Viking Jupiter Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Not an authentic Norwegian experience which was a major miss for us. We loved what we saw on our own—it’s a beautiful country. Viking needs more coordination between ground and ship, and needs to improve communications pre-trip. There are too many mistakes and blame on corporate.

I recently returned from Journey to the Antiquities trip, March 23 to April 6, on the brand new Viking Jupiter boat. I was looking forward to an amazing trip with my 84 year old mother. This was probably going to be her last big trip. We expected the best from this lovely new ship. What we got, was not. Here are my Explorer suite 3000 issues, and they are significant issues. So significant that I feel that any future passenger considering booking that room should be aware of, particularly on the cruise/travel websites… For their own good, since no one prepared me for those issues. The furniture was incredibly uncomfortable. Loveseat should have been a couch, and the two arm chairs were stiff like doctor's office furniture, and so hard and had to use bed pillows to make them usable for seating. They should have club chairs or some other softer seating for the amount of time spent in the room, which most people do when choosing a suite!!! especially so you don't have to run around the boat looking for seating! Transition/threshold strip between bathroom and bedroom was almost 2 inches high. We tripped constantly on it. What made this dangerous was during the night when my mom would need to use the bathroom. Not a frustration. Dangerous! Standing water in the shower. The water never drained, because the drain is on the right hand side of a square shower, parallel to the door, not in the center of the shower. It had to be dried daily by the housekeeping staff. Dangerous for my 85 year old mother to be in standing water taking a shower. This is a design flaw and two engineers came and took pictures. I recently renovated my home so I know a shower either needs to be pitched or the drain needs to be in the center. Neither in this case. And OMG, the worst - The noise!! Incredibly loud as we were directly over an anchor and the “thrusters” (according to the first officer who told me). From an hour prior to docking each time at port, arriving or departing, the noise level was unbelievable, the room shakes and vibrates, and would wake us out of sound sleep… and spaced over a few minutes each time, for over an hour. The noise was like a JACKHAMMER right next to us. Unbelievably loud. Even the TV on highest volume, could not be heard. 7 times in the morning, with 5 being at 6am. I’ve never heard noise that direct, and that loud, so close. It was deafening. I will try to upload the video of the noise if I can. Outside the room, in the hallway, was no noise at all. I contacted guest services several times. No offer of another room was made. I assume the boat was at capacity. I was told by Geoff, guest services manager, that this would be escalated to Viking headquarters. I confirmed I would be speaking to them upon my return. I have videos and pictures/proof of everything. I have attached some. The general public should know, as should the next passenger who spends $21,000 on this room. $5,000 for an average one week vacation (x2 for a 15 day cruise), is one thing. $21,000 is another. This was supposed to be a first class trip. In speaking to your customer service department upon my return, a rep, informed me that she could offer me a gesture of $250 voucher per person on my next Viking cruise. I will respond with exactly how I responded to her. “Are you joking?” A $500 “gesture” on a trip that I paid over $27,000 for??? And you want a second chance to impress me with a $500 voucher? You did not impress me the first time, and completely misled me and my investment in this journey, and you want a second chance, when I don’t get a second chance to pick a room that had no issues/less noise??? For the amount of money I paid you, I find that disgraceful! There should be some way to inform a selective passenger of the noise volume in that room. It was the most unpleasant wake up call each time we pulled in, and for the times we were in the room upon departure. And a gesture of that amount to offset what I paid YOU/Viking for the experience and ROOM??? Even my travel agent earned more in a commission on the booking than what your rep was offering me." Subsequent calls and emails to Viking customer service. No one seems to care that I overpaid and was dissatisfied. No, our trip didn't hit a huge storm and the piano did not go flying across the floor, but for the money I paid, 6 months prior to even traveling, you should be ashamed and do something about making HIGH paying passengers happy. I could have taken a $5000 cabin and not had any of these issues. What is so frustrating, is that Viking is treating complaints this way. I've emailed the CEO and senior management team multiple times already.

Amazing Spectacular and very romantic without all the fussing of planning

An interesting cruise but several ports were too similar. Ship staff provided excellent service. One suggestion would be 2 days for Venice stop — one half day for Chioggo and a full day for excursions to Venice due to distance from Venice.

This is the best vacation we have ever taken! So easy and luxurious! Being able to see so many wonderful places - some that we would not have known about without taking an excursion with Viking - while staying in such a lovely room with excellent options for dinner. It was like a floating 5 star hotel. Being taken care of meant that both of us were able to truly relax. I can't wait to take another cruise with Viking Ocean.

We were very impressed with the overall service of the Viking crew and staff. A bit disappointed that we visited so many ports on holidays or Sundays when shops are closed. We did not like dealing with the air reservations and having to upgrade our seats after the fact rather than from the outset. Was a bit stressful.

The cruise was an exceptional experience. The ports, excursions, on board life were all excellent. Other than the lost luggage incident, the experience was amazing. We would recommend spending 2 days in Gdańsk as a single day would not allow a full appreciation of a beautiful city.

This was my first ocean cruise and it will be my last most likely. Much prefer the river cruise experience. Far more intimate and educational.

The ship is great and the service is wonderful! We were fortunate that the weather let us dock in the Falkland Islands and we were able to circumnavigate Cape Horn. The only place we couldn’t go because of winds was Puerto Arenas.

VIKING DID EVERYTHING TO MAKE THE CRUISE FIRST CLASS. AREAS WE VISITED DO NOT COMPARE TO OTHER CRUISE WE HAVE TAKEN WITH VIKING. WILL ONLY CRUISE WITH VIKING.

This itinerary is high in sea days and the ports do not have a lot to see but wildlife. The extension to Iquazu Falls and Rio was the best part. If you book this cruise, book the extension.

On board - outstanding, would do another Viking cruise without hesitation if the only factor. Flights - poorly planned, would never go through their flight planning personnel again. Shore excursions: Included - low quality, bus window views and very heavily dependent upon the guide. Paid - high quality, typically guides were professional and interesting, visited sites were accessible and interesting. In general the on-board Viking experience is outstanding. However, that outstanding level does not carry over to the Viking flight planners and the included excursions.

We were going to book another Viking cruise on board the ship, but chose not to book. Our poor experience on this cruise has made me wonder if Viking is lowering their service levels, but still charging premium price.

Viking offers a wonderful product to see the ancient ruins on multiple continents! We enjoyed the tours, food, and the entertainment was above average but not excellent. We will definitely return for other cruises through Viking.

We greatly enjoyed each day aboard the Jupiter. We tried everything and did whatever was offered in order to experience as much as possible. We will recommend this cruise to everyone we share our story with !

Overall this was an excellent cruise and the experience on the Viking Jupiter ship was perfect. The original itinerary included Tallinn, St. Petersburg and Helsinki and were replaced by smaller places in Norway and the Aland Islands. We would have preferred more time in Berlin and Stockholm, as there were more places to see in these big cities, instead of the 6-8 hours we were given.

Great cruise except for lack of Viking personnel at departing airport

This was one of the top five cruises we’ve taken…and especially exciting to me as I saw the cities in Southern Norway that my mother’s family came from.

Our on board experience was great while on-shore experience before and after the cruise was the worst.

We've loved our 7 Viking River cruises, which is probably the only reason why we'll give Viking Ocean another try. The ship is beautiful, and the service is unparalleled. But, so many ports were skipped, excursions not offered, and paid benefits not provided, this cruise should have been cancelled. Viking's covid protocols are largely unwarranted based on current scientific data, which leads me to believe they are in place primarily to appeal to the absolute most risk-averse cruiser. For example, we're at sea 9 days in a row, but still have to do a covid test every day and wear a mask at all times?!? How exactly could we be infected?!? And another example, every other treadmill must be inactive, but hundreds of people can sit in the Star Theater?!?