Oh2Bcruisin

4 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

You wouldn't want her NOT to do some shakedown cruises before she takes on paying passengers, would you?   This is good news indeed for those who are scheduled to do Antarctica next month.  My SIL&BIL are heading down to BA next week to do Antarctica with a different cruise operator.  They are still holding their breath until they actually board their ship.

It turns out they were not heading back to Sovik. The destination was not updated on Marine Traffic when I looked at it. It later changed  to Portugal. BTW, I never implied a shakedown cruise was a bad thing. Being a test engineer I know how important it is to ensure everything is working correctly. 

Looks like the Octantis is just doing some shakedown cruises. Marine traffic shows her returning to Sovik on December 28th. 

No destination yet in Marine Traffic but she’s definitely on the move…

It appears Octantis is on the move!! Marine traffic shows a slow speed and I found a webcam for Sovik showing her being move with a tugboat along side. The adventure begins…

We uploaded our photos with no problem. The hardest part was getting a picture my wife approved. To get photos uploaded, from the browser your smartphone, go to My Account on the Regent page and log into your account. Go to My Account. This should take you to “My Upcoming Cruise”. Under important dates click “Complete Online Check-in”. When you scroll down you’ll see “Security Photo”. Click that and it will walk you through the process. You’ll have the option to select a photo already on the phone.  BTW, this assumes you are within the time frame for doing the check-in. Good luck and have a good trip. 

The RSSC website has the notification it’s just not on the home page. Click on the Menu icon in the top left corner. At the bottom of the list is this link: https://www.rssc.com/coronavirus-statement  It has the notice and a link to the FAQs. Also, we had a December 2020 trip. We contacted our agent to rebook to a later time. Initially the RSSC agent did not have the formal notice but our agent just told us the formal notice has been issued. 

(Excuse me for the lengthy write up, I wanted to give you a feel for how Viking is handling the low water problem)

7 hours ago, millebe said:

If I am reading marinetraffic.com correctly, it looks like the Viking Hild is currently moving and is past Mainz heading to the Rhine Gorge!  If she makes it through, it will make all of us going that route next week feel a lot better!

Where does the Rhine Gorge start and end?  The Hild will be heading up the Mosel to Trier. I wasn’t sure if it would be affected by the low water in the gorge. 

My husband and I were also on the 12/17 Sky. Generally, we were very happy with Viking andthe Sky. We are experienced cruisers, mainly with the mainstream lines(primarily Celebrity and Holland America) as well as some of the premium andluxury lines (Azamara, Crystal and Oceania). One thing that struck us was thatthe entire crew seemed happy and welcoming to us and they all were happy to beon the ship and working for Viking. There were also a lot of repeat Vikingcruisers, both from the Ocean and River cruises.

Embarkation at the Port of Miami was very confusing, atleast as far as getting to the ship. As Lobes1 said, finding the ship wasn’teasy. Since the ship wasn’t where it was supposed to be, it was difficultfinding it and signage in Miami is not good. There was an electronic sign showingthe Viking Sea instead of Sky was at Terminal F but it flashed so quickly itwas really hard to read. It was also hard to get to where the ships were. Wecould see a Viking ship at Terminal F and had to ask the porters if it was ourship or another Viking ship. On top ofthat, when we arrived back in Miami, we docked at Terminal J. Since we drove, ourcar was parked near Terminal F…..and getting there from Terminal J wasn’t easy.We blame the port more than Viking for most of these problems.

As for the ship, she is beautiful and we loved the lightwoods and open spaces. It never seemed crowded and there was always somewhereto sit, whether you were near a bar, at the pool, or at a restaurant. Evengetting tables for 2 at the restaurant was never an issue or required a wait(something we had problems with on Oceania).

I would say the food was good but not exceptional. We arenot gourmet foodies but like good food made well. I think we ate just abouteverywhere on the ship. We didexperience some of the service issues Lobes1 described. They were happy to makesubstitutions or adjustments and always asked about food allergies.

The service teams in the Restaurant were disorganized. Theprimary waiter introduced himself and mentioned his co-workers (Co-waiters? Assistants?)but we couldn’t really tell who was supposed to be assisting us. We wereaddressed by name - thank you iPhones which were also used to take our orders.We were not rushed to order and they only asked about our dessert order when weordered our mains once (the last night). Service was slow with long waitsbetween courses.

We booked a Deluxe Veranda and were able to makereservations 60 days before sailing. We made one reservation at Manfredi’s. Weknew about the multiple menus at the Chef’s Table and weren’t sure if we wouldlike the options so we waited until we got on the ship. While touring the shipright after boarding, we saw the line at the World Café to make or change specialtyrestaurant reservations. Instead of waiting in line, we went to our room and used the TV. We couldsee the Chef’s Table menus and made our reservations right through the TV.

We went to Manfredi’s the second night and had similarservice issues. My husband asked for a ginger ale as they cleared his appetizerplate and it didn’t come until just before dessert. The waitress was veryapologetic and the Head Waiter came over and also apologized. He asked us tocome back so he could “make it right” for us. He said they were mostly bookedup but if we came any day between 6:00 and 6:30 they would find room for us.

We filled out the mid-cruise survey and mentioned theservice issues. The next morning we were in the Restaurant for breakfast andone of the waiters caught us as we were leaving and said someone wanted tospeak to us. It was one of the Head Waiters and he thanked us for our commentsand acknowledged the issues we mentioned. He repeatedly said they appreciatedthe feedback because if no one said anything, they couldn’t improve. He cameover to check on us every time we were in the Restaurant after that.

We also went to the Chef’s Table for the “La Route Des Indes”menu. It started with an amuse buche of Carrot & Cardamom Cream. It wasmuch bigger than most amuse buches we have had. The cardamom part was betterthan the carrot part. The first course was Spicy Tuna Tataki which was good.This was followed by a Ginger & Tarragon granite that we liked. The maincourse was Beef Tenderloin with Four Warm Spices (Spanish paprika, cumin,coriander, and cinnamon). It was nicely done. Dessert was Apple Delice FaconTarte Tatin which was also very good.

We did the included tour to Altun Ha in Belize which wasgood and very well organized. There were about 35 people on the tour and whenwe got to Altun Ha, we split into 3 groups of 10-12 people. We did an optionaltour of Mexican Street Food in Progresso/Merida which was very interesting. Therewere 14 people on the tour which was the perfect size for a tour of this type.The guide was very knowledgeable and also gave us a running commentary aboutProgresso, Merida and Mexico in general. The only drawback was the trip throughthe market. Being only a few days before Christmas, the market was very crowdedand we had trouble staying together.

Overall, we were very happy with the cruise and willprobably cruise with Viking Ocean again. We did book a river cruise for nextyear.

Great site and very helpful. I like the information on the Celebrity spreadsheet but wish it had the pictures also. I see that you are including comments on the cabins so appreciate all of the good input.

I do have to add to the requests for cabin class - even if they are going to be updated soon. When I book, I know what classes I will consider and some of them have lots of cabins to consider.

Thanks for doing this.

Sharon,

Thanks - but the attachment in Post 729 is pdf format. I was looking for Excel so I can sort and also update as more people posted. We've tried to "ud-pdf" the document but couldn't do it.

Many thanks to everyone who has provided cabin information - and worked on putting it all in a usable format.

Would it be possible for you (whoever has it) to post the excel file? I would like to be able to sort and search.

Again - thanks so much for all this information.