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TMS_CT

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Everything posted by TMS_CT

  1. Perhaps - but, I don't find a larger serving of an unpleasant wine to be any less unpleasant. Unless you're simply drinking for effect. I'll stick with my opening opinion: the SSBP wines on Viking River are considerably better than Viking Ocean. On River, it's a good investment; last month on Ocean, I learned from experience it was not a good investment because of the poor quality of the included wines. One thing I failed to mention: When I submitted comments to Viking Customer Relations about this, they reimbursed me 50% of the $700.00 we paid - in the form of shipboard credit for the cruise I'm taking in December. That was gracious of them - they weren't obligated to do that. Nevertheless, next time (on Ocean) I will not purchase SSBP. We like good wines and with a little effort, Viking Ocean could improve the experience for those that think they are paying for good wine. Caveat Emptor.
  2. The On-Board Experience page (https://www.viking.com/myjourney/onboard-experience) makes this statement: Silver Spirits Beverage Package To enjoy unlimited premium wine, beer, cocktails and more of the best spirits available during your cruise, upgrade to our Silver Spirits beverage package. Note the phrase, "unlimited premium wine, . . . ." It's really an unlimited amounts of a wine-like beverage. I can only imagine what the "house wine" is like.
  3. Just returned from Viking Homelands - this was our first Viking Ocean cruise. We have taken six Viking River cruises. Everything about this Ocean cruise met or exceeded our expectations after six River Cruises, . . . . . except the Silver Spirits Beverage Package. It cost us $700.00 in April 2023 and was a waste of money because the quality of the wines-by-the-glass were pretty much atrocious. 1. On River, you can order anything on the wine list; if a bottle isn't already open, they'll open one for you and pour you a glass - at the table or in the lounge. On Ocean, only SOME of the wines in the wine list are available by-the-glass for Silver Spirits. The good wines are available only by the bottle and those are not included in Silver Spirits. That's called bait-and-switch. 2. Viking advertises the Silver Spirits Beverage Package as "unlimited Premium wines". The wines-by-the-glass available for $700.00 for two people on a 15-day cruise can be described as a lot of things but "Premium wines" is not one of those terms. The wines by-the-glass are very low-end cheap, boozy wines. I looked some of them up on the internet. These were $7.99 wines. On one occasion, I had a glass of the SSBP Premium wines for dinner and it gave me a headache for the rest of the evening and made me feel hungover. I'll say it again: these are cheap wines. 3. My wife and I would have enjoyed having some of the good wines on the wine list for dinner but I resented being charged $700.00 for the Beverage Package - and then having to fork over an additional $60.00 for a decent bottle of wine. So I found one of the wines-by-the-glass that was tolerable and pretty much stuck with that. All the other ones I tried were not very good. 4. The person at Viking Ocean cruises that purchases their wines provides only two options on the wine list: cheap boozy wines and higher end wines for which you have to pay extra. There is nothing in the middle. I can think of a lot of really good wines in the $25-$30 price range but they offer only wines at the low end for the people who make the mistake of dropping $700.00 for a 15-day cruise. I do not recommend the SSBP for Viking Ocean. Go to a local wine store when you are in port and buy some good wines and bring them back to the ship.
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