Viking Pre-Cruise Experience vs. Azamara

So far, Viking's Pre-Cruise Experience is way above Azamara's. 1) Viking gave great assistance to my travel agent to help find flights that worked for us and did not carry the custom air surcharge for the flight (all we had to pay was the small custom air fee and since the original cost was only $795 to Europe during a holiday week, we felt we got good value). 2) Even though we are in the lowest category, had no problem with online booking of the included shore excursions 60 days out when booking opened to us 3) Silver spirit beverage package seems well worth it due to a very reasonable cost 4) We received an email a few days ago to tell us our travel documents were on the way -- each of the four of us received separate documents in a lovely presentation bag with nice luggage tag and pre-cruise booklet that even included a deckplan with our stateroom highlighted (I don't recall receiving this level of personalization on other lines). So far I am very impressed. Azamara really needs to pay attention because at about $400 pp per day, including air and shore excursions, so far it seems like Viking could be serious competition for Azamara. Will post a comparison review after the cruise!

I have a Viking Oceans cruise booked and am looking forward to it. But I keep checking their website for other cruises, and find their itineraries are pretty boring and definitely same old-same old (over and over). The one area where Azamara is better than every other cruise line is itineraries -- and as our travel experience continues to grow, that becomes more and more important.