On Sea now, any questions?

[Clay Clayton]

We are midway though our second sea day after leaving San Juan on 3/29/19 headed for Barcelona.  So far lovely cruise with beautiful weather as you can see in the picture. The first picture is our last sight of land as leaving Sint Maarten on Saturday. 

 

If anyone has any Sea specific questions, i’m happy I try to track down an answer for you. 

[Vineyard View]

We will be on the Sea in October sailing from NYC to San Juan!  St Martin will be one of our stops!  I am reading mixed reviews on the status of St Martin’s recovery. We spent a week there several years ago and have fond memories. Thinking we might take a catamaran that day and then just ‘dink’ around some to help a little with the local economy. How was your experience? 

Enjoy your sailing! Your pictures look like you are doing exactly the perfect activities! Can’t wait to do the same! 😂👍

Edited April 1, 2019 by Vineyard View

[albertamom]

I was so excited to see your thread!  We are booked on the West Indies cruise on the Sea in January, for our first Viking cruise, and I absolutely cannot wait!  I'm already thinking that the Transatlantic the following year from San Juan could very well be our second Viking cruise (which shows how convinced I am that we will absolutely love the Viking experience)! 

 

I have no specific questions, but please keep posting!  I'll be soaking it all in! 

[Krisval]

We’ve been on the Sea a couple of times and boarding in Barcelona on the 10th. Curious to know if a couple of our favorite servers are on board: Budhi and Ignati. Budhi has been on a couple of cruises with us in the past. They may just be getting on in Barcelona.

Enjoy!

[Annarundel]

How is the nightly entertainment?  How is the band in Troshaven?  We were on the Sky in August 2018 Into The Midnight Sun and the musical entertainment Vince and Jennifer and the Viking Band were amazing!   The musical shows in the theater at night were wonderful.  Then in February we did a 14 day Mediterranean Cruise and were so looking for to hearing the band in Troshaven and were so disappointed.  It was awful and the musical entertainment in the theater at night was like watching a bad high school play.  We are thinking about booking another Viking Ocean Cruise and was wondering if the entertainment on all the other ships is the same way.

[Clay Clayton]

6 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

We will be on the Sea in October sailing from NYC to San Juan!  St Martin will be one of our stops!  I am reading mixed reviews on the status of St Martin’s recovery. We spent a week there several years ago and have fond memories. Thinking we might take a catamaran that day and then just ‘dink’ around some to help a little with the local economy. How was your experience? 

Enjoy your sailing! Your pictures look like you are doing exactly the perfect activities! Can’t wait to do the same! 😂👍

We did the included bus tour as my DMIL has never seen the island.  Since you’ve been here before I would highly recommend against it. The island is still in pretty rough shape though trying hard to recover.  Some folks I spoke with did a snorkeling trip with a beach stop and enjoyed it.  Sorry I can’t be more help. 

[Clay Clayton]

6 hours ago, albertamom said:

I was so excited to see your thread!  We are booked on the West Indies cruise on the Sea in January, for our first Viking cruise, and I absolutely cannot wait!  I'm already thinking that the Transatlantic the following year from San Juan could very well be our second Viking cruise (which shows how convinced I am that we will absolutely love the Viking experience)! 

 

I have no specific questions, but please keep posting!  I'll be soaking it all in! 

If you want to see how the TA was last year, go to the archives of my blog and start in March.  I’m not being as detailed this year on my blog since it is basically the same trip.  I am however putting together a list of differences we see in Viking since last year.  Some positive, some negative - none significant!😁

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, Annarundel said:

How is the nightly entertainment?  How is the band in Troshaven?  We were on the Sky in August 2018 Into The Midnight Sun and the musical entertainment Vince and Jennifer and the Viking Band were amazing!   The musical shows in the theater at night were wonderful.  Then in February we did a 14 day Mediterranean Cruise and were so looking for to hearing the band in Troshaven and were so disappointed.  It was awful and the musical entertainment in the theater at night was like watching a bad high school play.  We are thinking about booking another Viking Ocean Cruise and was wondering if the entertainment on all the other ships is the same way.

The band is a fine cover band, they also play for that four singers during their show.  If entertainment is high on your list of important things, then I might have to think twice...my DMIL thinks all of it is great but she has a relatively low bar.  LOL

 

There is a magician aboard but he hasn’t performed yet.  But I don’t know that he isn’t here special just because it’s a TA.  

[albertamom]

29 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

If you want to see how the TA was last year, go to the archives of my blog and start in March.  I’m not being as detailed this year on my blog since it is basically the same trip.  I am however putting together a list of differences we see in Viking since last year.  Some positive, some negative - none significant!😁

 

Thanks so much!  I'll head there now! 

[Vineyard View]

20 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

We did the included bus tour as my DMIL has never seen the island.  Since you’ve been here before I would highly recommend against it. The island is still in pretty rough shape though trying hard to recover.  Some folks I spoke with did a snorkeling trip with a beach stop and enjoyed it.  Sorry I can’t be more help. 

Thanks Clay. Appreciate this input. Your comment supported the direction we are looking at taking. 

I honestly can’t see us using the Viking included tours on this itinerary -  for us in most ports doing our own thing or private tours will be our way to go. We generally do that anyway regardless of Cruise line, but the Caribbean seems to me to be much more so. 

It is probably our least used ‘Viking inclusive’. The rest of the Viking perks are much appreciated by us!

[geospyder]

5 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

We will be on the Sea in October sailing from NYC to San Juan!  St Martin will be one of our stops!  I am reading mixed reviews on the status of St Martin’s recovery. We spent a week there several years ago and have fond memories. Thinking we might take a catamaran that day and then just ‘dink’ around some to help a little with the local economy. How was your experience? 

Enjoy your sailing! Your pictures look like you are doing exactly the perfect activities! Can’t wait to do the same! 😂👍

We were in St. Maarten in December.  If you look for it you will see some of the damage that hasn't been repaired.  But over all they are definitely open for business and as vibrant as always.  I'm speaking about downtown Philipsburg.  I cannot say how the inner island is,

Edited April 1, 2019 by geospyder

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Thanks Clay. Appreciate this input. Your comment supported the direction we are looking at taking. 

I honestly can’t see us using the Viking included tours on this itinerary -  for us in most ports doing our own thing or private tours will be our way to go. We generally do that anyway regardless of Cruise line, but the Caribbean seems to me to be much more so. 

It is probably our least used ‘Viking inclusive’. The rest of the Viking perks are much appreciated by us!

We have only done TAs with Viking And enjoyed the included tours very much. But I suspect for the Caribbean I would end up making everyday a Sea day!

Edited April 1, 2019 by Clay Clayton

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, geospyder said:

We were in St. Maarten in December.  If you look for it you will see some of the damage that hasn't been repaired.  But over all they are definitely open for business and as vibrant as always.  I'm speaking about downtown Philipsburg.  I cannot say how the inner island is,

Yes, the damage I noted was away from Phillipsburg, particularly in the small settlements between it and Marigot. 

[Vineyard View]

 

Thanks both Clay and geospyder. I think the catamaran followed by a couple hours in Phillipsburg will be a perfect day. We reserved a private in Dominica, another Catamaran in Tortola for great snorkeling - the rest of the ports will be DIY. St Marting was my ‘on the fence’ port so I appreciate this. 

Enjoy your voyage Clay and raise a glass for all of us wishing we had your views! 

Edited April 1, 2019 by Vineyard View

[AuntieWerewolf10]

2 minutes ago, Vineyard View said:

 

Thanks both Clay and geospyder. I think the catamaran followed by a couple hours in Phillipsburg will be a perfect day. We reserved a private in Dominica, another Catamaran in Tortola for great snorkeling - the rest of the ports will be DIY. St Marting was my ‘on the fence’ port so I appreciate this. 

Enjoy your voyage Clay and raise a glass for all of us wishing we had your views! 

We did the NYC to San Juan Cruise in 2018. It was a last minute deal decision so didn’t have a lot of time to plan the excursions. The included Viking tours were underwhelming, I would recommend booking your own adventures. 

[Vineyard View]

Thanks for another vote in the direction we are moving towards. I hope that you enjoyed the itinerary in spite of the included excursions. 

[AuntieWerewolf10]

We enjoyed a delightful trip, enhanced by the rum punch!

[Dauntless]

9 hours ago, Annarundel said:

How is the nightly entertainment?  How is the band in Troshaven?  We were on the Sky in August 2018 Into The Midnight Sun and the musical entertainment Vince and Jennifer and the Viking Band were amazing!   The musical shows in the theater at night were wonderful.  Then in February we did a 14 day Mediterranean Cruise and were so looking for to hearing the band in Troshaven and were so disappointed.  It was awful and the musical entertainment in the theater at night was like watching a bad high school play.  We are thinking about booking another Viking Ocean Cruise and was wondering if the entertainment on all the other ships is the same way.

 

Cannot speak about the Torshavn but last year in April on our MO cruise we spoke with the entertainers and found out that a new production company was taking over the ships as the old contract expires.  I will say that the new company was quiet and improvement over the first cruise with Viking.  Fewer of the performing group but much better costumes as a whole with an understanding of technical possibilities and pacing of the shows.  The group was getting new men after our cruise and the girls would be changed shortly there after.  This was the first group to appear on the Star.  This could explain why the first group was much better than the second, depending on how the rotation was going with those ships.  We actually spoke with the production group representative as she was bringing the men on the ship. 

[Jammy Bun]

Look forward to following along with you, as we almost booked this trip.  The flights from northern UK deterred us, and we opted instead for the last leg of the World Cruise, leaving from Durban South Africa next week (small time zone change for us).  However, we LOVE lots of sea days so will be following with interest for a possible future cruise.

[Clay Clayton]

We almost booked the Santiago to Sydney leg of the WC but decided since it was only our 2nd year of retirement that we needed to be more prudent with our $. 

 

If you like sea days then I can imagine a better cruise.  Just back from Trivia (where we didn’t win) and now sitting in the Explorer’s Lounge watching the windy sea!  I feel a nap coming on...maybe the lecture at 4. Decisions Decisions. 

FYI, Mamsen’s  lunch is tasty! Though there was a line 😢

 

If you want to follow the cruise, I’d suggest my blog as I really only started this thread to answer questions.  If you decide to take a TA hope you’ll enjoy it as much as us!

[Jammy Bun]

Thank you - I'll go find your blog now!

Janet

[Clay Clayton]

Www.CruisinWithClay.com.   If you hit “follow” you’ll get an email whenever I post.  

 

If you want to read about last year’s TA then I’d suggest starting in the March 2018 archive. 

[Jammy Bun]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

Www.CruisinWithClay.com.   If you hit “follow” you’ll get an email whenever I post.  

 

If you want to read about last year’s TA then I’d suggest starting in the March 2018 archive. 

 

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

 

 

And two hours later, I was still reading... 😁😁😁

 

great blog, thank you!  Heading back there now for more.

[Clay Clayton]

You’re welcome.   Just paying it forward!

[Heidi13]

I'm now following through Wordpress reader, which makes it really convenient