This was our second Viking Cruise. Our last was a river cruise in Russia in 2019. We were not sure what to expect due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the heightened controls and procedures that were being implemented at the time of our cruise. Viking made it feel as seamless as possible. The ship was beautiful. It felt very clean and the protocols that were in place were mildly restricting, however we appreciated this. The best part of this cruise was the crew. People make "all" companies what they are. The value is in the human capital of a company. We deeply appreciated the crew and the fact that they went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable. The countries we visited still had restrictions and we were required to stay in our excursion groups with minimal independent exploration. You could tell that they were doing their best to operate in this environment. If it wasn't for the limited excursions available at the time I would have given the cruise five stars. As we continue to learn to live with COVID I believe this part of cruising, in general, will get better. The food and the entertainment were very good. Viking cruises are not party-boat cruises. They are intellectually driven and one of my favorite things about them are the other guests we've met. We've already booked our next cruise with Viking for Spring 2023!