We were in a forward penthouse on deck 5 port side. The room and service were very good. The ship was new. The cabin was large with a good quality finish. the dining was excellent as you would expect from Viking. The entertainment and activities were very good. This cruise got switched from Ephesus and Istanbul at the end and added Corfu and Olympia. I was told Viking was the last to switch out of Turkey, which they did in April. All the other lines pulled out before then. We did our own Venice thing, specifically the walking food tour of Canneregio the night before boarding and is highly recommended. We did the included tours for all the stops except Santorini and Athens. The only disappointing included tour was Corfu, and that was probably because of all the refugee Cruise ships that also backed out of Turkey. In Santorini we did the Many Flavors tour. This included the archeological stop. We were so lucky our guide just happened to be a PhD in Archeology, and a level 3 Sommelier trained in Italy. He really brought Akrotiri to life. We got our own guide for 8 hours in Athens for the 4 of us because the included tour did not include the Acropolis and the add on tour was sold out. We are glad we did. there are great tours available out of the cruise port and I would highly recommend those over Viking. Ours was

8 hours with a guide (fantastic) and knowledgeable, and a very funny driver. About $150 per person and well worth it to see all the highlights of Athens. I am a long time lurker to cruse critic, and wanted to post to help others. The following are my notes I took in real time about the little things. We were 2 couples, related in side by side room.

You can open the balcony door between cabins and ours stayed open even at sea. We shared room service coffee on the balcony every morning. Great views. Read more