kctwinmommy

Here's my review after returning from our first one. This is just general things about the cruise & ship... I also did a post about making excursion reservations for those of us doing it the first time, it could help you as well.

I did my general review of our Viking cruise already, but wanted to have this title, so when people are looking for it, they can find this. This will take me some time to get through for sure. We did the 4 day Classical Greece extension before our cruise and then 22 days on the Viking Mars, going from Athens to Barcelona. I'll start with the extension first, and then try to do each day. We flew from Chicago to Atlanta, had a 90 minute layover, then Atlanta to Athens, landing at around 10:30 the next morning. The flight was good, we were fortunate to upgrade our seats to the Delta One pods! We got through security, grabbed our bags, and the shuttle driver was there to take all 3 couples to the hotel. We had ours changed several months ago and we were put up at the Intercontinental. While the hotel was nice, large breakfast buffet, it's in a poor location. There is nothing to do or see around the area, not even restaurants. Our guide, Anastasia, recommended a little family owned place nearby, so most people from the cruise ended up there. It was a cute little place, and they were so friendly. (4/17) The first full day we left at 7:30 a.m. to head out to Mycenae, Corinth Canal, and Epidaurus. We met our tour guide, Paris, on the bus. He was great and with us for all 3 tour days. Traffic was a little busy this day due to a public transportation strike, so lots of people driving themselves. About 1/2 way to Mycenae we did a stop at the Corinth Canal. There's a little cafe here, with a small shop. Next stop was at Mycenae with Agamemnon's tomb, really cool to see these things they built hundreds of years ago. Again, as we were reminded, it's all about math! We walked through the remaining ruins. Paris took the group up to the Lion's gate, then let us explore on our own, as people had different comfort levels. It was so neat to see all the technology that existed here. We did a lunch stop near here at a local restaurant, so that was a nice break. After lunch we had another 45 minute drive to Epidaurus and the theater there. Paris explained a lot about how it was used, the major events that would take place, how people would travel from all over to attend things there. The theater is 2,500 years old. Once he explained things, he again gave us a little time to walk around, those of us who wanted to, climbed to the top of the theater. (4/18) Second full day was out to Delphi. This is about a 2 hour bus ride, with a stop along the way to use the bathroom, get a snack, etc... We found that on a lot of longer bus tours, they often scheduled stops like this, there are a lot of little stops along highways for busses to use. It was so pretty to drive through the mountains in this area, such a change from Athens. We drove through the town of Arachova. Super narrow streets, but these busses do it! At Delphi we started at the museum, seeing many of the artifacts. I love that they really allow you to get fairly up close with these pieces too, you can truly see the work. Then we headed over to the ruins. Again, Paris gave us all the main information at the bottom, then allowed those of us who wanted to climb to the top head off on our own. We did have lunch on this day as well, but I didn't put it in my journal as to when and where. LOL! (4/19) This was our free day. Anastasia was in the lobby to help give people direction and tips in the morning, as needed. Us, and another couple we met, took a taxi into the downtown area to go to the National Archaeological Museum. We got there right about when they opened, and there were already long lines of school kids. We bought our tickets and went in. There's a LOT to see here, and honestly, it's a little back & forth with the layout, so we didn't even see everything. After a few hours, we wanted to get to the changing of the guard, so we did left. We saw the guard changing, then walked through the gardens there. After that, we headed towards the Plaka district, with a stop at the Hotel Electra rooftop for a little lunch and cocktails. It was totally empty, and beautiful views of the Acropolis! We did some more walking around, seeing various sights, churches, etc... before finally heading back to the hotel by around 5 p.m. (4/20) Embarkation & Acropolis Day. We had to have our luggage outside our room at 6:30 a.m., the staff collected it, then we had to go down at 7:30 to make sure it was all there. We got on the bus by 8 to head to the Acropolis. Your luggage is put on that same bus, so in case something comes up, you do have your things with you still. There was some light rain that morning, I was worried it was going to wash us out. But, we got lucky! The rain slowed to a light spit/mist, and gave us awesome skies, plus a beautiful rainbow! The walk up is tricky, very slick at times, especially with the rain, and it gets busy - fast! We were there right when they opened as a group. By the time we were coming back down, they had the whole area roped into 2 sections (one up, one down) and the line was all the way to the bottom. After Paris gave us his tour, we had a little time to take more pictures and all meet up at the bottom. We then went into the museum, guided by Paris to the highlights, with again, about 30-40 minutes on our own. It's sad to see major pieces missing in their museum because other countries have refused to return those items. They were told by a certain other country that they didn't have a proper facility, so hopefully, now they will get these things back. Finally, onto the busses to head to the ship. Embarkation the easiest I've ever been through! The staff took our luggage, to get it to our rooms and we went to check in. We did the pre-check online, and they didn't ask for much. Because we were on 3 legs of a 4 leg cruise, each leg is considered it's own segment. This means we only got our excursion tickets for the first week. We headed to the pool deck, got some lunch at the grill, then they announced around 1 that our rooms were ready. Headed down to our room (DV4 cabin) to unpack. Met our room steward who was great, although she left after a week (she had her 2 months off!). We found the small magnetic hooks handy to hang our hats, my little crossbody, and such. Had a nice dinner in the restaurant. Came back to find our bed turned down and the steward had put bookmarks into our books, instead of the pieces of paper we had. LOL! The only issues we had with this part would be the location of the hotel, but at least it was a nice room/property. I also found that at dinners, getting a soda for me to drink took a really long time. They were quick with the wine bottles, but it would take 10-15 minutes, and I would have to ask a 2nd or 3rd time. Corinth Canal The burial chambers Epidaurus theater Delphi museum Arachova National Archaeological museum Changing of the guard Hadrian's library (we just walked past it, didn't buy tickets to tour it) Dramatic storm clouds! Giving us this beautiful rainbow! Inside Agamemnon's tomb, the beehive that they built! Paris pointed out that piece of stone above the door, it's ONE large piece! The outside of the Acropolis museum Our cabin (4027) The fridge, our stewards would take out the things we didn't want, and add extras of things we did want. With our new friends at the Hotel Electra

Like everyone says, this is a subjective topic of course. Now, I'm a somewhat picky eater, in that I don't eat much exotic or different cuisines, I fully admit that. I'm good with a nice piece of meat, some potatoes, and good bread. LOL! Now, my husband eats way different and will try everything. We also made friends with another couple and ate dinner with them quite often. All 4 of us said we weren't overly impressed with the food. Very few standout dishes (my husband's venison on the last night was one that did stand out, probably his favorite). In fact, I actually lost 3 pounds on our cruise and my husband, who needs to work on his diet, only gained 2, which was fine for him. He did enjoy the Gelato, but not much else from the desserts. I will say, the french fries at the grill in the afternoon were great! I would sometimes just get a plate of those to munch on while sitting poolside. I also loved the Caesar salad! And I really liked getting it at the World Cafe for dinner because then it was easy to ask for extra cheese and dressing. 😃

Yes, we pretty much walked right in. But leaving, the line was long already. And like I said, it was raining! But it gave us some great skies! We thought we were going to be soaked, but it never came, just some light sprinkles. And a gorgeous rainbow!

OK... we were there at 8:30 a.m., but we were there as part of the pre-cruise extension, so it was a group we were with. Within an hour of starting, climbing to the top, and heading down, the line to go up was all the way to the bottom. It gets really busy pretty fast. Just be prepared. And it's windy up there, so be prepared for that too. Of course, we were there in mid-April and a Saturday morning.

For what sight?

Totally agree. I said before that "on average" the price was $100/person.

That's odd, because nobody on our cruise could book ahead of time. They may have changed things, or figured out a way to restrict it to only those staying through that point.

@Murt22 I posted my Rome tour review in the Italy port page already. It was great! We used LinousIn Rome.

So, the excursions for Venice were available as soon as we got on the ship. Unfortunately, several were already booked. We tried a few options. We could only get something for our first day, the day we docked. That was an optional one we booked. On Saturday, I don't think we could get into anything, or at least anything we wanted. This would have been our full day in Chioggia. We did get into an included one for Sunday, or so we thought. When we came back from the one on Friday, we realized that with the Pope coming on Sunday, things were going to be so chaotic, we just wanted to cancel. However, for some reason, in the chaos on trying to pick, they had cancelled us already. For Rome, we were only there 1 day, no overnight. We had an overnight the next day in Florence/Livorno. We were given the Rome options the day after we got on in Athens, it was a paper form left in our room. They had a few options, I'm pretty sure I have pictures if you're interested in exactly what they had. I know one that was included were 3 shuttle busses to three different points. You could then go wherever you want, even catching a different one to get to another part. However, I think it gave you like 5 hours on your own, and when you wanted to go back, you HAD to go back to the original shuttle bus stop you came in one. Our friends said this didn't work super well considering how busy Rome is. Dubrovnik had a shuttle bus, we used that. We did an included walking tour, then stayed in town on our own to do the city wall walk - awesome!! The bus ran about every 30 minutes if I recall. It was a busy day too, we had a few ships in port that day. Corfu also had a shuttle, but we opted for the approximately 1 mile walk back instead. Gave my husband a chance to stop and fish along the way. He brings a collapsible rod with him whenever we travel. Again, we did an include overview type tour, then stayed in town, had some lunch, went to the fort, etc... Kotor I can't remember, but it was an easy walk back to the ship. We did an optional excursion that went up into the mountains. When we came back to town, we walked around a bit on our own and then just walked back to the ship.

Yeah, I didn't enjoy Venice all that much. Our tours were good, good guide for them, but not 100% what I wanted to do. We still had a decent time. But that whole docking 90 minutes away really makes things hard. And Venice is so crowded these days. Plus, I forgot to mention, on Sunday tours were restricted to certain areas because the Pope was presiding over a mass in St. Mark's square! It was even crazier than normal!

Oh yes, I guess I should have clarified that. They certainly weren't leaving people behind. 😉 And only twice we were delayed leaving. Once, they called a guest's name, and then about 20 minutes later, we saw an older woman walking up to the ship. We assume she's who they were calling. And the other time it was obviously a Viking excursion that came back late, like right at sail off time, so we left just a little late.

Thanks to other CC members who recommended this company for our day in Rome. Like all other ships, we were docked down the road in Civitavecchia. We knew doing a Viking excursion wouldn't cover the things we wanted, plus would waste time being on a bus tour. In fact, we didn't even know our options until we got on the ship because it was a turnover day for the cruise. Anyway, our drive Francesca was there right at 7:30 to pick us up in the Mercedes van. By 8:30 she had us on one of the hills in Rome to see the city! She was able to just park in this little striped zone so we could snap some photos. After that she drove us into the city, pointing out things along the way, to the Colosseum. We didn't have tickets for that, but she dropped us off right by the entrance so we could walk around there for like 20-25 minutes. It's just so impressive to see in person! Then, she drove us over to the Piazza Navona, a really neat place by the Brazilian Embassy with beautiful fountains. Next, she drove us to the Vatican for our 10 a.m. tickets (purchase separately on our own), to the museum. Now, I didn't really enjoy the museum. It was so overwhelming, the variety of pieces, and the crowds were awful. Yes, having the pre-purchased tickets made us get in quickly, but the crowds were already pretty full. Although it only got worse, when we left around 12:30, the line was around the building and down the block. I can't say that I truly enjoyed the museum, although there were some good parts. Loved all the beautiful, detailed map paintings that were close to the Sistine Chapel. By this time, we were hungry, so we asked her to drive us someplace to get some pizza and pasta. She took us to a cute little sidewalk place, had some food, and rested for a bit. She had a little something by herself, but then waited at the car for us. Once lunch was done, it was around 2:30 p.m., so we only had about an hour and a half left before she had to drive us back. We knew we wanted to see a few more places, so off we went. She dropped us off again (with a block or so) to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain. At every stop, she dropped us off in a place that required no more than a block's walk. This was such a time saver. Plus, she knows where everything is and how to get there quickly. For the major sights, she also had short little podcast type recordings she would play to explain the sight, which was nice. She didn't talk all the time, which was also fine. We'd been on tours every day where it seemed like all we did was hear a guide talk. But, she did point out some interesting things along the way (like the balcony where Mussolini declared war) and of course, answered any questions we had. The price is a little high, but when we considered that a bus tour through the ship would have been about 1/2 this price, and not have seen the same amount, it was worth it. Plus, it was nice to drive around in a minivan, not a giant bus. We had planned to split it with another couple if we could have found someone, but that didn't work out, and we were totally fine doing it on our own. Fountain in the Piazza Navona Overlooking Rome. We could see so much from up here! At the Trevi Fountain. It's super busy here, but we were surprised that people do move along and it's fairly easy to get a nice picture in front of it. Inside the Vatican Museum, the hall with all the maps! Our guide, Francesca Overlooking the Spanish Steps

We bought ours from Get Your Guide. We had booked a private tour through LimousIn Rome. They were amazing! It was great to have a personal driver to get us to all the sights we wanted to see. While expensive, that might be an option for you to get you to the places you want to see. The ticket into the museum will take you to the Sistine Chapel, it's basically where the crowd leads, everyone just moves through the whole museum, ending with that. We didn't purchase tickets to go into the Colosseum, but she still took us over there so we could walk around.

We bought ours through Get Your Guide. However, I made the mistake and didn't get ones that also included skip the line for the basilica, so we didn't get to see that. But, we got to the museum right at 10 a.m. for our ticket time, and we were able to walk right in. When we left around 12:30, the line to get in was down the block, around the building! Be aware, going at that time, it will take you about 2 hours to get to the Sistine Chapel. Literally, the entire crowd of people are going there. It's not like you can really just walk through things. It basically felt like swimming in the ocean. LOL! No control on where the tide takes you.

Yes, Olympia is totally a must do! We thought it was going to be kind of boring. But no! It's really neat. Plus, you can run the 200M race on the field where they ran the very first one. My husband did it, twice! LOL! It's really pretty and just so amazing to think of what took place there. And yes, the Acropolis and museum there are a must see as well. I would also recommend the changing of the guard. We did the National Archaeological museum too, it was pretty good, but very busy! There were a lot of school groups there. I would definitely get your Acropolis tickets in advance, and try to go early. We went on a Saturday morning, pretty early, before we boarded our ship (it was part of our pre-cruise extension through Viking). It was a slightly rainy morning, with a lot more dark clouds on the horizon, and by the time we were coming back down, the lines were so long already!

We did that on ours. I anticipated much warmer temps. But packing for a month makes it tricky too. I wish I had brought maybe one more pair of longer pants, and 2-3 more long sleeve shirts, leaving like 5-6 short sleeve ones at home. We weren't the only ones though. We were in line in Venice and a few people were commenting how they missed the mark on packing. It did get warmer by the end though.

Thought of a couple more general nuggets from our trip... I just want to cover as much as I can while I remember it. LOL! Laundry was quit easy to use, but the dryers are a bit temperamental. We found that we had to tinker with the settings a little bit to get our cloths dry. But that's also because I didn't want to dry on high heat and damage anything. But no big deal. We did laundry twice and all came out just fine. We definitely overpacked and didn't have a good grasp on the weather. Now, we were planning for a month, so the weather could change quite a bit. We had several days that were much cooler than I was expecting. We also brought the wrong rain gear, which resulted in buying the ever popular Helly Hansen rain jackets in Corfu (didn't have our sizes in the ship store). Not what we wanted to spend the money on, but when needed, they were invaluable. I really thought I needed more options for the evening, which I didn't. Since we didn't go to the restaurant every night, I didn't need to always change. I could have left about 23-30% of what I packed at home. I was surprised at how noisy it was in the hallways at times. Just still too many people that let their doors slam. However, I now travel with a white noise sound machine. It's great! It does block out a lot of the excess noise. I got a really small one on Amazon. I loved the cross body I bought for this trip. It held all that I needed, nothing extra that I didn't need, and easy to access. Plus, it kept everything close to my body. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BQW3M249/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

@emckeeve - this is what I wrote up after we did our bookings. Since we were new to the process, I thought it was good to help others who were also new. 😃

Don't forget, included ones must still be signed up for. You need to pick a time slot. If you don't, then you might get stuck and have to wait until you're on the ship to be added to one. I'll tag you in my post that I made, it might be helpful.

OK, so some thoughts on Viking in general, from being a first timer. So some of these things may be completely known by many of you, if not, they may be helpful to other newbies. These are just more general things about the ship and cruising with Viking. Since this was our first, these were the things that stood out to us. I went to the spa pool one day, saw they have the full size robes and wore it back to the room. I then kept it in the room after asking at the spa desk. I liked having the full size robe for after my showers. We also grabbed 2 of the blankets from the pool deck to use on our balcony. Again, we asked the room steward and he said no problem to keep them. Doing a cruise that is technically multiple segments of a larger cruise presents issues that we weren't aware of when we booked it. Our turnover ports (Venice & Rome) had challenges when it came to booking excursions. For Rome, we had already booked a private one, so that wasn't a problem for us. But for Venice, we had basically about 55 hours there (2 nights), so 3 days of excursions. Of course, we were in Chioggia, like all ships will most likely be from now on (or another port city an hour+ away). Things booked up so fast, we didn't have much of a chance to pick. We did enjoy our tour though. Also, you're considered being on 3 cruise segments, so we got a survey near the end of each week, and our account charged our gratuities each week. We found that departure times for included tours, when there were multiple options, could be a little wiggly. We made friends with another couple early on and went down with them for our tour in Olympia. They had 9 and we had 9:15. We checked in with the crew to assign busses, and they actually put us on the same tour, even without asking. Almost every tour we took never had a full bus. There were usually about 4-8 open seats at least on the large busses. We only had a small bus for one tour, and that one had like 2 open seats. When excursions are listed as demanding, we found that it almost always was because of the amount of walking or standing. We never went to the port talks live because we were usually off the ship. But we would watch the recorded version in the evening. It was good information about the port itself, and then a good idea of what your tour would entail. I can still hear her voice in my head saying "uneven cobblestones, ancient streets" as making a tour demanding. I mean, hardly any of the excursions through Viking are anything extreme. Make sure, when using an outside tour that they guarantee your return to the ship on time. When we had our port hours, we assumed that the time listed was the time we needed to be back on the ship. However, we learned that if my document said 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. (which was as lot of our ports), we had to be back on the ship at 4 p.m. We left at 5, and honestly, we left a little early a few times. The funny thing was Viking doesn't feel the need to announce it with massive horn blows. LOL! Only once they did it, I forgot which port. We took €1500 for our month. We had put 500 of that aside to pay for specific tours we owed in cash. We only needed to take out another €100 on our last day to cover a few things as we left town. We used our credit card at places that seemed more established, which were many. But this gave us money for tipping guides as needed and other smaller purchases. We never had a problem using a bathroom. Now, I know this is all subjective. I typically don't need one all day long while others need a few stops throughout the day. All of our guides were very much aware of this and often made sure the tour went near a bathroom, as public as possible. Or a local cafe. Not too many bathrooms that were just coin operated. For those who aren't sure about dining, this was a little different than our previous lines we've sailed on. We ate in the World Cafe more than the restaurant it turns out. Usually because we were tired when we got back, or it was late. We discovered that about 1/2 the things on the restaurant menu were also in the WC. And they have the 2 items always grilled to order (a steak and fish option). Washcloths and towels are a little rough. I believe this is what cause my face to become so irritated, I had massive red patches under my eyes. My husband regrets not taking a loofah (although I told him to just buy one there). I just feel their towels could use a little upgrading on the softness, and maybe size. I love a good large bath sheet! While everyone says don't worry about not getting into an excursion before you go, you'll be able to on board, that's not always true. Just be realistic about it. We had 2 things that we weren't able to get into. And almost every day, even throughout our cruise, all excursions were completely booked. Be hopeful, but also be prepared to not have it happen. Lost & found works! I lost my reading glasses in the theater and my Rick Steves in the WC. Both times we went to GS and someone had turned them in. So definitely go ask. Thanks to those honest people too! Please take the 5 minutes to watch the Quiet Vox video, or at least look at the quick reference guide included with them. We always had 4-5 people on their first tour asking for help. They have 3 buttons and 1 wheel, it's not that complicated. Also, the channel for your guide is always your tour group number!

And don't forget, you must get the SSP for both people in the cabin. Although the OP already commented that it's included as a promo for them. When it comes to gratuities, we waited to pay until we were onboard. Worked out fine for us. And like others have suggested, one reason to do it this way is that if you have cancelled excursions, the refund will go onto your account. This was able to help pay for our gratuities then. Again, this is just completely a personal decision.

Yes!! I'm not an IT person, but our friend was. Very knowledgeable on these things. And that's what she was saying, it wasn't that the systems themselves are bad, but the communication between them was difficult. We saw it with Guest Services and at the reservation desk for the dinning. Again, these weren't huge issues, but I do think it's good for people to be aware, as they might need to follow up on things.

Yes, there's a few things I want to share with them, so I plan on it this week. Just need to get better. And yes, linking them together was really weird. The first reservation never showed up on their account, but the second one did. And yes, I got the feeling that some of them were newer. And again, it wasn't anything major, but it was enough for us to notice.

Thanks! Got some steroids, some cough medicine (pills, which I've never taken for a cough!), and an inhaler. So far, unless any tests come back positive tomorrow, she said it's just a viral thing. Which of course, wipes out my energy. But I would like to share some of the highlights at least. 😃