Azamara regular has a cruise on Viking

[Jem 12]

Interesting observations, thank you for posting, we have done 1 Viking Ocean cruise, mainly fabulous, and 1 Viking river cruise, which would have been fabulous, weather was amazing in Netherlands, unfortunately I tested positive on the first Pcr I did onboard, we had paid for an Antigen test on 20th March, to travel to Amsterdam all clear, we wore  maske on the plane and in the taxi to ship on the 21st, the test 8 did that afternoon proved positive, I had no symptoms and every Antigen test I did afterwards 2-3 days later were negative, a false positive, maybe because I had chewed gum or cleaned my teeth I don’t know.

We were moved to a nice hotel in Amsterdam to spend my 5 days locked up, everything possible was done by Viking to make us as comfortable as possible. 
 

While on board we met lovely people but found the service very patchy, hopefully it improved as the days went on.

I made the wait team aware of a cheese allergy but on two occasions they brought me food complete with cheese. Both times I had specifically mentioned it.
on another occasion I ordered a salad and asked for mayonaise, I was told by waiter sorry we don’t have any, I had vinagrette instead , he then brought my husband a cheeseburger complete with a little sealed jar of Mayo and one of ketchup.

At dinner at a table of 6 the 3 ladies sat with empty glasses, but the 3 men were kept topped up. 
We all had the silver drinks package. 
 

With both Ocean and River I felt the very small phone/tablet made the ordering of meals particularly slow and cumbersome for the waitstaff.

We would love to do another Viking Ocean cruise, I don’t think I would get my husband on a Viking river cruise again. 
I wouldn’t do either while they do daily testing. Unfortunately there is always going to be a very small margin of error, trust me it is awful when it is you. 

Really looking forward to our Azamara cruise, at the end of the month, although already our Venice stop has been changed to Ravenna. 

 

 

 

[JWayne60]

Thanks @uktog, greatly appreciate your review / comparison. As you can see from my signature block, we love Azamara AND have our first Viking Ocean cruise scheduled for September (Montreal to Fort Lauderdale)… so very timely.  We’ve done one Viking River cruise (years ago) on the Douro in Portugal, and loved it.  Now eager to see how we like the Viking Ocean experience… while we appreciate some caution, sure hope they can relax some of their COVID protocols by September.  
 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[gasman489]

On 4/4/2022 at 11:26 AM, excitedofharpenden said:

I’m not sure what your qualifications are for these and your other observations, but in my opinion you are talking out of the top of your hat and worrying people unnecessarily. 

 

Phil

I work in the restructuring industry. And many of my observations were gleaned by reading the posts on this board.  My intent is not to worry anyone unnecessarily, but more caveat emptor.  And I think most of the people here are savvy enough to realize that (including yourself).  There are people who have lost thousands of dollars they may never see again.  So, caveat emptor!! 

[gasman489]

On 4/4/2022 at 11:26 AM, excitedofharpenden said:

I’m not sure what your qualifications are for these and your other observations, but in my opinion you are talking out of the top of your hat and worrying people unnecessarily. 

 

Phil

Hop on over to the Silversea board on Cruise Critic.  There is a very lengthy thread about these very issues.  

[lisiamc]

On 3/31/2022 at 7:33 AM, uktog said:

I think this illustrates what some see as a Viking strength their “abundance of caution”.
 

Odd has already illustrated the alternate Azamara view and I know from great local knowledge last week he could see alternative ports for us.  

 

The caution extends to their paranoia about testing (needing expensive pcr tests to travel even when the airline and country don’t ask for it, quarantining you in your room for at least 6 hours when boarding pending test results- makes that nervous 20 minutes pierside with Azamara seem a walk in the park - and daily testing for everyone). For many Viking guests we met this extremely cautious approach to everything was why they went with Viking.  

 

For us it was a drawback.  Interesting maybe there were no port taxes but we have had not a cent back for the itinerary change, but given how slowly we moved the final two days it sure was a fuel budget saver 😂

As a positive development, after their initial boarding test, Viking are allowing passengers to roam the ship freely if they wear a mask. They don’t have to quarantine for hours any more. After a negative test result is returned, the mask is optional.  For our recent cruise, we were given a choice of a PCR test within 72 hours, or a Lateral Flow test within 24 hrs. 

Edited April 10, 2022 by lisiamc

[Sleep7]

👋Hello uktog!!

I just loved reading your review and comparison of Azamara and Viking Ocean.

As a long time Azamara fan and a new Viking cruiser it was wonderful to hear what you thought about each aspect.  Thanks for taking the time to describe your thoughts in such detail.

My view of comparing the two lines is like comparing two children.. they are different, have different pluses and minuses but you love both of them!  😍

[swigso]

On 3/28/2022 at 2:58 AM, Host Jazzbeau said:

Recent threads on the Silversea forum are full of longtime Silversea fans who are aghast at recent Silversea foul-ups.  Many are shore-side, but there was a recent Antarctica cruise that never should have sailed and was not handled well before, during or after.  [And yes, the dress code is a major obstacle for me.]

Silversea were bought by RCCL I think just before they sold Azamara.

Maybe that has some input to the shore side problems.