We chose this cruise because of the many destinations we had wanted to see, and this one checked off a lot of them. We were lucky enough to go into Istanbul 4 days early, probably one of the last cruises going in there. We booked our pre-trip seperately from the cruise line. It was wonderful, and we hope that Istanbul and the rest of Turkey get back to some terrific tourism! A gorgeous and historically important city.

The Viking Star surpassed our expectations! I don't do open water well, but we had fantastic weather while we were onboard! We got to see Troy, Epehsus, and the fabulous Santorini. We met up with our new sister ship the Viking Sea, and the whole day, start to finish, was spectacular. We sailed into the caldera side by side, on a breath-taking morning, to a whole lot of celebration with Viking! We did stop in Athens as well, but, Athens is still in a state of turmoil, and the city was a graffitti mess.

We journyied up to Montenegro, and Croatia, and departed in Venice, which we did not stop at, because we had been there previously. Read more