People ask me what was my favorite thing about the cruise. My answer is "the ship". The Viking Star was beautiful in every way. The food and entertainment were simply excellent, with a great choice of food venues. The state room was roomy with a great shower and I loved having the laundry room with the washers and dryers right down the hall. It became the social center of our deck. The service was impeccable as I would expect with Viking. Also, my husband had to see the doctor while on board and he experienced very good care and treatment.

The excursions, however, need some work. The quality of the tour guides is sketchy. Some excellent, others not. The worst of the excursions was in Rome. The guide took us by the coliseum and on to the plaza of the basilica and left us with no map of the city and no directions. We had four hours of free (dead) time. Everyone on our bus was complaining about it. Fortunately, we had another day in Rome on our own once we left the cruise and we received a great map of the city with sites marked from the hotel.

Also, some of the guides had such strong accents that it was difficult for us English-only passengers to understand them. Others had excellent English. Read more