J80crew

Thanks for all your replies. If I bought an all-access tour for my granddaughter, would she be able to use that to join me in the C&A backstage tour?  She won’t be interested in the other parts of all-access, but since she’s a musical junkie, would likely consider backstage the highlight of the cruise. 

My husband and I are Diamond because of our status on Celebrity. We are taking our 13 year old grandchild on Harmony. Will she be allowed to do the backstage tour with me even though she doesn’t have status?

Thank you. We are Diamond through transfer of status from Celebrity, but this is only our second RCCL cruise (grandchild request). I noticed the tour on a list of C&A perks, but didn’t know how it works. Appreciate your help. 

For the backstage tour as a C&A perk, do you get an invitation in your stateroom?  How does one sign up for the tour?

Thanks.  I would have assumed that if not for the others who were able to do it. Maybe a fluke?  In any case, I’ll check it out later. 

I’ll be sailing on Harmony June 9 and see on our roll call that others have booked entertainment already. I’ve tried both the app and the website and I get notice to check back later. I did ask the posters whether they had early access because of suite category or loyalty status and the answer was no. Does anyone know how I can remedy this?  (Our 13 year old grandchild will be crushed if she can’t see Grease!)

Does the menu change in TK Grill during a 7 night cruise, or is it always the same?

10 hours ago, Aging Fast said:

We are currently on the Riviera in Ronne, Denmark.  I haven’t seen the reviews but after 9 days I have no complaints.  The food has been fantastic.  The professional entertainers have been great.  The in house performers lack a lot.  The in house band is amazing.  All in all it has been a great trip. 

@Aging Fast Is there any way you could post a copy of Currents?  I’m interested particularly in what hours the band plays in Horizons.  They used to do a pre-dinner set from 7-7:45 or thereabouts; is that still the case? Thanks for your help!

We’ll be on Riviera at the end of October, and I’ll be making our dinner reservations this week. I’m interested in seeing the entertainment schedule so I can time the dinners to take advantage of pre-dinner dancing in Horizons. On previous sailings (our last O cruise was February 2020), the band played from 7-7:45 or thereabouts, but of course that may have changed. If anyone has more current information, I’d appreciate your sharing it. Thanks. 

I saw a notice today that O is changing their deposit and refund policy as of September 1. It requires full payment 120 days in advance (still less than Viking) and institutes an administrative fee of $250pp for cancellation at any time, and $500pp for cancellation between 150 and 120 days. Cancellation fees can be issued as future cruise credit, but they’re still holding your money. I’m booking my fall 2024 cruise today before the new policy kicks in. 

Can anyone tell me the difference in storage (shelves, drawers) outside the bathrooms between the classic and the redesigned Aquamarine suites on Symphony?

Just found out about this thread. We booked our first Seabourn cruise today, but won’t sail until next February, so I expect I’ll need to check later in the year. Good to know!

11 hours ago, ebtrip said:

Can I ask did you buy the beverage package. 

Yes, we did have the beverage package. 

There was a resident historian. He gave two or three talks, which I confess we did not attend, finding the topics less than intriguing. (I should have mentioned it, though.) We have been on other cruises where we found the guest lecturers very interesting, but they were more in the current events or world affairs arena. All a matter of taste, of course. As to the Chardonnay, it wasn’t even French; it was Chilean. And yes, we could have bought a bottle of champagne if we wanted to spend a hundred dollars or more. 

My husband and I sailed on Viking Sea, 10 days round trip San Juan, last week. While not as experienced as many on this board, we have done 18 cruises since 2012, when we started. Our first many cruises were on Celebrity, various ships including Edge; we’ve also sailed with Oceania 3 times and Crystal twice. With Crystal gone, we were looking for a new option and Viking seemed to fit. It’s the size we like (about 1000 pax), the right demographic, an itinerary we liked, and of course it gets great reviews. We did not use Viking air; we had a DV4 stateroom. All the pre-board business went efficiently (except I was annoyed not to be able to book dinners when DV reservations supposedly opened—but I was reassured by this board that it wouldn’t matter once on board).  We flew in the night before, stayed at the Sheraton in Old San Juan, and about 11:00 the next morning walked to the pier and got onboard. Easiest embarkation ever! No lines, friendly staff in their red shirts everywhere greeting and directing us, straight to the safety briefing (also easiest ever), and then to Torshavn to check our carry on bags. Nice not to have to lug them around while waiting for our room. We loved the look of the ship, with its clean lines and soft colors, and the more sophisticated atmosphere, with no loud music (or loud guests). We chose the pool grill for lunch, taking our food outside (an embarkation tradition for us). First disappointment: my husband, the cheeseburger connoisseur, said his burger was just okay. My veggie burger, though, was really good. I ordered a glass of champagne (part of the tradition), but was told they didn’t have champagne, just Prosecco. DH asked for dark rum, told there was no dark rum. This, unfortunately, was the case throughout the cruise—both wine and liquor selections were seriously limited. There was no Pinot Noir in any bar or dining room, no oaky Chardonnay, no champagne, the only rum was Mt Gay, and other guests said there was no single malt scotch. It’s a little late to be blaming the pandemic, the supply lines, whatever for this level of shortages; we’ve been on three cruises since the pandemic and none of the others have had this problem. 

After lunch, we were able to get into our room. It seemed small (DV) compared to other ships’ veranda rooms, though the square footage is similar. What we really noticed, though, was the lack of storage space. The closet was fine for hanging clothes, but only three drawers plus the two tiny ones in the end tables, and the one shelf in the closet meant that DH used the desk to stack shorts and polos. I’m glad we weren’t on for more than 10 days!  The bathroom was better, plenty of storage, really good light, a hot and powerful shower. And the Nespresso machine was a definite bonus. There was no magnifying mirror in the room, but when I asked our attendant if it was possible to get one, he delivered it right away. Which brings me to the service issue: the staff could not have been more responsive or friendlier; as everyone says, they are Viking’s best feature. When I complained about a couple of issues (including the wine selection) on the mid-cruise comment form, we received a visit or call from the head sommelier and the cruise director. They didn’t change anything, but they did at least respond to my comments. 
 

In general, we found the food (very subjective subject) to be fine, but not great. No outstanding dishes, either in the Restaurant or Manfedi’s. We did not try Chef’s Table, as none of the menus appealed to us. The World Cafe offered a smaller buffet than we’ve found on other ships, and often the hot food was not really hot. Several times they ran out of certain dishes a good while before closing time. We give both Oceania and Crystal (as it was) higher marks for food. 
 

We did the included tours most days and a paid one once. The tours are pretty repetitive, mostly bus rides with a brief stop or two for a vista and a punch drink. The tour guides were all very knowledgeable and friendly, and the tours met but didn’t exceed expectations. I was surprised that Viking did not offer a shuttle into town on the islands where the main town was a couple of miles from the pier. On the ship during the day there was very little activity. We are healthy, energetic 80-year-olds and we found it, well, dull. We played mini golf and lawn bowling. There was a port talk each day and tea time; Viking promotes its intellectual offerings such as Ted Talks, but that’s really just watching a big TV in the theater. We would have liked some trivia, for example, or other interactive pursuits. They did have trivia twice but at 8:00 in the evening, competing with dinner. Evening entertainment was more varied. We loved the guitar player, John, who played listening music early, but later on would do danceable songs and sing-a-longs. The Viking band played late in Torshavn, a crowded room with a small dance floor, doing mostly rock. We found it hard to dance there because there was too little room for movement. A classical duo and a pianist also entertained each evening, and in the theater the offerings ranged from movies to mediocre stage shows (singers with more heart than talent). 

One off-beat but good-to-know bit: DH had a flare-up of a shoulder problem while we were there and visited the medical center. He was impressed by the doctor and nurse and felt he got good treatment. The doctor called later to see how he was doing. Again, great service—and not expensive!

Notwithstanding the outstanding staff, we were in the end disappointed in our Viking cruise. Maybe our expectations were too high, but the bar problems, the lack of dining excitement, and mostly, the lack of activities that we enjoy combined to leave us disenchanted. We’re booked on Oceania in the fall and are looking forward to seeing what the new Crystal will bring. Meantime, maybe we’ll try Seabourn.  Happy cruising, all. 

Thanks, everyone. It’s great to be part of a community that is so generous with their knowledge, experience, and help. I’m excited to see how Viking compares to Oceania and my favorite, Crystal (at least in its former iteration). 

We will boarding Sea in San Juan next week for our first Viking cruise. I’d love to hear from Viking enthusiasts where you head for lunch on embarkation. Also, in addition to making restaurant reservations and exploring the ship, any suggestions for the first afternoon?

I also suffer from seasickness and while you can’t really know that any itinerary will be without a bad day, one thing I have learned for sure is that I need an itinerary that begins with a port day. Every time I’ve been on a cruise that starts with a sea day, I lose that day. But when we’re in port the first day, I’m okay the rest of the time unless we hit bad weather and rough seas. It’s why we opt for the Caribbean out of San Juan rather than Miami. And even if we run into a bad day or two, being on the ship is worth it! Good luck!

Thanks for the info, FetaCheese. If there’s a Dance floor in Explorer’s Lounge, we’ll probably be on it. (In my mind, I’m more like Ginger Rogers.)

Thanks for posting these. My husband and I always look forward to dancing on our cruises, and since this is our first Viking trip, I didn’t know what their schedule would be. Looks like they don’t have pre-dinner dancing, just late night, so no scheduling problem (though we will have to work around trivia!). 

I had the same problem, and the chat agent’s response was that we could dine in the Restaurant. This is our first Viking cruise after many on Celebrity, 3 Oceania and 2 Crystal, and it is not an auspicious beginning. Hope things improve once we’re onboard. 

Could you possibly post a copy of the daily schedule?  I can soon make reservations for dinners on our February cruise and want to coordinate the times with other activities. Thanks for all your information!

Just a reminder on this last night— If you have nonrefundable credit left in your account, you can direct that money to be distributed in tips. Guest Services will give you a form so you can specify where it goes.  Better to give it to crew than to let it lapse into corporate space.  

Safe travel home to all . . .

We are also onboard this cruise and have a somewhat different reaction. We are in Aqua class and have been very disappointed in Blu. Every night we have waited 30 minutes for a table, as has everyone else who showed up after 6:00.  There is one sommelier where there used to be two, and fewer waitpersons, so service tends to be a bit slow. The food (we have chosen items from both the Blu menu and the MDR menu) has been okay but far from memorable. We looked forward to our dinner in Tuscan Grill last night, but even there the service was slow and the beef a bit tough. 
 

Service in the lounges is very spotty. Only once since we boarded have we been served drinks; the rest of the time we’ve given up and gone to the bar and waited in line to get our own. The other thing we’ve noticed is that the ship in many of the public spaces looks tired, even though it was refurbished in 2019. We’ve seen stained and ripped chairs, frayed curtains, and rusty metal pieces. On the other hand, the stateroom is lovely and does look new. 
 

We used to sail Celebrity exclusively, but went to other brands when the Edge class appeared and the company seemed to us to shift to a different product. We really liked the Millenium class, so this cruise out of Boston involving no air travel was an opportunity to revisit Summit. I recognize that all cruise lines have suffered from the effects of the pandemic and then supply issues, but we’ve had three cruises since the restart and none of the others showed the effects as much. I’m afraid that that and other changes unrelated to outside forces will send us back to the smaller lines. 

On 9/13/2022 at 12:09 AM, CorgiToo said:

Just returned from 11 days on the Marina in the Baltic. The food was great in all the specialty restaurants and the main dining room. We only had 320 passengers, so it was possible to eat in the specialty restaurants more than once. As a result, the main dining room was practically empty in the middle since most guests requested window seating. It was open for breakfast and dinner, with excellent service and a great variety of menu offerings, One evening we "took a break" from the specialty restaurants only to find an outstanding beef wellington on the menu that was superior to the prime rib we had at Polo, 

 

Looking forward to a week in the Caribbean on Celebrity after Thanksgiving, since we love Aqua Class for the opportunity to enjoy Blu for dinner every night. 

 

I hope you’ll enjoy your experience in Blu, but you might temper your expectations. We are on Summit now in Aqua class, and our experience with Blu has been disappointing. To start, we have had to wait 30 minutes for a table every night, as has anyone who wants to dine past 6:00.  There is one sommelier where there used to be two, and fewer wait persons, so slower service. The food—for us a combination of items from the Blu menu and from the main dining room menu—has been just okay. We will be happy to go back to Oceania.