Questions about Viking

[GeorgeL]

Thinking of booking a cruise (first time on Viking) and we are wondering if Viking Ocean allows using onboard credit to pay for gratuities.

Also, how do the ships perform when in rough seas?  How good are the stabilizers on Viking ships?

Thanks!

[deec]

Yes you can use OBC for gratuities.

 

[GeorgeL]

Thank you!

[Haqdeluxe]

3 hours ago, GeorgeL said:

Also, how do the ships perform when in rough seas?  How good are the stabilizers on Viking ships?

Thanks!

We have twice sailed Viking in rough seas, most recently the North Sea in January. I feel the ships are well stabilized and handle high seas very well. I rode a destroyer in my navy days and can honestly say Viking's ships are the better ride.

[duquephart]

19 minutes ago, Haqdeluxe said:

We have twice sailed Viking in rough seas, most recently the North Sea in January. I feel the ships are well stabilized and handle high seas very well. I rode a destroyer in my navy days and can honestly say Viking's ships are the better ride.

 

Apples to hex nuts.

[Jim Avery]

Viking ships are not built like classic ocean liners.  On the plus side they have active stabilizers that can significantly reduce rolling.  On the negative side, they are built like all modern cruise ships with very bluff bows.  By that I mean they rapidly transition from the bow stem to the full width beam.  This exposes flat surfaces at the bows that can produce a loud boom and shake, shake, shake,e type vibration/resonance in head seas.  Classic liners had much sharper bows that typically did not transition to full beam until about 1/3 of the hull length aft.  Modern bean counters wanted revenue space in that "wasted" long sharp bows.  A significant trade off.  Why you see most current Transatlantic crossings taking the gentler southern routes.  See attached bow view of QE2 and compare to a bow on view of Viking ships. 

[GeorgeL]

Jim, thank you for great explanation. I always was wondering about this shaking in the past.

[Jim Avery]

 

 

Illustrates the difference pretty well.

 

 

[Jim Avery]

2 minutes ago, GeorgeL said:

Jim, thank you for great explanation. I always was wondering about this shaking in the past.

Ha, some actually call it the "Fincantieri shake".

[Heidi13]

9 hours ago, GeorgeL said:

Thinking of booking a cruise (first time on Viking) and we are wondering if Viking Ocean allows using onboard credit to pay for gratuities.

Also, how do the ships perform when in rough seas?  How good are the stabilizers on Viking ships?

Thanks!

 

In heavy weather, the Viking ships perform at least as well as other non-Liner tonnage. With respect to stabilisers, since most cruise ships are built at Fincantieri, they all probably have the shipyard developed stabilisers, so are probably all the same.

 

However, stabilisers are only effective at counteracting beam seas, which cause rolling. They have no impact on reducing pounding from head or following seas. The skills of the Bridge Team and the ship's speed may have more impact than any difference in stabilisers between ships.

 

The shaking Jim refers to is totally normal for modern ships, as this is how the structure is designed to dissipate the pounding forces. 

[deec]

the pounding and shaking IMO is still unnerving even for a seasoned cruiser .  If you are going on an open water cruise you must be prepared for rough weather but will probably not have any!

[Jim Avery]

1 hour ago, deec said:

the pounding and shaking IMO is still unnerving even for a seasoned cruiser .  If you are going on an open water cruise you must be prepared for rough weather but will probably not have any!

Haha, pretty rough around California these days.  Hope it settles or us World Cruisers will be feeling the shakey shake sooner rather than later.  🍸

[shipboy]

2 hours ago, deec said:

the pounding and shaking IMO is still unnerving even for a seasoned cruiser .  If you are going on an open water cruise you must be prepared for rough weather but will probably not have any!

Our Southern Atlantic crossing last year was quite rough when we entered the Med

[deec]

19 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

Haha, pretty rough around California these days.  Hope it settles or us World Cruisers will be feeling the shakey shake sooner rather than later.  🍸

I hope it settles too for all of you.  Don't remember stormy seas when Pat and I were with you on that first WC.  We did miss the cook islands and Napier as I remember for bad docking conditions but not lots of rocking and rolling....we are hoping for a "Drake Lake" as we head to Antarctica in a couple of weeks!

[KBs mum]

The ships are OK in 5m seas, the bangs from the bow are not as loud as the racket from the band😁 we thought Venus to be decent for her size and type. Sky seemed to have more movement when both in 2m seas. 

 

The problem is the furniture and fittings are not designed to cope, I'm used to everything being in a rack or otherwise fastened to something on ships/boats. Had to wedge the decanters and coffee mugs in the sink with towels. Also none of the chairs and tables are fixed to the floor. Got a bit tedious as table and lunch were on a different track than chair. 

Plates in the buffet were wedged in place with towels from the pool area due to poorly designed racks. 

Outside seating was unavailable for the fortnight, other than the smoking area. 

 

That said, the kitchens and bars were operational and only some talks/shows had to be re-scheduled. We are mad enough to enjoy weather,  KBs dad asked if this meant the helicopter evacuation was back on as an optional excursion. We then caused  concern when explaining as some pax had not heard of the Sky Incident

[Mich3554]

On 12/29/2023 at 9:15 AM, Jim Avery said:

Haha, pretty rough around California these days.  Hope it settles or us World Cruisers will be feeling the shakey shake sooner rather than later.  🍸

Some of the roughest seas we dealt with in last years world cruise when we exited CA, and blew off Santa Barbara trying to get ahead of a storm that was going to hit California,  we went waaaay directly south before we started angling to Hawaii.