Having been on several river cruises with Viking which we love doing, we thought we’d book an Ocean cruise with Viking for our ruby wedding anniversaries. . We were a bit frustrated before going on the cruise owing to the system in place for booking trips. Seemed to be class driven. I.e. the more you paid the better the choice. We couldn’t book a morning trip on all the included trips and some of the paid trips. In fact some of the trips we had booked paid or otherwise were changed by the time we got on board. We had to faff about getting them organised to suit. Wasn’t too much of a problem but we felt the poor girl on guest services must have dreaded seeing us coming towards her.

The excursions were good but the qv’s were a disaster. The guides were knowledgeable and fun on the coach but unless you were on their shoulders you couldn’t hear anything, too much static. The excursions were extremely busy too.

Had a wonderful cruise on board the Orion. Great cabin, crew, and entertainment. Captain made a good choice by sailing to our second port of call to miss the typhoon that hit Tokyo. All the ports of call were superb but must say Taipei and Hong Kong were favourites. The food was good too but I felt this was the only thing that let you down. The temperature for me was warm as opposed to being hot. Some of the dishes in the world buffet for example the main roast of the day was served very rare. Not good. Some of the meals in the pool area were cooked to order but it was so hot in there that the “sides” were sitting out in all that heat so not too appetising at all. I had a chicken tikka and it was literally skin and bones. Yuk. Don’t get me wrong the chefs would cook you anything asked for which was great and hot but the sides were cool. The seafood dishes and sushi were all fantastic, they were served cold just as they should’ve. The restaurant was disappointing too it was cold in some of the areas and the food was served lukewarm at breakfast and dinner. Service was good at breakfast but a lot slower at dinner. We asked for a Sauvignon Blanc only to be told there wasn’t any so had a different wine which was nice too as is all the wines on offer but disappointed with not getting what we asked for especially when we got it later on in the bar. Read more