RobEsson

I had a most unpleasant experience with Viking on the Viking Jupiter in the Restaurant on Christmas Day. My wife and I decided that, being Christmas, we would celebrate with a very good bottle of wine, and chose the Chateau Leoville Barton 2013 St Julien. I think it was $115 or something very close to that. A very young (should have been my clue) wine waiter opened the bottle and offered to decant it. I said yes please. So he begins to decant it and then when it gets to the end, he up-ends the bottle vertically over the decanter, thereby sending all the sediment into the decanter. I yelled out as he did so, but he then tried to claim that there was no sediment (unlikely in a 2013). We left it a while to see whether things would settle, but they didn't, so I called the wine waiter back and told him that I wanted it sorted out (in my mind, I rather expected that they would filter the wine through e.g. cheesecloth and give us a discount) but he then disappeared and no-one came to our table for probably 15 minutes. I put our food order on hold (we'd already had our starter). Then someone told me that it was being discussed with some senior person as it was an expensive bottle and would affect revenue. But no-one from Viking, certainly not anyone senior, came over to discuss it with us. I actually became concerned that they would charge the young wine waiter for the bottle and expressed that concern when told about the discussions with whomever it was that was senior. We then waited and waited and waited. After about 45 minutes, which was MASSIVELY too long, a more senior wine steward came over with a new bottle and decanted it (badly, as it happened, as he kept stopping the decanting and twirling the decanter, which meant that we wasted far more wine than necessary as he disturbed the sediment by not decanting in a single motion). It all made for a thoroughly upsetting and unpleasant Christmas dinner. My take on it was two fold. Firstly, if Viking is going to offer bottles of wine like that, they need to either train their personnel on how to treat the wine OR restrict those who serve wines like that to only the senior wine personnel who might possibly know how to treat the wines. Secondly, if there is a problem, the senior dining room personnel who make decisions should come and discuss the issue in person with the guest, not leave the guest hanging for 45 minutes. 5 minutes should be the maximum.

But that is, of course, for Viking guests, merely a result of unfortunate motion sickness, we presume ...

I agree! Saying that cabin x has easy access to facility y seems extraordinary to me unless you have mobility issues - I could be wrong in exact timing but I can't remember it taking more than a couple of minutes to walk the length of the ship, and ok, you might have to go up or down the stairs (or even go wild and use an elevator/lift) but everything is within say 4 minutes surely at a reasonable pace ... so while on our first Viking we had the DV1 3096 looking over the stern - and I agree that being able to see that was fantastic - we were in the Meditteranean. Our trip in 2 days spends some time in the Southern Ocean which is notorious for BIG rollers, hence our choice of a cabin towards midships but on the same deck, being the lowest. Even with stabilizers, there could be some fair rock'n'roll, so we'd prefer keeping it to a minimum - but as always YMMV!

... which is the very reason that for that particular voyage which we too are on we chose a DV6 on deck 3 as close to midships as we could. It did our wallets no harm that the lowest cost DV's happen to include some of the cabins least susceptible to wave motion!!!

Ok, admittedly this method requires that the "other table" people have at least half a brain, but we've found that even with nearby tables on Viking, if one does a relatively curt nod upon arrival and a "Good evening" and then immediately turn back to chatting to each other, it conveys the message that we're not totally impolite, but that we're not open to a conversation tonight. Your mileage may vary.

We're taking the Chilean Fjords etc. trip over Christmas which, of course, is summer down thar(!). We're wondering whether anyone who has taken any similar South American cruises has had any problems with mosquitos (onshore, obviously)? I'm a mosquito magnet, so if it is a problem, I'll want to pack some anti-mosquito clothing. Thanks in advance!

Ah, the UK and the US. Two countries separated by a common language AND intractable views on the required temperature of the water for tea making!!! 😁 (For what it's worth as a British born naturalized US citizen, I'm with KBs Mum on this - kettle boiling to tea in 10 seconds flat is the way to go 😀)

There are plenty of tables for 2 in the MDR. Admittedly some are relatively close together, so only room for one waiter to get between, and this means that should you decide to do so, you can chat to your neighbors, but equally if they don't seem that interesting, you don't have to. We just played it by ear and inclination as to whether we would exchange more than a good evening with our neighboring tables. You could too ...

And just to show a different viewpoint, last October, I thought the food was of a consistently high standard - or maybe I should say that there was food available of a consistently high standard. There was usually something on the menu in the MDR that was pretty darned good, and if not, the "Chairman's Choice" Norwegian salmon was my go to dish. We weren't particularly impressed with Manfredi's but lots of people are, and we thoroughly enjoyed 2 of the 3 Chef's table menus we tried. The 3rd was a bit blah from our point of view, but the key here is that I think that both Manfredi's and the one Chef's table were likely personal preference as opposed to Viking doing anything particularly wrong. Certainly, after our cruise we've told friends that we thought the MDR was of consistently high quality. I do agree on the potential for noise as a problem in the MDR as I have only one functioning ear and a hearing aid in that, but I found that discussing the issue with the staff usually led to us having a quite acceptable table from an acoustic standpoint.

I agree wholeheartedly with this.

... and the Lord looks remarkably ... Quechuan (South American Indiginous)! [In fairness of course the painters back then had very little to go on, not that perhaps we in the West have necessarily been lots better ...]

But with a screen name like yours, I'm guessing you're one of the teetotalers, eh? I was thinking about my only trip so far on Viking which was Ancient Adriatic Treasures 13 months ago. Did I see anyone drunk? No. Did I see any people who were clearly enjoying themselves without being obnoxious? Yep, lots, including, I hope (meaning not obnoxious) myself. Would I dream of driving a car or something similar after my dinner drinks and perhaps an after dinner liqueur? Good grief - NO! I will happily navigate the halls to my cabin after having enjoyed myself ...

No, the meaning is pretty much the same here in the US, which is why you have to read the OP's headline with a pinch of salt - he's using hyperbole to be amusing.

Moi aussi, avec of course Mrs Rob 😃

It's called La Vinoteca, and it is both a restaurant and wine store - here's the signature line on an email: María Antonieta Martinez & Héctor Maldonado Shop & Restaurant Managers La Vinoteca Viña del Mar, address: 8 Nte. 664, 2520100 Viña del Mar, Valparaíso It's a taxi ride from the dock (or interestingly a straight shot on a particular bus ... 😃). Now I don't KNOW if it is the best option, but they have been very personable and have offered to send me some suggestions for really good wines before I leave. I was wondering, however, whether @CCWineLover might know anything better. Which cruise are you taking?