It's early to evaluate Viking Star but here's a first glimpse look!

[editor@cruisecritic]

Just posted on Cruise Critic: Cool discoveries on Viking Star.

 

Link: http://www.cruisecritic.com/blog/index.php/2015/04/29/just-back-from-viking-oceans-7-cool-discoveries-on-viking-star/

 

Carolyn

[Azulann]

Carolyn,

Thank you for the seven features and their descriptions about the new Viking Star. I am still smitten with this ship. I know it is the maiden voyage of their one ship with some glitches to be ironed out.

I look forward to the release of their 2017 itinerary with three ships. I will be booking one of their sailings at that time.

I have been investigating on CC the smaller ships cruise lines for the last year. I have found the one that I think will match my requirements, Viking Ocean.:)

[TERRIER1]

I am confused about your statement regarding free unlimited wi-fi for all cabins. I don't believe this is correct. It may have been the case for your voyage since there were (and still is) lots of IT problems but free wi-fi is all for the upper cabins. The lower cabins have free wi-fi only in port and have to pay above a certain band width used.

[cassandra44]

Thank you for all the helpful tips!

Is there any way we can find out whether the V1 and 2 passengers will be guaranteed that they can book at least 1 meal at Manfredi's? We have heard so many wonderful reviews but, as you may know, those of us in V1 and 2 have been treated as the great unwashed and told, after we booked and paid for the cruise, that we would not be allowed to make any dinner reservations...anywhere on the ship.

I really hope that Viking is listening and that they will make it possible for people to book at least 1 dinner at Manfredi's when we get on board.

[id4elizabeth]

We've eaten in Manfredi's 4 times between 6:00 and 6:30. There have been plenty of empty tables. I've heard it empties out for later dining times and you can just walk in and get a table. Can't verify this first hand as we're usually through by then, but on our way out between 7:30 and 8:00 there have still been empty tables.

 

Chef's Table has been begging for customers - I'm positive you could just walk in there with a party of 8 and get seated.

 

At least so far there has been no fixed seating at "The Restaurant". I repeat, THERE HAS BEEN NO FIXED SEATING in the main dining room. It's all Open seating - first come, first seated. Of course this might change for later sailings, and if it does in the next 30 days, you can bet we'll be posting on these boards asap! In the meantime, no need to worry.

 

WiFi in my opinion has been OK but not great. At times it's so slow as to be unusable. But that just may be my luck. Up until now it's been wide open to everyone, except the techie guys/gals onboard have their own secured channel.

 

I can't really tell any difference once onboard what cabin classification differences there are except #1 Free Laundry in Suites and Junior Suites and #2 invites to the Kitchen Table. This last one might be random however - hard to tell.

[CTLeeA]

We've eaten in Manfredi's 4 times between 6:00 and 6:30. There have been plenty of empty tables. I've heard it empties out for later dining times and you can just walk in and get a table. Can't verify this first hand as we're usually through by then, but on our way out between 7:30 and 8:00 there have still been empty tables.

 

Chef's Table has been begging for customers - I'm positive you could just walk in there with a party of 8 and get seated.

 

At least so far there has been no fixed seating at "The Restaurant". I repeat, THERE HAS BEEN NO FIXED SEATING in the main dining room. It's all Open seating - first come, first seated. Of course this might change for later sailings, and if it does in the next 30 days, you can bet we'll be posting on these boards asap! In the meantime, no need to worry.

 

WiFi in my opinion has been OK but not great. At times it's so slow as to be unusable. But that just may be my luck. Up until now it's been wide open to everyone, except the techie guys/gals onboard have their own secured channel.

 

I can't really tell any difference once onboard what cabin classification differences there are except #1 Free Laundry in Suites and Junior Suites and #2 invites to the Kitchen Table. This last one might be random however - hard to tell.

 

The rumor is (which I'm now officially starting) is that those of us in the lowest price Veranda's will will get left overs from the crew's mess for dinner and will need to do the laundry for those in the Suites (I hope you like lots of starch) in order to remain onboard. We will boarding in about 48 hrs and we'll bring a grill and microwave on board.

 

Seriously tho, you have raised our hopes of eating in Manfredi's at least once.....

[cassandra44]

Thanks id4Elizabeth! We had heard that Viking had abandoned fixed seating and if so that's good.

Looks as if we might get into Manfredi's after all!

Keeping fingers crossed!

I keep wondering what advice Viking had before organizing the included excursions...It's one thing to do it on river cruises but quite another kettle of fish with 900 plus passengers.

Edited April 30, 2015 by cassandra44

[DianeLikesToTravel]

I also was wondering if I'd ever get into Manfredi's since I'm in a lowly V1 cabin. I would like to try it at least once in 12 nights. If they could get the Chef's Table worked out more people would eat there freeing up space in Manfredi's. So far, the Asian menu looked good, but I have no interest in the Indian and Italian, and I like both Indian and Italian food. Reports here are that dining The Restaurant is also good. In any event, there are plenty of dining venues and I'm sure I can put on pounds regardless of where we eat.

 

I was told by a Viking representative via telephone that wi-fi is complementary but only for a limited amount for those in standard cabins. Above that amount I would need to pay $9.50 per day. Since I'm not sailing until September they have plenty of time to figure out what they are doing, but it was disappointing to learn this. As I'm not willing to pay $9.50 per day I'll just have to adjust to the amount they allow. I just hope there is a way to keep track.

[id4elizabeth]

With WIFI now you don't even sign in by cabin number or user ID or anything, let alone a password. So, right now, they have no way of even tracking whose logged in, much less how much you've used, but of course this could change.

 

With the dining room (MDR, Chef's Table, or Manfredis), it's all manual. They just write down your cabin number on a sheet of paper along with how many people. Not even sure why they do that in the MDR, since obviously you belong on the ship and can eat there. I can see why they do it at Chef's Table and Manfredis, but mistified by MDR. They don't write anything down for the World Cafe, you just walk in there.

[CrusinSubMan]

There has been no log in or access requirements for WIFI so far. It is an open system and nothing is required to use it.

You can find, in a few places, that the Star lists as official policy, that basic WIFI is free but that "Premium" WIFI is supposed to also be available for a fee.

 

I think that, so far, the Star is still trying to get various electronic systems working right and constantly (including the Televisions which are where it appears one would log in for WIFI) and so the Star is not ready to offer a consistent and premium wifi.

 

Wifi download has been pretty good. Upload is usually moderately slow.

the system acts weird sometimes. I use several different devices on it. There are times when the WIFI seems to work real well and their are times when it seems inconsistent. That could just be the nature of the Satellite WIFI though. Because the WIFI is free for everyone everywhere on the ship I think the system is getting some pretty high demand at times.

[id4elizabeth]

Echo CrusinSubMan. Tonight I couldn't even connect to WiFi at all for several hours but now it's OK. I have found our cabin (8019) spot happens to be the worst and sometimes by going to the Wintergarden or the Explorer's Lounge I get better reception.

 

Remember, you do not want cabins 8019 or 8018 (there is no 8020 as I previously reported - it's 8018 on the port side), because of the slamming exterior door problem. I think it's worse in our cabin on the starboard side as that's the side for the smoking area.

 

The smoking area BTW is starboard side, 8th floor outside deck area, approximately mid-ships.

[lahlah57]

I have not heard any positive raves about much of anything but Manifreds! I did not reserve a Viking cruise for an italian restaurant! There has got to be more to love than the cuisine of one restaurant!

As a DV cabin will I be nickle and dimed even for a bottle of water? I do not need to fully commit until the remainder is due next month. Should I go back to Crystal♡¡

I really wanted to love Viking too:confused:

[Azulann]

I have not heard any positive raves about much of anything but Manifreds! I did not reserve a Viking cruise for an italian restaurant! There has got to be more to love than the cuisine of one restaurant!

As a DV cabin will I be nickle and dimed even for a bottle of water? I do not need to fully commit until the remainder is due next month. Should I go back to Crystal♡¡

I really wanted to love Viking too:confused:

 

I would not be ready to abandon your Viking Cruise yet.;) I know that at least four travel writers have boarded in Barcelona. They will, I am sure, be writing about food in all the venues.

As of yet, not one cruiser has written a full review of their cruise on CC. I am hoping someone who has done at least one segment will write one.

Cruisn Subman has written about various meals they have had on his blog, if you read all the parts.

I am counting on you for a review of cruising in the winter in Europe:)

[lahlah57]

I certainly hope so and I will keep trolling these sites for some good stuff at least!

[captainmcd]

We just got home from the maiden voyage from Istanbul to Venice, and agree with the editor's article. I booked the cheapest cabin catagory, cabin 3035. It was well laid out. We have made 3 cruises on Azamara in the past couple of years but I wanted to try a new ship. I will try to complete a review in a day or two. Regarding restaurants, we ate all but one meal in the main dining room or at International Cafe. Shortly after sailing I booked Manfredi's and we did have an excellent meal there. Being a new ship and a new crew, as well as a new cruise line makes for a difficult startup, but Viking pulled it off. The IT and TV glitches did not bother us as we realize it is a work in progress. We did find that the service in the dining room was slow, as waiters were learning, and there was an automated I-pad ordering system that did not work and they had to use normal paper and pen. Inspite of this, nobody ever went hungry and the food was better than expected. The entertainment was far better than I expected on a small ship, especially the singing talent. I enjoyed the piano and string flute trio, as well as the guitar, but think they should have gotten the harpists that Azamara fired. The included shore excursions, and the premium ones were all very good. Boarding was a breeze for us, we were the only people in the terminal, and leaving was equally trouble free. We miss the kind crew, fellow passengers still aboard, and will probably return when new itineraries develop.

Edited May 2, 2015 by captainmcd

[need2cruisesoon]

We just got home from the maiden voyage from Istanbul to Venice, and agree with the editor's article. I booked the cheapest cabin catagory, cabin 3035. It was well laid out. We have made 3 cruises on Azamara in the past couple of years but I wanted to try a new ship. I will try to complete a review in a day or two. Regarding restaurants, we ate all but one meal in the main dining room or at International Cafe. Shortly after sailing I booked Manfredi's and we did have an excellent meal there. Being a new ship and a new crew, as well as a new cruise line makes for a difficult startup, but Viking pulled it off. The IT and TV glitches did not bother us as we realize it is a work in progress. We did find that the service in the dining room was slow, as waiters were learning, and there was an automated I-pad ordering system that did not work and they had to use normal paper and pen. Inspite of this, nobody ever went hungry and the food was better than expected. The entertainment was far better than I expected on a small ship, especially the singing talent. I enjoyed the piano and string flute trio, as well as the guitar, but think they should have gotten the harpists that Azamara fired. The included shore excursions, and the premium ones were all very good. Boarding was a breeze for us, we were the only people in the terminal, and leaving was equally trouble free. We miss the kind crew, fellow passengers still aboard, and will probably return when new itineraries develop.

 

Greta review thanks, by any chance can you post pictures from your cruise?

[jkerr]

Need2cruisesoon, thank you for taking the time to review the first leg of the Viking Star. We are also in a V2 room and were a bit worried from other reviews. Can't wait to board in Bergen in two weeks.

[lahlah57]

Captain....so it was all worth it to you?

No regrets and would you sail with them again? We too enjoyed Azamara and their way of functioning. Very good food as well as excursions. Kinda glad we did not maiden voyage with Viking!

For us....they have till January 2016 to get things as in the illusion of the brochure!

[captainmcd]

Captain....so it was all worth it to you?

No regrets and would you sail with them again? We too enjoyed Azamara and their way of functioning. Very good food as well as excursions. Kinda glad we did not maiden voyage with Viking!

For us....they have till January 2016 to get things as in the illusion of the brochure!

 

We booked the first leg of the maiden voyage because after sailing for over 50 years I had never been on a maiden voyage, only final voyages. The price was right, although it needed to be paid in full soon after booking. I got the cheapest cabin, which was identical to almost all the other cabins except the location on deck 3 forward. We expected glitches, and there were some, but it did not really bother us very much. I was aware of the problems of starting a new ship with a new crew and really a new company. I think they pulled it off pretty well. I did like the ship and the design, but until they get more exciting itineraries (we have already covered the Mediterranean very well) I will look for new places to visit.

[lahlah57]

Captain.....thankyou for a honest review with no overly emotional depictions in the translation. Sounds like you enjoyed it!

[editor@cruisecritic]

I keep checking our member reviews to see reviews from the first couple of cruises. Nothing yet!

 

It's been interesting to read your comments since I got off, seemingly eons ago (after the first 9 day sailing). Appreciate all of them. In fact, the experience inspired me to write a blog about being on a shakedown cruise.

 

It's here: http://www.cruisecritic.com/blog/index.php/2015/05/01/we-try-it-sailing-on-a-shakedown/

 

I'll be honest with you -- we ran into some challenges on our first cruise on Viking Star. I expected challenges. And I'm confident that Viking will make them right. To be frank, our experience on Quantum of the Seas' first revenue sailing was a lot more problemmatic in a big way, and I did not see that coming. Mind you, Royal Caribbean is known for introducing the industry's most innovative ships. But so many big things went wrong. The stuff on Viking Oceans, I don't know, seems tweak-able.

 

If I'm wrong, tell me :)

 

Carolyn

 

I would not be ready to abandon your Viking Cruise yet.;) I know that at least four travel writers have boarded in Barcelona. They will, I am sure, be writing about food in all the venues.

As of yet, not one cruiser has written a full review of their cruise on CC. I am hoping someone who has done at least one segment will write one.

Cruisn Subman has written about various meals they have had on his blog, if you read all the parts.

I am counting on you for a review of cruising in the winter in Europe:)