Viking Cruise Review

Update from last post: we met with the shore excursions manager and had a productive conversation. Still not resolved as the people he needed to get in touch with are off on Sundays. Still, I felt like he listened to us and sided with us/understood our frustration. Sometimes that's all people need is to be heard and understood. 

Now for the Viking Review...
First, here are the reasons a Viking Cruise was appealing to me in the first place:

- No kids/No one under 18

-Smaller ship with around 900 passengers

-Didn’t nickel and dime you… higher price, but everything was included (wifi, room service, drinks, etc)

-Dubbed “the thinking persons cruise” aka not a party ship

-Heard super good things about Viking from many people 

-Liked the itinerary and excursions this cruise offered

Before our trip:

-I had some issues with the sales lady who booked us. She didn't always get back to me in a timely manner and sometimes I would email her a week later as a reminder before she would actually respond to me. She didn't seem to be very friendly or to be bending over backwards to assist me.

-Sadly, multiple excursions I was really excited about had been completely wiped out as an options. What if those excursions were part of the reason I booked with Viking in the first place?? That was disappointing.

Our trip:

When we boarded: we quickly realized we were the youngest on board. We knew going into it that a lot of people were of retirement age, but the comments were constant. “Are you traveling with parents/ grandparents?”, “how do you like being on a cruise with a bunch of old people?!" ... everyone was friendly though and we enjoyed talking to many other passengers throughout the voyage. 

Overheard in the elevator from one man to another:  “I’m 70 and I thought *I* was bringing down the average age of people on this ship."

I don’t mind traveling with this demographic (and I honestly prefer it to wild partying types)... It also led to some funny moments.

---One of our tour operators asked our bus if anyone had any trouble hearing. (He needed to know if he needed to use a microphone or not) The bus roared with laughter as, again, most guests are probably 60+.

The major downside is there probably weren’t as many adventure activities, hikes, etc as a normal cruise because some people have a harder time getting around.  I feel like on a couple occasions our walks were cut short/had a slow pace because of the demographic. 

Once on board the ship the staff was super friendly and what you would typically expect from a cruise ship. Very accommodating, friendly, etc.

Since it's a smaller ship the entertainment isn't as exciting as some larger ships. It was okay though. I didn't think it was anything special, but the artists were talented.

I was also pretty disappointed in the food. I'm a picky eater and the quality of the food/selection was just ...ehhh.

OVERALL... my verdict is: It was a nice cruise/experience, but I don't think it was worth the amount we paid for it. I wouldn't mind doing a Viking Cruise again if the price was better, but I probably won't seek it out. I would like to try others before doing a Viking trip again.

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Past cruises:

My first cruise was to Alaska and it was through Celebrity. This was probably 20 years ago and I don't really remember it well enough to rate it.

My dad and I took a river cruise down the Yangtze River in China and it was a small ship... I'm not even sure the name of it -I just know it wasn't a big name. It was fine, but I wouldn't classify it as a cruise.

Mike and I took an ice breaker ship to Antarctica with the Ocean Nova and I would, again, not really classify it as a cruise. No entertainment, not a lot of options, not luxurious at all...

Last year I took a Norwegian Cruise to the Bahamas and it was nice. I liked the ship, the food options, but I did not like the cruise director AT ALL, nor did I care for the entertainment which was a bit raunchy. Norwegian seemed to nickel and dime you, but I liked the excursions offered.

It's very hard to say which one I liked better -Viking or Norwegian. I liked some aspects of Viking better and some aspects of Norwegian... I think I just need my own ship. LOL
I want the smaller passenger size /no kids of Viking, but want excursions, entertainment (good, non raunchy kind please), and food of another cruise line. 

Jamaica

I didn’t even want to write this blog because I was SO disappointed with our time here. 

It’s also hard for me to write this blog without going into details on my experience with Viking. 

Here are the facts:

-When I first booked this cruise there was an excursion to Mystic Mountain which is what I was really set on. As we got closer to the cruise Viking removed it (and others) so they were no longer options. 

-My second choice for excursion was 4x4 jungle tour. Sounds cool, right?! But sadly it was all booked up so I figured I would get on a waitlist when we boarded the ship.

I would prefer to do excursions through the ship because it seems like a safer bet, but I planned on making my own way to mystic mountain if we couldn’t get the 4x4 tour. 

-We talked to guest services on the ship and I asked him if it was a 2 seater or 1 seater because I really wanted to drive my own. He said he didn’t know, but even if it ended up being a 2 seater I figured it would still be fun. 

-The day of the tour came and we boarded our bus. 

Our transport

I was a little disappointed because it was really hot and of course it didn’t have air conditioning because of the open sides. I get bad motion sickness so I sat towards the front. Lots of winding roads + bumps in the road + no air flow = very upset stomach. 

We reached our first stop on the tour and I asked the driver how long the bus ride was and he said 2 hours. Then I asked how long it was until we got to our 4x4’s and he said “this is it.” 

I had sunglasses on, but my eyes started tearing up.  I was SO looking forward to Jamaica and doing a 4x4… this is what I was envisioning and I’m pretty sure they used a picture similar to this in the advertisement for the excursion:

What I thought we were getting

 

We were maybe 30 minutes in, I felt extremely nauseous, it was very hot, and I just discovered we weren’t doing what I thought. 

It was extremely difficult to enjoy the rest of the trip which wasn’t even a good tour to begin with. 

Another lady on our ride told me she also thought it was a smaller vehicle like I had been envisioning.

We got back to the ship and I was extremely upset. If I had known all this I would have booked my own trip out to mystic mountain. I had a driver and everything lined up,  but by the time we got back there was no real time to do anything worth seeing. 

I take my countries very seriously and I didn’t even want to get a magnet because I feel like I didn’t see Jamaica at all. (I get magnets for every country I go to) 

Here are a few pics from our time in Jamaica:

How I felt

I'm currently waiting for the shore excursion manager to get back to me and hopefully they will make things right. Even if they do what I hope they will do, I will never get that time back and who knows if I will be going to Jamaica again in the future. This was supposed to be a one and done wonderful Jamaican experience and it ended up being a crappy way to end our vacation. 

In my next blog I will discuss the pros and cons of Viking and what my final thoughts are. Hopefully I will have a positive meeting with the shore excursions director. 

...to be continued

Panama

The first day was spent at the Panama Canal. We went through the first 3 locks and learned a TON! 

The canal uses a lock system that lifts ships up 85 feet to the elevation of the canal. To go through in its entirety would take 8-10 hours. 

The Panama Canal is considered one of the greatest feats in engineering history. So impressive!! The canal allows ships to travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific through a 48 mile shipping route which saves over 15,000 km around South America.  

There is so much to be said about the canal... It was absolutely fascinating. 

Fun fact: the smallest toll ever paid to go through the canal was 0.36 cents! This was back in 1928 by Richard Halliburton who swam the canal. It took him 50 hours! 

Definitely recommend seeing the Panama Canal in person and learning about it and it’s history. So cool!!

The following day we did a tour of Colon/Panama City/Casco Viejo. We spent most of the day on a bus and the cities themselves weren’t that exciting. Casco Viejo had some cool architecture, but other than that this was my least favorite excursion of the cruise. The only thing that made up for it was our guide. Since we had a lot of time on the bus he gave a COMPLETE history lesson of Panama, the canal, the relationship with the U.S. ... and oh my goodness! I enjoyed every minute of it!

 

Panama City skyline

Casco Viejo

 

The history lesson made the tour! Our guide was Joe from Aventuras 2000. He was an awesome storyteller and knew everything about everything!

My favorite types of travel are ADVENTURE travel and HISTORY travel and we've definitely gotten a mix of both on this trip!

Kayak and nature walk

We arrived in Puerto Limón, Costa Rica.

Every port we’ve been to has been a “fake” up until now. By “fake” I mean the city did the area up all nice with shops and maybe a few restaurants… but that’s not the REAL city.  They put up a nice front for cruise ships. I like the shops right off the ship so I can get my magnets, but other than that it’s a lot of pushy people trying to sell you stuff. 

Our port in Costa Rica had no facade which was kind of nice. 

As we drove along the roads I couldn’t help but notice how green and how beautiful everything was around me. On our drive we pulled over multiple times to get a better look at monkeys and sloths in the trees. 

We saw more in Costa Rica than we did in the Amazon a few years back. (Granted we were only in a small section of the Amazon, but it did not meet expectations) 

Everything was green and colorful and it just looked like a nice place to explore and spend more time in. 

 

We did a river kayak tour which was probably less than an hour long. I thought it was super beautiful, but there were so many people in our group and the river was kind of narrow. Too many people and too much crowding. I would enjoy it so much more if it were just Mike and I (and a guide). We also did a nature walk which was pretty short and just okay.

Between the kayaking and the walk we saw monkeys, sloths, crabs, turtles, lizards, ants, spiders…  I was very happy to see a sloth in the wild and was even happier when it turned its head to face the camera. :)

Here are a few snaps from the excursion:

 

I don’t know how the rest of Costa Rica is, but if it’s anything like the little bit we saw I would love to come back and spend more time. I would do some water activities - maybe snorkel or scuba, do another (longer) kayak tour of the river and maybe go deeper in to find more animals! :)