We also cruised to Eidfjord, Norway. Beautiful fjord. Included tour here was terrible, a 20 minute bus ride to museum, 2 hours alloted, only needed 30 minutes. Small town and there was not much to do the rest of the time in port. Included tours to Eidfjord, Bergen, & Berlin need to be revamped. This is advertised as all-inclusive, therefore each included tour should allow for a good experience in each port of call. In the places mentioned, it is necessary to purchase an optional tour for that good experience. This cruise was mostly very good. The itinerary was very interesting and it's a great part of the world to visit. I think if Viking makes a few changes it will be a great cruise.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Picked up on time and bused immediately to ship. All went smoothly.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
No complaints about the food, plenty of variety and well done. Complementary Wine choices were not on par with the river cruise we took. Recommend some upgrading.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Tea time in the Wintergarden was nice. Our focus was on the sights to see not so much with the onboard activities.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Stage shows were very good. Small entertainment options: trio, guitar, pianist were also very good. Cruise director and Paul Fredericks shows were wonderful. Thoroughly enjoyed the Rat Pack & Paris shows also.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Viking hires a great staff and trains them well. Only a few staff members were not up to par. We took a river cruise with another provider and the differences were obvious.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Ship was well designed and layout was good. Everything was well-maintained and clean.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Cabin was wonderful, great size, comfortable. Safe was a little too small for our computer.
Ship tip
Plan your cruise very carefully. List port times first, then plan your excursions. The earlier in a port you do an excursion the better. Sometimes we ran into the problem that we arrived somewhere, our tour was several hours later but there was not enough time to go ashore & return for the tour. So our free time was compromised.
Nice city but we were unable to see much. We went on the optional tour to Lyosen Island that was very nice. We also booked the included Panoramic Bergen tour. There was a lot of overlap and we should have skipped the panoramic and had time to explore the city on our own. The included tour was a waste of time.
Train ride was terrible. 3 hours in a hot train each way. We went for the included "Self-Guided" tour of Berlin. Information about the tour was lacking beforehand. We expected to be taken into town and dropped off to walk around on our own. NOT what happened, there was a 90 minute bus tour that seriously impacted our ability to do our own thing. After the bus ride and lunch there was not enough time to do much. This needs a total redo or at least better explanation upfront about what it actually is.
Beautiful city. Included tour okay, with just a few photo stops. Hermitage museum with Gold Room gets a mixed review. Museum was great but we felt little rushed. Gold Room is 4 rooms with gold objects, not worth our time. St Petersburg canal cruise, St Isaac's, & Church of Our Saviour on Spilled Blood was terrific.
This day we did all on our own and it was terrific. We bought the Stockholm Pass on line the night before & then we took the first shuttle bus to town. The pass included HOHO bus & boat tours and made it easy to get around the city. It also allowed us into the Royal Palace, Vasa, & Nordic museums.
Thank you so much for the review! We have cruised the rivers with Viking and are looking forward to an ocean cruise with them. Your taste in port tours seems similar to ours, we like time to explore on our own as well, so we will consider the included and optional tours carefully. Thanks again!
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