Nice but nothing special. Food was OK. The “special” menus were no better than the regular ones. No enrichment activities. The fitness room was small and poorly equipped.
We had better previous experiences with Viking but we were particularly disappointed with the company after this cruise because they treated us so badly when we tried to book the next one, which we have now cancelled.
To make a long story short, THEY DO NOT VALUE RETURNING CUSTOMERS.
We found an excellent deal on line for NEW bookings that offered a very competitive air rate. However, when we tried to convert to that as returning customers, they would not offer it to us. In fact, we found that we could have gotten a better airfare by doing it ourselves on line than what they offered to us.
Our advice would be to be very cautious about Viking. They can be good sometimes but not very good at others, particularly in their service to returning customers.
We did not have an opportunity to explore the the departure city. Embarkation was flawed by late arrival of our bags in the cabin.
The ship was not as well laid out as those on Holland America. It had a very small library and wi-fi area.
Dining involved a lot of standing in lines.
Entertainment was the usual singing and dancing by the crew.
Ports and shore excursions did not offer anything very exotic.
We will probably not go with Viking again because of their reneging on their airfare deal, which cost us an extra $3,000. No amount of good service could erase the bad taste that left.
Overhang of bridge partially blocked our view from the balcony. The bridge was directly over our balcony and prevented us from getting good views of the northern lights. Also the drawer and hanging space was much more limited than what we have had on other ships.