LIVE from the Viking Sea - Sept. 16 Venice to Athens along the Adriatic Sea

[artbcpa]

I will continue to post detail information about our cruise, excursions, etc., but I believe we have experienced enough to give you our overall impressions of our cruise. Ellie and I discussed this at breakfast this morning.

 

Remember this is only our opinions and each person needs to consider what is important to them.

 

Ship layout and decor - A+

Room layout - A+

Overall service - A

Cruise Director - A+

Room Steward - A+

Wait Staff - A

Guest Services - A-

Overall food - A

Restaurant - A

World Cafe - A+

Manfredi's - A+

Pool Grill - A

Chef's Table - B- (not for us; see earlier review)

High tea - A

Overall Entertainment - A

Ship's singers & dancers - A+

Viking Band - A+

Resident Pianist - A+

Resident Guitarist - A

Viking Classical Duo - A

Lectures - B

Excursions - B (mixed)

Itinerary - B (we prefer a little longer cruise with some sea days mixed in)

Shops - B

Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle - A+

 

Things they might consider adding:

 

Ping pong table

Mah jongg sets

 

Added note: since there were no sea days on this itinerary, we could not evaluate how well this ship would handle the extra activities necessary

[FM]

Darn it artbcpa ... you're making it hard for us to decide on which cruise line to go on for our Anniv next year as Viking is one of our top 2 choices - LOL ...

[artbcpa]

We just finished having our last dinner and seeing our last show. Tomorrow we leave the ship and spend two days in Athens before heading home.

 

Food - As I previously wrote, we found the food to be outstanding. Our favorite restaurant for breakfast was the World Cafe. Our favorite restaurant for lunch was the Pool Grill. Our favorite restaurant for dinner was the Italian specialty restaurant, Manfredi's.

 

Entertainment - We loved the entertainment. The shows by the singers and dancers got better each night. The pianist was unbelievable and the cabarets and other entertainment were well worth watching.

 

Photos - I have posted a selection of my best photos with links on my flickr.com account. You can find the links throughout the thread. During the cruise I was also making collages of the ship, various ports and the entertainment. Today I made an overall collage of the entire trip using my ipad and their very interactive program. If you haven't used this program it is incredibly flexible and makes for great photos which you can put together in a matter of minutes. I gave copies of the entertainment photos to the entertainers.

 

We will be taking future cruises with Viking both river and ocean. We are even considering going on their world cruise in 2017-18. Our only concern is how they will fill the seas days as currently their focus seems to be more on itineraries that are port intensive.

 

We enjoyed our trip and hope this thread has been helpful. If you still have any questions, just let me know and I will do my best to respond.

[hypercafe]

Thanks for your trip log. We have a trip booked on the ocean ship. I did not know what to expect but your review has settled my doubts.

 

 

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[artbcpa]

Wow! Have to tell you as an independent cruiser, disembarkation in Athens was a breeze. We walked outside to our bags. No lines, but instead found lots of people willing to help us with our bags. If you wanted to handle them yourself, you could do that too as there was no pressure or requirement that you use them. He helped us to the curb where we were to meet our guide for the day.

 

Today we toured outside of Athens visiting Corinth, Mycenae and Nafpilon before heading to our hotel, the Athens Hilton. Tomorrow we will spend the day in Athens and Cape Sounio.

 

We were in Athens several years ago during one of their many strikes. We still loved it and have been looking forward to our return. However, we were surprised at the amount of deterioration as we drove through the city today. So many buildings boarded up and so much graffiti everywhere. We spoke at length with our driver about the economic situation in Greece. What a shame!

[Roz326]

Artbcpa - Wow! Lots of info to review and digest! We are currently contemplating this itinerary for March 2017 and have to present final payment by Noon, September 27th. I need to go back and read all your thoughts and check out your pictures but have a question about the excursions - How "demanding" is an excursion that's rated this way? I notice that 5 out of 7 of the included excursions are listed as "d/demanding". This could be the deal breaker for me personally. Thanks in advance. Hope to hear from you soon!

[Host Jazzbeau]

Artbcpa - I noticed your question about the World Cruise and what Viking would do to make Sea Days interesting. Did your itinerary have any Sea Days? [it seemed like you were off touring every single day!] I know that Viking bills themselves as port-intensive, but since they seem to have done so well with everything on these existing itineraries I guess we can hope they will also master the art of Sea Days. This does seem like a good ship for a World Cruise.

Edited September 26, 2016 by Host Jazzbeau

[artbcpa]

Artbcpa - Wow! Lots of info to review and digest! We are currently contemplating this itinerary for March 2017 and have to present final payment by Noon, September 27th. I need to go back and read all your thoughts and check out your pictures but have a question about the excursions - How "demanding" is an excursion that's rated this way? I notice that 5 out of 7 of the included excursions are listed as "d/demanding". This could be the deal breaker for me personally. Thanks in advance. Hope to hear from you soon!

 

Walking is hard in much of Europe. The streets are narrow, uneven, cobblestone. Some are much worse than others. We saw people who had difficulties trying to do Santorini. I would not suggest that.

 

Having said all that, any travel is better than no travel and there are ways to thoroughly enjoy this itinerary. I don't know your limitations, but Ellie and I are both close to 70. She had a hip replacement and I have had knee surgery and recently had some back problems. We made it work for us.

 

1. You don't have to go on every excursion.

 

2. You can ask the excursion guide to let you know when there will be difficult sections and if there is an alternative path you can take to meet up with the group.

 

3. You can book independent tours where you control the pace and the places they go. This is the one we often choose. Yes it cost more than free, but often it is no more expensive and sometimes even less than the optional tours on most every cruise line.

 

Hopefully you won't also have to fight the rain as we did in many of our cities. We still really enjoyed our cruise and believe that Viking is one of the better cruise lines out there.

[artbcpa]

Artbcpa - I noticed your question about the World Cruise and what Viking would do to make Sea Days interesting. Did your itinerary have any Sea Days? [it seemed like you were off touring every single day!] I know that Viking bills themselves as port-intensive, but since they seem to have done so well with everything on these existing itineraries I guess we can hope they will also master the art of Sea Days. This does seem like a good ship for a World Cruise.

 

We truly did love our Viking cruise and no, they did not have any sea days on this itinerary. As far as trusting that they can handle the multiple sea days involved in a world cruise, we would not be willing to do that. 141 days is very long time to be wrong. We know that certain people at Viking are fighting to add what we believe is necessary for us to feel comfortable on that long of a cruise. Having previously done a world cruise, we have a pretty good idea of the type of things we would like to see. We certainly don't expect them all and even know that some will not be included, but we will be watching to see what activities Viking adds. We may decide to wait until after they have done their first one before we make the plunge. In the meantime I am sure we will find other itineraries on Viking that work for us.

[mel13]

Artbcpa - Wow! Lots of info to review and digest! We are currently contemplating this itinerary for March 2017 and have to present final payment by Noon, September 27th. I need to go back and read all your thoughts and check out your pictures but have a question about the excursions - How "demanding" is an excursion that's rated this way? I notice that 5 out of 7 of the included excursions are listed as "d/demanding". This could be the deal breaker for me personally. Thanks in advance. Hope to hear from you soon!

 

 

We just returned from the Mediterranean Odyssey cruise on the Viking Sea. Here are my thoughts regarding "demanding"... I agree with the original poster that walking can be challenging in Europe but we found it doable. I believe that the term demanding sometimes involves the length of the excursion as well as the amount of stairs and walking. I wouldn't hesitate to book this cruise. The ship is spectacular. You won't regret it!

 

 

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[Roz326]

Thank you both, Art and Mel, for your quick responses! I appreciate your helpfulness. We now just have to get the time off approved and we will be sailing away in March!

[artbcpa]

We spent 2 extra days in Athens. We stayed at the Athens Hilton a hotel we have stayed in previously. It is one of the best hotels in the Hilton chain. We also would highly recommend the company we used for our private tours - Private Greece Tours (P.G.T. Tour Group). Our driver, Sakis, was outstanding. We mixed his recommendations with our timing to make for a totally perfect two days of seeing Athens and its outskirts.

 

I have posted a few of our photos from Athens:

 

Edited September 26, 2016 by artbcpa

[Roz326]

Well, as you can see by my countdown clock, all has been approved! So excited!!

[Saxon830]

Hi Roz:

I see we are on the same In the Wake of the Vikings, next Sept. See you there.

Noel & Marlene

[Roz326]

Noel & Marlene - We are excited about that cruise for sure! But just a few minutes ago I also booked on the Star for March! WoW! Lots of luxury travel in our future! Hope to get to know you better through our posts and meet you on board in 355 days!

[Rawmac]

On last month's cruise from Bergen to Athens on Viking Sea, we had seven sea days. The weather for the first three between Bergen and Lisbon was not too good and not conducive to being on deck. In the Mediterranean, the weather was too good to stay inside. We had port lectures, triple enrichment lectures, up-to-date films in the theatre, live music, bowls and putting, shuffleboard and a good trivia quiz each sea day by Mark at noon, which filled the Explorers' Lounge. This did not give us a packed schedule by any means, compared to the frantic programmes some other lines produce, and left us adequate time to eat, drink and snooze, or even break sweat in the torture room. Then there are the electronic games tables in the Atrium which were always well attended.

 

Perhaps Viking could throw in another quiz or two, or add some extra talks, but I got the impression that the passengers were not overly wanting more structured activity. Perhaps less is more. A lot of reading was done, and there are lots of quiet corners in which to read or daydream.

 

Viking do not staff their Entertainment team for hectic sea-day activity. They probably think that we are old enough to amuse ourselves, at least for some of the time. But, if you want hectic, you can make your own hectic.

 

Mercifully we are not deafened and awakened by frequent PA announcements in several languages, and the bar staff on deck are very discrete. Peace reigneth. Lovely. Until tomorrow, when we rush off to see some more interesting things and places ashore!

[larry1365]

We truly did love our Viking cruise and no, they did not have any sea days on this itinerary. As far as trusting that they can handle the multiple sea days involved in a world cruise, we would not be willing to do that. 141 days is very long time to be wrong. We know that certain people at Viking are fighting to add what we believe is necessary for us to feel comfortable on that long of a cruise. Having previously done a world cruise, we have a pretty good idea of the type of things we would like to see. We certainly don't expect them all and even know that some will not be included, but we will be watching to see what activities Viking adds. We may decide to wait until after they have done their first one before we make the plunge. In the meantime I am sure we will find other itineraries on Viking that work for us.

 

We have taken two Regent World Cruises (2007 and 2010) and loved them so much that we have signed on to the Viking Sun's 2018 120-day WC (starting from LA, not Fla., because we didn't want to be away for Christmas). Though Regent didn't have a lot of sea day "activities" -- we both enjoyed fine lectures, I played water volleyball and my wife participated in social bridge. I am confident that Viking will do a good job on the lectures and has enough relaxing areas to enjoy the sea days.

[artbcpa]

Thank you Larry and Rawmac. Your input is exactly what we have been looking for.

 

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[larry1365]

Just read thru all you posts and they increased my enthusiasm for Viking Ocean. Thanks. I have really enjoyed the looks of the ships that I have seen online. I expect the Sun to be very similar except for some artwork, rugs, etc.

[Roz326]

Art - do you by chance have any menus from the Star or dailies that you can share? Thanks much!

[artbcpa]

I do have all the Dailies, but i am not sure I know how to post them. I have tried posting photos before and all I get are these very tiny unreadable icons. When I tried uploading the dailies it wouldn't accept them.

 

Art

 

 

P.S. The menus are not included in the Dailies and I was on the Viking Sea.

Edited September 28, 2016 by artbcpa

[Roz326]

Art - I know just enough about computers and stuff to be dangerous (to myself!). Can you scan and save as a .pdf file? That may work. Otherwise, thanks anyway for trying. It will just be a surprise for us when we get on board!

[Peregrina651]

I do have all the Dailies, but i am not sure I know how to post them. I have tried posting photos before and all I get are these very tiny unreadable icons. When I tried uploading the dailies it wouldn't accept them.

 

Art

 

 

P.S. The menus are not included in the Dailies and I was on the Viking Sea.

 

Art, alternately, you could post stuff to your Flickr site and share the link.

 

The secret to posting full sized photos in a post (at least from a PC desktop) is to put the photos on a third party photo site (Flickr, Shutterfly, etc.) and then use the URL/Image Location and the icon in the CC composing window to insert the photos here.

[artbcpa]

Here is the link to Day 1 of the Daily. I tried to post it directly on the thread. All I got was a postage size icon. I am posting it both ways in case it just takes time for it to work correctly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2016 by artbcpa

[easyboy]

Here is the link to Day 1 of the Daily. I tried to post it directly on the thread. All I got was a postage size icon. I am posting it both ways in case it just takes time for it to work correctly.

 

 

 

Very nice photos. Thanks for sharing.