We expected this cruise to be a clear cut above our prior cruises and we were not disappointed. When the smallest stateroom on the ship is 270 sq ft and has a balcony, that's a good start on a superior cruise. The other obvious advantage is only 900+ passengers and the low crew-to-passenger ratio. On larger ships it's not unusual to find yourself being the fortieth or fiftieth person in a buffet line. On Viking, we never encountered lines anywhere. We opted for the 405 sq ft Penthouse Junior Suite and were really glad we splurged a little.

The embarkation was terrible, but this wasn't entirely Viking's fault. The Port of Barcelona had taken away the assigned berth, so we had to suffer through a poorly-organized embarkation procedure in a Barcelona hotel lobby, then wait 3 hours to board a bus for an hour and a half bus ride to the port of Tarragona. So our promised 11:00 am stateroom access turned out to be closer to 5:00 pm. But things were immediately better once we walked the gangway. You'll notice a primary component of most of the glitzy mega ships to be plastic, while those appointments on the Viking Sea were predominately fine wood. And we were continually overwhelmed by the perception that almost every member of the crew was very happy and really, really glad to be there. On prior cruises it often seemed that the forced smile was merely part of the uniform, but not on Viking: the crew simply could not do enough for you, from stewards to waiters to headwaiters to ship's officers. We spoke with several crew members on this issue, and they all agreed working for Viking was far superior to their previous cruise gigs. It showed in their performance.

We had never before encountered a cruise in which the ship spent an extra night in the embarkation port and in the debarkation port. We found this to be a wonderful idea, allowing us to see these cities without having to unpack, pack, move, and unpack after one or two nights in a hotel. Read more