This review is primarily for people contemplating Viking Expeditions Panama and Scenic South America cruise. This is only my opinion. We are frequent cruisers and habitual Viking Ocean customers (1 river and 7 Viking Ocean cruises). We booked this one as it was relatively inexpensive for a lot of days (18) on a new Expedition class ship. We wanted to experience it and decide if we would invest in ...
We chose this trip from Santiago Chile through the Panama Canal to Ft. Lauderdale because we wanted to try an Expedition ship and I don't like cold weather. Everything is geared towards the Arctic however and there really wasn't much to do on the ship. We had a nature lecturer and a historian but the talks were mostly on the Arctic. The "toys" on board are only licensed to be used in Antarctica ...
Ponant is one of the few cruise lines that offers multiple cruises without a single supplement. For almost the same price as a Caribbean cruise on a premium cruise line (double for solos), I was able to book a mid-ship balcony cabin on an ultra-luxury Ponant cruise. Le Dumont d'Urville is a beautiful mega-yacht with a modern, minimalist design. Food, drinks, service, cabins, lectures and so forth ...
We wanted to see Maya sites and wanted to try Ponant. We have sailed on Cunard, Celebrity, Oceania, Windstar, Seabourn, Holland America and Viking - 20+ cruises in all, 6 on Seabourn.
I would say 80-90 percent of the passengers spoke French as their primary language. We enjoyed that.
The officers are French, the staff Indonesian or Filipino.
We were rather taken aback to see the captain ...
I have been on numerous cruises throughout the world, most of which I greatly enjoyed. This experience with Hurtigruten on a supposed 17 night Antarctica cruise was the worst vacation experience of my life. I found the food so bland as to be inedible by the third day, and in general I found the personnel, especially management, to be dismissive and unfriendly. The journey down the coast of ...
I have read travel reports, watched YouTube videos and perused articles about Hurtigruten for several years. When my wife and I decided on an Arctica trip to celebrate significant birthdays, Hurtigruten was an easy choice. Starting in Valparaiso, Chile, the enthusiasm and knowledge of the expedition crew ensured an interesting, informative and engaging range of activities, workshops and ...
Have never been to Brazil and was excited about the experience with the new expedition ships the Viking has developed. As expected Viking is a first class way to travel on any of their fleet of ships. Enjoyed meeting the expedition staff and the incredible informative including seeing/learning about microplastics, seeing the Hangar and Science Laboratory and the (BRUVS) Baited Remote Underwater ...
Hurtigruten has a long history of expedition cruising with the latest technology in their ships. Unfortunately that was their only highlight. The trip was very disorganized requiring you to use their app, however they don’t update the app frequently so you show up for something only to find it delayed for 3 hours. We had 4 days in Antarctica and that translated to a possible 8 landings or Zodiac ...
This cruise was an opportunity to see the Great Lakes area. Viking is in our view is the best of the best. Exceptional ship and amazing research done on board. Great dining and all-inclusive pricing. Amazing staff and staff to quest ratio is better than 2 to 1. The ship is the star of the cruise and the best ship we have ever sailed on. Historians on board made for an exceptional cruise and ...
The expedition experience that Viking is selling with this ship is definitely different from the typical ocean cruise experience. There are about two dozen staff members who are assigned to bring the expedition experience to life. The ship shares many of the design elements of the ocean ships. The cabins are nice and feature a floor to ceiling window instead of a balcony. The room darkening shade ...