New Pricing

[rbslos18]

51 minutes ago, SJD117 said:

Absolutely, do your homework! For example, if you prefer travel companies that specialize in photography, you may decide to go with Wild-Eye out of South Africa rather than a cruise. Different strokes for different folks!  🤣🤣🤣
 

www.wild-eye.com

 

Let’s tweak that to wide-eye or maybe both! That SJD and LindaS will hopefully agree with! With most reviews found online, the very happy and unhappy tend to post. I find the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. One of the interesting aspects of Viking is the large percent of devotees who are repeat cruisers. 

[Twitchly]

On 8/3/2023 at 10:58 PM, Vineyard View said:

We have two future cruises booked. One on Oceania with their new promotion. By far, the pricing is miles apart from Viking for similar itineraries, and as mentioned in a previous post here, includes more in areas that are important to us.  We also have another booked with Seabourn. This cruise is also significantly lower than Viking, and includes a whole, whole lot more on a much smaller ship.
I am calculating total cost per day per person in these comparisons. 

Intriguing. I’m especially surprised to hear Seabourn is significantly cheaper than Viking. Is this becoming typical, or is this a one-off? Which itinerary is it?

[oskidunker]

42 minutes ago, rbslos18 said:

Let’s tweak that to wide-eye or maybe both! That SJD and LindaS will hopefully agree with! With most reviews found online, the very happy and unhappy tend to post. I find the truth is usually somewhere in the middle. One of the interesting aspects of Viking is the large percent of devotees who are repeat cruisers. 

The Princess boards are full of repeat cruisers in full denial regarding bad food and poor service. I am not one of them. We loved our Princess cruises when the ships were smaller and the food was better. Now its Oceania and Viking. Butwilling tontry something else just not the mega ships 

[rbslos18]

1 hour ago, Squawkman said:

That is why I always use the same Viking agent. Never had a problem that wasn’t satisfactorily rectified. While he still has to refer me to others for resolution, the difference is I tell him the issue, he puts me on hold, then transfers me to someone who knows the issue before I explain it. To me this is worth giving up a few hundred extra in SBC.

Using a Viking agent works for many. Some use the same travel agent out of loyalty. I use both. I book with a Viking agent when I cruise or when at home and then transfer the booking to my travel agent. For me, the SBC is secondary.  My hard working travel agent making a well-deserved commission means a lot. 

Edited August 6, 2023 by rbslos18

[SantaFe1]

14 hours ago, photopro2 said:

Having visited most of the places in the world that we were interested in as fully independent travellers when we were younger, we are now happy to put up with the "limitations" of cruise travel. Time has moved us into a stage in life where we are looking for relatively stress free travel and are happy to have most things arranged for us, making us a good fit for Viking as detailed above.

I just couldn’t agree with this more.  We just want a pleasant journey.  Room, food, ship, service and fellow passengers.  Yes there are things we don’t particularly like about Viking, food foremost. We almost didn’t do the WC because of this.  But so glad we did. And yet I read an article today in Food and Wine that found Viking the best food.   But I am really tired of all this sniping.  KB’s Mum, if you don’t like Viking, fine.  Do another cruise line.  But your opinion isn’t the be all and end all for all of us.  

Edited August 6, 2023 by SantaFe1

[SJD117]

27 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

I just couldn’t agree with this more.  We just want a pleasant journey.  Room, food, ship, service and fellow passengers.  Yes there are things we don’t particularly like about Viking, food foremost. We almost didn’t do the WC because of this.  But so glad we did. And yet I read an article today in Food and Wine that found Viking the best food.   But I am really tired of all this sniping.  KB’s Mum, if you don’t like Viking, fine.  Do another cruise line.  But your opinion isn’t the be all and end all for all of us.  

 

Hear hear, Christine!

[rbslos18]

25 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

I just couldn’t agree with this more.  We just want a pleasant journey.  Room, food, ship, service and fellow passengers.  Yes there are things we don’t particularly like about Viking, food foremost. We almost didn’t do the WC because of this.  But so glad we did. And yet I read an article today in Food and Wine that found Viking the best food.   But I am really tired of all this sniping.  KB’s Mum, if you don’t like Viking, fine.  Do another cruise line.  But your opinion isn’t the be all and end all for all of us.  

Well said. The Viking KB’s Mum describes is quite foreign to most of us. Thankfully there she had many travel and cruise options. The board is presumably to help and inform. 

[SantaFe1]

4 minutes ago, SJD117 said:

 

Hear hear, Christine!

 

5 minutes ago, SJD117 said:

 

Hear hear, Christine!

Thanks, Dave.  

[CurlerRob]

5 hours ago, greatver said:

Fascinating. I have done 14 cruises on Holland America pre-Covid but since they now are going for the larger ships decided to try Viking for our first post Covid cruise based on its reputation. Hope we’re not disappointed!

 

My guess is that you will not be disappointed. We tried Viking in late 2019 after more than 300 days on HAL and were totally impressed by the quality of the Viking experience. If you ever sailed on HAL's Prinsendam, Viking was that kind of quality and atmosphere, but hugely modernized.

 

We made multiple new bookings, but then ... well, everyone knows!

 

This December, we will finally be able to sail Viking again and be in a position to evaluate what, if any changes have taken place. Have a teriffic cruise! 🍺🥌

[greatver]

Thanks for all your positive comments. We have sailed on Prinsendam which was our favorite HAL ship, followed by Maasdam!

[uktog]

5 hours ago, rbslos18 said:

Well said. The Viking KB’s Mum describes is quite foreign to most of us. Thankfully there she had many travel and cruise options. The board is presumably to help and inform. 

Thank you. 

We’ve over 700 sailing days under our belts but only one on Viking (others being Celebrity, Azamara and two lapses in due diligence- MSC and NCL). 

There were things we did not like on our first Viking trip but that we believe was due to how we coped (or did not) with their strict Covid protocols. However we saw enough to book two more with Viking - the first coming up very soon. 

Our last cruise was on Azamara and was a huge disappointment, maybe we remember too much from their good old days just as some here remember their “good old Viking days” through the same rose tinted lenses. 

So we are really looking forward to the end of the month. We understand it’s not “our private ship” but somewhere we share will 900 others and some things will not work for us that do for others. We also know service will drop somewhere along the line in the 15 days but then, I’m sure I drop the ball elsewhere on something more often than every 15 days. 

Nothing is going to beat being fed, watered and have our brains occupied by new people, environments, thoughts, sights and sounds for that time.  

Thank you to everyone who has answered my newbie questions whilst we get set to go! 

[Mitina]

This topic is beginning to read like that other social media site.  Back to New Pricing please.

[Mrs Miggins]

2 hours ago, uktog said:

Thank you. 

We’ve over 700 sailing days under our belts but only one on Viking (others being Celebrity, Azamara and two lapses in due diligence- MSC and NCL). 

There were things we did not like on our first Viking trip but that we believe was due to how we coped (or did not) with their strict Covid protocols. However we saw enough to book two more with Viking - the first coming up very soon. 

Our last cruise was on Azamara and was a huge disappointment, maybe we remember too much from their good old days just as some here remember their “good old Viking days” through the same rose tinted lenses. 

So we are really looking forward to the end of the month. We understand it’s not “our private ship” but somewhere we share will 900 others and some things will not work for us that do for others. We also know service will drop somewhere along the line in the 15 days but then, I’m sure I drop the ball elsewhere on something more often than every 15 days. 

Nothing is going to beat being fed, watered and have our brains occupied by new people, environments, thoughts, sights and sounds for that time.  

Thank you to everyone who has answered my newbie questions whilst we get set to go! 

Interesting read and I really hope you enjoy your 2nd Viking cruise.  Which itinerary?  We have done 4 Viking cruises and many more Azamara.  We had a discussion yesterday about plans for 2024 and have probably decided that despite the website issues and one very poor shore excursion, Azamara is probably a slightly better fit for us.  Nevertheless Viking is a class act although our last cruise was certainly a step down from previous experience.  One major factor in Azamara's favour, in our opinion, is the great mix of nationalities.  In addition the shipboard experience seems more flexible.  Viking do many things very well and the ships are beautiful, but it is very formulaic especially in regard to menus.  Viking also seem both from our own experience, and from comments on this board, poor at finding alternative ports at short notice.   However we are still looking but at the moment the pricing on Viking seems very high compared with Azamara or Oceania.  

We would happily book again if we could find an attractive itinerary and price.

[uktog]

Wish I’d gone to KBs school - never had dinners there that I had on Viking (and in the one case where there was an issue in V at least I could get it put right as it was perfectly)

 

Interesting @Mrs Miggins  the issues shoreside at Azamara for me and my travel agent are too great just now though we do still have two booked for early 2024. 
 

Our upcoming Viking Ocean is New York to Greenland to Iceland then we have two rivers and an Ocean in early 2025 all of which we are happy with the per day price which is what we do our comparison on having created a like for like calculation. 

[CDNPolar]

16 hours ago, KBs mum said:

Food is now chain pub or supermarket ready meal standard. Entertainment is difficult to avoid being in all the lounges and barely of competent amateur standard. 

Previously the food was OK if average the entertainment was limited to the theatre and torshavn so easy to avoid. 

We look for travel with no entertainment and good food. We are not bothered if this excludes cruises 

 

This is NOT our experience with Viking food at all.  There is always a dish or two that do not exceed our expectations, but we learn through trial and error.

 

We also immediately will turn a dish back to the kitchen and request something else if the dish is not satisfactory.  For me there have been local specialties that I have tried and not liked, but that is not necessarily a Viking food issue.  It is that I am not loving that flavour or specific food.

 

We have found in general that Viking do not excel in fried foods, so English Style Fish and Chips and Soft Shell Crab, we just avoid now.  The only night that we will avoid in the Chef's Table is the British night.

 

We have eaten the world over in close to 40 countries now and we consider Viking food to be of high quality and part of the reason we sail Viking.

 

I also disagree that the vegetables are all frozen.  Just not the case.

[Mrs Miggins]

42 minutes ago, uktog said:

Wish I’d gone to KBs school - never had dinners there that I had on Viking (and in the one case where there was an issue in V at least I could get it put right as it was perfectly)

 

Interesting @Mrs Miggins  the issues shoreside at Azamara for me and my travel agent are too great just now though we do still have two booked for early 2024. 
 

Our upcoming Viking Ocean is New York to Greenland to Iceland then we have two rivers and an Ocean in early 2025 all of which we are happy with the per day price which is what we do our comparison on having created a like for like calculation. 

Really interested to read your reviews.  I do think that Azamara and Viking are a good fit for many.  Your extensive cruising knowledge is invaluable.   I certainly do not trust negative reviews from those who appear to have limited cruising experience or an "axe to grind"  We are indeed fortunate to have a wide choice and if one company doesnt fit then there are many others to try.

Have never tried Viking River but really do like Scenic.