Azulann

Love your creative thinking when it comes to booking your own flights. I love your flight plans and cheaper than Viking Air. Madrid is still one Spanish city I need to visit .

Herring pickled or in wine sauce or mustard sauce is both sweet and sour. I loved all three. I had it for breakfast alone with the waffle. I have never heard of tomato herring?

You are a lucky guy. along with everyone on your sailing. 🥳Having such great weather adds to each day's adventure in such a fabulous area of our planet. Our sailing in June in the Baltic Sea had perfect weather, it only rained one morning , otherwise clear sky and calm seas. Thank you for sharing the great pictures of each port and the landscape!

So sorry you missed Mariehamn. it is on a illdylic island of Arland archipelago. The moment I stepped off the ship, I could smell pine trees, fresh sea air and small marinas all over the island with sailboats it reminded me of the North Shore but no rugged coastline. it has a fascinating history. it is part of Finland but everyone speaks Swedish. Hope you get back to the Baltic Sea sometime and visit it.

Love the menu at Mamsen,🥰 except for the pea soup. But my sister had it a couple of nights for a late snack. Ate there for breakfast , lunch an late night snack on our last cruise. Love the herring !

Clay, My first chef table was the Erling menu. Erling is a nice Scandinavian name! It was delicious. but if I remember we had a dessert that had lingonberry's in it. Had it it on the TA from San Juan to Barcelona. Thanks for the pictures of the meal.

Always have stayed in DV staterooms. I set up e- check in my MVJ (paying by credit card just adds additional step of entering your card info each time). Then pick my first priority optional tour and pay for it go back and pick second etc. I pick the included tours last. Always have gotten the optional ones I really wanted when the tours open up for booking. I loved the Panama full transit cruise many years ago. It is indeed a wonder of the world! Now they have two canals !

Sorry for my mistake, that is good to know. Which airline flies direct to Oslo from NY? You are so lucky to live on the coast. Living in the Heartland we have very few direct flights to anywhere in Europe. MSP to AMS is daily but couple of others are seasonal. But we do always have direct flights to Japan, Mexico and Costa Rica. 😌

Only once on my recent cruise was it loud in the Restaurant. We had two top with a party of 6 people eating nearby. They were having a great time but it was loud. After they left it was easy to have a conversation. The best table IMO is 105, it is in the back right hand corner when you come into the restaurant. The Restaurant manager Raymond and the best waiter we had on cruise . I fell so bad that I forgot her name, but did tell Raymond that she was the best .

On my Viking cruise which is not offered again we did overnight in Stockholm, Mariehamn Arland Island;Gotland Sweden;Gdansk Poland, Karlskrona Sweden, Bornholm Denmark, Berlin ( Warnermunde) Germany,;Aarhus, Denmark and overnight in Copenhagen. I loved every one of these ports of call . My only regret is that we did not go to Norway. If you want to go to Nordic countries from the US , it does involve more than one flight. If you stick to London, Rome, Barcelona you can get a direct flight from some cities in the US, but those are not Nordic countries. Whatever yo decide to do, enjoy your cruise in Europe. 🛥️

All true !Just got back from Baltic Sea cruise, called Scenic Scandinavia on Viking in Jun Too bad this same itinerary is not offered in the future. Which cruise on Viking are you looking at ?. 1. Some times we were the only ship in port. Easy to get off ship even for tendering in one port of call. 2. Resident Historian is such a great feature. Dr. Livingston is an art historian and archealogist. Gave informative talks on Viking Era, Hanseatic League that were excellent. We also had an astronomer on board who gave talks. The Port talks were by the ship excursion manager who explained the port of call and things to do on your own. Viking Oceans is marketed as a "thinking persons "cruise for the curious. It is true. 3. The included excursion are walking tours of the town or bus tours with stops at various locations. They also offer optional tours for prices from $70 - 200+ per person. We did a combination of both. I would definitely pick Viking over mass cruise lines like Princess or Celebrity to cruise anywhere in Europe.

I would never go to Eastern Med in the height of summer. Too hot and too many people. Late October is perfect. In fact, I book a Feb Greek Odyssey cruise. The off season is fine with me, easy to get into the sites, and less ships in the ports.

Enjoy reading about your sea days full of fun and of course the food that will not be named . Every picture has both of you smiling ! 😀

HA I am getting my Italian owners mixup 😂 yes, you are correct . Still some elements remind me of Viking ships

I agree ! Also the brief glimpse of a dinning room has floor to ceiling windows without lots is drapery. Hagen and Manfredi family are old friends so it is logical the new ship would take the best of Viking and do their own thing with it.

I had the lamb shops for breakfast in the Restaurant for the first time on my June cruise. They are delicious and I felt very decadent.

Yes , on the Jupiter in June the resident historian often had lecture at 6;15 or 6:30. heard it was to free up early seating in Restaurant . But on our cruise we had no sea days too. I watched them at night or the next early morning on the tv in stateroom .

Also your room attendant will give you a blank card to put in the slot inside the door on wall. We always keep the card in slot and just urn off all lights when we leave stateroom. The AC works great. No worries. My future curse will be in Feb in 2025 in the Med. , so maybe I will find out if how the heat works. I do love the heated bathroom floor in bathroom. That too can be turn down or off. Ask your room attendant to show you the ins and outs of the stateroom if this is your first Viking ocean cruise. They re so helpful !

Yea! You are finally on board.🥂 I too always end up at the Aquavit terrace once we do the muster stuff. It is one of my favorite places on ship . Love eating outside for breakfast and lunch whenever I can on the ship.

Your lunch looks amazing !

Great review . So happy you also love the ship design. It and the great service is why I love Viking. The food in Restaurant was always was delicious no matter what I ordered I did eat in the other venues too. where are you going on your next Viking cruise ? Happy sailing

Thank you for your trip report. How wonderful to travel with your parents on this cruise. I too love the service in the Restaurant. I always found the waitstaff to be very attentive, friendly and willing to make sure any food allergies are noted for each dinner. I love Rhodes, Ephesus and Istanbul which I have visited more than once on previous cruises. Always something new to explore.

Have a great river cruise, and I hope you can put the debacle of Explora curse behind you.

Next time for your elderly parents please use a Travel Agent. they will handle everything. No cost ot you. So sorry you had an unfortunate experience with customer service. Was this an ocean or river cruise? Nice of you to help your parents, did they ever go the cruise?

I think it was someone who looked at the washer and saw both direction panels for both washer and dyer on the lower machine and made an assumption. ... Dryers are above the washers on all the stacks, but the directions panel you have to press are on the lower machine. Also be sure to press button on wall corresponding to the machine you are using for the soap dispenser . Or one can always have Viking do your laundry for a fee..... 🙂