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Are there others who were convinced by Viking to try their first ever cruise?


lackcreativity
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Many of you who post on Cruise Critic are very experienced cruisers, with many trips over many years. Are there others like me who were enticed off of dry land to take a river cruise by the Viking commercials? That first trip with Viking then led me to change my mind about never wanting to take an ocean cruise.

 

Viking Ocean seemed different from all the things that were so unappealing to me about that type of travel. Huge crowds, frantic activity, casinos, one island port just like the next, wet t-shirt contests (really?) and the like were not my idea of a great vacation.

 

Viking Ocean was exactly what I hoped it would be. I think we are hooked!

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Meeeeeee! Never cruised before, have always wanted a more upscale / less "party party" type of cruise, but didn't want stuffy.

 

Viking (River and Ocean) seemed to be exactly what we are looking for.

 

We still haven't sailed yet (October!), but I don't think many (any?) other lines would compare for destination-based travel.

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Viking enticed us back to ocean cruising. Before our 2016 cruise with Viking, out last ocean cruise was 2009 and we really hadn't even contemplated another ocean until 2014 when we saw the new Viking Oceans brochure and the 2016 Midnight Sun itinerary which we booked within days of seeing it--even though it was two years away on a cruise line that had yet to sail its first ocean voyage and for a ship that was not even under construction. We had done two Viking river cruises up to this point (China in 2010 and Ukraine in 2013) and booked our third river cruise (Eastern Danube, 2015) at the same time we booked our first VO. And, we booked our second VO cruise before we even took our first, because we saw something we liked.

 

We had long since sailed our last Caribbean cruise. Ship as destination doesn't work for us either; we can sit around at home for far less money and so we had started exploring river cruising, which would take us to places we were interested in seeing and exploring. I thinking VO came on the scene at just about the time we might have taken the leap to the Regents/Oceania/Azamara and since we liked the Viking river product, we were fairly sure that they could translate the experience to larger ocean going vessels.

 

There is a lot about the mainstream cruise lines that has become less appealing to me (too many people, on-board hard-sell, etc.) and a lot about river cruising that I really liked (small, laid-back, included tours). A river boat is a traveling hotel taking me to places I want to explore. It is a big improvement over a land tour covering the same territory--no packing and un-packing, no days wasted getting from one city to the next.

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I don't pay attention to ads and marketing hooey. I took my first Viking river cruise because of my brother's reaction to his Viking China cruise and I took my first VO cruise because I liked the itinerary and because I was confident that Viking could translate its river experience, which I was already very happy with, into a similar experience for ocean cruising. I'm also not looking for "real resort cruise ship" either, because that seems to me more marketing hooey. I'm just looking for a laid back atmosphere with nice people and good service on ships that will take me to places that I am interested in visiting.

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Viking has convinced me to do two things I said I would never do as a cruiser (8 Celebrity cruises since 2008).

I never wanted to do a Transatlantic with many sea days or cruise in the Caribbean.

So with my well worn glossy Viking booklet from 2014, I was smitten by their design.

Having read this forum and many reviews, I know this was the cruise line I have to experience.

I booked a 15 day transatlantic with 8 sea days( six in a row), and starting in San Juan PR March 27,2018.:eek:

So looking forward to my time on the Viking Sea with water , water everywhere .

Two Carribbean ports and four other ports to explore for the first time.

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I don't pay attention to ads and marketing hooey. I took my first Viking river cruise because of my brother's reaction to his Viking China cruise and I took my first VO cruise because I liked the itinerary and because I was confident that Viking could translate its river experience, which I was already very happy with, into a similar experience for ocean cruising. I'm also not looking for "real resort cruise ship" either, because that seems to me more marketing hooey. I'm just looking for a laid back atmosphere with nice people and good service on ships that will take me to places that I am interested in visiting.

 

It's funny how things work out, as my younger brother's report after the cruise he took somewhere in the Caribbean is exactly why I did not want to try cruising! Buying beer by the bucket was not the memory I want to bring home from my vacation. So it might indeed be marketing, but those Viking commercials during Downton Abbey sure worked for me! Honestly, if I had not seen those visuals, of the places and the ships, I imagine I would still be touring Europe exclusively by land.

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It's funny how things work out, as my younger brother's report after the cruise he took somewhere in the Caribbean is exactly why I did not want to try cruising! Buying beer by the bucket was not the memory I want to bring home from my vacation. So it might indeed be marketing, but those Viking commercials during Downton Abbey sure worked for me! Honestly, if I had not seen those visuals, of the places and the ships, I imagine I would still be touring Europe exclusively by land.

 

Fortunately, I already had my eye on Viking's China cruises and his report just clinched the deal, and opened up a whole new world of cruising, maybe even two.

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Yes, I had booked my first cruise on Norweigan and cancelled it and booked on Viking Ocean. All the amenities of the big cruise, no big crowds, no children, a port every day, every room with a balcony, no auctions, no art shows, no being nickeled and dimed to death... (going by 80+ hours of reading on here what to expect from the big ships) I am so excited to be going to Europe on Viking Ocean :)

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Friends of ours had done a river cruise with Viking and loved it. This plus the incessant Viking ads on Masterpiece Theater got us to try our 1st cruise, a river cruise, with Viking. The fact that I no longer had to shlep all my wife's many suitcases thru Europe and waste hours as she repacked at each hotel departure made river cruising heaven.

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We haven't seen Viking commercials-we taping what we like and then skipping commercials.

I was getting their booklet for at least 15 years. Have no idea how I got on their list. Looked at their itineraries and liked it more and more. We hated an idea of Ocean cruising with huge crowds and everything else that comes with it. River on another hand looked appealing to us. Finally we took Grand European and loved it. We looked for other river itineraries but nothing would compare - didn't want to leave a ship and move to another place by train or coach. One day there was a good deal on Homelands in my email. Checked the itinerary, liked it, and booked it next day :) Here we are first time river and ocean cruisers and in love with Viking!

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The fact that I no longer had to shlep all my wife's many suitcases thru Europe and waste hours as she repacked at each hotel departure made river cruising heaven.

 

We limit our suitcases to one midsize and a small carry-on each. Usually, we don't even unpack at most places when travelling on a land based tour. However, the older we get, the more tiresome that all becomes. River and ocean cruising wins hands down for ease of travel. Now if they could just move some more of those small Tuscan towns closer to the coast....

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We limit our suitcases to one midsize and a small carry-on each. Usually, we don't even unpack at most places when travelling on a land based tour. However, the older we get, the more tiresome that all becomes. River and ocean cruising wins hands down for ease of travel. Now if they could just move some more of those small Tuscan towns closer to the coast....

 

We are now down to carry-on only and have found it liberating.

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we limit our suitcases to one midsize and a small carry-on each. Usually, we don't even unpack at most places when travelling on a land based tour. However, the older we get, the more tiresome that all becomes. River and ocean cruising wins hands down for ease of travel. Now if they could just move some more of those small tuscan towns closer to the coast....

(y) :')

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Viking enticed us back to ocean cruising. Before our 2016 cruise with Viking, out last ocean cruise was 2009 and we really hadn't even contemplated another ocean until 2014 when we saw the new Viking Oceans brochure and the 2016 Midnight Sun itinerary which we booked within days of seeing it--even though it was two years away on a cruise line that had yet to sail its first ocean voyage and for a ship that was not even under construction. We had done two Viking river cruises up to this point (China in 2010 and Ukraine in 2013) and booked our third river cruise (Eastern Danube, 2015) at the same time we booked our first VO. And, we booked our second VO cruise before we even took our first, because we saw something we liked.

 

We had long since sailed our last Caribbean cruise. Ship as destination doesn't work for us either; we can sit around at home for far less money and so we had started exploring river cruising, which would take us to places we were interested in seeing and exploring. I thinking VO came on the scene at just about the time we might have taken the leap to the Regents/Oceania/Azamara and since we liked the Viking river product, we were fairly sure that they could translate the experience to larger ocean going vessels.

 

There is a lot about the mainstream cruise lines that has become less appealing to me (too many people, on-board hard-sell, etc.) and a lot about river cruising that I really liked (small, laid-back, included tours). A river boat is a traveling hotel taking me to places I want to explore. It is a big improvement over a land tour covering the same territory--no packing and un-packing, no days wasted getting from one city to the next.

 

We have taken 8 or 9 ocean cruises...inicluding 2 Regent World Cruises. A few years ago when Viking Ocean Cruises launched, I became intrigued with their planned ships -- clean Scandinavian exterior and interior spaces, generous-sized cabins, 360 degree promenade deck, airy eating spots, etc. Then when they announced their first World Cruiise in May 2015, we immediately signed up. Everyhting that has transpired since with VO and the positive reports of passengers has convinced me that our 120-day cruise is going to be just what we are looking for. (Regent has priced itself out of our price range.) While the Viking Sun will have about 200 passenger more than our two previous WC's we like its similarly, all-inclusive nature. As much as we look forward to the ports of call, we know we will appreciate the shipboard life for 4 months -- enjoying lectures & excursions and relaxing & dining with new friends.

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As much as we look forward to the ports of call, we know we will appreciate the shipboard life for 4 months -- enjoying lectures & excursions and relaxing & dining with new friends.

 

The three Resident Historians on the Empires of the Mediterranean were a truly an asset on our trip. Do you have any idea how many of them will be travelling with you? Will it be the same people all the way through, or a rotation of experts who join you for segments?

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Maybe I'm just grumpy today, but I feel that light-packing evangelists are cousins to Vegans. :evilsmile:

 

These evil people :evilsmile: are destroying my marriage because when I mention carry-ons only to my wife with her 2 full bags + 2 carry ons, she gets wicked pissed.

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Maybe I'm just grumpy today, but I feel that light-packing evangelists are cousins to Vegans. :evilsmile:

 

LOL this made me chuckle. I travel for business at least twice a month in only a carry on so when I go on vacation I delight in bringing large suitcases chock full of many different clothing options. My husband of course doesn't understand why I can fit 4-5 days of work clothes in a carry on but need giant suitcases for vacation. I try to get him to understand that I care more about how I look on vacation (and therefore in vacation photos) than I do for work.

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LOL this made me chuckle. I travel for business at least twice a month in only a carry on so when I go on vacation I delight in bringing large suitcases chock full of many different clothing options. My husband of course doesn't understand why I can fit 4-5 days of work clothes in a carry on but need giant suitcases for vacation. I try to get him to understand that I care more about how I look on vacation (and therefore in vacation photos) than I do for work.

 

For vacation you need to cover so many circumstances. Much of your time is spent outdoors, and weather can be unpredictable. I do like to change clothes for dinner most of the time, so that adds another whole stack of clothing. At least I have never had to pay for going over the luggage allowance, even if I do usually end up bringing home things I never wore!

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We are very much in the category of people who the Viking marketing department tempted into trying cruising for the first time – and we are glad they did!

We have always been keen independent travelers and before booking with Viking we never even considered the idea of having someone else set our itinerary.

Although we did not book directly as a result of seeing it, the TV ad played a big part in the process. The image of the aft infinity pool from the ad lodged somewhere in the back of my mind as a simple, elegant and attractive design feature.

It was only while researching on the web the various transport possibilities of heading to the Arctic Circle to experience the midnight sun that I came across a cruise line that sailed from London. The idea captured my imagination because it was the equivalent of a direct flight and hotel combined. Then I saw the infinity pool on the back of this cruise line’s ship and realized it was the same as I had noticed in the TV advertisement.

This was enough for me to contact Viking and have our details added to their mailing list. Even so we were not at all sure that cruising would work for us and if we did not enjoy it the Midnight Sun trip could turn out to be an expensive mistake. A few months later a mailing came through from Viking with a discounted offer for the relatively short Romantic Mediterranean cruise.

We booked this very much as a “tester” trip and found on that sailing that the Viking experience was such a perfect fit for us it almost feels like it was put together with us in mind. We have no experience of other lines but the more I read about them in posts to this board the more I feel that we would not have enjoyed them to the same degree.

Two things that we felt we missed out on our short Mediterranean trip in February was not being able to enjoy enough time on the ship and not experiencing it in a warm climate, hence our TA next year.

We have not forgotten about the Midnight Sun either and this looks to be on the cards for 2019 :D

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We are very much in the category of people who the Viking marketing department tempted into trying cruising for the first time – and we are glad they did!

We have always been keen independent travelers and before booking with Viking we never even considered the idea of having someone else set our itinerary.

Although we did not book directly as a result of seeing it, the TV ad played a big part in the process. The image of the aft infinity pool from the ad lodged somewhere in the back of my mind as a simple, elegant and attractive design feature.

It was only while researching on the web the various transport possibilities of heading to the Arctic Circle to experience the midnight sun that I came across a cruise line that sailed from London. The idea captured my imagination because it was the equivalent of a direct flight and hotel combined. Then I saw the infinity pool on the back of this cruise line’s ship and realized it was the same as I had noticed in the TV advertisement.

This was enough for me to contact Viking and have our details added to their mailing list. Even so we were not at all sure that cruising would work for us and if we did not enjoy it the Midnight Sun trip could turn out to be an expensive mistake. A few months later a mailing came through from Viking with a discounted offer for the relatively short Romantic Mediterranean cruise.

We booked this very much as a “tester” trip and found on that sailing that the Viking experience was such a perfect fit for us it almost feels like it was put together with us in mind. We have no experience of other lines but the more I read about them in posts to this board the more I feel that we would not have enjoyed them to the same degree.

Two things that we felt we missed out on our short Mediterranean trip in February was not being able to enjoy enough time on the ship and not experiencing it in a warm climate, hence our TA next year.

We have not forgotten about the Midnight Sun either and this looks to be on the cards for 2019 :D

 

We did try the Viking River cruise first, and so we were quite sure we would like the onboard experience. However, having never been on an ocean going ship, I was a little nervous about the possibility of seasickness. We started with a "tester" trip like you did, 12 days in the Adriatic and Mediterranean, with no sea days. Luckily, there was no problem with rough seas, and that led us to be a little more confident. Our next trip is 15 days, and will travel through the North Sea, so we are hoping for calm waters again, though we will be prepared just in case. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we were willing to book an itinerary with three sea days this time, with no reservations about whether cruising will be something we like.

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Many of you who post on Cruise Critic are very experienced cruisers, with many trips over many years. Are there others like me who were enticed off of dry land to take a river cruise by the Viking commercials? That first trip with Viking then led me to change my mind about never wanting to take an ocean cruise.

 

Viking Ocean seemed different from all the things that were so unappealing to me about that type of travel. Huge crowds, frantic activity, casinos, one island port just like the next, wet t-shirt contests (really?) and the like were not my idea of a great vacation.

 

Viking Ocean was exactly what I hoped it would be. I think we are hooked!

 

We are planning a Viking Cruise for 2020 and my husband actually excited about this cruise. He does not care for cruises, bless his heart, he sucks it up and goes with me. I think the smaller and shorter ship appeals to him more. It seem a more intimate setting than the crowds on the big ships.

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We are planning a Viking Cruise for 2020 and my husband actually excited about this cruise. He does not care for cruises, bless his heart, he sucks it up and goes with me. I think the smaller and shorter ship appeals to him more. It seem a more intimate setting than the crowds on the big ships.

We had a good variety of social interactions on our trip. Some meals and activities we did on our own. Some meals we got involved in conversation with the guests at the table next to ours. In addition, there was one couple we met early in the trip with whom we just "clicked", so we met up for activities and dinners a number of times. It was easy to make dinner reservations in both of the specialty restaurants with our new friends while on board.

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