On the positive side, the Viking Ocean ship was great and a nice size, only about 800 passengers. But it had high quality entertainment, great enrichment lectures, a great fitness area, and super public spaces. The food, like the river cruises, was great, maybe even better than the Viking Long Ship in Europe. Service in all areas was superb, especially guest services, which I used a lot to get advice on all the tours. I again was so impressed with all the pleasant greetings every day reflecting just how good Viking training is in customer service.

Visitors should take into account that this cruise is a little riskier than other Viking cruises because Cape Horn has some of the most turbulent seas in the world. Half the ports in Chile and Santiago were quite cool, mainly in the 50's, and one of the port visits was canceled due to high winds, resulting in four straight days in rough seas. The guides we had in two of the eight ports did not speak very good English and were not very polished. These were in two smaller cities in the southern parts of Chile and Argentina, challenging places to find good tour guides. The good ones we had, such as in Ushuaia, were from Buenos Aires. The guides in the bigger cities like Buenos Aires were fine. The port visits in the first half of the cruise, mainly Uruguay and Argentina, were boring, except for Buenos Aires and beautiful Ushuaia. There was just not that much of interest. If I were doing it again, I would cruise just the Pacific side of South America. The cruising in the Chilean Fjords and other areas such as the Puerto Montt area were gorgeous, and Valparaiso was the best larger size city on the cruise.