Tips For New Viking Ocean Cruisers - Vol.2

[CDR2001]

11 hours ago, MMMCruiser said:

I have a question about the minibar that they restock daily (at least for the cabin that I booked it says that online).  If I don't drink alcohol, would they be willing to put soda or juice in the fridge instead?

On Saturn last May, we requested apple juice from room service. I’ve even gotten a box of milk for my minibar. DV cabin. Viking tries to fill your requests..love the service! 

[JF - retired RRT]

18 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Cool! Just what we wanted to hear, as we just booked our first VO cruise and my DW only drinks water and hot chocolate. 

I've seen your posts on Princess!!

We also just booked our first VO cruise. Hawaii in November. Can't wait to see what all the great reviews are about.

[Ken the cruiser]

16 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

I've seen your posts on Princess!!

We also just booked our first VO cruise. Hawaii in November. Can't wait to see what all the great reviews are about.

I know my DW is really excited. From what we have heard so far, the Dining Room opens at 6 pm, and they serve pretty much the same up at the buffet at dinner time. Oceania used to do that and we would opt to eat dinner out in the aft-facing dining area instead of the dining room. We’ve also heard they serve wine at dinner time. I wonder if that applies if we eat dinner up at the buffet? 🤔

[lackcreativity]

9 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I We’ve also heard they serve wine at dinner time. I wonder if that applies if we eat dinner up at the buffet? 🤔

Both at dinner and lunch, in all dining venues. Beer and wine, with refills!

[Peregrina651]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I wonder if that applies if we eat dinner up at the buffet? 🤔

 

It sure does!! The complimentary wine and beer how ever are the house wines & beers of the day. If you want something different, they are available at bar prices.

 

The buffet serves sushi and seafood every night (one on each of the two lines). We head there for a sushi appetizer before a late sit-down dinner.

11 minutes ago, lackcreativity said:

with refills!

 

Including a refill that you carry out with you at the end of the meal.

 

 

28 minutes ago, JF - retired RRT said:

Can't wait to see what all the great reviews are about.

 

They are about the great on-board service.

They are about being treated as if you were traveling in the Owner's Suite no matter which cabin your are in.

They are about traveling on a ship full of like-mind travelers who are more interested in the ports than they are in partying till dawn.

 

That is just the start of the list.

 

3 hours ago, CDR2001 said:

On Saturn last May, we requested apple juice from room service. I’ve even gotten a box of milk for my minibar. DV cabin. Viking tries to fill your requests..love the service! 

 

What it comes down to is that you don't what they can and cannot do until you ask. So ask!!

 

[Ken the cruiser]

16 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

It sure does!! The complimentary wine and beer how ever are the house wines & beers of the day. If you want something different, they are available at bar prices.

 

The buffet serves sushi and seafood every night (one on each of the two lines). We head there for a sushi appetizer before a late sit-down dinner.

 

Including a refill that you carry out with you at the end of the meal.

 

 

 

They are about the great on-board service.

They are about being treated as if you were traveling in the Owner's Suite no matter which cabin your are in.

They are about traveling on a ship full of like-mind travelers who are more interested in the ports than they are in partying till dawn.

 

That is just the start of the list.

 

 

What it comes down to is that you don't what they can and cannot do until you ask. So ask!!

 

Thanks! I’m pretty much a Moscato guy but will settle for a good Riesling. If neither of those two are available, I’m sure any the “free” house wines will be fine. 😁

[duquephart]

1 hour ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

It sure does!! The complimentary wine and beer how ever are the house wines & beers of the day. If you want something different, they are available at bar prices.

 

The buffet serves sushi and seafood every night (one on each of the two lines). We head there for a sushi appetizer before a late sit-down dinner.

 

Including a refill that you carry out with you at the end of the meal.

 

 

 

They are about the great on-board service.

They are about being treated as if you were traveling in the Owner's Suite no matter which cabin your are in.

They are about traveling on a ship full of like-mind travelers who are more interested in the ports than they are in partying till dawn.

 

That is just the start of the list.

 

 

What it comes down to is that you don't what they can and cannot do until you ask. So ask!!

 

 

I don't think there's a beer of the day. If you ask for a dark beer you'll get one.

[Clay Clayton]

19 hours ago, Steerpike58 said:

 

That's great - the excursions can make or break a port visit, obviously. 

 

 

Can you elaborate on 'here' - where was this excursion?  We did the included excursion in Isafjordur and it wasn't anything like that!  Was there more than one included excursion, or is 'here' somewhere other than Isafjordur? 

 

 

I don’t remember if there was more than one included excursion or not in Ísafjördur.  The excursion took us to Bolungarvik where we had a snack of smoked reindeer on tasty bread and heard an Icelandic singer,

 

 

the Ósvör Maritime Museum which I showed pictures of previously and a stop at a beautiful creek flowing down a steep hillside whose water was supposed to extend your life or maybe improve your sex life.  I can’t remember which but I know we all had a big drink!

[odblnt]

4 hours ago, duquephart said:

 

I don't think there's a beer of the day. If you ask for a dark beer you'll get one.

That was my experience on the Mississippi, too. I asked for an Amber and got it.

 

[ericosmith]

8 hours ago, duquephart said:

I don't think there's a beer of the day. If you ask for a dark beer you'll get one.

Better yet that Norwegian IPA.  You can even ask for more than one...perhaps not at once though.

[FetaCheese]

20 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Thanks! I’m pretty much a Moscato guy but will settle for a good Riesling. If neither of those two are available, I’m sure any the “free” house wines will be fine. 😁

Have requested a Resiling instead of house white.  Waiter brought 1 -- was included, no extra charge.  Just ask if house pours are not to your preference.  Servers like to accommodate guest wishes.

[ericosmith]

I recall reading someplace that there was a limit to the length of a song that could be used without paying royalties.  I don't remember what the limit was or if the age of the song mattered.  It seems unless it's an original show that there are always just a bunch of shortened versions of older songs.  

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, ericosmith said:

I recall reading someplace that there was a limit to the length of a song that could be used without paying royalties.  I don't remember what the limit was or if the age of the song mattered.  It seems unless it's an original show that there are always just a bunch of shortened versions of older songs.  

 

That length is measure in seconds, is for noncommercial use (thus not applicable in this case) and a whole litany of other hoops that need to be jumped through.

 

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/copyright-laws-30-seconds-music-61149.html

[OneSixtyToOne]

Here is a tip that I wish I had heard before today. On sea days the breakfast and lunch times change. The only place to find the times is on the paper copy of Viking daily. The app and the ship’s video displays all tell you to consult the Viking Daily for hours of operation. The Viking Voyager app has a Viking Daily section but it does NOT show the times that are on the back page of the paper daily. These times are only found on the paper version.

 

Today we had a double whammy, a sea day and a time change. I knew about the time change but the different hours of operation threw me. We are too late for any breakfast and too early for any lunch.  The only food we could find was muffins and cookies in the living room. I’m going to suggest to the cruise director that he mentions during orientation that sea day hours vary from other days.

[molymoo]

53 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Here is a tip that I wish I had heard before today. On sea days the breakfast and lunch times change. The only place to find the times is on the paper copy of Viking daily. The app and the ship’s video displays all tell you to consult the Viking Daily for hours of operation. The Viking Voyager app has a Viking Daily section but it does NOT show the times that are on the back page of the paper daily. These times are only found on the paper version.

 

Today we had a double whammy, a sea day and a time change. I knew about the time change but the different hours of operation threw me. We are too late for any breakfast and too early for any lunch.  The only food we could find was muffins and cookies in the living room. I’m going to suggest to the cruise director that he mentions during orientation that sea day hours vary from other days.

 

Room service?

 

[OneSixtyToOne]

46 minutes ago, molymoo said:

 

Room service?

 

We thought of that but when we went to our room it was being cleaned. 

[duquephart]

Going hungry on a cruise ship - there's a new one.

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Here is a tip that I wish I had heard before today. On sea days the breakfast and lunch times change. The only place to find the times is on the paper copy of Viking daily. The app and the ship’s video displays all tell you to consult the Viking Daily for hours of operation. The Viking Voyager app has a Viking Daily section but it does NOT show the times that are on the back page of the paper daily. These times are only found on the paper version.

 

Today we had a double whammy, a sea day and a time change. I knew about the time change but the different hours of operation threw me. We are too late for any breakfast and too early for any lunch.  The only food we could find was muffins and cookies in the living room. I’m going to suggest to the cruise director that he mentions during orientation that sea day hours vary from other days.

Mamsen’s was open until 11 on our last cruise was that not the case on yours?

[OneSixtyToOne]

22 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Mamsen’s was open until 11 on our last cruise was that not the case on yours?

Yes, but we were expecting to eat when we left out stateroom at 11:00 and everything was closed until noon. Noon was when trivia was scheduled (can’t miss that!). There was no lectures or events between 11:00 and noon and no food service. We ended up having lunch at 1:30.

[Steerpike58]

On 8/12/2024 at 3:46 AM, OneSixtyToOne said:

Today we had a double whammy, a sea day and a time change. ...

On my last cruise a couple of weeks ago, we  had two time changes, and both happened at unexpected times.

 

When I drive across a time zone boundary (eg, driving from California to Arizona), time changes the moment I cross the time zone boundary. But on the ship, do they align the change to the 2am convention? As in - "we know we are going to be crossing a time-zone boundary tomorrow, so we will be changing the clocks at 2am"? 

 

I had cell phone coverage on this cruise, and (obviously) GPS access, so I was relying on my phone to change its time when I actually crossed the boundary so I was out-of-sync with the ship a few times. 

[OneSixtyToOne]

1 hour ago, Steerpike58 said:

On my last cruise a couple of weeks ago, we  had two time changes, and both happened at unexpected times.

 

When I drive across a time zone boundary (eg, driving from California to Arizona), time changes the moment I cross the time zone boundary. But on the ship, do they align the change to the 2am convention? As in - "we know we are going to be crossing a time-zone boundary tomorrow, so we will be changing the clocks at 2am"? 

 

I had cell phone coverage on this cruise, and (obviously) GPS access, so I was relying on my phone to change its time when I actually crossed the boundary so I was out-of-sync with the ship a few times. 

Always manually set the time on your phone. Last year we did a one day stop in Turkey between stops in Greece and the ship did not change their clocks. We were on “ship time.” The cruise director tells you not to use the automatic time zone on your phone. Your phone may ping a location in a different time zone.

Edited August 14 by OneSixtyToOne

[island lady]

We just finished the Baltics.  The time zone seems to be right down the middle.  Almost every night we were changing the clocks back, then forward, then back, then forward...etc.  

 

Had to leave a note next to my clock which way to go each night.  

 

Oh well, not as bad as some of those flights with multiple time zones at once. 😵

[island lady]

I use my wrist watch (remember those? 😉 )  in ports, set to ship's time.  Yeah...old dinosaur that I am.   😄 

[Steerpike58]

8 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Always manually set the time on your phone. Last year we did a one day stop in Turkey between stops in Greece and the ship did not change their clocks. We were on “ship time.” The cruise director tells you not to use the automatic time zone on your phone. Your phone may ping a location in a different time zone.

Yeah, I tried that - turning off 'automatic time zone', but it's a bit trickier than that these days. My Android phone has THREE settings - 'Automatic Date and time', 'Automatic Time Zone', and 'set time zone based on location'. All three are on by default. The first two use information 'provided by your network', the latter uses "the phone's location to determine time zone".  You would think the latter would be bulletproof - the phone knows where it is thanks to GPS, and it ought to be able to figure out the correct time based on that.  But as I said - I think ships change the time at 2am not when they cross the timezone line.  One problem is, the ship is devoid of clocks, so the only reference you have is the clock on the TV display in your room. I seem to remember either the time wasn't displayed at one point, or it was wrong ... but I may be mis-remembering at this point. 

 

Regarding your comment about Greece and Turkey - we are going to be on such a cruise next month - Rhodes (Greece) then Kusadasi (Turkey) then Athens (Greece). Looking it up, I see that 

Turkey and Greece are both in the same time zone (EEST), though Turkey does not use DST while Greece does, so it would seem they are in sync half the year ... (now / summer).  I presume your experience must have been in the winter period, when Turkey is off by one hour relative to Greece (this is according to 

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/greece/athens and 

https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/turkey/istanbul  )

 

But still - if you are saying the ship didn't honor local time, surely that must have messed up any passengers who chose their own excursions, etc, and could lead to all kinds of problems.  Very odd. 

 

 

[FetaCheese]

On our Hawaiian Islands Sojourn December 2023/January 2024, sailing Westbound, ships clocks changed at 10am.  Time then became 11am.  Could not learn of reasoning, but losing the hour late morning seemed Ok, yet when on reaching Pacific time, was hard to get to sleep at one's regular hour.