howiefrommd

LOL Thanks. I see by reading the boards things are just moving along at the usual Viking glacial pace. Wait till you try to contact them after the cruise, I think pigs will fly before you get an answer, return email or telephone call. But if you want to book another cruise, don't worry, they are there for you.

Albeit I am not a mental health professional, you are not delusional. I was on for the first 21 days and to use the word bizarre would be an understatement. There certainly were hiccups (for lack of a better word) that should/would be expected on an inaugural cruise. What I find so bizarre was the lack of management, their pure ineffectiveness and the lack of communication. People do not want to hear bad news, but when there is something going on (or not going on/working) they need to be informed. This was evident throughout the ship, the restaurant, excursions, IT, front desk (or actually lack of a front desk, I forgot what they called it) etc.

Food allergies are the cause of many hospitalizations and deaths. True food allergies are not too be taken lightly and certainly would not want to trust that the food is safe based on a whim that Viking does it just fine on their river cruises, so they must have a similar safety net in place on the ocean product. I can tell you from what I have experienced, the river ocean cruise product is the antithesis of their river cruise product. Think of it, Viking cannot handle the simplest of issue on their oceans product, how about trusting your life to them?

We were recently on the Star (21 days starting in Istanbul and disembarked in Barcelona). There is no doubt that the communication is poor (many times nonexistent), and I certainly cannot argue with many of the critiques on the board. I will say I think the rank-and-file workers tried hard. I think management is a total failure, both onboard and here in the States. For anyone who has communicated with the Sherman Oaks (US based office) it should no be a surprise that communication is poor and follow through even rarer. The truly amazing thing is how management continually articulates that Viking Oceans is a 5 star product. In honesty, I have never traveled on a 5 star line, I would say the highest ranked line (and I understand it is not a 5 star line) we have been on is Oceania, which was quite nice. If Viking Oceans is a 5 star line, I am close to becoming the next Pope.

SeattleBB. You indicate in your posting that you are "worried" because of your food allergies. To say that you should be worried is an understatement. I would be way beyond worried. I would bring an allergy crash team with you! If you are depending on Viking to protect you, regardless of written and/or verbal communication, you may have misplaced confidence. On a side note, my wife is a vegetarian, and notified Viking previous to embarkation and frequently when onboard. It was not unusual when she ordered a caesar salad (in the Restaurant) for it to come with anchovies and chicken (even when giving the order a few minutes before, requesting no anchovies and/or chicken). My advice is make sure you have additional medical coverage, this sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

Dont feel bad Kathy, my wife is a vegetarian and they served her a salad with shrimp and anchovies yesterday for lunch in the Restaurant. We sat there for a bit over an hour and watched several dozen people leave before the food came.

When they had the muster drill we had to go back to the restaurant. The time of the muster was 2:30, we had to stand around people while they were eating their lunch. The best part is that staff member was clueless on how to put on the life jacket. Thankfully there were guests there to help him.

We also do not have any TV. I am not a TV watcher, but I had no way to look up our dining reservations. The front desk (they call it something else) was significantly overwhelmed the times I stopped by there. Only two people working any time I tried and they had 5 cordless phones ringing non-stop on the desk. Once again thanks to a fellow passenger, they said I should just stop by the restaurants to get my reservation information. Yesterday when I got back to my room the phone rang and it was Mandredis re confirming my reservation for that night. Got down there by 6 PM and they told me they could not find my reservation. So we headed to the Restaurant and once we saw the line and heard the conversations we just went upstairs to The World Cafe (buffet). Which was fine.

Every new venture has kinks. The lack of visible management is noticeable. Getting a clear, consistent and correct answer is challenging. Beautiful ship, food is fine, ports are great, the only thing that should be real entertaining is turn around day in Venice.

Does Princess have a program in which you can send your luggage from the ship to the airport like they have from Florida? I think it is called something like EZ check. We would be flying back from Seattle. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Just wondering if anyone would know of a sports bar near the Halifax cruise terminal that would carry the NFL Sunday games? Thanks in advance.

Does anyone know what terminal the Legend is going to start/end for the above dates? I tried searching CC and the Internet and could not find any info. For the cruise before this one, the port website indicates it will be terminal 18. That would be great (parking wise), but want to avoid leaving from one terminal and ending up somewhere else.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

This is a connecting room. Does anyone know if they can hear noise from the room next door through the connecting door or any other noise issues with this room? Thanks so much.

Can anyone share some information on how parking (at/by) the terminal is? Is it a long distance from the terminal to parking? Ease of getting in/out? Any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks.