The brand new Viking Sun, one of Viking’s many identical mid-sized ships to come, seemed ideal as it would be sparklingly new in every way. Then too, the itinerary sounded fantastic from Miami, Florida to London via the Panama Canal and Los Angeles, multiple south seas islands, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, Manila, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia/IndoChina, Thailand, India, Arabian ports, Egypt, Malta, Algiers, southern Spanish ports, and Porto Spain.

Many cruise ship features that are usually paid extra en route were included in the quoted cruise fares which made it feel richer and more convenient, but of course passengers are getting nothing for free. Wi-fi, for example, which has been a ripoff for many passengers for years, was “free” but very marginal and intermittent at best. For a very long cruise one was basically unable to carry on much of modern ordinary financial or communications needs with such inadequate service.

Many ports were simply too far from sight-seeing and cultural destinations to make visiting them much more than very long round trip bus rides. Partly this was poor planning and port selection by Viking. Partly it was a low pecking order in port assignments for a firm new to many world ports. It also showed shallowness of knowledge about the most desirable places to visit. Many passengers were experienced and well educated and in some cases experienced comical day tours for quite a bit of extra cost. This was also true of on board entertainment, much of which was sophomoric. Read more