If you didn't choose Viking, what would it be?

[Brad1185]

To us the closest competitor to Viking Ocean is Oceania. So right now Oceania would be our second choice. 

[uktog]

I’m going to try Explora soon. Reading good things about the food onboard. Have also done many Azamara but I’d say Viking is above them now. 
I’m looking for under 1000 guests good food some but not too much evening entertainment and choices. Choices where to eat, sit daytime and sit evening. 
Viking ticks these boxes at a nice price point for us 

[Hobson1754]

5 hours ago, uktog said:

I’m going to try Explora soon. Reading good things about the food onboard. Have also done many Azamara but I’d say Viking is above them now. 
I’m looking for under 1000 guests good food some but not too much evening entertainment and choices. Choices where to eat, sit daytime and sit evening. 
Viking ticks these boxes at a nice price point for us 

Yes just checked it out & ships etc look lovely. Downside for me would be they are not adult only.

[philw1776]

Sliversea
Ship holds ~600. Larger bathrooms, tub & shower. All inclusive with cocktails. Very good restaurants. Similar tours. 

 

The downsides:

Not as light and open as Viking. Charge $$ for 2 specialty restaurants. Require dinner jackets for men.

[uktog]

2 hours ago, Hobson1754 said:

Yes just checked it out & ships etc look lovely. Downside for me would be they are not adult only.

Yes that’s one thing I will be looking at as we are over a possible holiday period 

[CCWineLover]

9 hours ago, philw1776 said:

The downsides:

Not as light and open as Viking. Charge $$ for 2 specialty restaurants. Require dinner jackets for men.

Yikes - dinner jackets.  Haven't done that since cruising in the early 90's.

Sadly, that will rule Silversea out for use if this is true.

[Jim Avery]

true it is 

[Vineyard View]

Seabourn this year was lovely. They call for a ‘formal night’ but I truly saw a handful of formal. DH took a sport coat. No tie. Some wore no coat.  Collared shirts and slacks were equal dress on formal night to jackets and suites. Easy peasy. 
Really enjoyed the cabin layout of their verandah over the PV on Viking, as well as food. 
Equally lovely staff. 
Much smaller ports. 
Missed the promenade deck for walking, but it was port intensive 

Tender operations are down to a science. Virtually no waiting other than maybe 10 min

No included excursions but we don’t take those them

All alcohol all day included as well as some top shelf offerings

Price pp/pd all in equal to at best and often less for verandah vs PV

The casino was the size of a small shop in an obscure area. The one time we walked by no customers

 

We will happily sail SB again.  If we can find an itinerary at the right price we will sail Viking but we have not found one for our timeframe and geographic targets post Covid. 

 

 

[-Lew-]

My DW and I are currently sailing on our first Viking Ocean cruise on the Sky.  We embarked in Civitavecchia on October 6th and will disembark in Fort Lauderdale on November 30h.  We have sailed on about 65 cruises on various lines.  Our most recent experience before our current cruise was on Regent Splendor for 32 days in January and February of this year.

 

The two lines are more similar than different.  Some noticeable differences...

 

Excursions:  Viking offers one, sometimes two, included excursions in each port.  Regent offers many more included excursions plus some requiring payment.

 

Buffet:  The World Cafe's buffet offers much more than the one in Regent's La Veranda.  We sometimes enjoy dining casually in shorts after a day off the ship...most of the time we can't do that on Regent.

 

Suite layout:  Our room category on Viking is comparable to that on Regent.  Although the interior  square footage is about the same, Regent's balcony is much larger with much better furniture, including a large table for dining.  Regent's bathroom is much larger with two sinks, a shower, and tub.  There's also a large walkin closet.  Although there is plenty of drawer space on Sky, closet space is much smaller.

 

Laundry: Professional laundry service is free on Regent while available for a fee on Viking.  Both offer self-service laundries.

 

Entertainment:  Regent provided excellent evening entertainment with only a few repeated performances over 32 nights, including off-ship entertainers.  In a little over 16 days, entertainment on the Sky has been reduced to repeated on-ship entertainment.  There was some excellent off-ship entertainment during the first week, but that has sadly disappeared.

 

Alcoholic beverages:  All Included except for super high end on Regent; Viking requires purchase of an upgraded package for coctails and better wines.  Room service will provide a full bottle of wine or liquor for in-room use upon request at no charge.

 

Both lines are excellent...we're enjoying our Med cruise very much.  At this point we're leaning toward Regent, but that could change as this cruise progresses.

[CCWineLover]

5 hours ago, -Lew- said:

In a little over 16 days, entertainment on the Sky has been reduced to repeated on-ship entertainment.  There was some excellent off-ship entertainment during the first week, but that has sadly disappeared.

 

Thank you for your very well thorough writeup.

Question for you - what "off-ship" entertainment did you have with Viking?

I've never seen anything "off-ship", unless you count as entertainment watching the crew welcome back passengers from an excursion with music and dancing.  🙂

(I do agree Viking's entertainment for us is getting a bit old and stale after doing several cruises).

 

Will be interested to hear your thoughts as the cruise progressed.

 

Also, what room categories (by name) did you compare on each ship?  And cost?   We like Viking's no children policy.  Did you experience many young'uns on Regent?

Edited October 23, 2023 by CCWineLover

[SJD117]

37 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Thank you for your very well thorough writeup.

Question for you - what "off-ship" entertainment did you have with Viking?

I've never seen anything "off-ship", unless you count as entertainment watching the crew welcome back passengers from an excursion with music and dancing.  🙂

(I do agree Viking's entertainment for us is getting a bit old and stale after doing several cruises).

 

Will be interested to hear your thoughts as the cruise progressed.

 

Also, what room categories (by name) did you compare on each ship?  And cost?   We like Viking's no children policy.  Did you experience many young'uns on Regent?

I suspect that off-ship entertainment means singers, dancers, etc. that aren’t part of Viking’s staff, but are brought on the ship to do one or more specialty performances that are geared toward the particular region.

[Mackdogmolly]

On 10/19/2023 at 11:43 AM, Mrs Miggins said:

We love Azamara. You would need to be in at least a Club Continental Suite if you are used to Viking.

The veranda cabins are about the same size on the two ships, but the Viking bathrooms are much larger in the standard veranda 

[CurlerRob]

16 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Yikes - dinner jackets.  Haven't done that since cruising in the early 90's.

Sadly, that will rule Silversea out for use if this is true.

 

I think @philw1776 meant a 'jacket with dinner', not the formal dinner type.

 

Silversea requires a jacket on informal nights (no tie). Formal nights are limited in number, but would require a minimum jacket and tie. On formal nights, La Terrazza only requires a jacket for men - room service is the maximum way out on those nights.

 

More traditional, certainly, but no penguin suits every night! 🍺🥌

[-Lew-]

4 hours ago, SJD117 said:

I suspect that off-ship entertainment means singers, dancers, etc. that aren’t part of Viking’s staff, but are brought on the ship to do one or more specialty performances that are geared toward the particular region.

 

Correct!  During our first segment from Civitavecchia to Venice, Lloyd Hollett, a British comedian performed two different shows.  He was halarious!  Search his name on YouTube.

 

Unfortunately no outside entertainers have appeared since.

 

4 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Also, what room categories (by name) did you compare on each ship?  And cost?   We like Viking's no children policy.  Did you experience many young'uns on Regent?

 

On Viking were in a PV1; On Regent we were in a Consierge D.

 

I don't have full cost information with me.  I can tell you the cost of the Viking cruise was paid with a number of 125% FCCs, so it would be difficult to come up with the real cost of this cruise a right now.

[CCWineLover]

Too funny!  I read off the ship to mean the passengers and performers were off the ship!🤔.  I see now you were referring to non Viking people coming onto the ship to perform.!

we a a couple “off the ship” performers come onboard to do some shows on our recently completedMars cruise.

Edited October 23, 2023 by CCWineLover

[MaxFan]

We've thought about trying Oceania. They have a nice Baltic itinerary that includes Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania, although sadly not Latvia. Ends up in Dublin, which is cool. We really wish Viking had a good Baltic Sea itinerary.

 

 

[Pushka]

We currently have cruises booked on Celebrity and Azamara. It's a relief on Celebrity to book excursions immediately. Azamara includes alcohol and just over 750 people so smaller than Viking. Have been on Cunard, Princess, RCL and Celebrity before. After our next two river cruises on Viking are completed then I don't think we will go back to Viking. 

[farmecologist]

14 hours ago, Pushka said:

We currently have cruises booked on Celebrity and Azamara. It's a relief on Celebrity to book excursions immediately. Azamara includes alcohol and just over 750 people so smaller than Viking. Have been on Cunard, Princess, RCL and Celebrity before. After our next two river cruises on Viking are completed then I don't think we will go back to Viking. 

 

Interesting.  I'll have to look into Azamara.  Looks like they have some decent deals as well.  

 

How are their excursions?  I'm assuming they do not have a selection of "included excursions" like on Viking?

 

 

[JM0115]

3 minutes ago, farmecologist said:

 

Interesting.  I'll have to look into Azamara.  Looks like they have some decent deals as well.  

 

How are their excursions?  I'm assuming they do not have a selection of "included excursions" like on Viking?

 

 

We greatly preferred Viking to Azamara. Their ships are old and worn and we did note feel as welcomed as we do on Viking. They have no included excursions except for the Azamazing Evening which is a great event. The ships are smaller than Viking which is a positive. Their excursions seem to be a bit smaller in size.

[Hobson1754]

30 minutes ago, JM0115 said:

We greatly preferred Viking to Azamara. Their ships are old and worn and we did note feel as welcomed as we do on Viking. They have no included excursions except for the Azamazing Evening which is a great event. The ships are smaller than Viking which is a positive. Their excursions seem to be a bit smaller in size.

Did I read on this Board somewhere that the bathrooms/showers on Azamara ships are much smaller than Viking (or did I dream this)?

[uktog]

22 minutes ago, Hobson1754 said:

Did I read on this Board somewhere that the bathrooms/showers on Azamara ships are much smaller than Viking (or did I dream this)?

The Azamara showers are so much smaller than Viking 

[JM0115]

23 minutes ago, Hobson1754 said:

Did I read on this Board somewhere that the bathrooms/showers on Azamara ships are much smaller than Viking (or did I dream this)?

Much smaller and with shower curtains in their regular cabins.

[Jim Avery]

Azamara has our fave Captain of all our travels and lots of the original SeaDream Yacht Club management so they produce a good product.  The downside, at least to us, is that all their ships are the old "R" Ships from defunct Renaissance .  The R ships have no retractable roof over the pool area, the normal cabins are very small and the bathrooms nothing at all comparable to V, the aft owners suites are grand but very pricey and aft cabins suffer from vibrations when underway on every R ship we have sailed.  For us we would not sail anyones R ships after becoming comfortable with Viking ships.  Too many old issues.  Just one persons opinion and your mileage may vary.

Edited October 27, 2023 by Jim Avery

[MaxFan]

On 10/21/2023 at 5:01 PM, Brad1185 said:

To us the closest competitor to Viking Ocean is Oceania. So right now Oceania would be our second choice. 

Have you traveled on Oceania yet? Was the overall experience good?

[JM0115]

4 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Azamara has our fave Captain of all our travels and lots of the original SeaDream Yacht Club management so they produce a good product.  The downside, at least to us, is that all their ships are the old "R" Ships from defunct Renaissance .  The R ships have no retractable roof over the pool area, the normal cabins are very small and the bathrooms nothing at all comparable to V, the aft owners suites are grand but very pricey and aft cabins suffer from vibrations when underway on every R ship we have sailed.  For us we would not sail anyones R ships after becoming comfortable with Viking ships.  Too many old issues.  Just one persons opinion and your mileage may vary.

Agree Jim. The R class ships are not great.