At sea… for awhile

 Not much in the way of pictures today, as we’re at sea all day.

That much was planned.

It was supposed to go like this:

Saturday at sea

Sunday in the Faroe Islands

Monday at sea

Tuesday at Olden, Norway

But this morning the captain came on the PA system and said that he’d talked to the pilot in the Faroe Islands (harbour pilots usually board cruise vessels and dock the ships, rather than the cruise captains, or they at least accompany the ships via tug) and he was told that there’s a nasty storm coming in tomorrow and it would be dangerous if not impossible to dock there that day.

So they had to cancel the stop at the Faroe Islands. That’s a shame, since we know nothing about them and were excited to see them - however, seeing them in the middle of a bad storm wouldn’t be much fun, so it’s best that we skipped it.

So now it looks like this:

Saturday at sea

Sunday at sea, docking late nite in Molde, Norway

Monday at Molde, Norway

Tuesday in Olden and continuing on as normal.

The ship tracker in the room confirmed it - we’ve already gone past Faroe.

So… at sea.

We’ve been on cruises with Norwegian Cruise Lines as well as Holland America.

Each of them has their pros and cons, but we both preferred Holland America to NCL.

Viking is a bit different than either of them.

First, there’s the sticker shock. It looks on the surface like Viking is waaaaaay more expensive that other lines with similar itineraries and if you look at the posted price, that would be correct.

But Viking is an inclusive price, where others charge a lower up-front fee and then nickel-and-dime you to death once you’re on board.

Oh, you’d like a Diet Coke? That’s $3.50 plus mandatory 15% tip.

Wifi? You’re going to pay by the minute and it’s going to be expensive. And you’ll be paying by the minute the whole time the dreadfully slow connection speeds at sea take forever to download your email.

Shore excursions? Yeah, every one you want to do is going to cost a chunk of change.

Oh, you wanted a cabin with a window? That’s gonna be a LOT more than the published price in the ad. If you want a balcony, it’ll be even more than that.

It’s very, very easy to run up costs on board that are equal to or even more than you paid for the cruise.

Seasoned cruisers know this up front and plan for that, but Rob and I would rather just know what it will cost right at the start and then not have to worry about “how much is a glass of wine?” at every meal.

Viking includes a shore excursion at every stop. These are basic “overview of the area” tours which are great for places you’ve never been. For those who want to see specific sights in more detail, they also offer upcharge tours if you want that.

Also, and this can’t be stressed enough: beer, wine, pop, and coffee/tea are included at lunch/dinner with unlimited refills.

Y’all know me. Unlimited refills on red wine?

Yes, please. There’s a different house wine every day (almost - they repeated the day-one wine on day six) and they’ve all been really nice. We had ones from France, Portugal, Argentina, Australia, and Italy so far.

The ship: Every room has a balcony. We’re in the middle-tier room for the first half of the trip and it’s roomy and comfortable.

here’s a lot of storage space for our stuff and we don’t feel like we’re living out of a suitcase. There’s a laundrette just down the hall when you need to do a load of socks and undies or clean the wine off your shirt.

The decor is upscale Scandinavian - lots of light coloured wood and Scandinavian design. The door handles and handrails all over the ship are covered in leather.

The staff are as good as you’ve heard. The cabin steward has called us by name every day, even if he sees us elsewhere on the ship.

At dinner, on the second day we told them we’d prefer a table for two a bit isolated from the others (the first day, we had a table in a long row of tables, quite close to each other) and the hostess picked out a particular table near the back window next to a partition. It was perfect and we told her so.

She saves that table for us every night now and calls us by name when we arrive.

The wait staff at the table know to bring Rob extra cornbread and butter without him even asking.

Those might seem like small details, but small details can add up to a very pleasant experience on board.

One thing I noticed that might be common on other ships as well (but I’d not noticed it) is that there’s a button in the elevators labeled “Gangway”. Depending on where we’re docked, the gangway might be on deck A, 1, or 2 and it can be hard to remember which one to go to at each stop - so you simply push the “Gangway” button on the elevator and it knows which deck to stop on that day.

Food: for the most part, it’s been very good. Tonight, we both had shortribs and polenta, which was quite tasty.

Viking has a “classics” page on one side of the menu which features always-available fare for when you can’t be bothered with anything exotic and just want a steak. It has beef, chicken, pork, and fish dishes with the typical sides.

The other side of the menu has the selections of the day, which can be just about anything. There’s a “destination menu” section, where the fare is indicative of the next port of call. Today, there was a broiled lobster, a crispy black bass, and a roast loin of veal, for instance.

The rest of the “WTF did they cook today?” side of the menu had the short ribs and gnocchi and even a cajun seafood gumbo.

I know, right? What do Norwegians know about gumbo? I had to try it. When the bowl showed up at the table, the roux was a caramel colour, when I’d have expected black. It tasted very good, though, and not “fishy” at all, which was nice. A few dashes of Tabasco and it was perfect.

Back to the decor: all cruise ships have hand disinfecting stations - and they have since before covid, since ships are basically floating Petri dishes. Where both NCL and HolAm had the pumps with the gel, Viking has these nice sprayers.

Stick your hand in, and it sprays a mist of liquid sanitizer onto your hands that’s not gooey and it evaporates very quickly. By the time you sit down to eat, all traces of it have gone. Again… it’s a small touch, but they add up.

And I almost forgot: the bed linens are some of the best I’ve ever slept on and the mattress is comfy, too. It’s a joy to hit the sack at night.

o does Viking get anything wrong?

That depends on what you’re after.

The vibe on the ship is anything BUT ‘party boat’. You won’t find a live band by the pool, there aren’t any raucous pool parties, disco nights, late-night jazz clubs, or anything like that.

Other cruse lines pay particular attention to “life on board”, offering casinos, art auctions, nightly trivia contests, water slides, rock climbing walls, sports complexes, etc etc etc.

They also have nightly music and dance entertainers, featuring pop hits, broadway-style revues, and the like.

There’s none of that here. On rare occasions, you’ll get a singer or a comedian, but it’s certainly not two shows a night, every night.

Most of the time, the theatre is used for “port talks” where a local expert will do a lecture on the history and culture of the next place you’re stopping.

That’s not to say there isn’t entertainment - but it’s more subdued. There’s a pianist, a string duo, and a folk guitarist (whom we like very much) and they can be heard playing nice background music for the lounges or in the explorer’s deck up front.

Also: no kids. Everyone on board is at least 18 per ship rules… and nearly everyone on board is at least 60, per the type of folks that this sort of fare attracts. These aren’t people who book a cruise for a floating party, these are folks who book a cruise to see and learn about parts of the world. For that crowd, this is right up their alley… err, fjord.

While I’m fine with not having the big, cheesy shows every night, I will say that I’d love to see them add something like Holland America’s “Lincoln Center Stage”, a small room with some classy live music that has something on nearly every night. We’ve really enjoyed that venue on those cruises and I think the Viking crowd would appreciate it as well.

To be honest, Viking ships are a bit dull on “at sea” days, as the available entertainment options are quite limited.

I did catch the show in the planetarium, though. It was kinda neat.

Also, it’s nice that the outdoor pool is heated when the ship is in motion, but it would be even nicer if the indoor pool was heated as well. When the temps outside are 10C with a hefty wind chill, your options are warm pool in cold outside air or ice-cold pool in warm inside air. Weird. (update: the indoor pool is usually heated, but the heater was not working for the first leg of our cruise)

Another thing that I think Viking could do better is relaxing the ridiculously short time frame in which the entire trip must be paid in full. Considering that these cruises sell out completely more than a year before they sail, you’ve got to book these early - sometimes, up to two years before you sail - and yet they’ve got to be paid in full within six months of when you book. Something comes up and you have to cancel, you get refunded in credits toward another cruise in the future - not a refund in actual money. Yikes.

Once you’ve finished a cruise, you get a credit towards a future cruise, which is nice… we’ve booked five cruises and we’d love to apply the credits from this cruise toward the cruise we’ve got coming up, but we had to pay it in full already. The same for the cruise after that AND the one after that. We’re going to have a chat with someone on board to see if they’ll push back the deadline to pay for the 2024 cruise we booked so we can use some of these credits we’ll be getting, but I don’t know if they’ll push it back far enough to use the money for that. We’ll see.

First-world problems? Absolutely. But annoying, nonetheless.

Overall, we’re really happy with the Viking experience and we’re already looking forward to the ones we’ve got booked in the future.

What else? I think that’s about it. I’m sure I will think about other things right after I hit ’post’ but there’s another at-sea day tomorrow, so if I think of something, I’ll cover it then.

So for now, here’s a shot of the sun as “set” as it’s going to get off the back of the ship, facing Iceland (some 400 nautical miles away)

On to the next day!

back to Iceland cruise menu page

back to the Travelogues menu page