My wife and I have sailed with Viking on many river cruises and were curious about the new ocean service. During our Viking Homelands cruise we were, overall, very impressed. The food was outstanding. The staff made us feel at home. It was delightful, with two exceptions. First, we selected a stateroom aft on Deck 6 right under the open air dining area on Deck 7 aft of the World Cafe. Every evening the crew would move the tables and chairs forward to the World Cafe bulkhead. Every morning between 4:30 and 5:30 they would relocate them around the open area--not by picking them up and placing them down, but by pushing them around the deck. This created an annoying racket. Asking Reception and the Maitre d' to delay re-positioning the tables/chairs, or instructing the wait staff to lift them and place them quietly on the deck got us intermittent relief. We recommend future guests book passage in stateroom amidships on Deck 5 for an uninterrupted sleep. Second, Viking offers shore excursions for a fee. If you want to guarantee a place on an excursion before embarking, you have to pay for it with a credit card. You cannot use ship board credits, until you board the ship. Its an easy fix to pay for the excursion before boarding, cancel on board, and substitute credits for payments.. It is, however, annoying. Otherwise, it was an incredible cruise aboard a fabulous ship.

One last note. We prefer to travel independently and didn't take excursions that cost extra except in St. Petersburg--the ballet and the Russian Museum. The included tours, mostly windshield tours of the port towns, were OK, but with planning you can easily see the worthwhile sights for a fraction of the cost.