Back from my first Viking cruise: reflections

[KBs mum]

6 minutes ago, kirtihk said:

"Shm" - is Yiddish slang - beginning of many words starts with or replaced with "Shm" to diminish a magnitude of a sense.  I inherited it to use in English, too (as in illusion - shmillusion; cat - shmet; doctor - shmoctor).

Oy Vey! Sorry, didn't pick up on it, our Jewish friends here and work contacts in Israel speak Hebrew rather than Yiddish 🇮🇱. 

Genuine apologies to anyone I may have accidentally insulted or offended. It wasn't intended

[longterm]

On 3/1/2023 at 2:55 AM, THR said:

Have our first cruise (on Viking, and ever), Into the Midnight Sun, in June. Thread is making me a little apprehensive but a lot of the YouTube videos I’ve watched still make me think we will enjoy it. 

People take themselves along wherever they go; if you look for something to complain about, you’ll certainly find it, but we have always had wonderful cruises. I hope you won’t let negative comments, dull your excitement for your trip; have a wonderful time, avoid the loud and obnoxious few, make some new friends, and make memories! 

[kirtihk]

3 hours ago, KBs mum said:

Lack of attention to detail has allways existed in some companies. I avoid them unless the price reflects this. 

 

A lot of the hospitality industry has maintained pre covid standards, particularly at the mid to high end price points that Viking inhabits. Viking are teetering at the top of a side to mediocrity. 

 

What is a ''Shm'' notation? Being a science trained pragmatic atheist I don't consider words to have negative or any other energy.

('Shm' is similar to a UK slang term for a type of hallucinogenic fungi popular with flower power hippy types 😁)

To make a clearer meaning of what I intended to say, I would rephrase my statement slightly (or greatly, depending on an angle of viewing it) - “words have power”.

Edited March 2, 2023 by kirtihk

[millybess]

1 hour ago, kirtihk said:

"Shm" - is Yiddish slang - beginning of many words starts with or replaced with "Shm" to diminish a magnitude of a sense.  I inherited it to use in English, too (as in illusion - shmillusion; cat - shmet; doctor - shmoctor).

Excellent!  Reminds me of my 6 weeks in the ulpan:

 

schmaltzes

shmooze

schmancy (as in fancy schmancy)

 

I could go on and on.  Now I want to do a Wordle.

 

[oskidunker]

Schlemiel Schlemazo . Hosinpeper inc

[Iloveketo]

1 hour ago, longterm said:

People take themselves along wherever they go; if you look for something to complain about, you’ll certainly find it, but we have always had wonderful cruises. I hope you won’t let negative comments, dull your excitement for your trip; have a wonderful time, avoid the loud and obnoxious few, make some new friends, and make memories! 

Love your advice!

The one thing you always take with you is yourself!
So true!

I like the way you think!

[Iloveketo]

2 hours ago, rudychance said:

I would LOVE to hear about your French Polynesian cruise and was thinking about writing you a PM 😃. We're ( casually because of house and pets) looking at this 33 day itinerary on Neptune in 2024.  It would be more than twice as long as any cruise we've been on since our 3 and 4 day cruising in the 80's !

I can’t figure out how to PM you, so I will try to tell you about French Polynesia in a nutshell. We did it in January of 2022. Originally it was supposed to include Hawaii, but Hawaii wasn’t opened yet. Many cruisers canceled when Hawaii was no longer on the schedule. We only had about 550 passengers on the cruise. We were the first foreign ship in French Polynesia since the shutdown. Many sea days! I was afraid we would have rough seas in the South Pacific, but we didn’t. Maybe 7/8 days to get there, if I remember correctly.
So many fantastic lecturers! We and 4 other people went on an excursion into the mountains in Tahiti with one of the lectures, who did more theater type talks. The waterfalls were beautiful! The lecturer was just one of us, not a guide or anything. 

Another time I was swimming in the middle pool and ended up talking to the woman, who was a marine biologist. I told her that after listening to her lectures, I got up the nerve to swim with stingrays and little sharks. 
At dinner out on the aquavit terrace we got into a conversation with the woman from the Smithsonian, who did many interesting lectures. 
So many other lecturers, but what I found so nice was being able to just have an unscheduled conversation with them. 
We felt very safe just wandering around Papeete, Tahiti. 
The islands were beautiful!

Our favorite excursion was a Waverunner tour around Moorea. 
We did some boat rides, too. 
Plus, they had a ceremony for crossing the equator and we all got certificates suitable for framing with the exact location of our crossing. 
It is a place we definitely want to go back to!

[kirtihk]

1 hour ago, millybess said:

Excellent!  Reminds me of my 6 weeks in the ulpan:

 

schmaltzes

shmooze

schmancy (as in fancy schmancy)

 

I could go on and on.  Now I want to do a Wordle.

 

Glad you liked it!  On top of that, I am originally (lived my first 31 years prior to coming to US) from a country where in order to survive, we had to use special words to “manipulate” (trick, fight, negate, hide from) the system.

Edited March 2, 2023 by kirtihk

[Torquato]

On 2/26/2023 at 8:59 AM, purpleally said:

Make a difference on the wine

A very big difference. The first two cruises we took with  Viking we didn’t get the drink package. We found most of the wines that were served with the meals to be undrinkable. I ended up making calimochos with the red wine and DC. Since then, we’ve purchased the drink package. Big difference.

[SJD117]

24 minutes ago, Torquato said:

A very big difference. The first two cruises we took with  Viking we didn’t get the drink package. We found most of the wines that were served with the meals to be undrinkable. I ended up making calimochos with the red wine and DC. Since then, we’ve purchased the drink package. Big difference.

You had the right to “upgrade” your wines even without the SSP, by ordering your preferred selections and paying for them a la carte. This is a common misunderstanding about the package — that it’s the only way to get better quality. Not true.

[LindaS272]

To each his own in terms of the drinkability of the included wines. I hate the misinformation about the SSP, though, so will once again report that all wines on SSP are available ala carte and are denied to no one.

[duquephart]

1 hour ago, SJD117 said:

You had the right to “upgrade” your wines even without the SSP, by ordering your preferred selections and paying for them a la carte. This is a common misunderstanding about the package — that it’s the only way to get better quality. Not true.

 

As I have pointed out several times.

[rudychance]

15 hours ago, Iloveketo said:

I can’t figure out how to PM you, so I will try to tell you about French Polynesia in a nutshell. We did it in January of 2022. Originally it was supposed to include Hawaii, but Hawaii wasn’t opened yet. Many cruisers canceled when Hawaii was no longer on the schedule. We only had about 550 passengers on the cruise. We were the first foreign ship in French Polynesia since the shutdown. Many sea days! I was afraid we would have rough seas in the South Pacific, but we didn’t. Maybe 7/8 days to get there, if I remember correctly.
So many fantastic lecturers! We and 4 other people went on an excursion into the mountains in Tahiti with one of the lectures, who did more theater type talks. The waterfalls were beautiful! The lecturer was just one of us, not a guide or anything. 

Another time I was swimming in the middle pool and ended up talking to the woman, who was a marine biologist. I told her that after listening to her lectures, I got up the nerve to swim with stingrays and little sharks. 
At dinner out on the aquavit terrace we got into a conversation with the woman from the Smithsonian, who did many interesting lectures. 
So many other lecturers, but what I found so nice was being able to just have an unscheduled conversation with them. 
We felt very safe just wandering around Papeete, Tahiti. 
The islands were beautiful!

Our favorite excursion was a Waverunner tour around Moorea. 
We did some boat rides, too. 
Plus, they had a ceremony for crossing the equator and we all got certificates suitable for framing with the exact location of our crossing. 
It is a place we definitely want to go back to!

Thanks SO much for taking the time; it sounds amazing! We also love to strike up conversations with the many interesting fellow cruisers we've met casually on our five VO adventures.   I tried to PM you to express appreciation,  but it said ( by the little envelope) that the feature was disabled 🤔 .  Fingers crossed that we can take this dream vacation.   

[Clay Clayton]

15 hours ago, Iloveketo said:

I can’t figure out how to PM you, so I will try to tell you about French Polynesia in a nutshell. We did it in January of 2022. Originally it was supposed to include Hawaii, but Hawaii wasn’t opened yet. Many cruisers canceled when Hawaii was no longer on the schedule. We only had about 550 passengers on the cruise. We were the first foreign ship in French Polynesia since the shutdown. Many sea days! I was afraid we would have rough seas in the South Pacific, but we didn’t. Maybe 7/8 days to get there, if I remember correctly.
So many fantastic lecturers! We and 4 other people went on an excursion into the mountains in Tahiti with one of the lectures, who did more theater type talks. The waterfalls were beautiful! The lecturer was just one of us, not a guide or anything. 

Another time I was swimming in the middle pool and ended up talking to the woman, who was a marine biologist. I told her that after listening to her lectures, I got up the nerve to swim with stingrays and little sharks. 
At dinner out on the aquavit terrace we got into a conversation with the woman from the Smithsonian, who did many interesting lectures. 
So many other lecturers, but what I found so nice was being able to just have an unscheduled conversation with them. 
We felt very safe just wandering around Papeete, Tahiti. 
The islands were beautiful!

Our favorite excursion was a Waverunner tour around Moorea. 
We did some boat rides, too. 
Plus, they had a ceremony for crossing the equator and we all got certificates suitable for framing with the exact location of our crossing. 
It is a place we definitely want to go back to!

 

11 minutes ago, rudychance said:

Thanks SO much for taking the time; it sounds amazing! We also love to strike up conversations with the many interesting fellow cruisers we've met casually on our five VO adventures.   I tried to PM you to express appreciation,  but it said ( by the little envelope) that the feature was disabled 🤔 .  Fingers crossed that we can take this dream vacation.   

CruiseCritic had the private message feature turned off for all of us. 😢

[Vineyard View]

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

 

CruiseCritic had the private message feature turned off for all of us. 😢

And that is a real disappointment. Not sure their reasoning 

[Jim Avery]

It's Clay's fault....🥸🍹

[JM0115]

6 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

It's Clay's fault....🥸🍹

Agree!

[zalusky]

4 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

 

CruiseCritic had the private message feature turned off for all of us. 😢

They want you to talk in person and not on your iPad.

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, Jim Avery said:

It's Clay's fault....🥸🍹

 

1 hour ago, JM0115 said:

Agree!

Why y’all always pickin on me?😢

[Sunny429]

We cruised with Viking for the first time last year aboard the Venus on a Northern Lights itinerary and thought everything was fabulous! We have mostly cruised on Seabourne and Silversea and friends invited us to join them on this itinerary, promising us we would enjoy it. It did not disappoint. The wide open spaces in the public areas, the heated floor in the bathroom, SO much storage space in our PV1 suite - we had two full size and two carry-on suitcases full of cold weather clothing - and the speakers were fantastic - one on photography and the other on marine life. The food was excellent - we only ate in the World Cafe, main dining room and the Italian restaurant. Excursions were very good too. We cannot say enough good things about Viking Ocean. 

[Myrtle Ave. Mayhem]

On 3/2/2023 at 8:29 AM, kirtihk said:

It sounds overall like on any other cruise line these days dealing with Virus-the-Shmirus "leftover" product.  We cruised on Dec 20 - Jan 5 on Regent, and without details I might make exact the same statement (with the exception of "disappointed and underwhelmed", because EVERYTHING is in our mind only, and, as long as we keep manipulating it to stay positive, nothing may destroy our attitude toward surroundings and circumstances in our life).

I don't blame Covid-19 for the things I didn't like aboard Neptune. Having sailed four weeks aboard Orion during the Bermuda season, I can attest that things were more on point then aboard that ship. Did I still enjoy my Neptune cruise & appreciate the many wonderful hard working crew? Yes of course! However the difference was noticeable to me. As Viking is a higher price point, I have a higher expectation for the attention to detail points. I don't buy the "any day on vacation, on a ship....., means you shouldn't complain" reasoning. In the hospitality industry it's "the little things" that matter & make a difference. I look at my years sailing Princess & Holland America & the slow gradual changes veering into mediocrity with those two formerly fantastic lines. That's the whole reason I moved exclusively to Viking. 

[kirtihk]

10 minutes ago, Myrtle Ave. Mayhem said:

I don't blame Covid-19 for the things I didn't like aboard Neptune. Having sailed four weeks aboard Orion during the Bermuda season, I can attest that things were more on point then aboard that ship. Did I still enjoy my Neptune cruise & appreciate the many wonderful hard working crew? Yes of course! However the difference was noticeable to me. As Viking is a higher price point, I have a higher expectation for the attention to detail points. I don't buy the "any day on vacation, on a ship....., means you shouldn't complain" reasoning. In the hospitality industry it's "the little things" that matter & make a difference. I look at my years sailing Princess & Holland America & the slow gradual changes veering into mediocrity with those two formerly fantastic lines. That's the whole reason I moved exclusively to Viking. 

Makes sense.  I just pointed out that these days regardless of what a cruise line is all of them missing points here and there. In my comment I was writing about Regent (Splendor) that is higher than Viking (considered the most luxury in many aspects), and yet ...  I'm not saying we must accept "new norm" (I don't actually believe in it, anyway) as I don't accept pushed to our throat many other "modern" matters; I'm saying gladness is inside us, and it's up to us how to deal with reality in order to not destroy glory of our mind's realm.

[KBs mum]

1 hour ago, kirtihk said:

Makes sense.  I just pointed out that these days regardless of what a cruise line is all of them missing points here and there. In my comment I was writing about Regent (Splendor) that is higher than Viking (considered the most luxury in many aspects), and yet ...  I'm not saying we must accept "new norm" (I don't actually believe in it, anyway) as I don't accept pushed to our throat many other "modern" matters; I'm saying gladness is inside us, and it's up to us how to deal with reality in order to not destroy glory of our mind's realm.

I respect your right to voice your opinion, in the hope that you respect my right to say that your last paragraph is, in my opinion, nonsensical. I think I agree with some of your statement, but I'm not certain

[Jmoondance]

17 minutes ago, KBs mum said:

I respect your right to voice your opinion, in the hope that you respect my right to say that your last paragraph is, in my opinion, nonsensical.

Thanks!

[purpleally]

On 3/2/2023 at 7:37 PM, SJD117 said:

You had the right to “upgrade” your wines even without the SSP, by ordering your preferred selections and paying for them a la carte. This is a common misunderstanding about the package — that it’s the only way to get better quality. Not true.

I believe it’s much easier to get the drink package. Especially at Chefs table.