Back from our first Viking cruise

[kctwinmommy]

I will write more when I'm feeling better. I unfortunately, I got sick on our last day in Barcelona, after we left the ship, and it was a long flight home yesterday. Just got home from urgent care an hour ago. I have an awful cough, slight fever, etc... All my tests were negative so far, so potentially just something viral. There were quite a few people coughing on the ship and the plane. It's something that's hard to control when traveling, I get it. I'm just glad we were able to make it the whole time and it happened at the end. Well, we did have one other day where were felt yucky, so we spent the whole day in our room.

 

Anyway, we really loved a lot about our cruise, we did the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sojourn, which was 3 weeks of a 28 day cruise. It started in Istanbul, but we got on in Athens. We did the 4-day pre-extension in Athens and it was amazing, worth every penny! We did several options excursions, a few things on our own, and of course, several included ones. We must have liked something as we did book the West Indies cruise while on board for Oct. 2025! Got all the savings, plus they gave us each the $100 onboard ship credit for the cruise we were one.

 

I will certainly add more info later, included all the excursions we took, but if anyone has general questions, I'd be more than happy to answer.

[Mike07]

The guy next to me at work just returned from Barcelona and Bordeaux region, and both him and his wife got sick halfway thru that trip. They were not on Viking, or any cruise ship for that matter. They also tested negative for COVID.

[kctwinmommy]

34 minutes ago, Mike07 said:

The guy next to me at work just returned from Barcelona and Bordeaux region, and both him and his wife got sick halfway thru that trip. They were not on Viking, or any cruise ship for that matter. They also tested negative for COVID.

Yeah, there were a lot of people coughing at the airport. The pollen there was awful too, it was all over the sidewalks, they had to hose it down. Not saying that's my issue...

 

And it didn't ruin my trip in any way, grateful it was at the end, and I get sick being at home, so it can happen anywhere. 😉 

[CDNPolar]

1 hour ago, kctwinmommy said:

I will write more when I'm feeling better. I unfortunately, I got sick on our last day in Barcelona, after we left the ship, and it was a long flight home yesterday. Just got home from urgent care an hour ago. I have an awful cough, slight fever, etc... All my tests were negative so far, so potentially just something viral. There were quite a few people coughing on the ship and the plane. It's something that's hard to control when traveling, I get it. I'm just glad we were able to make it the whole time and it happened at the end. Well, we did have one other day where were felt yucky, so we spent the whole day in our room.

 

Anyway, we really loved a lot about our cruise, we did the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sojourn, which was 3 weeks of a 28 day cruise. It started in Istanbul, but we got on in Athens. We did the 4-day pre-extension in Athens and it was amazing, worth every penny! We did several options excursions, a few things on our own, and of course, several included ones. We must have liked something as we did book the West Indies cruise while on board for Oct. 2025! Got all the savings, plus they gave us each the $100 onboard ship credit for the cruise we were one.

 

I will certainly add more info later, included all the excursions we took, but if anyone has general questions, I'd be more than happy to answer.

Happy to hear your first Viking experience was positive!

 

Can't wait to hear your stories!

 

Hope you are feeling better soon.

[kctwinmommy]

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

Happy to hear your first Viking experience was positive!

 

Can't wait to hear your stories!

 

Hope you are feeling better soon.

Thanks! Got some steroids, some cough medicine (pills, which I've never taken for a cough!), and an inhaler. So far, unless any tests come back positive tomorrow, she said it's just a viral thing. Which of course, wipes out my energy. But I would like to share some of the highlights at least. 😃 

[kctwinmommy]

OK, so some thoughts on Viking in general, from being a first timer. So some of these things may be completely known by many of you, if not, they may be helpful to other newbies. These are just more general things about the ship and cruising with Viking. Since this was our first, these were the things that stood out to us.

 

• I went to the spa pool one day, saw they have the full size robes and wore it back to the room. I then kept it in the room after asking at the spa desk. I liked having the full size robe for after my showers.
• We also grabbed 2 of the blankets from the pool deck to use on our balcony. Again, we asked the room steward and he said no problem to keep them.
• Doing a cruise that is technically multiple segments of a larger cruise presents issues that we weren't aware of when we booked it. Our turnover ports (Venice & Rome) had challenges when it came to booking excursions. For Rome, we had already booked a private one, so that wasn't a problem for us. But for Venice, we had basically about 55 hours there (2 nights), so 3 days of excursions. Of course, we were in Chioggia, like all ships will most likely be from now on (or another port city an hour+ away). Things booked up so fast, we didn't have much of a chance to pick. We did enjoy our tour though. Also, you're considered being on 3 cruise segments, so we got a survey near the end of each week, and our account charged our gratuities each week.
• We found that departure times for included tours, when there were multiple options, could be a little wiggly. We made friends with another couple early on and went down with them for our tour in Olympia. They had 9 and we had 9:15. We checked in with the crew to assign busses, and they actually put us on the same tour, even without asking.
• Almost every tour we took never had a full bus. There were usually about 4-8 open seats at least on the large busses. We only had a small bus for one tour, and that one had like 2 open seats.
• When excursions are listed as demanding, we found that it almost always was because of the amount of walking or standing. We never went to the port talks live because we were usually off the ship. But we would watch the recorded version in the evening. It was good information about the port itself, and then a good idea of what your tour would entail. I can still hear her voice in my head saying "uneven cobblestones, ancient streets" as making a tour demanding. I mean, hardly any of the excursions through Viking are anything extreme.
• Make sure, when using an outside tour that they guarantee your return to the ship on time. When we had our port hours, we assumed that the time listed was the time we needed to be back on the ship. However, we learned that if my document said 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. (which was as lot of our ports), we had to be back on the ship at 4 p.m. We left at 5, and honestly, we left a little early a few times. The funny thing was Viking doesn't feel the need to announce it with massive horn blows. LOL! Only once they did it, I forgot which port.
• We took €1500 for our month. We had put 500 of that aside to pay for specific tours we owed in cash. We only needed to take out another €100 on our last day to cover a few things as we left town. We used our credit card at places that seemed more established, which were many. But this gave us money for tipping guides as needed and other smaller purchases.
• We never had a problem using a bathroom. Now, I know this is all subjective. I typically don't need one all day long while others need a few stops throughout the day. All of our guides were very much aware of this and often made sure the tour went near a bathroom, as public as possible. Or a local cafe. Not too many bathrooms that were just coin operated.
• For those who aren't sure about dining, this was a little different than our previous lines we've sailed on. We ate in the World Cafe more than the restaurant it turns out. Usually because we were tired when we got back, or it was late. We discovered that about 1/2 the things on the restaurant menu were also in the WC. And they have the 2 items always grilled to order (a steak and fish option).
• Washcloths and towels are a little rough. I believe this is what cause my face to become so irritated, I had massive red patches under my eyes. My husband regrets not taking a loofah (although I told him to just buy one there). I just feel their towels could use a little upgrading on the softness, and maybe size. I love a good large bath sheet!
• While everyone says don't worry about not getting into an excursion before you go, you'll be able to on board, that's not always true. Just be realistic about it. We had 2 things that we weren't able to get into. And almost every day, even throughout our cruise, all excursions were completely booked. Be hopeful, but also be prepared to not have it happen.
• Lost & found works! I lost my reading glasses in the theater and my Rick Steves in the WC. Both times we went to GS and someone had turned them in. So definitely go ask. Thanks to those honest people too!
• Please take the 5 minutes to watch the Quiet Vox video, or at least look at the quick reference guide included with them. We always had 4-5 people on their first tour asking for help. They have 3 buttons and 1 wheel, it's not that complicated. Also, the channel for your guide is always your tour group number!

[FetaCheese]

Thanks for your posting your impressions on 1st V cruise.  

[kctwinmommy]

Thought of a couple more general nuggets from our trip... I just want to cover as much as I can while I remember it. LOL!

 

• Laundry was quit easy to use, but the dryers are a bit temperamental. We found that we had to tinker with the settings a little bit to get our cloths dry. But that's also because I didn't want to dry on high heat and damage anything. But no big deal. We did laundry twice and all came out just fine.
• We definitely overpacked and didn't have a good grasp on the weather. Now, we were planning for a month, so the weather could change quite a bit. We had several days that were much cooler than I was expecting. We also brought the wrong rain gear, which resulted in buying the ever popular Helly Hansen rain jackets in Corfu (didn't have our sizes in the ship store). Not what we wanted to spend the money on, but when needed, they were invaluable. I really thought I needed more options for the evening, which I didn't. Since we didn't go to the restaurant every night, I didn't need to always change. I could have left about 23-30% of what I packed at home.
• I was surprised at how noisy it was in the hallways at times. Just still too many people that let their doors slam. However, I now travel with a white noise sound machine. It's great! It does block out a lot of the excess noise. I got a really small one on Amazon.
• I loved the cross body I bought for this trip. It held all that I needed, nothing extra that I didn't need, and easy to access. Plus, it kept everything close to my body.

 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BQW3M249/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Murt22]

We're on the same exact trip starting September 1st - anxious to hear about your excursions. We are all booked for them but nice to know what to expect. I am expecting mostly warm weather, but the rain jacket is a good tip. We are actually going to Rome for 4 days before we fly to Athens for 3 days then join the cruise. We have an idea what we want to do on the Rome stop - but not life or death since we will have done what we wanted earlier. Still very shaky with the Venice situation and we are staying in Florence over night to maximize our experience. Thanks for posting.

[CDNPolar]

Thank you for your review and for the most part it sounds like this was a positive experience.

 

One thing of note, when you talk about private tours and being back on time, you mentioned that Viking often would leave even earlier than stated in the Viking Daily... That would be because they knew that all passengers were back on board from the scanning of your key card.  

 

We have experienced this and this is a good thing for Viking if everyone is back on board and they can leave early, and if early enough, that could mean sailing at a slower speed to the next port and saving on fuel.

[duquephart]

We missed Rhodes due to winds on recent "Ancient Adriatic Treasures" - the sail to Ephesus was verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry slow.

[kctwinmommy]

3 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Thank you for your review and for the most part it sounds like this was a positive experience.

 

One thing of note, when you talk about private tours and being back on time, you mentioned that Viking often would leave even earlier than stated in the Viking Daily... That would be because they knew that all passengers were back on board from the scanning of your key card.  

 

We have experienced this and this is a good thing for Viking if everyone is back on board and they can leave early, and if early enough, that could mean sailing at a slower speed to the next port and saving on fuel.

Oh yes, I guess I should have clarified that. They certainly weren't leaving people behind. 😉 And only twice we were delayed leaving. Once, they called a guest's name, and then about 20 minutes later, we saw an older woman walking up to the ship. We assume she's who they were calling. And the other time it was obviously a Viking excursion that came back late, like right at sail off time, so we left just a little late.

[kctwinmommy]

11 hours ago, Murt22 said:

We're on the same exact trip starting September 1st - anxious to hear about your excursions. We are all booked for them but nice to know what to expect. I am expecting mostly warm weather, but the rain jacket is a good tip. We are actually going to Rome for 4 days before we fly to Athens for 3 days then join the cruise. We have an idea what we want to do on the Rome stop - but not life or death since we will have done what we wanted earlier. Still very shaky with the Venice situation and we are staying in Florence over night to maximize our experience. Thanks for posting.

Yeah, I didn't enjoy Venice all that much. Our tours were good, good guide for them, but not 100% what I wanted to do. We still had a decent time. But that whole docking 90 minutes away really makes things hard. And Venice is so crowded these days. Plus, I forgot to mention, on Sunday tours were restricted to certain areas because the Pope was presiding over a mass in St. Mark's square! It was even crazier than normal!

[Murt22]

A couple of questions - when were you able to pick an excursion for the middle Venice day and Rome? I know you have to book them on-board, but do you have to wait until you are arriving at that port or when you board? Did Kotor,Corfu and Dubrovnik have shuttles back to the ship?  

[kctwinmommy]

9 minutes ago, Murt22 said:

A couple of questions - when were you able to pick an excursion for the middle Venice day and Rome? I know you have to book them on-board, but do you have to wait until you are arriving at that port or when you board? Did Kotor,Corfu and Dubrovnik have shuttles back to the ship?  

So, the excursions for Venice were available as soon as we got on the ship. Unfortunately, several were already booked. We tried a few options. We could only get something for our first day, the day we docked. That was an optional one we booked. On Saturday, I don't think we could get into anything, or at least anything we wanted. This would have been our full day in Chioggia. We did get into an included one for Sunday, or so we thought. When we came back from the one on Friday, we realized that with the Pope coming on Sunday, things were going to be so chaotic, we just wanted to cancel. However, for some reason, in the chaos on trying to pick, they had cancelled us already.

 

For Rome, we were only there 1 day, no overnight. We had an overnight the next day in Florence/Livorno. We were given the Rome options the day after we got on in Athens, it was a paper form left in our room. They had a few options, I'm pretty sure I have pictures if you're interested in exactly what they had. I know one that was included were 3 shuttle busses to three different points. You could then go wherever you want, even catching a different one to get to another part. However, I think it gave you like 5 hours on your own, and when you wanted to go back, you HAD to go back to the original shuttle bus stop you came in one. Our friends said this didn't work super well considering how busy Rome is.

 

Dubrovnik had a shuttle bus, we used that. We did an included walking tour, then stayed in town on our own to do the city wall walk - awesome!! The bus ran about every 30 minutes if I recall. It was a busy day too, we had a few ships in port that day.

 

Corfu also had a shuttle, but we opted for the approximately 1 mile walk back instead. Gave my husband a chance to stop and fish along the way. He brings a collapsible rod with him whenever we travel. Again, we did an include overview type tour, then stayed in town, had some lunch, went to the fort, etc...

 

Kotor I can't remember, but it was an easy walk back to the ship. We did an optional excursion that went up into the mountains. When we came back to town, we walked around a bit on our own and then just walked back to the ship.

[Murt22]

Thank you so much - exactly the information I needed. We are in Venice on a Sat-Sun-Mon - so we booked the "on your own" for Saturday and hoping to prebook St. Mark's tickets, open on Sunday - hope to do Murano/Burano - but not crucial, and Monday we are already booked for Secrets of Doge's Palace. We are in Rome on Sunday as well - and I realized the issue when i researched so we are going to Rome on our own before the cruise. There are 2 different non-Rome proper tours that we hopefully can pick from. We plan on doing the same with Dubrovnik, Kotor and Corfu. Thanks again for the information.

[kctwinmommy]

@Murt22 I posted my Rome tour review in the Italy port page already. It was great! We used LinousIn Rome.

[Murt22]

Just checked MVJ to confirm some of the times/excursions, etc. and the middle Venice day and the Rome day were open for booking for us. We are in a PS1, so maybe that is why it is open? Maybe that's why they were full when you wanted to book on-board?

[kctwinmommy]

1 hour ago, Murt22 said:

Just checked MVJ to confirm some of the times/excursions, etc. and the middle Venice day and the Rome day were open for booking for us. We are in a PS1, so maybe that is why it is open? Maybe that's why they were full when you wanted to book on-board?

That's odd, because nobody on our cruise could book ahead of time. They may have changed things, or figured out a way to restrict it to only those staying through that point.

[mjmagee]

Thank you for your thorough review!

Marilyn

[kctwinmommy]

I decided to start a new thread for the review of the actual cruise. I figure if people are looking through titles, they'll be looking for that. If anyone wants to read about it, it's over here. It's going to take me a little time to get through it all. LOL! But trying to get a day at a time done.

 

 

[CHammond]

On 5/15/2024 at 10:31 AM, Murt22 said:

Thank you so much - exactly the information I needed. We are in Venice on a Sat-Sun-Mon - so we booked the "on your own" for Saturday and hoping to prebook St. Mark's tickets, open on Sunday - hope to do Murano/Burano - but not crucial, and Monday we are already booked for Secrets of Doge's Palace. We are in Rome on Sunday as well - and I realized the issue when i researched so we are going to Rome on our own before the cruise. There are 2 different non-Rome proper tours that we hopefully can pick from. We plan on doing the same with Dubrovnik, Kotor and Corfu. Thanks again for the information.

St Marks is usually closed for tours on Sundays since it is a church and has services, I would try to get into St Marks another day instead, one poster, I can't remember who, said he booked St Marks through viking for a Sunday and  when he got to Venice discovered to his dismay that it is nearly always closed for tours on Sunday and couldn't figure out why it was offered then...

[stu52]

Just a recommendation, for anyone who has the opportunity to do things on their own in Venice, I highly recommend a tour of the clock tower in St. Marks Square.

[Mitina]

5 hours ago, stu52 said:

Just a recommendation, for anyone who has the opportunity to do things on their own in Venice, I highly recommend a tour of the clock tower in St. Marks Square.

Just there.  Great views but unfortunately the bells themselves are covered for renovations.

[OneSixtyToOne]

8 hours ago, Mitina said:

Just there.  Great views but unfortunately the bells themselves are covered for renovations.

Are you talking about the Astronomical Clock or the bells at the Campanella? I believe the OP was referring to the Astronomical Clock. You can tour both.

 

If you are here at noon it’s quite a show.

 

Edited May 21 by OneSixtyToOne