We obtained a great last minute rate with having a stateroom in the lower level rooms with a large port hole. We have had a balcony room before and we thought to try the less expensive room to see what it was like. After all you don't spend much time in the room.

The room was larger than the balcony room which was a plus. Our room was a few steps away from the front stairs. Standard room 102. It was very convenient get to the dining areas of the ship. I liked that Viking allows us to bring shore bought wine on board and no corking fees. I could easily run to my room to get my bottle of wine and be back to my dining room table in no time. The onboard free wine was much better than the standard wines served by other luxury cruise lines like Azamara. On Viking they served wines from the region on the bottom, not expensive ones but at least from the area rather than something from Chile or USA.

Back to the room. When the boat was underway usually at night we experienced lots of weird sounds. We heard lots of sloshing sounds which was probably the outside water hitting the bows of the boat. It was not a consistent sound so it was hard to get use to for the first few nights. A few days into the trip and you get use to it. If you are light sleeper (like me) I would recommend that you bring a white noise machine. Read more