Gogoguy

People who have sailed or are actually on board can legitimately speak about their experiences...both positive and negative, Frankly some of us are getting tired of hearing a lot of speculative comments from those who haven't set foot on the vessel.

Wait till you get on board then share your comments but in the meantime get a life!

I am the person who was coached by Crown Prince Harald when I was at Balliol College Oxford many years ago. I recall fondly the day that the boat crew had lunch with him prior to his leaving to take up his public duties back in Norway. It was a very special moment as he bade us farewell and went off with his security detail. He is evidently a very popular King much loved by his subjects - something that does not surprise me at all.

I called Viking after reading these posts since we're also in the same boat (OK, OK lame pun) regarding apparently viewed as being in riff-raff category by Viking and therefore allowed to eat when the others are all done....I spoke with a very pompous individual who laughed that we're getting upset since the ship hasn't had it's first leg yet. I told him that if Viking had provided us with info, we would be far less paranoid. He went on to deny that the MDR will be filled with fixed sitting and that those of us in steerage would have to wait until they have finished dinner before we would be seated. He also said that the other cruise forum, which reports that open dinner seating is between 5:30 pm-7:30 pm is incorrect. Who knows? I'm sure I could call another Viking agent tomorrow and get a different story.....what I know is that with Celeb opening seating, on the first night, we had to wait about 45 min for a table...they encourage us 'anytime diners' to make reservations, which seems to defeat the purpose of anytime dining. As the cruised progressed, our wait times decreased until we had no wait at all as long as we were willing to share a table. Viking: if you're reading these posts...maybe you could give this subject some thought before we board....if you agree to seat us with those early fixed seating passengers, we promise not to drool, scratch ourselves or otherwise act in an obnoxious manner thereby giving away our lowly cabin category.

Nor will we pick our noses or fart at the table. Promise.

Now that it's finally time for some cruisers to be able to book their specialty dining reservations and shore excursions, I was wondering how that is going IF you're in a deluxe veranda or regular veranda. Did you go online and book pretty much as soon as your reservation window opened? Did you get good days and times for the specialty restaurants? How about the times for the included excursions?

 

We're in a deluxe veranda. Based on my previous experience with another cruise line in an inside cabin, I'm not too worried about finding decent times and days to eat. However, I WOULD like to get a sense of whether people like to eat early or late (especially for the Chef's Table, since you must choose between 6 and 8:30 PM) and whether the early bookers snap up the times around 7 PM, which is our optimal eating time most days. I'd also like to get an idea of how fast the spaces for each time for the included tours book up, and if there's any particular time that's more likely to be unavailable than the others (for example, first tour of the day, or last). Also, when you book the included (or other) excursions, is any information given on what to do if you can't go, or what time you need to be available for the excursion?

 

Has anyone in a lower cabin category booked yet?

We are in a veranda class stateroom and discovered to our surprise on the morning that our window opened that the 6:30 - 8;30 time slot for the Restaurant was already "full" - evidently because those with higher booking priorities had already made their choices. Moreover, those in that class are unable to book at any of the specialty restaurants until they board the ship. We will be interested to discover whether or not all of those with a higher booking priority than us will have effectively taken up virtually all of the spaces available in the specialty restaurants.

Not this man. Beyond my bathrobe and flip-flops will be dressy enough.

Love it but probably won't be quite dressy enough

I too hope that this is comparable to Crystal. Although I have never cruised Crystal it appears to be a step above many of the other lines, including Oceania.

Very encouraging to see that the standards for dress at dinner are trending towards more casual. I recall some early HAL experiences in which men felt almost uncomfortable at dinner if they did not have a tux or dinner jacket.

lol

Ruthy.

I like your optimism. My fear is that as this is their first venture into Ocean Cruising Viking management will not have the experience needed to deal with all of the problems that can so easily arise - especially on a maiden or near maiden voyage. Perhaps the experience with Oceania is instructive. When they first went to flexible dining they had some teething problems. However, over time, those were resolved and they are now, in my judgment, the best cruise line of the bunch in that price range.