The Sea is a delight.

We have taken 3 river cruises with Viking and been very pleased with the experience, so naturally we considered them when we starting thinking of for a blue water adventure. We were continually amazed at the level of service, the array of activities available on board and ashore in included and available excursions.

A few negatives:

1. On shore experiences the guides spent altogether too much time making local shopping available to the passengers. Naturally, frequent rest room breaks are appreciated; but on a number of the excursions in Greece & Israel particularly, we were obviously & continually being dumped into souvenir shops. Most tourists want to take back souvenir items for themselves and acquaintances, but the amount of time spent in such shops could have been better spent on useful touring.

2. The tour of Haifa's Bahai Gardens is not worth the effort - amounted to peeking thru gates from the top of the hill for 2 minutes. If their religious strictures restrict the access to their facility, the limited time in port would be much better spent elsewhere.

3. In Jerusalem, as my wife is of Armenian heritage, she naturally wanted to visit the Armenian Quarter. There was no tour that offered even a brief foray into that area; therefore, she bolted the tour and ventured on her own to satisfy her desire. She is an experienced traveller and rejoined the tour as agreed after an hour's diversion on her own. You may consider accommodating that need in future tours.