Your Viking ocean cruise.

[Kingofcool1947]

Considering taking a first time cruise to the Med on  Viking.   How does it compare to Oceania and Celebrity?

1. Cuisine
2. Penthouse suites
3. Shore Excursions
4. Enrichment Programs
5. Customer Service

Thanks.

 

[Heidi13]

Suggest reading one of the best topics on the Viking Board, as it has over 370 posts on the pros/cons of sailing Viking. Here is the link

 

While I haven't sailed on Oceania, or been aboard one of their vessels, with Celebrity I also have not sailed with them, but have been aboard a few of them as a contractor. However, in selecting Viking as our cruise line of choice we researched:

 - Mainstream Lines - Celebrity & HAL, while they are the top end of mainstream mega ships, we quickly discounted them due to the usual issues - poor to average meals, constant nickle & diming, way too many passengers, too crowded.

 - Luxury/Premium Lines, considered all of them and short-listed to Viking & Oceania to research thoroughly.

 

With respect to each of your points:

 - Cuisine, Oceania is rated # 1 for meals in almost every review we read; however, Viking was rated very good.

 - Penthouse Suite were of no interest to us, so not reviewed

 - Shore-Ex: Viking includes an included excursion in each port, but since we review both ship & private tours this was not a deciding factor.

 - Enrichment Programs, with resident historian and on some ships an astronomer, for us Viking wins this one. Also have TED talks in the theatre & cabin telly. Viking won this one.

 - Customer service is highly subjective so difficult to quantify. All premium/luxury lines provide above average customer service. We read many reviews about how Viking uses technology to recall pax preferences and how the crew quickly greet pax by name.

[NanciEA]

I cannot help you with Celebrity, but we took an Oceania cruise in January of this year and a Viking Ocean one in April. It was our first Viking cruise and our second on Oceania. (We have also cruised on Regent, National Geographic, and Princess.)

      1. We remembered how wonderful the food was on Oceania from our previous cruise, but we were disappointed on our return cruise in January. Oceania's speciality restaurants were excellent, but the MDR, Waves grill and buffet were not what we remembered. Viking was excellent in all venus, with the Chef's Table as simply outstanding. We enjoy wine with our meals and Oceania packages were expense and cumbersome. Viking's included wine and beer made the atmosphere much more relaxing.

   2. Our cabin on the Oceania Sirena was in great need of refurbishment. (I believe this was to happen soon.) Our Viking cabin was the best we have ever had at sea. We especially liked the larger bathroom and the roomy shower. I'm a smaller person and I still "clung" to the shower curtain on Oceania. The Viking shower has a glass door.

   3. Shore excursions were about the same. It all depends on the quality of the guide. 

   4. Enrichment is what really sold us on Viking. The lectures on Oceania were just okay, but on the Viking they were the best we have had at sea. There were four lecturers on our Viking cruise and we attended almost all of their talks.

   5. Customer service was about the same on both ships. 

 

Hope this helps you. 

[Pushka]

8 hours ago, Kingofcool1947 said:

• Cuisine
• Penthouse suites
• Shore Excursions
• Enrichment Programs
• Customer Service

 

From a Celebrity cruiser. 

-Cuisine and especially the buffet is better on Viking. 

- Don’t know

- Shoreex we usually organise private. We didn’t go on any Viking included excursions as we couldn’t make them work with our longer ones. Vikings optional excursions that included a plane, helicopter or boat were significantly more expensive than booking direct with the vendor. 

- Enrichment Programs. We became friends with an enrichment lecturer on Viking and he put in a lot of work. Not impressed with the Viking Cruise Director at all. 

- Customer Service. There was something going wrong with the Viking Customer service team on our cruise, or they are not empowered to sort out problems. 

[stretchcruz]

Pushka, if you had the same CD on the Orion that we did Auckland to Bali it was his first time ever as a CD anywhere and we, also, were not impressed at all. The other 3 week Viking Ocean cruise that we did we had a wonderful cruise director, Aaron. He was incredible!!

Our customer service on the Orion was great as well as the cuisine and the service. We loved the cruise.

Edited June 10, 2019 by stretchcruz

[Peregrina651]

 Been 10 years since we sailed Celebrity and have never sailed Oceania. All I can say is that I gave up the big, bigger, biggest cruise lines when I found river cruising. I liked the destination oriented itineraries, the intimate size, etc. It was right for me. 

 

When Viking announced it was starting an ocean division  without all the cruise features I didn't want, I signed up because I thought that they could translate their river experience to a comparable ocean experience. I was not disappointed. 

 

As for Viking

 

I love the cooking. I find the recipes to be flavorful and not overpowered with pepper. I love that they are willing to deal with my food issues, no matter where I am eating. 

 

Never booked a suite before, so no comment.

 

We have done a combination of shorex included and optional. Some have been better than others and a couple have been absolute fizzles.  Some ports are  better equipped for tourism and cruise ships than others and if you want to explore the road less traveled, you can't ignore that fact. 

 

I love the fact that they have the Enrichment Programs but will fully admit that I do not have the patience to sit through them. For the same reason, I am also the one who never turns on the TV and who gets to only one or two mainstage productions per cruise. But, I'm glad they are there if I ever change my mind. 

 

Customer service is a lot of things all under one heading. It is the pre-cruise experience including booking and getting answers to your pre-cruise questions, especially if you are not working with a TA (needs improvement, if comments in this forum are any indication). It is the on-board experience as far as how staff and crew treat and interact with guests (their job is to make our cruise experience the best we have ever had and for the most part, in experience, they accomplish their goal).  Customer service is also problem remediation  Personally most of my problems have been taken care of quickly, quietly and to my satisfaction. Albeit, some situations are easier to handle than others. Like the waiter in Florida who checks in with his table of querulous snowbirds saying brightly, "Ladies, is anything all right?"

 

Viking is not perfect but it works for me.