We wanted to sail the Amazon River and enjoy the view from our balcony (see cabin review). The balcony was so disappointing.
Food: The food is excellent. Our favorites were The Restaurant and Manfredi's. Chef's Table is fine if you like the fixed menu for that night. The included wine with lunch and dinner was another disappointment. There's one choice each day, red or white. You don't get to choose dry or sweet in either category, so sometimes the red was too sweet for my husband and the white was too sweet for me. The response is that you're welcome to order and pay for what you want.
Internet: The best we've had on any of our 40+ cruises.
Response from VikingS, Community Team
We booked the Explorer Suite based on the large, forward-facing balcony, thinking we would actually get to use it. If you call reservations and ask about the "wraparound veranda" on the forward suite, you're told that you have unlimited access to the whole thing, including right up front, so you can see to the left and right as you cruise scenic areas. We were unpleasantly surprised to find that you can see the whole balcony, but you can only step out onto a small part of it on the side. A large part of what you get to walk on is awkward because of a glass wall that slopes toward the back of the ship. Very easy to hit your head as you try to access the area.
The forward facing suites we have stayed in on Princess and Oceania have fabulous balconies that you can walk out onto and have an unrestricted view port & starboard.
As for the rest of the suite, it was the cleanest, most well maintained suite we've ever been in. The only drawback was the huge coffee table that took up valuable space.
Panoramic Santarem tour and Santa Lucia Nature Walk: very enjoyable. We saw how tapioca is made, how rubber is harvested from trees, what brazil nuts look like in the shell, a lovely downtown/port area.