Kentishincanada

We had three days in Istanbul independently prior to our last cruise. We stayed in a friendly little hotel in old town and loved every minute, We felt very safe and it is a city where I would love to return, with the exception of the new port and the walking involved. We did buy a rug but in Kusadasi. However, we looked in Grand Bazaar and another couple of rug stores around Istanbul but couldn’t find the colourings or size but had a baseline price before we found the one we bought. Don’t know whether we had a ‘deal’ but love our rug and Turkey.

I agree the beds on Viking are hard but after our first cruise we ordered a topper and then found the bed and linens very comfortable. Our only disappointment with food was Manfredis which we had enjoyed on our first couple of cruises but we felt had deteriorated on our cruise last year, both the menu and the standard of cooking. However, Chefs Table more than made up and we ate three amazing meals there. I love the selection of fresh fruit always available for breakfast and the ice cream bar is amazing. Hopefully by our next cruise the pistachio buns will be back to have early morning with the excellent living room coffee. It would be difficult to find ships with such a relaxing design - particularly love the spa pool and the walking track.

Thank you Fletcher. I do so look forward to your posts. Please don’t change any of your observations, especially in the cause of PC. I find some of your descriptions to echo our experiences of the ports exactly but I would not have found the same eloquence. Thanks again. I am sorry your cruise has cone to an end and will be watching for your next advanture.

Thank you so much Dr.Koob. I have been avidly following your posts with the comparisons to VO. I agree the food on VO has taking quite a fall since our first cruise with them in 2016 to our last in 2022. However, we love the openness of the ships, the wonderful spa and the Nespresso machine. We have asked for mattress toppers and they do make the beds tolerable. We also enjoy the VO lectures. It is surely time for us to try O and we will now do so armed with your experiences. Again, thank you.

And you can dream that you might just snag a pistachio roll while at the living room bar in the morning, although they seem to be rare of late.

I think the success of M & G depends on the length and structure of the cruise. Our last cruise was 8 days with a port most days and we didn’t really have time to be sociable. Our previous cruise was 24 days with lots of sea days and we really appreciated the opportunity of a M & G to get to know some of the other passengers. We remained friendly with some throughout the cruise.

Really interested in your posts Dr.Koob as we are in the same space having completed our last three cruises on Viking. I do love the ships but we felt on the last cruise that the food wasn’t quite up the the previous standard. The thing I enjoy on Viking is the spa area, open to all with that beautiful pool and always space around the other swimming pools to relax. Have you tried the spa pool on Vista and is it of a similar size and ambiance? I think I would very much miss the Nespresso machine - is the coffee as good as Viking’s living room and readily available?

We stayed independently for four nights prior to our Viking cruise last year. We stayed at Sirkeci Mansion Hotel and found it wonderful. Apart from being relatively inexpensive we didn’t need to take any taxis and walked to all the attractions as itmwas in the old part of town -we could actually see the Topkapi gardens from our hotel. The breakfast was amazing, although they did not cater for evening meals - a few steps to good restaurants. The hotel arranged our taxi from the airport and even sent us a video showing where we should walk when we arrived at the airport. The staff cannot help enough and we would award Sirkeci Mansion 10 stars if we could. Now, Galataport was quite a different experience. It may have improved since last year, however there was a lot of walking. Again, the hotel arranged our taxi to the port but after arrival we walked over 8,000 steps before we were actually on the ship and there certainly seemed an excess of security. All in all, we loved Istanbul, the hotel, the food and for a couple of 70+ oldies we found getting about easy and we felt very safe.

I really second your comment on the deviation fee especially in the current climate with airlines cancelling and re-arranging schedules. Regardless of our interest in the departing cruise port, we always try to come in a day or two in advance and get very annoyed about a deviation fee when we are trying to be responsible.

We used TAir last year from Heathrow to Istanbul. The flight and food were both excellent but we have never flown with such grumpy air crew which seemed to extend even to the check in at Heathrow. They certainly need a charm initiative. Strange as we encountered only smiling faces in Istanbul and the hotel staff were lovely.

I have a Nespresso Pixie machine which is pretty close to the Viking model. For some reason they no longer stock Pixie machines in the Nespresso Boutiques but stock them in John Lewis. Had my machine years and couldn’t function without it.

We did this extension and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sure not enough time but in a strange city, it is nice to have somebody help with the luggage, reserve trains etc. and we may go back on our own some day to see more and would feel much more confident having spent time with Viking the first time. We had a different museum guide, a very helpful lady. The Viking rep. at the hotel, Intercontinental, was extremely helpful and guided us to some excellent restaurants in the vicinity. Breakfast at the hotel was a feast.

From our three Viking cruises, we would vote for the long Southern Atlantic Crossing Barcelona to BA. Lots of lovely sea days in warm weather and the joy of the South American ports in spring, Rio, Montevideo and BA. Jacarandas were flowering everywhere. We particularly enjoyed Uruguay and would do this cruise again in a heartbeat.

Athens Gate hotel also has a great rooftop restaurant with amazing views. Really enjoyed our stay. We also used Georges taxi from airport and again to port - very efficient.

We did this cruise in 2016 and it is terrific was such interesting ports. For us Ancient Olympia was a cruise highlight as was Kotor where we hired a driver and drove down the coast. I think we would skip Corfu but maybe because we just chose to take the shuttle and look around town which for us was not too memorable, having been to many Greek islands.