We wanted to see the Northern Lights. We knew that there were no guarantees, but thought that Viking would at least provide as much support as possible to view them.

Perhaps the problem is that we were on the first-ever Viking cruise in search of the Northern Lights. The cruise excursion staff HAD NEVER BEEN TO THE PORTS BEFORE. For that matter, neither had the ship's captain (I"m glad I didn't know that until the cruise was over, when he told us). That is, the excursion staff could answer no questions about most things except to say that they didn't know. Plus the built-in excursions were so poorly organized. Tour guides who couldn't speak English, itineraries that were haphazard. We drove past (did not even stop to stay in the bus to look) the main tourist attractions, if you were on the wrong side of the bus, you didn't even get a look at all. Some of the paid excursions were even worse, resulting in Viking having to refund all or part of the cost. There is absolutely no excuse at all for this level of incompetence, I don't care if this was the first time they did this trip. They should have investigated first. Think about it, a Norwegian cruise line that can't handle ports in Norway.

Then the food. It was totally disappointing. Everything was so bland. Especially don't go if you're vegetarian, few and poor options. Read more