Onboard Neptune now - British Isles Explorer

[Moonlion]

We boarded the Neptune on Tuesday, May 9th, for BIE cruise, Greenwich to Bergen. Happy to share our experiences. 

Pre-cruise (on our own): we booked flights using points and arrived at Heathrow on Monday morning at 6:30 AM. We got through passport control and retrieved our luggage in 30 minutes which I understand is quite fast for Heathrow. I had prearranged a cab (LHR to Greenwich) for $98 USD through Booking.com. We met our driver and got to Greenwich in about 40 minutes…very little traffic since Monday was a bank holiday. We stayed at the Admiral Hardy Inn which is a stone’s throw from the pier. The Inn is basically a pub with 7 rooms on the upper floors, but it served our purposes for a one-night stay. 

Day 1 (May 9): Boarding ship at Greenwich, a tender port, was extremely efficient! Viking set up a tent in the Cutty Sark gardens, next to the pier, and started checking in passengers around 10:30 AM. Viking staff took our luggage outside the the tent, and it took at most 5 minutes to check in, get room key (and we hadn’t done the pre check in). Viking uses Uber water taxis to transfer passengers to ship. The water taxis run every 20 minutes and it takes about 3 minutes to get to the ship. After checking in, you can tender to ship right away or explore Greenwich before boarding. We toured the Cutty Sark before boarding ship. 

As soon as we boarded ship (and after muster drill in the Restaurant), we checked out the Chef’s Table menus and booked our dining reservations. They are rotating through about 5 different CT menus on our 14 night cruise (menus change every 3 days). We had no problem whatsoever getting the reservations we wanted at CT and Manfredies and at the times we wanted (6 or 6:30). 

 

General perceptions so far: the ship is beautiful and, despite being sold out, doesn’t feel crowded…at least the places we’ve visited. The staff are outstanding!  After boarding and waiting for our cabin to be ready, we ordered classic Margaritas with fresh lime juice (instead of mix). The bartender made them perfectly…so we signed up for the beverage package. We’ve dined two nights at the Restaurant and food ranged from good (Dover sole) to excellent (a destination lamb stew) to “meh” (a disappointing cut of Beef Wellington). Last night at Manfredies, the food was excellent (we ordered the rib eye steak and Osso Bucca). 

Speaking of food, DH is getting hungry 😉 but more to come after lunch. 

[Azulann]

Looking forward to your trip  report.

 Good to know the ship does not feel crowded even when it is sold out. My cruise in early June is also a sold out cruise, so hoping it feels the same.

 

 

[Moonlion]

28 minutes ago, Moonlion said:

We boarded the Neptune on Tuesday, May 9th, for BIE cruise, Greenwich to Bergen. Happy to share our experiences. 

Pre-cruise (on our own): we booked flights using points and arrived at Heathrow on Monday morning at 6:30 AM. We got through passport control and retrieved our luggage in 30 minutes which I understand is quite fast for Heathrow. I had prearranged a cab (LHR to Greenwich) for $98 USD through Booking.com. We met our driver and got to Greenwich in about 40 minutes…very little traffic since Monday was a bank holiday. We stayed at the Admiral Hardy Inn which is a stone’s throw from the pier. The Inn is basically a pub with 7 rooms on the upper floors, but it served our purposes for a one-night stay. 

Day 1 (May 9): Boarding ship at Greenwich, a tender port, was extremely efficient! Viking set up a tent in the Cutty Sark gardens, next to the pier, and started checking in passengers around 10:30 AM. Viking staff took our luggage outside the the tent, and it took at most 5 minutes to check in, get room key (and we hadn’t done the pre check in). Viking uses Uber water taxis to transfer passengers to ship. The water taxis run every 20 minutes and it takes about 3 minutes to get to the ship. After checking in, you can tender to ship right away or explore Greenwich before boarding. We toured the Cutty Sark before boarding ship. 

As soon as we boarded ship (and after muster drill in the Restaurant), we checked out the Chef’s Table menus and booked our dining reservations. They are rotating through about 5 different CT menus on our 14 night cruise (menus change every 3 days). We had no problem whatsoever getting the reservations we wanted at CT and Manfredies and at the times we wanted (6 or 6:30). 

 

General perceptions so far: the ship is beautiful and, despite being sold out, doesn’t feel crowded…at least the places we’ve visited. The staff are outstanding!  After boarding and waiting for our cabin to be ready, we ordered classic Margaritas with fresh lime juice (instead of mix). The bartender made them perfectly…so we signed up for the beverage package. We’ve dined two nights at the Restaurant and food ranged from good (Dover sole) to excellent (a destination lamb stew) to “meh” (a disappointing cut of Beef Wellington). Last night at Manfredies, the food was excellent (we ordered the rib eye steak and Osso Bucca). 

Speaking of food, DH is getting hungry 😉 but more to come after lunch. 

General perceptions (cont.):

Dinner service in the Restaurant and Manfredies has been very good to excellent. Waitstaff have been friendly, attentive and efficient.  Since we have the beverage package, we asked for and received the specialty wine menu and advice on wine pairings with our meal. It’s generally taken about an hour and a half to complete dinner at the Restaurant and Manfredies, a leisurely pace which is fine with us.
 

For breakfast the previous two days, we’ve ordered room service since we’ve had early morning excursions. Our order has arrived exactly on time, perfectly prepared and hot.  A word of warning: today (a sea day), we had breakfast in the Restaurant and it took forever to get our eggs and omelet. The server apologized and advised us not to have breakfast at the Restaurant on sea days since the kitchen can get backed up. 
 

Despite the weather forecast (before we left) predicting rain, rain, rain in London, the weather - knock on wood - has been fantastic!  We’ve had sunny, relatively warm days (mid 60s) with at worst some misting in the late afternoon or evening. The sea has been very calm, like being on a river cruise. The weather has been so nice that today we had lunch outside on the Aquavit Terrace wearing long sleeve tee shirts. 
 

The guest historian onboard, Dr. Caroline Malloy, has a PhD in British history. We’ve really enjoyed her lectures (but we’re admittedly nerds when it comes to Viking enrichment lectures). DH went down to Torshavn a couple of nights ago and said the duo on board are really good. So far, no evidence of Abba on the Neptune. 
 

Excursions: we booked a combination of Viking included, optional and independently booked excursions for this cruise. 

Day 2 (May 10th, Greenwich): we took the Viking included excursion, Royal Greenwich by Foot, a walking tour of Greenwich which lasts a little over an hour. Our guide was lively and entertaining so we enjoyed the tour. After the tour, we visited the National Maritime Museum and the Queen’s house on our own - easy walk from ship, both interesting and free. We enjoyed the day. 
 

Viking had a sail-away party on the Aquavit deck in the afternoon which was a lot of fun. 
 

Day 3 (May 11th, Dover): we took the Viking included excursion, Historic Canterbury, in the morning which involved a 30 minute bus ride to Canterbury and a walking tour of the historic areas of the city. Our guide was excellent so we really enjoyed this tour. She suggested that those who wanted to go inside the Canterbury Cathedral (15 £ pp) could peel off from last part of tour and the group would catch up with us at the end. We did, and really enjoyed touring the Cathedral - it’s beautiful and worth a visit in our opinion!
 

In the afternoon, we went to the Dover Castle on our own. Viking offers a free shuttle from the port into Dover which continues to the Castle. We thoroughly enjoyed the Castle which includes representations of medieval life in a castle. The views are gorgeous from the castle and you can see the Viking ship off in the distance. We lucked out and there were no lines to tour the Secret WWII War Tunnels at the Castle. This is a fascinating tour (included with the Dover Castle admission price) that we highly recommend! We made it back to the ship in plenty of time and had a fantastic day!

 

Day 4 (May 12th, sea day): nice to have a break after traveling and several busy days. We’ve had no problem finding sea-facing lounge chairs in the pool area in the afternoon, even today a sea day. This is a port intensive cruise so no more relaxing sea days!

 

I’ll try to keep you posted on the rest of our excursions. 

 

[Squawkman]

Thanks, Moonlion! We’re embarking 5/27 from Geeenwich and your info is very useful as we are arranging a private tour with another couple. We never used a tender port - nor have we ever done a private tour. Your info on the port has allayed our concerns. Thanks again!

[DesertCruiser2000]

Moonlion we wish you smooth sailing. We will be on board a year from now and very interested in your views of excursions. We recently got off an Australian cruise and excursions were mediocre to okay. Australia hasn’t recovered near as much yet as Europe we understand. 
Have a great time!

[CCWineLover]

On specialty wines, did they have most of them on the menu onboard?  Hopefully their stocking and supply problem is gone.  In January probably 70% of the specialty wines were not in stock and they kept running out of those left very disappointing.

[Moonlion]

4 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

On specialty wines, did they have most of them on the menu onboard?  Hopefully their stocking and supply problem is gone.  In January probably 70% of the specialty wines were not in stock and they kept running out of those left very disappointing.

So far, they’ve had everything we’ve asked for…but we haven’t truly tested the limits yet of wine availability onboard. We usually order wine at dinner and ask the wine steward to recommend a pairing with our meal that evening. I’ll post back when we have more data points. 

[Moonlion]

The good, bad and unfortunate…

 

The quality of our meal last night in the Restaurant was again mixed. The swordfish was very good and the prime rib disappointing - thin slice, overcooked (not the medium rare we ordered) and half fat. It seems they can do seafood well but not beef (the Beef Wellington a couple of days ago was also disappointing). I think it’s difficult to cook such thin slices of beef to medium rare. From our experiences so far, the food quality in the Restaurant has noticeably declined compared to our Viking cruise in January 2022 on the Venus. We reported our concerns to the Restaurant Manager in the hopes that things may improve. 
 

There was a guest entertainer last night in the Star Theater, Ben Mills, who was excellent (did modern renditions of 60s to 80s music). The husband and wife “Contemporary Duo” in Torshavn were also very enjoyable and DH even danced with me (and he’s not the dancing type). Still no sign of Abba or Beatles performances. 
 

Day 5 (May 13th, Dublin): our final documents said we would dock in Dun Laoghaire but, once onboard, it was listed as a tender port. We had booked the early morning included tour and were instructed to be in the Star Theater at 7 AM.  So, we ordered breakfast through room service to arrive by 6:15 AM. Yikes, we were still in bed when our breakfast arrived at 5:45 AM!  The waiter apologized for arriving so early but apparently half the ship had the same idea to order early morning room service. They got most of our order correct and it arrived hot. 
 

We arrived in the Star Theater at 7 AM sharp and then waited and waited and waited… Because of dense fog in the harbor, the harbor master would not permit the tenders to run for safety reasons (completely understandable). We were finally able to start boarding the tender boats at 10:30 AM and didn’t get into Dublin until after 11:30 AM. Unfortunately, I had booked tickets online for a tour of Kilmainham Gaol. Our entry time was 11:30 AM which of course we didn’t make. The tickets were not that expensive so no great financial loss but we were really looking forward to this tour.  Since we got such a late start, Viking extended the ship departure time by a couple of hours. We had fantastic weather in Dublin, sunny and relatively warm. 
 

The included excursion, City Views of Dublin, was basically a bus tour around the city with 3 brief photo stops. It took about 30 minutes to get from Dun Laoghaire to the Dublin city center and the drive around the city took about an hour and a half. Our guide was OK, not terrible and not great. She pointed out a few architectural details and talked about Guinness and its role in shaping modern Dublin. Disappointing to us, she didn’t really cover Ireland’s turbulent history (e.g., the Easter Rising of 1916), Dublin’s rich literary history, Trinity College or the Old Library with the Book of Kells. We left the tour before the bus headed back to the port and explored the city on our own for a couple of hours. Viking had a free shuttle from Dublin to Dun Laoghaire. In retrospect, I think we should have taken the Dart train or Viking’s shuttle into Dublin and done one of the Hop on Hop off tours. 

[SteelCity Cruiser]

Thanks for your reports - we are doing Bergen to Greenwich next month.

 

Where does the shuttle drop you off in Dublin?

 

[Moonlion]

1 hour ago, SteelCity Cruiser said:

Thanks for your reports - we are doing Bergen to Greenwich next month.

 

Where does the shuttle drop you off in Dublin?

 

Merrion Square, just across from the National Gallery of Ireland. 

[KatieKay]

Thank you for taking the time to share such a detailed report - will be following along. We are taking this trip in mid-September - our first Viking cruise, in fact, our very first cruise ever!

[daleybread]

Moonlion! Thank you for these posts. So helpful. We will be on Venus on June 10 and this is getting me so excited for our journey. Great info! (Also, I didn't realize Viking had TWO ships on this itinerary)

[jmfdr]

18 hours ago, Moonlion said:

The good, bad and unfortunate…

 

The quality of our meal last night in the Restaurant was again mixed. The swordfish was very good and the prime rib disappointing - thin slice, overcooked (not the medium rare we ordered) and half fat. It seems they can do seafood well but not beef (the Beef Wellington a couple of days ago was also disappointing). I think it’s difficult to cook such thin slices of beef to medium rare. From our experiences so far, the food quality in the Restaurant has noticeably declined compared to our Viking cruise in January 2022 on the Venus. We reported our concerns to the Restaurant Manager in the hopes that things may improve. 
 

There was a guest entertainer last night in the Star Theater, Ben Mills, who was excellent (did modern renditions of 60s to 80s music). The husband and wife “Contemporary Duo” in Torshavn were also very enjoyable and DH even danced with me (and he’s not the dancing type). Still no sign of Abba or Beatles performances. 
 

Day 5 (May 13th, Dublin): our final documents said we would dock in Dun Laoghaire but, once onboard, it was listed as a tender port. We had booked the early morning included tour and were instructed to be in the Star Theater at 7 AM.  So, we ordered breakfast through room service to arrive by 6:15 AM. Yikes, we were still in bed when our breakfast arrived at 5:45 AM!  The waiter apologized for arriving so early but apparently half the ship had the same idea to order early morning room service. They got most of our order correct and it arrived hot. 
 

We arrived in the Star Theater at 7 AM sharp and then waited and waited and waited… Because of dense fog in the harbor, the harbor master would not permit the tenders to run for safety reasons (completely understandable). We were finally able to start boarding the tender boats at 10:30 AM and didn’t get into Dublin until after 11:30 AM. Unfortunately, I had booked tickets online for a tour of Kilmainham Gaol. Our entry time was 11:30 AM which of course we didn’t make. The tickets were not that expensive so no great financial loss but we were really looking forward to this tour.  Since we got such a late start, Viking extended the ship departure time by a couple of hours. We had fantastic weather in Dublin, sunny and relatively warm. 
 

The included excursion, City Views of Dublin, was basically a bus tour around the city with 3 brief photo stops. It took about 30 minutes to get from Dun Laoghaire to the Dublin city center and the drive around the city took about an hour and a half. Our guide was OK, not terrible and not great. She pointed out a few architectural details and talked about Guinness and its role in shaping modern Dublin. Disappointing to us, she didn’t really cover Ireland’s turbulent history (e.g., the Easter Rising of 1916), Dublin’s rich literary history, Trinity College or the Old Library with the Book of Kells. We left the tour before the bus headed back to the port and explored the city on our own for a couple of hours. Viking had a free shuttle from Dublin to Dun Laoghaire. In retrospect, I think we should have taken the Dart train or Viking’s shuttle into Dublin and done one of the Hop on Hop off tours. 

Thank you so much for your detailed reports.  Much appreciated as we will be doing this cruise in May 2024.

[Mich3554]

We are on this sailing on the BI cruise as holdovers from the World Cruise.  
 

About the food, in my experience the food in The Restaurant has been very uneven from the time we got on Dec 2022 until today.  There have been fabulous meals, and meals that left me wondering where the rest of my meal went.  TBH, we have found World Cafe to be much better, and usually the same meals.  
 

I do think that there are some switchover pains on the ship going on right now.  We lost a large chunk of crew 4/30, in Barcelona.  We lost an equally large chunk at the end of the WC a week or so later.  I think that since they were such huge switchovers, since most got on the ship at the same time it first set sail in Europe, that the steady gain and loss of fewer staff that normally happens on established Viking ships has made the loss of staff (and resulting loss of service) that much more apparent.  

[Mackdogmolly]

On 5/12/2023 at 8:17 AM, Moonlion said:

As soon as we boarded ship (and after muster drill in the Restaurant), we checked out the Chef’s Table menus and booked our dining reservations. They are rotating through about 5 different CT menus on our 14 night cruise (menus change every 3 days)

Do you know if they will accommodate any dietary restrictions, if you tell them in advance? For example, I don’t eat any pork or red meat. On other lines, the chef has made substitutions for me.

[Mich3554]

3 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Do you know if they will accommodate any dietary restrictions, if you tell them in advance? For example, I don’t eat any pork or red meat. On other lines, the chef has made substitutions for me.

Yes.  We have a friend who doesn’t eat meat.  They switched any meat out on the menu for fish.

[Mackdogmolly]

1 minute ago, Mich3554 said:

Yes.  We have a friend who doesn’t eat meat.  They switched any meat out on the menu for fish.

Thank you!!

[LindaS272]

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Do you know if they will accommodate any dietary restrictions, if you tell them in advance? For example, I don’t eat any pork or red meat. On other lines, the chef has made substitutions for me.

Tell the chef at CT in advance of your preferences so they have time to prepare your substitution properly and not just swap in an unseasoned substitute.

[Jim Avery]

Every time the Chef changes we have noticed a change in food and service. I think the Head Chef is the “food General “. 🍸

[Moonlion]

2 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

We are on this sailing on the BI cruise as holdovers from the World Cruise.  
 

About the food, in my experience the food in The Restaurant has been very uneven from the time we got on Dec 2022 until today.  There have been fabulous meals, and meals that left me wondering where the rest of my meal went.  TBH, we have found World Cafe to be much better, and usually the same meals.  
 

I do think that there are some switchover pains on the ship going on right now.  We lost a large chunk of crew 4/30, in Barcelona.  We lost an equally large chunk at the end of the WC a week or so later.  I think that since they were such huge switchovers, since most got on the ship at the same time it first set sail in Europe, that the steady gain and loss of fewer staff that normally happens on established Viking ships has made the loss of staff (and resulting loss of service) that much more apparent.  

Agree, very inconsistent. DH and I ordered the exact same item, a Peruvian pork chop, last night in the Restaurant. One serving came out perfectly prepared, the other was thinner, dry and tough. We keep trying the Restaurant hoping to see improvement. What’s the definition of insanity again? 😂

Mich3544, hope to meet up with you on ship sometime. 

[Mackdogmolly]

11 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

Tell the chef at CT in advance of your preferences so they have time to prepare your substitution properly and not just swap in an unseasoned substitute.

When I have signed up for a CT in the past on a different line, I tell them when I sign up 

[Moonlion]

BRILLIANT day today!! And Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mums on CC 💕

 

Day 6 (May 14th, Holyhead, Wales): we went on an independent excursion today with Busy Bus Tours (Sightseeing Day Tour to North Wales from Holyhead Cruise Terminal). We loved, LOVED this tour! There were only 8 of us on this excursion. Our guide, Shellie, was excellent - funny, knowledgeable, told us interesting stories about sheep farming in Wales (learned about black sheep) and shared several Welsh folk tales, played a few Welsh songs while driving, talked about the history and geography of region.
 

Even though we docked at Holyhead, it took awhile to get to the cruise terminal from where the ship was docked. Passengers are not permitted to walk from the ship to the cruise terminal for safety reasons, plus it’s quite a distance. For those not taking Viking excursions, there is a free shuttle from the ship to the terminal. However, we had to wait until all the Viking buses cleared out for the morning excursions. Shellie waited patiently for us to arrive at the terminal and said it is common for passengers to arrive a little late waiting for the shuttle. 
 

In our 7-hour tour (£64 pp), we drove in a small bus through the beautiful Welsh countryside and made stops at Conwy (charming Welsh village with a medieval castle), Betws-Y-Coed where we had lunch (DH and I went to Y Stablau and tried some local dishes and the Welsh rarebit which was delicious), Ogwen in Snowdonia National Park (absolutely beautiful!), and Caernarfon (another charming village with a castle - the Prince of Wales is coronated here). We spent from 45 to 75 minutes at each site so much more than a quick photoshop. 
 

Although the weather forecast predicted rain today, it stayed clear until around 4 PM. Shellie got us back to the ship before 5 PM as promised. We really enjoyed this tour and had a lovely day. 

 

[KaDarr]

So happy to hear that you loved the tour with Boutique Tours out of Holyhead 😁 We will be on the Venus BIE on September 2 of this year. I booked John from Boutique Tours to take us on the same trip. I'm still hoping that someone else books it also as it is quite expensive for just the two of us. (600 pounds for just the two of us) I think I am looking forward to this tour more than anything. Thanks so much for the report!

[MoneyGuy]

We’ll be sailing on this ship June 6 from Reykjavik to New York. It’s nice to read about your experiences. 

[Krazy4Kruisin']

6 hours ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Do you know if they will accommodate any dietary restrictions, if you tell them in advance? For example, I don’t eat any pork or red meat. On other lines, the chef has made substitutions for me.

Go to MyVikingJourney/On Board Experience/Preferences/Dietary Restrictions. You can put in food preferences and allergies.