My husband and I chose this cruise for the itinerary as well as Viking's stellar reputation. We weren't disappointed. The cabin, food and service were exceptional. We've cruised with RSS and Celebrity but Viking outperformed them both in these areas. We enjoyed a few days in Oslo prior to the cruise staying at the Hotel Thon Opera. We were a bit unhappy that our rooms weren't ready when we arrived at 3:00pm and we had to wait in the lobby for a bit. Other than that, the hotel was very nice and the breakfast they offered was sensational. And because we were inconvenienced by the delayed check-in, Viking arranged a very nice coach tour of the Oslo area, which included a stop at the the very interesting Viking Ship Museum. We took a very comfortable and scenic train ride from Oslo to Bergen to embark the lovely Viking Sea.

Excurions:

We highly recommend the Fish Farming and Maritime History tour offered while at port in Bergen. We toured a facility that builds beautiful wooden boats and makes rope, then drove through beautiful Hardangerfjord to reach the fish farm. We were then taken to the mountains, to Voss, for a delicious lakeside lunch. It was a great day! It was fortuitous that our tour took us out of Bergen because Bergen was hosting an international cycling event the day we were in port so most of the Bergen city tours were cancelled. (A boat tour of Bergen was substituted.) Viking provided everyone with a $200 ship board credit for being inconvenienced. Very nice of Viking. Read more