Alaska & Inside Passage Cruise Review

[beanpittsburgh]

Just back from our Viking Ocean Alaska and the Inside Passage. What a fantastic trip!!

 

Embarkation  - Our flight from Toronto on Air Canada was delayed 6 hours which meant we were not going to make the 5PM departure.  We called Viking emergency hotline after the first delay and they had us keep them informed.  After it became clear that we (22 people total) were not going to make it in time, the Captain moved back departure until 8PM.  We sailed right through boarding and the safety lectures as everyone else was on board.

Staff – As expected, everyone was fantastic and had a smile on their face the whole trip.  Every small request was met.  Special shout out to our housekeeper Graziel and waiters Grace Ann, Dustin, Shirley, and Gusti.

 

Dining – Very subjective but we found the food good to excellent at every meal.  We did room service for breakfast 4 days to save time. They were prompt and the food was delicious.  Not much variety daily.  The World Café had several of the same items daily with a few different items included with B/L/D.  We got omelets made to order quickly with no wait.

The Restaurant had a nice variety of different foods each night with their standard fare.  My wife is GF and they worked with her to make sure she had something delicious every night.

Manfredi’s was okay and we enjoyed the Chefs Table.  Unable to get more reservations unless we wanted to eat at 9PM.

We consider ourselves to be wine snobs.  We thought the included wines were very good and they changed each night.  There was one we were not crazy about so we asked for something else and they brought us wine served the previous night.  They had a special wine tasting one night which we signed up for.  It was a fun experience($60pp).

 

Our room was a DV6 across from the laundry.  We found this very convenient.  We were able to do laundry every 2 days.  Needless to say, we over packed.  The room was spacious and very clean.

 

Demographics - We are in our mid 60’s and fit about in the middle of the age group.  A few in walkers or canes.  A couple of wheelchairs.  I was surprised to see several couples in their 30’s and 40’s onboard.  Overall, we met many interesting people and only saw one or two entitled idiots on the trip.

 

We used the pool and hot tub several times.  Never crowded.  Lots of seating and towels.  The Pool Grill was also tasty.  I went to the gym daily and there is a nice mix of equipment and machines.  I never had trouble getting a treadmill but the gym was never empty.  My wife loved her massage.

 

The entertainment was good.  Excellent piano player, singers, and band.  They had an ABBA show, Beatles show, and a few others we didn’t attend

Port talks were good and the Cruise Director Richard was great.

 

Excursions.  They ranged from fantastic to boring.  Basically, the included excursions were not worth it(even though they are free).  Our favorite was the Ididarod Dog sled in Seward.  The owner and his dogs have won over 5 times and hold the record for fastest time.  We had a blast with his 8 week old puppies.  We did one whale watching and it was fun.  Didn’t see any Orcas but several Humpbacks.  Unfortunately, they never came too close to the boat.  The Hubbard Glacier excursion is a must.  We had a glacierita onboard.  We also did a Zip line in Ketchican – fantastic.

 

Disembarking – smooth and effortless.  We had a 2 ½ bus ride to Anchorage.  Flight home were mistake free.

Overall a super fantastic time.  The weather was pretty lousy with rain 4 days.  It never rained hard but bring a raincoat.

 

Feel free to ask questions.

 

Edited July 24 by beanpittsburgh
Wrong name

[JF - retired RRT]

Thank you. Very nice review.

[ural guy]

Bean-  Thanks for posting this, we are scheduled for a Viking AK cruise next June.

 

You state that the included excursions are not worth the time.  I haven't been on Ocean yet, only river cruises, so I can kinda see your point.

 

Having said that, you still think that Viking is worth the extra $ compared to other lines?  If so, is it the ship (smaller so it can go more places), crew, or what makes it that much better than others?  Included tours is ine of their big selling points, and it they aren't that great, why the premium price.

 

Luckily, we'll be on a Viking Med cruise prior to having to pay in full for Alaska, so we can cancel if the Ocean experience doesn't wow us.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[beanpittsburgh]

I am not an expert in Ocean cruises.  We only did Royal C 25 years ago and were turned off by Ocean cruising.  We loved our river cruising with Viking and decided to give their ocean voyages a try.  Most people are brand loyal and rarely try another line.  With that being said, there are several features about Viking that we love - no children, casinos, more spacious ships, and wine with L/D.  On our recent cruise, we saw all the other big ships in several ports.  Honestly, Viking ships did not look that much smaller than the other ships, but the passenger size was often 2 to 3 times smaller. Also, there were 2 ports where we were the only ones docked.  Not sure why that happened.

 

But yes, we think Viking is well worth what we paid.  We could not be more pleased with how the staff treated us on board.

 

Excursions are what you make of them.  The included ones usually give more time to explore on one's own. The rain on those days did not help matters as we didn't explore as much as we normally would.

 

My wife wanted to sign up for another trip while onboard, but we are holding off until we decide what kind of trip to take next (they have our money from a Covid cancellation).  We will probably take a river cruise next, but we would definitely try another Viking ocean in the future. WE talked to several passengers on board and got several ideas for the future.

 

[puppycanducruise]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

[sharkster77]

3 hours ago, ural guy said:

Bean-  Thanks for posting this, we are scheduled for a Viking AK cruise next June.

 

You state that the included excursions are not worth the time.  I haven't been on Ocean yet, only river cruises, so I can kinda see your point.

 

Having said that, you still think that Viking is worth the extra $ compared to other lines?  If so, is it the ship (smaller so it can go more places), crew, or what makes it that much better than others?  Included tours is ine of their big selling points, and it they aren't that great, why the premium price.

 

Luckily, we'll be on a Viking Med cruise prior to having to pay in full for Alaska, so we can cancel if the Ocean experience doesn't wow us.

 

Thanks.

 

 

We are also sailing Alaska with Viking next June--we leave Vancouver June 6.  When do you depart?

 

We are like you, we have done river cruises (two) but this will be our first ocean cruise.  On the river, we've found the included excursions perfectly fine, but the optional ones better (smaller group, more focused topics, etc.)  So I would expect the same from Viking on the ocean.  I wouldn't categorize any of our included river excursions as a 'total waste of time'.  Even the much-maligned Black Forest excursion on Rhine cruises, we figured hey, we didn't pay extra for this, so let's just enjoy it for what it is.

Edited July 26 by sharkster77

[ural guy]

Sharkster-  Yes 6 June.

 

What I don't like about the included river tours is partly based in that this is a second (or third) visit to a few of these towns.  If the tour is over half of the time on a bus, we may go off on our own.  We lived in Germany for a few years so are comfortable wandering on our own.

 

Alaska is different.  We've been there to visit our daughter in Fairbanks, but not to the coastal town outside of Seward and Whittier.  I think we'll take a mix of tours and less wandering.

 

Thanks for everyone's replies.

[sharkster77]

3 hours ago, ural guy said:

Sharkster-  Yes 6 June.

 

What I don't like about the included river tours is partly based in that this is a second (or third) visit to a few of these towns.  If the tour is over half of the time on a bus, we may go off on our own.  We lived in Germany for a few years so are comfortable wandering on our own.

 

Alaska is different.  We've been there to visit our daughter in Fairbanks, but not to the coastal town outside of Seward and Whittier.  I think we'll take a mix of tours and less wandering.

 

Thanks for everyone's replies.

I guess we'll see you onboard!

 

I do see your point RE:  return visits.  I guess we lucked out.  Prior to our AMS--BAS Rhine cruise, our pre-cruise hotel was in the de Pijp neighborhood, so the walking tour concentrated on that area.  The canal cruise we took from that area was nice.  When we returned to AMS this past April for our tulip cruise, the walking tour covered a completely different area of Amsterdam, so we didn't feel it was a repeat.  And the included canal cruise traveled different areas than the one we took in 2019.

 

All that said, we feel like we've seen enough of Amsterdam such that we don't need to visit there again.

Edited July 26 by sharkster77

[dwlmg]

The visit to Jeff King's kennel was exceptional. My wife is very much not a dog person. For her, it was a highlight of the whole trip. Jeff's book 'Cold Hands Warm Heart, Alaskan Adventures of an Iditarod Champion' is also very good.

[beanpittsburgh]

Love the picture!  We got to hold the puppies also.  One kept chewing on my pant leg and shoelaces.  We have a funny video of me trying to get away from one pup.

[beanpittsburgh]

 

 

Here is me having some fun with the pups.