Viking Star West Indies Explorer 12/17/2016

I’ve been struggling with this review for more than a week, even though we haven’t been home for a week yet. There are many facets to the Viking West Indies Explorer 12/17/2016 and they don’t meld well into a coherent picture for me.

Easy stuff first. The ship at just under 50,000 tons is a good size; large enough that I didn’t feel cramped and small enough to feel intimate. Airport transfer, embarkation, and de-embarkation worked perfectly. The “clean” décor of the ship suited me and the use of wood grain ceramic tile was a nice touch. The clean décor carried over to the cabins producing a pleasant and functional space. The bathroom floor is heated….. I love it. The shower is tile and glass; it is the best shower I have used on any ship. Explorer’s Lounge was perfect, an oasis where you could get food and drink at almost any time of day in a beautiful setting. This was the only space large enough for trivia contests and it was full for those event; best trivia and best attended trivia we have experienced. Around the Atrium were a number of tables equipped with Scrabble, chess or backgammon boards. The Sports Deck didn’t really have sports but it did have shuttle board, bocce, simple exercise machines, and a “putting green” which given the age of the passengers probably prevented a number of injuries while encouraging people to get outside. We found the other voyagers to be well educated, well-traveled and interesting people both at shared dining tables and in casual conversations around the ship.

Less easy. The food in both the main dining room and the optional venues is excellent. In the main dining room there are offerings that change daily and some staples that are constant. Manfredi’s Italian themed restaurant has a standard menu that did not change over our 10 days but was large and varied enough that multiple visits will not disappoint. The Chef’s Table is not like Chef’s Table on other ships; it is more like a “themed” fixed menu dining room than a social food and wine experience. The menu changes every three days, includes 3-5 “courses” (depending on how you count courses) with wine pairings (optional “premium” pairings are available). Taken for what it is and not compared to other Chef’s Tables it is a very nice, no additional cost alternative to the main dining room. This becomes less easy because of the wines, even the “premium” wine pairings in the Chef’s Table are, at best, innocuous. The wines that are poured with lunch and dinner are simply cheap European (Spanish, French and Italian) mass market wines; they do not intrude on the food but they add nothing to the meal aside from alcohol. There are “premium” wines by the glass, the one I tried (valpolicella ripasso) was certainly a step above the daily offering but there were only 8 “by the glass” options. The big wine list is excellent as long as you want French, Italian or Spanish wines; there were four wines from California, two whites (no chardonnay, thank you) and two reds none of which I would serve to guests. Australia received no more recognition than California. So food is good wherever you go but if you like wine you are going to have to buy a bottle, unless you like US or Australian wines and then you’re out of luck unless you bring your own. There was no wine list accessible in your cabin for room service.

Continuing Less easy. The entertainment offerings were not exciting. The routine music program included: a classical trio, a pianist, a solo guitarist, and a “dance band”. Of these four only the dance band went beyond being live background music. Unfortunately the lounge with a dance floor had a dance floor that was routinely too small for the number of dancers – maybe 5m x 5m; I consider the number of dancers a tribute to the band. The same band, Oaseas, was the band for the deck parties and they did a fine job with people dancing on at least two decks. We were unimpressed with the production shows; Ratpack and ABBA, in part due to the talent but mostly because of the choice of music. There’s no casino – a good thing because the smell of stale tobacco smoke doesn’t permeate the ship – but that also takes away an entertainment option. Yes, there are movies in the theater and on deck but if you are looking for live, active entertainment you will have a hard time finding it. My wife complained about the limited TV options; I agree they are limited but I wasn’t there to watch TV. She also complained about the slowness of the internet connection, the speed test timed out before it could complete which proved her point.

Equally less easy: Ship tours were a weak point; included tours were a waste of our time and everyone’s money, some optional tours “changed” after booking, and some tours went as advertised and were very enjoyable. The included tour on Guadeloupe was changed and did not include one of the two islands that were on the agenda; this might have been the result of having multiple large ships in port but it resulted in spending our morning on a bus without much to see. The St. Maarten included excursion was similar. Personally I would be happier with not having these included tours and seeing a reduction in my fare (10 days x $50/tour = a couple of nice bottles of wine). The optional tours ranged from OK (e.g. El Junque Rain Forest) to excellent (Antigua by Land and Sea).

Still less easy: The service on board was extremely variable. Our cabin attendant could not coordinate stocking our fridge with beverages we wanted – he couldn’t/wouldn’t swap diet coke for coke or gin for bourbon – and effective refused to provide the daily bottle of wine that Viking assures us we were entitled to (PH2 category). Yet the room was cleaned quickly and completely and the shoe shine service was excellent (but you had to know the secret of how to get it – that’s what the basket in the closet is for). The head waiters in the specialty restaurants were extremely helpful and accommodating. Service in all of the dining venues was excellent, the wait staff was attentive, not rushed and aside from some confusion about a bottle of wine everything was perfect. I asked the sommelier for a taste of one of the wine by the glass after consuming a $200 bottle of wine and rather than complying she told me I should wait until the next day because my palate was compromised; at my age I think I know my palate better than she does. When a table was knocked over, drinks spilled and glasses broken in Torshaven we could not get a staff member to deal with the mess. Service was a very mixed bag.

Overall I am conflicted. I enjoyed to cruise. I enjoyed the ship. I will consider sailing on Viking again, especially for unique itineraries, but I think there are better options for voyages to commonly visited ports.

Were all of the included tours "a waste of time?" We are on the 5 Feb 2017 cruise and have booked a mix of paid and included excursions.

Turbobob - very well articulated! Thank you for sharing.

It sounds like your mini-bar/steward service should and could have been better. I am honestly pretty surprised and I hope that you have voiced this to Viking since your return. Our experience, and most from what I have read, has been great if not excellent, so please let Viking know.

I concur with your wine review....we were able to bring wines on board in past itineraries, so it did not impact us so much - however our upcoming trip will not be conducive to doing that, so I am disappointed to hear that even Silver Spirits does not really offer up wines that are a nice step up. We enjoy good wine - not just from our Sonoma Valley, but international wines as well.....particularly when we travel. We view that as a time to experience wines from afar.

We are more independent travelers so excursions are not key to us....more likely we DIY, or private tour....or take ship transportation to a destination and then DIY. Antigua will be one of our ports on the Amazon cruise so I have made note of your positive review. Thank you.

I believe that it is important to provide positive as well as constructive reviews....particularly when Viking listens to these boards. So thank you for taking the time to share.

I can't comment on tours we did not take but based on our sampling of (roughly) 20% of the included tours 100% of them were not to our liking, and what I like does not apply to everyone. We enjoy excursions where there are things to do as well as things to see. Both my wife and I agree that there are costs associated with the included tours that everyone pays as part of the trip and we would rather have these excursions offered as options for those who enjoy that format and not have everyone subsidize them.

Viking does listen, I had a long talk with them expressing both our frustrations and the wonderful aspects of our experience. We will probably try one of their "unique" itineraries having adjusted our expectations and our approach to the details of the voyage/

Hi Bob,

Thank you so much for your review. It's very helpful. I noticed you mentioned asking to have your mini-bar stocked with bourbon, so I'm hoping you will be able to help me with a very specific question. Do you recall what kind(s) of bourbon were available onboard? My husband is an Old-Fashioned guy, but so far I have only specifically seen Maker's Mark mentioned and that is definitely not his favorite.

Thanks again!

I’ve been struggling with this review for more than a week, even though we haven’t been home for a week yet. There are many facets to the Viking West Indies Explorer 12/17/2016 and they don’t meld well into a coherent picture for me.

 

Easy stuff first. The ship at just under 50,000 tons is a good size; large enough that I didn’t feel cramped and small enough to feel intimate. Airport transfer, embarkation, and de-embarkation worked perfectly. The “clean” décor of the ship suited me and the use of wood grain ceramic tile was a nice touch. The clean décor carried over to the cabins producing a pleasant and functional space. The bathroom floor is heated….. I love it. The shower is tile and glass; it is the best shower I have used on any ship. Explorer’s Lounge was perfect, an oasis where you could get food and drink at almost any time of day in a beautiful setting. This was the only space large enough for trivia contests and it was full for those event; best trivia and best attended trivia we have experienced. Around the Atrium were a number of tables equipped with Scrabble, chess or backgammon boards. The Sports Deck didn’t really have sports but it did have shuttle board, bocce, simple exercise machines, and a “putting green” which given the age of the passengers probably prevented a number of injuries while encouraging people to get outside. We found the other voyagers to be well educated, well-traveled and interesting people both at shared dining tables and in casual conversations around the ship.

 

Less easy. The food in both the main dining room and the optional venues is excellent. In the main dining room there are offerings that change daily and some staples that are constant. Manfredi’s Italian themed restaurant has a standard menu that did not change over our 10 days but was large and varied enough that multiple visits will not disappoint. The Chef’s Table is not like Chef’s Table on other ships; it is more like a “themed” fixed menu dining room than a social food and wine experience. The menu changes every three days, includes 3-5 “courses” (depending on how you count courses) with wine pairings (optional “premium” pairings are available). Taken for what it is and not compared to other Chef’s Tables it is a very nice, no additional cost alternative to the main dining room. This becomes less easy because of the wines, even the “premium” wine pairings in the Chef’s Table are, at best, innocuous. The wines that are poured with lunch and dinner are simply cheap European (Spanish, French and Italian) mass market wines; they do not intrude on the food but they add nothing to the meal aside from alcohol. There are “premium” wines by the glass, the one I tried (valpolicella ripasso) was certainly a step above the daily offering but there were only 8 “by the glass” options. The big wine list is excellent as long as you want French, Italian or Spanish wines; there were four wines from California, two whites (no chardonnay, thank you) and two reds none of which I would serve to guests. Australia received no more recognition than California. So food is good wherever you go but if you like wine you are going to have to buy a bottle, unless you like US or Australian wines and then you’re out of luck unless you bring your own. There was no wine list accessible in your cabin for room service.

 

Continuing Less easy. The entertainment offerings were not exciting. The routine music program included: a classical trio, a pianist, a solo guitarist, and a “dance band”. Of these four only the dance band went beyond being live background music. Unfortunately the lounge with a dance floor had a dance floor that was routinely too small for the number of dancers – maybe 5m x 5m; I consider the number of dancers a tribute to the band. The same band, Oaseas, was the band for the deck parties and they did a fine job with people dancing on at least two decks. We were unimpressed with the production shows; Ratpack and ABBA, in part due to the talent but mostly because of the choice of music. There’s no casino – a good thing because the smell of stale tobacco smoke doesn’t permeate the ship – but that also takes away an entertainment option. Yes, there are movies in the theater and on deck but if you are looking for live, active entertainment you will have a hard time finding it. My wife complained about the limited TV options; I agree they are limited but I wasn’t there to watch TV. She also complained about the slowness of the internet connection, the speed test timed out before it could complete which proved her point.

 

Equally less easy: Ship tours were a weak point; included tours were a waste of our time and everyone’s money, some optional tours “changed” after booking, and some tours went as advertised and were very enjoyable. The included tour on Guadeloupe was changed and did not include one of the two islands that were on the agenda; this might have been the result of having multiple large ships in port but it resulted in spending our morning on a bus without much to see. The St. Maarten included excursion was similar. Personally I would be happier with not having these included tours and seeing a reduction in my fare (10 days x $50/tour = a couple of nice bottles of wine). The optional tours ranged from OK (e.g. El Junque Rain Forest) to excellent (Antigua by Land and Sea).

 

Still less easy: The service on board was extremely variable. Our cabin attendant could not coordinate stocking our fridge with beverages we wanted – he couldn’t/wouldn’t swap diet coke for coke or gin for bourbon – and effective refused to provide the daily bottle of wine that Viking assures us we were entitled to (PH2 category). Yet the room was cleaned quickly and completely and the shoe shine service was excellent (but you had to know the secret of how to get it – that’s what the basket in the closet is for). The head waiters in the specialty restaurants were extremely helpful and accommodating. Service in all of the dining venues was excellent, the wait staff was attentive, not rushed and aside from some confusion about a bottle of wine everything was perfect. I asked the sommelier for a taste of one of the wine by the glass after consuming a $200 bottle of wine and rather than complying she told me I should wait until the next day because my palate was compromised; at my age I think I know my palate better than she does. When a table was knocked over, drinks spilled and glasses broken in Torshaven we could not get a staff member to deal with the mess. Service was a very mixed bag.

 

Overall I am conflicted. I enjoyed to cruise. I enjoyed the ship. I will consider sailing on Viking again, especially for unique itineraries, but I think there are better options for voyages to commonly visited ports.

Sorry Sonoandrea, I mentioned it only because my wife drinks Jack Daniels with Coke not because either of us know anything about bourbon. She did get her Jack and Coke from bars on the ship, just not in the cabin.