Cruise was booked whilst on the ship on another cruise in April. Original destination was Venice to Istanbul, changed to Venice to Athens (3 nights in Greece!). Not ideal as we had been to Athens & Greece before many times. Venice was embarkation port so no excursions, departed for Slovakia that night and then down the Croatia coast to Greece and Greek islands, ending up 2 days in Athens. Half the cruise was thus wasted for us.

Ship was full this cruise and the service had got a lot worse than the previous cruise which was only 80% full. Service in the World Cafe was poor most meal times, with waiters outnumbered by "managers" - with stripes on their uniforms, and none of them paying much attention to what the waiters were doing. Most waiters seemed to be sent down to serve in the main restaurant, which was always busy with queues to get a table. The ones left in World Cafe were not "on the ball" much of the time (some were very good, but many seemed to want to loaf around). (World Cafe was at dinner almost empty, but we were told by Viking the lack of service was due to the World Cafe being "extremely popular and busy"! Not true.

Service in the rest of the ship was excellent - housekeeping staff are great and nothing is too much trouble, staff on the desks and in the spa are very good. Read more