Onboard Neptune now - British Isles Explorer

[Mackdogmolly]

28 minutes ago, Krazy4Kruisin' said:

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

Thanks for the tip!  I will do this as soon as my cruise is booked. Does this mean that I wouldn’t have to repeat the information when booking a CT?

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Thanks for the tip!  I will do this as soon as my cruise is booked. Does this mean that I wouldn’t have to repeat the information when booking a CT?

 

It is best that you confirm your issues with the restaurant staff when you board just to make sure that it has been duly noted.

[Moonlion]

10 hours ago, KaDarr said:

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!

To be clear, we were on Busy Bus Tours (at £64 pp), not with John from Boutique Tours. 

[Greener123]

Can I just check, since you’re doing a British isles cruise, has there been any issues or mention of any issues of getting alcohol in any of the UK ports you’ve visited so far or are expected to visit? 
 

have you had to wait until departure before the bars being open? 

[Moonlion]

2 hours ago, Greener123 said:

Can I just check, since you’re doing a British isles cruise, has there been any issues or mention of any issues of getting alcohol in any of the UK ports you’ve visited so far or are expected to visit? 
 

have you had to wait until departure before the bars being open? 

We’ve had no problem getting alcohol onboard while still at port, nor with purchasing alcohol while ashore. Curious why there would be any restrictions at UK ports? The Brits are well known for their love of a pint or two. 

[Greener123]

1 minute ago, Moonlion said:

We’ve had no problem getting alcohol onboard while still at port, nor with purchasing alcohol while ashore. Curious why there would be any restrictions at UK ports? The Brits are well known for their love of a pint or two. 

There are issues with NCL at UK ports the last couple of weeks, just trying to get evidence that it isn’t happening to any of the other lines sailing the UK currently 👍🏻

[Moonlion]

We went to the Restaurant again last night and…shock of all shocks…both our orders were very good including an order of beef chateaubriand.  Our faith in Viking has been restored 🤣😂🙃. We got to the Restaurant around 7:30 PM and there was a 15-20 minute wait. No problem, we went to the Living Room bar and had a glass of wine while waiting. By 7:45 to 8:00 PM, tables open up again. 
 

By the way, people start queuing for the Restaurant well before 6 PM and they start seating people before 5:45! DH walked by the Restaurant around 6 PM tonight and there was a LONG line already formed. So, if you don’t want to deal with lines, show up before 5:45 or after 7:45 PM. 
 

There was another excellent performance by Ben Mills last night at 9 PM. We got there a little late finishing up dinner. Oddly, no Beatles performances last night or tonight despite stopping in Liverpool today. What’s going on??

 

The weather has been wonderful despite forecasts of rain  a couple of days ago. Today was mid 50s, no rain and even sunny on and off through the day. The sea has been very calm while sailing and there are times when I’m not even aware we are cruising. 
 

Today (Day 7, May 15th, Liverpool), we did another independent tour, Mad Day Out Beatles Taxi Tour with Ian Doyle (£130 for the entire taxi, not per person, which can comfortably hold 4 adults or squeeze in up to 6). Another couple on our CC roll call joined us today. Ian is passionate about everything Beatles and a walking encyclopedia of knowledge!  He is a musician himself and friends with Pete Best, the original Beatles drummer who was replaced by Ringo Starr just before they became famous. He took us to the usual Beatles sites but also some lesser known places. We can HIGHLY recommend this tour which gets 5 stars on TripAdvisor. You need to book months in advance, however, since he only does 2 tours a day and they sell out fast!

 

After the tour, we had lunch at the Cavern Club and visited the Liverpool Beatles Museum on Mathew Street near the Cavern Club. Ian strongly recommended this museum over the Beatles Story one near the port. 
 

Another FAB day!

[Azulann]

17 minutes ago, Moonlion said:

By the way, people start queuing for the Restaurant well before 6 PM and they start seating people before 5:45! DH walked by the Restaurant around 6 PM tonight and there was a LONG line already formed. So, if you don’t want to deal with lines, show up before 5:45 or after 7:45 PM. 

I am assuming  that the ship is at capacity, is that right? Does the restaurant  have shared tables again? I know they did pre-covid. It was an option for us some nights when we wanted to dine  at a certain time, we asked for a shard table.  Met some nice fellow cruisers that way too.

[Moonlion]

1 hour ago, Azulann said:

I am assuming  that the ship is at capacity, is that right? Does the restaurant  have shared tables again? I know they did pre-covid. It was an option for us some nights when we wanted to dine  at a certain time, we asked for a shard table.  Met some nice fellow cruisers that way too.

Yes, the ship is fully booked. Not sure whether shared tables are an option in the Restaurant. We didn’t ask and the hostess must have assumed we wanted a table for two (she didn’t ask if we wanted to share a table last night). Tonight, we arrived a little past 8 PM and waited less than 5 minutes for them to clear a window table for us; honestly, after touring all day and having lunch ashore, we weren’t ready to eat by 5:45 PM. Beautiful sunset this evening while we dined! The Restaurant was almost empty after 8 PM and we got exceptional service. 

Both our meals tonight in the Restaurant were very good to excellent. Based on the last two data points, it seems things are improving in the Restaurant…at least for us. 
 

Other updates:

 

The crew continue to be outstanding! They are what makes Viking an exceptional cruise line without a doubt in our opinion. We’ve also met many lovely guests on this cruise. 

 

The mattresses are perfect for us, not too soft or hard.  Our room steward said they now add a mattress topper. 
 

We’ve not seen any “service” dogs on this cruise. 

[Peregrina651]

Would someone who is on board now be willing to photograph and post the shorex pricelist?? There should be one in your cabin, just a list ot the tours and their cost.  TIA

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, Moonlion said:

By the way, people start queuing for the Restaurant well before 6 PM and they start seating people before 5:45! DH walked by the Restaurant around 6 PM tonight and there was a LONG line already formed. So, if you don’t want to deal with lines, show up before 5:45 or after 7:45 PM. 

Moonlion - sure love your wonderful attitude about everything. You are going to really enjoy your whole cruise - i can tell that!  Wish more were like you.

 

Interesting regarding The Restaurant.  DW and I have speculated on this phenomena.  As has been said before, every cruise and itinerary is very different in passenger behavior.  There often are no common practices.  We've had Viking cruises where Manfredi's was so popular you could barely get in, and CT was begging for people.  Then the next cruise it was just the opposite.  We've seen lines for washing machines early in the morning on some cruises, and then nobody there early on others.  Who can say?

 

On our 2 cruise out of Florida however (Ft Lauderdale), we did note the common thread was this habit of lining up really early for the World Cafe and The Restaurant for dinners.  Like up to 30 minutes early.  In the WC, people would go in (even while they were still setting up) and sit down at the tables waiting.  Such an odd thing.  Speculated that perhaps lots of Floridians are used to going to dinner and the buffets early and it is just part of their habit to wait in line for dinner. 🙂

 

We've had other cruises where we could walk up at 6:00 the Restaurant and be immediately seated!  It's a crap shoot!  Once a certain behavior pattern is observed on a particular cruise, it seems people, as it the case in human behavior, experience that FOMO feeling (Fear of Missing Out) and rush to line up (whether it is for food, drinks, washing machine, excursions, etc).  We've even seen people pack the Star Theatre 45 minutes before showtime.  

Isn't human behavior interesting?

[Moonlion]

15 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Moonlion - sure love your wonderful attitude about everything. You are going to really enjoy your whole cruise - i can tell that!  Wish more were like you.

 

Interesting regarding The Restaurant.  DW and I have speculated on this phenomena.  As has been said before, every cruise and itinerary is very different in passenger behavior.  There often are no common practices.  We've had Viking cruises where Manfredi's was so popular you could barely get in, and CT was begging for people.  Then the next cruise it was just the opposite.  We've seen lines for washing machines early in the morning on some cruises, and then nobody there early on others.  Who can say?

 

On our 2 cruise out of Florida however (Ft Lauderdale), we did note the common thread was this habit of lining up really early for the World Cafe and The Restaurant for dinners.  Like up to 30 minutes early.  In the WC, people would go in (even while they were still setting up) and sit down at the tables waiting.  Such an odd thing.  Speculated that perhaps lots of Floridians are used to going to dinner and the buffets early and it is just part of their habit to wait in line for dinner. 🙂

 

We've had other cruises where we could walk up at 6:00 the Restaurant and be immediately seated!  It's a crap shoot!  Once a certain behavior pattern is observed on a particular cruise, it seems people, as it the case in human behavior, experience that FOMO feeling (Fear of Missing Out) and rush to line up (whether it is for food, drinks, washing machine, excursions, etc).  We've even seen people pack the Star Theatre 45 minutes before showtime.  

Isn't human behavior interesting?

Totally agree. The secret is figuring out the “crowd“ behavior early on on a cruise, and then do the opposite. With fairly minor adjustments, we are so much happier. 

[Peregrina651]

3 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

As has been said before, every cruise and itinerary is very different in passenger behavior.  There often are no common practices. 

 

Happy to confirm everything you just said.  Each cruise has its own unpredictable vibe.

 

[CDR2001]

15 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Would someone who is on board now be willing to photograph and post the shorex pricelist?? There should be one in your cabin, just a list ot the tours and their cost.  TIA 

Peregrina, last week I asked for the shorex via the chat on MVJ. I got the PDF within minutes. I asked for any sailing this May. Sorry, I’m not good with posting them to this site. By the way, the first agent I asked didn’t know how to send them, so I signed off, and the next person knew right away what I wanted. In 3 years of sailing VO, I’ve always been able to get this via chat.

 

[CCWineLover]

11 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Happy to confirm everything you just said.  Each cruise has its own unpredictable vibe.

 

Double and triple confirm - again.

[retiredman]

On 5/13/2023 at 1:40 PM, 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. 

My wife and I just returned on the 13th from the Venus doing the BIE. Maybe the only really disappointing meal was one of my favorites, Beef Wellington. Why was I expecting an individual filet with delicious pate wrapped in puff pastry? Because its Viking! They should be ashamed of what they tried to pass off as that wonderful entree.

[retiredman]

On 5/14/2023 at 3:54 PM, KaDarr said:

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!

We just returned on the 13th from the Venus. I booked Boutique Tours in Holyhead as well. Fantastic tour, John is excellent. If you haven't created or joined your roll call, do it now. That is how I easily recruited two more couples to bring the price down. We met in the Explorers Lounge a couple of days before Holyhead. Had a wonderful time. Also booked Grant Redfern of Shetland Minibus Tours. Wonderful!

[KaDarr]

1 hour ago, retiredman said:

We just returned on the 13th from the Venus. I booked Boutique Tours in Holyhead as well. Fantastic tour, John is excellent. If you haven't created or joined your roll call, do it now. That is how I easily recruited two more couples to bring the price down. We met in the Explorers Lounge a couple of days before Holyhead. Had a wonderful time. Also booked Grant Redfern of Shetland Minibus Tours. Wonderful!

I have put all of the information in our roll call. There are only about five others in the roll call and evidently none of them are interested. I'm starting to get very nervous. I think I'll put it out there on the Vikings facebook page.

[anaco_angler]

12 minutes ago, KaDarr said:

I have put all of the information in our roll call. There are only about five others in the roll call and evidently none of them are interested. I'm starting to get very nervous. I think I'll put it out there on the Vikings facebook page.

KaDarr, I'm having the same challenge with regard to the Boutique Tours in Holyhead and Liverpool on our August 29 sailing on Viking Mars. There are very few people on the roll call. I've had two posters show some interest but so far no commitments. This will be our fourth Viking Ocean cruise and it is by far the fewest number on a roll call.

[Moonlion]

17 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Would someone who is on board now be willing to photograph and post the shorex pricelist?? There should be one in your cabin, just a list ot the tours and their cost.  TIA

[Moonlion]

On 5/13/2023 at 2:05 AM, 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.

Between DH and me, we’ve requested about 10 different wines on the list and they’ve all been available. 
Here is the wine list on this cruise, more reds by the glass than whites:

 

[CCWineLover]

Thank you SO much for the wine list, Moonlion!

This makes us feel encouraged for our upcoming cruise in a couple weeks.  Nothing more disappointing than getting Silver Spirits and then the claim supply chain shortage so hardly anything available.   Fortunately, upon several calls to Viking when back home, we got vouchers back for the price.  They must have realized the issue with so many complaints.

Can't wait to try all the fun wines!  We use the SSP to sample as many wines we don't know as possible.  

Another question - does your ship have the special Wine Tasting sessions (they used to have a couple each cruise - held in Manfredi's during the day).  I think they also held various spirits tastings too but not sure since not interested in them.

[Moonlion]

16 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Another question - does your ship have the special Wine Tasting sessions (they used to have a couple each cruise - held in Manfredi's during the day).  I think they also held various spirits tastings too but not sure since not interested in them.

They had a French wine tasting on Day 2 or 3, but we missed it unfortunately. 

[Moonlion]

Day 8 (May 16th, Belfast): another fantastic day! Wow, we are having a fabulous time on this cruise!

 

The weather gods continue to shine down on us. Another day with rain in the forecast but the morning was clear, sunny at times, with at most a few sprinkles in the afternoon. The sea remains amazingly calm. 

 

We took another independent excursion today: Odyssey Coach Tours, Giants Causeway Tour from Belfast Port - Extra Legroom Bus (£53 pp). Tour went 8 hours from 8 AM to 4 PM and there were only 10 of us on the bus, all from the Viking Neptune. We covered a good amount of Northern Ireland during the tour including the Giants Causeway (breathtaking, highly recommend!), Dunluce Castle, beautiful scenic drive along the Antrim Coast Road and stopped at several other scenic sites including a lunch stop in Bushmill. The countryside of Northern Ireland is vibrantly green and beautiful at this time of year. We ended up in Belfast in the afternoon and toured the city including the Peace Walls separating the British and Irish areas of Belfast - fascinating history! Our driver/guide was an interesting Irish Catholic gentleman from Belfast who really opened our eyes to the Irish viewpoint of the Troubles history. 

 

We had dinner again tonight in the Restaurant and everything was excellent, perfectly prepared and delicious - including orders of filet mignon and a regional lamb stew. We sat next to another couple who ordered different dishes and said they were also excellent. I’m happy to report that The Restaurant has redeemed itself 😉. 
 

[DGHOC]

Thank you for this thread Moonlion, I am really enjoying your positivity and enthusiasm, it's enormously refreshing!

Continue to enjoy your trip.