Iloveketo

Just curious… was this the West Indies Explorer cruise?

I can’t remember ever getting a mid-cruise comment form… we have done 6 Ocean cruises, starting in January of 2020. Was it part of the embarkation survey?

We have done West Indies in December of 2021 everything was fine same as before with the exception of no ginger ale to be had. Then a 33 day French Polynesian cruise in January of 2022 only issue was overcooked poultry (in my opinion), but we had ginger ale. May of 2022 we were on the Octantis on the Great Lakes, so many bugs! The food in the World Cafe was OUTSTANDING! November of 2022 we did the Iconic Western Mediterranean with a pre in Parma/Bologna, which was INCREDIBLE and a post in Barcelona. The food on the ship was as delicious as always. In January of 2023 we did the Panama Canal and Central America the food was good until I got a stomach bug after going through the locks and couldn’t enjoy anything for the rest of the trip. Lol Service on all these post pandemic cruises are what I was use to from Viking, music basically the same, I am not a wine connoisseur, so I can’t say anything about the wine. I’m happy with a Jamesons or a Rusty Nail. We do enjoy the Chef’s Table with the wine pairings, though I didn’t care for the Beef Cheeks on the Mexican menu. We are leaving on Sunday for the Northern Lights cruise and we are looking forward to being back on a Viking ship. I try to look at the positives around me so my opinions are based on my positive outlook of life in general. I hope you and your friends enjoy your cruise as much as we are enjoying ours!

We have been on 4 Viking Ocean cruises since 2020. One was 33 days with a lot of sea days. Fitness classes are not something that I have noticed often. Maybe some dance lessons in the Explorers Lounge or yoga/stretching (I can’t remember for sure where that was). As far as aquatic exercises most of us just do our own thing in one of the pools. I quite often will do my favorite yoga moves in the “beach” area of the pool. On one cruise there was another couple we saw every morning doing yoga by the pool and then they would join us in the pool. At home we have a yoga instructor who comes to our place once a week and we go to a local college to use the pool about 5 times a week. So, I understand someone who still wants to keep their routine going.

Our doctor and the people at Passport Health advised us to get the Yellow Fever vaccination before our Panama and Central America cruise last month. I questioned both doctors because the CDC said there could be issues for people over 59 (I believe that was what I had read). We are well over that age. Both doctors advised us to get the vaccination and we didn’t have any side affects at all. But I would never get something without checking with my doctor and in this case a travel clinic, too. Lol

Anything is good with enough butter and tabasco. I learned years ago that I only thing I liked about eating shrimp or lobster was the butter. 😝

I love polenta, never tried grits… Sounds like I might want to skip it on Viking…

Just change the lamb chop to a strip steak and I’m in heaven!

If you are doing an Ocean cruise. Grabbing something before going to bed sounds like a good idea. All rooms, but the Veranda category have coffee makes. I think you might be able to get a muffin/danish and a hot beverage at the living room bar on deck one before 6:00. Hopefully, someone else can offer more help.

Wow! That’s a lot of food! I eat a 6 ounce steak and 2 fried eggs at least 5 times a week for breakfast. The only place I can get that is in the Restaurant on Viking. Unfortunately, my husband prefers the made to order omelets at the World Cafe. This looks very interesting. It looks like it has mushrooms. I would love to have them in addition to my normal breakfast.

Just going by what an English YouTuber said on one of his videos. Sorry you obviously didn’t care for it. Hope Viking has something for breakfast that you enjoy. If I eat breakfast, my favorite is the steak at the Restaurant with I believe it is called the Creole omelet.

I have never used it for breakfast, but I believe you can get eggs, toast, bacon, sausage plus cereal and sweets. I think I saw a YouTube video where someone ordered a full English breakfast. Hope someone answers your question. Looks like 6:00 is the earliest…

My husband loves the ones made to order in a pan at the World Cafe.

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/ships/viking-sea.html This is from the Viking Sea, but all ships are basically the same.

My husband insists on DV4 or a PV on deck 4, so I have no experience with a Veranda cabin, but I would like to try deck 3 for 2 reasons, 1 is the atrium on that level and 2 is since we do laundry on our cruises there are less people to share the laundry with. BTW Laundry is usually on the port side. The cabin size is the same as DV and I prefer it to PV, because I can see/hear the TV better from the bed. I also prefer having two chairs as opposed to a sofa and a chair. Hope someone with experience replies to your post.

Here’s a screenshot of the locations. Hope you can enlarge it so you can see where they are on deck 3. As the previous poster said.

We have some warming packets, hopefully we won’t need them. The only evening excursion we are doing is a concert in Alta. I’m hoping daytime temperatures will be warm enough for us not to need them. We also got a prescription for scopolamine patches. I’m really, really hoping not to need them!!! This will be our 7th cruise and we haven’t been seasick yet. Fingers crossed 🤞🏼 I can’t believe we fly to London only 2 weeks from Sunday!!! We are doing the pre with Viking. I’m so excited!!!

I’m hoping you are able to enjoy the cruise! It sounds like you are prepared for bad weather. At least in Tromso and Alta we are doing overnights. This will be our 6th cruise since the pandemic, only one before that. We have never taken anything for seasickness, even on our 33 day cruise from LA to French Polynesia. However, hearing what the last Northern Lights cruisers went through, we asked our doctor for prescriptions for scopolamine patches, just in case. I will think positive thoughts that we have calm seas. Fingers crossed 🤞🏼 😁🤓😎

Gladly. ☺️

Not Don, but we have taken 5 post COVID cruises with Viking and the Main Dining Room/Restaurant are just go and stand in line. The only thing we could book online was Manfredi’s and Chef’s Table. We did the Caribbean on the Sea, French Polynesia on the Orion, Octantis on the Great Lakes (may have needed to book on this one), the Sky in the Mediterranean, and the Star for Panama and Central America. Our next cruise in 3 weeks is on the Venus for the Northern Lights cruise and only dining to book online was Manfredi’s and Chef’s Table. Hope this helps.

Dining is always very nice even if we don’t get everything we want! Skaneateles is a beautiful village not that far from us.

Though we usually could book more than one time at each specialty dining… on our last cruise we were not allowed to book a second time at the Chef’s table. They said try again. I tried multiple days. No luck. We were in a Deluxe Veranda. The cruise wasn’t 30 days. It was maybe only 10 days - 2 weeks, the Panama and Central America cruise. It was a full ship, so maybe that was the issue. Some people ahead of us were able to book 3 times at each, but I assumed that they were probably in a suite.

I have the same problem when people use texting abbreviations like IMHO or LMAO. I quite often have to type them in a slag/urban dictionary to figure out what people are saying. I’m the type of person that still uses commas and semi-colons. 😀

I remember when the option for Chef’s Table menu was available at time of booking. I miss that! We have a cruise in 3 weeks. We booked PV so I was able to book 2 times at each restaurant, but I may switch days once I can see what the menu is. We did the Mexican back in January. I was so excited, because I had been trying to get it for a while now. Joke was on me, because I couldn’t eat the main course, beef cheeks.

On our fully booked cruise to Panama and Central America in January on the Star we couldn’t get the time we wanted at a table for 2 prior to the cruise. Usually we have been able to do it prior to the cruise, even at the DV cabin category, but not this time. We had booked DV so we were entitled to 1 reservation at each of the specialty restaurants. Once on the ship we did get 1 reservation at each, but we were not able to book a 2nd one at the Chef’s Table. We would have been allowed to change to a different day to get a different menu, but we would have had to cancel the original one. The reason given for this was so everyone would be able to get what they were promised according to their cabin category. Viking tries very hard to give everyone what they promise. There was someone before us, who I assume was in the much more expensive suites, because they were able to book 3 nights at each specialty restaurant. So, they didn’t let me get more than I was entitled to at the expense of the person who paid more and was entitled to more. So, at least you shouldn’t have to worry about someone behind you getting something that you are entitled to. I hope this gives you a little less to be concerned with. BTW 6 is the earliest they serve dinner at the Restaurant, Manfredi’s, Chef’s Table or World Cafe. I wish I could eat dinner at 5. The only way I can do that is by ordering room service. We should be able to make reservations on line prior to boarding as it states. I’m a planner, too, but it will work out. I have a cruise in 3 weeks and I have everything packed, but our shirts. Lol I sincerely hope you have an enjoyable cruise.