SantaFe1

My husband loves that too. We celebrated our anniversary four weeks ago on Orion and he had the Osso Bucco. So who knows if the menu has changed across the board.

I don’t even know what I would order off this menu. I find this very sad. We, too, have emigrated to the WC many nights.

Agreed. I pack one if we have a special occasion, but otherwise I pack black dress pants, and/or white depending on the time of year and climate, and many dressy tops to go with them.

Well, I’m going to try harder next time. My husband loves the Viking bed. He thinks our pillow top at home is too soft. Oh well, we’ve managed to be married a long time despite the differences.

The duvet is really very pleasant and comfortable. However, I have asked for those toppers, because I find the beds too hard, but have never gotten one.

Yep, you can’t overestimate the value of a good pedicure!

I think that’s just for men. I wore dress sandals to dinner many times and many other women did too. I could post pictures of my sandals and my husband’s and the difference would be clear!

We did this excursion too and loved it. Do take the Canal boat ride in the city. It was one of our best memories of Copenhagen. We did it on our own, not with Viking.

Yes, but we had done all those places. So just opted for a day in Athens on our own. Not a good choice. Would have done better with choosing out own hotel. A cautionary tale!

On our previous trip to Athens we stayed at the Grand Bretagne and loved it. Right onSyntagma Square. We wished we had opted to stay there again instead of for the convenience of having Viking do everything for us. Elegant and just lovely. We had lunch there on this last trip.

That may be Viking’s thinking, but not mine. In the end they have to get everyone to the port, no matter which hotel they are staying at. And if you only have the two day extension, you are wanting to do Athens on your own for a day or two. All the more reason to be closer to the center.

We stayed there in February. In my opinion, and one I related to Viking, there is just no reason to put us all so far from anything at all. The hotel is OK, but more like 15 minutes to the center with all the Athens traffic They have a free shuttle, which helps. The restaurant in the hotel is e&o Athens, which is a pan-Asian restaurant that was very good. We ate there twice. But I wouldn’t do the pre-cruise extension with this hotel again.

We have heard this from every chef in every restaurant on every cruise. I have had a couple of the chefs ask us to come back and they would make the dish in question to our specifications, since they really did know how to cook. Peking duck in Chefs Table for the Asian Panorama comes to mind. It was delicious the second time around!

Actually, I think it was better at sea. The ports are surrounded by the ever on-going and wonderful mountains, and you are just sort of boxed in.

Just an end note, as we left the cruise yesterday and are spending a couple of days in Vancouver. Through no real fault of their own, the wifi on this cruise was and apparently always is pretty bad. The Viking daily says pretty much daily that you will either have no or interrupted service. It was really sort of a pain, and we were so glad to check into the hotel yesterday and have good Internet service. So just be prepared…

OMG no. Bring your own. The wildlife are often too far off to take with an iPhone. But just enjoy seeing them through bingos.

MDR only open for lunch on sea days

We were just commenting that there haven’t been any of the big splashy dinner events that often happen outside or on the pool deck, we were hoping for a salmon BBQ or something. I think this cruise is just too short for that.

I think Skagway, the town, is about twelve square blocks of tourist traps! Lovely scenery, but nothing better than what we have had every day. Not my favorite port.

Agree. It was somewhere between rain and snow in Valdez a couple of days ago, and as we just had the included tour, we elected to make it a sea day and stayed aboard. Yesterday in Juneau it was sunny and we thought the town looked just beautiful. My husband just laughed at me when I said I could live there, though. We, too, have been amazed by the scenery. The mountains just go on and on. Never a moment without them. About to disembark in Skagway for a streetcar tour of the town on another sunny day. And again, mountains everywhere.

Yes, you can drop off bags with Viking and then take the provided shuttle into town. If it were me, I would rather spend the afternoon on the beautiful Viking ship than in Seward. It’s fun to have lunch and get to know some people. The only time back imposed would be the time of the last shuttle. I can’t remember what time that was. And no, no sail away party.

We were nearly 75 people arriving together on a bus from the pre-cruise extension, but there were lots of reps and we all had our boarding passes. That took less than 10 minutes. What took awhile was the Alaska security. We had to take off watches, belts, just everything. Still we were on board within 20-30 minutes with a glass of sparkling wine in hand.

Nope, although in my mind, that is a good thing. as to the food. We all agree on these boards that food is subjective. But for all the years we’ve been sailing with Viking, we have felt food was their weak point. Since the pandemic, even things we used to really enjoy, have changed for the worse. The restaurant this time, well, let’s just say we won’t be back…

Scenic cruising really was. The Hubbard glacier was amazing!

Well, yes. But LOL, I kept asking what was Alaskan about this meal, and they had no idea. Just yesterday’s salmon repurposed, and a bit of defrosted and watery seafood. I wouldn’t get your hopes up over this one.