Great Itinerary, beautiful ship like a museum, but...

Viking Sun Cruise Review to Worldwide

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 70

Overall rating:

3.3 out of 5
Viking Sun

World Cruise - Los Angeles to London

Sail date: January 05, 2018

Ship: Viking Sun

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: 7004

Traveled as: Singles/Friends

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

Have never traveled with so many rude and inconsiderate people. I was pushed, shoved, elbowed, jabbed in the back, tripped on purpose three times, yelled at and all by men. A friend of mine had a glass of water thrown in her face by a man. So many were always first on the bus, first off, first on the tender, first off, first row of the theater, first, first, first. Some quarantined for upper respiratory or lower gastro issues refused to stay in their cabins. Beautiful ship, wonderful staff and crew but Viking does not match its competition in terms of free unlimited shore excursions, pre-cruise hotel packages, transfers from hotel/airport to ship, etc. Penthouse Junior Suite is size of most lowest level staterooms on other ships. For a world cruise designated ship there was very little closet space. Port talks held the day before gave inaccurate or misleading information and there was no time to make a change or choose by then. Excursion evaluations were not read. WIFI was "hit or miss", unreliable and soooo slloooowww. Viking Voyage app is non-functional and useless. Every week of so it kept telling me that my cruise had ended and had to delete and re-download which was impossible with the WIFI. Solo travelers were charged inconsistently - some paid double, some 1.5, some 1.75 and some 1.25. Movie choices were limited and mostly second rate. Salt and pepper mills did not function. Free laundry and dry cleaning, mini bar, alcohol, one included shore excursion (mostly a bus tour with a quick drive by), luggage shipping to the ship, visa processing, business class air to and from ship, all gratuities, medical services were included plus shipboard credits. The itinerary was altered to not overnight in Manila in order to get to Shanghai for the ship's christening and we were promised an exquisite evening off the ship but it was a nightmare - food served was like the backwash of a river, the christening ceremony was blocked from our view and was shown on TV monitors, translations were at the same level of sound so neither the Chinese or English could be understood. And, the Chinese would not allow the American crew to come ashore at any Chinese port. The owner of Viking was not allowed to stay overnight on his own ship in Shanghai and was escorted onboard to retrieve his belongings by armed guards.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

2 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

2 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5

Ship tip

Be prepared to not have WIFI even though complimentary, food is tasteless and not hot or cold except for Manfredi's, not a decent sauvignon blanc to be had, tiny amount of closet space, inaccurate information provided at port talks

Ports of call

Long Beach (Los Angeles), California

3 out of 5

Papeete, Tahiti

4 out of 5

Bora Bora, French Polynesia

5 out of 5

Tongatapu, Tonga

2 out of 5

Suva, Fiji

2 out of 5

Bay Of Islands, New Zealand

5 out of 5

Auckland, New Zealand

4 out of 5

Wellington, New Zealand

3 out of 5

Port Chalmers (Dunedin), New Zealand

4 out of 5

Melbourne, Australia

4 out of 5

Sydney, Australia

5 out of 5

Brisbane, Australia

3 out of 5

Whitsunday Islands, Australia

3 out of 5

Cairns, Australia

3 out of 5

Thursday Island, Australia

3 out of 5

Darwin, Australia

1 out of 5

Komodo Island, Indonesia

5 out of 5

Benoa, Bali, Indonesia

5 out of 5

Semarang, Java, Indonesia

5 out of 5

Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei

5 out of 5

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

5 out of 5

Manila, Philippines

4 out of 5

Shanghai, China

1 out of 5

Hong Kong

5 out of 5

Haikou, China

1 out of 5

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

2 out of 5

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

1 out of 5

Laem Chabang (Bangkok), Thailand

5 out of 5

Singapore

5 out of 5

Port Klang (Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia

3 out of 5

Georgetown, Penang

1 out of 5

Phuket, Thailand

5 out of 5

Chennai (Madras), India

5 out of 5

Cochin, India

3 out of 5

Goa (Mormugao)

4 out of 5

Mumbai (Bombay), India

5 out of 5

Muscat, Oman

5 out of 5

Aqaba (Petra), Jordan

1 out of 5

Safaga (Luxor), Egypt

5 out of 5

Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt

5 out of 5

Alexandria (Cairo), Egypt

4 out of 5

La valletta

5 out of 5

Algiers, Algeria

3 out of 5

Malaga, Spain

5 out of 5

VILA NOVA DE GAIA (PORTO), PORTUGAL

3 out of 5

Greenwich (London), England

5 out of 5

Disembarkation

2 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 70

9 Comments

Pshank    5 years ago

cruisellama    5 years ago

jprann    6 years ago

You can Thank the Chinese for the ship’s unveiling . They where the ones who required the buses to the event . Sorry to say it was not Viking’s Finest Hours but Viking’s Corporate sent their management team 1/2 the way around the world to explain their short coming and asked for our understanding. I’m satisfied! As far as the WiFi , Viking is using the finest equipment available . Not sure where you where having issues with the system but between the bloggers and people sending videos of themselves the system did have some shortcomings but what do you expect 1/2 the way around the world . You are not at home with a cable hook up. . Did you try and send your important messages at a time that was a little later or earlier than the time you previous tried to send your messages? We never had a problem sending e mails ! If we did , we tried later and they went thru .

jprann    6 years ago

We where on the same cruise on your floor and we had plenty of space and we couldn’t have been happier with the cruise . Sure there where a couple of areas that Viking could use a little work but these where small in comparison to the the effort Viking showed during the complete cruise . We did the complete 141 day cruise and have signed up for the 2019 Treasures cruise from London to LA via South America (121 days) in the same cabin and hopefully the Same Crew !

VikingCruises    6 years ago

We appreciate your honest review, Globetraveler, and we’re sorry to hear that your time aboard Viking Sun left you feeling dissatisfied. We have made note of your comments regarding the wifi and Viking Voyager app, limited closet space and itinerary. Feedback from our guests is very valuable to us, and we invite you to email us at TellUs@VikingCruises.com with your booking information so that we may discuss your World Cruise experience in further detail. We look forward to hearing from you, Globetraveler, and wish you a lovely day.

eggguy254    6 years ago

My experience is that those who look for the positive in situations will find it. Those who look for the negative will find it. I'm with hookem (has to be a Longhorns fan), I'm calling BS too.

hookem72    6 years ago

I call BS....

shavonnaasbury    6 years ago

That's crazy. Thanks for the head up.

captainandtennell    6 years ago

Wow and that's different.

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