A group of us chose the Viking Homeland cruise because it visited so many countries. We arrived in Stockholm a day before the cruise to make sure we didn't have any travel problems and to get rid of jet lag. The next day we embarked -- Viking picked us up at our hotel and took us to the ship so embarkation went very smoothly. We enjoyed all of our excursions -- the only problem was trying to pick from all the excursions offered. The weather was fine until we got to Norway where it rained often, but remember, there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. My wife and I have sailed with Viking before; the service is always great and the meals are wonderful. We actually recognized some of the crew in the restaurants from a cruise we took on Viking Star the year before -- they transferred to Viking Sky to act as trainers for the new crew. I always like to talk to the crew members to see where they're from and how long they've been with Viking. Many crewmen had been in the business for years with other companies before moving to Viking -- when asked they said they moved to Viking because Viking was a better company to work for.