Virtually all our travel since 2010 has been by car or RV, since we had refused to leave Kitty behind. Although we were devastated when we lost her last year, we slowly began to realize that our travel options were now wide-open. We could even travel internationally.
So, Tim and I started seriously discussing the possibility of taking a cruise at some point in the future. We knew that we wouldn’t want to cruise this year because of COVID, but we thought the pandemic might be over by 2022. We had lots of questions, including which cruise line, which itinerary, etc., but we enjoyed doing the research.
In looking at different itineraries, Scandinavia and the Baltic stood out for us. I had always wanted to see St. Petersburg, as well as Norway, so we looked for an itinerary that would visit that part of the world. We also wanted to sail for at least 15 days.
We had no interest in the mega ships and preferred one with fewer than 1,000 passengers. Although we had thoroughly enjoyed our honeymoon on Regent Seven Seas, we no longer wanted a luxury line with formal nights.
We narrowed our choices down to Oceania and Viking. I particularly liked the clean lined Scandinavian décor of Viking, as well as the fact that the ships have no casinos, no “nickel and diming,” and no guests under 18 years of age. Viking seemed to be the perfect fit for us.
We called our travel agent and booked the Viking Homelands itinerary for May 22, 2022. We added a two-night extension in Stockholm prior to departure, as well as a three-night extension in Iceland at the end. The cruise would be on the Viking Venus, one of the newer ships in the fleet.
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Our Viking Homelands Itinerary |
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| Viking Venus (Photo Courtesy of Viking.com) |
