Viking Octantis Review
5.0 / 5.0
JanmaO
10+ Cruises • Age 70s
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Sail Date: Dec 2022
Cabin: Deluxe Nordic Balcony
Our previous cruise experiences have centered around jazz cruises--once to Alaska, but most in the Caribbean. When I read about the special discounts being offered by Viking for their expedition/adventure cruises to Antarctica, and shared the information with my husband, we decided it was the PERFECT gift for our birthdays/Christmas! We usually head to warmer climes in the winter (I'm normally NOT a fan of snow) so we took a lot of ribbing from our kids, but ended up getting the last laugh when our 32F temperatures in Antarctica was warmer than Colorado, Minnesota or Missouri during our travels!
The ship was beautiful! I get seasick without a motion sickness patch, but was ok the entire trip except for the roughest part of our return through the Drake Passage--our trip out had been gloriously smooth. My husband loved every second (he has NO trouble with motion of any type) and was up in the bow watching the waves from both the Explorer and Hide bars--even taking videos--quite impressive/amazing!
The entire trip was incredible! The coats (which are very useful in our Colorado winter) are wonderfully warm, and the boots/snow pants that were loaned to us also kept us toasty in the Zodiacs and Special Ops Boats and on land no matter how windy! It was so nice to have the boots /pants provided and not have to pack things so bulky!
Cabin Review
Deluxe Nordic Balcony
The cabin was roomy and comfortable and our stewards were fabulous! The "drying" cabinet for our outerwear was amazing and coats, boots, gloves, hats, pants--everything--was dry before you needed it the next day!
The Deluxe Nordic Balcony is basically a window that opens from the top down and has a window sill you can rest your elbows/camera/binoculars on to help remain more steady while you look out. We used it a couple of times for a clear, unobstructed view (the windows get full of water spots from rain/snow/sea spray) but the cold temperatures outside make it unpleasant to leave the window open for long. And, when the wind and seas were really rough, the window creaked and popped and sounded like it was going to break! And it leaked cold air. I preferred walking upstairs to one of the doorways to get my clear view. I found the loud noises made by the window to be quite disconcerting when trying to sleep at night.
The heated floor in the bathroom was so nice and made stepping out of the shower so pleasant! Also, the shampoo, conditioner, bath gel, lotion, sunscreen, lip balm were all lovely--I would never bother to take my own toiletries on a Viking cruise in the future!
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