Our first Viking experience. The ship was beautiful and in great shape, as a one-year old ship should be. The staff was phenomenal, helpful and cheerful. The entertainers were wonderful and very accessible. We interacted with the cruise director more than we had with all previous directors combined. Even the Captain was friendly and accessible. Food was excellent with only a few misfires.

The downside involved ports. The cruise was scheduled to proceed from London to Brugge, then to the Norwegian stops in Stavanger, Bodo, Tromso, Alta, Narvik and Bergen. Stavanger was cancelled due to weather so we headed for Bodo which was soon cancelled as well, again due to weather. A stop in the Lofoten islands was attempted but was cancelled. Instead of two port calls and a sea day, we got three sea days in a row. Not the end of the world but the company could have made it clear that weather was likely to be an issue at this time of year. I'm sure the fine print in the contract said that ports were not guaranteed but in this circumstance an explicit warning would have been appropriate. We probably still would have booked the trip but our expectations would have been more realistic.

Our original stateroom was on Deck 3, aft. It was beyond reproach except that it creaked and groaned. We were fine with this but, when the seas got rough we started to hear a banging noise from outside the room as if someone were slamming a drawer endlessly. We got our stateroom changed to one on Deck 4, midship and had no more problems. Read more