Viking Sea Review
Rating by category
Additional details
The concept of Cruising never really appealed to me. After many years of independent travel across the world the idea of someone else setting out an itinerary and deciding for me exactly where I should go and for how long was not very attractive. Then there was the matter of travelling with hundreds if not thousands of people together all on one ship. That struck me as just being mass transit taken to a ridiculous level with all the loss of privacy and other compromises that public transport entails.
Then I stumbled across the new and rapidly growing Viking Ocean Cruise line. I discovered the company while investigating options for a trip to Norway to experience the midnight sun. The idea of travelling from London by sea to Northern Norway had a certain appeal and, for once, a cruise was going exactly where I wanted and when I wanted.
As I researched the Viking company’s ships and its ethos it became clear that their target customers are more interested in history, art and culture than casinos and waterslides. In fact it seemed they had developed a product aimed fairly and squarely at people like my wife and I.
Cabin Review
Noise in hotels is often an issue for me and I always travel with earplugs. To my amazement on the Viking Sea these stayed in my bag. Even when we were underway there was not the slightest amount of engine noise or vibration in our cabin 2/3rds forwards on deck four. When in heavier seas there was a bit of a regular rumble and splash to be heard but I found this to be relaxing more than disturbing.
The positioning of our cabin close to an elevator was not a problem because I did not hear any sound, either from the elevator or from those passing the room to use it. Even the air conditioning that, as in hotels, inevitably made a little noise seemed to power up and down gradually and not in a sudden raucous rush.
Port Reviews
Toulon
The highlight for us here was the Naval Museum which was just a short walk from where the ship berthed. It is normally closed on Tuesdays in the off season but had opened specially for the ship's visit and we were even given a discount off the already modest price of the entry tickets. There was a very good english language audio guide included with the entry.
We also enjoyed a walk around the harbour and the colourful street market.
Rome (Civitavecchia)
We went into Rome by ourselves by train. We bypassed the free port shuttle (which drops you off a long way from the station) and walked directly from the ship to the station in about 15 minutes. There was a lady in the information office at the station who spoke excellent english giving us good advice on the trains to use and also selling us the tickets making the whole process really easy.
The main tourist areas in Rome were very busy (even in February) and swamped by ticket touts and others trying to profit from the visitors. I suppose it was worth doing once but, for myself, I would not rush back!
I have probably gone on a little long already but maybe I should also add something briefly about the “nuts and bolts” of the trip.
Viking arranged travel from our small local airport down to Barcelona and there were sufficient personnel at the airport and the shipside area of the port to guide us easily and quickly through the embarkation process.
Our cabin was ready immediately and we discovered that our suitcases had made of their way to the door even faster than we had!
We had used the 360 degree views on the Viking website to explore the ship before we left home and so were quickly able to find our way around. While there were many different lounge areas available we mostly found ourselves in the front facing explorers lounge, where there was a view, rather than the enclosed atrium lounge in the center of the ship.
In one corner of the Explorers lounge was Mamsen’s Norwegian deli. The open sandwiches and cake there give a lighter option for lunch and the waffles provide an alternative breakfast in a quiet setting when the main breakfast eatery, The World Café, is busy during the morning peak. 24 room service is also available without extra charge but we did not have chance to sample it.
For dining in the evening we worked our way through the various options including the two specialist restaurants. These were all very good but we enjoyed most the flexibility of the World Café buffet and the views it gave from its position on deck 7.
I understand Viking are unique in allowing passengers to bring their own alcohol on board. I can confirm that we were always easily able to pick up glasses from any of the bars to pour drinks in our room and that the staff happily poured our own wine which we brought Manfredi’s restaurant.
Free house wine and beer was also available in the restaurants with food at lunch and dinner time (not at the bars though!)
We went to two of the enrichment talks, on the undersea world and on Napoleon, the latter given by Peter Hobday, a name that we knew from his work with the BBC. These were in the late afternoon and could just be fitted in between time on shore and getting ready for the evening.
We also found time for two visits to the spa, another free benefit from Viking because only treatments are paid for. The lockers in the spa area are operated by using the cabin key and inside are slippers and a robe as well as the towel. There are also many more towels available both in the spa area and out by the pool. The snow room is an interesting feature of the spa but don’t forget to keep your slippers on unless you want very cold feet!
I have given separate reviews for each of the tours we took but should also point out that Viking arranged free transport to and from each off the city areas of the ports in addition to the organised tours.
We are not ourselves so keen on shows as such but did enjoy the live music from musicians who rotates through various areas of the ship.
Our trip home could have been something of a disaster, not through any fault of Viking but because of the weather. Unexpected snow caused serious disruptions at Amsterdam airport on the day we left from Rome. The Viking representative at the airport gave great service and arranged for us to be upgraded (again free of charge) into business class as these were the only seats available on the final flight of the day into our local airport. This gave the huge advantage of access into KLM’s business class lounge at Amsterdam turning what would have been a terrible five hour layover into a very pleasant experience.
While the price of the cruise might seem a little high, once on board everything that we needed really was available at no extra charge. Overall Viking lived up to their promises and then some.