Unfortunately, that's one and done for us.

[Clay Clayton]

8 hours ago, duquephart said:

 

You didn't figure "wine/beer/soda at meals" into your "apples to apples comparison?"

Correct as we had beverage packages on the comparison cruises. The difference being that on Viking it was $19.95 pp/pd whereas on Celebrity it was more expensive.  On Norwegian it was “included” but we had to pay gratuities which worked out to $40 pp/pd as I recall. 

[KBs mum]

Viking is often about what they don't have, not what they do have. It's a bit marmite. 

[austinetc]

Coincidentally, today I posted my first really critical comment about Viking (and Marriott). I am hopeful that this was a one-off. But it'll be a strange event if I EVER book an extension with Viking.

 

It's dangerous to swear off something after one event. I recall hating calimari in 1975 and not trying it again for a couple decades. Turns our the rubber ban-like serving I disliked came from a bad cook. On the other hand, if you find a cruise line you like, why screw with it?

[Clay Clayton]

29 minutes ago, basenji56 said:

I wish!  On Celebrity, I use the drink package perk for specialty coffees and sparkling water.  But that is already included on Viking.  I guess I can get virgin drinks that I would otherwise have to pay for?

 

Yes. 

[duquephart]

4 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Correct as we had beverage packages on the comparison cruises. The difference being that on Viking it was $19.95 pp/pd whereas on Celebrity it was more expensive.  On Norwegian it was “included” but we had to pay gratuities which worked out to $40 pp/pd as I recall. 

 

Is the cost of the package relative to the cost of the drinks on other lines? Or do you just need to drink that much more to get your money's worth?

[Clay Clayton]

6 hours ago, duquephart said:

When looking at the cruise cost one must add in the "gratuitity" since it is, essentially, a mandatory service fee. Lots of folks fail to take that into account. If you can't "buy" the cruise for the advertised price then the advertised price is bogus.

Unless you get onboard credit from your TA that covers it. 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Clay Clayton

[Clay Clayton]

1 minute ago, duquephart said:

 

Is the cost of the package relative to the cost of the drinks on other lines? Or do you just need to drink that much more to get your money's worth?

I don’t have the details handy from our 2019 Transpacific on Celebrity but they had a sale a month or so before sailing for their packages. Seems like it was $30pp/pd but it included (if I am remembering correctly) drinks and some number of specialty dining all wrapped together. If I know us, the breakeven  worked out to be something less than an average of 4 drinks a day since that would likely be the most we would ever have. On Norwegian, we could have declined the package but again the gratuities on the package compared to what we usually spend on having a drink or two during the afternoon and one or two in the evening were. about the same overall cost. On both lines, the cost of the average cocktail was likely $4-5 dollars more than aboard Viking.  
 

Not sure that answered your question but since I don’t understand what your asking hope maybe I lucked out 😂

[Moonlion]

I'm guessing that the quality of the food and service may vary by ship and the crew onboard.  We were on the Venus in January and found the food in the Restaurant and service to be outstanding.  We enjoyed the cruise so much that we booked two more VOCs while onboard.  Our previous experience with Viking was two river cruises in 2018 and 2019.  On our first river cruise in 2018, the food and service were outstanding.  Not so much on much on the 2019 cruise - although still enjoyable, the "wow" factor on food and service wasn't there.  

[WNcruiser]

1 hour ago, KBs mum said:

I think it likely you and Viking aren't a good fit. They focus on the lectures, not the entertainment, and the peace and quiet is a major plus for lots of Viking passengers. The atmosphere on board is similar to a 4/5 star hotel. Regent is probably livelier. 

All this is subjective, everyone has different priorities, but do a bit of research, and book with knowledge of the product. 

When spending $1000/day I expect to be in a 5 star hotel atmosphere. We booked mostly for the itinerary and ship size, not the entertainment. I’m glad Cruise critic members only represent a very small amount of passengers on board, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have tried Viking. 

[longterm]

14 minutes ago, Moonlion said:

I'm guessing that the quality of the food and service may vary by ship and the crew onboard.  We were on the Venus in January and found the food in the Restaurant and service to be outstanding.  We enjoyed the cruise so much that we booked two more VOCs while onboard.  Our previous experience with Viking was two river cruises in 2018 and 2019.  On our first river cruise in 2018, the food and service were outstanding.  Not so much on much on the 2019 cruise - although still enjoyable, the "wow" factor on food and service wasn't there.  

We've always had great service on Viking, both ocean and river; I like talking to the staff, and make friends with them during the cruise, which adds to our enjoyment when they recognize us and greet us warmly. 

I doubt we'll ever have a room steward quite as effusive as the one on our first river cruise; he was such a happy guy, seemed to always see his glass as half-full, and it always rubbed off on us. 

So far, my issues with Viking have either been resolved well, or were so insignificant that they paled in comparison to the time that we had. Having traveled professionally for 20 years in the music business, I was put with good travelers and bad travelers; we had saying that "Once you leave your house, your schedule is at the whim of airlines, hotels, and concert promoters."

[BigBee51]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

Correct as we had beverage packages on the comparison cruises. The difference being that on Viking it was $19.95 pp/pd whereas on Celebrity it was more expensive.  On Norwegian it was “included” but we had to pay gratuities which worked out to $40 pp/pd as I recall. 

The current Princess beverage package cost is $59.99 per day per person plus 18% gratuity. Basically, $70 pp/pd. Every adult in the cabin has to purchase the package. Considerably more than the $20 pp/pd that Viking charges. I assume similar prices across the Carnival Corp lines.

Edited April 21, 2022 by BigBee51

[Blackduck59]

47 minutes ago, Moonlion said:

I'm guessing that the quality of the food and service may vary by ship and the crew onboard.  We were on the Venus in January and found the food in the Restaurant and service to be outstanding.  We enjoyed the cruise so much that we booked two more VOCs while onboard.  Our previous experience with Viking was two river cruises in 2018 and 2019.  On our first river cruise in 2018, the food and service were outstanding.  Not so much on much on the 2019 cruise - although still enjoyable, the "wow" factor on food and service wasn't there.  

 

Thank you, I'm more than glad you had a good time and have chosen to book more Viking cruises.

[zalusky]

We are going on our first Viking cruise this summer and going with an open mind.

We have been on Princess and Celebrity many times.  The last Celebrity sailing was on a Solstice class ship down under in 2016.  The first one was on a Millennium class ship in 2004.   I have seen a lot of changes in Celebrity during those years.

 

From the disappearing of the midnight buffets to drop in ceremony in the specialty restaurants.  It became more of a traditional ship with a slightly older clientele compared to Royal Caribbean.  And the upsell increased a lot.

 

We found on the last few princess runs that we stopped going to the shows and hung out in the bars a lot more.  This is one reason we think Viking might appeal to us.

We are looking for more individual catering to the customer vs what they can do on the larger ships.

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, Moonlion said:

I'm guessing that the quality of the food and service may vary by ship and the crew onboard.  We were on the Venus in January and found the food in the Restaurant and service to be outstanding.  We enjoyed the cruise so much that we booked two more VOCs while onboard.  Our previous experience with Viking was two river cruises in 2018 and 2019.  On our first river cruise in 2018, the food and service were outstanding.  Not so much on much on the 2019 cruise - although still enjoyable, the "wow" factor on food and service wasn't there.  

 

At this time, I expect all cruise lines are experiencing some quality issues due to lack of crew. 

Some cruise lines (P&O UK & probably Princess) have even cancelled blocks of cruises, as they cannot get sufficient crew.

 

Viking can crew the ships, but from reading reports since the resumption of operations, they are definitely having issues with some of the crew NOT being at the Viking standard, we have come to expect. Unfortunately, during the pandemic shutdown, many of the great crew members found other shoreside employment and started shoreside relationships, so have given up the sea-life, remaining at home.

 

This is a new experience for Viking, as pre-COVID the crew retention rate was an incredibly high 94%. In addition to the lower crew retention rate, Viking have also brought the Octantis into service, the Mars is already fully crewed, as it enters service shortly and Neptune is fitting-out, so will already have senior Deck/Engineering/Hotel staff standing-by in the shipyard. They also have Polaris with increasing crew demands and Saturn will already have senior staff assigned.

 

In addition to the increasing numbers of new crew, the experienced Officers/Supervisors are spread thin with the number of newbuilds coming into operation. Overall, it could be many months for the new crews to attain the Viking standard, so the service levels can return to the standards we know and expect.

 

Unfortunately, ordering ships is a long-term capital project, with the orders for all these ships signed well before COVID was even on the horizon. With the announcement that ships #11/12 will be longer with hydrogen propulsion, hopefully this will required additional design work that will push the builds back, so they can get some crew stabalisation. 

[njhorseman]

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

 On Norwegian it was “included” but we had to pay gratuities which worked out to $40 pp/pd as I recall. 

FYI, it's $20 pp/pd on NCL

[Blackduck59]

@zaluskybest of luck on your future voyage. There are many places on a Viking ocean ship to just hang out. The ships are beautiful and many of the staff are outstanding. There is comfortable seating everywhere and the state rooms are comfortable with excellent bathrooms.

Br sure you get your Specialty dining reservations early, we almost didn't get ours and that was one of the things that contributed to our lack of enthusiasm.

For us we didn't see the value for price paid. It was just an accumulation of little problems that added up to a big disappointment for us.

[Clay Clayton]

16 minutes ago, njhorseman said:

FYI, it's $20 pp/pd on NCL

You’re correct.  I accidentally did it for the whole cabin. 

[CILCIANRQTS]

19 hours ago, basenji56 said:

I sail both Viking and Celebrity.  Is Viking worth three times the price of Celebrity?  Probably not.  I enjoy both but understand your criticisms. I think all cruise lines staffing is still suffering from Covid.  I thought the Viking staff was very friendly but somewhat inexperienced in some areas.  

Agree.

Assistant waiters in the World Cafe and elsewhere were the biggest issue.

I think they’re new to the ship, and perhaps the position, but they are trying and should get better.

Our biggest issue was no coffee service soon after we sat down in the morning, lack of clearing dirty dishes, and failure to check back periodically. 
The waiters in The Restaurant were MUCH better.

Those in Chef’s table just seemed to want to drop off food and hustle you out of there.

I agree that Viking service levels have slipped a bit. Hopefully it is temporary…

 

[Hockeyump]

15 hours ago, Mimiya11 said:

Agree 1000%   

A completely different demographic party group we found on a short itinerary.   

If you read the the review at #29 the dissatisfaction was nothing to do with demographic group.

[JollyJacqTar]

Blackduck, I think we were probably on the same cruise and I agree with many of the points you have made. The difference for us is that this was our 3rd Viking Cruise, and we have two more booked for the future, so this experience on the Orion was deeply disappointing and totally unexpected. The service in the dining areas (while friendly  and courteous when someone did approach us)  was very patchy to say the least, and I used the same phrase as you, that I felt invisible. It was difficult to even get a glass of water sometimes. And yes, the bread seemed to be hard every day. We had some issues with other aspects of the cruise which I don’t intend to address in an open forum, preferring to take up my concerns directly with Viking but just wanted to assure you that the things you noted were shared by others. Up until this cruise I was Viking’s biggest fan, so I’m hoping this is just a training issue and that normal service can be resumed shortly, but I am questioning whether I can risk more money on the off chance that things do improve. 

[Jim Avery]

Viking crew personality and service have been the best thing about Viking.  It sounds like not only are there lots of new crew training but with the lower passenger loads I bet there are cuts to staffing going on.  Most other lines (and businesses) reduce staff when business levels decline.  Passenger loads pre covid were near full for most cruises.  Not so much now.  

[duquephart]

4 hours ago, JollyJacqTar said:

Blackduck, I think we were probably on the same cruise and I agree with many of the points you have made. The difference for us is that this was our 3rd Viking Cruise, and we have two more booked for the future, so this experience on the Orion was deeply disappointing and totally unexpected. The service in the dining areas (while friendly  and courteous when someone did approach us)  was very patchy to say the least, and I used the same phrase as you, that I felt invisible. It was difficult to even get a glass of water sometimes. And yes, the bread seemed to be hard every day. We had some issues with other aspects of the cruise which I don’t intend to address in an open forum, preferring to take up my concerns directly with Viking but just wanted to assure you that the things you noted were shared by others. Up until this cruise I was Viking’s biggest fan, so I’m hoping this is just a training issue and that normal service can be resumed shortly, but I am questioning whether I can risk more money on the off chance that things do improve. 

 

Another log on the "We should just cancel" fire. They are piling up.

[CILCIANRQTS]

2 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Viking crew personality and service have been the best thing about Viking.  It sounds like not only are there lots of new crew training but with the lower passenger loads I bet there are cuts to staffing going on.  Most other lines (and businesses) reduce staff when business levels decline.  Passenger loads pre covid were near full for most cruises.  Not so much now.  

We were told current Jupiter is near capacity, but have not seen a posting re: load yet.

Hopefully cruising life is returning to normal soon.

[KBs mum]

We've never been that impressed by the service in the restaurants or cafe, or the food, which is mid market UK chain pub standard. As we prefer to find somewhere ashore to eat it doesn't bother us that much. 

For us the positives of Viking outweigh the negatives, but only if the covid precautions are reduced. 

[duquephart]

8 minutes ago, KBs mum said:

We've never been that impressed by the service in the restaurants or cafe, or the food, which is mid market UK chain pub standard. As we prefer to find somewhere ashore to eat it doesn't bother us that much. 

For us the positives of Viking outweigh the negatives, but only if the covid precautions are reduced. 

 

Operative word = if.