Further reflections Azamara vs Viking

[takemewithyou]

Referring back to OP’s original post comparing. Azamara to Viking:  my Viking cruise is not living up to the hype!  It’s is a gorgeous ship.  Seems to be poorly run (lots of issues), poor service in the main dining room, very, very poor communication on port times  and changes in itinerary with no effort it seems to make substitutions.  We have missed 2 ports.
 

Entertainment is much better on Azamara.  The Viking CD told me that “Viking management does not support bringing in guest entertainers on cruises of 10 days or less”.  That was disappointing to hear.

 

So, at this point, Viking will not be an alternative to Azamara for us.  Hopefully, Azamara will not make more cost cutting measures!

[takemewithyou]

We wrapped up our Viking Orion cruise Monday am.  I have never been so frustrated on a cruise before and we are to somewhere around 30 cruises now, all ocean.  This a long review.  I have already made a few other comments earlier in this thread.  I hope it is helpful.

Communication:  We just kept missing Azamara, particularly the communication from the Captain.  We were totally in the dark regarding sea conditions and we had some rough sea conditions, since we missed two ports.  The Captain never mentioned the wave heights or winds.  He would only give the speed that we were going.  There was a channel on their tv where we could see the track of the ship, but nothing about the sea state.  This Captain mumbled his way thru his announcements and they were every day at noon and were very short.  It seemed like the last thing he wanted to be doing,  This was so unlike our Azamara experience!

 

Cruise Director:  The Cruise Director left a lot to be desired, also.  That was most noticeable when we missed ports on short notice and he had to try to put together activities.  Every day was the same as the other.  10 am baggo, which is what we know as cornhole, 11 am scavenger hunt and a movie at 12:30, which was an extremely poor time since lunch service didn’t even start until noon!  That was it.  No added shows, no music until 5 pm.  Really there was little to do on those extra sea days.

 

Entertainment:  There is a classical duo, a pianist who plays on the Steinway grand Piano in the atrium and at tea time and a guitarist.  All were very good.  But no guest entertainment is brought onboard for cruises less than 10 days. There were 4 vocalists and they were very good.  They performed pop hits, ABBA and the Beatles.  Many of the Viking regulars were unhappy because the ABBA and Beatles show haven’t changed and have been performed for several years, so they have seen them before.  The CD and his assistant both did shows.  We missed the guest entertainers that Azamara brings on.

 

Schedule Changes:  I was very frustrated with the schedule changes, not just the missed ports but all the changes on port days.  We left Vancouver 2 hrs late….don’t know why since no announcements were made.  We missed Astoria due to weather.  San Francisco:  we were told the night before that we would be leaving 2 hours early.  So our wine tasting excursion had to leave at 8 am, instead of 11 am…..not really ideal as we started visiting the first winery at 9:30 am!  Mind you…..when I booked the cruise we were supposed to be leaving SF at 11 pm and be sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge at night.  Then a month or so before the cruise, they changed it to 6 pm departure and in the  end, changed it again,  We missed Santa Barbara entirely because it was supposedly too tough to tender.  Many of us questioned that as we saw what it looked like and we have seen sea conditions that were worse and we still tendered.  There was so much grumbling amongst passengers the Captain hinted at trying to find another port for us to visit.  We could have gone to Catalina Island or could have gone to San Diego a day early.  A quick check of port schedules told me both ports were open but the Captain  said he couldn’t get approval for port stops.  Not sure if he meant he couldn’t get approval from the ports or from Viking corporate.  So we sat 30 miles away from San Diego and did doughnuts in the sea.  Also, Vikings policy is that there are no refunds for ports missed.

 

Luggage Handling:  They lost our luggage on the embarkation.  We were boarding at 4 pm due to plane being late….a whole group of us.  I thought we were leaving at 6 pm as that was what was scheduled, but we didn’t have our luggage so I was panicking!  Guest relations checked with the port agent and he said all luggage had been loaded on the ship.  They checked security and house keeping.  No one knew where it was!  They said they would keep looking but didn’t sound hopeful.  Magically at 6:30 pm we went to the cabin and there it was.  We never did get any explanation on where it was.  On disembarkation, we had a Viking transfer to the airport.  It was very disorganized trying to get an answer as to which bus we were to board.  Finally some one asked me what airline and directed us to a mini bus.  The problem was they ran out of luggage space for us.  Finally, they loaded my husbands but left mine sitting outside the bus.  Driver got in and started the engine.  I told him about my luggage…..I wasn’t going to be separated from it again!  He still didn’t get it loaded.  He was doing something outside the coach, but still didn’t load it.  This time I insisted or else I would get out and just stay with my luggage. Finally he reluctantly loaded it next to his seat!  Unbelievable!

 

Dining and service:  As I mentioned there were a few things that were a step up from Azamara.  One of those thing was more seafood offerings.  For example, there were King crab legs on the buffet every day at both lunch and dinner.  We saw fish such as cod, mahi-mahi, Dover sole on the buffet, shrimp was available every day on the buffet.  I would say the meat was about the same quality as Azamara.  They did have prime rib and chateaubriand at the buffet.  The pastries such as croissant and the bread were much better than Azamara.  I think the variety for breakfast was better on Azamara.  We had the beverage package that came included with our cruise fare.  I would say the wines were somewhat better than on Azamara, but not much better.  One area that I liked better on Azamara is that the cocktail list varies with each bar on Azamara.  On Viking, it’s one list….period.  The service in The Restaurant was terrible!  The first night we sat for at least 20 min to order drinks and sat another 10 after that to order dinner.  Breakfast there the next morning, we waited 30 min and it arrived cold.  We never returned to The Restaurant and took our meals at The World Cafe,, which was not our preference to do but we couldn’t stand the painful service.  We had 3 nights at the specialty restaurants which were very good food with good service.  So they do know how to provide good service in some areas!

 

Shore excursions:  Viking markets itself as having included shore excursions.  There are also tours that you can lay extra for.  In Victoria we did an included bus sightseeing tour that was a couple of hrs long.  It was fine.  In SF, we did a 7 hr long wine tasting tour that cost extra.  We lucked out and had a great tour guide.  The other group was not as lucky.  In San Diego, we had a tour we paid extra for.  It was to be 3 hrs long….one hr harbor boat tour and 2 hr sightseeing tour.  It was totally disorganized.  They didn’t have boat tickets for us, didn’t know which boat to put us on, we stood in line for 45 min and when they finally loaded us on the boat, we were the last on and there were very few seats left!  The bus tour wasn’t any better because the tour guide was so poor.  We did speak with Viking shorex team and reported our experience.  They took our cabin # , as well as others.  But we never got any adjustment or refund.  I did not hear too many good things about any of the shore excursions.  Many people were disappointed with their tours.

 

Covid:  Viking never discusses the Covid situation onboard.  It is all a big secret.  It is just the opposite on Azamara.  On our cruise in Dec on Quest, we knew there was one positive case among the passengers and the Captain updated us.  The last couple of days I did look at the CDC web site and Viking Orion was Orange.  Green means no cases, then there is yellow and then Orange.  

Immigration:  we had to clear immigration at our first US port which was San Francisco.  The instructions told to us by CD’s announcement the night before were very poor.  We asked 3 different people what time we should go thru immigration in order to meet our excursion time and got 3 different answers!  You were left on your own to figure it all out for yourself.  Never experienced any such thing on an Azamara cruise! 
 

Summary:  We booked this cruise to try out Viking before we committed to any river cruises or ocean cruises that involved overseas travel.  We live in the were US, so this was a good opportunity to try out Viking.  There were many first time Viking cruisers from the west.  This cruise offered some incentives  on a flash sale because it was not booking well.  It still was not inexpensive at all!  We were so disappointed.  We will never sail with Viking  again! 
 

one more thing:  I experienced many frustrations trying to work with the Viking air department for my “free air” itinerary.  I finally purchased Air  Plus to have some control over which flights I would be put on.  They would not let us come in a day early, which was our preference, without giving them more money for Air Deviation!  What they really want is for you to purchase their pre cruise extension which we were not interested in.  

 

[lisiamc]

9 hours ago, takemewithyou said:

We wrapped up our Viking Orion cruise Monday am.  I have never been so frustrated on a cruise before and we are to somewhere around 30 cruises now, all ocean.  This a long review.  I have already made a few other comments earlier in this thread.  I hope it is helpful.

 

I’m sorry that your cruise was disappointing.  I think a lot of cruise lines are not firing on all cylinders due to challenges in resuming cruising in a broader way than last year. We tried our first Viking cruise last year on a British Isles only cruise and loved it enough to do two more ocean cruises with them and our first river cruise.  We are still fans, and Viking is up there with Azamara in the list of favourite cruise lines.

 

I can see that Azamara is also having some issues this year that were not affecting them last year. All being well, we will join Onward on 2nd May, and we’re expecting additional challenges because it’s a maiden voyage. This may be a year for us to cut all cruise lines a little more slack than usual!

Edited April 28, 2022 by lisiamc

[uktog]

A good review takemewithyou.

 

I would certainly agree with you, officer communication and dining room service was not a strength.  Officer communication I read is something that was an issue for some pre pandemic.  And it certainly is their policy if they cannot do a port thats it, no hunting around for another as Azamara did in the past.  I remember one time a few years ago we were supposed to go to Capri as was Viking.  We ended up in Amalfi and the captain commented in his announcement that the Viking guests had done circular tours of the region for the day.

 

All ships dining rooms seem to be struggling.  Both Viking and Azamara have the double whammy of staff not coming back for whatever reason and needing more because of the addition of new ships.  I am still of the view that even with staff shortages if the middle managers/supervisors were more effective a lot more can be achieved than is happening on both lines just now.

 

I do agree the food was better and for us always served hot on Viking.  The night time entertainment suited us.  We were lucky they did add extra day time activities but to be honest, we just loved curling up with our books on our four days at sea - but then that is us and it was a big treat to be able to do so

[Josephgray1]

On 4/21/2022 at 6:05 PM, uktog said:

I’m afraid re the champagne this was an area I felt bar staff were pulling the wool over your eyes. I don’t blame the bar tender, I believe he was telling us what he was told to say and didn’t know any better. 
We normally had Nicolas Feuilatte on board which retails In the UK at about £26 a bottle. Failing that Domain Chandon we get for about £16.  The substitute —much better and more expensive we were assured was Henri Cachet, most usually found in Asda for £13.  It tasted ok but not premium.  
If they’d just said sorry we have run out, here is our substitute we would have thought ok so be it, it was the telling us it was far better that got me.  

We just got off Pursuit and upgraded to the ultimate package for the champagne. They were out of Nicolas Feuilatte the entire 9 days and only provided Domain Chandon as the substitute. There was no attempt to offer a premium substitute. 

[uktog]

13 minutes ago, Josephgray1 said:

We just got off Pursuit and upgraded to the ultimate package for the champagne. They were out of Nicolas Feuilatte the entire 9 days and only provided Domain Chandon as the substitute. There was no attempt to offer a premium substitute. 

Very poor 

[les37b]

On 4/28/2022 at 12:47 PM, lisiamc said:

I’m sorry that your cruise was disappointing.  I think a lot of cruise lines are not firing on all cylinders due to challenges in resuming cruising in a broader way than last year. We tried our first Viking cruise last year on a British Isles only cruise and loved it enough to do two more ocean cruises with them and our first river cruise.  We are still fans, and Viking is up there with Azamara in the list of favourite cruise lines.

 

I can see that Azamara is also having some issues this year that were not affecting them last year. All being well, we will join Onward on 2nd May, and we’re expecting additional challenges because it’s a maiden voyage. This may be a year for us to cut all cruise lines a little more slack than usual!

 

Your findings reflect my own on a Viking Croatia sailing from Malta last year. There was very little I could fault them with and many I see mentioned are personal preferences which can suit some and repel others. Each to their own and all that.

 

I agree entertainment wasn't the best. It's not something I ever bother with, so can understand if you need this, Viking won't be a good fit.

 

I never experienced any of the criticism just posted. Losing luggage is truly awful. I know on my recent Silversea cruise, a few things that happened altered my perspective and made me dig deeper to find faults. But on reflection, they reached levels I'd normally expect. My own experience on Viking in September, led my to draw comparisons between them. They are not Silversea, but on things I considered important, there was not a massive gulf. 

 

On the strength of my experience, I too made two future bookings. {Iceland and BKK to Bali) Hopefully my experience in 9 days on Pursuit for my first Azamara cruise will give me that same feeling. So 3 SS, 2 Viking and 1 Azamara in the pipeline. I'm somewhat apprehensive of Pursuit because of the shortages of options and crew levels. That was never an issue for SS or Viking, but accept things can and do change.

 

In reality, I think all cruise lines are struggling on board. The one thing I found with Viking that has exceeded all CL I have used, is shoreside customer service. They dealt with flight issues professionally, accepted a cruise package cancellation within a week of sailing (because of insurance problems) and moved us to another date without cost on a sailing with flights that was significantly more expensive. I agree that may have clouded my own judgement and not the norm. My perception with Azamara on flight issues are polar opposites.

 

I will add my own comparison once I sail. 

Edited May 29, 2022 by les37b