Journey to Antiquities on the Viking Venus: Christmas 2024

Scores: 

Cost-agnostic: 9 out of 10 Denalis

Cost-sensitive: 7 out of 10 Denalis

[Tl;dr: It was a great trip and I was very impressed with Viking overall. The staff was attentive (occasionally too attentive), the ship was clean and nicely appointed, the food was overall quite good and with a whole bunch of options, and the variety of spaces and things to do on board were great. The excursions were varied and provided options both in terms of what we could do and the activity level required.]

 

Introduction/Caveats: We sailed on the Viking Venus from December 22 through December 29^th, 2023, boarding in Athens, visiting Kuşadası, Turkey, Messina in Sicily, and Naples, Italy, before disembarking in Civitavecchia, just outside Rome. There was supposed to be a stop in Crete on 12/25 that got canceled due to everything being closed for the Christmas holiday, so two of the days in the middle (12/25-26) were pure sailing days. I had a “Deluxe Veranda” room^[1] on the fourth deck, on the right side (starboard) of the ship near the middle. Two days at sea in the middle was maybe not ideal, but I enjoyed the enforced idleness on those days.

 

Rooms: The rooms were nice. A reasonable size with decent storage, and the bathroom/shower was frankly luxurious for a boat. The bed was pretty comfortable and nicely firm, and the chairs in the room were pretty comfortable for after-hours relaxation. The mini-fridge was nicely appointed, though I’d have preferred an option to fill it with water rather than soda.

 

Amenities: 

 

The exercise facilities were nicely appointed, if limited to some Peloton knock-offs and a dumbbell set marked in kgs. It was never particularly crowded and each machine was stocked with towels and a bottle of water which was a nice touch. 

The spa was quite nice; the massage was about what I’d expect (though the nice lady almost made me cry during a deep tissue session), and the Norwegian bath facility was great. It had a cold plunge pool and a traditional sauna in the men’s locker room, and then access to a shared-gender facility with a bubble pool, hot tub, steam room, and “snow grotto” that was close to, but not actually, freezing cold. I wish I’d discovered the baths before the last day on the ship; I feel like I would have spent some time each day going back and forth between hot and cold. 

 

On-board entertainment: There were certainly a lot of options for entertainment on the boat, ranging from regular lectures by the two on-board Viking historians to old Christmas movies in the theaters to sing-alongs and performances by several musicians (and some crew members!) on board. These were all slightly hampered by the lack of COVID awareness on the ship and the small number of people wearing masks in common areas; in particular, anytime people around us started singing we tended to retreat. The in-room TV had some options for movies and TV shows to watch, though I didn’t bother with any of them given the amount of people watching I could do on board.

 

I will say that the lecture series was … disappointing. Neither of the lecturers seemed particularly well-prepared for any of their topics, which was a damned shame. Learning the history of the places we had visited or were going to be visiting would have been pretty great. Maybe I had unrealistic expectations after having truly excellent history professors in college? I just kept thinking to myself how much better they would have been if the lecturer had been Steven Maughan or Howard Berger or Mark Smith. Hell, I’m sure any of the poli-sci folks could have thrown together something interesting and relevant: I found myself wanting to suggest that my brother prepare a geography lecture just to show them how it’s done! Maybe I spend too much time thinking about, attending, and delivering instruction, but it just felt like a real missed opportunity. At least mom enjoyed them more than I did, which was really nice for her.

The pool on the top deck (outside at the stern) was … okay. Both the infinity pool and the hot tub were substantially under-filled and sort of lukewarm while we were underway, and I’m pretty sure that they’re downwind of the designated smoking spot as I kept getting hit with what looked and smelled like ash while using them.

The Explorer’s Lounge was great. 7^th deck, front of the ship, with comfortable seating, a nice selection of books, and great views out the front of the ship. Also a great little buffet much of the day, with Scandinavian breakfast options in the morning and nice light sandwiches and dessert in the afternoon for tea. The last couple of days, this is where I went to read and have coffee in the afternoon. It’s also where I shot some of my favorite photos and videos of the trip, particularly as we were leaving various ports.

Upper deck of the Explorer's Lounge.

Watching the waves go by in the lower deck of the Explorer's Lounge.

The Wintergarten was probably my favorite place on the ship after the Explorer’s Lounge. Glass retractable roof a la T-Mobile Park, lots of windows and natural light, and the indoor pool/hot tub for those olfactory reminders of a childhood misspent swimming. The pool grill is also in this section, with decent American style lunch options and a reasonably good bar. The one downside was that the ship's announcements were PAINFULLY loud in here; like everyone around us had their ears covered, and they were still painful even after I put on decent noise-canceling headphones. The Cruise Director happened to be on our excursion the next day so I got to raise that with him and he was pretty receptive.

The Wintergarten

Speculoos cake!

The decks were lovely and mostly pretty empty, but it was pretty cool and windy the entire time we were on the boat. I'd guess they get pretty crowded during on-season cruises. 

Chill sea day.

Food: The food was always good, but very rarely great. We ate primarily at the World Café on Deck 7, which was a buffet with a couple of dozen options each night, ranging from traditional Scandinavian fair (yay pickled fish!) to American-style buffet options (roasted beef, chicken, pork, etc.) to a Chinese station. There were always a wide variety of pastries and dessert options, as well as a rotating assortment of gelatos and sorbets on demand. Breakfasts included a variety of American-style options, but once we discovered the made-to-order omelet option we were pretty set for the week. Couple of standouts: the first night, they had Duck L’Orange that was really genuinely good and frankly I should have skipped the sides that night to have a little more duck. Christmas Day they had a “Christmas charm”, a red-dusted chocolate dessert that was AMAZING. It was like a Nesquik-flavored chocolate mousse with an amazingly silky texture. The tiramisu the last couple of days was also pretty great; unfortunately I was pretty burned out on sweets by then and mostly didn’t partake.

[They were really good about allergens; Mom is allergic to all nuts except peanuts, and she noted that during booking. Each day we got advanced menus for her to look through, and every waiter at every restaurant knew that she had some dietary restrictions even though sometimes a bit of it got lost in translation. I cannot commend to your attention enough the value of giving Viking a heads up about any restrictions; they appear to be able to accomodate most of them with sufficient notice.]

The rules about drinks were also really weird. Mom ordered a ginger ale during one of the lectures and they charged her $4 for it. Unless you purchase the silver spirits package, wine and beer are charged by the glass EXCEPT when you're in one of the restaurants at meal time, in which case the house wine and beer are free. Soda is mostly free, unless you order ginger ale, or a coke product in the Explorer's Lounge (though honestly the bartenders there usually didn't actually charge me). Espresso drinks are free throughout the ship all of the time. It's ... super weird.

Magical omelet bar, plus bread service.

A small sampling of the desserts on board.

Not a bad morning view.

Manfreddi’s was the Italian restaurant on board that required advanced reservations (somehow Dylan managed to sweet talk us into this restaurant the second to last night). The food was really good, though the portion sizes were a bit ridiculous. I felt bad only eating like half of each course I ordered, and I was pretty glad I skipped the salad course and didn’t eat any of the bread service. The pasta course was delicious, and the steak perfectly seasoned and cooked. This restaurant is 100% worth eating at. The wine list was also pretty good and decently priced; this was the one place that we ordered a nice bottle of wine, an Amarone.

Carbonara

A delicious but far too big ribeye.

Tiramisu. So much tiramisu.

Dylan with the Amarone he selected.

The Chef’s Table is the pre-fixe restaurant on the ship that Dylan also talked them into giving us a reservation at. This menu for our visit was Asian-themed, and was also good, but not great. The standout courses were the lychee and red pepper flake granita (SO WEIRD AND DELICIOUS) and the Beijing duck, and the desert included a really nice mini-crème brulee and banana egg rolls. The lobster and pork bao were close to great, but the wrapper was just a little rubbery. The courses were mercifully small, and I feel like I acquitted myself well.  Depending on the menu, I might skip this one next time. Oh, and if anyone in your party has dietary restrictions, make sure to let them know ahead of time (you should probably register via the portal before your sailing); they will try their best to accommodate you on the fly (and they made some chicken jaoizu for my SiL that were apparently quite delicious), but they’re better about setting up things in advance. 

Beijing duck, but small.

Asian-inflected dessert trio.

The Restaurant is the "main" non-buffet option on the ship on deck 2. We only went there once; it's really crowded and pretty tightly packed, and the wait time between ordering and getting food is pretty long. The food was ... fine, but honestly I thought the steak was better cooked at the World Cafe, and the fries were better literally everywhere on the boat. We didn't go back, though next time I might try the breakfast just because they appeared to have a fresh french toast option (and french toast doesn't keep very well under a heat lamp). 

A moderately disappointing steak-frites.

Afternoon tea in the Wintergarten was quite nice, with excellent tea and delicious scones. 11/10, would recommend. When the Wintergarten was overfull (the two days at sea) we got tea service in the Explorer’s Lounge but it was like pulling teeth. 

 

Room service was pretty comprehensive and available 24 hours a day, though when my brother/sister-in-law ordered breakfast overnight it arrived late enough that it complicated making later events. I didn’t order it myself, because I liked getting out and about on the ship and there were so many good restaurants. 

 

Excursions: The excursions varied a lot, as we got to pick which ones we want. We tried to match up excursions with Mom and we mostly picked ones with less walking, though through some miscommunications we ended up on some different excursions on a couple of days. I would say my favorite excursions were the less-structured ones where we’d get a basic outline from the guides on the way to a location, maybe a quick talk as we walked somewhere, and then a lot of time to do our own thing and walk around at our own pace. The ones that were mostly on the bus, or tightly tied to guides for the duration, were less my cup of tea. But, they were always well organized and felt safe and controlled, and got us access to interesting things and places. The guides were mostly pretty good, and the Quiet Vox system was helpful in terms of letting us hear them without bothering everyone around us.

Taormina is GORGEOUS. I'd spend a couple of days there.

Italian unification memorial.

The views: They're spectacular. It's a beautiful part of the world and the ship gives you some really unique perspectives on all of it. And the highlights weren't even always the things we'd anticipated; standing on the deck of the ship in Turkey and listening to the call to prayer was a genuinely remarkable experience. 

Apparently the rock St. Paul exhorted the Athenians from? 

The Athenian Acropolis.

Second day at the Acropolis, with nicer weather this time.

Kuşadası, Turkey, at sunset.

Misc: I think the most disappointing part of this experience was the degree to which they’ve just accepted that people are going to transmit and get COVID on the ship. I understand that they’re in a hard place, with I’m guessing at least 50% of their clientele coming from a country (MURKA!) that is pretending that COVID isn’t real anymore, but man is it hard to be in a crowd of unmasked people shouting and eating and carrying on. I think maybe 5% of the ship masked at all. [To their (limited) credit, no one gave us a hard time for masking though, which I had wondered about.]

 

The people watching was pretty great, though I ended up playing a lot of rounds of “girlfriend or daughter,” and I think I was batting less than .500 on it by the end of the trip. I also overheard several conversations that I perhaps should not have, so be aware that not everyone on board will be particularly thoughtful about what they subject their fellow passengers to. 

 

Viking also doesn’t allow people under 18 on their ships, and I would guess that the average guest was ten or twenty years older than me, though there were certainly a few folks who appeared to be younger than me on some of our excursions. The price point also definitely affects their clientele, and they make some rules that are designed to keep it “classy” (dining rooms are all “elegant casual”, which means in theory collared shirts and no jeans for men, though this appears to be mostly honored in the breach.)

 

Conclusion: Overall, it was a great experience and one I’ll definitely do again. I’m particularly intrigued by their river voyages; Viking has two broad categories of ship: ocean-going (around 1,000 passengers) and river-going (around 100 passengers). The ocean-going ships are all roughly the same, while the river-going ships are custom designed for their specific rivers. Viking does charge a hefty single supplement (150-200%) so be aware that it’s not a cheap option to solo travel. 

^[1] Their second-tier room type for this ship.