Another first Viking Cruise review

[Hobson1754]

Just as Poulsbo Cruisers, we have also just returned from our first Viking cruise - Viking Mars,  Trade Routes of the Middle Ages on 27th September, also from Bergen.  I’ll start by stating categorically that we absolutely loved it and (me in particular) didn’t want to get off!!

We have cruised on and off now for 30 years or so, with a variety of cruise lines - Celebrity, P & O, RCC, Holland America, Premier etc and in our opinion - and of course it is just our opinion - Viking are head and shoulders above the rest.  When we first started to cruise we always felt there was a ‘wow’ factor, particularly at dinner and over the years this has diminished and to a certain extent I feel Viking has put this back into cruising for us. I’m not saying there wasn’t a couple of niggles but by and large everything was fab.  First off the Ship - it was beautiful with furnishings that are classy, quality and elegant.  Think it’s also just the little things about the ship e.g. beautiful throws, some cashmere, over most of the sofas and chairs as well as the sculptures etc. dotted around the ship. We were still finding little quiet spaces dotted around the ship the day before we got off.

We stayed in a DV cabin and whilst it would have been nice to have a PV, for the amount of time  we spent in our cabin it was fine with everything we needed. Spotlessly clean and again quality furnishings with touches we’ve never had on other cruise lines - bathroom in particular was super. If I had one issue it would have been to have more wardrobe space but we managed. We also had an issue with the wardrobe doors rattling quite a bit during some stormy nights, but when reported they were on it immediately, with the carpenter out a few times until it was sorted and followed up by the chief housekeeper to see if we were happy. The fridge was restocked every day with the soft drinks we wanted and as requested at the start of the cruise, our Cabin Steward brought ice and lemon/lime every afternoon for the drink we usually have getting ready for dinner.  Cabin Steward and in fact all staff were exceptional and couldn’t do enough for you and I did feel that the staff wanted to go the extra mile. The happy, smiling, friendly faces of all the staff as you walked around the ship are a testament to Viking and speaking to many of them, they definitely feel happy working for Mr Hagen as opposed to other cruise lines - particularly as they get free WiFi to contact their families. By day 3 the hostess at the restaurant, drinks staff and some waiters weren’t asking for our Cabin number and were calling us by name - amazing!!! Personal service went above and beyond.

Now food - apart from the first night when I just chose the wrong meal, we didn’t have a bad meal. Apart from 3 nights in Chefs Table and 1 night in Manfredi’s the rest of the time we ate in the Restaurant, which we found really good. Manfredi’s was our least favourite, which just goes to to prove that it’s all down to personal preference and I would guess different ships.  We never ate in World Cafe apart from 1 breakfast, as we aren’t especially keen on buffets, although other passengers we spoke to were singing it’s praises. We also loved Mamsen’s - the waffles were amazing and afternoon tea in Winter Garden was lovely - finding the space in my stomach for it not so good however.

Excursions - apart from 1 (Honfleur at Le Havre) we also used the included tours and some were better than others. We especially loved Bergen, Honfleur and Bruges. We’re not overly keen on sitting on a coach for a long time and waiting around for latecomers getting back to the coach - in a couple of ports we didn’t bother with tours as we’d been many times before and knew the area well. The excursion at Amsterdam was another little niggle as the organisation was chaotic.  Think the tour provider had let them down and, after waiting nearly an hour for the canal tour we gave it up as a bad job and did our own thing,  Viking were very apologetic.

I appreciate Viking is a lot more expensive than other lines but because we has the SSP, our onboard bill at the end was zero so I think what is included within the overall price has to be taken into consideration. On previous cruises our bill at the end has always been around $1200 - 1500 for excursions, drinks etc. As I said previously think it’s all down to personal preferences and experience.

I could go on and on and as you will guess from my review we’re now big Viking fans and in fact have booked another for next year - roll on September. We’re not wealthy and, after next year we don’t know when or if we’ll be able to afford another Viking cruise but, having experienced Viking I’d rather not cruise than go back to the large lines with 4000 - 6000 passengers!

[Hobson1754]

Apologies - forgot to mention our take on the Entertainment.  We aren’t ones for big production shows we’ve had previously on other ships and thought the shows in the theatre were ok - we don’t always stay all the way through.  I will give mention to one show however, where they performed Queens Bohemian Rhapsody - I  was very pleasantly surprised- they did a great job of it.  We prefer the individual guitarists, singers etc and found them excellent on this ship.  The singer on Mars was Paulo who we thought was great and also the Viking Band were very good.  We spent most nights finishing off in Torshavn listening and dancing to these entertainers and much preferred it to entertainment we’ve had previously on other ships. In fact we think we’ve enjoyed our after dinner entertainment more on this ship than at any cruise before - even though it was probably more limited. The guest speakers were also very good.  One of them was so funny, he was asked to do a spot in Torshavn when the guitarist took ill and went down a storm. All in all very happy with entertainment. 
 

[Squawkman]

Excellent review. On a previous Viking Ocean cruise, we had the rattling door problem. I folded up a small piece of cardboard and that worked. Ever since, I take that piece of cardboard on every cruise - but I never needed it again.

[Hobson1754]

17 minutes ago, Squawkman said:

On a previous Viking Ocean cruise, we had the rattling door problem. I folded up a small piece of cardboard and that worked. Ever since, I take that piece of cardboard on every cruise - but I never needed it again.

Yes - although the carpenter had done as much as he could & it was much better, my husband used 3 pairs of socks to wedge doors each night to ensure it was completely silent 😂😂

[Goosebear Mum]

Thanks, great to read a review with a uk person perspective.  (Wardrobe space on Viking does look small compared to P&O Aurora, etc!)  We’ve always been with P&O, and have one booked for May… but with all the cost cutting, selling of small ships, etc,  I’ve subsequently been reading multiple Viking reviews / forums over the last 6+ months, I think we may be transferring our loyalty…  P&O have the ‘cruise with no flight’ factor, but not that much else now.   Viking ships look amazing on videos, photos, etc.  

[Hobson1754]

12 minutes ago, Goosebear Mum said:

P&O have the ‘cruise with no flight’ factor, but not that much else now.   Viking ships look amazing on videos, photos, etc.  

P&O were our last cruise pre-Covid before this Viking cruise & we did have a great time but in our opinion there really is no comparison. The biggest plus is because it’s smaller it definitely is more personal with unbeatable service & attention to detail.

[TayanaLorna]

4 hours ago, Hobson1754 said:

Apologies - forgot to mention our take on the Entertainment.  We aren’t ones for big production shows we’ve had previously on other ships and thought the shows in the theatre were ok - we don’t always stay all the way through.  I will give mention to one show however, where they performed Queens Bohemian Rhapsody - I  was very pleasantly surprised- they did a great job of it.  We prefer the individual guitarists, singers etc and found them excellent on this ship.  The singer on Mars was Paulo who we thought was great and also the Viking Band were very good.  We spent most nights finishing off in Torshavn listening and dancing to these entertainers and much preferred it to entertainment we’ve had previously on other ships. In fact we think we’ve enjoyed our after dinner entertainment more on this ship than at any cruise before - even though it was probably more limited. The guest speakers were also very good.  One of them was so funny, he was asked to do a spot in Torshavn when the guitarist took ill and went down a storm. All in all very happy with entertainment. 
 

We had Paulo on the Sky in July 2021 and he was the best guitarist we have seen on our Viking cruises.

[Hobson1754]

1 minute ago, TayanaLorna said:

1 minute ago, TayanaLorna said:

We had Paulo on the Sky in July 2021 and he was the best guitarist we have seen on our Viking cruises.

 

Yes - hope he’s on our next cruise

[TayanaLorna]

42 minutes ago, Goosebear Mum said:

Thanks, great to read a review with a uk person perspective.  (Wardrobe space on Viking does look small compared to P&O Aurora, etc!)  We’ve always been with P&O, and have one booked for May… but with all the cost cutting, selling of small ships, etc,  I’ve subsequently been reading multiple Viking reviews / forums over the last 6+ months, I think we may be transferring our loyalty…  P&O have the ‘cruise with no flight’ factor, but not that much else now.   Viking ships look amazing on videos, photos, etc.  

All the Viking ships except the Star and Sea have 3 drawers in the DV closets (wardrobes) now.  Its good for those of us who want more drawers.  There is still the same hanging clothes space but half of it is above the drawers and a shorter space.  The location of the closet alongside the bed is not ideal but DV is still a very nice room.

[Azulann]

Thank you for your detailed review. Now you know why I  and many others love Viking Cruise ships.

I had two sets of friends that were on  same cruise with you. They also love the ship, Mamsen, the lectures and most of all the outstanding service from  cabin attendants, guest relation and  wait staff.

Glad you booked another cruise while on board. It does help  with the on board discount one gets.

 

 

Edited October 19, 2022 by Azulann

[Hobson1754]

29 minutes ago, Azulann said:

Thank you for your detailed review. Now you know why I  and many others love Viking Cruise ships.

I had two sets of friends that were on  same cruise with you. They also love the ship, Mamsen, the lectures and most of all the outstanding service from  cabin attendants, guest relation and  wait staff.

Glad you booked another cruise while on board. It does help  with the on board discount one gets.

 

 

Delighted that they also enjoyed it - we met so many lovely people on this cruise, lots from US (only 40 Britains on board) that we may have spoken to them 😂

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, Goosebear Mum said:

Thanks, great to read a review with a uk person perspective.  (Wardrobe space on Viking does look small compared to P&O Aurora, etc!)  We’ve always been with P&O, and have one booked for May… but with all the cost cutting, selling of small ships, etc,  I’ve subsequently been reading multiple Viking reviews / forums over the last 6+ months, I think we may be transferring our loyalty…  P&O have the ‘cruise with no flight’ factor, but not that much else now.   Viking ships look amazing on videos, photos, etc.  

 

I'll suggest that you will find the current Viking service levels are comparable to P&O ships back in the 70's & 80's, well before they were Carnivalised.

[CCWineLover]

Thank you for your well-written review, and the add-on regarding entertainment.

As you said, some things like food and entertainment, are definitely different preferences for different people.  For us though - there is such a variety in those aspects, that we feel there is something for everyone.

Thank you for highlighting the things that we like the best - the absolute top of the line service and attitude of the Viking Cruise staff, and the comfy feel of the ship, exemplified by the number of little spots you can explore and get away from it all and have some quiet time!

Hoping you have a wonderful cruise next September!

[traveljkkk]

4 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

All the Viking ships except the Star and Sea have 3 drawers in the DV closets (wardrobes) now.  Its good for those of us who want more drawers.  There is still the same hanging clothes space but half of it is above the drawers and a shorter space.  The location of the closet alongside the bed is not ideal but DV is still a very nice room.

Can you confirm that the DV closets in the Sky now have the added closet drawers?

[Hobson1754]

48 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Hoping you have a wonderful cruise next September!

Many thanks - I’m sure we will. Really excited now that we’ve experienced Viking.

[TayanaLorna]

2 hours ago, traveljkkk said:

Can you confirm that the DV closets in the Sky now have the added closet drawers?

In July 2021 when we were on the Sky, it did not.  However by the winter of 2021-2022 they were added.  Many posts reported and confirmed the additions.

[OnTheJourney]

On 10/19/2022 at 5:00 AM, Hobson1754 said:

having experienced Viking I’d rather not cruise than go back to the large lines with 4000 - 6000 passengers!

It is a bit of a "paradigm shift" for sure going back to a (much) larger ship. We were just on the RCL Adventure and afterwards sort of looked back wistfully to our time on Viking Mars during the chairman's cruise. SO much more relaxing, but for us RCL and X are very convenient since we don't have to fly anywhere. 

[Hobson1754]

14 hours ago, OnTheJourney said:

It is a bit of a "paradigm shift" for sure going back to a (much) larger ship. We were just on the RCL Adventure and afterwards sort of looked back wistfully to our time on Viking Mars during the chairman's cruise. SO much more relaxing, but for us RCL and X are very convenient since we don't have to fly anywhere. 

I get that - for us however we have to fly to go anywhere outside UK & if it meant not being able to afford Viking now that we’ve discovered it (which is quite likely in the future by the way) we would probably just holiday in Spain, Italy etc. - basically anywhere we can get to from our local airport - while we can be bothered with the hassle.

[OnTheJourney]

11 hours ago, Hobson1754 said:

for us however we have to fly to go anywhere outside UK

understood...we all have to do what works best for us! I'd love to sail more with Viking if they went out of  ports closer to us.