We wanted to see the British Isles and this seemed to be the best way to do so. The Sun is a beautiful ship. The service was fantastic. The on board experience with Viking Ocean rivals the other top of the line cruise lines. However, unless you book in one of the most expensive cabins, by the time you are allowed to book shore excursions, which are booked on a priority basis, the best times for included excursions (that were nothing more than a bus ride around town) and the best optional excursions were already booked and not available. As a result we will never use Viking Ocean again. We paid over $15,000 for the cruise and were only able to book 2 optional excursions of our choice.
An example, the Beatles Experience in Liverpool was completely booked but the excursion was only a bus ride around town stopping at various places. Why not add a couple of additional buses? Same thing with a neat hike that entailed a bus ride and then a 1-2 hour hike. Why not just add additional buses? Viking is notorious for not listening to their passengers.