We choose this Viking ocean cruise for its itinerary and our previous enjoyment of several great Viking River Cruises. It was a disaster from start to finish. We were suppose to leave from Boston, which we did but to LaGuardia not Rome. Okay. We get to the ship with the usual Viking efficiency, but then it takes them 12 hours to get the ship away from the pier so we miss going through the Straits of Sicily during daylight and half our stay in Malta. We get to Tunis and... we're the first boat there since the last tourist massacre. Nobody can go anywhere with heavily armed guards, as in body armor and automatic rifles. Brits aren't allowed off the boat. Clear signs of militias. So off to Algiers but the boat can't handle the seas, as in ceiling plaster in my martini, so we're late again but no big loss because it is also too dangerous to tour. Now the ship can not do more than headway speed and we're a day late to Valencia but it's to rough to try to dock so we skip the port entirely and wait off Barcelona. Now we're a day late and Viking sends us to Boston via Barcelona to Rome to LaGuardia to Boston, a 24 hour trip...Got home more stressed out than when we left. I am perplexed about their seamanship.