Viking Owners Suite

[TeamBAlways]

Has anyone stayed in an Owners Suite?  We are planning our trip May 2021. My wonderful husband has booked us on a Viking Homelands trip.  I am not really able to find anything from someone who has actually stayed in one. I have questions regarding cocktail hour, private dinners etc

[Dauntless]

I know someone that got an upgrade to the Owners Suite on his first cruise.  It happened a little before the cruise so I'm not sure how much planning they did.  There a party included with the suite.

[TeamBAlways]

3 minutes ago, Dauntless said:

I know someone that got an upgrade to the Owners Suite on his first cruise.  It happened a little before the cruise so I'm not sure how much planning they did.  There a party included with the suite.

 

Hi Dauntless,

Wow what a lucky guy! I see on the website where we can have a private dinner party in the boardroom or dining room and access to the wine collection.  We wont know anyone else on the cruise but I am curious.  I have so many questions:

1. Will Viking provide OJ in our mini bar?

2. Can we take wine from the cabin to dinner?

3. Do we need to have the Silver Spirits package to access the wine and in room cocktail hour?

4. Is the glass in the sauna one way?

5. Can the explorers lounge see into the boardroom through the fireplace?

 

I was so excited to be on our first Viking cruise (his first cruise period)  and now this over the top cabin.  I may be having a little anxiety lol

[Dauntless]

11 minutes ago, TeamBAlways said:

 

Hi Dauntless,

Wow what a lucky guy! I see on the website where we can have a private dinner party in the boardroom or dining room and access to the wine collection.  We wont know anyone else on the cruise but I am curious.  I have so many questions:

1. Will Viking provide OJ in our mini bar?

2. Can we take wine from the cabin to dinner?

3. Do we need to have the Silver Spirits package to access the wine and in room cocktail hour?

4. Is the glass in the sauna one way?

5. Can the explorers lounge see into the boardroom through the fireplace?

 

I was so excited to be on our first Viking cruise (his first cruise period)  and now this over the top cabin.  I may be having a little anxiety lol

 

You're going on the same cruise I did as my first cruise(ever).   This was not my experience so maybe Flashfearless can give you some info.  Look up his posts.  He even posted some pictures from the party.  You can take your drinks anywhere you want to on the ship and if you buy some on the cruise you can bring it on the ship.Not sure, but I think the boardroom in OS is at the opposite side from Explorer's Lounge.  I doubt you can as I'm sure you wouldn't want people to be able to see you from there.  You may not know anyone on the cruise now but by the time you sail you will probably have contacts.  We didn't either but got a group of 14 together for the St. Petersburg port with Alla.(

[TeamBAlways]

52 minutes ago, Dauntless said:

 

You're going on the same cruise I did as my first cruise(ever).   This was not my experience so maybe Flashfearless can give you some info.  Look up his posts.  He even posted some pictures from the party.  You can take your drinks anywhere you want to on the ship and if you buy some on the cruise you can bring it on the ship.Not sure, but I think the boardroom in OS is at the opposite side from Explorer's Lounge.  I doubt you can as I'm sure you wouldn't want people to be able to see you from there.  You may not know anyone on the cruise now but by the time you sail you will probably have contacts.  We didn't either but got a group of 14 together for the St. Petersburg port with Alla.(

thank you so much for the pointers. i truly appreciate it

[Dauntless]

4 minutes ago, TeamBAlways said:

thank you so much for the pointers. i truly appreciate it

 

 I lived in Atlanta in the 70's.  Right on Piedmont, across from the park.   Such a great cruise.  We went early to Stockholm and stayed a few days in Bergen.  So much to research to fully know what you're seeing.  Had always wanted to go to Norway since elementary school but seeing the other ports really opened up so much for me.  Never thought i would like cruising.  Not far from the Gulf and so many people go to the Caribbean so beach was never a draw.  I was just closing myself off to experiences I had never imagined.  Made one more cruise since then with Viking.  I think you'll like it.  When I was speaking with a lady in the Explorer's Lounge about the experience, she said, "I think you started at the top".  Indeed, for my way of thinking, I did.

[Cienfuegos]

In answer to question 5, the fireplace in Madsen's / Explorer Lounge does not offer a view into the owner's suite sauna.

 

At least it has not on our two Viking Ocean cruises.  We were on the Lounge side...

[_alan_]

I heard that I was being paged to this topic about the owner's suite.  What can I tell you about it.  It was opulent and wonderful all at the same time.

 

Me and my wife are not the type of people who expect a lot of attention.  But eventually you grow into the attention it offers.  Here are some of the benefits, except for the room amenities:

 

• unlimited reservation dining.  As a matter of fact, they go so far as to reserve you the same primo table every time you make a reservation.  Which TBH we didn't like the table because most nights that you are dining at night, the ship is moving, so it's kind of a weird vantage point
• free cocktail hour in your room every night.  Your steward will ask what cocktails can she bring to your room on a daily basis.  Or whatever you want to order, they will bring it to you.  If it's served in your room, it is free and you don't need a drink plan.
• Fully stocked wine closet.  We are not wine drinkers, so it was lost on us.
• Free tour of the bridge.  My wife, being an environmental and chemical engineer asked if she could see the water process instead, but we were denied access to the water supply area due to security concerns.  However, we did get a tour in the basement of the ship in the engineering area where they monitor things.  She loved that
• Featured drink at the CC meet and greet.  My wife was responsible for them serving lemon drop martinis at the occasion.
• Free custom excursion.  Warning on this one.  Once you go on a custom excursion with a limo driver picking you up at the port, you won't want to go back.  In fact, we paid for 2 additional ones.
• Private party in your room.  I think that they typically have a fixed menu on this, but my wife managed to get the chef she took a shine to to make us tapas from his home country in our room.  Of course the best benefit of this is the ability to make new friends on board who think you're a hot shot when you're not.  LOL.  
• One free spa treatment?  Not 100% sure on this one.  
• You get to know everyone on board as they all know who is in the owner's suite.  Towards the end of the cruise, my wife got accustomed to the attention and throwing her weight around a little.  One memorable night with Moe and Joe had us dropping in on the Italian Maitre D without a reservation (in all fairness we had called for room service and got no answers twice) and he managed to squeeze us in, albeit not at our usual table.  Rolleyes.  They were appalled we got no one to pick up on room service, from the owner's suite no less.  

 

A few cautions about the owner's suite and what I would do differently:

 

• Having that amount of space can transform you into a homebody at night if you let it.  In hindsight, we should have gotten out more at night.  Luckily our new friends occupied us some nights.
• Be careful what you wish for.  When asked about our cocktail of choice, when I inquired about their bourbons, I discovered they had no Woodford Reserve.  By the third night there was a bottle of Woodford in our state room.  We didn't ask for it, just mentioned it out loud.    Same thing happened again when my wife went on and on about the Limoncello we had returning to ship one afternoon.  Boom, bottle of Limoncello in the room.
• Post Cruise Blues - this hit me hard.  After all that attention for 2 weeks, you have to go back to reality.  We fell in love with our crew and I didn't want to depart.  

I will post some pictures that show the stateroom party.

 

[_alan_]

Some pictures from our in room party.  

[_alan_]

On 8/26/2020 at 8:37 PM, Cienfuegos said:

In answer to question 5, the fireplace in Madsen's / Explorer Lounge does not offer a view into the owner's suite sauna.

 

At least it has not on our two Viking Ocean cruises.  We were on the Lounge side...

 

The view would be available into the owner's suite conference room but only if the owner suite side opened the curtain up.  

[_alan_]

1. Will Viking provide OJ in our mini bar?

there will be a college dorm sized fridge.  Actually, smaller than the mini bar in most cabins.  But you can get whatever you want at the explorer's lounge

2. Can we take wine from the cabin to dinner?

I'm not sure.  Never tried that

3. Do we need to have the Silver Spirits package to access the wine and in room cocktail hour?

No.  We didn't have a drink package, but not big drinkers.  Order from the room and drinks are free

4. Is the glass in the sauna one way?

No.   People outside the boat could see in.   I only used it when out at sea.  

5. Can the explorers lounge see into the boardroom through the fireplace?

No, not unless you want them to.  And they're only going to see from knee down in the boardroom.  

[TeamBAlways]

11 hours ago, flashfearless said:

1. Will Viking provide OJ in our mini bar?

there will be a college dorm sized fridge.  Actually, smaller than the mini bar in most cabins.  But you can get whatever you want at the explorer's lounge

2. Can we take wine from the cabin to dinner?

I'm not sure.  Never tried that

3. Do we need to have the Silver Spirits package to access the wine and in room cocktail hour?

No.  We didn't have a drink package, but not big drinkers.  Order from the room and drinks are free

4. Is the glass in the sauna one way?

No.   People outside the boat could see in.   I only used it when out at sea.  

5. Can the explorers lounge see into the boardroom through the fireplace?

No, not unless you want them to.  And they're only going to see from knee down in the boardroom.  

Wow! Thank you so much.  You even answered questions I did not know I had. 

 

Where did you take you private tours? If I may ask, what was the out of pocket on the extra two? 

[deec]

I hope we cruise with you one day and you are in the Owner's Suite again and I can be your friend.  Interesting I have never known who is in the suite on the cruises I have been on....unless it was the OWNER, or his daughter!  Once there was an English TV hostess who was filming from the ship for show about cruise ships, her name was Jane.

[Peregrina651]

14 hours ago, flashfearless said:

2. Can we take wine from the cabin to dinner?

 

YES!!!! Bring the whole bottle. There is no corkage fee for whatever you bring into the dining room, regardless of where the bottle comes from.

 

Viking has a very liberal BYO policy for all guests; they want to encourage us to sample the local beverages and they do not limit where or when we can drink what we buy on shore. The bartenders will give you whatever glasses you need. If you want a cocktail made from your own stash they will be happy to oblige (but they do charge for the mixers). Wherever you choose to enjoy your BYO, there is no need to hide the fact  with a sippy cup or a brown paper back.

 

 

15 hours ago, flashfearless said:

My wife was responsible for them serving lemon drop martinis at the occasion.

 

They used to be served regularly at the M&Ms but I noticed at the last few that it seemed that you needed to ask for them.

 

 

In the meantime, I have heard of a few people who have been upgrading to the OS and I continue to hope that one day the Upgrade Fairy will grant my wish.

Edited August 28, 2020 by Peregrina651

[SantaFe1]

We have a PV1 guaranty for a December 2021 cruise.  Who knows, maybe we will land in the OS!  And now I’ll know the ropes!

[TeamBAlways]

3 hours ago, deec said:

I hope we cruise with you one day and you are in the Owner's Suite again and I can be your friend.  Interesting I have never known who is in the suite on the cruises I have been on....unless it was the OWNER, or his daughter!  Once there was an English TV hostess who was filming from the ship for show about cruise ships, her name was Jane.

I hope I get to go another cruise in the OS too! We can be friends

[TeamBAlways]

2 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

YES!!!! Bring the whole bottle. There is no corkage fee for whatever you bring into the dining room, regardless of where the bottle comes from.

 

Viking has a very liberal BYO policy for all guests; they want to encourage us to sample the local beverages and they do not limit where or when we can drink what we buy on shore. The bartenders will give you whatever glasses you need. If you want a cocktail made from your own stash they will be happy to oblige (but they do charge for the mixers). Wherever you choose to enjoy your BYO, there is no need to hide the fact  with a sippy cup or a brown paper back.

 

 

 

They used to be served regularly at the M&Ms but I noticed at the last few that it seemed that you needed to ask for them.

 

 

In the meantime, I have heard of a few people who have been upgrading to the OS and I continue to hope that one day the Upgrade Fairy will grant my wish.

Awesome! thanks for the info

 

[TeamBAlways]

58 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

We have a PV1 guaranty for a December 2021 cruise.  Who knows, maybe we will land in the OS!  And now I’ll know the ropes!

Fingers crossed for you!

[_alan_]

7 hours ago, TeamBAlways said:

Wow! Thank you so much.  You even answered questions I did not know I had. 

 

Where did you take you private tours? If I may ask, what was the out of pocket on the extra two? 

 

The one we took on Viking's dime was a combination trip of Herculaneum & Naples.  They are kind of far apart so hard to do via bus.  My wife had found this shop online which hand made Cameo earrings in Naples, so we went there and watched the demonstration on how they make them.  The great thing about going to Herculaneum on a private tour is that you can get there early before all the boat buses arrive.  

 

The next one was Florence and the last one in Barcelona.  The great thing about having the private tour in Barcelona is she was able to arrange for a tour inside of La Sagrada Familia through some kind of "trick" where she knew that she could show her tourism creds and pick up any "leftover" tickets from previous guided tours where the tickets went unused.  When we were there in June 2019, none of the viking people were getting inside the Cathedral.  I want to say the cost was between $500 and $800 total for each trip.

[_alan_]

5 hours ago, deec said:

I hope we cruise with you one day and you are in the Owner's Suite again and I can be your friend.  Interesting I have never known who is in the suite on the cruises I have been on....unless it was the OWNER, or his daughter!  Once there was an English TV hostess who was filming from the ship for show about cruise ships, her name was Jane.

 

That would be brilliant Jane.  It truly was a surreal experience.  

[Dauntless]

On 8/27/2020 at 9:58 PM, flashfearless said:

I heard that I was being paged to this topic about the owner's suite.  What can I tell you about it.  It was opulent and wonderful all at the same time.

 

 

 

Thanks for answering the page.  It's nice to see you were treated so well, once on board.  When you posted the pictures of Venice I was indeed surprised.  I'm glad you got a glimpse. 

[Canberra601]

We stayed in the OS last year, were spoilt rotten and absolutely loved it.  We like it so much we have booked two further cruises in 2022 and 2023 in the OS.  Further to the great answer provided by Flashfearless I will add a few further points:

- we did not receive any free spa treatment, but really could select any time we wanted

- we are wine drinkers and the sommelier met us in our suite and explained the wines to us.  I asked if we could take the wines to the restaurant and he advised us just to let him know what we liked and it would be available in the restaurant.  We did have the drinks package though, and thought it was good value for cocktails etc.

- whilst we did not have a full dinner in the suite for our new friends, we did have two cocktail parties catered, including invitations being sent to the guests.  We could have had a waiter pour drinks for our guests, but declined the offer.  

- in addition to the private excursion, Viking also arranged for a private transfer to the airport on disembarkation.  We did not expect it, but it was a nice gesture.

- rather than putting our bags out the night before, we were able to have then taken off with us in the morning.  Viking staff assisted us from the ship to the waiting car.

- nothing was too much trouble for our room attendant - she was great (she is in the picture posted by Flashfearless) and would arrange things like restaurant reservations at the last moment.

- we ate almost exclusively at Manfredi's, and twice at the Chef's Table.  As Flashfearless stated normally in the same table that we expressed a liking for early in the cruise.

- the fire in the boardroom has a switch you press to make the glass opaque, thereby making it private.  

 

I am sure you will love it, and will want to travel in the suite again.

[_alan_]

8 minutes ago, Canberra601 said:

We stayed in the OS last year, were spoilt rotten and absolutely loved it.  We like it so much we have booked two further cruises in 2022 and 2023 in the OS.  Further to the great answer provided by Flashfearless I will add a few further points:

- we did not receive any free spa treatment, but really could select any time we wanted

- we are wine drinkers and the sommelier met us in our suite and explained the wines to us.  I asked if we could take the wines to the restaurant and he advised us just to let him know what we liked and it would be available in the restaurant.  We did have the drinks package though, and thought it was good value for cocktails etc.

- whilst we did not have a full dinner in the suite for our new friends, we did have two cocktail parties catered, including invitations being sent to the guests.  We could have had a waiter pour drinks for our guests, but declined the offer.  

- in addition to the private excursion, Viking also arranged for a private transfer to the airport on disembarkation.  We did not expect it, but it was a nice gesture.

- rather than putting our bags out the night before, we were able to have then taken off with us in the morning.  Viking staff assisted us from the ship to the waiting car.

- nothing was too much trouble for our room attendant - she was great (she is in the picture posted by Flashfearless) and would arrange things like restaurant reservations at the last moment.

- we ate almost exclusively at Manfredi's, and twice at the Chef's Table.  As Flashfearless stated normally in the same table that we expressed a liking for early in the cruise.

- the fire in the boardroom has a switch you press to make the glass opaque, thereby making it private.  

 

I am sure you will love it, and will want to travel in the suite again.

 

oh you mean Olivera?  Yeah she was great. Now imagine her when we were a day and a half late getting to the ship thanks to American Airlines. All that pent up energy she has?  Nothing to do but wonder if we were gonna make the trip. 
 

I wish we had taken more advantage of the wine but I was happy to have my woodford reserve most nights. 
 

I think in our case, we didn’t have a private disembark. But we were not going to airport right away. We stayed at least one night in Barcelona. 

 

ive been worried about people like Olivera and Sarah on the ship. I hope Viking has taken care of them. Do let us know if you see Olivera again. 

[TeamBAlways]

10 hours ago, Canberra601 said:

We stayed in the OS last year, were spoilt rotten and absolutely loved it.  We like it so much we have booked two further cruises in 2022 and 2023 in the OS.  Further to the great answer provided by Flashfearless I will add a few further points:

- we did not receive any free spa treatment, but really could select any time we wanted

- we are wine drinkers and the sommelier met us in our suite and explained the wines to us.  I asked if we could take the wines to the restaurant and he advised us just to let him know what we liked and it would be available in the restaurant.  We did have the drinks package though, and thought it was good value for cocktails etc.

- whilst we did not have a full dinner in the suite for our new friends, we did have two cocktail parties catered, including invitations being sent to the guests.  We could have had a waiter pour drinks for our guests, but declined the offer.  

- in addition to the private excursion, Viking also arranged for a private transfer to the airport on disembarkation.  We did not expect it, but it was a nice gesture.

- rather than putting our bags out the night before, we were able to have then taken off with us in the morning.  Viking staff assisted us from the ship to the waiting car.

- nothing was too much trouble for our room attendant - she was great (she is in the picture posted by Flashfearless) and would arrange things like restaurant reservations at the last moment.

- we ate almost exclusively at Manfredi's, and twice at the Chef's Table.  As Flashfearless stated normally in the same table that we expressed a liking for early in the cruise.

- the fire in the boardroom has a switch you press to make the glass opaque, thereby making it private.  

 

I am sure you will love it, and will want to travel in the suite again.

 

Thank you sop much for your additional info.  We are so excited and I have warned my DH that ha has started me off at the top.

[Liz Masterson]

I'd probably have a cocktail party every night if I had the chance! I'd invite you all in!  I love making new friends and why not share the bounty! 🙂 Sigh... alas it would need to be an upgrade for me.