slewis7

I just found this thread and really appreciate all the details as my wife and I will be on the Flora this September. There are a lot of helpful tips and it will be very helpful in setting our expectations. Thank you, OP!

If what you mean is it is subjective, I agree. Also, the experience ends to vary from cruise to cruise on the same line. I only harp on Oceania for this because they make a big deal of their food quality.

We enjoyed the Golden Circle on our first visit and since we are heading back to Reykjavik this summer, we have already booked a South Coast tour.

We were on this itinerary last summer. I do not recall details of the sailaway, but Lofoten is spectacular. I would highly recommend seeing as much of the island as you can during your visit! We had perfect weather and took a private tour and we were so glad we did!

I am not sure about “Most”, but that is what Oceania marketing claims. In my one experience, I would say it’s about average for the lines I have sailed on (Celebrity, Viking, Royal Caribbean, Holland America) and I have experienced far better (recent Holland America cruise).

We have taken a number of Viking ocean cruises and the food and service is pretty consistent and has varied from good to great. Viking is an excellent line and we know what to expect when we take it. Our one Oceania experience, aboard their smallest class of ship (the Insignia) was pretty disappointing: the food was just OK and if your tagline is “best cuisine at sea”, that is unacceptable. Service was fine, but the ship was pretty dated. It was our first butler experience and the only value we found was the one time we were served dinner in our cabin. The Oceania entertainment was not even up to Viking standards. We subsequently canceled our upcoming Vista cruise.

I can give you prices for 2 of those excursions for my Viking June 22, 2024 cruise: Vigur $229 per person Skalanes $219 per person

So good to hear! We are sailing the Millennium on a Japan itinerary in early April and I hope we will have a similar onboard experience.

My wife and I very recently made a new booking with Viking so I have emailed my travel agent to see if we can apply the “Special Future Guest Promotion” retroactively. 🤞

I agree that this is an absolutely wonderful itinerary. My highlights were our pre-cruise visit to Iguazu, the Antarctica scenic cruising and the last several ports in Chile. The red eye flight the eve of disembarkation was painful but it was worth it. As for the Holland America shipboard experience, it exceeded all my best expectations! I especially enjoyed the food! Will sail HAL again!

Perhaps I found the wrong “Doctor my Eyes” video as Tako was not in it. He is a pretty young guy.

We just got off the Oosterdam and we enjoyed the music in the RS Lounge. The guitarist, Tako from Tokyo, is a phenomenal talent and he seems to play a ripping solo on just about every song. On my one prior HAL cruise I really enjoyed the music in the BB King Club; I much prefer it to rock. Will that type of music still be present on the larger ships?

My wife and I did a HAL horseback riding excursion today in Castro. It was a very small group of 11 passengers and a HAL rep. The ranch owner accompanied us on the van and told us about his ranch and how he obtained it. He was a very friendly fellow named Julian. After a scenic half hour ride, we arrived and Julian gave us a demonstration of training a horse. Then we all got saddled up on horses accompanied by Julian and a number of his family members. The area was absolute beautiful with some nice grades at various spots. We saw plenty of dogs and passed by a lake. It was wonderful! After a 2 hours ride we returned to the ranch. We were treated to sandwiches, fruit, nuts and honey sweetened lemon juice and then returned to the port. It was an amazing outing and by far the best ship excursion I have ever taken!

Today is Castro. Tomorrow is Puerto Montt. Castro was added to the itinerary pre-cruise when some scheduled dates were shifted and a port was dropped.

I did the El Pedral tour as well today. Seeing penguins up close was wonderful! Was that a long cruise pier or what!?