There was something to write about yesterday…who knew?

by | Dec 11, 2023 | Photography

 

I fully realize that yesterday’s post said I would not be back for a couple of days because we would be “taking a sea day” on the river. For those of you non-cruisers, that means we didn’t go on an excursion, and I really thought we would not get off the ship. I also thought I had nothing I wanted to write about. But I was wrong!

It turns out we (Steve and I) did get off the ship, and it turns out we did find some interesting stuff to take photos of, and it turns out I thought of some other things to write about. So here we are.

Let’s start today with the photo at the top of the post. That’s a panoramic photo I took from our verandah from where the ship was moored yesterday in Engelhartszell an der Donau, Austria. I have been told that “an der Donau” is German for on the Danube. So this is Engelhartszell on the Danube. We let the general population of fellow travelers head off to Passau and Salzburg, and we stayed behind to do…nothing. When the buses first left, and we were four of about 20 that stayed behind, it was raining pretty heavily. Soon enough, the sun came out (as you can see in the photo), and Steve and I decided to take a short walk in the village. The village itself wasn’t much, but there were photos to be taken and a lovely church that was quite interesting. I will let the photos tell the story of this little village. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

I did a little further research on the church because we were truly shocked to find such a magnificent church in such a small village. It turns out there has been a church on that site (either as a church or as a monastery) since 1045. It has gone through many great changes to become the building it is today. If you don’t mind doing translation by the paragraph, you can read about it by clicking here.

That was about it for yesterday, but I do want to address some other general topics about this cruise.

Am I really that negative?

First, I am not understanding some of the comments I have been getting. Am I making this trip sound that bad, or is everyone (including me) just focusing on things that are bugging me? This started from the very beginning when someone said, “Thanks, I will try to avoid Delta Airlines in the future.” I went back and read what I had written about Delta Airlines, and I said I thought that the flight was very good.  Here is what I originally wrote about the flight:

We are on an older plane (in this case, it turns out that’s a good thing as the newer ones have harder seats), and the food was pretty darn good. The service was excellent, and I am actually looking forward to going home on their service from here in Paris to Seattle.

Does that sound bad? Does it sound like I didn’t like the flight on Delta?

Yes, there have been times that have been a challenge. Yes, in Munich, we had to sit around for three hours while others shopped. But that’s the point…others really were shopping. We just aren’t into that.

Yes, the weather has been sucky. But who doesn’t complain about the weather? We chose to take the cruise in the winter.

Yes, the Christmas Markets are boring and have the same stuff. But I fully admit to being the person who fell for the marketing of those same Christmas Markets. The photos on Viking’s website look awesome. And the same is true for every other river cruise company—the photos make it look like everyone is having a great time. And they might be. I had different expectations. And those were in my head. I, in no way, blame Viking for any discomfort I may be experiencing on this trip. Well, it would have been nice if they had let us sit on a warm bus in Munich. I would have happily read a book or played games on my phone for three hours while others shopped and partied if I could have been someplace warm and comfortable and the “luxury motor coach” could have been that place.

But other than that, Viking has done a great job. We have a Program Director from Wales who is an amazing woman. Can you imagine having a job where the level of a river dictates what you will be doing the next day and where you will be doing it? Talk about a logistical nightmare. Our program director, Debra, went to bed on the first night of the cruise thinking she would wake up the next morning in one place, and all the prep she had done (like getting buses and arranging walking tours) would be taken care of. In the middle of the night, the ship (due to the weather) went to another place entirely, and all of a sudden, she had to find a way to get ground transportation for 180 people back to the place we were supposed to have docked. And this can happen to her every single day. YIKES! I honestly don’t know how she does it.

I think that any complaints I have had on this entire trip have had to do with my expectations. We have been planning this trip for so long (remember, we bought it in 2018, and we were canceled in 2020 and 2021) that the idea of being in Europe at Christmas really appealed to me. And if I were a shopper and a partier, I would LOVE every single second of this cruise. Every trip you take is all about expectations.

Maybe part of it is the river cruise industry’s marketing. Yesterday afternoon, we were in our cabin, and I turned on the TV to watch Downton Abbey (you can watch every episode of Downton Abbey on every Viking ship). I told Kathleen if they were really great at customer service when I went to watch it, it would restart from the same episode we stopped watching on our 2022 Med cruise ?. Now that would be something!

If you watch much PBS television (we do), you know that before most of their programs, there is a little ad for Viking. Usually, it shows the river ship sailing through these idyllic valleys with castles around every turn. Those views are what I was expecting. But if I really think about it, I can never get those views unless I am in a low-flying airplane or take a photo with a drone.

Let me tell you something great that happened yesterday. Our thermostat didn’t seem to be working. We like it cooler at night, and it seemed stuck at 72 (22C). We asked our stateroom attendant to show us how to use it, thinking it was a user error. She checked it and then called the maintenance guy, who arrived in minutes. He checked it and asked us when we would be out of the stateroom for about 30 minutes. We said we hadn’t planned on going anywhere but to cocktail hour at 6:00. He said, “No problem! I will be back at 6:00.” Sure enough, we went to cocktails, and when I came back to the stateroom between dinner and drinks to use the facilities, it was working like a charm. He had pulled a panel out of the ceiling, done some work, and fixed it for us in less than half an hour. Amazing.

I also need to mention that the beds are great. On our Viking Ocean cruise, I found them way too hard. On this cruise, I pre-ordered a mattress topper, and I have slept great every night.

Have I mentioned the food? It has been marvelous. And there is too much of it. I want to try it all. Great breakfast, lunch and dinner. Last night was a German-themed meal, and the entire service crew dressed up in their best traditional German costumes. I will write more about the food later on the trip.

I have to go now. Kathleen just texted me that she is up and in the shower (we don’t have breakfast today—it’s brunch and it doesn’t start until 8:00 am), and then there is the scenic cruising, and I will want to be out taking photos. Tonight we sleep in Vienna. And before that, we have a concert in a Vienna theater—Strauss and Mozart. Full report tomorrow—I hope.

When you have expectations, you are setting yourself up for disappointment.  —Ryan Reynolds

We go to Munich! And wait…

by | Dec 11, 2023 | Photography

First, I need to say that we have lost all track of time. Not really time as much as dates. So often, I find myself asking Kathleen what day it is. Right now, I had to look up into the corner of my Mac’s screen to find out that it was Monday here (and still Sunday at home). This brings me to the fact that on Sunday (during the day—when the Seahawks were losing), we were on a “luxury motor coach” to Munich (which takes about 90 minutes).

Wait! I forgot to tell you about the night before. And maybe the biggest difference between river cruising and ocean cruising. Before dinner, every night, there is supposed to be (I say that because last night there was not) a talk by our Program Director (think Cruise Director) about the next day’s activities. So ours had said that our ship would stay docked in Regensburg overnight, and the next morning, we would get off and go to Munich (others who had not done the pre-cruise extension we did went back to Nuremberg), and most of those on board would spend the day in Regensburg doing a walking tour and then with time on their own. In the meantime, after everyone was off touring, the ship would move to Deggendorf, where we would all meet back up with her.

But that didn’t happen. What did happen was that when we got up to use the facilities in the middle of the night, we looked out, and the ship was moving. I am really moving. What had happened is that the weather had warmed up between the time we went to bed around 10:00 and 1:00 am when we started moving. The Captain was worried that if the snow melted and raised the river (even by a few inches), we would not be able to get under some of the lower bridges. So he basically turned on the jets and got us past those low bridges.

So when we woke up in the morning and went to breakfast, we could see we were moored on a river bank in the literal middle of nowhere. Seriously. No towns, houses or farms to be seen. All we could see was a line of trees with a road behind it. And on that road were two buses—one for Nuremberg and ours for Munich. After breakfast, they called us down at 8:30 (unlike ocean cruises, they make announcements that go right into your rooms), and we stepped off the gangway into muddy snow and made our way through some bushes to the waiting bus. I bet you never did that on an ocean cruise.

We (those of us going to Munich) thought that buses would be brought to that spot for those going to Regensburg, and they would tour from there. But later, we learned that everyone else on the ship stayed on until after lunch. The ship took the morning to get to Deggendorf, and then the folks who were supposed to go to Regensburg got on buses (that the Program Director had to find in a big hurry) and went even further back the way we had come to tour that city. What is interesting to note is that they (who went a much shorter distance) got back more than an hour after we got back from Munich. Also of note is that when we were headed home on our “luxury motor coach,” I asked our guide where the ship that we were headed left Munich, and I asked Reinhol to was docked; he had no idea. He said they were just getting out of Munich and on the road, and they would call him and tell him where they were.WHAT??? Sure enough, about an hour into a 90-minute bus ride, he gets a call and tells the driver where to take us.

Hopefully, you see what I mean about this cruise. It’s different than an ocean cruise; it’s very different. Another thing I told Kathleen was that I realized that doing private shore excursions instead of Viking excursions would be next to impossible. Where would you tell your guide to meet you? You could say come to one place and then wind up in another. A good example is this morning. We were scheduled to dock in Passau, Germany. Instead, we are docked in a small town in Austria. Those wanting to go to Passau’s Christmas Market (NOT ME) will be bussed back to Passau. It’s just crazy what they put up with to navigate the ins and outs of the Danube.

So, back to Munich. Because we got on the bus in the middle of nowhere, we had to navigate some pretty out-in-the-boondocks back roads to get to the Autobahn for the actual ride to Munich. This turned out to be the most beautiful part of the trip as we passed through so many small farming communities and beautiful fields and meadows. The sun was rising, and we saw deer, hares, villages in the distance, and so much more. The landscape was covered in snow (roads were clear), and we could see for miles in every direction from our “luxury motor coach.” Speaking of “luxury motor coaches,” we had a 48-passenger bus almost all to ourselves. There were only 12 of us on board.

This scenic part of the trip just killed me. Every time I turned around, I saw a perfect photograph. I mean perfect. I could have done an entire photographic coffee-table book just in the hour it took us to get to the Autobahn. But I didn’t get a single, usable photo. All I got was reflections of myself in the bus windows. Too much sun, in the wrong place and somewhat dirty windows. Just killed me.

When we finally got on the Autobahn, our aforementioned guide, Reinhold, told us, “We will drive for another 45 minutes and then make a rest stop at the BMW dealership. You can have a few minutes to look around and use the facilities and then we will be on our way.” We were kind or perplexed. Why would we stop at a BMW dealership to use restrooms? And why would we want to “look around?” Does Viking have a deal with BMW to help them sell us cars?

Well, it turned out that the “dealership” was the world headquarters of BMW and they had an entire BMW World for us to tour. For Kathleen and I who have two adult kids who LOVE BMWs, this was a big deal. (Brian and Michelle have four BMWs between the two of them, and my son Josh drives one too. Not to mention that Brian runs an independent repair shop that caters to European cars.) We loved touring BMW World, and I took plenty of pics to show them later. Finally, I can show them some travel photos so that they won’t fall asleep while we look at them ?. Here’s the stuff I shot at BMW World. Just snaps of cool cars so feel free to look at them on your phone if you want.

We stayed at BMW World for about 40 minutes, and then we were off to the old town of Munich to see their Christmas Market. Reinhold walked us through some historic buildings and areas around the Old Town. We got to see more Hitler sites (makes me sick to think about what went on there) and walked through a small Christmas Market (more about Christmas Markets in general later on) and then on to the Old Town (every city seems to have a downtown and an Old Town) Square where the BIG Christmas Market is. The square also had an amazing glockenspiel high on the front of the City Hall. There are pictures below, but our guide said that the sound of Europe was the church bells. So, I tried taking a short video so you could hear the bells striking noon but the wind was so bad all you could hear is the wind buffeting us.

We got a Viking-provided lunch at a GIGANTIC restaurant named Ratskeller in the basement of the city hall. When I say GIGANTIC, I am not kidding. The restaurant had so many nooks and crannies to stick diners into you would have thought it was a Thomas’ English muffin. The place holds 1100 people, all eating at the same time. And from the noise level, it was full when we got there.

Lunch (salad, a giant pretzel, stuffed cabbage and apple strudel) was delicious. Or maybe the giant glass of beer we drank with it made it delicious. It was after lunch that things went south.

Those of you who have read my posts about shore excursions know that I HATE when you are a long way from your ship and they take you on a tour, and then they say, “Now you have free time to SHOP.” We don’t shop. We really don’t. Well, we do but I grocery shop at home and we pretty much get everything else from Amazon.

This brings me to a rant about Christmas Markets. No, it is really a rant to myself for not realizing that every single Christmas Market would be exactly the same. And that on a “Christmas Market Cruise” you would see them every single day. From Lisboa to Prague to Nuremberg to Regensburg and now to Munich, they are all the same. They sell the same stuff (in many cases, it comes from Asia, so we know it is the SAME stuff), just at different prices. I have absolutely no clue why I expected anything else. What I thought about was the chance to walk around and take photos of the markets. The reality is that there are a bunch of well-dressed (if they are locals; those of us from ships look like we are wearing old, dirty clothes—because we are) people drinking hot wine, looking at Christmas trinkets, taking selfies, and just generally being festive. You can only go to so many Christmas Markets before you are so over them. I have now reached that point. I am done with Christmas Markets. Unless there is NOTHING else to do, I have been to my last one. You will have to really convince me that there is something there worth taking a photo of that I don’t already have a photo of.

Now, back to shopping. When we finished lunch at approximately 1:00 pm, Reinhold said, “You now have until 4:00 to shop. See you back here.” WTH??? I honestly can’t think of anything I want to shop for for three entire hours. Even if you plunked me B&H Photo in NYC, I couldn’t stand looking at stuff for that long. So Kathleen and I walked through the market (which means we squeezed through the market), and that took about 20 minutes. We have all the Christmas decorations we could ever want; we were stuffed from lunch, so we didn’t want to eat or drink. So what would we do for three hours in a sunny square where the crowds were growing by the minute, and the wind chill hovered around freezing? Did I mention that it was Sunday, which meant that there were no businesses, shops or any place you could go to escape the cold wind other than restaurants, and we had just eaten?

So we ended up walking around trying to find someplace to sit outdoors, in the sun but out of the bone-chilling wind. Not much luck. What were we going to do if we found it? Sit there for three hours? We tried getting into a Starbucks, but there was no dice. Everyone in there was ensconced in doing what we were trying to do. We finally returned to the place where we ate lunch and sat in their waiting area for about two hours until it was time to meet our guide and bus to return to the ship. TWO HOURS! While Kathleen, Jamie and Steve waited there, I walked around the area to see what other photos I could take that I hadn’t already taken. The answer was NOT A SINGLE ONE. I had taken everything of interest. It was just so frustrating. If we had known where the bus was parked, we could have gone there and sat on the warm bus. But they don’t tell you that. It got so bad that if we had known where the ship was, we might have hired a car to take us there. Stuck doing NOTHING for three hours is horrible. And since it was Sunday, even museums were closed, and the cathedrals had church services going on, so you couldn’t get in to take photos. Besides, my buddy Mike has the market cornered on church and cathedral photos, so I don’t even bother.

After our three-hour sentence was over (I forgot to mention that I couldn’t even play games on my phone because the power was down to 6%, and I had stupidly forgotten to bring my portable charger. You would think a “luxury motor coach” would have outlets or at least a USB port.) we boarded the bus for the ride back to the ship…wherever it was. As I mentioned earlier, after about an hour, Reindhold got a phone call to say it was in Deggendorf. To continue this comedy of errors, when we got to the village, we saw a Viking ship moored just below the bridge. So our bus went down a hill to get to it but as we got closer we told the driver and Reinhold that this was NOT our ship. It was A Viking ship, but not our Viking ship. So they had to call again and find out exactly where our Viking ship was. We took off to find it, which entailed recrossing the Danube again and then a bunch of U-turns. We finally got there and came on board, only to find that all the tours to Regensburg had not returned yet, and only those who had stayed on board or come from Munich were here. It was really quiet compared to the night before.

Right now, I am sitting in the lounge, and we have decided not to go out. It is raining pretty hard, but if it stops, I might walk up to the little Austrian village and see what I can find. In the meantime, I get to write this post and add these photos of Munich. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

There won’t be much to write about tomorrow since we are basically doing nothing today, so even you, my wonderful readers, will get a day off. Back again in a couple of days after we get to Vienna. Tomorrow is supposed to be Krems, Austria, but let’s be honest, it could be anyplace on the entire Danube River.

I liked Germany; I’m not into Berlin, it’s too huge and empty and imposing, but Munich was good.   —Graham Coxon

 

Trains, “Luxury Motor Coaches” and Boats

by | Dec 9, 2023 | Photography

We are finally onboard our Viking Longship, the Gullveig. Yesterday was kind of a little bit of everything day. We woke up in Nuremberg, had breakfast, I went across the street to one of the largest train stations in Europe to take some pictures (below), and then at noon, we boarded a “luxury motor coach” (which really was very nice) and headed to Regensburg, Germany to board the ship.

Here are the photos I took before we left Nuremberg. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

 

I need to take a second here to thank someone. When you do a pre or post-extension, you have a tour coordinator who is with you the entire time. That person just takes care of you. They know the schedules; they tell you when and where you need to be; they schedule buses and organize tours, and so much more. They even wind up loading luggage. Being a tour coordinator is all about logistics. And ours was amazing. Our tour coordinator was Victoria, and she always had a smile on her face. One of the nicest and, for sure, the most organized person I may have ever met. We just want to thank her here for taking such good care of us.

We arrived in Regensburg around 2:15 and were met by our Hotel Director, JP (that’s what he told us to call him because his name is amazingly hard to say) and his wonderful staff. This being our first river cruise, we were kind of expecting that embarkation would be easier than an ocean cruise, but we never knew how much easier it would be. In the space of 10 minutes, they got us off the “luxury motor coach” and onto the ship, looked at our passports, had a crew member escort us to our room, and we went up to lunch. We could have done it in five if we hadn’t chatted so long with Natalia, who took us to our room.

The chef and his staff had prepared a “light lunch” for everyone. We were not impressed. It was sad that this would be our initiation to Viking food. Lunch was just OK. Not a lot of food. There were salads, but the empty bowls were not being refilled when 30% of the incoming guests had not had lunch yet. The food was fine but not really that great. There was a broth with very little in it, half a Rueben sandwich that was grilled but sitting out so long it was cold, and that was about it. I am happy to say that dinner was much better.

After lunch, we went back and unpacked in our stateroom. If this trip has made one thing perfectly clear to us, it is this: WE HATE LIVING OUT OF SUITCASES. This might just be the biggest reason we cruise. We like getting someplace and unpacking, and that’s our home. And it moves every day. It was so wonderful to be able to put things away. And what really amazed us is the amount of storage in our fairly small stateroom. We put all our clothes away and still had empty drawers.

Speaking of the room, it is incredibly well-designed. It is (I am sure) smaller than the room we were in last night in Nuremberg, but it is so well-designed it actually feels bigger. The lighter colors help as well. Here are some pics of stateroom 213, our home for the next week.

After our little lunch and unpacking, there was a short, free, guided walk around the old parts of the city by a guide named Hubert Koenig. He was under the impression that he was not only a guide but a comedian and Olympic sprinter as well. He made the worst (and in some cases very sexist) jokes about everything, and as soon as he would tell one, he would race off, leaving most of this group behind—the EXACT opposite of all the guides we had had in Nuremberg and Prague.

He also just walked us to the middle of the city and left us. That was fine for me, but others got totally lost and ended up taking some strange and mysterious routes back to the ship. And the spot he left us was right next to a department store. If he had walked us up a half of a block, we could have seen one of Regensburg’s Christmas Markets (which I am glad that I found). Here’s the photos I took following this “wonderful man” around Regensburg.

After getting back to the ship, we had a wonderful dinner (the food was excellent for dinner, and there was just enough of it). All the tables in the dining room are for groups of six or eight, so you always have someone to have dinner with. We were joined by Carol from New Hampshire who is cruising alone after losing her husband since they purchased the cruise. She is a hoot. We look forward to sharing more meals with her in the coming week. Our server took a photo for us, and at the last minute, the head chef stuck his head in as well.

After dinner, we were off to bed as we had a full-day excursion into Munich tomorrow. The ship was scheduled to stay in Regensburg overnight, but changing river levels forced them to move us down the river during the night, and we are now south of Regensburg. Excursions to Regensburg will still go on, but they will have to be bused back to Regensburg. Right now they are scrambling to bus folks back that way. I will see you tomorrow with a report on Munich.

You’re thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don’t. I think that’s old Europe.  —Donald Rumsfeld

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas—in Europe

by | Nov 29, 2023 | Air travel

It seems like just yesterday when we got back home from our Oceania Vista cruise from Montreal to Miami, but tomorrow morning, we are off to the airport again for an adventure that has been in the planning stages (and completely paid for) since 2018.

Way back when (doesn’t 2018 sound like a long time ago?), we booked a Viking River cruise to see the Christmas markets on the Danube River. We paid in full at the end of 2018 for a Christmas Market cruise that would sail in December 2020. Well, we all know what happened to that cruise—COVID.

At that point Viking offered us 125% future cruise credit to let them keep our money and take the cruise in 2021. We thought, “Where else could we get a 25% return on our money,” so we said YES! But then it was late November of 2021, and the Delta variant hit Europe. The cruise was still going to sail, but the countries we would be visiting had all closed their Christmas Markets, and most of them would not even allow the boat to dock. So when Viking asked us if we wanted to reschedule to 2022, we said okay. I mean, why go if there is nothing to see?

But the problem then was that by that time (Christmas 2021), all the 2022 Christmas Market cruises were sold out…so here we are in November 2023, getting ready to board a Delta flight to Europe tomorrow morning. We really don’t start the cruise itself (our first river cruise) until the ninth, but when we spend the time and money to fly to Europe, we just can’t see staying for just a week.

We will start our adventure tomorrow with a non-stop flight to Paris and a short flight down to Lisbon, Portugal. We have never been to Portugal, and it is one of my absolute bucket list destinations. We have a very busy five days planned before we fly north to Prague where we join the two-night in Prague followed by a trip by “luxury motor coach” to a one-night stay in Nuremberg on a pre-cruise extension with Viking. After that, we board the Viking longboat Gullveig for our cruise down the Danube. Here’s our route.

As you can see, after we leave Nuremberg, we travel by “luxury motor coach” to Regensburg, where we board Gullveig and then sail to Passau, Krems, Vienna and finally, Budapest. We are spending two nights after the cruise in Budapest before we fly home on December 18th…which just happens to be my 71st birthday—never spent my birthday on a plane before. Hope they have cake! ?

We hope you will follow along with us. I would promise daily reports, but there are no “sea days” on riverboats, and that means I will do my best to get posts up and online at the end of our day. Can’t wait to tell you all about it. Come back tomorrow when I hope to do a quick story about our flights and our fun time with Air France and Delta.

Airplane travel is nature’s way of making you look like your passport photo. – Al Gore

Let me sum up…

by | Oct 19, 2023 | Food Experiences

This should be the last post on our Vista cruise from Montreal to Miami. I hope you have enjoyed following along and the photos I have posted. I promised a final review of what we liked and didn’t. Also, since Oceania has decided to become more Viking Ocean-like with their new Simply More inclusions, I will finish by comparing the two. They both desire to occupy the same space and attract the same cruisers.

When doing this post, I consulted all seven members of our party, and they mostly agreed with me. And please—realize these are my perceptions. Not yours. If you had a different experience on your cruise, let me know, but don’t challenge me on my opinion of what I experienced.

What we loved…

  • Obviously, the food. Oceania promises the best food at sea, and in 90% of their venues, they succeed. Every single place to eat was as good or better than any place I have eaten on any other ship. If cruising is all about food for you—you want Oceania.
  • The new-ship smell. Kathleen came up with the description. It was great to sail on a ship that was only six months old. Everything was bright and shiny. Of course, this won’t be true in a couple of years, but if you get on board this year, you should have the same experience.
  • Service was incredible. We haven’t had service like this in quite a few cruises. Besides the crew members themselves their training, the way they are treated and how they are managed. What a massive contrast to our last cruise on HAL’s Koningsdam, where no one was trained to do their job, and some of the things they did were just dangerous.
  • Vista is beautiful. Great design. Some nice art. Just about every part of this ship is gorgeous to look at.
  • The shower in my brother’s stateroom. I’m not sure if he had a different shower than we did; I do get it. He is a big guy, and a big shower is important to him. Sadly, I disagreed because that oversized shower (a big square) meant there was less room in the rest of the stateroom and less storage space.

What we thought needed improvement…

  • Their entire system for doing WiFi. Come on, Oceania. It makes me log in and out and kick my wife off. Even worse, it meant she couldn’t text me if she wanted to ask me something or let me know where she was. I totally realize that the new Simply More program (which includes two device logins) will be an improvement. But if you have more than one device on the ship with you (a phone, tablet and computer), you will have to log off one to get on the other. That means I have to log off or kick myself off before I can receive something else on the new device. Give us WiFi like every other cruise line if you get “FREE” WiFi. Quick messing with it. Even the guy in the digital center hates it. He said it is his biggest complaint. And from what I have seen on Cruise Critic, it hasn’t worked very well since the Simply More changeover.
  • Speaking of technology—they need to get an app! Every major cruise line has an app that you can text in (without having an internet package), you can see the daily program, you can check your account, you can see the menus for that evening, and so much more. In 2023, not having your own app says you are just stupid and living in the last century.
  • The elevators. I touched on this when I wrote about the ship’s public areas, but the elevators are ridiculous, and for a new ship, they broke down far too often. Thankfully, I don’t believe anyone got stuck in one, but there are just not enough of them. Sadly, they can do nothing about this, but they can improve it on future ships.
  • Very few spaces where you can see the sea. For a cruise line named after the ocean, they didn’t want you to see the ocean when they designed this ship. If you don’t have a verandah, you can’t see the ocean until you are on deck 12. Below that, the only place you can see off the ship is the Grand Dining Room. That’s nuts. All the other windows on decks five and six are covered with drapes, and there is no access to outdoor decks, let alone an actual promenade deck that encircles the ship. Again, this is one thing they can’t improve on Vista but should make note of for future ships.
  • The AC can’t keep up. If you are in the Aquamar Kitchen, the Waves Grille and most of the Terrace Cafe and doing a warm-weather cruise—you better love hot and humid temps. Both the Aquamar and the Grille are open to the outside and have no air conditioning that we could see. On cold days, they have heaters but not even fans for hot days. On our last sea day before we got to Miami, the temperature was in the high eighties/low nineties and the humidity was close to 90%. Finding a place to sit in the buffet where you didn’t get a blast of hot, humid air whenever someone came into or went out of the room was challenging. If you are from Florida, this probably won’t bother you, but those of us from the northern climates were dying.
  • Someplace to sit. There is really no place to sit and have a pre-dinner cocktail that doesn’t have music playing in it. Piano player in Martinis, dance band in Horizons and string quartet in the Grand Lounge. This is especially true if you want to get together with new or old friends and talk.   But this problem is one they can fix now. Just play excellent background music (like they play all day) in Martinis. No Bill Murray-style lounge singer with a grating voice who tries to drown out every single conversation. That should do it. If people want a quiet conversation pre-dinner, the only nice lounge is the Smoker’s Lounge. So many convert that to a regular lounge and just make the entire ship non-smoking?

That’s about it. See, we really had a great cruise. Yes, we missed two ports, but O gave us a future cruise credit for the one they were responsible for, and the other was due to weather, so it was not their fault. On the list of all our cruises, I would put it up with our HAL cruise on Nieuw Statendam or one of our early cruises with Celebrity until they decided they didn’t like cruisers our age anymore.

Let’s Compare

Over the last six months, Oceania has been bringing out its Simply More program that incorporates much of what Viking Ocean Cruises does. It adds free wine and beer at dinner, free internet (but only two devices at a time per stateroom) and more. So clearly, Oceania sees itself competing with Viking Ocean for the same clientele.

Since we left Celebrity, we have been looking for a new cruise line to lend our loyalty to. And so far it has come down to Oceania (O) or Viking Ocean (VO). So, since both O and I have decided to make a comparison, here is ours based on this 15-night cruise on O’s newest ship and our 21-night cruise on the slightly older Viking Sky last year around this time. Here’s how I see it. Again, please realize that this is MY PERCEPTION. If you had a different experience, please let me know but don’t attack my reality.

  • Stateroom Design (Viking wins). Staterooms on Viking for close to the same price are much bigger—there is a ton more storage space, which is important on longer cruises that we seem to take now.
  • Bathroom Design (Viking Wins). Even though my brother likes his shower better on Oceania, I like the bathroom layout much better. No wasted floor space
  • Internet (Viking Wins). I think I have been over this enough. From the minute we got on board Viking until the minute we got off, we had complete WiFi on every device we owned. I am not even sure if Viking offers an internet upgrade.
  • Cruise Ship App (Viking Wins). Oceania has no app. Viking’s isn’t perfect, but I can at least see what is going on during the day without a paper copy, and I can check menus around the ship and text each other.
  • Elevators (Viking Wins). Enough said. Kathleen never had to wait for an elevator on Viking. Ever.
  • Lounges (Viking Wins). There were a number of places we could get a quiet drink and have a conversation.
  • Closed-in Ship (Viking Wins). You can see the ocean from almost any public space on a Viking Ocean ship. Not true on Vista, where you can’t see it until you get to deck 12.
  • Promenade Deck (Viking Wins). If I am on deck five and want to know what the weather is like, I have to wait until I get back up to my stateroom to find out. There is no place below deck 12 (other than my verandah) where I can step outside. Plus, as a walker, I much prefer a walking track that is partially protected. With Vista’s being on deck 15, they closed on a number of days to walkers and joggers because of strong winds.
  • Interior furnishings (Viking Wins). This is really a matter of taste, but I just love Viking Ocean’s Scandinavian design. Much of Vista’s public space was beautiful, but some bordered on gaudy. I said bordered (the lighting in the Grand Lounge was really close to Vegas).
  • Horizons/Explorer’s Lounge (Viking Wins). Horizons is a cocktail lounge/dance hall. Explorer’s Lounge on Viking is on two levels. The top one is for quiet reading (I did most of my writing and photo processing up there), and the lower level has a bar and excellent seats for conversation.
  • The entire spa (Viking Wins). I am the first to admit that even though we were in a Concierge stateroom, I never tried the Aquamar Spa, but in my mind, Viking wins this one because everyone has access for free. Not just those in Concierge or above staterooms.
  • Outside activities (Oceania Wins). Deck 15 and 16 had so much you could do on sea days it wasn’t even funny. From bocce to shuffleboard, from pickleball to mini golf (not to mention the golf simulator and cornhole), it was a veritable playground for those wanting an outdoor diversion. If I had one criticism, it would be that they need more barriers to the wind as they had to close these decks fairly often at sea…which defeats the purpose.
  • Culinary Center (Oceania Wins). I don’t even think Viking has a Culinary Center. It is undoubtedly a draw for me.
  • Smoking Lounge (Oceania Wins). If you want to smoke on Viking, go outside in the weather. Vista’s Smoking Lounge is gorgeous. How about both cruise lines ban smoking entirely, and then Vista can open up her Smoking Lounge to people who want to gather before dinner and not hear music?
  • Casino (Viking Wins). Because they don’t have one. The space they saved by getting rid of their casino went into the Wintergarden, a beautiful room where anyone can gather. With Viking, we were drawn to the things they don’t have as much as to the things they do. No kids under 18, no casino, no ship photographers, no upsell in the spa, no indoor smoking, etc.
  • Artist’s Loft (Oceania Wins). Another great extra on Vista. I didn’t use it, but it was jammed every single day.
  • Complimentary pressing (Viking Wins). Oceania said we got pressing of our clothes when we arrived. There were coupons in our stateroom. Five of them. That means that you can have five things pressed. On Viking (in the PV–the stateroom we had), you got free pressing all the way through the entire cruise.
  • Free Laundry (Viking wins). We got about the same amount of free laundry on both ships, but the note on Vista said that it could take “up to three days.” Well, if I have three pairs of pants and two are dirty and I send them to be laundered and then I spill something on the one I kept, I am out of luck for three days. I do realize that they were under-promising and over-delivering because many who sent their laundry out got it back one day later. But I can’t take that chance.
  • Launderettes (tie). Both have great self-serve laundries, although the ironing boards on Vista could be bigger.
  • Beds (Oceania wins). This is a hands-down thing. My bed on Viking was almost unusable. It was way too hard for me. Our bed on Vista was excellent (Kathleen thought the pillows sucked, but they didn’t bother me that much).
  • Ships across the entire line (Viking Wins). We were on Vista, Oceania’s newest ship. The entire line has seven ships, with one on the way in 2025. We have heard that Vista, Marina and Riviera are all about the same size and have the same features. But the other four are old R-class ships with some of the tiniest staterooms in all of cruising.—175 square feet in their verandah staterooms, and their Penthouse Suites are only 260 square feet—they call that a suite? Our Concierge verandah on Vista was 250 square feet. The staterooms on those ships are just too small. And those ships were all built in the 1990s. That’s just too old. Viking has 11 ships, with one on the way in 2025. They are all identical—seriously. You go on one, you go on all of them. And all were built since 2014, with four of them going into service since 2022.
  • Deposit and Final Payment Due Dates (Oceania wins). This is a total given. Viking is notorious for having the earliest final payment dates in all of cruising. For instance, if I buy a Viking cruise today (October 2023) that will sail in December 2024, my Viking Ocean final payment will probably be due on December 31, 2023. But by the same token, Oceania’s final payment will be due 90 days before the cruise sales. Of course, you can still get all your money back from Viking before 120 days with only a $100 PP booking fee loss (and you can apply those to another cruise), but the biggest complaint I hear from Viking cruisers or those who want to cruise with Viking but haven’t tried them yet is this early final payment date. When someone asks me why they have that early a date, I tell them, “Because they can.” Their passengers are amazingly loyal. If people stopped booking Viking or their ships were sailing empty, this might change. But as of now, it isn’t.

Food! I thought this deserved a special category all its own

  •  Grand Dining Room/Main Dining Room (Oceania wins). I HATE Viking’s dining room. There were low ceilings and a staff (at least on our cruise) who was totally disorganized, not to mention some food that wasn’t really that good. O wins here big time.
  • Specialty Restaurants (Oceania Wins). Was there ever a doubt? There are only two on Viking—Manfredis and Chef’s Table. Manfredis is a sorry excuse for an Italian restaurant, and the Chef’s Table has a fixed menu. It changes every few days. If you don’t like what you get when you go on the day of your reservation, you are stuck. I was stuck. All four Vista specialty restaurants are better than either of these.
  • Grille (Viking Wins). Surprise. But the Grille on Viking is so much better than the Waves Grille (for lunch) that it isn’t even close.
  • Buffet (Tie). I almost gave it to Oceania here, but cold desserts and serving entirely the same menu two nights in a row knocked it down to a tie.
  • Mamsens/Baristas (Oceania). I have to get this to Baristas. I love Mamsens, but Baristas’s pastries and coffees are so much better.
  • Aquamar Kitchen (Oceania Wins). Because there is nothing like it on a Viking ship. And I want to eat lunch there every single day.
  • Pricing (Tie): Here’s a comparison of two different cruises in three types of staterooms.

Here’s a price comparison on a 2024 New England cruise. This is much like the one we did, minus Miami and Charleston.

  • Viking Penthouse Verandah (338 square feet) for 15 nights in New England is $8999 per person. Per Night cost on Viking is $599 pp
  • Oceania Concierge Verandah (173 square feet) 18 nights New England on Nautica (one of the older ships) $10,599 per person. Per Night costs $588 pp
  • Oceania Penthouse suite (260 Square feet) $13799 pp, $766 per night pp.

Or I did a Mediterranean cruise in the same time frame. Comparing a Rivera–10-night Med cruise in the fall of 2024 with a 15-night cruise in the Med on any Viking ship.

  • On Viking: Penthouse Verandah for 15 nights Med (338 square feet) $ 11809 Per night $739 pp
  • On Oceania: Concierge Veranda Stateroom (242 square feet): $6299 pp Per night  $629.
  • Penthouse Suite (420 square feet) $ 7599 pp Per night $759

Yes, each line offers different things with their base price, and they aren’t all the same. I met a guy on Vista, an accountant who does an Excel spreadsheet for all their cruises. I am not that interested. A few dollars either way doesn’t make that big a difference to us. Ultimately, it all comes down to what is important to you. If it’s food, sail with Oceania (stick to their bigger ships), but if it is pretty much everything other than their final payment stuff, try Viking. All that said, we have future cruises booked with both of them, so I guess we are still deciding.

Reality doesn’t bite, rather our perception of reality bites.
—Anthony J. D’Angelo