slewis7

My wife and I are just off the lovely Viking Venus, having completed our Into the Midnight Sun cruise. We have had a few prior post-Covid cruises with Viking and I found them to be disappointing to what we experienced with them before Covid. This disappointment was greatly due to numerous missed ports and dealing with the daily testing (which I found uncomfortable) but I also felt like the food and service onboard was not nearly as good as our earlier Viking cruises. I am happy to report that this cruise was totally back to form for Viking! It was one of our favorite cruises ever! What we liked: Food was good and often very good, at all of the dining venues Service was fantastic The ship never seemed crowded Our cabin stewards were exceptional Ship’s captain handled weather related issues well and made frequent and informative announcements Port intensive itinerary but with a nice mix of sea days interspersed. All the ports were good and we did not miss any ports. Favorite Ports: Shetlands, Lofoten, Geiranger They had Surf and Turf (filet and lobster) one night on the Aquavit Terrace. It was delicious! Easy embarkation and disembarkation What we disliked: We had an argumentative waiter in Manfredi’s. That’s it. Ports: Greenwich: There is plenty to do here. The included walking tour gave a nice overview. We visited the Maritime Museum, Queen’s House and Greenwich Observatory on our own. The Greenwich Market was also worth a visit. Edinburgh: Our weather was was rainy. The Included panoramic tour was of minimal value but it got us into town. We enjoyed walking along the Royal Mile, but even with bad weather it was very crowded. We had a nice fish and chips lunch at Bertie’s. Orkney Islands: We enjoyed the Viking included tour of Stromness and the Ring of Brodgar. We saw nothing that interested us in Kirkwall. Shetland Island: We loved our private tour with Shetland Minibus (Grant is the owner and guide and he was great). An absolutely beautiful and interesting place to visit we would happily return to. Lofoten Islands: We had a fantastic private tour of the southern areas with Lofoten Lights (our guide was the wonderful Eliza). We stopped for delicious fish burgers at Anita’s Seafood. On the drive back to the ship we went through Leknes and we were glad we skipped going into town. Lofoten islands is an absolutely beautiful place. Honnigsvag: it was a cold and rainy day but the Viking King Crab Safari tour was great. Thankfully the clothing provided for the RIB boat ride kept us warm and comfortable. The crab lunch was incredible and we all got plenty to eat. We also enjoyed going on the Viking included excursion to the North Cape. Tromso: A nice town to walk around. We had been there before, so this time we did an optional Viking kayak excursion and we had lovely weather and calm waters. Geiranger: An absolutely gorgeous place and the Viking panoramic tour was a very scenic ride with some great photo stops. It was also interesting to see the skillful handling of the bus around the many hairpin road curves. We also enjoyed a Viking helicopter excursion which was pricey but amazing! Be sure to be in the Explorer’s Lounge for great views during either the sail-in or the sail-out. Bergen: A great port with plenty to do and we were happy to overnight here. We took Viking’s option Ascent to Mt Ulriken excursion and thoroughly enjoyed all aspects of it. My wife and I are currently at the Reykjavik Airport. We are on Viking’s “Iceland and the Golden Circle” extension. It is not off to a good start as Viking has dumped us here over 5 and a half hours prior to our flights to Iceland. I would certainly have expected better from Viking given the prices they get for extensions (perhaps a city tour to kill some time or putting us up for a few hours somewhere more comfortable than the airport). I certainly hope the rest of the extension goes better, but it is unlikely Imwill book an extension through Viking again.

We are on the Venus now and enjoyed that lovely ribeye steak a few days ago at Manfredi’s and it was perfectly cooked and tender. I saw Chicken Parm, Osso Buco and Lasagna all on the menu. We do miss some of our old favorites from years past including the Dover Sole and the meatball appetizer (I loved the tomato sauce with that dish). I have not yet had the lasagna at Manfredi’s on this cruise, but I enjoyed it in the past. I plan on ordering it before we leave the Venus.

Holy hell, our Viking cruise embarks in London Greenwich on June 24th! We fly into Heathrow, but fortunately we come in several days early.

I have had very mixed results ordering that steak at Manfredi’s. The first time, it was delicious but subsequently it was mediocre. Still, I will try again in our upcoming cruise. 🤞 Our recent experiences at Manfredi’s, post pandemic, have been a mixed bag in general.

Especially good to hear as I have booked 2 tours with the same company coming up in November aboard a Celebrity Beyond transatlantic!

I am especially enjoying this thread as my brother, his wife and in-laws are on the cruise with you. He is visible from behind in one of your Malta tour photos. Keep the updates coming and thank you!

Mostly that food and service on my first Viking cruise was almost always great but on subsequent cruises it was inconsistent. Also, the Covid testing protocols made things less enjoyable and on one of the cruises we missed a majority of our ports due to having some cases onboard. I would not fault Viking for the problems directly related to the pandemic, although I guess (hope) quality issues are likely related.

We are booked on Insignia in cabin 8046 this December, so I am very happy to read the positive comments here!

Yes, I believe so. That used to be something my wife and I mocked but given how the Celebrity has changed over the years, it is one of the better loyalty benefits currently. 🤣

My wife and I also previously considered Celebrity our go to cruise line and no longer feel that way. A few distinctions between the lines not mentioned here yet: - The Viking ships tend to feel much less crowded and less busy. - The entertainment on Celebrity is much more varied. Viking can be pretty quiet. - The Viking spa area is open to everyone and is quite nice. While I loved my first Viking cruise, I have not found it to be as enjoyable on my subsequent experiences (since the pandemic). Our future bookings include Viking, Celebrity and a few other lines that we will be new to. We are still hoping to find the right fit for us.

I am booked on a Holland America cruise leaving late January next year that ends in San Antonio and we booked a day long tour and airport transfer from the Puerto San Antonio company. They were very responsive and professional in their emails and I am happy to hear that @Dobby36 had a good experience with them.

I did correspond with them, but I ended up booking with this company: https://puertosanantoniotours.com/transfer/

I contacted them and they responded that they are not doing tours in 2024, so I am still looking.

We saw our best view of the Lights one evening from the ship. We went from the dining room to our cabins for heavy jackets and gloves in a rush. It was extremely cold standing outside that evening so be sure to be prepared with very warm layers standing ready in your cabin.

We are booked on that Iceland extension this summer. Our current flight scheduled shows us leaving Bergen at 3:30pm. The flight into Reykjavik is 2 hours 20 minutes via Iceland Air. It seems like that day will be about transit with no real sightseeing.

My wife and I have booked The Hendrick’s for a week in April. Not cheap, but great reviews and hopefully a quiet location close enough to the action. https://www.thehendrickshotel.com/

Great thread! We have canceled South America several times already and are looking to book it gain in the future, perhaps 2024 or 2025. We have considered HAL because friends took their itinerary which includes sailing by Antartica and loved it. After seeing this thread, I now know that Oceania has a similar itinerary which we will strongly consider. We have sailed a bunch on Celebrity but feel like it is no longer the great value it used to be and will likely quit using them after our two already booked and upcoming cruises. I am curious about some of the comments posted in this thread about Celebrity hinting that some recent happenings with them can not be posted about. If anyone could enlighten me, my email is s l e w i s 7 @ gmail . com (remove extra spaces).

My wife and I are traveling in Holland and staying in Amsterdam for an extended time next April and we are researching the many options for transportation passes. We definitely plan to visit Keukenhof. Thanks to the posters for contributing some really helpful tips.

We have taken an Australia and New England cruise on Celebrity and loved it. If the price difference was perhaps 30% or less, I might consider Viking on an equivalent itinerary (we prefer smaller and less crowded ships). For anything more, I would go with Celebrity.

Wow! Good to know. Thanks!!

We also have experienced Viking applying vouchers without consulting us. In our case, we had balances on two cruises: one in 2023 and the other in 2024. Viking applied the vouchers to the 2024 booking. With final payment approaching for our 2023 cruise, we found out about it from our travel agent and asked her to get it fixed. She warned us that Viking makes moving vouchers between bookings difficult. It took several weeks but she was able to get it done.

Most likely so, but the resulting Mexican Riviera cruise we experienced, while having a good onboard experience was very disappointing with multiple cancelled ports. Be glad you missed that, although I know you and Mike enjoy the sea days. Hopefully, these Hawaii itineraries will make their intended ports. I think I might hold off booking until closer to the sailing and look for better “offers”.

True and we will gauge our energy level before selecting our route. I do feel that the tips in this thread has given me several options.

I was looking at the “Hawaiian Islands Sojourn” as we were booked on this back in December 2021 before the itinerary was altered to the Mexican Riviera (we still went and the altered itinerary was “meh”). The current offer is EHT22. Even with this offer, the pricing for the same cabin is around 50% higher than what we booked it for in 2021. The new cruise is one day longer, but it sure seems like a big price hike. It was a pretty last minute offering in 2021, so maybe we were getting a bargain then and the new pricing is more typical but it is putting us off of booking.

You are right! Thank you for pointing that out.