If you didn't choose Viking, what would it be?

[skindeep]

Some of the reasons we like Viking is the all inclusiveness of the excursions, smaller ship size, no children, no casinos, pool party dance etc stuff, ...it's, as they say, a "thinking cruise not a drinking cruise".

 

Are there any other cruise lines that follow this philosophy that you have/would consider?

[Jim Avery]

6 minutes ago, skindeep said:

Some of the reasons we like Viking is the all inclusiveness of the excursions, smaller ship size, no children, no casinos, pool party dance etc stuff, ...it's, as they say, a "thinking cruise not a drinking cruise".

 

Are there any other cruise lines that follow this philosophy that you have/would consider?

Good question.  Short answer, not that we have found.  We are preparing for a Regent cruise, our first with them.  We booked it because we have met several folks on Viking that claim to like Regent better so we want to see what that's about.  I think we will be hard pressed to like their ships or crew better.  We shall see.  As to food, who cares?  Only cruise line we have ever been on with bad food was Carnival.  All others had good to great, at least as far as our savage tastes can tell.  Will report back here.🥃

[Myrtle Ave. Mayhem]

In my cruising fantasies, that would be Sitmar!! Now back to present day reality, I'm very intrigued with the Silversea Silver Nova & soon to be sister ship Silver Ray. Different ship design than Viking, yet excitingly modern. There's a trans-Atlantic with a reasonable 25% solo supplement, very enticing! My major disappointment with Viking is the steep solo supps. Silversea was founded by the Vlasov group, so there is direct lineage to Sitmar. 

[Selion]

Been looking at Windstar lately.  Suddenly I feel 930-passengers ship is not small enough.  🤣

[WanderingBrit]

We value the no children, largely inclusive, aspects of Viking and will be trying Virgin Voyages in February for a different take - with a little more emphasis on entertainment and onboard activities. We're also looking for a more dining diversity than Viking offers, and more casual settings. Don't know yet how it will go!

[Jim Avery]

Viking had us at no kids too.  Our son and his spouse went on Virgin last month and can't say good enough.  Rave reviews.  They especially loved 20 or so different dining venues.  They also said it never felt crowded to them.  

[Mrs Miggins]

We love Azamara. You would need to be in at least a Club Continental Suite if you are used to Viking.  Lovely crew, good food, well travelled fellow passengers.  They are also much better at finding alternative ports when necessary.  ie reversing the Santorini and Mykonos stops if there are too many ships in Santorini.  They seem to be able to find alternative ports on the 'hoof' much better than Viking.

[Mich3554]

No children or casino sold us on Viking.  I think only Virgin has no kids, but the ships I have seen they are much larger, and that has little appeal.  I have looked at Regents, but haven’t pulled the trigger on one yet.  

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, Selion said:

Been looking at Windstar lately.  Suddenly I feel 930-passengers ship is not small enough.  🤣

Former World Cruisers we know are disembarking Windstar today after 14 days in French Polynesia and says:

"Best cruise ever not including the WC. Mainly due to FP being the most beautiful place ever. But Windstar is also very good. Up there with Viking and way better than AZ. Windstar crew are the friendliest by far. They are allowed and encouraged to have fun with the guests."

 

They have been on my radar for awhile and now Explora has my interest though just read an article saying that due to their inital popularity that prices were going to be raised which likely means we won't be able to satisfy that interest 😢

[JM0115]

25 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Former World Cruisers we know are disembarking Windstar today after 14 days in French Polynesia and says:

"Best cruise ever not including the WC. Mainly due to FP being the most beautiful place ever. But Windstar is also very good. Up there with Viking and way better than AZ. Windstar crew are the friendliest by far. They are allowed and encouraged to have fun with the guests."

 

They have been on my radar for awhile and now Explora has my interest though just read an article saying that due to their inital popularity that prices were going to be raised which likely means we won't be able to satisfy that interest 😢

Clay is referring to me 😀. We did a back to back cruise on Wind Spirit in Tahiti (French Polynesia) for a total of 14 days (7 each). The sailing ship was amazing. Only 136 pax. Crew were so friendly and there was a very high service level. Only one restaurant on this small ship but food was excellent. Local fish was amazing but or course we were in FP😎! AMA.

[KBs mum]

Independent by whatever transport is most convenient. As far as we are concerned cruise ships are just glorified ferries. Viking has the fewest negatives out of the mid market lot

[Breckski]

31 minutes ago, KBs mum said:

Independent by whatever transport is most convenient. As far as we are concerned cruise ships are just glorified ferries. Viking has the fewest negatives out of the mid market lot

We've traveled abroad independently a decent amount - primarily on motorcycle (sometimes train).  In my opinion many places where cruise lines visit independent travel would be fairly difficult and certainly not convenient.  That is unless you want to stay in one location for a week or so.  We've found we really like the glorified ferries in certain situations - the old right tool for the job saying.  But we like to call them floating, mobile hotels. 

 

To the OP, we recently booked a cruise with Regent and one with Seabourn.  Looking to see if we like those better.  We like Viking a lot, but there's certainly room for improvement and areas where I feel the others may surpass Viking based on research and conversations with others - such as much smaller size impacting the actual ship and port experience.  I don't imagine there'll be many children or loud parties on either of these lines either.

[TayanaLorna]

4 hours ago, Myrtle Ave. Mayhem said:

In my cruising fantasies, that would be Sitmar!! Now back to present day reality, I'm very intrigued with the Silversea Silver Nova & soon to be sister ship Silver Ray. Different ship design than Viking, yet excitingly modern. There's a trans-Atlantic with a reasonable 25% solo supplement, very enticing! My major disappointment with Viking is the steep solo supps. Silversea was founded by the Vlasov group, so there is direct lineage to Sitmar. 

I saw a UTube video on this new ship and found it very interesting.  Did not see an itinerary we would want but haven't looked since launch.

[BobCatter]

8 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Good question.  Short answer, not that we have found.  We are preparing for a Regent cruise, our first with them.  We booked it because we have met several folks on Viking that claim to like Regent better so we want to see what that's about.  I think we will be hard pressed to like their ships or crew better.  We shall see.  As to food, who cares?  Only cruise line we have ever been on with bad food was Carnival.  All others had good to great, at least as far as our savage tastes can tell.  Will report back here.🥃

I'd be interested to hear what you think. We want to try them out as well, and will be booking something for next year after the WC. Which itinerary did you choose?

 

[Jim Avery]

NYC to MIA via Bermuda and the Caribbean including the ABC islands.  Has first class air direct flights both ends and a one night stay at what appears to be a nice hotel (Lotte NY Palace) on the embark side.  Will report back.  Maybe a Liveish report on Regent during the cruise.  🥃

[BobCatter]

1 minute ago, Jim Avery said:

NYC to MIA via Bermuda and the Caribbean including the ABC islands.  Has first class air direct flights both ends and a one night stay at what appears to be a nice hotel (Lotte NY Palace) on the embark side.  Will report back.  Maybe a Liveish report on Regent during the cruise.  🥃

First round is on me.🍹

[wine-wine-wine]

Our next non-Viking cruise is on Sea Cloud Spirit in September 2024. Spendy but beautiful. Will report back. ⛵️

[JDincalif]

10 hours ago, skindeep said:

Are there any other cruise lines that follow this philosophy that you have/would consider?

Among the cruise lines we've experienced, Regent is closest to the Viking experience, offering a high quality experience without unnecessary stuffiness. We also enjoyed the Azamara experience which to be fair was also enhanced by the "halo effect" of two consecutive sunny warm weeks in the Norwegian fjords.

[Mrs Miggins]

11 hours ago, KBs mum said:

Independent by whatever transport is most convenient. As far as we are concerned cruise ships are just glorified ferries. Viking has the fewest negatives out of the mid market lot

Seems a strange reply from someone on a Cruise Forum.  I wouldn't presume to comment on ships I have not sailed on but perhaps you have an extensive portfolio of previous cruises on many different lines.

However from your previous posts I think you may have different criteria from most on this thread who are generally lovers of cruising.

 

 I guess my real favourite is Star Clippers on their glorious sailing ships and I also like Azamara.  

I have certainly visited some splendid locations that I could not have seen on land trips, certainly not "conveniently" as you put it.  

For those in the UK, in the older generation, i have tried Saga once and it was really excellent, especially for those less mobile.  Pick up from home, really helpful and caring crew.  In fact at night it was certainly much more lively than Viking where many seem to go to bed at 9.30 !   We tried it because the ships seem to be the same design as Viking.  In 2019 we thought we were too young, now I am not so sure as time marches on.

[KBs mum]

58 minutes ago, Mrs Miggins said:

Seems a strange reply from someone on a Cruise Forum.  I wouldn't presume to comment on ships I have not sailed on but perhaps you have an extensive portfolio of previous cruises on many different lines.

However from your previous posts I think you may have different criteria from most on this thread who are generally lovers of cruising.

 

 

To get information about the options, why else? Our criteria are going where we want to visit, usually following the published itinerary, long port stops, decent food for sea days and no entertainment or events in the lounges.  And yes, as with any hotel compromises are necessary. 

Viking used to have a lot less entertainment and better food, they are also unreliable about itineraries, the latest brochure we got said that itineraries as published may change. Of course something beyond Viking's control may happen, such as the need to cancel Israeli ports or weather, but they seem to cancel or substitute on every cruise now. 

There isn't anything available on the ships that isn't available near where we live and at a better standard, so the only benefit is the convenient floating hotel part

Edited October 20, 2023 by KBs mum

[CCWineLover]

13 hours ago, BobCatter said:

First round is on me.🍹

2nd round on me, Jim.

Will be interesting!  🙂

 

[KBs mum]

22 hours ago, mwike said:

We've traveled abroad independently a decent amount - primarily on motorcycle (sometimes train).  In my opinion many places where cruise lines visit independent travel would be fairly difficult and certainly not convenient.  That is unless you want to stay in one location for a week or so.  We've found we really like the glorified ferries in certain situations - the old right tool for the job saying.  But we like to call them floating, mobile hotels. 

 

No argument with that, fairly similar to how we look at it

[Ranger Mom]

Apparently, none! I was on a couple Carnival cruises many, many years ago and then returned to cruising on Viking (talk about being raptured), and the level of comfort and relaxation I've felt on my four VO cruises makes me leery to try anything else. Also, I like to have my own cabin or travel solo, which adds to the cost. So my reasoning is, if I'm going to spend so much, I want to be sure I'm happy with my choice. I will say, I've been checking out the Oceania board based on comments from people here and while the consensus seems to be the food is better, I find after about three days onboard, I'm over the food, so that wouldn't be a deciding factor for me. 

[MadMarine]

22 hours ago, wine-wine-wine said:

Our next non-Viking cruise is on Sea Cloud Spirit in September 2024. Spendy but beautiful. Will report back. ⛵️

Loved Sea Cloud II.  We were 2 of 5 with English as the primary language.  74 pax mostly German, Swiss and Austrian.  Very posh, as they say.  Included excursions were a crap shoot, but mostly good.  Enjoy your cruise with them. 

[quesam]

I enjoy Oceania on the “O” class ships more than Viking. I find the food especially in the specialty restaurants much better than Viking. As I do mostly TAs I love the Culinary Center and Artist Loft on Oceania. I haven’t done solo on Viking yet but on my Oceania cruises there have been many opportunities for solos to meet.  The Butlers on Oceania are fantastic and the ability to order from the specialty restaurants, penthouse suites and above, made dining in my suite very enjoyable. That said I enjoyed my cruises on Viking very much and have another Viking cruise booked. In many other areas I find them comparable so my choice comes down to itinerary and if that’s equal I go with Oceania.