Classic Panama Canal post trip review.

[Mimiya11]

3 hours ago, knoxclone said:

Looks amazing but missed the post about this.   Tell me more if you can.  

[knoxclone]

Cooking classes - stop by guest services soon after you board - this was not advertised anywhere, I was lucky enough to have learned about via this forum. cost was $69 pp. 

There were three classes offered during the 10 days with different menus, but this was the only that fit my schedule

 

We gathered at the Kitchen between Manfredi's and Chefs table at 945 am.  After short hygiene and safety brief... ie. the knives are very sharp!  We were put to work. There was a wide variety of cooking experiences. everyone was given tasks from chopping onions, herbs veggies to peeling potatoes and cracking eggs etc.  We  started withe making the spanish tortilla - kind of an potato omelet, and the worked up to paella - which now I understand why its not a single serve meal!!!  

Interesting about the convection/ invection?? cooking.  Surface stays cool except on the x where pan sits and once pan moves it cools almost immediatly.  Interesting, but I think I still prefer my good ole gas stove .

 

Lots of laughter, and wine made it a very enjoyable event.  we concluded around 12:45 or so and were given recipes and got to keep our viking cooking school aprons.  Looking forward to trying it again!

[Gaz-n-Mindy]

Awesome, thank you for sharing, as we are on the 15 day FL to FL on the Star for Christmas and New Years!

 

Cheers,

 

-Gaz

[Mimiya11]

That is fantastic!   I saw the grocery shopping and cooking on the excursions list but they were $$$$$.

Definitely will sign up for one (or two 🙂 ) of these.   

 

Thanks knoxclone and CC for sharing these gems. 

 

 

 

    

[nanabeth]

Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. We are doing the Panama Canal and Central America cruise on the Mars in November 2023. After reading about your adventures I am even more excited about the trip! Thanks for answering my question about the Costa Rica excursion.

[wine-wine-wine]

Thanks for the great review! Totally agreed in the Fort Lauderdale airport. It is a disgrace and a shambles. Last year we found a single place to get coffee outside of security - but it was in a terminal quite far from ours. We will try to fly out of another Florida airport next time. 

[CCWineLover]

Yes thank you SO much KnoxClone for taking all the time to share with us so much information.  Obviously of interest to those of us who follow on identical cruises!  (We leave on Dec 21).  Makes me glad that we are staying in South Florida for a week visiting friends before flying home.   No Viking Air for us.   

Your comments on the various excursions were very helpful, as that has been the big unknown!

[knoxclone]

I am just happy to pay it forward. I have learned so much from everyone on this forum - and look forward to living vicariously though other's trips until I can step back on a viking ship in 2024!

[Mike981]

Thank you so much for the review, it was wonderful. I hope to do this trip someday and your narration helped me a lot.

A few years ago we did a Caribbean cruise after they had a hurricane go through and it was very sad to see all of the destruction.

[Mariastreby]

I second all the thank you’s other folks have given you.  We are part of the 12/21 round trip gang. We will have 6 sea days, as well as the fully onboard Canal day. Glad you liked the 3 you had. I did assume that Roatan would have hurricane damage, as well as Belize.
 

The people who ran the snorkeling expedition there sounded really wonderful, and so great that they had the post-sting “potion” to relieve the jellyfish symptoms. I’m surprised about your hunger issue. I think the two excursion times we had for that excursion were 8:30 and 10:30 or maybe 11:00. We really considered doing this, but somehow getting all wet early on Christmas morning didn’t appeal. 😉

We will take one of the later included excursions, and bring some snacks with us. Did you hear feedback about that excursion from other passengers? Also being at a Mayan ruin with jungle around it, we’re bound to see a lot of iguanas there like in Cozumel. 

Did you end up sharing port stays with several mega ships in Cozumel and/or Roatan? Those two ports are the main ones they all dock at doing popular one week western Caribbean itineraries. We will be sharing those ports with 7 huge ships, which will be totally full, being Christmas week.  The combined passenger count of all of them is over 18,000. So it won’t be like I recall from my 2000 cruise when we were on a small RCL ship with around 700 passengers! And they only had one dock in Cozumel then, with two other ships at the same time, with no more than maybe 1,200 pax each. My, how the cruise industry has exploded since then!
 

On January 4th, our self-booked flight out of FLL is at 11:30, so hopefully that may be late enough. Also, only two other ships will be arriving in port with us that morning, two HAL ships that maybe have between 2,500-3,000 pax each. None of those RCL or Carnival floating cities!

[knoxclone]

We were extremely lucky with regards to sharing ports with other ships -  When we boarded in Panama City, the MSC Davita was moored alongside, but left while we were having dinner.

 

Obviously on our transit day, there were several vessels in front and behind us, transiting the canal, but other than the Davita (which we caught up with in Colon) we were the only ship in Belize and Roatan, and in Cozumel the Davita was moored at a different pier. 

 

[sabreline]

On 11/18/2022 at 10:51 PM, knoxclone said:

Costa Rica - Puerto Limón. Again, we woke up to beautiful sunshine.  We had the later 11:15 Tortuuga canal excursion, so we had leisurely breakfast in the restaurant.  Did I mention there was not a pistachio bun to be found on board?  I was sad. 🙂 

 

This was one of the BEST nature excursions we have been on. Loaded the bus and headed out,  We also had one of the best tour guides Irene,.  She was simply great. Had not been on the bus more than 15 min when the driver hits the brakes and pulls over to show is a sloth hanging in a tree right next to road. When we reached the canal dock, we were handed a bag of plantains, bottled water and a banana and boarded the boats. (I should mention bus was very nice with wifi and power ports)

 

We saw, multiple howler monkeys, spider monkeys a variety of lizards, iguanas, water birds, sloths ( including mother and baby) and a large caiman.  Outstanding excursion. 

 

LOL. There the same day with Princess. Dane dog, same crock.

[sabreline]

Just now, sabreline said:

LOL. There the same day with Princess. Dane dog, same crock.

actually we were there the NEXT day!

[Philly Kate]

We just finished the round trip FFL Panama Canal cruise on the Star and were disappointed.  This was our second Viking cruise and first post-pandemic cruise, and we were so looking forward to it.  Service in The Restaurant and Manfredi’s is a crap shoot.  Several nights we had to wait 15 minutes or more for our plates to be cleared between courses. Manfredi’s forgot the sauce for my husband’s veal scallopini and we had to ask two servers for it before he got it, and it was the wrong one.  We heard the head waiter in The Chef’s Table berating servers in front of guests because they weren’t clearing tables quick enough.  I was embarrassed for him.

 

We took the included Roatan Carambola Gardens excursion and it was a disaster.  The buses are for children, not adults.  If you are taller than 5’, then you will be in hell for the whole time you are on the bus.  We were the last people to get off the bus, but the guide started the tour before we were even off the bus and we couldn’t find our group.  It was supposed to include a “panoramic” tour of Routan; we saw the island dump, a part of the island where, according to the guide, we would get jumped and not him, and nothing else was pointed out or shown.  Not even a beach.  We complained to Guest Services about this and learned that they knew this had been a problem on previous trips.  We also learned that nearly everyone complained.

[Mimiya11]

1 hour ago, Philly Kate said:

We just finished the round trip FFL Panama Canal cruise on the Star and were disappointed.  This was our second Viking cruise and first post-pandemic cruise, and we were so looking forward to it.  

Anything positive to say for those of us who are looking forward to our Panama Canal cruise on the Star?   

[CCWineLover]

3 hours ago, Philly Kate said:

We just finished the round trip FFL Panama Canal cruise on the Star and were disappointed.  This was our second Viking cruise and first post-pandemic cruise, and we were so looking forward to it.  Service in The Restaurant and Manfredi’s is a crap shoot.  Several nights we had to wait 15 minutes or more for our plates to be cleared between courses. Manfredi’s forgot the sauce for my husband’s veal scallopini and we had to ask two servers for it before he got it, and it was the wrong one.  We heard the head waiter in The Chef’s Table berating servers in front of guests because they weren’t clearing tables quick enough.  I was embarrassed for him.

 

We took the included Roatan Carambola Gardens excursion and it was a disaster.  The buses are for children, not adults.  If you are taller than 5’, then you will be in hell for the whole time you are on the bus.  We were the last people to get off the bus, but the guide started the tour before we were even off the bus and we couldn’t find our group.  It was supposed to include a “panoramic” tour of Routan; we saw the island dump, a part of the island where, according to the guide, we would get jumped and not him, and nothing else was pointed out or shown.  Not even a beach.  We complained to Guest Services about this and learned that they knew this had been a problem on previous trips.  We also learned that nearly everyone complained.

Yikes!  

We do this cruise in 2 + weeks.  Lots of negatives you state here.  Wow.

We've been on 11 Viking cruises and certainly the past couple have had dining service issues.

 

Did this one bad excursion and the dining service issues make the whole trip bad?  Did you have anything good that happened?  What things did you enjoy that were good or unexpected?  Was the entire trip a downer?

[Mariastreby]

6 minutes ago, OKCowboy said:

We left the Viking Star on Thursday and had several disappointments. The ports visited are 'blessed' with markets catering to the mega ships with most merchandise made in either India or China. Very difficult to find authentic local handicrafts. The best excursion was the Salsa y Salsa in Cozimel and the bird trip I'm Jamaica. The trip soured us on ever returning to the Caribbean as we saw too many jungles, not enough wildlife, and much poverty.. The high priced coffee purchased in Costa Rico was not high quality. I'll be posting another thread about the retail clothing selection on board-it's great if you're small.

I get it about the cheap souvenir things in Central American ports. Did it look as if some shops had yet to reopen in Belize or Roatan after the hurricane? I wonder if the famed Blue Mountain coffee in Jamaica is more worth it. Several of the 2 week itineraries get to Jamaica on Sundays, like ours on 12/21, and the Hummingbird place closes that day. ☹️

 

Someone else on this thread said she thought that the Totuguea canal trip in Costa Rica was her highlight, because they saw a lot of animals. Their tour guide said the animals were more active in the afternoon, so we went back and changed our tour to 2pm. Probably a very hot and muggy time of day. 
 

What was your impression of the Star itself? Besides spotty service or quality in the restaurants, what did you think of the entertainment, lectures, other sea say activities? Good service by crew other than in The Restaurant? On sea days, were the afternoon teas ridiculously overcrowded? What else should we be prepared for?

[CCWineLover]

I think that going to the Caribbean on any cruise line these days is going to require a lessening of expectations post-COVID.  Just have to accept that.   I fully expect the tours to be sub-standard and dragging us on bad buses through poverty.  Some countries really do not have good buses so not sure that is Viking's fault.  

Nor am I interested in local shopping or shopping on the ship.

What we haven't heard much of is anything positive on this thread.

Can't anyone find ANYTHING that they liked?  Come on people . . .

[knoxclone]

As the OP, I will again say that in addition to the transit of the canal - which was my sole reason for choosing that itinerary - we really enjoyed the horseback trip and the snorkeling excursion, along with the Tortuga canal boat trip.

 

As I mentioned before, this a primarily a third world country cruise, coming out of post pandemic... and we were only a few days post hurricane.

 

I thought while at times while the restaurant service was spotty, the staff for the most part hustled, and went out of their way to be friendly and helpful. I had a long discussion w the excursions director on the Star and he admitted that it's been very very hard to get the excursions back up and running at the level Viking prefers. Many vendors have simply ceased to exist and many of the tour guides have left the industry. He did mention, and it's worth repeating - he cannot fix something for a guest unless he knows about it - before you depart the ship - and feedback on excursions - both good and bad-  is the only way to know whether changes to the  excursions are needed.

Just my opinion. 🙂 

[Sleep7]

😃 Knoxclone .. I enjoyed reading your trip review so much.

We have never been on a Panama Canal cruise and now I feel like I have been so thank you!

[Australia08]

On 12/3/2022 at 6:32 PM, CCWineLover said:

Yikes!  

We do this cruise in 2 + weeks.  Lots of negatives you state here.  Wow.

We've been on 11 Viking cruises and certainly the past couple have had dining service issues.

 

Did this one bad excursion and the dining service issues make the whole trip bad?  Did you have anything good that happened?  What things did you enjoy that were good or unexpected?  Was the entire trip a downer?

We were not on this trip, but we just disembarked the Viking Sky.  Each time we dined in the Restaurant (arriving between 7:30 and 8:00), we felt there were too few servers.  The servers were running from table to table, there was little relaxed conversation or suggestions about the menu.  They seemed in a rush to take an order and “get going.”  I think Viking is understaffing the Restaurant.  We went after 8:00 a few times when there were very few diners remaining, but then you had the issue of servers then cleaning the dining room.  I understand them doing this if there is no one dining in the section, but the spray cleaning bottles being used right next to your main course, is off-putting.  The Restaurant was not a fine dining experience on our cruise.

Edited December 7, 2022 by Australia08

[BornLucky]

8 hours ago, Australia08 said:

We were not on this trip, but we just disembarked the Viking Sky.  Each time we dined in the Restaurant (arriving between 7:30 and 8:00), we felt there were too few servers.  The servers were running from table to table, there was little relaxed conversation or suggestions about the menu.  They seemed in a rush to take an order and “get going.”  I think Viking is understaffing the Restaurant.  We went after 8:00 a few times when there were very few diners remaining, but then you had the issue of servers then cleaning the dining room.  I understand them doing this if there is no one dining in the section, but the spray cleaning bottles being used right next to your main course, is off-putting.  The Restaurant was not a fine dining experience on our cruise.

Had been following this topic as had intyerest in afuture  Panamana Canal cuise.

We disembarked Jupiter last week after a 21 day voyage. The Restaurant and World Cafe were extremely poor. Not just the service but the menus and food preparation way below previous Viking standards so it is obviously a wide ranging problem for Viking. Had been on the same ship a few months ago and it was great but many of the experinced crew had been moved to the newer and Ocean and Expedition ships.  On a positive note the Entertainment staff were excellent.

[Mimiya11]

17 hours ago, Mariastreby said:

I agree about too many good crew members having been moved to the four new ships this year. Something that Viking did not prepare well enough for, no doubt. Well, we will be finding out for ourselves just two weeks from today. 🤞🤞

 

For those of us cruising on the Star after you, please do us a favor and provide any insight into the excursions (i.e., included, private, through Viking) after your cruise.   

As far as food and service, while one of the reasons we wanted to try Viking, it is the itinerary that we are focused on right now.  BTW the cruise review boards that I have read do have some very positive reviews.  

 

Bon Voyage! 

[CCWineLover]

4 hours ago, Mimiya11 said:

 

For those of us cruising on the Star after you, please do us a favor and provide any insight into the excursions (i.e., included, private, through Viking) after your cruise.   

As far as food and service, while one of the reasons we wanted to try Viking, it is the itinerary that we are focused on right now.  BTW the cruise review boards that I have read do have some very positive reviews.  

 

Bon Voyage! 

Shall do, Mimiya!

[Mimiya11]

Bumping this thread -  Any recent report backs/reviews of the Star's Panama Canal cruise?  

We are sailing in just under a month 

 

Thank you