Viking Ocean Cruise Complete Review

Complete review of every detail from our Viking Ocean Cruise, Into the Midnight Sun. The itinerary took us through Norway, Scotland, and ended in London.

We review every aspect of the ship including the food, amenities, ship layout, crew, excursions, ports, cabin/stateroom, and many more.

Other Viking Cruise Videos Referenced:

00:00 Introduction
01:16 Embarking
02:47 Ship Layout
10:43 Room
16:41 Food
26:59 Entertainment
29:14 Port Experience
34:22 Add Ons
39:35 Crew
41:13 Overall Thoughts
43:12 Outtakes

[Paul-GrnHil]

First of all, kudos to you both for embracing the life you were given (cheers worthy).
My wife and I enjoyed a Viking S. American cruise and are booked on 2 more. We love Viking. I agree with much of your comments especially given your ratings vs your expectations. I would rate the food better than the entertainment while your expectations for food over entertainment impacts your ratings. All in all a well balanced review of an excellent cruise line. Happy life to you both.

[debraedwards]

I also prefer to do my laundry. Was on Viking for three weeks-- loved how I could just wash my own clothes as needed--- at no charge!

[paula]

We are considering a Viking Ocean cruise and appreciated your honest review. You both do a great job of explaining in detail the reasons for your score. Plus, you both seem such pleasant and likable people. Good luck with this site!

[patrickchappell]

Shout out to you two!🥂My wife & I have lived your journey - & ended up stopping our treatments & after consideration, did not pursue adoption. We've now been happily married for 31 years - and we are SO HAPPY WITH OUR LIFE & OUR DECISION! We'll both be retired before 60 (5 years away) & we travel all the time now. We've done 2 Viking trips - about to do South America trip in Dec on Viking.
Agree with your review. Thank you for sharing your story & adventures. Wishing you a lifetime of love & adventure! Patrick & Sharon

[patdempsey]

Having taken about 5 Viking Ocean cruises, I really agree with your review, especially my last 2 cruises. I especially agree about the food, which has decreased in quality since the pandemic. Your review was spot-on and very complete.

[maryannesteinberger]

I do not know what sort of food you folks like, but we found the food excellent. Fresh, locally sourced, simple. You could identify what it was. Not drowned in disguising sauces.
The wok station was first-rate. (Most of my cooking at home is in my wok.)
P.s. we like firm beds. We had the same cabin, same ship.

[texasboy]

We did the same cruise last year in a penthouse veranda stateroom (PV2), which is one category lower than yours. Loved the trip so much we are doing in again next May. We fine the beds on Viking trip fine, so it's a personal thing. We have sailed on several of the ultra-luxury lines, and find Viking is our favorite line. We felt the food was as good as the higher end ships. We do about 3 to 4 cruises with Viking a year and always love the experience.

[pattid]

For me the food is everything. If it’s not stellar it’s a dealbreaker for me, especially for the money. We love Oceania - “the finest cuisine at sea” is their mantra. We’ve done 3 cruises with them now and love them! (BTW, kudos to you both for embracing reality and moving forward in a positive way - God bless you!)

[joecburke]

EXCELLENT review. On most reviews we get the marketing photo video, but this one was specific, detailed, and VERY credible. THANK YOU, because we are about to take our first Viking cruise and this helped SO much.

[doreenbi]

I was hesitant to start a 40 min video. You two are adorable! Thank you for sharing your experience... Very helpful for planning our upcoming Viking cruise!

[opheliavoyager]

My husband and I have been on several Viking Ocean and River cruises, and we were recently on the Star from Montreal to Fort Lauderdale. We've had the room you were in when we went to Panama, and we loved the space and the couch. We were in a DV level room most recently, and I felt squeezed in, but I knew that when I booked it. We love the gym too, and used it daily. I think they offered yoga classes for $10, but I never saw anyone in the gym teaching classes. We also like taking the stairs just to work off some of the dessert calories, and I walked on the 2nd deck daily around the ship. I also agree with your thoughts about the piano player and, for us, a flute player. Such nice music while you sit around and play games, read, or have a drink. What I liked about the food (and we primarily eat in the World Cafe) is that I can get fresh greens for a salad at lunch, add freshly grated carrots, then top it with a lentil salad, and whatever other kind of interesting salad they have. I also loved their cut up fruit selection daily. I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat a lot of meat, so I enjoyed various vegetarian dishes they offered that I would never make at home. I also liked the sushi, along with the shrimp. I tried the pizza for the first time, and like you, did not find it very exciting. My goal is not to gain weight, and I didn't, even though I sampled desserts for lunch and dinner. The espresso/latte/cappuccino machine in the World Cafe was our favorite place to get a beverage. We drank tons of those all day long. What we love are all the educational presentations in the Star that we always attend. My final observation is that you are both much younger than the demographic on some of their cruises. The one we were just on had many people who were on walkers and were using canes. Thanks again for your thoughtful and detailed review.

[Rose-kvr]

Good review overall, but if anyone is trying to decide whether to book a Viking Cruise based on this, I feel the need to offer some additional context and perspective:

- The whole bed thing is indeed subjective. I thought they were very comfortable. Agree that the pillows were not (too poofy and bulky), so next time we’re bringing our own.

- They rightfully noted how fantastic the crew is. Everyone on the staff is fantastic, and you feel treated like royalty, no matter what cabin you have booked. (And yes, please tip them extra.)

- We thought the excursions were excellent overall, both the included and the optional ones we splurged on. If your whole objective is to have only more personalized experiences in each port, I’m wondering if a cruise is the best choice for you overall, anyway.

- Agree with their comments on the entertainment overall. Have to mention that the house musicians (classical players, soloists, and especially the house band) were terrific. Interesting they did not even mention any of the lectures (from scientists, academics, historians, naturalists, etc.), which are a core part of Viking’s whole approach as the “thinking person’s cruise.” Most of these are really good and offer lots of background, context, and extra appreciation for each port destination.

- My biggest difference of opinion is about the food. I think that overall it is excellent, although it varies by venue. The World Cafe (buffet) is about as good as a buffet gets, if you like that sort of thing. Not my favorite type of dining venue, and I often avoided it, because of the general busyness and noise level that is typical of a buffet. The restaurant was excellent most nights, with good food and lovely presentation. Manfredi’s was very good, especially for a cruise ship specialty restaurant. Not the greatest Italian food I’ve ever had (I’m Italian), but very good and a great experience overall. The BEST food experience on the ship is at the Chef’s Table, where the food is fantastic, creative, and beautifully served. Too bad they didn’t try it more than once, which tells me they are a bit picky or not very adventurous as eaters. Also, I thought the wine pairings were excellent, and just because a bottle may not cost more than $20, that doesn’t mean it’s not tasty. Not everything has to have a “top shelf” label to be good.

One final thing to keep in mind: while they kept saying that the food was disappointing given “what they paid” for their trip, keep in mind that they booked one of the highest category cabins onboard, one that cost literally double the price of the more prevalent Deluxe Veranda (a perfectly lovely cabin). I understand that they prioritized having more space, but the people who paid 50% less than they did were served the very same food and may have had a different expectation and perspective of the value they received.

[RobinLevine-mw]

Your experiences with the food exactly as mine when I wrote up my Tripadvisor and CruiseCritic reviews of our Viking Mediterranean Odyssey. World Cafe food was often cold under the warming lights, could play frisbee with the waffles, and nothing special but the desserts and gelato were fine, as I noted in my own review! :-) We were under-impressed by Manfredi's and ate their only once because the menu never changed and the food was just OK. The Restaurant was nice to sit at, didn't open until 8 am for breakfast so we ended up at the World Cafe for most breakfasts because we were always up early. At least The Restaurant offered some new options each day and whatever they did provide I thought was fairly good. But yes, as you noted, the food was not what I had heard Viking excelled at. And while we found the beds just fine, the pillows were not pillows, they were so soft and mushy that we ended up lying flat even though we asked for extra pillows. Again, as you noted, will take some of our own pillows. Our travel friends are looking for another cruise to go on and we're thinking British Isles. We were there on Viking in August 2024 and are looking at something for Fall 2025. Thanks for the reviews and best of luck to you in your personal quests...

[shellyvick]

I loved your honest evaluation of Viking Cruises. We have been on 13 Viking, we are both 59. I was just so surprised you never mentioned that the clientele is a bit older. We always feel like we are in the youngest group. We have taken our adult children and their spouses on a Viking River and Ocean, and they just loved both. So kuddos!

[dlmk]

Thank you for the in depth and honest review! This is what we all want. For 20k the bed, lack of options, food, and laundry issues helped me decide to X this. Thank you!

[macgowan]

Nice presentation on Viking. We are long time cruisers. We only travel on small ships——400-750 passengers. We love Silversea, Seabourn, and Regents. For the $’s you spend on this 15 day cruise, on your next cruise you might consider these cruise lines😅. FYI——We sailed on Silversea for 21 days in South America for the same rate you spent—-and the beds are great and the restaurants are superb.

[happysweety]

Thank you for sharing your experience with Viking Ocean cruise you had. Ｉ agreed your rating to Viking food. I just had one Viking River cruise. I think the food was same as HA or Princess Cruise lines. I don't mind having house keeping once a day that may help less stress on their house keepers. I like the included excursions and the warm floor in the bath room.

[Codymeister]

We’ve been on 5 Viking cruises. Never had an issue with the bed.

[bonniebishop]

My daughter and I did the Viking homelands. So we were on for 2 weeks we absolutely loved everything about it

[tko]

Thank you for a very detailed review. We plan to go on Vikings cruise next year.