Viking Sun World Cruise ongoing review/comments

Thanks, Jim that was a great post, I was disappointed in some of the SHORT stays in great ports, Porto and Darwin come to mind immediately......and I would like to add what an invaluable source of great information I was able to gain from this forum prior to our trip. We would have missed the magnificent temple of Borobudur if someone hadn't mentioned it on the Roll Call. Don't know if most WC Roll Calls were as active as our but we were able to meet and enjoy a super group of people early on in the cruise because of Cruise Critic and Mary Ann's book was a great introduction to each other!

Redwarrior is "China and Tibet" a river or an Ocean cruise? We are scheduled for Caribbean and the Amazon between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Thanks Dee,

I forgot to mention how much we learned from the Roll Call too. Anyone contemplating such a cruise should join the roll call asap and participate. Our roll call was, as Deec said, very active with tons of useful pre cruise ideas. It also gave us all a base of "friends" before we ever boarded. I am so glad we had our roll call.:cool:

Deec:

Called "Roof of the World," it is a combination land and river cruise of 17 days. We will start in Beijing, fly to Xian, fly to Tibet, and fly to Chongqing to meet the river cruise. Seven days later we are in Wuhan and then a flight to Shanghai. Note: We got the last available cabin for the months of Oct, Nov, and Dec. These trips sell out well in advance.

At the risk of appearing like a politician that won't go away after losing the election, I have one more bit of "hard work" related to the World Cruise. The album..... Lois is very good at albums and uses various e services but we had to get around 2,000 pictures down to a manageable amount. That worked out to 980 pictures and an album with 107 pages! She just finished and I think did a great job. Even some blank pages to install the various certificates we accumulated along the way. But then there are videos, memory sticks, souvenirs, post cards, etc, etc. Just sayin' the WC is not for the lazy or the faint of heart....:eek::cool:

You guys are so ahead of the game! I still haven't done my pictures for Barcelona the Baltics and Beyond from a year ago. It's overwhelming and I'm still working (excuses excuses) Are you going to post a link? I'd love to see them!

At the risk of appearing like a politician that won't go away after losing the election, I have one more bit of "hard work" related to the World Cruise. The album..... Lois is very good at albums and uses various e services but we had to get around 2,000 pictures down to a manageable amount. That worked out to 980 pictures and an album with 107 pages! She just finished and I think did a great job. Even some blank pages to install the various certificates we accumulated along the way. But then there are videos, memory sticks, souvenirs, post cards, etc, etc. Just sayin' the WC is not for the lazy or the faint of heart....:eek::cool:

Is this an online album or a physical one? If online, I’d love to see what she produced. I’m trying to figure out what to do with all our photos from our cruise.

Viking gave us a well done short video and an additional 100+ pictures that are just about perfect to share memories of trip...maybe viking will put it on their website...

Is this an online album or a physical one? If online, I’d love to see what she produced. I’m trying to figure out what to do with all our photos from our cruise.

It is done online but then they print and mail a real album. The company is called Mixbook I think. She says it is very easy to use. Not sure if they will send an e link or not. The stuff Deec is mentioning they gave us right before departure and it is very nice. Still get choked up with all the crew waving good bye. :cool:

It is done online but then they print and mail a real album. The company is called Mixbook I think. She says it is very easy to use. Not sure if they will send an e link or not. The stuff Deec is mentioning they gave us right before departure and it is very nice. Still get choked up with all the crew waving good bye. :cool:

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Finally a bit caught up. We sure liked it when someone else did everything for us..... I can see why some have chosen to live full time on cruise ships. Some final thoughts and a few things learned on this fantastic adventure we recently completed. First, the real star of this show was the crew onboard. They are among the best, if not the very best we have experienced. Always friendly and always capable. This starts with on board management as management is responsible for training and observing crew. The General Manager, Sujith Mohan, is one of the hardest working people I have ever seen. Always with a smile and a few words, Sujith starts with the 5am Walk a Mile and seems to be everywhere all day. I once asked him if he ever sleeps. He laughed and pointed to the 4 stripes on his coat sleeve and said "those 4 stripes entitle me to 4 hours of sleep a day". I believe him. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention our very experienced "Designated Driver" Captain Knutsen. Well over 30, 000 sea miles and not a bit of drama. As a former ship captain I was watching his ship handling. He has a very expert easy touch with the ship and as we sailed away in Greenwich for the last time, not a single dent visible anywhere.:cool: All the tight places and strange ports and not a ding. Most other cruise ships are banged up around the waterline. Good job Captain. So, now we have to try and sort through some 2,000 pictures to make a large album. So much stuff. It still seems sort of a blur but I would say to those considering such an adventure or saying "some day" as we did, just go for it. It is a lot of work before, during, and after catching up at home but so worth it. And, to be blunt, it is not going to get cheaper and none of us are getting any younger. The first question friends ask about our voyage is would we do it again? At present no. Not because we didn't enjoy it but any true circumnavigation would, of necessity, include a fair amount of repeats that we might not really care about doing over. We do think a 30 to 45 day regional cruise would be a good next step. That or back to back to back somewhere. Time will tell. I did learn a few things to look for when next we plan a longish cruise. During the booking process, I would ask the cruise lines to give me a list of the times the ship arrives and departs each port. We had several "drive by" ports where we only had a very few hours ashore. Hardly worth the trouble so I would ask that. Another important consideration is to ask where the ship is docking in each port. As we learned, quite often we were far out from the destination in some remote container port which necessitated long shuttle rides to get into town. I would take these into consideration in choosing a cruise in the future. Also, we spent a lot of sea time steaming rather slowly. Some days averaging only 10 knots. This is not just Viking though it is industry wide. Saves fuel we are told. I only wish I could have taken QE2's World Cruises back in the '70s and '80s. That ship was capable of 35 knots flat out and often steamed between ports at 30+ knots. One notable WC had similar number of ports to ours but was a World Cruise "Around the World in 80 Days". Most were in the 90 day range. Viking Sun (and sisters) are designed and equipped for only a 20 knot top speed. Heck, passenger ships in the 1890's did that kind of speed. I would consider looking at time between ports when comparing future cruises. We could have spent more time in ports for sure had they increased speed to at or near 20knots. Again, not a Viking problem but an unfavorable industry trend. These quibbles aside, we had an absolutely fabulous adventure and are so glad we did it and did it with Viking. I do believe that those of us on the Inaugural WC got the best deals likely to ever be offered. Hard to believe we have been out of our "home" of a third of a year for two weeks already. We were taken by surprise at how emotional we felt at the Captain's farewell talk when they showed that great video summary of the trip. Also, it was strange to leave our cabin. It had really become home. Best wishes to all our fellow travelers and maybe we shall sail again some day. :cool:

Having signed up for the 2020 WC, I have read with interest all posts in this thread, but no doubt will have many more questions. Your contributions are most interesting and greatly appreciated.

You raised some interesting points regarding cruising speed and the current preference for slow steaming. Not sure of the cruising speed of the vessels you commanded. Here are a couple of my higher speed experiences - SS Oriana with all fires burning we hit about 32 kts, but the fuel consumption was 500 tons per day. On my fast ferry days (40 to 45 kts) we were 1/2 size of conventional ferry, but used about twice the fuel. Unfortunately the good old days of navigating at over 30 kts just aren't economical.

Thanks! I’ll check into Mixbook.

Having signed up for the 2020 WC, I have read with interest all posts in this thread, but no doubt will have many more questions. Your contributions are most interesting and greatly appreciated.

 

You raised some interesting points regarding cruising speed and the current preference for slow steaming. Not sure of the cruising speed of the vessels you commanded. Here are a couple of my higher speed experiences - SS Oriana with all fires burning we hit about 32 kts, but the fuel consumption was 500 tons per day. On my fast ferry days (40 to 45 kts) we were 1/2 size of conventional ferry, but used about twice the fuel. Unfortunately the good old days of navigating at over 30 kts just aren't economical.

Hi Andy,

Oriana was a beauty. Nothing like a fast ship. None of my rust buckets went any faster than present cruise ships. As far as the "saving fuel" mantra, yes, fuel used to be much cheaper but then you could cross the Atlantic at 30 knots (admittedly in steerage) for a couple hundred dollars. Fuel is higher, tickets are MUCH higher. Imho, just the same with more zeroes. The real reason is no one demands to go faster. The traveling public has been told that 15 knots is "normal" and they buy it. We live in interesting times. Never before in the history of seafaring has the goal been to go slower than before. :eek:

Hi Andy,

Oriana was a beauty. Nothing like a fast ship. None of my rust buckets went any faster than present cruise ships. As far as the "saving fuel" mantra, yes, fuel used to be much cheaper but then you could cross the Atlantic at 30 knots (admittedly in steerage) for a couple hundred dollars. Fuel is higher, tickets are MUCH higher. Imho, just the same with more zeroes. The real reason is no one demands to go faster. The traveling public has been told that 15 knots is "normal" and they buy it. We live in interesting times. Never before in the history of seafaring has the goal been to go slower than before. :eek:

Don't want to hijack your topic, but yes the old Oriana was a classic liner with beautiful lines. Of all my ships she was my favourite. Navigating at high speed is exhilarating, especially when all we had was 2 eyes, reflection plotter, azimuth ring and sextant.

The fast ferry I commanded in BC cruised at 35 - 37 kts, but one night, with a medical emergency, I pushed her to 45 kts. Fun experience. Have also had a few high speed runs through Seymour Narrows, which you will remember when heading up to Alaska.

With the design of new passengers vessels, the highly flared bow and high block coefficient hulls, render them useless for pounding though any type of a seaway at speed. Sadly, I doubt we will ever see the Blue Riband Trophy won by a traditional liner again.

On one of our previous cruises, we asked that question and the officer. He said that they start out after leaving the port at a higher speed and then cut back once they know the seas and weather conditions are known .

 

 

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To expand on Jim's reply in post # 380, that officer has given you a standard pax response. If embarking on a longer voyage of more than a couple of days, setting a higher speed for potential weather is good practice, especially crossing the Atlantic in Winter, or Bay of Biscay. However, the greatest majority of cruise ship voyages are short duration and the wind, sea and current forecasts/predictions are fairly accurate.

Most cruise ships have multiple engines, at least 4 diesels (2 big + 2 smaller) with the bigger ships supplemented with gas turbines. The diesels are most efficient when run at optimum speed, so they depart with the minimum number of engines running at optimum speed. When the speed to go reduces, one engine is dropped and they continue at optimum speed until another engine is dropped, etc.

Example - If a ship makes 20 kts on 4 engines, when dropping to 3 engines it will probably make about 18 kts. Yes, the final 2 kts costs 25% of the fuel.

Hi Raggy. Drag has many variables concerning a ship hull. Even using the stabilizers significantly increases fuel burn. Hull shape, bottom coating, and salinity can all play a part. My point though is that, in the big picture of fuel burned on a World Cruise, speeding up to make Darwin a meaningful port call would have been a drop in the ocean.

Jim,

Most definitely. The extra fuel to make Darwin a meaningful port would easily have been offset by selling additional shore-ex, which on most ships are the largest revenue generator.

Jim,

 

Most definitely. The extra fuel to make Darwin a meaningful port would easily have been offset by selling additional shore-ex, which on most ships are the largest revenue generator.

Or just happy passengers having an extra pint or two in a Darwin pub.....:eek::cool:

To all the WC travelers who shared experiences, pictures, and insights, THANK YOU! It was wonderful to read along a live the WC through you. I appreciate you taking so much time to share.

Questions for the WC folks:

We'll be on the Bali to Sydney cruise in Nov/Dec 2018. It looks like you were the first Viking ship to visit some of these ports and we will be second. Any advice or insights you could offer on any of these ports and excursions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks to Jim for solving the Darwin mystery! We couldn't figure out why we are scheduled to arrive in Darwin at noon and depart the following day at 1pm. Reading your description about the ship traveling 10 knots to get in and out of port, now it makes more sense. [lightbulb moment!] Sorry you were all shortchanged there with only a few hours in port. At least it seems like Viking learned from that. Our schedule allows many daylight hours of sailing in and out of port along with (hopefully) enough time in port to allow us to actually see something.

I only saw comments on some of the ports we're visiting so I'm guessing your cruise didn't stop at all of the same place we will. Your feedback on any of these locations would be lovely. We're scheduled to go to:

Bali

Lombok

Komodo

Darwin

Thursday Island

Cairns

Townsville

Whitsunday Island (Hamilton Island)

Brisbane

Newcastle

Sydney

I was very sad to hear about your group experiences in Cairns. We are hoping a Great Barrier Reef snorkel would be a highlight of the trip. Terrible that Viking charged that much and then plopped you all on massive boat to a crowded platform. I certainly hope they will have corrected that before our trip. We're only in port for a tragically short 8am to 6pm making it very difficult to arrange anything on our own. Wish they had us scheduled for two days there or at least one long day. Wished they'd also offer a GBR snorkel out of the Whitsundays.

In Brisbane it sounded like people went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Did that seem worthwhile? We're there from 8am to 11pm so that's one place that we should have a reasonable amount of time to explore.

In addition to benefiting from the WC trailblazing this part of the world for us, it looks like we won't be in crowded ports. According to the online ship tracker, with the exception of Sydney, we are the only cruise ship scheduled to be at each of these ports the day we're there. Whew. There were a few places like Brisbane I would have expected the WC to be docked close to the CBD instead on the edge of town or having to tender. Not fun.

Thanks, again, for all your great posts about your trip and thanks, in advance, for any information you could provide about the places we're scheduled to stop.

Kind Regards,

Karen

Bali

Lombok

Komodo

Darwin

Thursday Island

Cairns

Townsville

Whitsunday Island (Hamilton Island)

Brisbane

Newcastle

Sydney

Karen, we did our world cruise on Oceania and visited some of the ports. If by input, you are looking for ideas on things to do, feel free to visit my blog as we stopped in some of the ports you listed. The itinerary page of my blog has links to specific ports.

Hi Karen,

Thanks for the kind words. It really was a fantastic voyage and, after a couple of months home, we are trying to figure out the best way to do another one! Do we really need a house??;p I will try to add a few bits of info on the ports you listed. We are really jealous of your extra time in Darwin. Darwin really appealed to us and we barely had time to walk through a pedestrian zone, shop for junk food at a supermarket, then found a good lunch at the Hotel Darwin pub. Mixed grill of gator, 'roo, and some other meat that slips my mind was really tasty as was the best beef pie ever. All washed down with a nice pint of Northern Ale. But I digress....In Bali we hired a private car and driver from Viator and had a very good tour of the area. We were already getting our fill of bus tours. Lombok I don't believe we stopped there. Komodo was a must see for us and did not disappoint. A short tender ride from the ship to the Komodo pier then a walking tour from Viking. If we were to do it again we would skip the walking tour. A long hike through the woods in hot sweaty heat on a muddy trail with not a dragon in sight other than right at the start near the compound. We learned, after the tour, that upon disembarking the tender we could have simply turned to the right, walked through the shed where all the local vendors were set up, over a small pedestrian bridge arriving in less than 5 minutes to the watering hole. Lots of big lizards there with plenty of the guides to keep them off you. Some skinny young Indonesians with 6' sticks is all there is for keeping you safe. I was amazed, no fences, moats, or any other barriers to the dragons free reign.:eek: Have some great close up shots of big lizards......

Darwin already discussed.

Thursday Island. A brief walk around and lots of flies came on board. Had flies for days....

Carins. Well, you read the review on the Great Barrier Reef trip. I would not do it again.

Townsville. Missed this one.

Hamilton Island. Very pretty resort type place with shops, restaurants and a grocery for the re stocking of junk food. Very hot and humid on our stop.

Brisbane. Nice looking city but we were on the "Panoramic". Just loved it when the guide said "look out the left side and there is the oldest pub in Brisbane". Just great......We didn't stop. Then went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Be advised that the Koalas have a union and are only available for a certain number of holdings by visitors. When we arrived, all the holdings were already spoken for. But you still can get up close in the enclosures. Also have great pictures of DW petting the Kangaroos in their big field enclosure. Worth doing.

Newcastle. Don't recall stopping here.

Sydney. One of the highlights of the trip. We originally had to dock away from the Circular Quay but Captain Knutsen relocated us as soon as possible. Docked right across from the Opera House. Great time in Sydney. Did manage to visit the "Oldest Pub in Sydney".:cool:

We really enjoyed this part of the world and am sure you will too.

J.

Yea, thanks so much for the help!

h2so4 - Great blog! Loved the entertaining posts about your WC. Yes, that was very helpful to hear about what you done and I quiet enjoyed your excellent pictures from your trip. For Brisbane I'd researched taking the bus, ferry, or Mirimar. Good to know that a cab is a reasonable option. I'd like to do Mirimar but would prefer to arrive at Lone Pine earlier in the day. I'm happy to hear that we might be able to catch it on the way back.

I'm feeling even worse about the Viking WC experience in Cairns after reading about h2so4's experience. If I'm reading this correctly, you were able to do a GBR helicopter ride and single location reef snorkel for less than what ended up being a Viking excursion on a massive party boat to a packed platform! :eek: That's pretty stunning ($608 AUD for two people (~$456USD? (ck for a typo on your blog here)?!? Wow. I'd prefer more snorkeling time but my mom has never been on a helicopter so this could be a great option, depending on what Viking offers. Thanks! (and my sympathies again to Jim and the rest on the disappointing Viking WC GBR excursion)

Great to hear both of your experiences at the various ports. What is it with the flies on Thursday Island?! I do now recall reading Jim's comments about the flies but I think I blocked that out! Ekk! I'm going to hope that in December they won't be as bad. I certainly won't plan on spending an extended time walking around there. If it's still like a low budget version of a Hitchcock movie (The Flies) we might end up doing a quick "we touched the most northern part of Australia, now let's get back on the tender!"

Jim, I'm glad to hear that at least you had a good lunch in Darwin, in spite of the painfully short visit. I've had gator before, would be interested in trying kangaroo, and I've also had other kinds of meat that then slipped my mind! Hah! Hopefully we'll get to try some exotic Australian foods like that meat pie while we're traveling either on land or sea. Sorry kangaroos. I just draw the line at eating koalas since they're super cute and they probably taste like eucalyptus cough drops.

Good to know there is a grocery in Darwin. That might be helpful if we don't manage to load up on junk food in Bali.

Komodo seems like a bit of a challenge. The overly long, hot walk through nothing interesting to see seems to be a common complaint there. My mom, in particular, would be interested in seeing more flora and fauna but I'm not sure if the long walk actually provides that. h2so4 managed to get in a dragon tour plus a snorkel and walking on the pink beach. That sounds so much nicer than a long hike in the heat and no dragons. Thanks for the info on how to get to the watering hole. We might take your shortcut through the shopping zone and skip the hike. I will certainly feel safe there being guarded by skinny guys with sticks. I hope the dragons will have been well supplied with goats prior to our visit.

Good to know about the Brisbane koala union. We'll try to get to Lone Pine before they run out of fresh koalas. However, I'd be sad to skip the Viking panoramic tour because then we won't get to drive by the oldest pub in Brisbane without getting to visit it. ;)

Hmm...I was hoping for better on Hamilton. OK, a nice resort is nice but not so much our thing. Thursday Island and Hamilton Island are the two ports on our cruise where the included excursions are "explore on your own". Not sure how DIY counts as excursions but at least Viking will be providing a tender ashore instead of holding us captive. We are scheduled to be at Hamilton for 10 hours so we have time to do something. Their current tentative excursions options are the DIY at the beach, Whitehaven Beach, or golf. So either sand or sand traps.

Thanks again for providing so much information! This will be a big help! It is very kind of all of you who took the time to write up experiences on your WC. It's was great to read about your adventures (razor wire for the Somali pirates! Eek!) since a WC is far beyond our budget until my lottery win. The info on the ports I'll be visiting are, of course, particularly appreciated. There aren't a lot of reviews online for many of those ports and usually they don't included much detail.

If anyone thinks of anything else I should know about that route or ports, please let me know!

Kind Regards!

Karen :D

Yea, thanks so much for the help!

h2so4 - Great blog! Loved the entertaining posts about your WC. Yes, that was very helpful to hear about what you done and I quiet enjoyed your excellent pictures from your trip. For Brisbane I'd researched taking the bus, ferry, or Mirimar. Good to know that a cab is a reasonable option. I'd like to do Mirimar but would prefer to arrive at Lone Pine earlier in the day. I'm happy to hear that we might be able to catch it on the way back.

Taking Mirimar back allows for a lovely relaxing cruise. And getting to Lone Pine early was great as we had the place to ourselves before the tours showed up.

I'm feeling even worse about the Viking WC experience in Cairns after reading about h2so4's experience. If I'm reading this correctly, you were able to do a GBR helicopter ride and single location reef snorkel for less than what ended up being a Viking excursion on a massive party boat to a packed platform! :eek: That's pretty stunning ($608 AUD for two people (~$456USD? (ck for a typo on your blog here)?!? Wow. I'd prefer more snorkeling time but my mom has never been on a helicopter so this could be a great option, depending on what Viking offers. Thanks! (and my sympathies again to Jim and the rest on the disappointing Viking WC GBR excursion)

No typo ... I too was amazed at the cost.

Komodo seems like a bit of a challenge. The overly long, hot walk through nothing interesting to see seems to be a common complaint there. My mom, in particular, would be interested in seeing more flora and fauna but I'm not sure if the long walk actually provides that. h2so4 managed to get in a dragon tour plus a snorkel and walking on the pink beach. That sounds so much nicer than a long hike in the heat and no dragons. Thanks for the info on how to get to the watering hole. We might take your shortcut through the shopping zone and skip the hike. I will certainly feel safe there being guarded by skinny guys with sticks. I hope the dragons will have been well supplied with goats prior to our visit.

One of our friends is on crutches. He disembarked with us but was going to spend time around the shops/kiosks until we returned. One of the National Park Guides saw him and offered to take him to our first stop to see the dragons. I’m not sure the long walk offers enough of interest flora and fauna wise, so if you wanted to do the short hike and more time snorkeling, that would work. The guy I worked with for the private tour was very flexible. They don’t feed the dragons anymore according to the rangers.

Kind Regards!

 

Karen :D

Have a terrific trip ... no matter what you decide to do, it’s wonderful to see so many places in comfort.

They don't feed the dragons anymore?? I guess a few plump tourists keep them happy. Reminds me of an old line: "Hey Leroy, those dragons sure are fast." "Yeah, but I'm not worried, I don't have to run faster than the dragon, just faster than you." ;p

Quick question for the 2018 World Cruisers. Did Viking provide lanyards for the key card?

They were provided on our last WC, so we used them for the first time and actually liked the idea. Saved searching pockets every time you need the card.

Not for us. Just a leather wallet.

another Komodo idea that I wish we'd done. others reported great snorkeling with Viking and then were able to go to the island and see the Dragons the way that Jim suggested without the long hot walk (one elderly woman had to be taken out by stretcher...it was HOT)