Viking Ocean Viking Star Cruise Reviews

[id4elizabeth]

Thanks Pacquebot for the kind words! And in my review I didn't even mention our delay of hours in disembarking in Pula due to the fact that the crew had not semmingly used the tenders before and it took forever to get the first boat launched. And thanks to you we were in that first tender. Despite pacquebot's heroic efforts to get our private small group tour passengers in the first tender, we didn't get to shore until 11:00 when we were supposed to be there at 8:30

 

Of course, the crew no doubt knows how to operate the tenders by now and this won't be an issue for most of you. Although the Star has been and will be in the Baltic for the summer where there are no tendered ports, so maybe the crew will have some difficulty again when they reenter the Mediterranean.

 

As far as the heated towel racks, I normally enjoy them as well, but when your bathroom temperature is close to 85 degrees, you might want to have them turned off too. My point in that story was that we made a repeated request that nobody did anything about. By the way, the only rooms I think with heated towel racks are the Full Suites and the Junior Suites.

 

All the rooms are supposed to have heated floors. If you get onboard and yours isn't heated, ask that it be turned back on. It could be that the folks who had your cabin before you had them turned off. They have no way of keeping track of this, so it would pay to go to the Desk and make this request.

 

PS...we did enjoy the towel racks in the Baltic!

 

I sincerely hope your Viking experience is better than ours. You will have a good time, even if some of the issues are not resolved. After all, I know they now have weight scales. And I'm hoping they now have unsweetened iced tea!

[id4elizabeth]

Thanks Pacquebot for the kind words! And in my review I didn't even mention our delay of hours in disembarking in Pula due to the fact that the crew had not semmingly used the tenders before and it took forever to get the first boat launched. And thanks to you we were in that first tender. Despite pacquebot's heroic efforts to get our private small group tour passengers in the first tender, we didn't get to shore until 11:00 when we were supposed to be there at 8:30

 

Of course, the crew no doubt knows how to operate the tenders by now and this won't be an issue for most of you. Although the Star has been and will be in the Baltic for the summer where there are no tendered ports, so maybe the crew will have some difficulty again when they reenter the Mediterranean.

 

As far as the heated towel racks, I normally enjoy them as well, but when your bathroom temperature is close to 85 degrees, you might want to have them turned off too. My point in that story was that we made a repeated request that nobody did anything about. By the way, the only rooms I think with heated towel racks are the Full Suites and the Junior Suites.

 

All the rooms are supposed to have heated floors. If you get onboard and yours isn't heated, ask that it be turned back on. It could be that the folks who had your cabin before you had them turned off. They have no way of keeping track of this, so it would pay to go to the Desk and make this request.

 

PS...we did enjoy the towel racks in the Baltic!

 

I sincerely hope your Viking experience is better than ours. You will have a good time, even if some of the issues are not resolved. After all, I know they now have weight scales. And I'm hoping they now have unsweetened iced tea!

[roothy123]

Thanks Pacquebot for the kind words! And in my review I didn't even mention our delay of hours in disembarking in Pula due to the fact that the crew had not semmingly used the tenders before and it took forever to get the first boat launched. And thanks to you we were in that first tender. Despite pacquebot's heroic efforts to get our private small group tour passengers in the first tender, we didn't get to shore until 11:00 when we were supposed to be there at 8:30

 

Of course, the crew no doubt knows how to operate the tenders by now and this won't be an issue for most of you. Although the Star has been and will be in the Baltic for the summer where there are no tendered ports, so maybe the crew will have some difficulty again when they reenter the Mediterranean.

 

As far as the heated towel racks, I normally enjoy them as well, but when your bathroom temperature is close to 85 degrees, you might want to have them turned off too. My point in that story was that we made a repeated request that nobody did anything about. By the way, the only rooms I think with heated towel racks are the Full Suites and the Junior Suites.

 

All the rooms are supposed to have heated floors. If you get onboard and yours isn't heated, ask that it be turned back on. It could be that the folks who had your cabin before you had them turned off. They have no way of keeping track of this, so it would pay to go to the Desk and make this request.

 

PS...we did enjoy the towel racks in the Baltic!

 

I sincerely hope your Viking experience is better than ours. You will have a good time, even if some of the issues are not resolved. After all, I know they now have weight scales. And I'm hoping they now have unsweetened iced tea!

 

Pula's an unusual place. There's only one other cruise ship scheduled to visit this summer/fall before Star goes back there in very late September. I'm curious to see where that ship anchors, given the many obstacles in the harbor, the ferry lanes, and the place where Star anchored in April (way outside the harbor). Hopefully the trip to the little dock by the park will be faster when Star visits this fall. At least the crew has now been to Pula once and knows how to navigate the cluttered harbor to find the little pier where they can set up the tendering operation. I'm expecting to get ashore a lot quicker. If not, I'll just have plenty of time to explore that Coliseum look-alike and other Pula sights.

 

As for reviews, everyone is different, and it always amazes me to see what people care most about. I guess I'm more easy to please than many, as long as the itinerary is good and places are interesting - which they almost always are!

[Vineyard View]

We were independent on the majority of our ports (29 days- maiden voyage). We really had zero issues embarking/disembarking We only had one tender port (London) and we just showed up when we heard the announcement that we were cleared by port authorities- again no issues. Return was not as great as the London port authorities were only running one tender rather than the two they were supposed to.

 

That said, I will say that the Excursions Department is the MAIN reason, based on our experience, that I gave Viking a 4* rather than 5* rating on my CC ship review. I have to believe that based on all this similar feedback from our Maiden Voyage cruise reviews that Viking knows that they need to get their arms around this quickly.

 

Further, yes, we will sail Viking Oceans again when the itinerary presents to us that is attractive and different enough from others we have taken.

Edited June 27, 2015 by Vineyard View

[cassandra44]

I had a phone call from Viking today asking me about a comment i posted under my pseudonym. Surely not ethical?

[traveltwin]

Seems to me that many posters have been complaining that Viking wasn't responsive....I don't know what ethical means here. Isn't that what you wanted??

[dhill]

Cruise Critic's Viking Star rating by passengers in freefall ... now only 43% loved!

 

Well that not right:mad:

[cassandra44]

I think you missed the point. I posted here under a pseudonym which is supposed to protect privacy. Viking found out my real name and my phone number (I have no idea how) and phoned me to ask about one of my posts here.

I would assume that if a cruise company can breach confidentiality on this site and find out my personal information that is a breach of privacy.

Of course we want responses but presumably Viking can address those concerns generally on this site without breaching privacy?

[theremin]

Cassandra44 is quite correct. Cruise Critic sign-up specifically says to NOT make your login id your real name. Given that a Google search yields over 5,000 Cassandra44 results, how did Viking find the right one?

 

I don't think anybody is trying to hide behind the ID, but Cruise Critic's Privacy Policy, item #1 starts off, "If we at any time ask for any personal information, we will not give it out to anyone unless you tell us to do so ..."

 

Hmmm . . .

[CharTrav]

As far as I can determine looking at the account info CC has about me (and I gave the bare minimum), the only "real world" data CC knows about us is our email address and birthdate. Is it possible CC did not provide anything but that VO pieced together identifying data from cassandra44s' posts? Or did CC provide her(his?) email address to VO, which would be all they need to fully identify him(her) given that Viking has that piece of information on all of its passengers. If the latter then I would be I upset with VO for asking but really angry with CC for responding.

[Logistigr8r]

Oh dear... What to say.... Some info was helpful and would be helpful to Viking. But an awful lot was just complaining and indeed nitpicky. Will post comments after we are on The Star this weekend. Clearly many issues were maiden voyage related and have already been fixed.

pqcking my sense of humor and also my sense of what issues we really important and which are not. I personally love a heated towel rack by the way.

I don't mean to bash what the reviewer thinks is helpful. Some of it is.

 

I think you bashed and I think you meant to. You don't know the awesome Ms Elizabeth and that's your loss. Just because it's Cruise Critic doesn't mean you need to criticize. It's down right odd that you find it okay to complain about someone else, even though they're trying to help you, but how dare anyone say something negative about a cruise line.

 

If it bothers you that people here have opinions that may differ from yours, maybe you'd be happier to stay with the flowery prose on the Viking web site.

Edited June 27, 2015 by Logistigr8r

[Host Jazzbeau]

Cassandra's signature shows two Viking River cruises, in addition to the Viking Ocean cruise that sparked this. Given the small size of those ships, and the relatively small size of the Viking Ocean ship, isn't it possible that only one passenger sailed all three itineraries?

[id4elizabeth]

Cassandra - I can't seem to find your review in the "Reviews" section, but did you give your cabin number under your cabin review? If so, then it's possible Viking could easily figure out who you were - if they have your departure port and room number, then their own records would give your name and phone number. I was trying to see if you did, but couldn't find your specific review.

 

No one from Viking has called me, and I KNOW they know who I am...:rolleyes:

[Logistigr8r]

Cassandra 44,

 

Don't know about you, but at our "Meet and Greet" there were three Viking employees there from California. They were not in uniform or anything. They were just kinda blending in while we all exchanged our CC monikers and real names. I only found who they were after I asked.

 

Not sure, but I think when CC Roll Callers work with CC to set up the Meet and Greets with the cruise lines they may give CC info and peoples real names, cabin numbers to the cruise lines. I've never done a Meet and Greet, but I thought that was how it worked.

 

Maybe the awesome Ms Elizabeth knows???

Edited June 27, 2015 by Logistigr8r

[id4elizabeth]

Since Viking was sponsoring our M&G in Istanbul they did ask for a list of first names and cabin numbers. They did not ask for our CC 'handles' though. So not sure how they would connect a CC handle to name and phone number, except if it were obvious as it would be in my case or in Cassandra' case. If there were a M&G on Cassandra's cruise then that could certainly be a way for them to figure it out.

[JVilleGal]

I think you missed the point. I posted here under a pseudonym which is supposed to protect privacy. Viking found out my real name and my phone number (I have no idea how) and phoned me to ask about one of my posts here.

I would assume that if a cruise company can breach confidentiality on this site and find out my personal information that is a breach of privacy.

Of course we want responses but presumably Viking can address those concerns generally on this site without breaching privacy?

 

 

Cruise Critic absolutely will not EVER release any info on a poster on this board or any other. Viking has obviously pieced together from info based on your postings and other hints provided.

 

Note: Viking does read these boards and others. I am also personally banned from the Viking FB page and unable to post there so I am no Viking cheerleader.

[LauraS]

Hi Everyone:

 

I see that our Asst. Community Manager has already clarified the issue of posting reviews on our site, so the only thing I will add to that discussion is that Viking does send out emails to their passengers encouraging them to post reviews on our site.

 

Some other things I'd like to clarify. We are serious about your privacy. We would never, ever give out any information about you unless required to do so by subpoena. They'd have to pull out my fingernails before I'd share anything.

 

We have nothing to do with Meet & Mingle parties on board Viking Star. I know that our Editor in Chief was on board an early sailing; Viking reached out to her about the party, she attended. We share no information about who will attend, basically because we don't have anything *to* share.

 

I'm always counseling people to keep their info close to them on the Internet. It's one of the reasons why we do not allow the posting of Facebook Roll Call groups, etc. Think before you post. Some of you are using your real first names as your user name: if any of you want to change your user name, please contact me directly. As others have said, if someone is so inclined and they have copious amounts of time to sit and compare FB posts with Cruise Critic posts & reviews and cruise ship manifestos, well then they may be able to figure out who you are.

 

This is one of the reasons why adding your cabin number to reviews published our site is OPTIONAL. It is that way for the exact reason of a cruise line pinpointing who you are, and perhaps attempting to contact you for some reason.

 

If anyone receives a phone call/correspondence as a result of posting on Cruise Critic or submitting a review to our site, I'd like to hear about it. You can email me directly at community@cruisecritic.com.

 

Questions? Comments? Always feel free to email me directly.

 

 

LauraS

Senior Manager, Community

[Vineyard View]

I am not saying this is the case here, but I have seen many times on CC with many cruise lines the request to confirm attendance for organizing Meet & Mingles. I responded once via a private email to the organizer which included my cabin # for their compilation of total attendees. That organizer then published my actual name and cabin # on the CC forum when sending out the list of attendees. When I requested she change the information, she didn't know how to do that.

I contacted CC to have that information deleted - which was done immediately and replaced with my handle.

I NEVER want that personal information posted for the world to see when I will be away from home on any social media site for a whole lot of reasons......

Just sayin.....

Edited June 27, 2015 by Vineyard View

[traveltwin]

I think you bashed and I think you meant to. You don't know the awesome Ms Elizabeth and that's your loss. Just because it's Cruise Critic doesn't mean you need to criticize. It's down right odd that you find it okay to complain about someone else, even though they're trying to help you, but how dare anyone say something negative about a cruise line.

 

If it bothers you that people here have opinions that may differ from yours, maybe you'd be happier to stay with the flowery prose on the Viking web site.

Okay then, over and out. Don't want to get into this kind of nonsense on holiday. So far so good on ship. Planning to relax and enjoy. Food is great, ship lovely, and I have no interest in spoiling with debates.

Will POST WHEN I GET HOME.

[cassandra44]

Cassandra - I can't seem to find your review in the "Reviews" section, but did you give your cabin number under your cabin review? If so, then it's possible Viking could easily figure out who you were - if they have your departure port and room number, then their own records would give your name and phone number. I was trying to see if you did, but couldn't find your specific review.

 

No one from Viking has called me, and I KNOW they know who I am...:rolleyes:

Elizabeth...here is the link to my review. I dont give cabin numbers but I think they may have identified me from various pieces of info that were posted. I know that Viking was trying to address some of the issues but it is unsettling to be contacted directly when you have used a pseudonym.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=506347

[cassandra44]

Thanks for clarifying that. Of course we all value privacy and I was concerned.

[id4elizabeth]

Traveltwin - glad to hear everything is going fine and hope your journey continues that way! I do have a couple questions which can certainly wait until you get home. Is unsweet iced tea still available out of one of the taps on either juice machine in the World Cafe, or do you have to order it from a waiter / waitress? Second, one of the passengers on the maiden voyage (not me) started a paperback swap exchange on one of the bookshelves on the 1st floor. Just curious if it's still there.

 

Again - hope you enjoy your trip. Hope everyone enjoys their trip and Viking continues to improve so that all future passengers' trips go smoothly.

[traveltwin]

Hi Elizabeth... Didn't hurt that today and yesterday in Stockholm are breathtakingly clear and warm... Blue skies, sailboats racing right next to us. I don't know about the iced tea but will look tomorrow. Also haven't had a look at books. So far we're very pleased. The food is really good, service good. Checking in was easy. Was glad to have tips from previous ppl about bringing old key card to keep electric on for charging devices. Cabin super comfy. Friends and hubby went on bus tour today of Stockholm and said very good. Lecturer excellent on Vikings. TV in rooms works well. Wifi quite good. Of course it won't be as fast as home high speed. It's early days, but I certainly think they may be getting some bugs out and the value for money is very very good. Love the number of nice little spaces to relax on ship. More later.

[ninthisland]

Hi Elizabeth... Didn't hurt that today and yesterday in Stockholm are breathtakingly clear and warm... Blue skies, sailboats racing right next to us. I don't know about the iced tea but will look tomorrow. Also haven't had a look at books. So far we're very pleased. The food is really good, service good. Checking in was easy. Was glad to have tips from previous ppl about bringing old key card to keep electric on for charging devices. Cabin super comfy. Friends and hubby went on bus tour today of Stockholm and said very good. Lecturer excellent on Vikings. TV in rooms works well. Wifi quite good. Of course it won't be as fast as home high speed. It's early days, but I certainly think they may be getting some bugs out and the value for money is very very good. Love the number of nice little spaces to relax on ship. More later.

 

Would be interested to kow where the ship is berthed in Stockholm and how far it is to the city centre.

[Vineyard View]

It is a fairly easy walk to into the main parts of the city - we walked it easily but if there are mobility issues it could mean some challenges. So I guess it depends on how well individuals are able to walk - I would guess maybe 1/2 mile to old town??? And then there is a lot of walking you can do to get into all the nooks and crannies! We did hire a cab when we disembarked to our hotel and we're glad that we did with our luggage. Oh, and you can negotiate with the cabs....if one doesn't work with you, then go to the next one! They are not regulated in Stockholm.