November 5, 2025 • 34 mins
We're sharing our firsthand experience aboard Viking Ocean to show you how these 930-passenger ships deliver that unique blend of river cruise options with ocean cruise amenities – and whether they live up to the Viking brand you might already know and love from river cruising.
You'll discover the significant upgrades in dining quality and variety compared to river cruises, with multiple restaurants serving elevated cuisine that surprised us. We'll walk you through the onboard entertainment options, from elaborate shows and guest lecturers to live music. Plus, explore the extensive spa and wellness amenities that go far beyond what you'll find on river ships with us.
You'll also learn about the relaxed, casino-free atmosphere, how excursions work with the larger passenger capacity (including priority booking benefits for higher category staterooms), and what makes the ship's design and cultural resources, like the onboard library, so special.
Whether you're a Viking River veteran curious about making the jump to ocean cruising, someone seeking a mid-sized ship experience that's neither too big nor too small, or just exploring your ocean cruise options, you'll understand exactly what Viking Ocean offers and who will love this distinctive approach to cruising.
During this episode, we mention utilizing My Viking Journey and our AirFly devices, which we take on every cruise. We also talk about motion sickness (and whether or not it's an issue) so if you're prone to it, you'll want to learn about our sea sickness remedies.
👉🏻 Subscribe so you never miss an episode, released every Wednesday.
✈️ Use our preferred travel advisors to book your cruise.
💙 Join our Small Ship Cruise Talk community on Facebook.
💻 Follow us on Instagram, Threads, & Pinterest.
📩 Sign up for our newsletter.
🌏 SometimesSailing.com has even more planning tips, firsthand experiences, & advice.
📱 Have questions or topic suggestions? Contact us.
©2025 Small Ship Cruise Talk. All rights reserved. May contain affiliate links. Some trips and experiences have been hosted. As Amazon Associates, we earn from qualifying purchases. All opinions are our own.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dan (00:01):
Welcome to Small Ship Cruise Talk, a show where we
share insider tips and firsthandexperiences about this
outstanding, yet lesser-knownform of travel.
We are passionate about sharingour knowledge about river
cruises, expedition, yacht, andbarge cruises, so you are
informed when it comes tochoosing your own vacation
(00:21):
experiences.
We're your co-host, DanaMcHell, and we are your cruise
experts and the co-founders ofSometime Sailing, a website that
focuses on small ship cruising.
Hello.
We just got back from our veryfirst cruise on Viking Ocean.
(00:43):
And in today's episode, we'regonna just do an overview of the
cruise and compare and contrastocean versus river and that
experience on Viking and whatViking Ocean is all about.
Mikkel (00:58):
That's right.
We are so excited to be homeand talking to you about this.
So like you said, Dan, this isnot an exhaustive, you know,
episode.
It's 30-minute episodes as wetry to keep to for you
listening.
But we do want to do anoverview so you know what to
(01:18):
expect if you're curious aboutocean coming from river,
especially as we did.
So we're gonna walk you throughthe key differences and
similarities between these twodistinct Viking products,
obviously, from ship size andamenities to dining and
entertainment, and a lot inbetween drink packages, for
example, how the food is.
So if you're deciding betweenthe two experiences, or you're
(01:41):
just curious how they compareand you want to know if ocean
would be good for you on Viking,we have you covered.
Let's get right into it.
First, we have to tell youabout the size of the passenger
capacity and the fleet.
Dan (01:56):
Yeah, obviously, one ship, the ocean ship is going to be
much different than a rivercruise ship.
Uh so the ocean ships, there'seight of them total in the
fleet, and then ninety-two riverships.
So obviously, Viking, you know,is indexing more on river, and
their business model is river.
My take was they just expandedit, right?
(02:19):
And just made it a bigger, moreexpansive experience on the
ocean.
The ocean ships, there's up to930 passengers per ship, where
on river it's up to 190passengers on like the Danube or
the Rhine, and then somethinglike 106 passengers with their
smaller ships that sail the DuroRiver.
Mikkel (02:41):
Yeah, and while we were cruising, they actually had
their celebration for hitting100 ships in the fleet.
So our numbers are as of thisrecording.
If you're listening to this ina couple years, you might think
they have more ships than that,because they probably will.
Dan (02:58):
I'm sure they will.
Mikkel (03:00):
But as of today, that's what they have.
And I do think it's importantyou highlighted that the ocean
ships are 930 passengers becauseit is an ocean ship, but you
know, for us, it's stillconsidered small under a
thousand passengers for what wetalk about with small ship
cruising, versus something like,you know, we're going on
Celebrity to do the preview ofExcel in a couple weeks.
(03:22):
And within that, we love theretreat because it's only around
300-400 passengers, dependingon the ship, but it's still
thousands of passengers.
So the ocean ships for Vikingare really nice in that they're
less than a thousand passengersat 930 max, like you said.
Dan (03:38):
Yeah, you still get that intimate feeling.
Um, but you also get a biggership with a lot more to offer.
Mikkel (03:48):
Right.
In terms of booking your crewsbefore you even step on the
fleet and understand how thevessel feels and everything,
when you are pre-booking, youcan expect similar booking and
deposit policies that could varyby promotion.
Viking loves doing promotions.
Us and everybody we talk togets a lot of marketing material
(04:08):
in the mail from Viking abouttheir specials, and this is
definitely one of theirstrengths.
In terms of your pre-planningahead of time, both Ocean and
River are going to utilize thatMy Viking Journey portal online.
We have an article about usingMy Viking Journey and everything
you can do.
We learned even more throughthe booking process of this
(04:32):
Viking Ocean cruise for what youcan do and view your calendar
and everything.
And that was a really greatpart of our Viking Ocean
experience.
But like I said, overview.
Both of them use My VikingJourney for trip planning.
And also they both include onecomplementary excursion per
port.
There were obviously moreoptions for excursions on the
(04:55):
ocean ships because they'redealing with hundreds of more
people.
So as opposed to 180 people,190 people, they have 930
passengers that they need tosatisfy.
So part of the excursions youcan book ahead of time, but
people go crazy with being ableto do it, you know, 170 days out
or what have you when they canlog into My Viking Journey and
(05:16):
book.
So they include one excursionin every port, but it was
usually some sort of like citytour or walking tour, just like
on river, so that was similar.
But there were more options forexcursions on Viking Ocean and
they open up according to thestateroom category, but there's
more categories of staterooms onthe ship.
(05:38):
So I've seen people post inFacebook groups that if you want
a chance at a better excursionor an excursion that has very
limited space that's reallypopular, to consider booking a
stateroom in a higher categorybecause you'll have that
advantage of being able to bookit sooner.
Dan (05:54):
And the excursions themselves, they run almost
identical to river.
So you still get off, you youtake your quiet box device with
you, and you know, make sure youbring your airfly like we did,
so you can use your AirPods withthe quiet box, and you're still
following somebody with thelollipop.
And it still feels very muchlike any other river excursion.
Mikkel (06:15):
Yeah, and that familiarity was nice.
That was kind of a nice you canyou know what to expect, and
there are no surprises in thatway with the excursions with
that.
You can also use your airflywith a Bluetooth hearing aid.
Dan (06:27):
Yeah, that's right.
Mikkel (06:29):
Let's get into everybody's favorite topic.
I mean, I would say, besidesthe cruise portion, but part of
that is the beverages anddining.
Dan (06:38):
Mm-hmm.
Essentially, ocean and riverare the same when it comes to
the Silver Spirits package.
Uh so what you're used to onRiver is gonna just translate
right over onto ocean.
Wine, beer, soft drinks areincluded with both lunch and
dinner.
Uh and then any time outside ofthose two time periods, you
(07:00):
will have to pay for wine, beer,and soft drinks.
Mikkel (07:03):
Yeah, and I would say that they're affordable.
They uh charged we were just onocean, so 11 euros per
cocktail, some were 13.
It depended on what kind ofalcohol you wanted.
It's my belief we talked aboutthis on the ship, that if you
don't have three cocktails a daybetween the two of you, it
(07:25):
would be six.
That maybe it's not worth itfor you.
But I will also say if you loveDiet Coke, let's say, they were
charging four dollars per softdrink outside of lunch and
dinner.
So if you love Diet Coke likemy brother-in-law, you are gonna
want to consider that as partof the Silver Spirits package.
What I loved about Ocean wasthat we had that coffee and tea
(07:48):
station 24-7, just like you doon river, but imagine it kind of
on steroids on the ocean ships.
So on river, it's right outsidethe restaurant.
It's self-served 24-7 coffees,teas.
They even have little cookies,you know, by the machines that
you can have something sweet.
In the World Cafe on Ocean,which is the buffet area, small
(08:14):
buffet, don't think 3,000passengers, huge buffet, but
it's a nice size, it'sdouble-sided.
Uh, they have that coffee andtea machine area, but they also
have a water station that hassparkling and still, they have
an ice machine there, they had adrink machine that had, I
think, a lemonade and an applejuice or cranberry juice or
(08:36):
something there.
There were three juices.
Something else I reallyappreciated on Ocean was that
they had every milk you couldthink of.
They had almond, they had soy,they had oat milk, they had skim
milk, they had full fat milk.
So that was kind of a niceaddition.
So they both have it, but oceanhas it on steroids.
(08:57):
Ocean also had full sets of teaoptions, tea bags and such,
just like River does as well.
Also, I love real orange juicein the morning, and there are
servers walking around withbargling and still water in the
morning and orange juice, butthe orange juice is from
Concentrate.
(09:18):
But pro tip, if you ask them,they do have fresh squeezed
orange juice on the ocean ship,like they do on river.
You just have to ask for it.
So, hot tip right there.
Dan (09:29):
Yeah, I think that that could be your name for your
morning show.
Real OJ in the morning.
Mikkel (09:34):
Oh, I thought you were gonna say fresh squeezed
squeezed.
I like it.
Dan (09:42):
Anyways, all right, back to our regularly scheduled
program.
Mikkel (09:46):
And we're back.
Uh speaking of the World Cafe,let's talk about those dining
options.
Dan (09:52):
Right.
So uh dining, obviously,there's gonna be more options
for ocean, just because the shipis bigger, right?
So on river, there's two diningvenues.
They're, in my opinion, goodbut not exceptional food.
Mikkel (10:07):
Yeah, nothing to write home about.
Dan (10:09):
Yeah, I wasn't blown away.
But on ocean, holy cow.
Yeah, this is where they shine.
Yeah, it was definitely a stepabove.
And I'm sure there's a varietyof reasons why that is, but uh I
was pleasantly surprised.
Multiple restaurants,significantly better.
Food quality presentation wasreal done really well.
(10:30):
I I can't really think of toomany meals that I thought, uh,
this is a miss.
There were there were a few,but um, I mean, maybe it was my
poor ordering choices.
Mikkel (10:41):
Look, you can't have all highs and no lows.
Well, I guess you could in adream world, but you can't have
the rainbows without the rain.
Wow.
It wasn't rain.
I shouldn't say that.
But we did record an episodededicated to the food and drinks
while we were on the ship, soyou can look forward to that
(11:02):
being released next week.
And if you are listening tothis past the third week of
November in 2025, that meansthat you can listen to both
right now.
We also talked about in aprevious episode what you can
expect in terms of buffets onsmall ship cruises.
Now that was recorded before wewent on this Viking Ocean.
(11:24):
So I would like to state forthe record during this episode
that they do a buffet right.
We did not go to the restaurantbut one time, which we like a
seated served meal.
We didn't go to, it's literallycalled the restaurant, the
restaurant that you don't needreservations for.
That's one of the options onthe ship.
We only went once because thebuffet was just so good, and
(11:49):
there were so many amazingoptions, and we knew we could
pick and choose what we wantedand just get up and get more.
We also, I don't think we saidthis on the episode next week,
we realized a couple days in tothe cruise that we should do our
own little sushi and pizzahappy hour at 6 p.m.
(12:10):
every day on the ship becausewe were on board most days by
that time because of theitinerary for our Empires of the
Mediterranean cruise.
We should go upstairs to theWorld's Cafe, get ourselves a
plate of a slice of pizza.
This is personal-sized pizza,so I think that it was
acceptable.
The pizza was really good.
And a few pieces of sushi,because they always had sushi
(12:32):
every night on the buffet.
And I have to say, it was good.
It is better than a lot ofJapanese restaurants I've been
to, and certainly better thanany other cruise ship I've been
on.
Viking sushi, another hot tip.
So look forward to the food,and please tune into the episode
next week when we go into moredetail about the restaurants and
(12:55):
that significantly better foodquality on ocean versus river.
Dan (13:00):
So I think just a side note, I think that'll be my name
on the morning show that westart is Viking Sushi.
Mikkel (13:06):
Okay, so you're Viking Sushi, and I'm fresh squeezed.
Okay.
Done and done.
So the only other thing I wantto say about that dining is that
that Aquavit Terrace issomething you can look forward
to on river as well as on theocean ships.
On the ocean ship, it is theafter the ship.
(13:27):
You have that infinity pool tolook out to so you can wine and
dine yourself out there and havethe most incredible view on
that Aquavit terrace.
On the river ships, it's in thefront of the ship, and it's
kind of a little bit of acompetition sometimes to get
that seating.
You're throwing elbows, you'rethrowing elbows, especially if
(13:48):
the weather's nice.
People are throwing elbows,like you said, to get those
seats.
It didn't really feel likethat.
There was one morning it wasgorgeous out, and we couldn't
get a seat, but the servers justset a different table for us
outside that wasn't set.
So they were really great aboutthat.
But they do have that terrace,so that's a really nice thing
too.
Let's move on to onboardentertainment and enrichment.
Dan (14:11):
Right.
So no casinos on board.
Mikkel (14:13):
No casinos, great point.
unknown (14:15):
Right.
Dan (14:15):
Uh but there was plenty to do.
So I I know a lot of the timeswe have these conversations, we
have conversations, and peopleare saying, Well, I think I'll
be bored on a river cruise, oryou know, uh, maybe I I like the
entertainment, I like a littlebit more.
Well, this is was a really nicemedium in between that, right?
There was a there was a lot ofoptions for entertainment, and
(14:38):
there was a few times wherelike, well, which one should we
go to?
Mikkel (14:41):
Right.
Dan (14:42):
So there's like I said, like on river, there's low-key
entertainment, uh a pianist, uh,the occasional local
performers, some reading in thelounge.
You know, there's justself-reading, not stories.
unknown (14:54):
Yeah.
Dan (14:55):
Not somebody reading to you.
But on the ocean, there wasdefinitely more elaborate shows,
multiple music venues, biggerproductions.
Uh, the guest lecturers werephenomenal.
I think there were three onboard.
Mikkel (15:10):
There were three guest lecturers, and there was a
lecture every day, in additionto the cruise director and the
shore excursions manager talkingabout the port that we were
gonna go to the next day.
Dan (15:24):
Right.
Yeah.
And the lectures were verydifferent.
They were enriching and reallygave a lot of color to the ports
that we were visiting, but thestyles were different and just
overall it was very fascinating.
Mikkel (15:37):
Right.
The styles between the threedifferent guest lecturers were
very different.
And that was nice because ifone didn't resonate with you,
you know, for me, one of themdidn't as much as I will call
out Russell Lee was incredible,incredible.
I was blown away by hismemorization of the entire
presentation.
He was not reading off of acomputer or slides.
(16:00):
He had his presentation sobuttoned up with the storyline
he was doing.
He did one on Game of Thronesbecause we were going to
Dubrovnik, Croatia, and so muchof it was filmed there.
So it went into the history ofGame of Thrones, and it went
into the historic places we weregonna visit in terms of what
(16:21):
they were built for and whatthey were used for in the
movies.
He did one on Greek mythologythat was fascinating.
So, yes, the the starentertainment for me was
actually those guest lecturesthat you can watch on your TV
too.
So you can either watch themlive on your TV or you could
watch them afterwards on yourtelevision, kind of Viking on
(16:44):
demand, or you could go live,obviously, in person.
The low-key entertainment youwere talking about, uh pianist
on River, there's a singlepianist.
And on Ocean, there were threedifferent musical entertainers.
They were in rotation theentire time, and that's
partially because there's justmore venues.
(17:04):
So there was a gorgeousSteinway uh computer.
There was a gorgeous Steinwaypiano that was a fixture in the
Grand Atrium, which is threedecks high with that huge
staircase.
Now, I will say, actually, onthat note, the staircase was a
feature of the ship in oceanthat kind of harkened back to
(17:28):
the river cruise ships that alsohave a gorgeous staircase.
But again, this was kind of onsteroids.
So there was that piano there,and there was a pianist that
would play solo Sergey on ourship, and then there was a duo,
so a pianist and a violinist,and then there was also an
electric guitarist, this manAlan, that was really great.
So they kind of rotated.
(17:49):
There was also the Viking bandthat was really good.
They played in that club atnight, the very small club at
night.
Club.
I I use the term club looselybecause it kind of is a jazz
nightclub, it looks like, butnothing like you would picture
on bigger ocean ships.
And then there is that theaterfor the bigger performances
(18:11):
where the guest lecturers areand port talks, and also two of
the walls on either side comedown to make one and two cinema
one and cinema two, and theyplay movies there.
So there was like a one-hourmovie playing about World War II
history in the area.
There were a few interestingmovies that were playing, and
(18:31):
that could be found on yourViking Daily if you were
interested.
The last thing about theentertainment was that very
similarly to Ocean and River, isthat you can expect that
cultural enrichment.
So, what I'm talking about islike you are in, let's say,
Germany on River, and they haveum, you know, a brass band come
on board or Austria.
(18:51):
And very similarly, when wewere in Greece, they had a Greek
band come on one night.
They had dancers come on incan't remember if it was
Montenegro or Croatia, but thatwas very similar and reminded me
of River to a T in that regard.
Dan (19:08):
Yeah.
So overall, you're gonna haveplenty of options for onboard
entertainment if you chooseOcean.
Mikkel (19:15):
But again, to reiterate, like you said, there is not a
casino.
Dan (19:19):
Right.
Mikkel (19:20):
And it is not for party people.
The club is very mellow atnight with the band.
But also in that regard, Imean, we didn't really encounter
anybody that was missing that.
So I think they know theiraudience on Viking Ocean really
well.
But if you're listening andyou're deciding on it and you
really do want that stuff on anocean ship, then Viking's not
(19:41):
going to give it to you.
Dan (19:42):
Right.
Mikkel (19:43):
We also forgot to mention one of our favorite
discoveries, the game area.
So they have a few game tableson Viking Ocean and they're
digital.
We saw a bunch of peopleplaying Canasta, we saw somebody
playing Mahjong, but alsodigitally they had a couple
games, and there's four seats,so you could pick your game.
So while other people wereplaying Blackjack or the digital
(20:06):
version of Mahjong, we wereplaying Memory.
Dan (20:11):
Right.
Mikkel (20:11):
And that was so fun.
I really enjoyed playing memorywith you.
It was like even if we justwanted to stop and play one
round, which inevitably turnedinto two, we could play that.
So that was kind of a funanytime entertainment on board.
Okay, one more.
There's another area ofquote-unquote entertainment that
was really nice on ocean thatRiver just simply doesn't have
(20:33):
the space for.
Kind of a Norwegian historymuseum of sorts that you can
visit anytime.
It's just an area on the seconddeck, and then they have some
of the costumes and traditionaloutfits that Norwegians wear
starting in the 19th centurykind of thing that you could
see.
But I really enjoyed that.
I stood there reading it.
(20:54):
I would read a section of itone day and then I'd pass it the
next day, and I'd read a littlemore about Norwegian artifacts
and history, and some Norse godswere mentioned in there.
So I thought that was a reallynice touch and really made me
feel more connected to Vikingcruises as a Norwegian brand.
Dan (21:12):
Yeah, would definitely agree.
And it was fun also that theart curation on board was pretty
impressive as well.
And you could learn about theart through your app.
Mikkel (21:22):
Yes.
That's another form, to yourpoint, of low-key entertainment.
You could really open your appanytime and listen to that
narration about the paintings.
Uh I do wonder why they pickedthe narrator they did.
A little sleepy-toned.
If I can if I can give somefeedback that maybe someone a
(21:42):
little more excited orenthusiastic would have been a
better voice recording.
Um yeah, but we did listenlisten to a couple of them on
the tapestry in the staircase.
They have the Bayeux Tapestryin the staircase on both sides,
forward and aft.
And then they also had on Monk,so we listened to a few on
(22:04):
Monk's paintings that I thoughtwere interesting.
So yeah, that was a nice formof entertainment.
Good point.
Dan (22:09):
Yeah.
So again, ocean, the ships aremuch bigger than river.
So there's gonna be moreamenities on board.
There was a spa uh that waspretty impressive.
Mikkel (22:21):
Yeah, for sure.
Dan (22:22):
The cold plunge in in each locker room.
There was a sauna in eachlocker room, then there was a
sauna out in the common area.
Mikkel (22:30):
Steam room.
Dan (22:31):
Oh, steam room, right?
Then a hot tub out in thecommon area.
Uh there was the snow room outin the common area.
Mikkel (22:39):
Loved it.
Speaking of Norway.
Dan (22:41):
Yeah, so there was plenty of opportunities within just the
spa area.
There was a gym.
Quite a sizable gym.
Mikkel (22:49):
Yeah, big gym, which they do not have on river, so
they don't have a spa on river,and they don't have a gym.
And also, they had a salon onocean, so you could get a
manicure or a pedicure, youcould get a facial hair trim,
like a beard trim, you can get ahaircut, you can get a blowout
for your hair.
We got massages.
How was your massage?
(23:10):
We didn't do a couple'smassage, they didn't offer that
on Ocean, but we got separatemassages.
Dan (23:15):
Yeah, I really enjoyed mine.
Yeah.
Mikkel (23:17):
Yeah, I enjoyed mine too.
I got some sort of Nordicrejuvenation that was nice, and
I hadn't seen on a spa menu onany other cruise line.
So I I took advantage of that,and that was really nice.
So you have to pay for thingslike massages or the haircuts
and manicures and such, butreally nice perk.
(23:38):
The spa is open from morningtill night, so around 8 a.m.
to 8 p.m.
every day, and you can go.
It's open to every guest, it'sincluded in your cruise fair.
So that's definitely ahighlight and a perk, and I'm
glad we took advantage of that.
Dan (23:54):
Yeah, that's a that's a good thing to remember.
There was a few times we'relike, hey, we've got a spa, we
need to go to go and experienceit.
Mikkel (24:01):
Yeah, it was definitely least busy in the morning when
most people were off the shipfor excursions.
The other good time to go wasas soon as you got back on the
ship from your excursion.
As soon as you did.
If you waited a little toolong, it got busier and busier.
And then also right before itclosed.
So kind of in that dinner timefrom 6 to 8 p.m., there was, you
(24:24):
know, almost nobody in it.
So just some tips on when togo.
Dan (24:28):
Yeah.
If I remember correctly, therewas a few ships that we were on
that had a library.
So it was a small section,maybe a few comfortable chairs,
and a couple, you know, ahundred books or something like
that.
But the library on Ocean was itfelt like a library.
There was books everywhere andlounge chairs, like big, comfy
(24:51):
seating, and it really felt likea nice lounge.
Mikkel (24:55):
And in multiple areas, there was that kind of official
library area, but then you couldalso go to the winter garden
area that had books on theshelves and kind of little
lounge seating.
You could definitely get lostin a book.
You could also go to theExplorer's lounge area, which I
loved.
It's on the forward of theship, it's double-decked, it's
deck seven and deck eight, andgrab a book there with an
(25:18):
amazing view.
So there were a fewopportunities for education and
learning in terms of books.
Yes.
Dan (25:29):
That were and there were sprinters, so it felt like a
little office area, and theywere kind of tucked away, so you
weren't getting a lot oftraffic if you wanted to do a
little bit of work.
Mikkel (25:38):
Yeah, so I think there were probably about six
computers compared to twocomputers on river.
And also, like you said, thelibrary exists on the river too.
And I would say like you couldtake a book and kind of go to
some chairs that were around thesecond deck on river, but yeah,
definitely bigger in terms ofthe computers in the library on
ocean.
(25:58):
What about those top decks?
So I think they do a good jobof the outdoor decks on uh river
and ocean.
Dan (26:05):
Yeah, I would agree.
So river typically on the sundeck, you got an herb garden,
maybe a small putting green,something like that, a track
that you can walk around, andseating up there.
It feels really it's more forsightseeing.
But on ocean, you had thesports deck, there was mini
golf, ping-pong, shuffleboard,duck pin bowling.
(26:26):
There was a lot going on upthere, plus the track, plus
seating out there andsightseeing and things like
that.
Mikkel (26:33):
Yeah, we didn't discover this or have the chance to go
up there until a couple days in,and then it became kind of like
one of our little go-to nooksif you know it was a little
crowded in other areas of theship, and we were in a port and
we knew not that many peoplewere on the ship, and they had
nice fake greenery that kind oflike built walls between couches
out there, and I thought thatwas really nice.
(26:53):
Lastly, just to go back to thehot tub pools.
So there's that pool which Imentioned earlier, that infinity
pool by the Aquabot Terrace,but there is an outdoor infinity
pool with a hot tub.
So now we have the spa hot tub,we have the outdoor hot tub,
and then lastly, there's anindoor pool with an indoor hot
(27:14):
tub that's under a retractingglass roof, so it can become an
exterior uh area to swim andsoak in the hot tub if the
weather is nice enough.
And they did open thatretractable roof during our late
October cruise twice.
We were lucky enough to havegreat weather in the
Mediterranean area.
(27:35):
And on River, there is no pool,no hot tub for sure.
Maybe they know their audienceand they just, you know, wanted
to maximize the amount of stayrooms on Viking.
This is one of the things Iwish Viking River had because
other cruise lines likeRiverside, like AMA waterways,
have a pool on board.
But I'm just stating the facts,there is no pool on Viking
(27:59):
River.
Dan (28:00):
So let's talk about motion.
As I've disclosed many times onthe podcast, I get seasick.
And on river, that's not reallyan issue.
You're not gonna you're notgonna get seasick.
But on ocean, obviously, thereis more opportunity for that.
Where we were cruising, it waspretty low waves and and it
wasn't that rough.
(28:21):
I think there was only onenight that I put on a patch.
But that is something toconsider if you're gonna go from
ocean to river or river toocean.
Mikkel (28:30):
Speaking of, with that motion and where the ship can
dock, river really goes right upto the port.
You never tender.
And we did have to tender twiceon Viking Ocean, so that
seasickness and motion couldcome in with tendering because
sometimes the tender can be alittle rocky in the water.
Dan (28:50):
That's a good that's a good point.
Just that accessibility andthen that addition of the
tender, that's the wild card.
Mikkel (28:58):
Yeah.
And then also with the motionand comfort, let's say, of
Viking Ocean versus VikingRiver, something that I thought
was really interesting was thateverybody I spoke to on ocean
had come from river with Viking.
I'm sure there's people thatsail on Viking Ocean and have
(29:19):
not been on river, but everybodyI spoke to, I would say about
10 to 12 people, um, which isn'ta lot, but it's actually not as
easy to connect with people onocean because you're not really
forced to be with them as muchbecause there's so many people
on the ship.
But we did run into some of thesame people over and over,
(29:40):
which was nice.
But there were times that wewere seeing people and we said
to each other, we've never seenthat person, it's eight days in.
So you know, where they comefrom.
But the intimacy of the groupon Viking River versus Ocean.
And my point was when I spoketo people who had come from
river, their greatest miss fromriver actually was that it was
(30:03):
harder to connect with people onocean because of the size of
it.
But to that point, I will saythat I thought that the ages and
the diversity of age ranges onocean was better than river in
terms of you know more people inthere 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s versus
majority of people being late50s and up on river.
Dan (30:28):
Yeah, I would agree there was more multi-gen families
there.
Mikkel (30:32):
Yeah.
Dan (30:32):
And there was a lot more diversity there also.
Mikkel (30:36):
Even on Viking Daily there was a solo meetup every
couple of days and there was anLGBTQIA meetup on the ship that
was scheduled, which I thoughtwere both really nice things.
Dan (30:48):
Yeah.
Mikkel (30:48):
And you don't get that on river just because there's
only 180 people kind of thing.
Dan (30:53):
Right, right.
Every meal is a meetup onriver.
Mikkel (30:56):
Every meal is a meetup.
Put that on a bumper sticker.
Dan (31:01):
Okay, so as we're wrapping up here, final thoughts,
recommendations, what what doyou think?
Ocean, river?
Mikkel (31:10):
I think ocean is great.
I would love to go on anotheritinerary, especially like let's
say Norway, because it is aNorwegian ship in Norway.
And I really loved that I gotmore of the Norwegian vibe from
Ocean.
I love Norway.
We've been to Norway severaltimes and I just love feeling
(31:31):
that hoog, you know, that warmththat coziness.
I love that the Nordic spa hada pamphlet that was talking
about Norwegian culture and kindof the sauna to the cold plunge
and the order of operations andwhy Norwegians do it that way
and Lago Health and they wereexplaining what that is.
So I love that and I love theNorwegian museum and I love the
(31:52):
food was amazing.
So I really loved Ocean which Ithink I don't think I was
expecting to love it as much asI did just because we're such
small ship people and it is asmall ship but I thought I would
really miss the riverexperience and it's not like I
don't love a river cruise ship.
I do and I I of course we wantto sail on rivers as much as we
(32:13):
can but I just was surprised byhow much I loved the Viking
ocean experience.
I would say even a little morethan Viking's river experience.
I just thought there were somany great unique aspects of it
that I haven't experienced onother ocean ships.
What did you think?
Dan (32:31):
Yeah I would agree I was definitely very pleasantly
surprised with the product and Ithought it was a grown up
version of the river experience.
I struggle a little bit withViking River where I think the
furnishings are a little toominimal a little too IKE the
food is just okay but then theocean experience was like wow
(32:55):
this was a curated experiencethe interior design of the ship
was quite impressive the varietyof amenities that were offered
and just the experience as awhole in my opinion was so much
more than what their experienceon river is.
Mikkel (33:16):
Amazing so tune in next week be sure to follow and
subscribe and you will hear theepisode about Viking Ocean
dining and beverages and againif you're listening after the
third week of November you canlisten right now to that and
we'd love to hear your feedbackso be sure to rate us and review
(33:36):
us and reach out if you haveany questions and we will talk
to you next week.
Dan (33:42):
All right until next week keep cruising
Welcome to Small Ship Cruise Talk, a show where we
share insider tips and firsthandexperiences about this
outstanding, yet lesser-knownform of travel.
We are passionate about sharingour knowledge about river
cruises, expedition, yacht, andbarge cruises, so you are
informed when it comes tochoosing your own vacation
(00:21):
experiences.
We're your co-host, DanaMcHell, and we are your cruise
experts and the co-founders ofSometime Sailing, a website that
focuses on small ship cruising.
Hello.
We just got back from our veryfirst cruise on Viking Ocean.
(00:43):
And in today's episode, we'regonna just do an overview of the
cruise and compare and contrastocean versus river and that
experience on Viking and whatViking Ocean is all about.
Mikkel (00:58):
That's right.
We are so excited to be homeand talking to you about this.
So like you said, Dan, this isnot an exhaustive, you know,
episode.
It's 30-minute episodes as wetry to keep to for you
listening.
But we do want to do anoverview so you know what to
(01:18):
expect if you're curious aboutocean coming from river,
especially as we did.
So we're gonna walk you throughthe key differences and
similarities between these twodistinct Viking products,
obviously, from ship size andamenities to dining and
entertainment, and a lot inbetween drink packages, for
example, how the food is.
So if you're deciding betweenthe two experiences, or you're
(01:41):
just curious how they compareand you want to know if ocean
would be good for you on Viking,we have you covered.
Let's get right into it.
First, we have to tell youabout the size of the passenger
capacity and the fleet.
Dan (01:56):
Yeah, obviously, one ship, the ocean ship is going to be
much different than a rivercruise ship.
Uh so the ocean ships, there'seight of them total in the
fleet, and then ninety-two riverships.
So obviously, Viking, you know,is indexing more on river, and
their business model is river.
My take was they just expandedit, right?
(02:19):
And just made it a bigger, moreexpansive experience on the
ocean.
The ocean ships, there's up to930 passengers per ship, where
on river it's up to 190passengers on like the Danube or
the Rhine, and then somethinglike 106 passengers with their
smaller ships that sail the DuroRiver.
Mikkel (02:41):
Yeah, and while we were cruising, they actually had
their celebration for hitting100 ships in the fleet.
So our numbers are as of thisrecording.
If you're listening to this ina couple years, you might think
they have more ships than that,because they probably will.
Dan (02:58):
I'm sure they will.
Mikkel (03:00):
But as of today, that's what they have.
And I do think it's importantyou highlighted that the ocean
ships are 930 passengers becauseit is an ocean ship, but you
know, for us, it's stillconsidered small under a
thousand passengers for what wetalk about with small ship
cruising, versus something like,you know, we're going on
Celebrity to do the preview ofExcel in a couple weeks.
(03:22):
And within that, we love theretreat because it's only around
300-400 passengers, dependingon the ship, but it's still
thousands of passengers.
So the ocean ships for Vikingare really nice in that they're
less than a thousand passengersat 930 max, like you said.
Dan (03:38):
Yeah, you still get that intimate feeling.
Um, but you also get a biggership with a lot more to offer.
Mikkel (03:48):
Right.
In terms of booking your crewsbefore you even step on the
fleet and understand how thevessel feels and everything,
when you are pre-booking, youcan expect similar booking and
deposit policies that could varyby promotion.
Viking loves doing promotions.
Us and everybody we talk togets a lot of marketing material
(04:08):
in the mail from Viking abouttheir specials, and this is
definitely one of theirstrengths.
In terms of your pre-planningahead of time, both Ocean and
River are going to utilize thatMy Viking Journey portal online.
We have an article about usingMy Viking Journey and everything
you can do.
We learned even more throughthe booking process of this
(04:32):
Viking Ocean cruise for what youcan do and view your calendar
and everything.
And that was a really greatpart of our Viking Ocean
experience.
But like I said, overview.
Both of them use My VikingJourney for trip planning.
And also they both include onecomplementary excursion per
port.
There were obviously moreoptions for excursions on the
(04:55):
ocean ships because they'redealing with hundreds of more
people.
So as opposed to 180 people,190 people, they have 930
passengers that they need tosatisfy.
So part of the excursions youcan book ahead of time, but
people go crazy with being ableto do it, you know, 170 days out
or what have you when they canlog into My Viking Journey and
(05:16):
book.
So they include one excursionin every port, but it was
usually some sort of like citytour or walking tour, just like
on river, so that was similar.
But there were more options forexcursions on Viking Ocean and
they open up according to thestateroom category, but there's
more categories of staterooms onthe ship.
(05:38):
So I've seen people post inFacebook groups that if you want
a chance at a better excursionor an excursion that has very
limited space that's reallypopular, to consider booking a
stateroom in a higher categorybecause you'll have that
advantage of being able to bookit sooner.
Dan (05:54):
And the excursions themselves, they run almost
identical to river.
So you still get off, you youtake your quiet box device with
you, and you know, make sure youbring your airfly like we did,
so you can use your AirPods withthe quiet box, and you're still
following somebody with thelollipop.
And it still feels very muchlike any other river excursion.
Mikkel (06:15):
Yeah, and that familiarity was nice.
That was kind of a nice you canyou know what to expect, and
there are no surprises in thatway with the excursions with
that.
You can also use your airflywith a Bluetooth hearing aid.
Dan (06:27):
Yeah, that's right.
Mikkel (06:29):
Let's get into everybody's favorite topic.
I mean, I would say, besidesthe cruise portion, but part of
that is the beverages anddining.
Dan (06:38):
Mm-hmm.
Essentially, ocean and riverare the same when it comes to
the Silver Spirits package.
Uh so what you're used to onRiver is gonna just translate
right over onto ocean.
Wine, beer, soft drinks areincluded with both lunch and
dinner.
Uh and then any time outside ofthose two time periods, you
(07:00):
will have to pay for wine, beer,and soft drinks.
Mikkel (07:03):
Yeah, and I would say that they're affordable.
They uh charged we were just onocean, so 11 euros per
cocktail, some were 13.
It depended on what kind ofalcohol you wanted.
It's my belief we talked aboutthis on the ship, that if you
don't have three cocktails a daybetween the two of you, it
(07:25):
would be six.
That maybe it's not worth itfor you.
But I will also say if you loveDiet Coke, let's say, they were
charging four dollars per softdrink outside of lunch and
dinner.
So if you love Diet Coke likemy brother-in-law, you are gonna
want to consider that as partof the Silver Spirits package.
What I loved about Ocean wasthat we had that coffee and tea
(07:48):
station 24-7, just like you doon river, but imagine it kind of
on steroids on the ocean ships.
So on river, it's right outsidethe restaurant.
It's self-served 24-7 coffees,teas.
They even have little cookies,you know, by the machines that
you can have something sweet.
In the World Cafe on Ocean,which is the buffet area, small
(08:14):
buffet, don't think 3,000passengers, huge buffet, but
it's a nice size, it'sdouble-sided.
Uh, they have that coffee andtea machine area, but they also
have a water station that hassparkling and still, they have
an ice machine there, they had adrink machine that had, I
think, a lemonade and an applejuice or cranberry juice or
(08:36):
something there.
There were three juices.
Something else I reallyappreciated on Ocean was that
they had every milk you couldthink of.
They had almond, they had soy,they had oat milk, they had skim
milk, they had full fat milk.
So that was kind of a niceaddition.
So they both have it, but oceanhas it on steroids.
(08:57):
Ocean also had full sets of teaoptions, tea bags and such,
just like River does as well.
Also, I love real orange juicein the morning, and there are
servers walking around withbargling and still water in the
morning and orange juice, butthe orange juice is from
Concentrate.
(09:18):
But pro tip, if you ask them,they do have fresh squeezed
orange juice on the ocean ship,like they do on river.
You just have to ask for it.
So, hot tip right there.
Dan (09:29):
Yeah, I think that that could be your name for your
morning show.
Real OJ in the morning.
Mikkel (09:34):
Oh, I thought you were gonna say fresh squeezed
squeezed.
I like it.
Dan (09:42):
Anyways, all right, back to our regularly scheduled
program.
Mikkel (09:46):
And we're back.
Uh speaking of the World Cafe,let's talk about those dining
options.
Dan (09:52):
Right.
So uh dining, obviously,there's gonna be more options
for ocean, just because the shipis bigger, right?
So on river, there's two diningvenues.
They're, in my opinion, goodbut not exceptional food.
Mikkel (10:07):
Yeah, nothing to write home about.
Dan (10:09):
Yeah, I wasn't blown away.
But on ocean, holy cow.
Yeah, this is where they shine.
Yeah, it was definitely a stepabove.
And I'm sure there's a varietyof reasons why that is, but uh I
was pleasantly surprised.
Multiple restaurants,significantly better.
Food quality presentation wasreal done really well.
(10:30):
I I can't really think of toomany meals that I thought, uh,
this is a miss.
There were there were a few,but um, I mean, maybe it was my
poor ordering choices.
Mikkel (10:41):
Look, you can't have all highs and no lows.
Well, I guess you could in adream world, but you can't have
the rainbows without the rain.
Wow.
It wasn't rain.
I shouldn't say that.
But we did record an episodededicated to the food and drinks
while we were on the ship, soyou can look forward to that
(11:02):
being released next week.
And if you are listening tothis past the third week of
November in 2025, that meansthat you can listen to both
right now.
We also talked about in aprevious episode what you can
expect in terms of buffets onsmall ship cruises.
Now that was recorded before wewent on this Viking Ocean.
(11:24):
So I would like to state forthe record during this episode
that they do a buffet right.
We did not go to the restaurantbut one time, which we like a
seated served meal.
We didn't go to, it's literallycalled the restaurant, the
restaurant that you don't needreservations for.
That's one of the options onthe ship.
We only went once because thebuffet was just so good, and
(11:49):
there were so many amazingoptions, and we knew we could
pick and choose what we wantedand just get up and get more.
We also, I don't think we saidthis on the episode next week,
we realized a couple days in tothe cruise that we should do our
own little sushi and pizzahappy hour at 6 p.m.
(12:10):
every day on the ship becausewe were on board most days by
that time because of theitinerary for our Empires of the
Mediterranean cruise.
We should go upstairs to theWorld's Cafe, get ourselves a
plate of a slice of pizza.
This is personal-sized pizza,so I think that it was
acceptable.
The pizza was really good.
And a few pieces of sushi,because they always had sushi
(12:32):
every night on the buffet.
And I have to say, it was good.
It is better than a lot ofJapanese restaurants I've been
to, and certainly better thanany other cruise ship I've been
on.
Viking sushi, another hot tip.
So look forward to the food,and please tune into the episode
next week when we go into moredetail about the restaurants and
(12:55):
that significantly better foodquality on ocean versus river.
Dan (13:00):
So I think just a side note, I think that'll be my name
on the morning show that westart is Viking Sushi.
Mikkel (13:06):
Okay, so you're Viking Sushi, and I'm fresh squeezed.
Okay.
Done and done.
So the only other thing I wantto say about that dining is that
that Aquavit Terrace issomething you can look forward
to on river as well as on theocean ships.
On the ocean ship, it is theafter the ship.
(13:27):
You have that infinity pool tolook out to so you can wine and
dine yourself out there and havethe most incredible view on
that Aquavit terrace.
On the river ships, it's in thefront of the ship, and it's
kind of a little bit of acompetition sometimes to get
that seating.
You're throwing elbows, you'rethrowing elbows, especially if
(13:48):
the weather's nice.
People are throwing elbows,like you said, to get those
seats.
It didn't really feel likethat.
There was one morning it wasgorgeous out, and we couldn't
get a seat, but the servers justset a different table for us
outside that wasn't set.
So they were really great aboutthat.
But they do have that terrace,so that's a really nice thing
too.
Let's move on to onboardentertainment and enrichment.
Dan (14:11):
Right.
So no casinos on board.
Mikkel (14:13):
No casinos, great point.
unknown (14:15):
Right.
Dan (14:15):
Uh but there was plenty to do.
So I I know a lot of the timeswe have these conversations, we
have conversations, and peopleare saying, Well, I think I'll
be bored on a river cruise, oryou know, uh, maybe I I like the
entertainment, I like a littlebit more.
Well, this is was a really nicemedium in between that, right?
There was a there was a lot ofoptions for entertainment, and
(14:38):
there was a few times wherelike, well, which one should we
go to?
Mikkel (14:41):
Right.
Dan (14:42):
So there's like I said, like on river, there's low-key
entertainment, uh a pianist, uh,the occasional local
performers, some reading in thelounge.
You know, there's justself-reading, not stories.
unknown (14:54):
Yeah.
Dan (14:55):
Not somebody reading to you.
But on the ocean, there wasdefinitely more elaborate shows,
multiple music venues, biggerproductions.
Uh, the guest lecturers werephenomenal.
I think there were three onboard.
Mikkel (15:10):
There were three guest lecturers, and there was a
lecture every day, in additionto the cruise director and the
shore excursions manager talkingabout the port that we were
gonna go to the next day.
Dan (15:24):
Right.
Yeah.
And the lectures were verydifferent.
They were enriching and reallygave a lot of color to the ports
that we were visiting, but thestyles were different and just
overall it was very fascinating.
Mikkel (15:37):
Right.
The styles between the threedifferent guest lecturers were
very different.
And that was nice because ifone didn't resonate with you,
you know, for me, one of themdidn't as much as I will call
out Russell Lee was incredible,incredible.
I was blown away by hismemorization of the entire
presentation.
He was not reading off of acomputer or slides.
(16:00):
He had his presentation sobuttoned up with the storyline
he was doing.
He did one on Game of Thronesbecause we were going to
Dubrovnik, Croatia, and so muchof it was filmed there.
So it went into the history ofGame of Thrones, and it went
into the historic places we weregonna visit in terms of what
(16:21):
they were built for and whatthey were used for in the
movies.
He did one on Greek mythologythat was fascinating.
So, yes, the the starentertainment for me was
actually those guest lecturesthat you can watch on your TV
too.
So you can either watch themlive on your TV or you could
watch them afterwards on yourtelevision, kind of Viking on
(16:44):
demand, or you could go live,obviously, in person.
The low-key entertainment youwere talking about, uh pianist
on River, there's a singlepianist.
And on Ocean, there were threedifferent musical entertainers.
They were in rotation theentire time, and that's
partially because there's justmore venues.
(17:04):
So there was a gorgeousSteinway uh computer.
There was a gorgeous Steinwaypiano that was a fixture in the
Grand Atrium, which is threedecks high with that huge
staircase.
Now, I will say, actually, onthat note, the staircase was a
feature of the ship in oceanthat kind of harkened back to
(17:28):
the river cruise ships that alsohave a gorgeous staircase.
But again, this was kind of onsteroids.
So there was that piano there,and there was a pianist that
would play solo Sergey on ourship, and then there was a duo,
so a pianist and a violinist,and then there was also an
electric guitarist, this manAlan, that was really great.
So they kind of rotated.
(17:49):
There was also the Viking bandthat was really good.
They played in that club atnight, the very small club at
night.
Club.
I I use the term club looselybecause it kind of is a jazz
nightclub, it looks like, butnothing like you would picture
on bigger ocean ships.
And then there is that theaterfor the bigger performances
(18:11):
where the guest lecturers areand port talks, and also two of
the walls on either side comedown to make one and two cinema
one and cinema two, and theyplay movies there.
So there was like a one-hourmovie playing about World War II
history in the area.
There were a few interestingmovies that were playing, and
(18:31):
that could be found on yourViking Daily if you were
interested.
The last thing about theentertainment was that very
similarly to Ocean and River, isthat you can expect that
cultural enrichment.
So, what I'm talking about islike you are in, let's say,
Germany on River, and they haveum, you know, a brass band come
on board or Austria.
(18:51):
And very similarly, when wewere in Greece, they had a Greek
band come on one night.
They had dancers come on incan't remember if it was
Montenegro or Croatia, but thatwas very similar and reminded me
of River to a T in that regard.
Dan (19:08):
Yeah.
So overall, you're gonna haveplenty of options for onboard
entertainment if you chooseOcean.
Mikkel (19:15):
But again, to reiterate, like you said, there is not a
casino.
Dan (19:19):
Right.
Mikkel (19:20):
And it is not for party people.
The club is very mellow atnight with the band.
But also in that regard, Imean, we didn't really encounter
anybody that was missing that.
So I think they know theiraudience on Viking Ocean really
well.
But if you're listening andyou're deciding on it and you
really do want that stuff on anocean ship, then Viking's not
(19:41):
going to give it to you.
Dan (19:42):
Right.
Mikkel (19:43):
We also forgot to mention one of our favorite
discoveries, the game area.
So they have a few game tableson Viking Ocean and they're
digital.
We saw a bunch of peopleplaying Canasta, we saw somebody
playing Mahjong, but alsodigitally they had a couple
games, and there's four seats,so you could pick your game.
So while other people wereplaying Blackjack or the digital
(20:06):
version of Mahjong, we wereplaying Memory.
Dan (20:11):
Right.
Mikkel (20:11):
And that was so fun.
I really enjoyed playing memorywith you.
It was like even if we justwanted to stop and play one
round, which inevitably turnedinto two, we could play that.
So that was kind of a funanytime entertainment on board.
Okay, one more.
There's another area ofquote-unquote entertainment that
was really nice on ocean thatRiver just simply doesn't have
(20:33):
the space for.
Kind of a Norwegian historymuseum of sorts that you can
visit anytime.
It's just an area on the seconddeck, and then they have some
of the costumes and traditionaloutfits that Norwegians wear
starting in the 19th centurykind of thing that you could
see.
But I really enjoyed that.
I stood there reading it.
(20:54):
I would read a section of itone day and then I'd pass it the
next day, and I'd read a littlemore about Norwegian artifacts
and history, and some Norse godswere mentioned in there.
So I thought that was a reallynice touch and really made me
feel more connected to Vikingcruises as a Norwegian brand.
Dan (21:12):
Yeah, would definitely agree.
And it was fun also that theart curation on board was pretty
impressive as well.
And you could learn about theart through your app.
Mikkel (21:22):
Yes.
That's another form, to yourpoint, of low-key entertainment.
You could really open your appanytime and listen to that
narration about the paintings.
Uh I do wonder why they pickedthe narrator they did.
A little sleepy-toned.
If I can if I can give somefeedback that maybe someone a
(21:42):
little more excited orenthusiastic would have been a
better voice recording.
Um yeah, but we did listenlisten to a couple of them on
the tapestry in the staircase.
They have the Bayeux Tapestryin the staircase on both sides,
forward and aft.
And then they also had on Monk,so we listened to a few on
(22:04):
Monk's paintings that I thoughtwere interesting.
So yeah, that was a nice formof entertainment.
Good point.
Dan (22:09):
Yeah.
So again, ocean, the ships aremuch bigger than river.
So there's gonna be moreamenities on board.
There was a spa uh that waspretty impressive.
Mikkel (22:21):
Yeah, for sure.
Dan (22:22):
The cold plunge in in each locker room.
There was a sauna in eachlocker room, then there was a
sauna out in the common area.
Mikkel (22:30):
Steam room.
Dan (22:31):
Oh, steam room, right?
Then a hot tub out in thecommon area.
Uh there was the snow room outin the common area.
Mikkel (22:39):
Loved it.
Speaking of Norway.
Dan (22:41):
Yeah, so there was plenty of opportunities within just the
spa area.
There was a gym.
Quite a sizable gym.
Mikkel (22:49):
Yeah, big gym, which they do not have on river, so
they don't have a spa on river,and they don't have a gym.
And also, they had a salon onocean, so you could get a
manicure or a pedicure, youcould get a facial hair trim,
like a beard trim, you can get ahaircut, you can get a blowout
for your hair.
We got massages.
How was your massage?
(23:10):
We didn't do a couple'smassage, they didn't offer that
on Ocean, but we got separatemassages.
Dan (23:15):
Yeah, I really enjoyed mine.
Yeah.
Mikkel (23:17):
Yeah, I enjoyed mine too.
I got some sort of Nordicrejuvenation that was nice, and
I hadn't seen on a spa menu onany other cruise line.
So I I took advantage of that,and that was really nice.
So you have to pay for thingslike massages or the haircuts
and manicures and such, butreally nice perk.
(23:38):
The spa is open from morningtill night, so around 8 a.m.
to 8 p.m.
every day, and you can go.
It's open to every guest, it'sincluded in your cruise fair.
So that's definitely ahighlight and a perk, and I'm
glad we took advantage of that.
Dan (23:54):
Yeah, that's a that's a good thing to remember.
There was a few times we'relike, hey, we've got a spa, we
need to go to go and experienceit.
Mikkel (24:01):
Yeah, it was definitely least busy in the morning when
most people were off the shipfor excursions.
The other good time to go wasas soon as you got back on the
ship from your excursion.
As soon as you did.
If you waited a little toolong, it got busier and busier.
And then also right before itclosed.
So kind of in that dinner timefrom 6 to 8 p.m., there was, you
(24:24):
know, almost nobody in it.
So just some tips on when togo.
Dan (24:28):
Yeah.
If I remember correctly, therewas a few ships that we were on
that had a library.
So it was a small section,maybe a few comfortable chairs,
and a couple, you know, ahundred books or something like
that.
But the library on Ocean was itfelt like a library.
There was books everywhere andlounge chairs, like big, comfy
(24:51):
seating, and it really felt likea nice lounge.
Mikkel (24:55):
And in multiple areas, there was that kind of official
library area, but then you couldalso go to the winter garden
area that had books on theshelves and kind of little
lounge seating.
You could definitely get lostin a book.
You could also go to theExplorer's lounge area, which I
loved.
It's on the forward of theship, it's double-decked, it's
deck seven and deck eight, andgrab a book there with an
(25:18):
amazing view.
So there were a fewopportunities for education and
learning in terms of books.
Yes.
Dan (25:29):
That were and there were sprinters, so it felt like a
little office area, and theywere kind of tucked away, so you
weren't getting a lot oftraffic if you wanted to do a
little bit of work.
Mikkel (25:38):
Yeah, so I think there were probably about six
computers compared to twocomputers on river.
And also, like you said, thelibrary exists on the river too.
And I would say like you couldtake a book and kind of go to
some chairs that were around thesecond deck on river, but yeah,
definitely bigger in terms ofthe computers in the library on
ocean.
(25:58):
What about those top decks?
So I think they do a good jobof the outdoor decks on uh river
and ocean.
Dan (26:05):
Yeah, I would agree.
So river typically on the sundeck, you got an herb garden,
maybe a small putting green,something like that, a track
that you can walk around, andseating up there.
It feels really it's more forsightseeing.
But on ocean, you had thesports deck, there was mini
golf, ping-pong, shuffleboard,duck pin bowling.
(26:26):
There was a lot going on upthere, plus the track, plus
seating out there andsightseeing and things like
that.
Mikkel (26:33):
Yeah, we didn't discover this or have the chance to go
up there until a couple days in,and then it became kind of like
one of our little go-to nooksif you know it was a little
crowded in other areas of theship, and we were in a port and
we knew not that many peoplewere on the ship, and they had
nice fake greenery that kind oflike built walls between couches
out there, and I thought thatwas really nice.
(26:53):
Lastly, just to go back to thehot tub pools.
So there's that pool which Imentioned earlier, that infinity
pool by the Aquabot Terrace,but there is an outdoor infinity
pool with a hot tub.
So now we have the spa hot tub,we have the outdoor hot tub,
and then lastly, there's anindoor pool with an indoor hot
(27:14):
tub that's under a retractingglass roof, so it can become an
exterior uh area to swim andsoak in the hot tub if the
weather is nice enough.
And they did open thatretractable roof during our late
October cruise twice.
We were lucky enough to havegreat weather in the
Mediterranean area.
(27:35):
And on River, there is no pool,no hot tub for sure.
Maybe they know their audienceand they just, you know, wanted
to maximize the amount of stayrooms on Viking.
This is one of the things Iwish Viking River had because
other cruise lines likeRiverside, like AMA waterways,
have a pool on board.
But I'm just stating the facts,there is no pool on Viking
(27:59):
River.
Dan (28:00):
So let's talk about motion.
As I've disclosed many times onthe podcast, I get seasick.
And on river, that's not reallyan issue.
You're not gonna you're notgonna get seasick.
But on ocean, obviously, thereis more opportunity for that.
Where we were cruising, it waspretty low waves and and it
wasn't that rough.
(28:21):
I think there was only onenight that I put on a patch.
But that is something toconsider if you're gonna go from
ocean to river or river toocean.
Mikkel (28:30):
Speaking of, with that motion and where the ship can
dock, river really goes right upto the port.
You never tender.
And we did have to tender twiceon Viking Ocean, so that
seasickness and motion couldcome in with tendering because
sometimes the tender can be alittle rocky in the water.
Dan (28:50):
That's a good that's a good point.
Just that accessibility andthen that addition of the
tender, that's the wild card.
Mikkel (28:58):
Yeah.
And then also with the motionand comfort, let's say, of
Viking Ocean versus VikingRiver, something that I thought
was really interesting was thateverybody I spoke to on ocean
had come from river with Viking.
I'm sure there's people thatsail on Viking Ocean and have
(29:19):
not been on river, but everybodyI spoke to, I would say about
10 to 12 people, um, which isn'ta lot, but it's actually not as
easy to connect with people onocean because you're not really
forced to be with them as muchbecause there's so many people
on the ship.
But we did run into some of thesame people over and over,
(29:40):
which was nice.
But there were times that wewere seeing people and we said
to each other, we've never seenthat person, it's eight days in.
So you know, where they comefrom.
But the intimacy of the groupon Viking River versus Ocean.
And my point was when I spoketo people who had come from
river, their greatest miss fromriver actually was that it was
(30:03):
harder to connect with people onocean because of the size of
it.
But to that point, I will saythat I thought that the ages and
the diversity of age ranges onocean was better than river in
terms of you know more people inthere 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s versus
majority of people being late50s and up on river.
Dan (30:28):
Yeah, I would agree there was more multi-gen families
there.
Mikkel (30:32):
Yeah.
Dan (30:32):
And there was a lot more diversity there also.
Mikkel (30:36):
Even on Viking Daily there was a solo meetup every
couple of days and there was anLGBTQIA meetup on the ship that
was scheduled, which I thoughtwere both really nice things.
Dan (30:48):
Yeah.
Mikkel (30:48):
And you don't get that on river just because there's
only 180 people kind of thing.
Dan (30:53):
Right, right.
Every meal is a meetup onriver.
Mikkel (30:56):
Every meal is a meetup.
Put that on a bumper sticker.
Dan (31:01):
Okay, so as we're wrapping up here, final thoughts,
recommendations, what what doyou think?
Ocean, river?
Mikkel (31:10):
I think ocean is great.
I would love to go on anotheritinerary, especially like let's
say Norway, because it is aNorwegian ship in Norway.
And I really loved that I gotmore of the Norwegian vibe from
Ocean.
I love Norway.
We've been to Norway severaltimes and I just love feeling
(31:31):
that hoog, you know, that warmththat coziness.
I love that the Nordic spa hada pamphlet that was talking
about Norwegian culture and kindof the sauna to the cold plunge
and the order of operations andwhy Norwegians do it that way
and Lago Health and they wereexplaining what that is.
So I love that and I love theNorwegian museum and I love the
(31:52):
food was amazing.
So I really loved Ocean which Ithink I don't think I was
expecting to love it as much asI did just because we're such
small ship people and it is asmall ship but I thought I would
really miss the riverexperience and it's not like I
don't love a river cruise ship.
I do and I I of course we wantto sail on rivers as much as we
(32:13):
can but I just was surprised byhow much I loved the Viking
ocean experience.
I would say even a little morethan Viking's river experience.
I just thought there were somany great unique aspects of it
that I haven't experienced onother ocean ships.
What did you think?
Dan (32:31):
Yeah I would agree I was definitely very pleasantly
surprised with the product and Ithought it was a grown up
version of the river experience.
I struggle a little bit withViking River where I think the
furnishings are a little toominimal a little too IKE the
food is just okay but then theocean experience was like wow
(32:55):
this was a curated experiencethe interior design of the ship
was quite impressive the varietyof amenities that were offered
and just the experience as awhole in my opinion was so much
more than what their experienceon river is.
Mikkel (33:16):
Amazing so tune in next week be sure to follow and
subscribe and you will hear theepisode about Viking Ocean
dining and beverages and againif you're listening after the
third week of November you canlisten right now to that and
we'd love to hear your feedbackso be sure to rate us and review
(33:36):
us and reach out if you haveany questions and we will talk
to you next week.
Dan (33:42):
All right until next week keep cruising
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.