Feeling guilty - trying out Viking Ocean!

I have always laughed to myself (while reaching for the popcorn:rolleyes:) when someone negatively refers to a poster as a Norwegian Loyalist. Why is that a bad thing? We find something we like and stick with it....but now I guess I am having loyalist guilt. DH and I just booked a Viking Ocean as our first TA.

We have been planning this trip for a few years as our big retirement celebration and get us to Europe for six months so we can check out where we want to live (since unless those folks in DC get their act together we don't think know what health insurance is going to cost) and the budget and planning has always been based on taking a Norwegian ship and using points from our Norwegian credit card to upgrade to a balcony from a more affordable stateroom. However, with the exception of Epic where we don't have that option, the pricing on the other TAs meant we weren't getting good value for our points. So since we were going to be paying a higher dollar for the balconies we started to consider a suite - some of which were relatively reasonably priced.....but then we happened to discover that for less money we could sail on Viking Ocean and be in a balcony on a smaller ship with perhaps better food and better service. We love the aesthetics of Viking and not having a casino isn't an issue for us and it means we get to start our trip a month earlier...so off we go!

I won't be entirely MIA from Norwegian since it appears we will be on Norwegian for our return in Fall of 2018. We figure by then we will be over celebrating and an inside cabin will be just fine! LOL

anyway....anyone else had this feeling of guilt and did you miss that, "I'm home" feeling when you boarded a non-Norwegian ship?

I have always laughed to myself (while reaching for the popcorn:rolleyes:) when someone negatively refers to a poster as a Norwegian Loyalist. Why is that a bad thing? We find something we like and stick with it....but now I guess I am having loyalist guilt. DH and I just booked a Viking Ocean as our first TA.

 

 

 

We have been planning this trip for a few years as our big retirement celebration and get us to Europe for six months so we can check out where we want to live (since unless those folks in DC get their act together we don't think know what health insurance is going to cost) and the budget and planning has always been based on taking a Norwegian ship and using points from our Norwegian credit card to upgrade to a balcony from a more affordable stateroom. However, with the exception of Epic where we don't have that option, the pricing on the other TAs meant we weren't getting good value for our points. So since we were going to be paying a higher dollar for the balconies we started to consider a suite - some of which were relatively reasonably priced.....but then we happened to discover that for less money we could sail on Viking Ocean and be in a balcony on a smaller ship with perhaps better food and better service. We love the aesthetics of Viking and not having a casino isn't an issue for us and it means we get to start our trip a month earlier...so off we go!

 

 

 

I won't be entirely MIA from Norwegian since it appears we will be on Norwegian for our return in Fall of 2018. We figure by then we will be over celebrating and an inside cabin will be just fine! LOL

 

 

 

anyway....anyone else had this feeling of guilt and did you miss that, "I'm home" feeling when you boarded a non-Norwegian ship?

Nice!! Which VO ship?

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No reason to feel guilt. Cruise whatever line, ship, category that you want.

It's your money. (y)

I hear you and totally understand. Our first cruise was on Princess, 2nd on Costa, 17 with NCL, an RCI and then two more NCL cruises. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary in Sept with a transatlantic for our first trip to Europe and it is on the Regal Princess rather than an NCL ship. Cruise has a great itinerary and although we'll miss Platinum Plus perks and the feeling of being home away from home we are looking forward to it. To add to our disloyalty we're booked on back to back New Zealand/Australia cruises on Radiance of the Seas March 2018. We're working on bucket list cruises and for these particular itineraries NCL was not the best fit. We are booked for Bliss in Sept 2018 :)

We've looked at the Viking Ocean ships - would love to hear how you like it. Friends have done two or three Viking River cruises and loved them. Have a wonderful cruise.

We are Plat with NCL and took a Viking Ocean this spring. It was an awesome trip. They really know how to do things right. Even with all the stuff added in, Viking is still a bit expensive. Compared to NCL suite it is a good deal of course.

Prepare to chill out and enjoy good food. The buffet on VO is better than speciality on NCL - other than self serve of course. Having your wine glass kept full is a real nice perk.

Check out our review on the blog below for more notes.

OP, the basis for your "guilt" is Brand Loyalty.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_loyalty

It's rather insidious, really, when you read about it. Here's an excerpt. If one is honest with oneself, they may realize they're far more emotional about a given brand then they may care to admit.

A brand is seen as an idea or concept, not a product. This concept of a brand displays imagery and symbolism for a product or range of products. Brands can have the power to engage consumers and make them feel emotionally attached.

 

Consumer’s beliefs and attitudes make up brand images, and these affect how they will view brands they come into contact with. Brand experience occurs when consumers shop for or search for, and consume products.

 

Holistic experiences such as sense, relation, acting and feeling occur when one comes into contact with brands. The stronger and more relational these senses are to the individual, the more for likely repeat purchase behaviour will occur. After contact has been made, psychological reasoning will occur, followed by a buy or not-buy decision. This can result in repeat purchase behaviour, thus incurring the beginning of brand loyalty.

 

Brand loyalty is not limited to repeat purchase behavior, as there is deeper psychological reasoning as to why an individual will continuously re-purchase products from one brand. Brand loyalty can be shortly defined as the ‘behavioral willingness to consistently maintain relations with a particular brand. In a survey of nearly 200 senior marketing managers, 68 percent responded that they found the "loyalty" metric very useful.

 

True brand loyalty occurs when consumers are willing to pay higher prices for a certain brand, go out of their way for the brand, or think highly of it.

If the guilty feeling becomes overwhelming, I'll take your Viking cruise off your hands. I feel better when I have a diversity of cruise line experience. While I've sailed Carnival 32x, I've also sailed on and enjoyed NCL, Disney, Royal, Princess and Celebrity, and have MSC Seaside booked for next year. MSC has brand status match, so my Carnival Diamond becomes MSC Black, their highest level.

The more cruises and cruiselines I go on, the more I appreciate every one of them.

I feel the same about airlines. While I've redeemed over 2 million frequent flyer miles with one brand, my next flight will be one that suits my price and schedule, so I check several lines before booking a flight. We're all different, and we gravitate to whatever suits us, so there is no right or wrong on brand loyalty.

Except maybe for peanut butter........LOL

We took our first cruise on RCCL and the next 10,becoming plat+ on NCL and have 4 cruise next saves to use by 2020. Our next 5 cruises will be 4 on RCCL and 1 on Princess simply because NCL has no itineraries in Asia and Transpacific to fit our time schedule. I am not feeling guilty, even though NCL is still my favorite. Will be taking the Gem from NYC to NOLA in October, 2018, looking forward to it. Probably be back for a South American cruise, but I feel no guilt being retired and having plenty of time to check out all the possibilities, choosing what appears to be the best choice.

Don't worry Clay, NCL won't file for divorce. Enjoy the new cruise line and don't forget to let us know how you liked it.

I have always laughed to myself (while reaching for the popcorn:rolleyes:) when someone negatively refers to a poster as a Norwegian Loyalist. Why is that a bad thing? We find something we like and stick with it....but now I guess I am having loyalist guilt. DH and I just booked a Viking Ocean as our first TA.

OP, the basis for your "guilt" is Brand Loyalty.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_loyalty

 

It's rather insidious, really, when you read about it. Here's an excerpt. If one is honest with oneself, they may realize they're far more emotional about a given brand then they may care to admit.

 

Your guilt may be misplaced and irrational, but human psychology practically demands that you feel it.

Interesting. In think in my case it may not be really guilt, it's the unknown....but life is an adventure and this will certainly be one!

Nice!! Which VO ship?

 

 

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Sky. San Juan to Barcelona

Sky. San Juan to Barcelona

Very nice! I ask because a friend of mine just started working on the Star!

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No reason to feel any guilt if that will make you happy. Besides, you chose a good one.

Okay... I do not want to speak for everyone, but I think when most folks use the term "guilt", it is much more a figure of speech than an emotion.

I can not imagine anyone has any emotional ties to a cruise line such that they would feel "guilty". LOL!

Looks like I'm having a similar problem, my daughter and I came to Paris for the summer (also to give it a test run, see how we like 'living' here, and if this is something we would want to do in the next 6-12 months... the answer is a resounding yes) and I had a final week to "kill"before our flight returns us back stateside. The only itinerary that worked for us, and didn't have us leaving Paris too early (just 36 hours early) was the NCL Epic. My daughter and I were actually on the CCL ship next door when the Epic was christened in the US, which was pretty cool to witness from the next pier, but we've been fairly loyal to CCL/HAL/Princ and there has been a lot of guilty. To be honest though, I feel like my experience so far (we booked only 60ish days out) has been really positive. Today I had to call from Europe and fix something, and as soon as I told the woman on the phone that the call was expensive, I have to talk fast, need to fix the issue, and do it quickly she could not have been more amazing and fast. I was really surprised (CCL does not have the best customer service in the world). We'll see in a few days if I am turned into an NCL loyalist, I was always put off by the idea of freestyle dining, being a single parent eating alone with my daughter and no adult conversation was a turnoff. Now she's a bit older, so fingers crossed.

I have always laughed to myself (while reaching for the popcorn:rolleyes:) when someone negatively refers to a poster as a Norwegian Loyalist. Why is that a bad thing? We find something we like and stick with it....but now I guess I am having loyalist guilt. DH and I just booked a Viking Ocean as our first TA.

 

We have been planning this trip for a few years as our big retirement celebration and get us to Europe for six months so we can check out where we want to live (since unless those folks in DC get their act together we don't think know what health insurance is going to cost) and the budget and planning has always been based on taking a Norwegian ship and using points from our Norwegian credit card to upgrade to a balcony from a more affordable stateroom. However, with the exception of Epic where we don't have that option, the pricing on the other TAs meant we weren't getting good value for our points. So since we were going to be paying a higher dollar for the balconies we started to consider a suite - some of which were relatively reasonably priced.....but then we happened to discover that for less money we could sail on Viking Ocean and be in a balcony on a smaller ship with perhaps better food and better service. We love the aesthetics of Viking and not having a casino isn't an issue for us and it means we get to start our trip a month earlier...so off we go!

 

I won't be entirely MIA from Norwegian since it appears we will be on Norwegian for our return in Fall of 2018. We figure by then we will be over celebrating and an inside cabin will be just fine! LOL

 

anyway....anyone else had this feeling of guilt and did you miss that, "I'm home" feeling when you boarded a non-Norwegian ship?

I hope you will like Norwegian as much as we do......but I also hope you did your research about Epic. We've never been aboard but many cruisers prefer other more traditional cabin layouts.

Also, you can always ask to be seated at a table with others when you speak with the host/hostess at the dining room.

Have a great cruise!

I like NCL because it's solo cruiser friendly but I also have solo cruises booked on RCL and Princess and I'm seriously considering a transpacific cruise with Celebrity. I have a Bliss cruise booked next year and I want to do a b2b and I'm probably going to book a Celebrity cruise right after the Bliss cruise. I have the most cruises booked with NCL but I also want to explore other lines. For me I look at the overall cost and go from there.

Enjoy your Viking cruise and don't forget to report back and tell us about your trip.

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. ... I was always put off by the idea of freestyle dining, being a single parent eating alone with my daughter and no adult conversation was a turnoff. Now she's a bit older, so fingers crossed.

As Clay said, you can be seated with others. Just tell the host/hostess that you want to be seated at a 'sharing' table. You will be seated with others who also want to share a table.

We cruise annually and rotate between 5 different cruise lines. This keeps my interest high, as I would feel like I was missing something by primarily sailing on the same cruise line. Each line has its advantages, so it is a win-win for me.

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