Viking Star Mah Jongg Sets

[MITZZI2]

Are there Mah Jongg sets onboard? If so how many? Thanks

[Peregrina651]

Not sure that there are enough players frequenting these boards to give you an answer -- and the answer may differ from ship to ship. Not a lot of people have asked this question over the years that I have been following this forum.

 

My thought is that you might get a more reliable answer were you to e-mail Viking directly using tellus@vikingcruises.com. Let them know which ship you will be on so they can give you information about the particular ship you will be on. 

 

[MITZZI2]

I have been trying for months to get an answer. Did a chat with them and the agent said she would check and order them if necessary. Did another chat a few weeks ago and was told "you won't know until you get onboard" He also said I could bring my own set! Those answers were not what I expected from Viking. My travel agent asked and was also given the same wishy washy answer. That's why I posted here. Thought someone might know. Sets were always available on the other ships I've been on. It's not a difficult question. 

[LindaS272]

46 minutes ago, MITZZI2 said:

I have been trying for months to get an answer. Did a chat with them and the agent said she would check and order them if necessary. Did another chat a few weeks ago and was told "you won't know until you get onboard" He also said I could bring my own set! Those answers were not what I expected from Viking. My travel agent asked and was also given the same wishy washy answer. That's why I posted here. Thought someone might know. Sets were always available on the other ships I've been on. It's not a difficult question. 

Take @Peregrina651’s advice and email tellus@vikingcruises.com for an upper level guest services answer.

[Meander Ingwa]

@MITZZI2 i have seen different answers .  Some have said YES!  Some have said, Yes, in the electronic game unit ,,   There , some people have said that the electronic game unit has the Mahjong game familiar to many computer users.  So not the game you are looking for

 

I think the upshot is that if you have a set you can afford space to , bring it.  If you are lucky to find one or two other people to play with you, that would be great.  You might check in with Cruise Critic to see if there is a role call for your trip and if anyone there is a player.  I have seen Role Calls with call out for Bridge and Mah Jongg players

 

I have not found chat to be a very useful resource for the questions I had,  I was given "we will check and get back to you" twice and never got my answers.

[Peregrina651]

5 hours ago, MITZZI2 said:

It's not a difficult question. 

 

It is not a difficult question, if someone in the audience has the answer.  The difficulty is finding the right audience, which in the case of mah jongg players on Viking who are also on Cruise Critic is a very small subset of an already small subset of all of the people who sail on Viking Oceans.  

 

 

[MITZZI2]

I meant shouldn't be a difficult question for Viking. I used the suggested email address and actually got a phone call from Kayson at Viking. He said Mah Jongg is a usual activity that they offer but he couldn't guarantee that a set might not be damaged or missing some pieces. I would hope that people playing with the sets would be careful with them but things do happen. There is probably room in my suitcase to take my set but it weighs about 6 lbs. So I'll just hope there are sets onboard. Going forward I will address all my questions through that email address and not via the chat function. Thanks

[Meander Ingwa]

Wow 6 pounds.  They do make mini travel sets but they do appear to lack the tactile quality that might be part of the game.  I have never played, only watched 

[hurwitz5]

I am also a Mah Jong player and have played on many cruise ships (not Viking).  I always bring my card, just in case.  I have a set, but it’s too heavy to carry in my luggage.  We have 3 sea days on our upcoming Viking Saturn cruise in December.  It would be fun to play.

[Findingmywings]

We just finished a cruise on Viking Mars.  The ship had 2 sets that looked brand new.  We tried to figure out how to play it, but didn’t get very far because the instructions said we needed more than two people.  Would like to learn how to play the actual game, not just the one on the electronic table.

[sailoroma]

Viking Star had several Mahjong sets when we were aboard in August 2022 and had a few organized times where Mahjong players could meet and play.

[cruisesoon]

We were just on the Saturn recently and there were at least 4 sets.  We played on sea days and was a lot of fun! There were enough players for 4 tables too!

[May B]

On 10/11/2023 at 7:38 AM, cruisesoon said:

We were just on the Saturn recently and there were at least 4 sets.  We played on sea days and was a lot of fun! There were enough players for 4 tables too!

Wow!

 

I think if it were very important to me, I’d buy the cards to take, in case the onboard sets weren’t complete. I presume they still do exist, although I’ve never actually seen them.

 

I’ve only played on one cruise, Azamara to Antarctica, tons of at-sea days. I learned how to play three-handed there.

[Squawkman]

I saw 2 sets on the Star. One had paper cards - looks like they were printed with a color inkjet.

[May B]

Let me clarify. We absolutely should bring our own current mah jongg card, if we hope to play. Just in case.
 

I meant I would buy a deck of Mah Jongg Kards from the league ($28) to bring with me, if I really had my heart set on playing, in case there was no set to be found, or it happened to be missing one or more tiles. I’ve never played with them, and I’m sure it’s not quite the same vibe, but it certainly would make for a valid game opportunity.