My husband had never been interested in cruising after spending a substantial amount of time on Navy ships, but he wanted to see Alaska. Years ago we made a deal that we would take an Alaskan cruise; we figured it was a good way to try cruising and “checking the Alaska box” for him at the same time. We have a few friends that have cruised on Viking, and it definitely sounded more of the kind of cruising experience we were looking for, with it’s smaller ships, ”all inclusive” cruises.
We were not disappointed! Once we arrived at Anchorage airport, Viking took care of everything from that moment until we boarded our plane for home in Vancouver almost two weeks later (we purchased the post cruise package as well). Most days we either did the included excursions or set out on our own with third party excursion companies. We also loved our days at sea, and spent many hours on the top deck of the ship just watching the world go by.
We are pretty casual people, and ate most of our meals at World Cafe (the buffet restaurant). We did try all the others; we had dinner at Mamsen’s and the Chef’s Table, and it was very good. We went to The Restaurant once, but we really liked the spontaneity and quick turn-around of walking into the World Cafe and serving ourselves (and the food was excellent, by the way).
We loved it. I feared that it would seemed cramped or small, but not at all. We had coffee on the veranda (delivered by room service) every morning and it was one of the favorite parts of our trip.