A few....new to Viking..... questions

[tocruiseguy]

Hello all, booked our first Viking cruise, Sydney to Bangkok for next March.  A few questions.  

When does Viking post the port times?  Seems odd they are not posted when you book the cruise as other cruise lines post them.  

What are the included excursions like?  

Is there any night life on the ships?  I have heard from some they roll up the hallways at 9 pm and others say some bars/locations have activity later into the evening.  

 

Thanks 

[duquephart]

Torshaven if you must but Viking is not about night life.

[CDNPolar]

The port times are on page 3 or 4  of your Viking Invoice.  This is the page with the itinerary and the estimated arrival and departure times are there.

 

We do some of the optional excursions but have always been satisfied with the included excursions too.  I have read that some say that the included excursions are only walking tours, but that is not true.  There are many included excursions that are quite exceptional.  We also look at outside tour operators if the port times match.

 

Most is quite quiet after the 9:15pm Start Theatre show.  Torshaven is where you would go then if you want music and dancing.  We typically then move to the Explorer Lounge where many people will gather for a night cap, but Viking is not a nightlife ship.

 

[Clay Clayton]

As CDNpolar stated, you can find the times on your invoice. Note that tendered ports are designated by a red ⚓️. 

We have typically been satisfied with the included tours if this is our first visit to a port. You should know that “panorama” in the description usually designates a mostly bus/coach tour. It has been our experience that these panoramic excursions typically include at least two but usually three stops where you are able to walk about and experience the place. We were originally booked to cruise from Hong Kong to Bangkok next month before it was canceled. I had noted that in several ports (Bangkok being one) that the ship was dock a long way away from the city. In Bangkok it was a two hour or so drive. Therefore we had elected to spend time in Bangkok after disembarking rather than spend 4 hours on a bus on our last cruise day. You may want to research where the ship docks vs the sights you want to see as you decide where optional or independent excursions should be booked. 
 

We have found on our 4.5 Viking cruises that the nightlife varies depending on the iteniary and fellow passengers. On a short port intensive cruise, most (but not all passengers) tend to turn in early since they will be up and out again the next morning. But on longer repositioning cruises there tends to be more people dancing and enjoying the ship’s band in Torshaven. On one TA, there was a group that was there every night after having connected on the first night aboard. 
 

If you haven’t already discovered it, you should review the thread linked below which has lots of advice and tips for making the most of your Viking cruise.

Welcome to Viking!
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2416372-tips-for-new-viking-ocean-cruisers/page/62/#comment-62141739

[tocruiseguy]

12 hours ago, duquephart said:

Torshaven if you must but Viking is not about night life.

"If I must"??  

[tocruiseguy]

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

As CDNpolar stated, you can find the times on your invoice. Note that tendered ports are designated by a red ⚓️. 

We have typically been satisfied with the included tours if this is our first visit to a port. You should know that “panorama” in the description usually designates a mostly bus/coach tour. It has been our experience that these panoramic excursions typically include at least two but usually three stops where you are able to walk about and experience the place. We were originally booked to cruise from Hong Kong to Bangkok next month before it was canceled. I had noted that in several ports (Bangkok being one) that the ship was dock a long way away from the city. In Bangkok it was a two hour or so drive. Therefore we had elected to spend time in Bangkok after disembarking rather than spend 4 hours on a bus on our last cruise day. You may want to research where the ship docks vs the sights you want to see as you decide where optional or independent excursions should be booked. 
 

We have found on our 4.5 Viking cruises that the nightlife varies depending on the iteniary and fellow passengers. On a short port intensive cruise, most (but not all passengers) tend to turn in early since they will be up and out again the next morning. But on longer repositioning cruises there tends to be more people dancing and enjoying the ship’s band in Torshaven. On one TA, there was a group that was there every night after having connected on the first night aboard. 
 

If you haven’t already discovered it, you should review the thread linked below which has lots of advice and tips for making the most of your Viking cruise.

Welcome to Viking!
https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2416372-tips-for-new-viking-ocean-cruisers/page/62/#comment-62141739

Thanks, silly me, didn't notice the times on the invoice.  Appreciate the info.  

[CDNPolar]

13 minutes ago, tocruiseguy said:

Thanks, silly me, didn't notice the times on the invoice.  Appreciate the info.  

Hey - no worries... I did not know they were there in the beginning either.  You will always get some great information here as there are many loyal Viking guests in this forum.  Hope you enjoy your first Viking Cruise.

[tocruiseguy]

3 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Hey - no worries... I did not know they were there in the beginning either.  You will always get some great information here as there are many loyal Viking guests in this forum.  Hope you enjoy your first Viking Cruise.

Yes, very much looking forward to it, its a great itinerary...  PS Agree there is some great info....except perhaps the individual who responded above who seems to think I go to bed too late whilst enjoying MY vacation.....😁

[CDNPolar]

In looking at your signature, you have been on cruise ships that are 2500'ish guests...

 

I have been on that size of ship in a previous life, before I found small ship sailings.  The larger ship has a more diverse night life because of the size of the ship, but also because of the age demographics of the ship.  (we are in the 40-60 age range)

 

Viking at capacity is only 930 guests and the average age is much higher than the ships you have sailed.  Viking has designed an experience that meets the needs of the older crowd that wants more luxury and is not looking for disco dancing at night.

 

It is true that most of the streets roll up after the second show in the Star Theatre, but depending on what you are looking for, there are some options, but they are all fairly sedate.

 

As I mentioned earlier, we choose not to go to Torshaven as we find it rather enclosed and loud and we are not interested in dancing.

 

We have always gravitated to the Explorer Lounge after the show in the evening and we have generally always found that to be a relaxing end to our day.  There will be either the guitar player or the piano player or a string duo there for a set or two.

 

As Clay Clayton said above, it also depends on the cruise itinerary as if it is shorter and really packed, folks are off to bed early.  (We tend to book our excursions as early as we can) 

 

When I think back to my time on larger ships, I fondly remember why I love Viking so much.  It is because it does not have all the choices, noise, and confusion that I feel the larger ships have.  On Viking the food is excellent, the service even "excellent-er", the ship is tastefully laid out in a Scandinavian calm colour pallet, and it just fits the level of luxury that we are looking for.

 

I hope you love Viking as much as we do. 

Edited September 24, 2022 by CDNPolar

[Mr Luxury]

The funny thing is that 930 guests would be way too many for me as I started on Seabourn ships with 218 max capacity and only now sail with Seabourn who have 450 and 600 capacity.

[tocruiseguy]

8 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

In looking at your signature, you have been on cruise ships that are 2500'ish guests...

 

I have been on that size of ship in a previous life, before I found small ship sailings.  The larger ship has a more diverse night life because of the size of the ship, but also because of the age demographics of the ship.  (we are in the 40-60 age range)

 

Viking at capacity is only 930 guests and the average age is much higher than the ships you have sailed.  Viking has designed an experience that meets the needs of the older crowd that wants more luxury and is not looking for disco dancing at night.

 

It is true that most of the streets roll up after the second show in the Star Theatre, but depending on what you are looking for, there are some options, but they are all fairly sedate.

 

As I mentioned earlier, we choose not to go to Torshaven as we find it rather enclosed and loud and we are not interested in dancing.

 

We have always gravitated to the Explorer Lounge after the show in the evening and we have generally always found that to be a relaxing end to our day.  There will be either the guitar player or the piano player or a string duo there for a set or two.

😀

As Clay Clayton said above, it also depends on the cruise itinerary as if it is shorter and really packed, folks are off to bed early.  (We tend to book our excursions as early as we can) 

 

When I think back to my time on larger ships, I fondly remember why I love Viking so much.  It is because it does not have all the choices, noise, and confusion that I feel the larger ships have.  On Viking the food is excellent, the service even "excellent-er", the ship is tastefully laid out in a Scandinavian calm colour pallet, and it just fits the level of luxury that we are looking for.

 

I hope you love Viking as much as we do. 

Thanks.  Yes, we expect a different "experience".  The ship size along with the itinerary are the main reasons we are trying a smaller cruise line.  We also looked at Oceania and Seabourne but this cruise worked out the best.  

 

The cruise has 8 full sea days and I think 5 port days which don't begin until around noon.  For about half the cruise evenings the next day is not an early day and no, we don't expect it to New Years eve every night.  For people who tend to go to bed early on cruises I think there is a lack of appreciation how little night life there is on most ships, even large ones like Celebrity.  The only cruises where there seems to be a lot of night owls are Caribbean Cruises, for our Med, Australian and Hawaii cruises, if you were wandering around after say 10:30 pm, you pretty well had the run of the ship.  No we aren't expecting a party animal kind of ship experience, not what we want, but we aren't people who go to bed early.  We are travelling with another couple which means at least four people will be up past 8:30 pm 😁