We enjoyed visiting this unique array of ports, , sailing from Bergen, Norway to Barcelona, Spain. Pros: the staff, including our cabin steward, the cruise director, the entertainers, and all the rest, was marvelous! The food was great — in the main restaurant, the specialty restaurants, and the other places. Our cabin was larger and better organized than most other cruise lines we have experienced. The seas were quite rough, as it was October, and there were storms, so there was a lot of understandable rocking, but the weird thing was how noisy and creaking the cabins were. Our nice steward brought me earplugs, so I pull sleep! Cons: the included tours were disappointing, for the most part, although there were a few exceptions, with good guides and adequate overviews. The optional tours were better, perhaps, but some were difficult, or even impossible to book, as they were booked by higher level cabins before most of us even had a chance to book them. For example, the Al Hambra tour was fully before most of us even had a chance to get it, and Viking didn’t add any additional sections. As a result, a number of us booked private tours, which were less expensive, with a smaller number of participants and a more extensive, longer tour. As someone said, ”Viking Ocean does a lot of things right, but the excursion part is not one of them.” I’m sorry to say this, as we have greatly enjoyed our previous three sailings on Viking River Cruises. We will undoubtedly give Viking another chance, and hope they wok hard to improve this area, which was probably the only part of the cruise that was not stellar.
