Viking Cruise – Reflections

Now that I’ve been home for a few days, I’ve had time to reflect on our cruise and come up with a few observations and suggestions that I hope to follow next time. First and foremost, Tim and I loved our cruise, and we loved the Viking experience. Scandinavia and the British Isles are gorgeous parts of the world, with so much history and natural beauty, and this was a perfect destination for us.

We also loved the people we met ashore. Everyone was welcoming and seemed very glad to see us. People were friendly and helpful, including our guides, shopkeepers, hotel staff, and various residents. The kind and generous woman who drove us 45 minutes out of her way to make sure we got to the train station on our Norway in a Nutshell tour was in a category all by herself. It may have been a job for some of them, but their friendliness read as genuine.

We were so impressed with the fact that the people we met were so very proud of their countries and their heritage. Yes, this was certainly the case with our guides, but it meant even more coming from the young women we met in Denmark. We appreciated their wanting to share their pride with us.

Before leaving home, it’s important to research what to do in each port and to carefully read the description for each tour to make sure it’s what you envision. I would try to book private tours again, but Viking’s overview bus tours can also be a good option, especially if port visits are on the short side. On the other hand, if the ship remains in port overnight, an overview tour is useful to help get one’s bearings in a new destination. Although advance tour planning is important, always leave room for spontaneity. We had some of our best experiences that way.

In between all the tours, try to build in time to relax. When I was working, I always said I’d rest when I got home, and that seemed to work just fine. Unfortunately, the older we get, the more we do need to rest from time to time. Tim is much better about this than I am. Alas, I likely won’t heed my own advice since I want to see it all.

Tim and I both took way too many photographs and should have simply enjoyed what we were seeing with our own eyes, rather than through the lens of a camera. We also need to practice taking selfies of the two of us together; we can’t always rely on someone to do it for us. I’ve learned that photos of people are the images that will have the most meaning years from now when we can’t remember the name of that building we so carefully tried to capture.

Speaking of photographs, I learned that it’s really difficult to get decent photos from any moving vehicle, whether bus, train, or plane. One might think it would be easier in a car on a private tour, but those photos didn’t turn out much better.

This trip confirmed for me that it’s important for us to spend as many days as possible in the cities where we will embark and disembark our cruise. The obvious advantages include leaving a cushion for any flight delays or other mishap, as well as having time to recover from jet lag. After enduring the cost and discomfort of an overnight flight, it only makes sense to take advantage of being in that city to experience more fully what it has to offer and not be so rushed in getting to the ship.

As a corollary to the above flight reference, from now on, if at all possible, I will only fly in lie-flat business class for an overnight flight. I simply cannot rest sitting up, and the time to recover from the flight puts a damper on the first several days of the trip. That’s why I am playing the points and miles game so we can use airline miles to “pay” for the expensive seats. On the other hand, I have concluded that premium economy is fine for a daytime flight. I just never want to be stuck in a middle seat again.

In an earlier post, I covered what I loved about sailing with Viking. Everything we could have wanted was provided for us on the ship, and the staff couldn’t do enough for us. We also confirmed that Viking’s DV6 cabin is the perfect category for us. All DV categories have a balcony and are the same size, and I prefer a cabin on a lower deck. We liked the openness in the center of this level over the atrium, and its location was convenient to the Living Room. Tim and I tended to prefer the Living Room for coffee, rather than the Explorers’ Lounge for cocktails, since Tim doesn’t drink and I rarely do. It was also a good place to people-watch.

My final thought is to pack light. Although I did better than many people, hauling three rollaboards around before and after the cruise was a bit of a pain. We did ok, but we’re going to try and do better next time.