We went on our first Viking ocean cruise in March and thought it was very nice. It was a 14 day transatlantic with only two port days. We have at least 10 cruises on Princess, but not since the restart. We have two upcoming cruises on Princess, one 12 day in September and a land tour/15 day in October, almost side by side, but one day in between. I’m curious to see how Princess is now. So far we’ve had a lot of issues with our booking, somehow they got linked and we’ve been unable to make dining reservations. Many phone calls to our travel agent, to Princess, live chats, nothing has worked.
The Viking cruise sailed with 615 passengers, so very easy to have access to the venues. I found the food very good, specialty restaurants are no charge, beer, wine and soda are included with lunch and dinner. We also had a mini bar in our stateroom. The decor around the ship was beautiful, crew members were the best we’ve experienced. Entertainment was good, movies were shown in the theater during the afternoon. We tried the afternoon tea, which was nice, but not our thing. Enough to do, but also time to just relax.
we took the Viking air, and since we couldn’t get to the port the day of the cruise, they paid for a hotel, with transfer to the ship, which I was impressed with. We had reserved a room because we knew there was no possibility we could fly in the day of the cruise, so we were able to cancel our reservation and save a few dollars.
Viking did a good job on the included excursions in getting everyone off the ship and on the buses. I remember sitting in the theater on Princess waiting for excursions to get out the door for over an hour later than posted.
we also took a California coastal tour on Oceania last September. It was the worst cruise experience of the 20 cruises we’ve taken. From trying to embark, to waiting for a transfer to the airport at disembarkation for well over an hour, I was totally unimpressed with the food, the crew, the ship, the whole experience was terrible.
once we’ve taken our upcoming Princess cruises, we’ll decide whether we want to stay with Princess. We do have a Panama Canal cruise on Viking booked for March, so we’ll see how that one is.
if you watch the Viking website or get their emails, every once in a while you can find a real bargain. Our cruise was about the same price as a Princess cruise would have been, but with all inclusions except gratuities. As I said, we were very satisfied with our experience.
Maureen