Viking Venus Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Very disappointed in this cruise. Included excursions were boring, lack of staff to clean tables, get beverages and remove dirty plates. Stare room stewards were inexperienced and didn't provide items we requested (like an extra towel). They also left cleaning products on the bathroom counter and also left our cabin door propped open while they were cleaning the Veranda 3 doors down. Very poor service.

Very clean, we had a wheelchair much assistance needed and received much appreciated!, food excellent! But ship quiet. little to do. many lectures which were wonderful, but a little excitement might have been good.

We had an awesome time on this cruise. The northern lights were spectacular. We appreciated the on board expert regarding the northern lights. We really enjoyed the excursions. It's a very beautiful part of the world.

As usual, my husband and I had the best times at Viking Ocean cruise. Never disappointed. Always beautiful views, excellent food and dining, professional staff ready to please all guests!

A Return to Our Viking First Love Having disembarked the Viking Neptune just a few weeks ago, we were interested to see how our first love - the Viking Venus would compare. We love the Venus because of the special memories we have as it was the first ship we embarked upon after Covid. Coincidentally, both the Neptune and the Venus were new when we first sailed upon them. The itinerary for this short 7 night cruise was Barcelona-Cartagena-Malaga-at sea - Vigo- at sea- Portsmouth- Tilbury. The embarkation process was amongst the best we have ever had, from kerbside to boarding the ship took only a matter of minutes, disembarkation worked really well too. One of the things we love about Viking is that all of the ships are the same, so it’s easy to find your way around. What we love most about Viking, is they are cruise ships in every sense of the word, unlike some of the larger ships which we describe as floating hotel resorts, Viking ships provide the perfect opportunity to experience the true essence of cruising. From the Explorer’s Lounge on the bow, to the outside area on deck two at the stern - these ships provide plenty of uncrowded outside areas. I have to say, Viking Ships are easily our favourite shops amongst the cruiselines we have sailed upon, but then, we love smaller ships, but understand many people enjoy the larger ships. On the Neptune we had a Penthouse Junior Suite, this time on the Venus we had a penthouse Veranda, and to be honest, there wasn’t that much difference - we will probably stick with the Penthouse Veranda in the future although it means less reservations for the two speciality restaurants - The Chef’s Table and Manfredi’s. The other difference being you have to pay for your laundry, but you still get your free alcohol in your stateroom. The cabins are a classic Nordic design with plenty of storage space, though a little cluttered. We love the heated floor in the bathroom. Both the main restaurant and the world cafe buffet are spacious and never seemed crowded, though oddly we never had to queue for the main restaurant on the Neptune but had to on a few occasions on the Venus. There is also a pool bar and grill and Mamsens in the Explorers Lounge for additional dining opportunities. We were disappointed by the food - not the quality, but the lack of variety and repetition. The Lounge areas are mainly open and spacious, but we find Torshavn - one of the main entertainment venues a little cluttered and too dark for our taste. Entertainment on board consists of enrichment lectures, a guitar/vocalist, a classical duo, a pianist and of course a number of shows in the main theatre, all of which are of a standard you would expect from a premium cruise line. In over 60 cruises Paulo the guitarist/vocalist is one of the best we have ever seen - be sure to catch his late shows too. Elmer the cruise director was also top class - and their joint sing-a-longs were great fun. There is a clean,spacious and modern well-equipped gym, with additional space for floor exercising and stretching etc. I’ll say what I always say - we feel the Spa is expensive and it’s not a facility we would use. The main pool and hot tub are under a retractable roof, so you can swim whatever the weather. There is an additional hot tub and small infinity pool on the Aquavit Terrace on Deck 7. Once again we met some nice people on this cruise which always enhances your cruise experience. We had the impression that many of the staff were new and still getting used to their roles. Needless to say, we have the upmost respect for their dedication and hard work. One of the other things we really love about Viking is their brilliant internet which is so reliable and best of all, free. IN SUMMARY We have a theory that the best staff are always deployed on the new ships, which as previously stated, this ship was when we first embarked on her after Covid, and the Neptune hadn’t even been christened when we sailed on her before Christmas. I mention this because the service was exceptional on both of those occasions - sad to say we could not say the same about this cruise. Now before I end this review, there is something I want to address, which, having received feedback from a number of cruise related Facebook groups and other social media, it is abundantly clear that many people were not aware of the importance of ensuring your passport is stamped when leaving the EU/Schengan country, assuming it was stamped upon entry, as ours was when we flew into Barcelona. Two days into this cruise, we went to Guest Relations to ask what the arrangements were to ensure we had proof of our departure from spain ie a passport stamp. Non EU/Schengan citizens are only allowed to spend up to 90 days in any 180 in the member countries, They looked at us like we were crazy and it took several days before we were able to speak to a Senior Officer who finally made the arrangements to ensure that non-EU/Schengan citizens could have their passports stamped before leaving our final Spanish port. Do not assume that the cruise line will automatically take care of this. We are in no doubt that these arrangements would not have been put in place if we had not persistently raised the issue, as was confirmed to us by the lovely General Manager ( thanks to him for his persistence too) and it’s not just a Brit thing. When we raised this across several Facebook sites a helpful American friend who had previously worked in this field for the state department told us that lots of US citizens had encountered problems because they hadn’t realised. Since we raised this we have heard lots of horror stories about problems people have had when trying to re-enter an EU/Schengan country, you can be liable for a heavy fine or even denied entry. So please, to prevent any unnecessary problems, make sure your passports are stamped.

We had a very relaxing cruise, ate well and enjoyed seeing new places. Unfortunately we had two days/nights of pretty rough seas and could not stop in Portsmouth on our last day. Everything was done well and I would do this cruise again.

High quality, Excellent value, and extreme customer care.

The Good : the ship is nice and the ports are interesting. Manfredi’s is a great place and the man who manages it is a very accommodating fellow. Our room Steward was very good. The not-so-good: The silver liquor package is not worth it anymore. When we traveled with Viking on the Budapest to Amsterdam river cruise the higher-end wine and liquor were worth the extra money – on this cruise the wine/liquor that was EXCLUDED from the silver package is the higher quality. Definitely a downgrade since 2019. The Music on the ship was fine the first day – But became very repetitive and tedious. The group that traveled with us averaged around 70 and we all felt the music was way too sedate for an “every night” entertainment package. The Viking band was good – when they played. Everyone else was average or below. Booking air through Viking: Avoid at all costs. They are interested in the most low-cost solution and really don’t care how many legs of the trip you have to travel and for how long as long as it's cheap. If your luggage is lost – you are basically on your own. Both our bags were late making it to Bergen – when they did arrive the Viking agent found one but “missed” the other. We spend the rest of the cruise missing that bag and spent about 9 hours with the Viking explorer desk or on the phone with Delta/Air France trying to get it to us. The common theme from the Viking folks was…it’s the airline's fault…there is nothing we can do. I heard that about 10-12 times. The ship manager – who has the aura of self-importance – was interested in talking to me – only until he realized how messed up our situation was…then he could not wait to pass me off to one of the front-line people (who were very nice – but undertrained and not real effective) and then basically spend the rest of the cruise hiding in his office or avoiding me when I was talking to his underlings – clearly problem solving was beneath him. For the inconvenience of missing ½ of our luggage and clothes for the 14 days (plus the 3 we spent in London after) Viking gave us $150. Shore excursions – be prepared to sit in front of your computer and be ready for the excursion booking window to open up – whenever that is – if you don’t all the interesting excursions were booked within the first two hours of the booking window being open. Side Note: I felt bad for our tour guide in Greenwich - there we two (quite entitled) couples from our ship that were incredibly rude to the poor guy - because he was requested to wait a few minutes before starting the tour - I was embarrassed for them and us...it was an "ugly American" event. This was no fault of Viking. Overall, Dinning – Food was okay – be prepared though – in the world restaurant – if it says they close at 9:30 am – that actually means 9:15. The staff will start to close up and hurry you out at 9:15. The cruise director – I only heard – never actually saw him – not sure he was on the ship – I think he must have phoned in his announcement from a remote location. The assistant Cruise director was a very good singer. We have been on 7 ocean cruises and 1 river cruise before this. I doubt I would take an ocean cruise with Viking again. Surprising given how much we enjoyed the River cruise with Viking – Maybe my expectations were too high. Either way, it was a disappointing 2 weeks. Oh yes and 22 days later we still don’t have our luggage. But that's not Viking's fault

The shore excursions advertised were generally not available. I paid for the trip with the belief the score excursions that are advertised were all available. That is absolutely not the case. I really believe Viking is playing a game of "bait and switch". This may be OK with many people. Lots of the passangers were more interested in the ship, food, drink, and entertainment. For many people the ship is the destination. We wanted the shore experience and we were very disappointed. Do not let Viking book air. For some reason the last leg of the flight was cancaled and we had to stay an extra night in a hotel. Viking did NOTHING to help us. They washed their hands of the problem. This is truthful although it is hard to believe. They changed our reservation to where we arrived in Newark and left from Laguardia with no plan of how we get from Newark to Laguardia. A number of the passangers had awful experiences with the air reservations. book your own.

We love Viking cruise line. This trip was a bit of a let down. We had to be tested everyday and had a mask on everywhere. We felt and many I have spoken to felt the same way. We will not cruise with Viking till they relax the restrictions.

Too many Covid restrictions ruined an otherwise great cruise.

A wonderful cruise with a premier cruise line who've met the challenge of Covid-19 without compromising quality and enjoyment. Once you've cruised Viking, you'll never go back. The best Rest, Relaxation and Reset we've ever experienced.

What we loved Our Stateroom. I detailed that with photos on this page you will find by clicking here. Stateroom 5030, our home for the last two weeks, is ideal. Big enough that I am not stubbing my toes to get around the bed, it has plenty of storage, a great verandah and, as far as I am concerned, the perfect spot on the ship. Deck five on a Viking ship means only two flights up (I never take elevators on a cruise except to bring luggage on or off the ship) to the buffet and Explorer's Lounge (my favorite place on a Viking Ship) and only three flights down to the specialty restaurants, the Living Room and to get off and on the ship in most ports. The ship. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And to my eye, Viking Ocean ships are just about perfect when it comes to appearance. Nothing ever jars my eye. The color palette for the entire ship just works for me. Some folks say it's just Viking and IKEA getting together to design a ship. Well, if that is the case, that's fine with me. But it is a really high-end IKEA. Just think of Scandinavian design. Clean, muted, nothing jarring. No flashy colors. No Las Vegas at all! See photos of what I mean in a previous post by clicking here. The quiet. Even though there is music in some venues sometimes (I wished the pianist in the Living Room had played a little softer the night we had drinks there), it is a very quiet ship. There is always someplace I can go and sit in silence to write, process photos, read or have a conversation. But the one place that breaks this for me is The Restaurant (a Viking ship's main dining room), which I find to be VERY loud. Other than that, I love the quiet. The crew. I mentioned in a previous post. They are the best overall crew we have ever sailed with. Itinerary. This was a good one. Some of my closest friends would have disliked the temperatures. They prefer warmer weather. We like the cold. That's why we live in Washington State. It's cold but not too cold, wet but not too wet (Seattle averages 37 inches of rain a year/Bergen 88 inches of rain a year), and perfect for us. I always prefer cold over hot. You can always put on another sweater or jacket if you get too cold, but once you are naked, you can't get any cooler without AC 😁. I would have picked Norway as the most beautiful place on earth if we hadn't been to Scotland before the cruise. We loved every port we stopped in (I will forgive Bergen for one teen's actions), and we have already told others they must do this cruise. Kathleen said to remind you that the weather changes by the minute. We didn't get snow, but our full day in Bergen is a great example. We went up the funicular in beautiful sunshine, barely a cloud in the sky. An hour after coming down, the rain was also coming down...horizontally. A deluge we had to take shelter from for an hour (with lunch), and then it was back to sunshine. Embarkation and disembarkation. Smoothest ever! Less than 20 minutes from car to ship on the front end and 10 minutes from ship to car on the back end. It doesn't get much better than that unless it's during a pandemic and no one else is getting on or off. OK, river cruises are easier but I am talking ocean here. Cruise Director Andre Gaffney and his activity staff. He does outstanding port talks—lots of info. And for us, the best part was that his port talks were televised live every afternoon (before a port day), so we could have a cocktail from our included mini-bar while we watched the port talk from our stateroom before dinner. It became our routine. His announcements during the cruise were also excellent. His assistant (I am so sorry that I can't remember her name) runs the best trivia game at sea. She is excited, in control and asks questions that are just hard enough to challenge you but not too hard so that she stumps everyone. I just wish the trivia had been at a different time. They were either at noon or 8:00 p.m. At noon, I have lunch, and at 8:00 p.m. I am in bed. Entertainment was perfect for us 😜. I put the emoji on there because, for us, on a Viking ship (river or ocean), the entertainment means watching Downton Abbey on our stateroom television. We just don't do shows anymore. I guess we are old or just jaded—they all seem the same. So after dinner, it was back to the stateroom where I would process photos, Kathleen would read, and we would watch an episode of Downton. Of course, we have already seen the entire series (and both movies) when they first came out, but it's nice to catch up with old characters we love again. And we only watch it on Viking ships. So, on our 3-week Med cruise in the fall of 2022, we watched seasons one, two and a little of season three. On our December 2023 Christmas Market River cruise, we watched the rest of season three and a little of season four. We finished four, five and the first three episodes of season six on this cruise. Guess what we will watch on our October 2025 Douro River cruise 😁? Shore excursions. Every single Viking-included excursion (even the one on Orkney) was better than any of the included excursions on our 2022 Viking Sky Mediterranean cruise. My favorites were our guides in Greenwich, Tromsø and Geiranger. We did feel a little short-changed in Lerwick when our excursion was cut from 2.5 to 1 hour. Not cool. But the rest of them were great. And all the "luxury motor coaches" were pretty nice. Let's talk about the food We ate in the following spaces (in order of the number of times we ate there), and this is what we thought of them: (Before we start, a word about the Steve Test. My brother Steve created this test about six cruises ago. It works like this: If you eat in a restaurant while traveling, and that restaurant is near you once you get home, would you go there again?)  The Restaurant/Main Dining Room. We ate there once. For lunch. On a sea day. When the sea was at its worst, rocking and rolling. We figured we should go there then because no one else would be there and because it was close to the water and much less rocking than the buffet on deck seven. We were right about the rocking and the emptiness. We were four of about 30 people there. Still, it was a little louder than the buffet, and the food was basically meh. I had a dry Rueben sandwich that was not on rye bread, had little Russian dressing and came with almost cold fries. The service could have been more consistent as well. See why we don't eat there? That's a fail on the Steve test. The Chef's Table. This is one of the ship's specialty restaurants. It features a fixed menu. They rotate three menus throughout the cruise. You can see the menu on the Viking app or on your television and know what menus are coming up. The only problem is that you can't see them three months before the cruise when making reservations. We had reservations for two nights. When we got on board and looked at the three menus that would rotate through our cruise, we canceled our first reservation. Three people in our party of six could not (allergies) or would not (preference) eat anything in the first three courses. We did keep our second reservation, and when we got there, the menu did not match what was on the app or our TV. Thankfully, the menu had turned to a Mexican meal, and everyone could and would eat all of it except the first course. It was very good and restored my faith in The Chef's Table. The food was excellent. The molé sauce was a LOT better on Oceania Vista but the rest was great. That's a pass on the Steve test, but only for this menu. Manfredis. This is Viking's Italian specialty restaurant. We ate here twice on our previous 21-night Viking Ocean cruise, and once Kathleen got food poisoning, and the other time was just meh. This time, there was no food poisoning, but it was still meh—just not great Italian food. Maybe I say that because I am half Italian, love to cook Italian food and love a great Italian restaurant. We went to one in Glasgow (Banca di Roma), and on a scale of 1-10, the one in Glasgow was a nine, and Manfredis is barely a three. This does NOT pass the Steve test—FAIL! Come on, Viking, you can do better. Mamsens. This is a small deli-type place just inside the door of The Explorer's Lounge. They serve amazing Norwegian waffles with fruit, sour cream and brown cheese for breakfast, which I love. You can also get substantial pastries there. Actual Norwegian bakery goods. YUM! At lunch, they have great open-face sandwiches that I also like a lot. When we were on Viking Sky, there were usually three choices: two meats and one seafood. On Venus, there were just two choices (one less meat), so we ate there less as Kathleen couldn't eat the seafood choice. But they still pass the Steve test with flying colors. I could eat breakfast there every day. The Pool Grille. I love this place. It's out by the pool with delicious hamburgers, hotdogs, a few salads, fries and onion rings. It's in the open air when the weather is good (it has a roof that opens and closes). I ate a few lunches there and loved the food. It's a big fat PASS on the Steve test. I would eat here once a week if it were near our house. The World Cafe/Buffet. As you know, if you have followed along, we ate here for most dinners, about half of our lunches and breakfasts. We thought the food was of high quality and well cooked, and the hot was usually hot, and the cold was usually cold.One of the nicest surprises was the new Asian counter, where you could get some excellent Asian food prepared in front of your eyes. And the two guys that worked that counter were great! What we didn't like (compared to our Viking Sky cruise in 2022) was that there seemed to be less selection. Please don't misunderstand me. I am not saying there weren't plenty of choices every day. It was always a completely full buffet. But the same food was often repeated over and over again. For instance, on the first night, Steve and I were thrilled to find a massive seafood display with ceviches, seafood salads, salmon, marinated octopus, and so much more. There was also an outstanding selection of sushi on the opposite side from the fish...but it was exactly the same EVERY NIGHT! I mean, in 14 days, how often can you eat the same fish dishes or the same sushi? At lunch, that seafood spot was the salad bar. But at night, that went away. That means if you just wanted a salad for dinner, you better like seafood because that's all there was.There was too much red meat. I mean a lot of red meat. Beef, venison, veal, lamb...all stuff we love, but too much of it. Kathleen said, "It was like your choices were red meat or seafood. If you want to eat vegetarian for a night, good luck." There were always steamed veggies but very few vegetarian entrées. We loved the red meat dishes but we are going to have to go full vegan for a few weeks to get over this cruise.Lastly, pizza on Venus was the WORST I HAVE EVER HAD on land or sea. I am a pizza lover. I make the best pizza I know of. Of course, I am a little bit prejudiced. During the entire cruise, they only had three kinds: Margherita, cheese, and one night, they even threw some mushrooms on one. It was just awful.

The goal of the cruise was to see the Northern Lights but the weather was not cooperating. We finally had one night where there were no clouds and the Lights were visible. Read up on how to get pictures before you go. Bring clothes for below freezing weather, snow and ice! I loved this smaller (900 passenger) ship.

Firstly, we chose the Veranda cabin. As it was the same size as the much more expensive deluxe Veranda cabin I could see no reason to pay extra. Admittedly, they got to choose dining in specialty restaurants before we did if you wanted to do that. And also they could choose, their excursions earlier. As I had no intention on buying any excursions through Viking, because of their exorbitant price, and they had to give us the included tour, I was perfectly happy to get the last choice, and all of them in honesty suited me perfectly. As for the specialty restaurant, I just walked on, went to the girl who did the bookings for the restaurants and got as many as I wanted. Sometimes they said they were booked out, but when I used the app I got more than enough. In fact, I cancelled some of my restaurant bookings because the restaurants had set menus and it became repetitive. The ship itself is beautiful, filled with books which is great. The staff seem to know what you like after a couple of days, so that’s quite amazing to me. The entertainment in the atrium was a pianist and a cello and violin player. They played classical music, 99% of the time. Now I don’t mind a bit of classical music, but 24 /seven did my head in…. call themselves the thinking man’s Cruise, so they assumed in that everybody would like classical music. As I said, a little bit goes along way. If they have a look at the age, demographic of the people on board, which, in our case was anything from 40 to about 80. Even the 60s and 70-year-old people would’ve been listening to Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Deep Purple, Queen etc etc etc. I see no reason why they can’t find softer more contemporary music to play. It does not have to be classical. Upstairs, they had a gentleman who was singing and quite frankly I didn’t really like his voice. He did sing some more modern songs, but that actual area up. There didn’t really appeal to me. They did have four lovely young people who did shows every two or three nights. But mostly they were asked to sing songs from the 50s and 60s and Broadway musical songs. This might have something to do with the fact that out cruise, director and entertainment dude, absolutely loved musicals so that’s what we got stuck with. So if you’re thinking I didn’t enjoy myself you’d be wrong. I just did not like the music but there were so many things to like. I’m a vegetarian wasn’t overly fussed with the offerings for me on some nights. Other nights were perfectly fine. But as I said, I love the staff, I liked my cabin very much, I loved the atrium area where the cafe was and lots and lots of books there. I did like the movies at night in the pool area that was good. I like that there was movies on the TV so that if you went to bed early because you were tired, you could watch a movie. They did do an odd game of trivia occasionally and another game called Baggo. The included excursions were quite okay. In my opinion. I didn’t come here for an in-depth historical lecture, unlike some people who complained. I just want to be shown around some information given and the time for me to be able to wander around and do my own thing. There was plenty of time after the excursions to do whatever you wanted. in fact, I booked five extra excursions myself through a company called get your guide. They were fabulous and half the price of Vikings, Vikings, organisation on the ship was outstanding. They were there every step of the way, if you couldn’t find your way, or couldn’t find something they were there to help. I found by the end of the month I was just getting used to the flow of the ship, and finding that I was less bored because I was used to it. Would I go again? Yes, I probably would. I’d like there to be cruises that were a little less of one particular nationality, I did find some of the people extremely loud and a little bit rude to be honest to the staff. If not rude, I mean, blunt and sharp. This was a cruise for a month that we didn’t actually meet people other than the general chat during the day, but certainly none that we would hang out with on our holiday which is very unusual. But as I said, we found quite a few of different nationalities at all sort of hooked up and quite loudly. Sat around talking. Sometimes we had to move away, but they all seem to be having a good time. The food was pretty good sometimes a bit patchy, sometimes very repetitive, but it was okay. My attitude is if I don’t have to cook it and I don’t have to shop for it and I don’t have to clean up afterwards. Well then it’s pretty dam good.

Highly recommend this trip. We saw so m at places that we would have never been able to see on our own. Great way to see the UK!

It was definitely an adventure. The North and Norwegian seas can be rough. We had 25 to 30 waves first couple of days in the North Sea. Once we were in the fyjords, sailing was smoother. Our experience is you probably will not make every scheduled port. The most important ports to see the lights is Tromso and Alta. Both of these are in protected waters. The added issue for us was the Covid restrictions but we knew this in going on this cruise. All eight of our party went and very much enjoyed this cruise. A lot of guest did cancel prior to this cruise. I would do this cruise again. Magical!