Viking Orion Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This was the cruise of a life time for us and I would say the only downside would be the quality of internet available. When you are gone for an extended period of time you have to be able to pay bills at home and this was difficult due to lack of signal or it falling on its face just when you needed it the most. But that being said still better than when I actually paid for it!

fun for adults, easy to find a location for every night to gather, would go again with Viking

This is our first Viking Ocean ! We've been on 2 Viking River prior. I Love Cryising and we had a good time! We met and spent time with Good people. The ship is beautiful & Staff were great. This trip had been canceled due to Covid so it was Wonderful to finally go! I enjoyed the ports and the people of the Countries we visited. I love that Viking doesn't Charge for Every little thing like other cruise lines. Such as WiFi, drinks, specialty dining, & some excursions. Just improve on the music & on-board activities and ot would knock otnout of the park for me! Of course I will cruise Viking again!

Viking’s COVID policies are the reason we cruised again and felt safer. Daily PVR tests and tracking devices would allow any positive test to be identified. The daily testing were quick to complete as well as daily questionnaires and temperature tests. Vaccine requirements also impacted our decision to cruise with Viking.

Beautiful island, tremendous ship and staff, interesting excursions, gorgeous beaches (Horseshoe Bay), superb entertainment, lots of good food. All in all, a great experience. Viking is top-notch and the best cruise line. It may cost more but you are not nickel and dimed to death. And the health safety was outstanding!

Viking did an outstanding job ensuring Covid-19 safety. The use of the daily PCR Covid-19 testing, the use of the tracker, temperature monitoring, the availability of hand hygiene throughout the ship, the spacing in restaurants were all exceptional.

Biggest omission on this cruise is MILFORD SOUND. I hoped against hope that we were really going there but we did not. I would recommend this trip but if you want more ports in New Zealand or longer in ports, I would recommend you don't pick a cruise that adds extra days in Auckland or Sydney unless it's more than 2 weeks.

Viking Ocean is moving too fast. As a prior and a future ticketed client, I was disappointed in this Cruise. The Australian included excursions were terrible. Not enough time by the company in evaluating and assuring consistency of each group. The Eorld Cafe has regressed and the repetition of foods was disappointing. The wines were repeAted too often as opposed to prior experienced total variety .The Service was superb to the expected standard. The Cruise Director is a talent and SUPERB. As a whole, it’s clear the Line is moving too quickly SND is forgetting its roots on how it hot to where it WAS.

Alaska Inside Passage is gorgeous scenery from beginning to end. There aren’t enough superlatives to describe the Viking experience, incredible staff, amazing service, beautiful accommodations, bountiful, delicious food. Worth every cent.

Nice cruise. Captain did great job with Hubbard Glacier viewing. Viking air failed (again!) and won’t use them next time. Viking free excursions are as they say free so don’t expect anything. Will travel with Viking again and now understand their limitations.

This was our fifth Viking cruise. Met wonderful people and saw new and interesting things. Staff and crew friendly, onboard entertainers very good. All crew diligently attempted to provide exceptional service. Please read details about the cruise ship and excursions thoroughly as many passengers had expectations not met, simply a result of poor and ineffective communication.

I have no complaints about the ship or staff... food very good and they handled the norovirus outbreak very well. My complaint is the ports of call. They obviously got cheap port charges to lure them to some of these ports. I f you are considering a trip through Indonesia, check out Silverseas, their itinerary is far better.

We have cruised on HAL, MSC, Princess, RCL, Celebrity, Costa, Oceana, and Azamara. This was our second Viking Ocean Cruise. The first Viking Ocean cruise was in the Mediterranean and North Africa and it was great. This cruise was 14 days from Hong Kong to Beijing. The ship, like her sister ships, is great. We were unhappily surprised by the lack of entertainment on a number of the evenings, including days at sea. This is a real issue when you have multiple days at sea and you are on a ship for 14 days. But the biggest issue was the very poor planning and quality of the included excursions. Overall, these were the worst excursions we have experienced on the 35 cruises we have taken, and inferior to what we have experienced on Viking Ocean and Viking River in the past. Viking claims that part of the problem was the lack of qualified tour agencies in China. We doubt that is the only issue. We have cruised in Asia before, including Viet Nam, and have experience in arranging our own tours with tourist agencies that were recommended on Trip Advisor. We were picked up promptly at our distant ports by drivers and tour guides that had to travel 2 hours or more to meet us. But a good tour agency sends qualified guides even when they have to be bussed in from far away cities, This is not how Viking and its agency did it in China. Local young people who barely knew English and knew even less about travel and history were the "guides" that were provided. On our last day of this Viking cruise, we arranged to be picked up at the port for Beijing by a private tour agency that was recommended on Trip Advisor. The guide and driver made a 2 hour plus trip to pick us up and drive us to Beijing. The guide was proficient in English and took care of us professionally. So we can only conclude that Viking either did not do their homework to contract with quality tour companies or that they'd not care about their passengers, or that they were trying to cut corners and save money on their self described luxury 5 star cruise. At the price point that Viking charges, these included excursions were miserable and reflect poorly on the organization. They need to make major improvements in their excursion departments. Given this experience, we would have been better off to have cruised with a Cruise line that did not provide excursions as part of the pricing and to then have arranged our own tours with fellow passengers with reputable local agencies as described on Trip Advisor. The ship is beautiful as are its sister ships. What a shame that Viking ruins the experience by providing mediocre entertainment at night and a miserable experience.

We chose Viking for our Alaska cruise because of many good reviews. And on its own, the Viking Orion deserves 4.5 stars. Other than a very early room service breakfast delivery (I was still in the shower), the ship and its staff were superb. If we could have transported directly on and off, we would have been thrilled. But the Viking company deserves only 2 stars.

 Our embarkation was a disaster - not because it was delayed (beyond Viking's control), but because of the terrible way Viking handled it. Poor communication about the delay ahead of time (hard to know what to expect), no signage at all on arrival at the Vancouver Cruise Terminal (so we had to schlep our luggage down a flight stairs and wander around before finding a port worker to guide us), a checkin process that ignored the advance ("comfort") boarding pass that we had prepared, a numbered slip of paper for our “boarding group” that was never used, a crowded waiting room (with food and beverages, at least) - once again with no information about the next steps, and a chaotic exit to search for the right elevator to our ship. As one of the staff in that waiting room said, "We're just making this up as we go along." Disembarkation wasn't as bad, but Viking still seemed to be making up the times and transport options as they went along. 

 We did get two nice calls from Guest Services during the cruise, apologizing for such issues and promising that customer service would contact us about our experience. But of course they never called. So unless you have a Star Trek transporter to beam you directly on and off the Orion (or any other Viking ship), you may want to find a company that actually knows how to manage a cruise.

Everything was really wonderful except the sailing from Otaru to Kodiak. We had 8 sea days of which 7 of them did a time zone change that caused an hour loss. If I had to do this again, I would absolutely do it in reverse order (Vancouver to HK).

This was our 3rd Viking Cruise. A little disappointed in the included shore excursions not much to see in the small stops. Europe cruise excursions were so much better and informative. Service was great in some places but slow in other places on the ship. Food was very good and most of the service. Still recommend Viking for a cruise but for the money better to go somewhere international in my opinion for the money.

Viking "Include Excursions" were BELOW standards compared to other cruises! Went to an eagle rehab center and had a talk on bears or chicken or our time slot! "Included excursions were MOSTLY on your own!! No one to guide you! 3 out of 5 "Included Excursions" were a TOTAL WASTE OF TIME!

Became fondly known as the cruise to nowhere. Staff were excellent. Viking refunded the cost of cruise in the form of a voucher for a future cruise.

Very well organized. Spend a little to much at sea because of Hurricane Larry hitting Bermuda. Overall I loved the cruise

Overall very disappointed. This is advertised as a luxury cruise and I was looking forward to the food which was no better than most chain restaurants. Our schedule kept changing and the 2 ports were very boring