Viking Star menus

[LadyVol1]

I have a question about the menu at the Chef's Table. The food is supposed to be paired with special wines. Are they included in your wine with dinner or is there an upcharge for enjoying the paired wines?

 

The Chef's Table paired wines are included. However, the last two times we went, the paired wines printed on the menu were unavailable so normal house wines were poured. The first time we went and had the Asian Panorama menu, the printed pairings were poured. Our waiter told us that the wines for the last two menus hadn't yet been delivered to the ship.

[2012_Alaska_bound]

Thanks for your responses! We too are intrigued about the "secret tours"!

 

We have been doing some research and we are at least tentatively planning on doing our own thing in some of the ports. We found a "food tour" in Copenhagen that sounds wonderful! We did one in Budapest last summer and that was one of the highlights of our trip. We are also booking one of the roof top tours in Stockholm. There was one originally on the Viking Star itinerary but it has disappeared! We liked the idea enough that we found one through trip advisor and will be doing that when we get to Stockholm. We are also doing own thing in Bergen as they have sold out the Bergen City Tour with the Mt. Floien Walk. We are doing the Oslo Bergen Rail pre-extension so we will have the city tour and the funicular is easy enough to take up on our own and walking down is pretty much a "no brainer".

 

We will register for our excursions tomorrow and dining next week ... getting excited! Is it crazy that I have already started the preliminary packing?

 

Keep up the great posts! We are loving them!

 

My daughter and I took the Copenhagen Food Tour last summer. It was fantastic. It was my first Food Tour, but I've taken others since, but I think Copenhagen tops the list.

[DeeniEncinitas]

The Chef's Table paired wines are included. However, the last two times we went, the paired wines printed on the menu were unavailable so normal house wines were poured. The first time we went and had the Asian Panorama menu, the printed pairings were poured. Our waiter told us that the wines for the last two menus hadn't yet been delivered to the ship.

 

I do not buy that! That is very odd!! For what I am paying on our 2017 cruise I would expect the wines be as stated.

Denise😄

[dockhl]

I had steak and green beans for the second time :(

 

these menus look very good and quite varied....what was the reason for steak and green beans again ? (Esp with an unhappy face). Did I miss something?

[OBX Cruisers]

Is lunch available the first day we're on board? Tea? Which restaurant would you recommend for our dinner that night? We'd like to have a fairly early dinner and get off for Ice Bar in Stockholm that night.

Also, look like breakfast doesn't start serving until 7 a.m. In St. Petersburg, we will have a very early tour and will try to get off the ship as soon as it docks. Suggestions for breakfast on days like that? Is room service available as early at 6 a.m.? 6:30 a.m.?

Thanks!

[KyOh]

We aren't sailing until '16 but I'm concerned about the two days in St. Petersburg since we plan to do a private two day tour that will require embarking as soon as possible.

[Traveler103]

As the Star's first visit to St Petersburg is on 5/26/15, I'm sure these issues will be adjusted based on experience. Perhaps an earlier breakfast? We are also on two days of a private tour on 6/2/15 and have the same issue. Ours will be the Star's second visit there. Will post details.

[roothy123]

There's always room service (probably best to use the hang tag the night before). Also, Mamsens and the Viking Living Room have nibbles for breakfast, from what I've read. I've been chastised for speculating, but I'll do it again anyway: I bet Viking will open things a little earlier than normal in St. P, since many people will be leaving the ship early. I've noticed they adjust the World Cafe hours a bit based on when the ship is in port. As Traveler103 says, it won't be too long until more info is available!

[Traveler103]

When we sailed on the Viking Rurik to St Petersburg (river cruise from Moscow), we usually ate in the forward lounge at breakfast. Continental plus meat, cheese, bread, fruit, yogurt, and Bircher muesli. And no crowds. Same on the Delling. Fast service.

[LadyVol1]

Is lunch available the first day we're on board? Tea? Which restaurant would you recommend for our dinner that night? We'd like to have a fairly early dinner and get off for Ice Bar in Stockholm that night.

Also, look like breakfast doesn't start serving until 7 a.m. In St. Petersburg, we will have a very early tour and will try to get off the ship as soon as it docks. Suggestions for breakfast on days like that? Is room service available as early at 6 a.m.? 6:30 a.m.?

Thanks!

 

On the turnaround days we've had so far, lunch has been served in World Cafe until 3 PM and the Pool Grill (burgers, hot dogs, vegetarian burger, fish sandwich) is open until 5:30 PM. For a quick dinner, I suggest you eat at World Cafe (buffet) which opens at 6 PM. Otherwise, The Restaurant (the main dining room) opens at 6:30 PM.

 

Afternoon Tea (4-5 in Winter Garden) was not available on April 20 (Venice) and May 2 (Barcelona) which were the days passengers came on.

 

Regarding all the questions about St. Petersburg breakfast, I'm sure they will get it figured out on May 22 when we dock in Warnemünde, Germany at 6 AM since there are tours to Berlin that leave at 6:30 (and possibly earlier). So far, the earliest breakfast starts at 6:30 in Viking Living Room, Mamsen's and sometimes World Cafe.

 

The printed hang-tags that you put out the night before for breakfast officially have the first requested delivery time as 7-7:15 AM. I don't know what happens if you write in an earlier time but the two times we have used them, our breakfast was delivered at the earlier of the two times listed.

[southsusie]

Leo, thank you so much for the menus!!! I'm so excited about this cruise already and I won't be leaving until March 2016. This is my first ocean cruise and I'll be returning from it on this day (5-15) in exactly one year. Yes, I'm doing the 50 day extravaganza and I already know I'm going to love it!

Thanks so much to everyone posting pics and experiences....good and bad!

[Advisorj]

Any new ones? Should be on number 4 or 5 by now.

[algaes]

I'm frustrated as heck with Viking Star's internet, which was wide open and wonderful until about seven days ago. Without any explanation the ability to upload has disappeared. I have the 4th Chef's Table menu scanned and I believe the 5th should be out tomorrow. If I have to I'll go to Starbuck's in Stavanger as it appears all the tours have been cancelled and a farm visit substituted instead. Another mystery.

[LadyVol1]

I think the Stavanger farm tour is a "bonus" tour in addition to the walking tour. I reconfirmed all of our excursions today at 2:30 and the included Stavanger walking tour was still booked for 2:00 for us. So, I think the farm tour is a "bonus" that might not be offered to everyone on the ship. Maybe it's just for suite guests or 50-day folks - we fit both categories. I'm not sure of the criteria of passengers that were invited to the farm tour but I'm 99% sure not all passengers know about it/were invited.

[Azulann]

I'm frustrated as heck with Viking Star's internet, which was wide open and wonderful until about seven days ago. Without any explanation the ability to upload has disappeared. I have the 4th Chef's Table menu scanned and I believe the 5th should be out tomorrow. If I have to I'll go to Starbuck's in Stavanger as it appears all the tours have been cancelled and a farm visit substituted instead. Another mystery.

 

Have you run into Aaron Saunders, he had to delay his live blogging since May 13 due to internet difficulties on the ship? He said he will report from land based internet, in Bergen for the big day May 17. He has a site called "from the deck chair"

 

Another blogger Ralph Grizzle was on board in Barcelona. He has interviews and tour with the owner. Interesting history of the owner of Viking. Was the owner on the ship since Barcelona?

Mr Grizzle has a site called Avid Cruiser.

BTW I love your reporting your experiences from the Viking Star.:)

You are all living a Viking Saga as another poster said.

Edited May 16, 2015 by Azulann

[id4elizabeth]

Hi LadyVol - do you know what time the farm tour ends? We have a tour to Pulpit Rock and I want to make sure I make that.

 

I tried calling you back this afternoon, but your line was busy. When your phone is working again, give me a call...We're just hanging out tomorrow. Although I did hear the parade is at 10:00 am, in the "center of town" but not sure where that is. Are you planning on going to that?

[id4elizabeth]

Kinda weird to think that we need to communicate with each other over CruiseCritic since the room-to-room phones don't work, isn't it. But maybe that's our expectation of perfection showing through....day 34 isn't it?

[LadyVol1]

Elizabeth - I don't know when the Stavanger farm tour ends.

 

The parade is supposed to start at 10AM at Bergen Fortress per the 2 hours of research I did today, including using the slow Internet and talking to the port "TSA" people to have them help me translate since no one on the ship knew anything about the various Bergen-sponsored events on Constitution Day. The parade might go on the street in front of the terminal or maybe it starts a little closer to town and/or on a street one block farther away from the water. But it will be close to the ship.

 

And it was YOUR phone that has problems! After our conversation was dropped I called you back and I kept getting Room Service. I then used a house phone and the same thing happened. Then I went to Explorers' Desk and had them call and they also got Room Service at which point Michael, Systems Manager, was informed of the problem. Truly unbelievable. I can't even make this stuff up!

 

Email me if you want. Janet at Haskett dot org

[algaes]

I was asking about Stavanger as our excursion tickets were missing from the packet placed in the room today. I jumped to a possible wrong conclusion. Someone at dinner pointed out one of the routine US customs questions is whether you visited a farm while outside the country. Do you think all the US passengers who jump on the new tour know that?

 

We're also missing one ticket from Helsinki and both tickets from Day 1 in Stockholm.

 

Issuing of excursion tickets on the first three segments/cruises was flawless for us.

[LadyVol1]

And, yes, I'm going to the parade unless it's really miserable outside. Phil isn't going.

[algaes]

Elizabeth, do you charge for a soft drink for a room service meal served during lunch or dinner hours? If not, we would like a cheese plate or do we have to say "Fromagerie" like we do with Viking room service who after 35 days still have language problems with phone orders.

 

Each evening I find it very amusing that this little loophole exists in Star's internet service that allows fairly usable access to Cruise Critic of all websites to be working well.

Edited May 16, 2015 by algaes

[LadyVol1]

We don't have our tour tickets yet for this segment. The reason I had to re-confirm them is because few of our tours were booked for the correct times that I reserved online in February even though I had the email confirmation from Viking to prove what I booked.

 

On April 12 I asked for a complete list of what the onboard system was showing for our tours (I sure couldn't check it via the cabin TV!) and that's when I realized a lot of them were for the wrong times. I only booked the included tours and I had the impression that some of the times were overbooked so Viking just randomly put people in whatever time slots needed to be filled. Viking also changed the start times of some of the tours. Therefore, most of our assigned tour times didn't match what I picked in February. The onboard system is limited, though, since I was only able to make changes during each segment for that segment's tours which meant I had to visit Shore Ex on each turnaround day rather than just getting it all straightened out on April 12. Grrrr.

[LadyVol1]

Oh yeah. And after reconfirming what I booked in February, we have yet to get a correct (or even complete) set of segment tour tickets.

 

Fromagerie - Too funny, but you are right Leo. You can't ask room service for the cheese plate. You must say fromagerie (and my French accent stinks). Elizabeth probably can't serve us bottled water either...

 

Good night, everybody!!

[algaes]

Attached are Menu 4 Sweet & Salty and Menu 5 A Gastronomic Journey Through Time. See other postings for first three. Sorry it took so long for this. Uploads on Viking Star have been impossible for eleven days.

 

Again, served for 9 consecutive days and meant to be food and wine pairings without substitutions. Dining companion on tour to Paris said some changes were done for him to accommodate food allergies.

 

I can confirm they are not pouring the specified wines in many cases. I don't drink alcohol so I'm less distracted by the pouring ritual. I noticed they were not showcasing the label in every instance and I recognized several to be the "house" wine they pour for free at lunch and dinner throughout the ship.

 

The wine served with the second course of Menu 5 is from Brise Marine. That is the house wine brand Viking must have bought by the cargo container load.

Chefs Table Menu 4.pdf

Chefs Table Menu 5.pdf

[Advisorj]

Leo, enjoy the rest of your cruise. Hope the Baltic weather improves.