Back from my first Viking cruise: reflections

[SempreMare]

 

On 3/7/2023 at 6:36 PM, oskidunker said:

Looks like mostly pate

 

Looks like Duxelles to me 

[LindaS272]

3 hours ago, Cisterna said:

Of course  to pay to upgrade per glass of wine is available to all.. It is so nice to just buy the package and not worry about paying more each time.  If you are one who enjoys cockails before and after dinner,  mimosas during your massage,  better wine pairings with your chef's dinner,  wine during your cooking classes etc, just buy the package ~ if you are spending quite a bit for these  trips , the extra amount shouldn't break the bank. 

Hi Christie! You have lived to imbibe another day (or so it seems) 😹. How is Charlie? We met you on the Orion in Nov. 2019–Hong Kong to Bangkok. Nice to see you on the boards again! I barely survived our street food night in Ho Chi Minh City as you may recall. I contracted Uncle Ho’s Revenge and had to miss Sihanoukville—but Dave was with you on that excursion.

 

~Linda (of Linda & Dave) from Bainbridge Island.

[MarciAnn]

I did not mean to offend any Viking cruisers by my post.  The fact is that I saw the great itinerary, knew Viking was highly rated, and saw that there were exactly five cabins left (a few DVs and a Penthouse junior suite) for the date we wanted, So we put down our $25 deposit, booked the larger cabin because we are used to a bigger cabin and THEN I did my extensive research including seeing some very inciteful reviews on you tube.  Realized this wasn’t the right cruise for us.  I did read that the entertainment, which I took to be the enrichment talks, were at 8 pm.  I’ve also never been on a cruise with 1000 people as opposed to less than half that amount so that also gave me concern.  Not used to having to make dinner reservations and getting up at 5:00 am to book them when they open up.  I never go on a cruise without making sure it is the right one for me.  

[MELSMOM47]

10 hours ago, SempreMare said:

 

 

Looks like Duxelles to me 

It does look like duxelles but still way too much. 

[oskidunker]

It could be they got some small  roasts and did the best they could. May not be the norm. We will see.

[ebtrip]

9 hours ago, MarciAnn said:

I did not mean to offend any Viking cruisers by my post.  The fact is that I saw the great itinerary, knew Viking was highly rated, and saw that there were exactly five cabins left (a few DVs and a Penthouse junior suite) for the date we wanted, So we put down our $25 deposit, booked the larger cabin because we are used to a bigger cabin and THEN I did my extensive research including seeing some very inciteful reviews on you tube.  Realized this wasn’t the right cruise for us.  I did read that the entertainment, which I took to be the enrichment talks, were at 8 pm.  I’ve also never been on a cruise with 1000 people as opposed to less than half that amount so that also gave me concern.  Not used to having to make dinner reservations and getting up at 5:00 am to book them when they open up.  I never go on a cruise without making sure it is the right one for me.  

Everyone has their own opinions which I respect.  Seabourne possibly even Oceania could be a better fit for you.  But you definitely MISREAD any statement for dining reservations. The Restaurant requires no reservations, and Manfredis or Chef Table reservations are made online at anytime.  I wish you the best, and whichever cruise line you chose, have safe travels.

[duquephart]

On 3/12/2023 at 4:54 PM, SJD117 said:

 

You "had" to book a penthouse junior suite? Over five Viking cruises, we've never "had" to book such a rarefied accommodation. Our tastes must be different than yours.  🤣

 

"rarefied accommodation"???????????????????????

[island lady]

Very interesting information.  Thanks all.  🙂

 

After 15 years of being "Loyal to Royal"....and even with the perks of their highest loyalty tier (Pinnacle) we have decided to explore other lines.  Just too many things changing for the worst on Royal...sadly. 😞 

 

We are excited about cruising with Viking, and assuming it is still quite a notch up.  Even though there are some not so perfect experiences noted here....I think we will enjoy it with being a much better fit for us. 

 

Have the 21 night river cruise this Sept....but then we start with the ocean cruises with Orion and Venus later on.  

 

 

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

Good review. I agree with your opinions. We took our first (and only) Viking cruise last September from Bergen to Barcelona. We were really looking forward to it after hearing so much good about Viking. We loved the ship and the service, but like you found the food, entertainment and excursions lacking at this price point. I don’t find it too much to ask when paying for a luxury cruise to have a luxury experience. 

[lackcreativity]

16 minutes ago, Poulsbo Cruisers said:

Good review. I agree with your opinions. We took our first (and only) Viking cruise last September from Bergen to Barcelona. We were really looking forward to it after hearing so much good about Viking. We loved the ship and the service, but like you found the food, entertainment and excursions lacking at this price point. I don’t find it too much to ask when paying for a luxury cruise to have a luxury experience. 

I understand that sometimes first impressions are hard to get over. From my experience with Viking, and from what I have read on other cruise lines threads, I think that judging any line in these first years after the covid shutdown is perhaps a harsh judgement. Maybe Viking was never going to be a good fit for you, but we enjoy Viking cruises very much and are willing to make some allowances for unusual circumstances right now. Perhaps you might check back again in the future. Wishing you happy sailings!

[loriva]

On 2/24/2023 at 6:09 PM, J80crew said:

My husband and I sailed on Viking Sea, 10 days round trip San Juan, last week. While not as experienced as many on this board, we have done 18 cruises since 2012, when we started. Our first many cruises were on Celebrity, various ships including Edge; we’ve also sailed with Oceania 3 times and Crystal twice. With Crystal gone, we were looking for a new option and Viking seemed to fit. It’s the size we like (about 1000 pax), the right demographic, an itinerary we liked, and of course it gets great reviews. We did not use Viking air; we had a DV4 stateroom. All the pre-board business went efficiently (except I was annoyed not to be able to book dinners when DV reservations supposedly opened—but I was reassured by this board that it wouldn’t matter once on board).  We flew in the night before, stayed at the Sheraton in Old San Juan, and about 11:00 the next morning walked to the pier and got onboard. Easiest embarkation ever! No lines, friendly staff in their red shirts everywhere greeting and directing us, straight to the safety briefing (also easiest ever), and then to Torshavn to check our carry on bags. Nice not to have to lug them around while waiting for our room. We loved the look of the ship, with its clean lines and soft colors, and the more sophisticated atmosphere, with no loud music (or loud guests). We chose the pool grill for lunch, taking our food outside (an embarkation tradition for us). First disappointment: my husband, the cheeseburger connoisseur, said his burger was just okay. My veggie burger, though, was really good. I ordered a glass of champagne (part of the tradition), but was told they didn’t have champagne, just Prosecco. DH asked for dark rum, told there was no dark rum. This, unfortunately, was the case throughout the cruise—both wine and liquor selections were seriously limited. There was no Pinot Noir in any bar or dining room, no oaky Chardonnay, no champagne, the only rum was Mt Gay, and other guests said there was no single malt scotch. It’s a little late to be blaming the pandemic, the supply lines, whatever for this level of shortages; we’ve been on three cruises since the pandemic and none of the others have had this problem. 

After lunch, we were able to get into our room. It seemed small (DV) compared to other ships’ veranda rooms, though the square footage is similar. What we really noticed, though, was the lack of storage space. The closet was fine for hanging clothes, but only three drawers plus the two tiny ones in the end tables, and the one shelf in the closet meant that DH used the desk to stack shorts and polos. I’m glad we weren’t on for more than 10 days!  The bathroom was better, plenty of storage, really good light, a hot and powerful shower. And the Nespresso machine was a definite bonus. There was no magnifying mirror in the room, but when I asked our attendant if it was possible to get one, he delivered it right away. Which brings me to the service issue: the staff could not have been more responsive or friendlier; as everyone says, they are Viking’s best feature. When I complained about a couple of issues (including the wine selection) on the mid-cruise comment form, we received a visit or call from the head sommelier and the cruise director. They didn’t change anything, but they did at least respond to my comments. 
 

In general, we found the food (very subjective subject) to be fine, but not great. No outstanding dishes, either in the Restaurant or Manfedi’s. We did not try Chef’s Table, as none of the menus appealed to us. The World Cafe offered a smaller buffet than we’ve found on other ships, and often the hot food was not really hot. Several times they ran out of certain dishes a good while before closing time. We give both Oceania and Crystal (as it was) higher marks for food. 
 

We did the included tours most days and a paid one once. The tours are pretty repetitive, mostly bus rides with a brief stop or two for a vista and a punch drink. The tour guides were all very knowledgeable and friendly, and the tours met but didn’t exceed expectations. I was surprised that Viking did not offer a shuttle into town on the islands where the main town was a couple of miles from the pier. On the ship during the day there was very little activity. We are healthy, energetic 80-year-olds and we found it, well, dull. We played mini golf and lawn bowling. There was a port talk each day and tea time; Viking promotes its intellectual offerings such as Ted Talks, but that’s really just watching a big TV in the theater. We would have liked some trivia, for example, or other interactive pursuits. They did have trivia twice but at 8:00 in the evening, competing with dinner. Evening entertainment was more varied. We loved the guitar player, John, who played listening music early, but later on would do danceable songs and sing-a-longs. The Viking band played late in Torshavn, a crowded room with a small dance floor, doing mostly rock. We found it hard to dance there because there was too little room for movement. A classical duo and a pianist also entertained each evening, and in the theater the offerings ranged from movies to mediocre stage shows (singers with more heart than talent). 

 

One off-beat but good-to-know bit: DH had a flare-up of a shoulder problem while we were there and visited the medical center. He was impressed by the doctor and nurse and felt he got good treatment. The doctor called later to see how he was doing. Again, great service—and not expensive!

 

Notwithstanding the outstanding staff, we were in the end disappointed in our Viking cruise. Maybe our expectations were too high, but the bar problems, the lack of dining excitement, and mostly, the lack of activities that we enjoy combined to leave us disenchanted. We’re booked on Oceania in the fall and are looking forward to seeing what the new Crystal will bring. Meantime, maybe we’ll try Seabourn.  Happy cruising, all. 

 

Thank you for your review.  I really enjoyed reading your views and those of others new and old to Viking Ocean as we prepare for our first cruise with VO in May.

 

Like others, we are in search of a new cruise line to replace our loyalty to Princess.  We enjoyed Princess to the Elite level and then the ships kept getting too big (our favorite was the old Pacific, one of the former Renaissance ships) and onboard experience declined.  We've tried Regent and Oceania with VO up next.  We've always been itinerary driven (something Princess has been very good at) in choosing a cruise so may continue to try different lines.

 

We traveled with Viking River for the first time in December 2022 on a "Christmas on the Elbe" sailing.  Other than the smaller cabin, we thought Viking was the equal on food, excursions, and other experiences as our previous (all post COVID shutdown) river cruises with Crystal and Scenic.

 

Looking forward to sailing with VO.  We're on their "Viking Homelands" itinerary, so thinking that should give the line a chance to really shine. 

 

Thanks again to all for many interesting posts--I've learned a lot!

 

[Nippy Sweetie]

Back to Beef Wellington: we enjoyed it on our recent cruise. Ours had large slices of beef almost filling the pastry and with only a little duxelle around the meat. However, a lady at our table asked for hers to be well done. The piece she was given had a very small circle of beef in it. It was comical. Obviously she'd been given a piece from the end of the fillet and it had tapered down. It was a shame.

The dessert to follow was chocolate soufflé with hot Bailey's sauce. Sheer bliss.

I found the MDR food to be much better than I had expected. Seriously impressive especially compared to that on our recent Azamara cruise.

Well, apart from the bread which we found very disappointing.

[KBs mum]

1 hour ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

Back to Beef Wellington: we enjoyed it on our recent cruise. Ours had large slices of beef almost filling the pastry and with only a little duxelle around the meat. However, a lady at our table asked for hers to be well done. The piece she was given had a very small circle of beef in it. It was comical. Obviously she'd been given a piece from the end of the fillet and it had tapered down. It was a shame.

The dessert to follow was chocolate soufflé with hot Bailey's sauce. Sheer bliss.

I found the MDR food to be much better than I had expected. Seriously impressive especially compared to that on our recent Azamara cruise.

Well, apart from the bread which we found very disappointing.

The beef shouldn't taper, it should be cut to avoid it. The pate/duxelle should be of a consistent thickness, usually no thicker than the pastry. If the beef fillet is smaller then serve two slices with propionate mushrooms etc

[THR]

Also, it’s not the kind of dish you ask for well done. 

[duquephart]

2 hours ago, Nippy Sweetie said:

Back to Beef Wellington: we enjoyed it on our recent cruise. Ours had large slices of beef almost filling the pastry and with only a little duxelle around the meat. However, a lady at our table asked for hers to be well done. The piece she was given had a very small circle of beef in it. It was comical. Obviously she'd been given a piece from the end of the fillet and it had tapered down. It was a shame.

The dessert to follow was chocolate soufflé with hot Bailey's sauce. Sheer bliss.

I found the MDR food to be much better than I had expected. Seriously impressive especially compared to that on our recent Azamara cruise.

Well, apart from the bread which we found very disappointing.

 

Ordering well done she got what she deserved.

[AddieZaddie]

On 3/2/2023 at 3:43 PM, kirtihk said:

"Shm" - is Yiddish slang - beginning of many words starts with or replaced with "Shm" to diminish a magnitude of a sense.  I inherited it to use in English, too (as in illusion - shmillusion; cat - shmet; doctor - shmoctor).

Thank you! I didn't know there was a cultural history behind this idiomatic convention.

[workaholic1954]

I am shocked about the poor wine selections.  We've only sailed Viking in Europe, but all six trips had great liquor selections.  Of course, one shot of a single malt scotch was $20 on our last trip, but they had lots to choose from. 😀

[Hanoj]

On 3/2/2023 at 2:52 PM, Iloveketo said:

Love your advice!

The one thing you always take with you is yourself!
So true!

I like the way you think!

We don’t cruise the way things are, we cruise the way we are.