A Viking Star video review: Many hits, and a few misses

[ChucktownSteve]

TYVM for your wonderful video review. I've been lurking on the Viking Ocean board hoping to get a feel for the line and its differences. I believe you've given me an excellent opportunity to see some of what it would be like.

 

Thankx to your review, I've now included Viking Ocean into my future considerations!

[Kentishincanada]

Thank you for the video.

 

We were on the Sea in September. I can't say I noticed the depth of the pools, however I am fairly tall. Also from memory, the pool in the spa was warm - maybe there were some adjustments to the Sea.

 

We had some incredible food. The fruit buffet at breakfast was lovely. We didn't eat dinner in the buffet, except for an appetizer plate from the sushi buffet. The food in the MDR was excellent having lobster and Dover sole on the menu one evening. We ate at Chef's Table twice. The Scandinavian menu was exceptional and was as good as any tasting menu I have tried. I would like to have seen some spicier curries etc., but that is just a personal taste. My only criticism food wise would be that sides could have been served hotter: sometimes they were only warm.

 

I cannot really comment on the lack of evening entertainment as we were with friends and ate fairly late, so after the show and a dance at the nightclub, we were ready for bed.

 

We enjoyed our cruise and the ship was lovely.

[Rawmac]

That Viking is a European cruise line, not an American one, could answer some of the differences commented upon.

 

On Viking Sea this summer, the Infinity Pool was filled to about a foot below overflow, and even then, some were on tiptoe to keep their noses above water, but I think this lesson has been learned.

 

We found the food choices were good, but the hot food could have been hotter.

 

Returning to the ship after an excursion involved none of the queueing prevalent on the big ships, and the "welcome home"was nice!

 

Overall, the video is very well done, is truthful and should whet appetites for future cruisers.

 

PS The evening entertainment on Sea was excellent, especially the shows with a wonderful troupe of singers and dancers, and the combo in Torshavn (not mentioned in the video) was as good as any afloat. Thank goodness for no comedians, no scooters and no annoying PA announcements!

[MickeyP]

Great job, Looking forward to our stay on the Star in February.

[AngelMomCruises]

Thank you Spaniel lover for your wonderful review. I do have one question. I have been on some beach excursions where we were packed in like sardines. Can you tell me if you experienced the same issue with the beach excursions offered on the viking? My husband is hesitant to do any beach excursions because of our previous experiences. I feel as though what better place to visit the beach!!! Any advice would be appreciated. :)

[Spaniel Lover]

I didn't find the beach excursions to be too crowded at all.

 

Because there are so few passengers on Viking Star, and because so many of the passengers are way past the age of wanting to spend a day at the beach, the beach excursion groups were tremendously smaller than what I'm used to on my previous cruises on mega cruise ships.

 

However, once the Viking tour group gets to the beach, you often find that there are lots of other non-Viking people at the beach already. So, there was never an empty beach that we went to... if that's what you're looking for... but there was also never one that was packed like sardines.

 

The most sardine-like beach experience we had was in Barbados. Here's a photo showing the rows of beach chairs at that beach.

 

 

There was plenty of room between the rows of beach chairs, and the folks all around us were all cruise ship passengers from either Viking, Princess, or Carnival. (There were three cruise ships in port that day... the most of any day of our cruise.) I did not feel crowded, and enjoyed the day at the beach.

 

That was the most crowded beach day we had. All the other days were significantly less crowded than that.

[MMDown Under]

Definition of crowded beach is relative to where you are from. In Queensland, a crowded beach is one where people are within cooee of you!

 

PS We also lie on beach towels directly on the sand. On one of the Caribbean islands, the beach chair guy offered us a bargain chair rate because he thought we must have been too poor to pay the hire cost. Meanwhile, we were in heaven just lying on the soft sand, under the shade of trees.

[MarkieMarkNYC]

Let me add my "thanks" for this really great video review!

Seriously, the quality of the video, interspersing with clips from other cruises, and your very relaxed and nice presentation style made it a pleasure to watch.

 

I'm wondering if you've been on Oceania and how this compared. I really like the relaxed dress code and lack of children on Oceania but we had some glitches that have me rethinking a transatlantic in 2018 and switching from Oceania to Viking.

 

Thanks for any insight you can provide!

[Spaniel Lover]

Sorry... haven't been on Oceania... so I can't offer any comparisons there.

[eroller]

Towards the end of our recent Caribbean cruise on the Viking Star, I sat down and reviewed a long list of things that they got right with this ship... and a shorter list of things that Viking got wrong on this one. Incorporating a whole bunch of video clips I shot during the cruise to illustrate my points, I've put together a little video that will do a good job of helping to see what's so great about this ship, and where Viking has some room for improvement.

 

If you have 19 minutes to devote to watching it,

, where you can watch the video full-screen in HD...

 

Or watch it here on CruiseCritic, in a small-screen format:

 

[YOUTUBE]eID9qlcVFzE[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

 

 

I very much enjoyed your video on the hits and misses. Great job! Personally none of your "misses" were really misses for me. I don't want a Carnival or Royal Caribbean experience when sailing on Viking, so my expectations are set accordingly. Viking sounds very similar to Oceania and Azamara, both of which have limitations on entertainment offerings for instance. The trade-off is a more peaceful and upscale ambiance, but as you mention you are more on your own for entertainment. Personally I love a deep pool, so that is actually a hit for me. I don't like the shallow "people soup" pools on Carnival for instance. I won't even get in one.

 

Anyway thanks again for sharing your thoughts in a video format. It was quite entertaining and pretty much confirmed that Viking is a perfect fit for me. I love the fact that there are no children, and the more minimalistic and clean Scandinavian decor is exactly my style.

 

Time to book!

[Canadian Sunset]

I believe I saw your video just before we left on our cruise (we returned yesterday) and agree with you on the fact that the pool area gets much too hot when the roof is closed. It wasn't even hot outside, but Mr. sunshine did his thing and made it very uncomfortable. They definitely should consider installing air conditioning to use when the roof is closed. Other than that we lived everything about the cruise. We had Viking do our air transportation and transfers, and the organization both on arrival and departure was great. We were pleased with the entertainment because we're older, but if I was a traveller in my 40s or 50s, I would be unhappy.

[Peregrina651]

 

I love the fact that there are no children,

Time to book!

 

Truth in advertising. There is no specific rule forbidding children on the ship. However, terms and conditions, two-per-cabin sleeping arrangements and no children's programming or facilities on board make it less than optimal for family or multi-generational cruising.

 

 

 

 

From Viking's Terms and Conditions:

 

CHILDREN/MINORS

Due to the nature of our cruise and travel itineraries, the Carrier does not maintain facilities or services for children aboard cruise vessels or otherwise during the trip. On all cruises and cruise journeys, minors under the age of 18 must be accompanied and share a stateroom with a parent, legal guardian or other responsible adult over the age of 21. We reserve the right to limit the number of minors under the age of 18 years on board and on land excursions booked through us.

[rag43]

We're beach people. We just love vacationing in the Caribbean so we can spend time at some of the world's best beaches. So, we stayed on the ship during the days where there wasn't a beach shore excursion, or snorkeling excursion, that was to our liking. For us, that was St Lucia, St Kitts, and Guadeloupe.

 

/COLOR]

 

Thanks for your thoughts, we also are beach people and look forward to this cruise next month.

[bellemere]

Great video!!!

Answers some of my questions about the Viking ocean ships.

Looking forward to our first Viking Ocean cruise.

We are already sold on Viking River cruises after experiencing 8 different cruises with that Viking product.

[goddessofchaos]

Your review of excursions both paid and free was exactly what I have been looking for. I plan to watch the video in a few minutes. I definitely have to factor in paid excursions since this cruise is a big stretch for me but I want something special for a special birthday!

 

The first thing I'd suggest is that you take a look at the full list of shore excursions, prices, and start times.

 

In San Juan, I truly enjoyed the Old San Juan Historical Walking Tour. I've been to San Juan many times, and toured El Morro on my own, but this walking tour brought it to life a lot more since the guide was VERY knowledgeable. She was able to provide a lot of details that I did not pick up on my own in my previous visits to San Juan.

 

If you're a beach person and are interested in spending time at a beautiful Caribbean beach, I'd recommend the "Escape to Jost Van Dyke" tour in Tortola. A very nice boat takes you over to Jost Van Dyke and drops you off at the beach for a few hours. Enjoy a fantastic beach, and buy yourself lunch at the world-famous Soggy Dollar Bar. On the boat ride back to the ship, there are free drinks.

 

Definitely DO NOT sign up for whale watching in St Lucia. I actually went to the shore excursion desk to sign up for this, and they strongly advised me NOT to book it! During the previous week, there was not a single whale to be seen on this excursion, and people on this tour were very unhappy with it. A few days after getting this excellent advice from the shore excursion person, I actually ran in to someone in the elevator who had been on the whale watching tour earlier that day... and she said that it was horrible and that they, too, saw no whales.

 

If you've never been to St. Kitts before, you might want to do the scenic railway excursion. That gives a nice overview of the island for someone who is a first time visitor.

 

In St Maarten, there is no need to book a shore excursion through the ship. Either grab a cab and go to world-famous Maho Beach, located right at the end of the airport runway, and enjoy the beach while planes fly very low overhead as they approach the runway...

Or, take the ferry for $7 each over to the nearby beach on Great Bay and enjoy that beach, with no airplanes landing overhead. At either beach, you can have lunch at a fairly decent beach restaurant, while you're there.

 

In St Thomas, the excursion to St Johns Beach takes you to one of the best beaches in the world. Or the Turtle Bay snorkeling excursion is excellent, too. I saw more turtles while snorkeling at Turtle Bay during our cruise than I had seen in either of my two previous visits. The fact that I've now done the Turtle Bay excursion three times should probably tell you something.

 

Also, I'd recommend that you leave at least two days wide open without booking any excursions. That will allow you to stay on the ship and just enjoy what the ship has to offer, while most of the other passengers are off on adventures. We actually stayed aboard the ship on 3 days, and we just really enjoyed those three lazy days with an empty ship and nothing to do but relax. But for most people, three lazy days would probably be too many. Do at least leave one or two days open, though.

 

I hope that's helpful!

[HaveDogWillTravel]

I also appreciated the review and video. And like others, it pushed me from on the fence to now booked. When I booked directly with Viking, I gave the agent your name and told him Viking ought to pay you for all the referrals.

 

I also like a cold plunge pool in the spa, the deeeeeeeep infinity pool and low key lack of focus on evening entertainment. Meaning your misses were my pluses (in addition to your hits being my hits)

 

I really do hope they don't change anything on the Star before we sail for the RT Rome 15 day cruise for Christmas 2018.

Thanks

[HaveDogWillTravel]

Truth in advertising. There is no specific rule forbidding children on the ship. However, terms and conditions, two-per-cabin sleeping arrangements and no children's programming or facilities on board make it less than optimal for family or multi-generational cruising.

 

 

 

 

From Viking's Terms and Conditions:

 

CHILDREN/MINORS

Due to the nature of our cruise and travel itineraries, the Carrier does not maintain facilities or services for children aboard cruise vessels or otherwise during the trip. On all cruises and cruise journeys, minors under the age of 18 must be accompanied and share a stateroom with a parent, legal guardian or other responsible adult over the age of 21. We reserve the right to limit the number of minors under the age of 18 years on board and on land excursions booked through us.

True. I believe the policy has the intended effect of discouraging parents from taking children on this line. If I took my kids, it's on the rock wall, zip line, indoor ice skating, water slide kid centered fun ship.

[Peregrina651]

True. I believe the policy has the intended effect of discouraging parents from taking children on this line. If I took my kids, it's on the rock wall, zip line, indoor ice skating, water slide kid centered fun ship.

 

And that, along with the low key nature of the environment is why I am happy traveling with Viking--and so are a lot of other people, which is why I don't think that Viking will be changing much along those lines in the future. They have carved their niche and are now working on tweaking it to perfection.

[Clay Clayton]

Spaniel Lover

Thanks for your great videos - have watched a number of them previously and then ran across the Viking review when deciding whether to book our TA - which we did. I presume you do videography professionally? If not, you are quite the hobbyist!

[mthomp5]

Thank you very much for the wonderful and professional video review! This sold me on sailing on Viking. We have three upcomimg cruises planned on another cruise line but will start looking for a Viking cruise after those.

[I_r_a]

Thanks for sharing, SL.

 

Very good review

 

Ira

[PMCF48]

great video, i watched it twice.

[Fpacifico]

Star is a great ship with a great staff

[vnb2003]

Star is a great ship with a great staff

 

Can't say anything more! Missed them perhaps? ;)

[Cyber Kat]

Thanks for this video! We are booked on the Viking Sea in March 2018 - West Indies Explorer - and are so looking forward to it. We did the Rhine Getaway last year and it was so fabulous, that we booked the Viking Ocean cruise shortly after we got home. We had purchased the future cruise vouchers, so we got a nice discount with the Explorer Society discount as well.

 

Viking is great! We are hooked!

 

 

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