We have been on many cruises, but this was our first with Viking. Check-in was very quick and the luggage was in the cabin less than half an hour later.
I loved the ship. The sitting areas are like small living rooms, with sofas and chairs and tables, shelves with books and knickknacks, fireplaces, and video screens showing changing photographs of lovely scenery.
The cabin was nice but had less than the normal amount of storage space. The location of the closet (along the side of the bed) wasn’t great since only one person could access it at a time. There was a nice big table on the balcony, although the chairs did not recline. The bathroom was nice with good storage space, nightlights under the sink, and a large glassed-in shower. The heated tile floor was nice but there was no fan so the floor tended to make the room too warm. The nightlight in the cabin itself was too bright. We heard other passengers saying they tried to cover it up with towels and pillows. There is a switch for it – in our cabin, it was the outermost switch on the far side of the bed. There was a charging station on the nightstand and lots of places to plug things in. The toiletries were good quality and came in big tubes. The lighting in the cabin was excellent. You have to leave a key in the slot to make the lights and AC work, which I hate. The steward also explained that the AC turns off as soon as you open the balcony doors, so if one person goes out on the balcony, the person staying inside will not have any AC. There was also no way to latch the balcony door from the outside. I tried sitting outside on a day when there were big swells and the door constantly slammed open until I gave up and went in. There were Quiet Vox units and earpieces to use on the excursions. Don’t forget to take them with you – you cannot get another one on the bus.
The city tour was nice but it would have been better if we could have had a quick stroll around the arts and sciences district and the main square, both of which were too far away to get to once we had free time near the church with the holy grail. Decent tour, though.