Who are we? We are a couple in our early 60's (a good 10-15 years younger than most on board) and have cruised on Princess 28 times. We decided to try something a little different and thought we'll give Viking Ocean a try. We decided on a 7 day Caribbean cruise to "try it out". We've been to the Caribbean many times, so we went for the ship experience as much as the ports. I will try not to "compare" too much, but with so much experience on Princess it is hard to avoid occasionally. In a lot of ways comparing Viking to Princess is not comparing apples to apples. They are different experiences.

Air was included in our fare. We live in upstate NY and flew out of Newark. We went in the night before, stayed in Newark, took the 4 am shuttle and got the 6 am flight booked for us by Viking on American Airlines. The weather gods were with us and it all went off without a hitch. We arrived in Miami around 10, went to baggage claim, saw the the Viking representative, collected our luggage, hopped on the bus, checked in and were on the ship around 11. You were given a glass of champagne and had to stay in the atrium area until around 11:30, when you could go to lunch and wander around the ship. We were allowed to go to our room at 1. We had lunch at the World Cafe and we walked the decks and learned our way around. Deck layouts are pretty straight forward and there are interactive maps at each stairway. Our room was ready by 1. It was a lovely room. Luggage wasn't there yet, so we explored a little more and rearranged some dining reservations.

We booked the specialty restaurants on line, but learned that you should check the menus for the Chef's Table and change them once on board, since the menu changes every couple of days. We like to eat 6-6:30, and the only reservation I could get for Chef's Table in advance was for the first night. We preferred another menu and were able to change to another night easily. Since the 1st night was Super Bowl and we weren't going to watch we were able to get a reservation at Manfredi's for that night. Everything I've read says you can get additional reservations once on board. They were limiting reservations to 1 per couple at each specialty since it was a short cruise. They did say you could check back later in the week to see if there are opening. After eating at both places, we didn't check back, so I don't know if there were additional openings. Read more