I would have rated the trip five stars except for one important issue: the quality of the included excursions. We went on a few and found all but one of them (Stockholm City Tour) completely inadequate -- the guides were very young, inexperienced and, in one case, had very poor English We spent about half our time on that tour guessing at what he was actually trying to say. So, we decided not to bother with included tours and just do our own thing. We had already booked private tours in a lot of the ports and I'm glad we did. Viking certainly could do a better job of finding city tour companies that do a professional job. This is not the place to cut corners. OTOH, we did go on one optional Viking tour (Castles of North Zeeland) and it couldn't have been any better.

In all other ways, our cruise experience exceeded our expectations which were already pretty high. The ship is gorgeous, our stateroom was comfortable, roomy and very nicely turned out. The food we ate onboard was excellent, room service was very responsive. The staff was well trained, very friendly and went out of their way to help with anything you asked. The embarkation and disembarkation both went very smoothly. We can't comment too much on the entertainment because we didn't focus much on it, but we certainly enjoyed ambience of the classical music in the Atrium and Explorer's Lounge. Oh, and the Spa is too de for. Don't miss the steam room and snow grotto experience!

In short, Viking Ocean is off to an excellent start and we would certainly consider another cruise with Viking. However, Viking Oceans definitely needs to up its game with regard to the included excursions so that they match the great reputation they enjoy with the Viking River cruisers.