Hobson1754

We’ve stayed mid ship (5072 Port side) near stairs & lifts on deck 5 on both our Viking cruises & found there was no noise whatsoever.

We did the Bridge tour on our last cruise - one of the best tours we’ve had, fascinating.

Thanks for clarifying

We’re on May 18th - Stockholm to Bergen, think you will be getting off as we’re boarding. That will be our 4th Viking cruise. Hopefully that will be as good as the others🤞

Sorry - I’m not sure if I understand - you said you had the SSB plan, but then say you would not purchase the SSB plan?

Yes good point 👍

Me too - we’re sailing on Vela May 2025. I’m of the opinion that we probably won’t notice any difference.

Yes - I find it a really good hairdryer, far better than most you find in hotels etc.

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

I like to get dressed up for dinner, particularly if we’re going to Manfredi’s or Chefs Table - I often wear a dress or trousers & a dressier top. I find there’s not many occasions now where you can dress up so our cruise is the ideal opportunity.

I had a few glasses of champagne with our SSP last month and it was very nice - granted, it wasn’t vintage but good nonetheless - I prefer champagne to either cava or Prosecco.

We recently booked Viking Homelands for 2025 on the new Vela. I got a quote from Viking on a Saturday (price same as website) & thought I’d leave it a couple of days - when I looked at it again on Tuesday it had gone up by £600. Contacted them straight away via my TA & they honoured the original price - you definitely can’t hang around!!

The onion rings in the pool bar are delicious.

Yes I’d sent it back, the Chef came out with a new one & apologised - said it was unacceptable! I suppose you can’t say fairer than that. We haven’t had great experiences with Manfredi’s on both our cruises, whereas we’ve always had fab meals in Chefs Table. As I said luck of the draw - it hasn’t stopped us however booking another 2 Viking cruises 👍😂

We were on Saturn in September and ate a couple of times in Manfredi’s - my husband had the Bistecca Fiorentina which he said was delicious. I had another steak & think it was Rib Eye which was shocking - it was so full of fat I left most of it. This was our 2nd visit on this cruise, however on our 1st visit I sent the fish back as it was so over cooked. Manfredi’s is not our favourite but maybe we’ve just been unlucky.

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

Yes same as us - at Reykjavik we looked as if we’d be pulled through a hedge backwards😂

As did we - comfort check in had accepted our photos etc but when boarding they said they didn’t have the photos etc & we had to have them taken again. Won’t bother next cruise.

I’ve never not been able to book an included excursion and we have only been in DV cabins. Always managed to get what I wanted.

I’ve just booked Viking Homelands in the last week - I contacted Viking to get costs, any discounts, cabin availability etc. The Viking rep had details of my TA in their files (you could provide that on the phone if they don’t already have it), he put a hold on the cabin I wanted & then I contacted my TA. The TA then confirmed everything with Viking, advised what discounts they could give & we went ahead with booking. By doing it this way I got a further £580 discount from TA.

We recently did The Golden Circle tour with Gray Line and it was one of the best tours we’ve had. Our tour guide was excellent & gave lots of interesting information & facts about all the stops and Iceland overall. He was also very entertaining/humorous. Gullfoss was beautiful & was our favourite stop, although all of the scenery was spectacular. It helped that the weather was bright & sunny if not cold. We did this tour the day we joined the ship having travelled to Reykjavik the day before, following the tour they took us back to our hotel to pick up our luggage, we got a taxi & joined the ship by 4.30. Well worth it & more than half the price of Viking although lunch was not included with Gray Line.

Yes, I thought when reading this thread that Virgin don’t fly into/from Fort Lauderdale but use Miami. I would look at pre booking a car transfer through a website and securing both the price and the taxi for peace of mind.

Thanks - that sounds fine.

Many thanks for your responses - it seems as if it may not be as bad as I feared. Going to go ahead and book😀

I’m thinking of booking Viking Homelands in May (18th) 2025 and would be very grateful if anyone who’s taken this cruise around May time could give me an idea of the weather and seas they experienced at this time. Don’t mind covering up and wearing layers but don’t particularly want very rough seas & constant rain, although I do appreciate it’s very unpredictable now. Thanks.