Wall Street Journal had an article about the Bangkok to Bali cruise. Our friends asked us to join them on the cruise to celebrate birthdays. If your birthday falls during the cruise, you may request a special gift. We had a lovely bottle of champagne and a delicious chocolate cake. Everything was great except for the travel arrangements made by Viking. The ship was beautiful with lots of ...
We chose this cruise line and destination for the reasons:
1. we were looking for a cruise line that limit the children
2. no "nickel and dime" cruise
3. always wanted to visit SEA but was not sure where to start, this provide on paper a great itinerary.
4. we are foodies and the "Kitchen Table" and "Chef Table" options really enticed us.
Our experience overall for this cruise was ...
Great way for a first time visit to parts of Southeast Asia. The cruise was perfect in most all aspects : a great and smooth embarkation and disembarkation processes, baggage handling and airport transportation; excellent staterooms design and amenities that beats most luxury hotel rooms; simplicity, quality and beauty of ship furniture and amenities everywhere; superb quality of food and service ...
Viking rated #1! Not for this cruise. Short amount of time in Bangkok. Included tour was much too short. For a city like Bangkok, more time is needed. Next stops, Kuala Lampur and Singapore needed much more time. Tours were ok, but guides needed a better command of the English language.
The time spent in Indonesia could have been put to better use by extending Bangkok and Singapore. Jakarta ...
This itinerary was very poorly designed. Long 2-3 hour bus rides on excursions, through Indonesia slums and hot old buses. Stayed two days in Jataka, nothing to see but cheap for Viking to dock, Singapore was beautiful, we stayed 7 hours. The entire trip was promoted as as ending in Bali. We arrived at 6:00 pm, had to tender in, they overloaded tenders with to many people at 95 degree for a ...
Choose cruise to the itinerary.... Bangkok to Bali segment... Selected a mix of ship and private Tours... Ship tours... Someone needs to insure that tour guides speak undertstandable English. Ship is awesome--but should be --it's only two years old. Staff --99% great... a couple of bad apples need a brushup on interpersonal skills... humans will be humans.. "In a minute"(with an ...
The vessel, food, and staff are magnificent. The vessel is extremely handsome without being ostentatious.
Space per passenger is extraordinary; didn't feel crowded.
Buffet almost always had extraordinary choices. Specialty restaurants were good but often booked. The "standard" restaurant was excellent and we never waited more than 10 minutes to be seated; often no wait at all.
The bakery ...
We were on the 12 day BKK > Bali leg.
a) The Ship
We should say up front we were wowed by the ship : immaculate and beautiful, and kept pristine by a dedicated staff. Although at 930 guests is one of the larger ships we have been on , it never felt crowded . There are loads of nooks and crannies to curl up with a book in peace and quiet.The child-free policy is another huge bonus. The ...
Liked itinerary but expected to spend more time in Bangkok and Bali.
The ship was elegant and clean. Food was excellent but didn’t like the food in Chefs Table. This was our first Viking ocean cruise and may be our last if this is the way all their cruises are. No time to spend in Bangkok or Bali...misrepresented cruise. Some included tours were unsatisfactory, some were excellent.
More ...
We had expected better based on other travelers comments, cruise description and cost.
To begin with the description of the cruise was misleading, it was described as spending two days in Bali, when in reality we arrived in Bali in the evening and had to disembark the next morning. Luckily we had extended our trip by one day on our own so we had the chance to see something.
Second, the ...