We love Viking. The ships are immaculately maintained, the crew holds itself to very high standards, and the dining is exceptional. The Viking Sea is no exception to this. However, we were very disappointed with our shore excursion experience. And upfront I'm going to say that as this cruise was the very first time Viking had ever been to these ports, and therefore no experience to rely on, maybe my expectations were a little high. The problems we encountered were with excursion providers that Viking has never dwelt with before and probably won't be using again. We arrived several days early in Montreal and therefore passed on any of the excursions that stayed in Montreal. We took an "optional" excursion to a sugar shack to taste and learn about the production of Maple syrup. This is the only excursion that we fully enjoyed. It went well and I would highly recommend it to future cruisers.

Our next stop was Quebec. This is where our non-satisfactory experiences started. We opted for an excursion that was billed as a stroll through lower Quebec followed by a ride in the funicular to upper Quebec where we would catch a ride in a horse drawn carriage for a tour of upper Quebec. As it turned out, our walking part of the tour was a race through lower Quebec, up the funicular, then a quick march further up the hill to a park where we caught our carriage ride. This was all because not enough time was given for us to get to the scheduled carriage ride. Ugh!!! Next stop on the cruise was Sagueny. This was the only rainy day on our trip. We opted for the included excursion which hauled a large percentage of the Viking Sea passengers to a large auditorium/theater where the locals re-enacted the local history complete with horses and cannons. As this is a French speaking community, Viking had requested that the re-enactment be done in English for us. This was done with a voice over that included all of the singing. The English speaking was a real help, however, the singing really should have not been translated to English. It would have been a lot more enjoyable in French, even if I couldn't understand it. The battle re-enactments didn't hold back on the cannon fire and accompanying smoke. For me this was way too loud, I had to resort to holding my fingers in my ears, and the smoke caused my asthma to flare. This was all unexpected as I haven't had an asthma attack in years. I managed to catch an early bus back to the ship to get my asthma inhaler.

Our next stop was scheduled to be Prince Edward Island. However, due to a preceived abundance of whales in the area, Canada limited our cruising speed to 10 kts. This speed precluded our ability to make it there and an itinerary change was instituted taking us to Gaspe instead. Gaspe is a small port, nothing quaint about it. Mostly modern buildings in the town. The included tour took us on a bus to a nearby national forest with views of the changing colors along the way. We got to stop in the park at a bay with a boat dock and ramp. It was a nice stop, but not much to do than streach your legs and take some pictures. We then followed the road to the end and headed back to the ship. On our way back we were allowed to stop at a church where we had some very good views of the hills and color change in the trees. Again, nice to stop and take some pictures. Back to the ship. On leaving port, the city gave us a sendoff with a fireworks show. Read more