BlairsvilleCruiseGirl

We're going to be on the Venus in May and I was hoping to do the cooking class. Can you please advise what the menu is changed to?

We took the Empires of the Med cruise last year and the most fun tour we did was the Corfu by 4x4 vehicle. Two people per Suzuki 4x4 (they were pretty old/beat up but a lot of fun). We drove up the tallest mountain in Corfu, stopped for a snack with wine or Ouzo in this tiny village and then a couple of more stops for the views/pit stop. It was a blast and we saw a bit of Corfu that we would never have seen on a standard tour. 20230605_095421_99.mp4

In November 2023 I asked Viking Customer Service (on-line chat) when our May 31, 2024 shore excursions would be available for review and they said they're posted 110 days prior to sailing.

You weren't seeing things DWIMG. I looked 5 minutes ago and it wasn't there, then I just looked again and it's back. Might have been updating.

Oh, man, that wheel of Parm is BEAUTIFUL! Probably my favorite part of the bread basket in Manfredi's!

It's only 10 days, but we absolutely loved the Empires of the Mediterranean. The Adriatic port calls (Slovenia, Croatia and Montenegro) and Greek ports (Corfu, Olympia, Santorini and Athens) were all so gorgeous and with fascinating natural and cultural beauty. Spend a couple of days in Venice first and you'll have your two weeks!

I'm with you! We've been sat in these tables for two that were about just far enough apart from the next table that the server can squeeze between. We've been unlucky a couple of times, once with a really drunk guy and his wife that couldn't take the hint that we didn't want to be his new best friends and another time when we just wanted a quiet, intimate dinner and the couple seated right next to us wanted to share their life stories. We're also not anti-social, just don't always want to have a social dinner. So now, when we tell the person seating us that there are 2 of us, we add that we'd like a quiet, romantic table, and they usually accommodate us.

When we were debating who to book our first river cruise with, the ratio number of passengers to ship size and to crew size was a factor, which was one of the reasons we chose Scenic over Viking. The basic Viking Longship has 190 passengers to 48-50 crew while Scenic has 163 passengers to 56 crew, for the same size ships.

We just booked our first river cruise with Scenic iso Viking for precisely this reason (actually, among several reason why Scenic came out ahead when comparing to Viking). They have 3 different dining areas (some with 2 tops, but the MDR doesn't have many 2 tops), PLUS ROOM SERVICE! So for those nights we're not feeling at all sociable, we can just order room service and eat it on our "balcony" while watching the river slide by.

Great review - and timely as we're considering a Scenic "Danube in Depth" cruise for our first river cruise! Regarding dinner, what time did the dining room open? And did everyone have to go at that time, or just anytime after the doors opened? And did you have to always share tables? I'm sociable, but having experienced combined seating on ocean ships where our table mates were unpleasant (extremely loud or drunk or just plain obnoxious), I'm not in any rush to share tables again! And since there are less people on a river ship then on an ocean ship, the chances of having that obnoxious party see us the following nights and think "Oh, we'll sit with them again tonight!" are pretty good.

Your room steward will be happy to swap the champagne for a bottle of wine - I would check the wine list and then ask your steward to exchange - should be no problem!

We had the little milk chocolate bars on our June Adriatic cruise. According to our room steward, they replace the Toblerones. And they were really good! Yes, I squirreled them away and let them be replaced every day. 🙂

I can't comment on the noise issues (I've only stayed in the ES2s on 5), but the section of the infinity pool that juts out between the two ES2 cabins on 6 is mostly the overflow catch basin for the pool. In this picture, you can see the gap between where the pool ends and the overflow basin beyond it.

Wait...What? A snake was in the wine? The wine was made from snake? Details please!

Yes, on Viking Ocean there are free laundry rooms on every deck. They even have free detergent. You put your clothes in, select your settings, go over to the wall the detergent dispensers are, push the button and that's it! Here's a whole blog on it:

I was calling Viking AirPlus from the day flights became available for booking on the airlines' websites (we're sailing in May 2024). None of the flights I was interested in were available for booking at the "quoted" rate, but we could still book them through Viking and pay more $$. But Viking said maybe they would get allocations on those flights as time got closer. Next time I looked at MVJ, viola! I had flights listed, but they were terrible (multiple legs, long connections in Toronto and Frankfurt). When I called AirPlus, they said the computer assigned them but they weren't going to be ticketed until much closer to sailing. A week later I checked MVJ again and apparently the computer changed my reservation to now go via Toronto and Copenhagen, again with long connections. I was able to "change" the flights on MVJ but all the other flights were additional money, i.e. if we wanted only 1 stop on the way there and non-stop on the way back, it would be an additional $2-3,000 (in addition to the business class supplement I already booked with Viking). So, after waiting/looking/watching the fares for a couple of months, I realized I could stick with paying Viking $4800 for terrible flights, pay Viking $7000+ for the flights I wanted, or book them myself for $5400. We chose Door Number 3. My last cruise with Viking I was able to call and easily get the non-stops I wanted, but not this time. If I were you, I would keep checking MVJ, and if it doesn't show up, keep calling AirPlus and confirming you still have those flights so they don't mysteriously disappear. Viking only gets so much allocation from the different carriers, so you may not be able to get the flights you want - you gotta keep checking! Good Luck!

You didn't go into a chocolate shop??? How could you not, they're everywhere in Bruges! We went into several as we brought back Belgian Chocolates as gifts. My husband had to do the "sniff" test of the shop before we would buy - if it smelled heavenly, that was the shop! Then I had to hide the chocolate from him just to get it home!

If you go to Tile Trackers | Bluetooth Tracker for Keys, Wallets, Cars, and More and click on the How It Works drop down arrow, they have lots of info to help you. Also check out Tile Support (thetileapp.com) for the Support/How To's.

Is anyone else getting tired of all the "soothing" music in the lounges pre-dinner? Every evening on our June Viking Sea sailing, in both the Explorers Lounge and the Living Room, there were pianists, cellists or violinists playing "soothing" music. Now, don't get me wrong, they were all quite talented and the music was beautiful, but geez, after a while I was ready to fall asleep! Couldn't Viking have one place on board where they have a little more upbeat music during the early evening? It doesn't even have to be live music, just something with a little pep to it! I think the ideal solution would be to have the Aquavit terrace bar play some good ol' rock and roll music pre-dinner. We can go have a drink, chair dance to the music - you know, an upbeat atmosphere where we're not afraid to talk or laugh because we don't want to wake anyone up! And yes, for all you fans of the soothing music, there would still be plenty of it in the Explorers and Living Room!

We've been in both 5108 and 5109. The only people who can see the balcony are the cabins in the center/aft (you can see the diagonal wall between cabins in the pic above). If someone is standing at their railing, they can look to the side and see the balcony of 5108 or 5109. We've never had trouble with the infinity pool above us splashing down. IMO, these are the best suites on the ship - having the huge balcony is great. We had breakfast at the table on the balcony most mornings and really enjoyed laying on the double lounger or the two chaise lounges, depending on the sun or what we wanted to look at. We watched a YouTube video where someone was in the ES2 on 4 and you could hear the prop/propwash much more clearly than we ever did on 5. Here's pictures of the inside of our suite on the Viking Sea last month, as well as breakfast while sailing into Dubrovnik.

In Corfu we did the 4x4 Jeep excursion through Viking. Really Really enjoyed it! The women leading the tour was a little lackadaisical about ensuring all the Jeeps were behind her, but other than the adventure of getting lost and having to find the rest of the group, it was a blast. Plus there was a snack/wine/Ouzo stop in this little ancient village at the top of the mountain which was wonderful. Can't say I loved the Ouzo though! 🥴 20230605_095421_99.mp4

We did that tour in June and loved it. The little town is Cetinje (we were there on a Sunday and it was quiet, but beautiful to stroll around).

Remember to bring a driver's license with you if you're planning any excursions that require self-driving, e.g. 4x4 Jeep in Corfu. We had to bring our driver's license down to the customer service desk the day before the tour and also bring it on the tour (or at least the person driving had to have it)

I'm curious if you did the Blue Nose ceremony, and if you did, did you have to kiss a fish? LOL, I know that sounds funny, but I've seen YouTube videos of the ceremony with no fish involved, but also have read blogs where people said they had to kiss a fish! 🐟