DrKoob

You are correct. My mistake.

Viking's smaller ships are old R class ships once owned by Renaissance Cruises who went out of business long ago. They had quite a few of them. Azamara sails four of them, Princess used to have one and Oceania has three (of which Regatta is one). They were great ships once but kind of dated now and I would in no way compare them to Viking's fleet. Oceanias three newest ships including the Vista that we sailed on are much improved. I would never have done a comparison if those were just the only Oceania ship I had been on.

I think you nailed the correct answer. We are long-time temperpedic sleepers and we found the beds on Viking Ocean to be horrid. Even with a mattress topper. Did 21 nights in the Med with only about four hours a night of sleep. That's all my back could stand and I have never had a bad back. Most miserable part of the cruise. I was kind of starting to get used to them towards the end...or maybe I was so tired I just had to sleep. We did our first Viking River cruise in December and had no problems with those beds. Very comfortable.

This was absolutely true for us as well. The Restaurant is just too darned loud. I think it's the low ceilings but we had dinner there three nights out of 21 and couldn't hear the other people at our table for four. Love the World Cafe! Besides, if the weather is good, you can eat outside. Always a plus.

I bet it would be. I would not be a happy camper. Ours is still showing Greenwich. We have non-refundable hotel reservations at a place in Greenwich. Hope ours stays the same. Have a great time.

Can I ask what sailing you are on? And where you found this out. We are on the June 14 departure and we have our own hotels reserved for two nights in Greenwich. Hoping ours is still there.

Absolutely. On our 21-night Med cruise (Athens to Barcelona) my wife got food poisoning (along with other people) at Manfredis and she was down for two days so we cancelled our shore excursions for those two days. Then a week later we got COVID and were quarantined for four more days and we had shore excursions on every one of those days. Cancelled those as well.

Based on the amount of snail mail and e-mail I get from Viking, they have a sale on something pretty much every single day of every single year. 😜

You hit the nail on the head. Viking puts the final payment that far out because...they can. People complain but their ships are always full. We have a river cruise in October and there is not a single stateroom available on the entire river (the Douro) during that time. It's amazing. Loyal Viking customers just keep coming back. We finally bit the bullet a couple of years ago and just did one. Going back again in June. Keep in mind that you get a shorter date when you already have one booked. For instance, we booked our next river cruise with them while on our first ocean cruise. That gave us one that was paid for, so our next ocean we got to wait until six months before to pay in full. That's the June ocean cruise. And since it is paid for, we have until the end of next month to pay for our October cruise. We will probably buy one while we are on the ocean cruise so we will then have one paid for (the October river) and that will make the next one six months as well.

I will do me but it appears you want to do everyone else. Or at least to force your opinion on everyone, not just yourself. I have two problems with your stance: 1) How does it hurt you if someone decorates their door, their room or any other place that is theirs on the cruise? No public areas other than a hallway. We used to decorate our doors years ago when we were traveling with 20+ people. But that was on Celebrity and not VIkng and we wouldn't do it anymore. But we aren't offended by those that do. 2) The real question here is not whether they should or should not have ducks or decorate doors but why you would take the time on a cruise to create a thread (which has turned into a total laugh riot) about it. Seriously, go walk around town or eat or have a drink or socialize or anything but starting a Cruise Critic thread about things that just don't matter.

So let me understand here. You are in the middle of an awesome cruise and you took time out to insult what some others like to do on their cruises? I bet you can find something better to comment on about your cruise. Not sure why you thought this was important enough to start a Cruise Critic thread about. Have the people who like the rubber duck thing ever forced you to participate? Made fun of you because they didn't? Started a Cruise Critic thread to insult you for NOT bringing rubber ducks on board? Come on. Let people do what they want on cruises. It's not hurting you, is it?

There it is right there. I don't compare Viking to Seabourn, Regent and Windstar. I compare Viking to Azamara and Oceania and when you do that, those are about right on the money.

Back in 2005, we met a bunch of incredible people on a Cruise Critic roll call. We started cruising together. First, there were six of us (three couples), but as we cruised and others saw how much fun we were having, we added a few more each trip, and the new folks started traveling with us as well. We have lost a few over the years (some of passed away, others ghosted us) but we are still going strong. Our biggest group on a cruise was 17 on Celebrity Solstice to Alaska in 2017. That was fun. In all that time, we have never had a problem with "doing things together." In many cases, we would plan excursions together that we could never have done alone. Saved us a ton of money and were almost always awesome. We tried to always get together for cocktails and dinner. You should have seen us when there were 17 of us. A table for 10 and one for 7 right next to each other. The one regret we have now is that we don't meet a lot of new people anymore but part of that is that Viking Roll calls are pretty sparse and we used to meet a lot of people who became good friends during early/late seating assigned dining. But very few cruise ships do that any more.

I never understand those people who don't come back on time. As soon as you start it, is says how much time it will take. Set an alarm on your phone or watch (or ask Siri to do it) and come back five minutes before to check it. I don't get inconsiderate people, but I have used washers and dryers they have left clothes in for 20 or 30 minutes.