Long review of Viking Star West Indies

Hi all,

We were on the Viking Star West Indies in January of 2017. Here is my long review - I read so much here on Cruise Critic before I book or sail and I wanted to pass along our experience. Please ask any other questions you may have. Thanks to the many members who helped me in planning our trip!

Overall: Fantastic!

Us: Four college friends, 2 married couples, now between 55-58 years old. Looking to relax together. Like good food and wine, active, do not shop or gamble. Chose this cruise because of ship design, no kids/photographer/gambling, mostly inclusive, spa, exercise facility, price. My husband and I have been on one Princess cruise (never again) and 2 Azamara cruises (loved them); our friends have been on one Princess cruise (never again) and we have been together on a small charter in Turkey (loved it but a totally different vacation).

Embarkation: The only time Viking fell short. Our air was included and booked by Viking months before our cruise. As soon as we were notified of our flights, I called Viking and our travel agent because we were due to arrive at 6 am in San Juan. I was assured by both that we would be able to board upon arrival (access to our rooms would be later in the afternoon). Ok, fine. Well, we arrived early, at 5:30 am, after flying all night and were collected and driven to the cruise terminal – where we were dumped with our unsecured luggage and told we could not board until 11 am. Five hours without bathrooms, water, food, a place to rest, or secure luggage (we were told we could use the bathroom and buy food at the Sheraton Hotel). Upon embarkation, we had many discussions with customer service (some sympathetic, some not) and finally (after much pressure) given $150 OBC on day 5 of the cruise. We were fine with this and ready to move on – although this should have happened on day 1! After we returned home we were contacted by Viking Customer Service (I think this was through a tellus@Viking.com email I sent during the cruise) and had a lovely conversation with a woman who was trying to find out all of the details of our embarkation so it wouldn’t happen again – and gave us a nice credit towards a future cruise. Very smart as I am already looking for another cruise!

The Ship: Wow! We chose this cruise partly because of the design and were not disappointed. The ship is designed to allow everyone to find a small quiet public space or a larger public space to encourage conversation or the enjoyment of live music. Everywhere you look there is beautiful art, glass work, lovely (and comfortable!) furniture, and interesting objects. Many small thoughtful touches – blankets on couches, small pillows on chairs in the large public areas but also in the restaurants, bird sounds in the public bathrooms (which were always spotless, by the way). The glass ceiling over the pool is lovely but it does get hot when it is closed – during our cruise we asked for it to be opened 3 times and it was opened promptly.

Stateroom: Great. Comfortable bed with nice linens, love the balcony, small but functional seating area, wonderful bathroom with good water pressure. Actual storage in the bathroom with drawers and shelves! Nice toiletries with little scent which I like. Bath towels a little thin. Good climate control. Great lighting with lots of options. Good closet with light (steward brought extra hangers right away) but not enough shelves/drawers. No need for coffee maker (much better coffee at the bar) – would prefer to get rid of coffee maker and have 2 more shelves/drawers. Nice to have a little fridge, we asked to have only tonic water and club soda and that’s what we got all week. 2 tiny candy bars and one bag of chips replenished most days, not needed with all of the food around. Water replenished in the room and in our fridge. We bought some gin and rum in town and had drinks in our room with our friends sometimes.

Spa: Gorgeous and no extra charge. Most afternoons, before dinner, we would access the spa and use the warm tub with powerful jets, the hot tub, the wet sauna, and the snow room. Relaxing and fun! Robes and rubber shoes are available in the changing rooms in lockers that lock with your room key. Our friends had a pedicure (fine) and massage (fine), both expensive.

Gym: 3 rooms with windows. One open/empty for yoga/stretching. One with mats & weights, benches and 2 stretching machines. One with treadmills, weight machines, elliptical machines, bikes. Everything in good order and clean. Water, cleaning wipes, and towels provided. Yoga and some other group class offered about once a day for $10. We never took the classes but did use the gym and enjoyed it.

Food: Mainly excellent with just a few misses. Nice portion control. Food served correct temp and not too salty – thank you! Had breakfast in the MDR and buffet. Great bowl of fresh berries every morning. Breads and pastries fresh and tasty. Eggs benedict delicious and perfectly cooked. We are tea drinkers – the tea was Ok but could be improved. We usually had lunch at the buffet and ate outside. Loved the fresh salad fixings but often had a long line – they should have salad on both sides of the buffet. Often ordered a freshly grilled chicken breast or shrimp to add to the salad. Yummy gelato with changing flavors. Ordered room service a few times, breakfast was cold/not great, lunch salads/fruit plate/cheese plate were good and served promptly. We generally ate dinner in the MDR as we enjoyed the service. Good, fresh food with just enough variety. Really good crème brulee! However, they should offer more vegetables as part of the entrée and/or offer more and more interesting side vegetables – the ‘extra’ veggies were steamed and boring. How about some roasted vegetables every night? I would also like the MDR to offer more salad variety including an entrée salad. We had great, prompt service and enjoyed the staff. The wines were fine (nothing great). Twice we did not care for one of the offered wines and were quickly and pleasantly brought a different wine we had liked from a previous day. We did not chose the Silver Spirit package (we had plenty to drink with included drinks and the occasional purchase) but it seemed a good value. The included beer was Carlsbad light and dark and was delicious.

Manfreddi’s has an extensive menu and we had 2 meals there. The asparagus over polenta was one of the best things I have ever eaten. The ribeye and veal saltimbocca were also delicious.

The room is lovely and the service was great.

The Chef’s Table was mediocre. We had the Scandinavian menu focused on salmon and lamb. There are no choices so check the menu ahead of time. The food was fine but somewhat pretentious and focused on presentation. The room was one of my least favorite on the ship, with many tables distracted by light coming from the private Kitchen Table room and the kitchen. When we arrived (early seating and first to be seated) we asked if we could be seated by a window. We were told no as we were a party of 4 and the tables by the windows were for 2. As the dinner progressed it was obvious we could have been seated by a window with some creative thinking. Dessert was beautiful and delicious. We all agreed we did not need to repeat

The Chef’s Table. I think Viking should re-work this dining room and concept.

Wintergarden: Just a gorgeous space with comfortable furniture. The fresh scones were wonderful, coffee was good, the tea itself just so-so. Just need some better black tea. Service great.

Entertainment: We watched 2 movies by the pool and really enjoyed relaxing outside with popcorn and blankets. We had big plans to see the shows but ended up just relaxing and talking with our friends. Loved the small groups playing classical music in the atrium.

Excursions: We did mainly included excursions with one extra excursion.

San Juan: Excellent excursion, best of the ones we took. Local interesting guide, loved the QuietVox (I am a photographer and loved being able to move away from the group to take a shot), beautiful walk to the Fort San Felipe del Morro through the Old Town. Longish walk, warm weather, lots of uneven ground.

Tortola: Open air bus ride, beautiful, bit of a wild ride, could not hear bus driver/guide over the microphone. Left for one hour at Pusser’s landing for shopping which we could have done without.

Antigua: Had plans for a private snorkel trip which we could not make as our ship docked at the commercial dock and we were too late for the private trip. Viking did provide small bus transportation to the shopping area. We took a taxi from there to a beautiful beach and swam.

Saint Lucia: Bus tour of the island. Great guide, beautiful views, visit to Stony Hill (private estate gardens) – slightly strange.

Barbados: We hired a private guide and car for the day. Beautiful pottery at Earthworks Pottery, rum tour at Mount Gay (very touristy, pretty good rum).

Guadeloupe: Never left the ship – day off from the bus. Swam in the pools and lots of reading. Did a bridge tour which was really interesting to see, the officer guide was not very interesting. Nice that Viking still offers a bridge tour.

St. Kitts: Bus tour, driver/guide OK, Fairview Great House interesting, had a local beer in their bar.

St. Martin: Longish bus tour with shopping, we are tired of bus tours by now!

St. Thomas: Optional catamaran & snorkel tour through Viking. Big and nice catamaran, a few too many people (around 50?), snorkel provided, 2 sites to snorkel. Snorkeling just OK but nice to be in the water. Drinks and snacks provided after snorkeling. Nice afternoon.

Other stuff: Used the laundry, very helpful, detergent provided and automatically dispensed.

Internet: not so fast but fine, able to check email and news.

TV: all the info about your account and reservations, great selection of movies to watch in room

Port lecture: only went to one, just the cruise director reading about the port so skipped the rest.

Smoking: None! As far as I could tell. Thank you, Viking – this is very important to us.

Service: Lovely staff, very helpful and interesting to talk with, most seemed happy with Viking

As you can tell, we had a great cruise. Viking is a good fit for us and I am planning another cruise with them soon.

Glad to hear that Viking has done right by you over the early arrival. This is just another example of when the folks answering the phones have no idea how things really work.

Other stuff: Used the laundry, very helpful, detergent provided and automatically dispensed.

Just so no one gets confused On the Viking Star, detergent is dispensed automatically. On the Sea, they use a different system and if you want the detergent to dispense, you have to push a button on the dispenser on the wall once you have started the washing machine. As of this date, we don't know the set up on the Sky.

Thank you for your detailed review.

It is good hear your expectations of the various common areas of the ship were met. This is one of the major reasons I have booked a Viking Cruise , to enjoy the modern ship and its decor.

How long was the included ship tour on St. Maarten? Are they all in the morning or do they also have ones for the afternoon?

The included excursion, Scenic St. Martin, was scheduled for 2.5 hours and was offered morning and afternoon. Enjoy!

Thanks so much for your review! We're looking forward to our West Indies trip on the Viking Sea in March of 2018