very, very, very busy. Access to some sites difficult, shoulder to shoulder jostling, struggling, pushing and not a lot of chance to see and take pictures in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Via Dolorosa. Hard work. Tiring. Excellent guide.

Haifa to Nazareth and River Jordan -- Excellent tour. Not nearly as busy as Jerusalem. Saw a lot. Much was not what I had expected so my expectations were wrong. River Jordan is green (ugh!) with people being baptised (submerged) in it. Jordan water sold by the bottle in the expensive tourist shop (so take your own bottle and fill it yourself.) Learned a lot.

Heraklion -- Visit to Minoan museum was an eye-opener. Could have spent all day there. Pre-reading recommended.

Haifa to Acre -- Included tour to . . . . the fish market and a copper shop! Disappointment. Nice bus run there and back!

Shopping in Crete, Cyprus and Mykonos -- It is end-of-season and some shops will already have closed till spring. Those still open are keen to get rid of stock, and bargains are available, especially to hagglers. Do not accept the ticket price. Jewellery and leather at better than half price! Choice a little limited, but enough to satisfy.

Had a late flight out of Athens, and after some persuasion, Viking organised a hotel room in central Athens for about thirty of us, with coffee and buns, and a couple of hours free wandering/shopping time before the bus to the airport (a dire place). Well done Viking! Much appreciated.

Excellent cruise. Very educational. Saw lots. Apart from the scrum in Jerusalem, not too physically demanding and so really enjoyable.

Note to Viking: bypass five hours in Naples for somewhere interesting, such as Capri or Malta.