advice please on Viking, and their 14 day italian sojourn itinerary

[Lozzenge]

Never cruised before, but my wife has directed me to Viking's 14 days cruise from Barcelona. Just looking please for advice on Viking(they seem to do very well on reviews), which cabin might be preferred on the Viking Sea, and any other useful information this community can offer.

Also, I have only been speaking to Viking directly, in UK, but can I book, for instance, through a USA website? thanks in advance

[Host Kat]

8 hours ago, Lozzenge said:

Never cruised before, but my wife has directed me to Viking's 14 days cruise from Barcelona. Just looking please for advice on Viking(they seem to do very well on reviews), which cabin might be preferred on the Viking Sea, and any other useful information this community can offer.

Also, I have only been speaking to Viking directly, in UK, but can I book, for instance, through a USA website? thanks in advance

 

@Lozzenge

 

Howdy and welcome to Cruise Critic!  

 

Thank you for your new thread on the Ask a Cruise Question forum that is for general questions about cruising. 👍 

 

Since your thread concerns a specific cruise line, I have moved your thread to the Viking Ocean forum. The majority of your fellow Cruise Critic members that have sailed Viking frequent the forum and provide feedback there. Please browse through the thread titles on the new forum looking for threads of interest. You will probably find your fellow Cruise Critic members have already posted questions and received answers that will be of interest to you.  

 

The following Cruise Critic articles might be helpful:

Finding a UK Cruise Deal

U.K. Passengera Paying the Price to Cruise (One of the older archived articles)

Findi ng a Cruise Travel Agent

 

Also, there is a recent thread Questions re booking with a US travel agency on the UK Cruisers forum that may be helpful too.

 

I sincerely hope this will be satisfactory and glad to have a new member aboard Cruise Critic!

 

Happy sails,

 

Host Kat

[Peregrina651]

Thanks, @Host Kat

 

Welcome, Lozzenge

 

Sounds like you need to spend some time on the Viking website checking out the ships (they are all laid out the same) , their layouts and the 360° tour (scroll down to find it); then come back here and tell us which cabin categories you are interested in. Without some idea of your budget, it is hard to give you advice, other than very generally. While you are on the Viking website, read these items; there are links to each of them at the bottom of every page. Just make sure you are reading under the Viking Oceans tab and not Rivers or Expeditions-- and are on the UK site:

 

• the FAQ
• the Booking Terms and Conditions -- they are different for the UK, so make sure you are on the UK site
• the Passenger Ticket Contract

Read this all and you should get a pretty good introduction to the world of Viking cruising.

 

There is no advantage to book on the US site. You want to book in the UK because UK booking terms conform with UK commercial laws and pricing includes flights and gratuities (which US pricing does not). US agents know nothing about the UK market and cannot handle your flights.

 

As far as itinerary, your wife has chosen wisely. I am sure she will be equally as wise in choosing a cabin. The truth of the matter is that there are very few bad cabins on board. All of the cabins have verandas; there are no inside cabins. It does not matter what category you choose; there are no restricted access areas on the ship and all guests are treated as if they are traveling in the Owner's Suite -- with care and respect. There are no butlers on board (as one member described it, the stewards take care of the room; butlers take care of you). One thing to note, however, is that Suites get to book shore excursions before Jr. Suites who get to book before Penthouse Verandas who get to book before Deluxe Verandas who get to book before Verandas. The descriptions of the cabins describe the perks that come with each category. 

 

 

[sugarside]

As a fellow Brit,even though from south of the border😀,I can throughly recommend the service you will get from Viking on their phone lines out of London.I have always been given a designated agent if I needed anything extra after booking,this being the same person who you have made the booking with.I have never experienced any problems anywhere down the line.

Having met a group of their London staff on a river cruise last year I can testify to them being very pleasant ,sociable people with a real interest in travel.

One tip,if you are enjoying your cruise and might consider cruising with Viking again then book whilst on board .We did that last year and got a great deal plus on board spend for the cruise we were on,meaning we were left with a bill for only£9.00 on leaving the ship.All drinks accounted for and a wonderful authentic St Petersburg Russian doll which we could never have afforded otherwise to take home.

Welcome to Viking .Not too many of us from the UK on this site but we are a very select bunch and always ready to help.

[Southseabubble]

I can echo sugarside’s comments. 

 

You can can book a cruise through any uk travel agent if you want to, I managed to get a slightly enhanced deal by booking though one of the major cruise  agents. 

I have found that if you book your flights direct rather than use Viking air, you can also get a better deal, so long as you know your way round the likes of Ryan Air and Easy Jet.  I understand that overall prices are very similar between US and UK. In the UK they tend to include gratuities (maybe because we don’t have a great tipping culture unlike ourUS friends) and UK payment terms are much more generous.

 

We are not great cruisers, but to show how much we enjoyed our first we have booked again for this summer.

 

 

[JER/MPR]

We found YouTube to be an excellent site to get ship and cabin tours.  We took our first Viking Ocean cruise in December and loved it.  Agree with booking on board for your next cruise for great deals.