My husband and I chose this cruise because it was an affordable way to check out Viking, and we hadn't taken a holiday cruise previously. We are experienced cruisers but not with Viking. We picked up the cruise partway through in Lisbon, so we had no time to explore before embarkation. The first 48 hours were rough. There were maintenance problems with our cabin (a blocked drain caused disgusting material to come into the shower) and the table on our verandah was unusable because it rocked back and forth. We also waited over an hour for our food at lunch in the restaurant on the first full day. Once the maintenance issues were fixed, things improved. The food was amazing; we ate most of our meals in the cafe and the service there was wonderful. We thoroughly enjoyed the ship's entertainers and musical productions. We went to movies and many ship lecturers' presentations. There was always something interesting to do if we wanted, and plenty of places to sit quietly and read a book if we wanted down time. The seas were very rough and due to rain we were unable to visit the scheduled ports of The Azores and Hamilton, Bermuda, so that was disappointing, but safety comes first. A stop in Madeira, Funchal was substituted, and the included excursion there was an excellent overview of the island. I found the cabin to be cramped compared to the other cruise line we have sailed most often. Storage was especially poor and there were several ways it could have been improved if the cabin had been designed better. We were especially impressed with the friendliness and accessibility of the ship's officers. We had never been on a ship where the captain made a point of stopping to talk with folks in the public areas; the cruise directors, hotel manager, and others did the same thing. While I would not recommend a Trans-Atlantic cruise in December, I highly recommend Viking and the Viking Sky!! It was a wonderful vacation. We now have two more Viking cruises booked for 2020 and 2021.