Viking Voyager

This was my first ever cruise as I prefer independent travel but did a holiday trip with my mom. It was a lovely experience with a very nice ship, excellent staff, great food, and pleasant amenities. It was pleasant to travel without children or a rowdy drinking group as I hear is on other cruise lines and not my style of travel. It is very impressive that 70% of the people on the ship are repeat travelers. It was very disappointing to spend half of the trip at sea though as 2 shore days were taken off the itinerary before departure and 1 day was unable to dock due to rough seas. There was an excessively long 16hours at sea between Tangier and Cadiz, which I imagine was due to timing of access to the port. The staff are fantastic and all very sweet.

The app has evolved in the last couple years and is more interactive than I remember! Definitely user friendly and very helpful. Just two minor drawbacks which lowered my rating: 1) I understand that the hours for dining options on board may change each day but if you can print the hours in the paper Viking Daily in advance to deliver each night prior then why can’t you also upload the hours into the app view? — Example: one day I was up at 4am and left my stateroom to read elsewhere as not to disturb my sleeping husband. At about 6am I was a little hungry but didn’t have the VD with me to check the dining timetables. The app and the onboard touch screens both just said “check the VD in your room for hours” but my husband was still sleeping and I did not wish to wake him by going back to rummage for the newsletter. 2) On a previous voyage we received paper feedback slips in our room each day to rate our excursion experiences. The paper forms included free space to write comments. Now the feedback forms are on this app, except there’s no place to write additional comments, only the basic array of check-box ratings or yes/no questions. I wish I could leave more detailed feedback for some of the excursions.

There truly isn’t anything to add to my five star rating other than to say that I don’t ever give them. It seems as though there is always room for improvement … however, there’s always a first time. The Viking Cruise line gets my highest rating available because they deserve it. Full Stop! From the seemingly 1:1 ratio of staff to guests that allow them to meet every little desire - they go out of the way to make sure that each and every day of your cruise is better than the day before! Staff are smiling and attentive, happy and extremely willing to go any extra mile you’d like (and it is amazing what they can do!) And the food? Specialty restaurants highlighting local fresh ingredients and even opportunities to go shopping with a chef and then a chance to return to the kitchen on the ship and cook alongside -preparing what was just locally purchased. The opportunities for the daily experiences are wonderful and there’s almost always something to find to do at the right fitness level and just full of new and interesting experiences! Brand new ships, younger and talented ( musically) many of the staff also play music in various areas on the ship. Attention has been paid for to every little detail - want something more or different? Just ask:) Do yourself a favor and book a Viking Cruise - you will treasure it’s memories forever