European combination washer/dryer on some decks of Viking Ocean ships

[Iloveketo]

On our last cruise on Viking Star in January the laundry on deck 4 was overrun by guests from deck 5 coming down to use the laundry. They did this because on deck 4 the washer and dryers were separate machines as opposed to deck 5 where the machines were a combination machine doing both washing and drying. 
My question is has anyone had an experience with the combination machines on Viking ships. Are they difficult to use? 
I would think it might be nice not to have to stop back to switch over your wash.  If that is how it works. 
Trying to learn before our cruise in March, in case we end up having them on our deck. BTW We will be on deck 4 on the Viking Venus. 
Thanks for an info…

[Reuben's 3rd]

We were just on deck 4, Viking Venus, Jan 12 to 19, 2023.  The washers and dryers were separate machines, dryer on top, washer on bottom.

They worked very well!

 

Karen 

[arlowood]

The Star is the oldest ship in the fleet and the Venus was new to the fleet in 2021. It is quite possible that the shortcomings of the different types have been noted and some level on consistency is now adopted on the newer ships.

 

We were on both in 2021 but unfortunately it was only a short 8 day cruise on each occasion and we did not use the laundry facilities so I cannot comment on the differences, if any.

 

We did note that the Star lacked the extra drawer unit inside the wardrobe, which was a bit inconvenient as we made good use of that on the Venus cruise.

Edited January 31, 2023 by arlowood

[TayanaLorna]

I have been on the Star, Sea, Sky and Jupiter and the washers have all been down and the dryers up.  The only difference was the older ships had 3/3 and the newer ones have 4/4.  I don't know if machines exist that do both washing and drying.  Tell me if they do. The Star is the oldest ship so maybe some machines broke and were replaced with space age ones.

 

Most people that I've seen are quite confounded on how to use the darn things.  You have to pay attention to which controls activate which machine.  Then you have to decipher what the pictures mean.  My strategy is to just press the buttons to see how long the loads take and choose the shortest cycle.  After all I haven't been gardening or working on my car engine so the clothes aren't that dirty.  I also use the hottest dryer and throw everything in together.  If you open the dryer door, you can take the lighter dry things out and restart the dryer for the heavier things.  That way others don't have to wait an hour while my stuff dries on low heat while I go back to my room.  I can do 2 loads in less then an hour.

[Nippy Sweetie]

We have a washer dryer here at home. It's excellent. I would never go back to having two separate machines.

[Iloveketo]

2 hours ago, arlowood said:

The Star is the oldest ship in the fleet and the Venus was new to the fleet in 2021. It is quite possible that the shortcomings of the different types have been noted and some level on consistency is now adopted on the newer ships.

 

We were on both in 2021 but unfortunately it was only a short 8 day cruise on each occasion and we did not use the laundry facilities so I cannot comment on the differences, if any.

 

We did note that the Star lacked the extra drawer unit inside the wardrobe, which was a bit inconvenient as we made good use of that on the Venus cruise.

I agree with you that the lack of drawers in the closet on the Star made unpacking a bit more inconvenient. 

[Iloveketo]

1 hour ago, TayanaLorna said:

I have been on the Star, Sea, Sky and Jupiter and the washers have all been down and the dryers up.  The only difference was the older ships had 3/3 and the newer ones have 4/4.  I don't know if machines exist that do both washing and drying.  Tell me if they do. The Star is the oldest ship so maybe some machines broke and were replaced with space age ones.

 

Most people that I've seen are quite confounded on how to use the darn things.  You have to pay attention to which controls activate which machine.  Then you have to decipher what the pictures mean.  My strategy is to just press the buttons to see how long the loads take and choose the shortest cycle.  After all I haven't been gardening or working on my car engine so the clothes aren't that dirty.  I also use the hottest dryer and throw everything in together.  If you open the dryer door, you can take the lighter dry things out and restart the dryer for the heavier things.  That way others don't have to wait an hour while my stuff dries on low heat while I go back to my room.  I can do 2 loads in less then an hour.

I went up to deck 5 on the Star and the machines were all in one just as the people from deck 5 said. Viking had detergent pods for people to use in those machines. 
I travel with carry on only, so I am a pro at the normal Viking laundry room. Lol

[Iloveketo]

1 hour ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

We have a washer dryer here at home. It's excellent. I would never go back to having two separate machines.

Is it like I thought and you don’t come back until the clothes are all washed and dried?

[H2Otstr]

16 minutes ago, Iloveketo said:

I went up to deck 5 on the Star and the machines were all in one just as the people from deck 5 said. Viking had detergent pods for people to use in those machines. 
I travel with carry on only, so I am a pro at the normal Viking laundry room. Lol

 

Very interesting. I have never heard of such a thing. Can you take a photo and post it? 

[Pushka]

I really dislike the combo machines. They take hours to dry and never really remove a sense of dampness in the clothes. I had one and refused to get another. Think it's a bad move. I was thinking of either washing items in the stateroom then a quick trip to a dryer or washing in the machine and hang drying in the room depending on the items. Combining both will prolong the entire process. 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Pushka

[Jim Avery]

I have also owned one and agree fully with Pushka.  The only way to get clothes dry is to, after the wash cycle, open and drain the water out of the lines.  Then it feebly dries clothes partially.  Step down for Viking.

[bookbabe]

Anyone know if the Deck 5 machines on the Sea are separate or combo units?

[Iloveketo]

1 hour ago, H2Otstr said:

 

Very interesting. I have never heard of such a thing. Can you take a photo and post it? 

I wish I had taken a picture of them when I was on the ship. 

[H2Otstr]

49 minutes ago, bookbabe said:

Anyone know if the Deck 5 machines on the Sea are separate or combo units?

 

I was in a room on the 5th floor and there were three washers working and two dryers. One dryer was out of service last week. Separate machines. 

Edited February 1, 2023 by H2Otstr

[UWDawg]

5 hours ago, Iloveketo said:

On our last cruise on Viking Star in January the laundry on deck 4 was overrun by guests from deck 5 coming down to use the laundry. They did this because on deck 4 the washer and dryers were separate machines as opposed to deck 5 where the machines were a combination machine doing both washing and drying. 

When we were on the Viking Star for the 21/22 World Cruise from Jan-May 2022 we ended up going down to deck 3 to do laundry rather than deck 5 about halfway through the voyage.  At the time there were 3 older washers and 3 dryers on deck 5 whereas on deck 3 they had 4 new washers and 4 new dryers (no combo-machines).  At one point, I think a bearing went out on one of the dryers on deck 5 because I could hear the its whining squeal all the way past the elevators even though the laundry room door was closed.  I called House Cleaning and shortly thereafter the squeal stopped.  I'll note that the deck 5 machines had a briny odor about them whereas the deck 3 machines did not.  Also, the ship had only 500 or so passengers at the time and a portion of deck 3 was reserved for Covid isolation, so the deck 3 machines were readily available. It sounds to me they ended up upgrading/ replacing the deck 5 washers and dryers sometime after our voyage.

 

While the Viking Star is the oldest of the Viking Ocean ships, we never had the feeling that we are on an old, dilapidated or ship in need of repair.  The crew was continually performing minor updates in different sections of the ship and I had the feeling that the Viking Star was probably in as good of condition as any of the newer Viking ships.

[Nippy Sweetie]

@Iloveketo yes. I simply put the clothes in the machine, switch it on and go and do something more interesting. This is at home. As I said, I'd never go back to two bulky machines taking up space. 

I don't do laundry on board so can't comment on the machines there.

[Peregrina651]

Quoting a New York Times article fromn April, 2022:

 

Unless you have no other choice, an all-in-one, single-drum, washer-dryer combo is almost never the best way to do your laundry. We spent 10 hours looking into 13 models, and couldn’t find a model that works anywhere near as quickly as a separate washer and dryer.

 

 

And no, it does not fold the clothing for you. That is just advertising hype.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Peregrina651

[Nippy Sweetie]

Key words being almost never!

[TayanaLorna]

15 hours ago, Iloveketo said:

I went up to deck 5 on the Star and the machines were all in one just as the people from deck 5 said. Viking had detergent pods for people to use in those machines. 
I travel with carry on only, so I am a pro at the normal Viking laundry room. Lol

Amazing, i had no idea.  

[loriva]

3 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Quoting a New York Times article fromn April, 2022:

 

Unless you have no other choice, an all-in-one, single-drum, washer-dryer combo is almost never the best way to do your laundry. We spent 10 hours looking into 13 models, and couldn’t find a model that works anywhere near as quickly as a separate washer and dryer.

 

 

And no, it does not fold the clothing for you. That is just advertising hype.

 

We had one when we lived in the UK.  The only way to get it to work somewhat was to use the cycle that took many hours--six?  more?--and run loads overnight.  (Do not think that would be realistic on board.)  Even then I had to hang items coming out to get them thoroughly dry.  I hope this is only on the older VO ships, not an "improvement" Viking is making.

[Nippy Sweetie]

Six hours?! It's nothing that that here at home.

[Goosebear Mum]

I have no idea why people find these no use. I have solely used a combined washer dryer all my adult life. My first one lasted from 1993 to 2007 and the next I bought in 2007 and is still going. It washes and dries perfectly. I ensure I buy one with the fastest spin speed. I use a drying line in Summer, but towels and in Winter, it’s the aga or dryer.  Maybe in the UK we’re more used to them, as most houses are not large enough for two machines!  I wouldn’t want separate, as I’d need to move clothes, with combined, set it to go, and take everything out dry!  

 

Edit, 6 hours for one of you? That machine must be faulty! 
 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Goosebear Mum

[Jim Avery]

3 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Quoting a New York Times article fromn April, 2022:

 

Unless you have no other choice, an all-in-one, single-drum, washer-dryer combo is almost never the best way to do your laundry. We spent 10 hours looking into 13 models, and couldn’t find a model that works anywhere near as quickly as a separate washer and dryer.

 

 

And no, it does not fold the clothing for you. That is just advertising hype.

I am sure some models are better than others.  Ours looked just like the picture.  The small door at the bottom right of this one is identical to ours.  It accesses a lint filter.  During wash it gets quite a bit of water in it.  The only way to make ours dry anywhere near efficiently meant opening the flap, removing the soggy filter and mopping up the water that ran out of the line.  After cleaning the filter and drying the area put it back together.......  Every load......

[Peregrina651]

22 minutes ago, loriva said:

I hope this is only on the older VO ships, not an "improvement" Viking is making.

 

No, this is something new -- and it seems to be in just one laundry room on one ship, as reported so far. Original equipment on the ships was stacked washers and dryers. I would like to think that what we are seeing is just an experiment.

 

If people on Deck 5 of Viking Star complain enough about the machines, maybe it will be the end of the trial.

 

 

[Nippy Sweetie]

Literally never happens with ours. Just not a problem. 

These are very common machines here.