Atlantic Crossing in December

[jhooks61]

Looking at the Atlantic crossing the first of December from Barcelona to San Juan.  Need your feedback on this type of cruise.  Did you get bored on the sea days?

[TayanaLorna]

55 minutes ago, jhooks61 said:

Looking at the Atlantic crossing the first of December from Barcelona to San Juan.  Need your feedback on this type of cruise.  Did you get bored on the sea days?

Did this in 2021 on the Sea.  Loved it.  Was never bored on sea days and found lots to do or chose nothing.  Passage had following seas on Ocean so very calm.  It got increasingly warm as we traveled across.  Only two disappointments were lack of sea life on crossing which we learned was typical for deep ocean waters.  Also thought we would see an amazing night sky but the ships lights on top decks were too bright.  

[LindaS272]

I would say it depends on what you like about cruising, why you cruise, what your cruising experience is, and your experiences with travel in general. We did the TA this March/April from SJ to Barcelona and loved it. But I reflected afterwards that I don’t cruise to “travel” but to be pampered and to sometimes get to places I wouldn’t do as a destination. E.g., Greenland, L’Anse Aux Meadow, NFL (although we have done a destination trip to NFL); Falklands, Chilean Fjords, Cape Horn, Funchal, Dakar, etc.

 

When we started cruising a few years ago, we wondered if we’d like sea days, & then quickly discovered we kind of prefer cruises that have lots of them. We’re not as enamored with cruises that do a port a day because with major cities you can’t do them justice and then you feel forced to do an excursion so you don’t miss an important site when you might prefer to hit the thermal spa or tea in the Wintergarden. 🧘‍♀️🏊‍♀️🫖🧇🍰

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, jhooks61 said:

Looking at the Atlantic crossing the first of December from Barcelona to San Juan.  Need your feedback on this type of cruise.  Did you get bored on the sea days?

Have done 2.5 transatlantics in the opposite direction. Bored? Not at all-problem was finding time to do all we wanted to do. 
 

If you would like to see how we spent our days, check out my blog.  (Unfortunately, because of storage issues, I had to strip out pictures in the early posts). Below are links to the three cruises we have taken. 
 

2018-San Juan to Barcelona 

https://cruisinwithclay.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/and-so-it-begins/

 

2019-San Juan to Barcelona

https://cruisinwithclay.wordpress.com/2019/03/28/on-our-way/

 

2020-Miami to the Middle of the Atlantic (damn you Covid)

https://cruisinwithclay.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/and-we-are-off/

 

 

 

 

[Mich3554]

Love sea days, we had 9 consecutive ones on our last cruise and could have done more.  
 

It seems to me that many either love ‘em or hate ‘em.  I try to book cruises that have a decent number of sea days, only because I like having a down day to process what I have seen.  I find that when you go from port to port, things tend to run together.  That’s why I really like the SA cruise, as there are a lot of sea days interspersed with ports.  The sailings, especially the Chilean fjords are spectacular.

[Clay Clayton]

52 minutes ago, Mich3554 said:

Love sea days, we had 9 consecutive ones on our last cruise and could have done more.  
 

It seems to me that many either love ‘em or hate ‘em.  I try to book cruises that have a decent number of sea days, only because I like having a down day to process what I have seen.  I find that when you go from port to port, things tend to run together.  That’s why I really like the SA cruise, as there are a lot of sea days interspersed with ports.  The sailings, especially the Chilean fjords are spectacular.

Agreed! Our round the horn remains our favorite-mostly due to its perfect mix of sea and port days. 

[jhooks61]

Thanks everyone.

[Heidi13]

5 hours ago, jhooks61 said:

Looking at the Atlantic crossing the first of December from Barcelona to San Juan.  Need your feedback on this type of cruise.  Did you get bored on the sea days?

 

Fortunately, you're heading West, so 5 of the 15 days will have 25 hr days, as the regular 24 hr day just aren't long enough to fit everything in.

 

In 2020 we survived over 50 continuous sea days from Bali to Gibraltar, so 6 days across the Atlantic is easy. You will just be perfecting the sea day routine when you dock.

[CILCIANRQTS]

We love sea days - long, leisurely meals, reading a good book, perhaps a few extra beverages, high tea, enrichment lectures, etc.

We’re big on self-entertainment and draw selectively on VO activities.

[annapolitan369]

Does Viking have Bridge duplicates on the ocean crossings.  We have been on Oceania and Regent crossings and they both have daily bridge lessons and duplicates. 

[Mich3554]

36 minutes ago, annapolitan369 said:

Does Viking have Bridge duplicates on the ocean crossings.  We have been on Oceania and Regent crossings and they both have daily bridge lessons and duplicates. 

We played duplicates on the second leg of our back to back to back.  That was the Barcelona to Buenos Aires leg.  On the trip from BA to Santiago, there weren’t enough people to play duplicates, just lessons and practice games.  

[UWDawg]

On 9/18/2022 at 2:37 PM, jhooks61 said:

Looking at the Atlantic crossing the first of December from Barcelona to San Juan.  Need your feedback on this type of cruise.  Did you get bored on the sea days?

@jhooks61 you might be interested in this offer, but note it expires Sept 21, 2022:

https://viking.com/promotions/us/ocean/TAN22/20220914

[annapolitan369]

Thank you Mich3554

[ral1]

On 9/20/2022 at 6:38 PM, UWDawg said:

@jhooks61 you might be interested in this offer, but note it expires Sept 21, 2022:

https://viking.com/promotions/us/ocean/TAN22/20220914

Was this a targeted promotion or one that anyone could have used? Was it on the Viking Website?

[UWDawg]

32 minutes ago, ral1 said:

Was this a targeted promotion or one that anyone could have used? Was it on the Viking Website?

@ral1 I had received the promotion via email (from a Travel Agent), but posted the generic link here.  I addressed my CC post to @jhooks61 because @jhooks61 mentioned interest in an Atlantic crossing in post #1, but anyone could have used it.  As near as I can tell, offers codes like the one in this link, while on the Viking website, aren't published openly... that is, you need to have been notified of the offer code, usually via a direct email or snail-mail from Viking or from a travel agent... or from a friend.  Sometimes I see an offer posted in a group chat on FB.  Neither I nor anyone I know has been able to figure out how it is determined to which groups the offers are distributed... so far we haven't noticed a consistent pattern.

 

Sometimes you can find promotions of interest at one of these two sites:

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/promotions.html

https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/search-cruises/index.html

 

But it appears to me that promotions with specific Offer Codes are even better deals than those they make readily visible on their website. 

[ral1]

Thank you UWDawg

[Lulley766]

On 9/18/2022 at 7:39 PM, Clay Clayton said:

Have done 2.5 transatlantics in the opposite direction. Bored? Not at all-problem was finding time to do all we wanted to do. 
 

If you would like to see how we spent our days, check out my blog.  (Unfortunately, because of storage issues, I had to strip out pictures in the early posts). Below are links to the three cruises we have taken. 
 

2018-San Juan to Barcelona 

https://cruisinwithclay.wordpress.com/2018/03/03/and-so-it-begins/

 

2019-San Juan to Barcelona

https://cruisinwithclay.wordpress.com/2019/03/28/on-our-way/

 

2020-Miami to the Middle of the Atlantic (damn you Covid)

https://cruisinwithclay.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/and-we-are-off/

 

 

 

 

 

[Lulley766]

Clay,

 

Are you on the 12/1TA with us?

 

Mary S

Lulley 766

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, Lulley766 said:

Clay,

 

Are you on the 12/1TA with us?

 

Mary S

Lulley 766

Sadly we are not.  We looked at taking the 12/8 one to return from a family trip to Munich but couldn’t get DMIL to do so.  Now that there is a promo for that cruise I’m really kicking myself for not doing so. 
 

Have a great cruise!

[Clay Clayton]

On 9/27/2022 at 11:21 PM, ral1 said:

Was this a targeted promotion or one that anyone could have used? Was it on the Viking Website?

You might also want to subscribe to this thread where all are welcome to post promos they receive:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2863068-post-viking-promos/?do=findComment&comment=64271377

 

[Kamfish642]

Does anyone have a photo of daily sea day activities for a trans-Atlantic cruise?

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, Kamfish642 said:

Does anyone have a photo of daily sea day activities for a trans-Atlantic cruise?

You can see them from our half trans-Atlantic (damn you Covid) in March 2020 here:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com.au/topic/2739765-sky-transatlantic-march-6-2020-almost-live/

[FetaCheese]

20 hours ago, Kamfish642 said:

Does anyone have a photo of daily sea day activities for a trans-Atlantic cruise?

There is a Viking category topic about TA cruises, and what activities are offered. Don't remember exact title.  Look for, or search for TayanaLorna, as she has posted some photos of dailies.

[CCWineLover]

11 hours ago, FetaCheese said:

There is a Viking category topic about TA cruises, and what activities are offered. Don't remember exact title.  Look for, or search for TayanaLorna, as she has posted some photos of dailies.

I was on that TA with TayanaLorna.  If you can't find it, let me know.  I have all the dailies.  It was the first 2 weeks of December from Barcelona to San Juan. 2021.  We were blessed with wonderful weather, some great lecturers, and fun-filled days at sea!

[Kamfish642]

17 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

I was on that TA with TayanaLorna.  If you can't find it, let me know.  I have all the dailies.  It was the first 2 weeks of December from Barcelona to San Juan. 2021.  We were blessed with wonderful weather, some great lecturers, and fun-filled days at sea!

Can't locate TayanaLorna