Viking Sea Review
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Wife and I have been cruising over 25 years. These days we prefer suites on longer cruises so we upgraded to the Explorer Suite. Well worth the money. Great room and largest balcony we’ve ever had. Viking Sea is only two years old so we were definitely spoiled. Ship is in great shape and many things on board are fascinating like the shower in the suite. It’s walk-in with no ledge. Great drainage via great design. Heated towel racks etc. were all as one would expect in the top-rated suites. Room came with lots of extras and as the brochures say, all is included. Room service was great for early breakfast when shore excursions were leaving early. Service was impeccable. Food was great. Entertainment was so-so. The night club was fun. The house band playing in the night club was probably the best musicians on the trip. Had a great couple singing just about anything you could name and they hit it out of the park. Bar tenders do the flippy thing with bottles which is fun to watch as well. Pools, gym, etc. was all new and great.
This trip was Barcelona and Beyond, a three-week cruise I understand they will no longer offer. Itinerary hit the Baltic region where we’ve never been. I’ll be brief and say this was the best cruise we’ve ever been on in over 25 years, but there are a few things that surprised us.
1. Shore excursions: The literature says shore excursions are included. Wrong. One shore excursion is included at no additional charge at each stop, but that excursion usually consists of a 3-hour bus ride with the tour guide talking about a site as you drive by. These are also what you get if you take the transfers onto the ship and off. They use the 3 hours to kill while the ship gets ready for boarding or the hotel is ready for check-in. I’d probably take a taxi in the future. Plan on paying for excursions the old-fashioned way if booking through the cruise. You can book your own through somebody like Viator.com but if they don’t get you back in time you’re screwed and the boat leaves without you. One thing about Viking, they stick to a schedule as far as departures.
Cabin Review
Excellent in all areas. See their web site. It's all true.
Port Reviews
Le Havre
We'd already been to Paris several times and also had seen Normandy so we played golf on the coast. Picuresque course but it was in rough shape. Rental clubs were crap. Had to arrange limo to the course as taxis were not dependable for return trip and car rental was going to be more expensive. Limo was $200 Euro for round trip. Rent car would have been more.
Amsterdam
Did the Hop a bus which was poor. Stopped at the Diamond Factory and got the wife a ring. Should have booked other things ahead of time. Thought we'd get it when we got there as we didn't know when we would get to where. That was a mistake. You really HAVE to make plans to skip lines and make sure you can get into museums etc. at specific times. Also, bike riders will kill you so you need to watch it getting of busses.
St. Petersburg
In hind sight we should have booked the full St. Petersburg experience or arranged a private tour.