Here’s What It’s REALLY Like On A Viking Ocean Cruise

Not What I Expected: Here’s What It’s REALLY Like On A Viking Ocean Cruise 

When I told friends, family, and followers online that I was headed off on a Viking Ocean cruise to Alaska, I was struck by how much misunderstanding and myths they all had about what it’s really like to go on a Viking Ocean cruise. Because it had been a while since I’d last been on a Viking Ocean cruise, I also had many questions on what it was like these days and how and what had changed or was different.

Adult-Only

Viking Ocean is still an adult-only line, you must be 18 or older to cruise. This was one of the reasons I chose this cruise as I wanted to go to Alaska on a cruise line that had no kids. Having been there before on lines packed with families taking over. I wanted an adult-only experience.

I found it still attracts cruisers on the older side. I’m 65, and like on past trips, I felt like one of the youngest on board.

Same Ships

It also really hit me that it is almost impossible to tell what ship you are on. I have cruised on Viking Venus, Viking Sky, and now on Viking Orion and I couldn’t tell the difference between the ships. All Viking Ocean ships have the same layout and décor, with a few subtle differences on some, like on Viking Orion that I’ll touch on later. Even their newest ships like Vela and Vests that are coming into service are slightly longer, but they have the same layout.

All have the same Scandinavian Nordic decor with lots of light wood and subtle colour palette. The existing fleet have 930 guests, the new longer ones have 998, and all cabins have balconies. They have 6 cabin grades (Veranda, Deluxe Veranda, Penthouse Veranda, Penthouse Junior Suites, Explorer Suites, and one Owner Suite).

All ships have the same venues. This includes a dramatic atrium with a huge signature 2-deck staircase, with a living room seating area and library, Viking bar and guest services where you can also do shore and restaurant bookings on Deck One.

Also on Deck One is the rather nice Liv Nordic spa and the gym, which has a thermal spa area, use of which is included in the fare.

On deck two, they have the Star theatre where they do the shows, the enrichment and port talks. They also have Torshavn, a nightclub and evening music venue. On this deck, the ships all have a Viking history museum, which do have slightly different artefacts, but are basically the same.

Other Public Areas

The other public areas are up on deck seven, with an attractive pool area with a retractable roof, the Wintergarden Lounge where they host afternoon tea, and on either side of that are seating areas, which they call the Lanai. At the front of Deck Seven is the lower level of the Explorer Lounge and bar, and at the rear is an Infinity Pool on the Aquavit Terrace. Up on deck nine is a sports deck with crazy golf, various deck games, and table tennis.

In terms of the restaurants, they’re the same on all the ships, but I will talk about them later as there are some important things to know about dining on a Viking Ocean cruise.

The cabins are also the same across all the ships with a strong Nordic style with nice bathrooms.

All the ships also have guest laundry rooms and artwork by Scandinavian artists, photographers, and sculptors.

The only difference to other ships I have been on that I came across on Viking Orion, was a planetarium as part of the Explorer Lounge. Although it was not functioning when I was on.

There are a few key differences to many ocean cruise lines.

Low Key

First, there is basically no upsell on board. They don’t have a photographer, they do a couple of wine tastings where there’s a small charge. They have a spa but don’t push it that hard.

Shopping is low key with a merchandise and clothing store, jewellery store, and a perfumes, bags and ornaments store, they don’t do shopping tables with promotions, nor do they have on-board port shopping promoters pushing land-based stores.

Second, there is no casino. I will talk later more about why, as this ties into the on-board experience and program, and some downsides I see of Viking Ocean cruising these days.

But before that, I want to talk about another positive thing I found common cross all ships: dining.

Viking Cruise Dining

On all trips, I found the food on Viking great, and for small ships there are many options. Seven of them.

The Restaurant

The main dining room is called The Restaurant. It is open most days for breakfast, on sea days for lunch and dinner every evening. The food is good and the menus large.

It is open seated dining, and I like that you can get any table size you want. So, even for me cruising solo there is no issue with me having a table to myself. They don’t ask or offer people to share and people that like to do that arranged that themselves I noted and arrived together.

For dinner the menu had an “always available” section with classics like New York Strip Steak, Norwegian Salmon, Roast Chicken and Crème Brulé. There’s a destination menu linked to the location, for example on my first night it was Alaska Salmon Poke and Alaskan Snow Crab Bake. Then there’s a daily a la carte section, and finally a vegetarian section.

World Café

Then there’s the World Cafe, the buffet restaurant open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. While not massive in terms of choice, there is a decent range of stations. It’s a nice space, and the food there was good.

Pool Grill

There’s a Pool Grill, mostly for lunch. They have things like their signature Viking Burger, hot dogs, and that kind of stuff.

Some evenings they have events that use the Pool Grill. For example, we had a barbecue one evening with Dancing Under the Stars, although because it was cold in Alaska it was with the roof closed.

They also had a surf and turf night out there one evening.

Mamsen’s Norwegian Deli

All ships have the Mamsen’s Norwegian Deli which is a signature venue. It’s not particularly big and is located as you enter the Explorer Lounge. It is open for breakfast, lunch, and it has snacks late afternoon.

Here they serve the signature Viking waffles, based on a recipe from the Viking creator’s wife’s grandmother with traditional Brunost Norwegian cheese that takes a bit of getting used to. But I have come to really like it.

Manfredi’s

They then have two speciality restaurants, one is called Manfredi’s, which is an Italian restaurant. It is named after Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio who used to own Silversea. He is a great friend of Viking’s founder Torstein Hagen.

It has an expansive menu of Italian classics of high quality. The menu is the same every night. If you go there more than once, you have the same menu.

The Chef’s Table

Then there’s The Chef’s Table, with different themed menus around different culinary styles that rotate across the cruise. I went twice, and I had different Asian influenced menus both times.

Afternoon Tea

Viking do an incredible afternoon tea, every day from 4pm to 5pm in the Wintergarden with different sandwiches and cakes each day, along with a choice of scones. It is done well and as a fan of afternoon tea, it rates highly for me. I go often.

24-Hour Room Service

There is 24-hour room service and the Viking Bar on Deck One has snacks relevant to the time of day.

If you’re going on a Viking Ocean cruise, one of the things that I think you can expect is good food.

Dress Code

Something else on Viking Ocean cruises I found is a relaxed dress code, and overall people don’t get dressed up. Viking ask that us gents wear a collared shirt and slacks, and ladies equivalent smart dress for dinner, but one could really get away with jeans if one wanted to.

Service

One big thing to note is that the service level is high. It’s friendly, attentive, and personalised, as with 930 passengers and over 400 crew they did get to know me and my likes. For example, the Viking Bar crew remembered I had a decaf coffee with skimmed milk and in The Restaurant they knew I liked to have alcohol-free beer with my meal.

The Senior Crew were visible and engaging with us passengers, and there were constant surveys. For example, one checking on embarkation, mid-cruise, for every excursion and an end of cruise survey. I felt a sense of the crew being eager to please.

But before I dive into the on-board experience these days in more depth, I want to take a slight step back to look at the costs and challenges around booking a Viking Ocean cruise. It is different to many lines, and something that I think will put some off.

Viking Ocean Fares

A Viking Ocean cruise is a rather expensive option.

They operate in the small ship luxury space alongside lines like Oceania, Windstar and Azamara. So, between premium lines with bigger ships like Princess, Holland America, Celebrity, and Cunard, and the ultra-luxury lines, like Silversea, Seabourn, Crystal, and Regent.

Here’s what my cruise cost me. I booked a 10-night Alaska voyage with a cruise-only fare without flights, in a Penthouse Veranda cabin. That is a middle range of all the cabins. It cost me £10,700 / $13,500. That is $1,350 a night. That is the price for two people, but as a solo person I had to pay the same. They very rarely do solo travel deals.

Let’s look at what that fare includes though to see whether that mitigates some of the extra costs on other lines.

It included all my dining, including specialty dining. Beers, wine, and soft drinks at lunch and dinner. Drinks outside of that I paid for ad hoc, though I could have bought a drinks package for $25 per person per night for unlimited drinks. Specialty teas and coffees were included, as were gratuities and one excursion per port. More on excursions later!

It also included Wi-Fi, but I found it frustrating and limiting because they blocked streaming and don’t offer an upgrade option. The Wi-Fi was not great because of that added to by generally poorer coverage in Alaska even though they have Starlink. My VPN wouldn’t work on the Wi-Fi to try to download shows off my local Netflix and BBC either. And even video calls home was at times not great.

Viking Booking T&Cs

Depending on where you are, the Viking booking process may not appeal, and it seems to differ by country.

I booked in the UK, where they appear to work more direct than via travel agents. For example, my usual travel agent can’t book Viking for me, although I believe some can. But payment terms were not that onerous, as I paid a deposit of 25% and the final payment was due 10 weeks before, so not too different to any other line.

However, I discovered that USA travellers, especially it seems for first-time travellers, when you book you must pay 100% of the fare upfront. For example, I did a dummy booking for a cruise two years away using a VPN placing me in the United States. It required payment in full. Although they would hold money for that long, cancellation kicked in at 120 days or 180 days for World or Grand Voyages. If you are a repeat traveller, you seem to get less onerous terms but still way up front.

Viking Cruise On-Board Program

Let me talk about what you should expect from the on-board program on a Viking Ocean cruise. I don’t think it will appeal to some, as it is rather sedate and serious in nature, I find.

Torstein Hagen, the founder of Viking, describes it as the “thinking person’s cruise, not the drinking person’s cruise”.

Like other small ships, the daily program is light, and I felt could do with some more light-hearted aspects and fun.

In summary, each day on my trip there were several enrichment talks by the 4 guest speakers, including a Resident Historian on the cruise. A port talk with an overview of the port history and all the tours by the Cruise Director and Excursions Manager,. One daily trivia competition, a show in the main theatre by a group of 4 singers or from the Cruise and Assistant Director with no guest entertainers to supplement them, live music at various times in the atrium, the Explorers’ Bar, and in Torshavn by either the classical duo, resident pianist, resident guitarist or Viking band (who also played for the shows), and afternoon tea. On some days there were some craft and art classes and a cooking demonstration.

Dated

I do want to talk about the shows and music in general. I found it rather dated in format with music also too old. I’m 65 years old, so I’m no youngster, but the music felt more my parents’ generation. For example, they had a Fred Astaire themed show, a Top of the Pops, but with only ’60s and ’70s music and a musicals one, but it was mostly from old films. The 4 young singers and the band were talented, and I feel could be given more challenging, contemporary and thoughtful shows.

Saying that, the shows were always packed, and many I spoke to enjoyed them.

Included Excursions

I mentioned the fare includes one included excursion per port, however this is not as good as it sounds. I found them mostly basic and unsatisfying, compared to what was available to see in the ports.

They were one of four types: a walking tour of the local town or vicinity, like in Ketchikan a walk around a local Totem Park, a panoramic drive like in Skagway up the White Pass, a dedicated hop-on hop-off bus service with entry to some local attractions like in Valdez where it went to three museum (Valdez Museum, the Maxine and Jesse Whitney Museum, and the Old Town Museum) and the fourth type was entry to local attraction near the ship like in Seward to the Alaska Sea Life Centre and in Icy Strait Point tickets for the cable car.

I felt they didn’t give me the chance to see the best and must-see sights, so I spent a lot of money to book the add-on excursions.

The other thing that I found interesting with the excursions, and it may link to the fact that they see themselves as a thinking person cruise line, I felt they missed some of the fun excursions in a port.

For example, one of the fun things in Ketchikan is the Great Alaska Lumberjack Show. It’s kind of silly and a bit cheesy, but that was not offered as an option. I booked tickets for that myself.

Bookings Based on Grade

Also, when it comes to excursions, booking opens based on your cabin grade. The higher your grade, the earlier they open for you. I discovered the hard way on past Viking cruises that I needed to get in fast as Viking regulars jump in as soon as their slot opens to get the best times for included ones and added-cost excursions before they sell out.

On my Alaska cruise, even though I had a mid-range cabin, one of the excursions that I wanted, the White Pass Train luxury carriage was sold out by time my slot opened. I did get the regular carriage one, and I was lucky to get the last remaining space on the Juneau Dog Sledding excursion on the Mendenhall Glacier.

That also affects dining, as booking for the speciality restaurants opens based on your grade.

Personally, I came away from this, like my other Viking Ocean cruises, conflicted. I love the ships, food, service, itineraries and focus on enrichment, but I miss some energy and fun, mostly in the evenings. It does feel to me overall a bit sedate and serious. But I know I will return for the right itinerary, as they have some incredible ones all around the world.