CCWineLover

I am so sorry for you. One of the great things about Cruise Critic is that this topic has been discussed at length on various threads and that is where I learned about the voucher-no value issue. As such, I use Steve at The Trip Insurance Store to buy insurance to cover the voucher portion of trips I have upcoming that have vouchers on them. Debating whether vouchers should have value or not is of little use. It is what it is, and at least most of us are aware of that now, after 2 years of COVID cancellations and vouchers. Everyone has to make their own decisions regarding vouchers. I'm so sorry you did not know this ahead of time - as you likely would have insured the extra portion of your cruise covered by vouchers.

It is offered on our Dec Panama Canal cruise. Mexican Kitchen Table. I think we'd be interested in ones in European cities when they finally are offered again. (especially Italy and Greece!)

It goes both ways with Viking (credits or not for missed ports) and I don't know how they determine that. Seems one of our experts posted a bit ago that missing a port doesn't really save Viking much at all (he had good reasoning and credibility). We skipped Antigua in the Caribbean on one cruise and no credits. We substituted Barcelona for Tarragona Spain in a straight swap. We substituted Casablanca for Gibraltar in a straight swap. We are skipping Key West on our Dec cruise and we are credited $150 pp. No Rhyme or Reason. Personally, even though sometimes disappointed, I have no problem with Viking as they obviously are not doing the changes to spite us or make us unhappy. I also like that the port fees are buried in the price. It is part of the "no Nickel and Diming" aspect that I enjoy vis a vis other lines.

Might be time for those people to switch to Azamara then. All lines have pluses and minuses and it’s up to individuals to decide if the minuses (like this inflexibility) outweigh the pluses.

CDNPolar - very well stated! (Obviously I agree with all you say).

We spent 5 days in Oslo in August after our Midnight Sun cruise, staying at the Thon Rosenkrantz. We loved the city so much and the people we met. This sign is totally not representative of anything we saw. You could probably look at any city in the USA and there would be some poster that is full of hate as well. I would take it with a grain of salt. Not relevant. The people in Norway were so gracious, friendly, helpful, and kind hearted - and this was in all the cruise ports as well. All it shows is Norway is like anywhere else - you have extremists who don't hesitate to express their views. I have learned to ignore the noise and go with the general overall flow of foreign cities and enjoy life!

Me neither! In fact, compared to most buffets I've been to (on other cruise ships and hotels, etc) it struck me how good the bacon serving was - just the right crispness for the most part!! I guess each to his own. On our cruises it certainly was a popular place for people to fill up so to speak! So I'd say the majority like it.

Agree, Linda. If there was a problem, better to contact the chef or restaurant manager. As for the bacon, maybe we were lucky or have different tastes. We found the bacon to be perfect for us. Yes there were some overcooked crumbly pieces (not many) and some undercooked (not many), but most were absolutely perfectly done. Had it every morning - with delight! As for toast, I often had the person behind the counter cut some of their bread into pieces that could be put in the rolling toaster - especially the fresh long baguettes. Good point though - they should have multigrain bread. Sometimes they had multigrain rolls, which I cut and toasted though. Food definitely is an individual taste! If Viking catered though to every person's specific preferences, there wouldn't be room to serve enough varieties of items and cooking temps. Also, if you do ask them, you can pretty much get anything done the way you want (for example, eggs cooked to order rather than dishing out of the pan).

Got this error when trying to download and save. Never got it before. Have you seen it? A potentially dangerous macro has been blocked Macros can add a lot of functionality to Office, but they are often used by people with bad intentions to distribute malware to unsuspecting victims. Macros aren't required for everyday use like reading or editing a document in Word or using Excel workbooks. In most cases you can do everything you need to do in Office without allowing macros to run.

You are probably correct. It was crowded between 9 and 11 AM often and also 3-5 PM on sea days and 3-5 PM on excursion (port) days. And it varies as to demographics you are correct. These were observed on Panama Canal cruise and 2 cruises in/to Norway this year.

There is no restricted entry now to the spa area on the Ocean Ships. From our observation on several cruises this year, that has its pros and cons. Pros - you don't have to plan for it by making a reservation and be restricted to just that. Cons - sometimes we found there were so many people there, it wasn't fun. People tend to get loud in the spa (like they do in hot tubs) - the chaos and cacophony is not relaxing. Sometimes too there were not lockers available either due to the volume of people. There didn't seem to be a pattern on when they were busy. Some cruises the early morning was packed, others it was after lunch.

Thank you for your well-written review, and the add-on regarding entertainment. As you said, some things like food and entertainment, are definitely different preferences for different people. For us though - there is such a variety in those aspects, that we feel there is something for everyone. Thank you for highlighting the things that we like the best - the absolute top of the line service and attitude of the Viking Cruise staff, and the comfy feel of the ship, exemplified by the number of little spots you can explore and get away from it all and have some quiet time! Hoping you have a wonderful cruise next September!

Perhaps take 2 taxis? Or get a Uber with Van?

duquephart - don't know if you know it, but you truly are the master of the One Line post. Go back and look. Almost all of them are just one line/statement! Man of few words but a lot to say!

I concur! We did this Dec 31, 2019 (Falklands with Patrick Watts) and highly recommend it!!!

We asked about maps on our July cruise. We told that from now on all Viking ships will not produce maps. 1. Too many complaine the maps were poor quality and 2. Too many use their phones for maps or have their own. Many apparently told Viking to not waste the effort for a very small few. Their words not mine. I like paper maps

Totally agree with you! On all our Ocean cruises, we look forward to breakfast at World Cafe - for it's unbeatable views, love the variety of food (always have something different) with so many choices. You could have a completely different breakfast every day if you wished!

I think it is well known that the earlier ships for DV's have no closets. We are going on Star soon but even though we knew that, the itinerary is what we wanted. We will adjust just fine. And likely just not bring so much. After many cruises we have learned to make our suitcases a mini-closet and store them under the bed quite easily with easy access.

Almost without exception, we've been able to do both included and optional excursions in a port. Only if the optional was an all-day or 7 hour one, did we "miss" the included tour. We would try to do an optional in the morning and an included in the afternoon. That way we could stay in town and take the shuttle back to the ship. We've been on 10 ocean cruises with Viking. Note: you do have to plan carefully your excursions timing, but it really isn't that difficult. Oceania's method is an interesting concept - perhaps Viking might try it out if enough people were to put it into comments.

We just did our own arrangements for our summer cruise beginning in London (Greenwich). It was quite easy. (Hopefully you are going out of Greenwich and not Tilbury). It was an easy Tube ride to our hotel in London, where we based our do it yourself touring of many days. We then took an amazingly inexpensive Uber from our hotel (in S.Kensington) to Greenwich. Piece of cake! And all for less than Viking transfers cost, even if we had been eligible to purchase them. Good luck!

Me too Jim. I like to tell all these people who vent on Viking, that's fine, at least you'll now go to the ships you like and won't be taking up cabins that we might have wanted! The ones that bug me though are those who say they are gone from Viking for good, but keep coming back on Cruise Critic to keep complaining about things. Oh well . . . Yes, please stay far away!

Thanks Andy. That sounds like the reason. I do recall they had some things in the Star Theatre but not football. On our holiday cruise we had a wonderful live performance of an opera from Italy (thanks to our cruise director Heather Clancy)

On our Holiday Cruise (Dec/Jan) in 2019/2020 in South America, we did get the Rose Parade and Rose Bowl game. I'm a big NFL fan (49ers, sorry) but don't recall ever getting NFL football on any of our fall/winter cruises. Although - I do recall other posters said they did watch the Super Bowl on February cruises.

Your cabin steward experience is unusual. We’ve done 10 cruises and only had 1 time like yours. I hope you let Viking know. as to food and entertainment I would agree but as Jim said, they aren’t as important to us. And yes eating at anyones favorite diner would also get boring over time.

That’s exactly what I do. No cloud no worry about WiFi speed. Copy to my memory sticks. Always works well!. Clouds are great except when they are not.