We have been long time fans of Norwegian having loved their entertainment as well as their fine dining restaurants. And in recent years they've been throwing in the drink packages which is awesome. So when we wanted to sail the Panama canal I assumed we would do Norwegian again. But then I started researching Viking...

We've decided we like balcony staterooms so when I added up what Norwegian cost - the gratuity on the drink package (>$400/cabin), price of shore excursions and the price of upgrade to balcony and then compared to Viking, Viking actually came out as cheaper! We had already desired a different and more luxury experience and I had read and watched reviews of Viking that made it sound appealing. Bottom line is Viking was a better deal financially and in total a much better experience all around.

Just some context...we have been on Princess (never again) and their food was barely tolerable. And their restaurant service was horrible. We had consistently rude servers and hosts and terrible food on Princess. I've NEVER experienced that on Norwegian and certainly not on Viking. I expect 5 star service and that's what we've received everywhere except the one Princess cruise we did (which was 3 years ago). Princess ship was also old and not kept up - elevators were always breaking causing us to use the stairs many times. Read more