Latest / Small Ship Cruise Talk: River Cruises, Yacht, Barge and Expedition Cruising Tips & Travel Planning Advice / Viking Ocean vs. River Cruise: Same or Totally Different?

Transcript

Viking Ocean vs. River Cruise: Same or Totally Different? · Small Ship Cruise Talk: River Cruises, Yacht, Barge and Expedition Cruising Tips & Travel Planning Advice

• 0:01
  Dan: Welcome to Small Ship Cruise Talk, a show where we share insider tips and firsthand experiences about this outstanding, yet lesser-known form of travel.
• 0:11
  Dan: We are passionate about sharing our knowledge about river cruises, expedition, yacht, and barge cruises, so you are informed when it comes to choosing your own vacation experiences.
• 0:22
  Dan: We're your co-host, Dana McHell, and we are your cruise experts and the co-founders of Sometime Sailing, a website that focuses on small ship cruising.
• 0:32
  Dan: Hello.
• 0:35
  Dan: We just got back from our very first cruise on Viking Ocean.
• 0:43
  Dan: And in today's episode, we're gonna just do an overview of the cruise and compare and contrast ocean versus river and that experience on Viking and what Viking Ocean is all about.
• 0:58
  Mikkel: That's right.
• 0:59
  Mikkel: We are so excited to be home and talking to you about this.
• 1:03
  Mikkel: So like you said, Dan, this is not an exhaustive, you know, episode.
• 1:08
  Mikkel: It's 30-minute episodes as we try to keep to for you listening.
• 1:14
  Mikkel: But we do want to do an overview so you know what to expect if you're curious about ocean coming from river, especially as we did.
• 1:23
  Mikkel: So we're gonna walk you through the key differences and similarities between these two distinct Viking products, obviously, from ship size and amenities to dining and entertainment, and a lot in between drink packages, for example, how the food is.
• 1:38
  Mikkel: So if you're deciding between the two experiences, or you're just curious how they compare and you want to know if ocean would be good for you on Viking, we have you covered.
• 1:48
  Mikkel: Let's get right into it.
• 1:49
  Mikkel: First, we have to tell you about the size of the passenger capacity and the fleet.
• 1:56
  Dan: Yeah, obviously, one ship, the ocean ship is going to be much different than a river cruise ship.
• 2:01
  Dan: Uh so the ocean ships, there's eight of them total in the fleet, and then ninety-two river ships.
• 2:09
  Dan: So obviously, Viking, you know, is indexing more on river, and their business model is river.
• 2:15
  Dan: My take was they just expanded it, right?
• 2:19
  Dan: And just made it a bigger, more expansive experience on the ocean.
• 2:23
  Dan: The ocean ships, there's up to 930 passengers per ship, where on river it's up to 190 passengers on like the Danube or the Rhine, and then something like 106 passengers with their smaller ships that sail the Duro River.
• 2:41
  Mikkel: Yeah, and while we were cruising, they actually had their celebration for hitting 100 ships in the fleet.
• 2:49
  Mikkel: So our numbers are as of this recording.
• 2:52
  Mikkel: If you're listening to this in a couple years, you might think they have more ships than that, because they probably will.
• 2:58
  Dan: I'm sure they will.
• 3:00
  Mikkel: But as of today, that's what they have.
• 3:02
  Mikkel: And I do think it's important you highlighted that the ocean ships are 930 passengers because it is an ocean ship, but you know, for us, it's still considered small under a thousand passengers for what we talk about with small ship cruising, versus something like, you know, we're going on Celebrity to do the preview of Excel in a couple weeks.
• 3:22
  Mikkel: And within that, we love the retreat because it's only around 300-400 passengers, depending on the ship, but it's still thousands of passengers.
• 3:31
  Mikkel: So the ocean ships for Viking are really nice in that they're less than a thousand passengers at 930 max, like you said.
• 3:38
  Dan: Yeah, you still get that intimate feeling.
• 3:41
  Dan: Um, but you also get a bigger ship with a lot more to offer.
• 3:48
  Mikkel: Right.
• 3:48
  Mikkel: In terms of booking your crews before you even step on the fleet and understand how the vessel feels and everything, when you are pre-booking, you can expect similar booking and deposit policies that could vary by promotion.
• 4:03
  Mikkel: Viking loves doing promotions.
• 4:05
  Mikkel: Us and everybody we talk to gets a lot of marketing material in the mail from Viking about their specials, and this is definitely one of their strengths.
• 4:14
  Mikkel: In terms of your pre-planning ahead of time, both Ocean and River are going to utilize that My Viking Journey portal online.
• 4:23
  Mikkel: We have an article about using My Viking Journey and everything you can do.
• 4:28
  Mikkel: We learned even more through the booking process of this Viking Ocean cruise for what you can do and view your calendar and everything.
• 4:36
  Mikkel: And that was a really great part of our Viking Ocean experience.
• 4:40
  Mikkel: But like I said, overview.
• 4:42
  Mikkel: Both of them use My Viking Journey for trip planning.
• 4:45
  Mikkel: And also they both include one complementary excursion per port.
• 4:50
  Mikkel: There were obviously more options for excursions on the ocean ships because they're dealing with hundreds of more people.
• 4:58
  Mikkel: So as opposed to 180 people, 190 people, they have 930 passengers that they need to satisfy.
• 5:05
  Mikkel: So part of the excursions you can book ahead of time, but people go crazy with being able to do it, you know, 170 days out or what have you when they can log into My Viking Journey and book.
• 5:16
  Mikkel: So they include one excursion in every port, but it was usually some sort of like city tour or walking tour, just like on river, so that was similar.
• 5:26
  Mikkel: But there were more options for excursions on Viking Ocean and they open up according to the stateroom category, but there's more categories of staterooms on the ship.
• 5:38
  Mikkel: So I've seen people post in Facebook groups that if you want a chance at a better excursion or an excursion that has very limited space that's really popular, to consider booking a stateroom in a higher category because you'll have that advantage of being able to book it sooner.
• 5:54
  Dan: And the excursions themselves, they run almost identical to river.
• 5:59
  Dan: So you still get off, you you take your quiet box device with you, and you know, make sure you bring your airfly like we did, so you can use your AirPods with the quiet box, and you're still following somebody with the lollipop.
• 6:11
  Dan: And it still feels very much like any other river excursion.
• 6:15
  Mikkel: Yeah, and that familiarity was nice.
• 6:18
  Mikkel: That was kind of a nice you can you know what to expect, and there are no surprises in that way with the excursions with that.
• 6:24
  Mikkel: You can also use your airfly with a Bluetooth hearing aid.
• 6:27
  Dan: Yeah, that's right.
• 6:29
  Mikkel: Let's get into everybody's favorite topic.
• 6:31
  Mikkel: I mean, I would say, besides the cruise portion, but part of that is the beverages and dining.
• 6:38
  Dan: Mm-hmm.
• 6:38
  Dan: Essentially, ocean and river are the same when it comes to the Silver Spirits package.
• 6:44
  Dan: Uh so what you're used to on River is gonna just translate right over onto ocean.
• 6:50
  Dan: Wine, beer, soft drinks are included with both lunch and dinner.
• 6:55
  Dan: Uh and then any time outside of those two time periods, you will have to pay for wine, beer, and soft drinks.
• 7:03
  Mikkel: Yeah, and I would say that they're affordable.
• 7:06
  Mikkel: They uh charged we were just on ocean, so 11 euros per cocktail, some were 13.
• 7:13
  Mikkel: It depended on what kind of alcohol you wanted.
• 7:15
  Mikkel: It's my belief we talked about this on the ship, that if you don't have three cocktails a day between the two of you, it would be six.
• 7:26
  Mikkel: That maybe it's not worth it for you.
• 7:28
  Mikkel: But I will also say if you love Diet Coke, let's say, they were charging four dollars per soft drink outside of lunch and dinner.
• 7:36
  Mikkel: So if you love Diet Coke like my brother-in-law, you are gonna want to consider that as part of the Silver Spirits package.
• 7:42
  Mikkel: What I loved about Ocean was that we had that coffee and tea station 24-7, just like you do on river, but imagine it kind of on steroids on the ocean ships.
• 7:57
  Mikkel: So on river, it's right outside the restaurant.
• 8:00
  Mikkel: It's self-served 24-7 coffees, teas.
• 8:02
  Mikkel: They even have little cookies, you know, by the machines that you can have something sweet.
• 8:08
  Mikkel: In the World Cafe on Ocean, which is the buffet area, small buffet, don't think 3,000 passengers, huge buffet, but it's a nice size, it's double-sided.
• 8:21
  Mikkel: Uh, they have that coffee and tea machine area, but they also have a water station that has sparkling and still, they have an ice machine there, they had a drink machine that had, I think, a lemonade and an apple juice or cranberry juice or something there.
• 8:37
  Mikkel: There were three juices.
• 8:38
  Mikkel: Something else I really appreciated on Ocean was that they had every milk you could think of.
• 8:44
  Mikkel: They had almond, they had soy, they had oat milk, they had skim milk, they had full fat milk.
• 8:50
  Mikkel: So that was kind of a nice addition.
• 8:53
  Mikkel: So they both have it, but ocean has it on steroids.
• 8:57
  Mikkel: Ocean also had full sets of tea options, tea bags and such, just like River does as well.
• 9:04
  Mikkel: Also, I love real orange juice in the morning, and there are servers walking around with bargling and still water in the morning and orange juice, but the orange juice is from Concentrate.
• 9:18
  Mikkel: But pro tip, if you ask them, they do have fresh squeezed orange juice on the ocean ship, like they do on river.
• 9:26
  Mikkel: You just have to ask for it.
• 9:27
  Mikkel: So, hot tip right there.
• 9:29
  Dan: Yeah, I think that that could be your name for your morning show.
• 9:32
  Dan: Real OJ in the morning.
• 9:34
  Mikkel: Oh, I thought you were gonna say fresh squeezed squeezed.
• 9:37
  Mikkel: I like it.
• 9:42
  Dan: Anyways, all right, back to our regularly scheduled program.
• 9:46
  Mikkel: And we're back.
• 9:47
  Mikkel: Uh speaking of the World Cafe, let's talk about those dining options.
• 9:52
  Dan: Right.
• 9:52
  Dan: So uh dining, obviously, there's gonna be more options for ocean, just because the ship is bigger, right?
• 9:59
  Dan: So on river, there's two dining venues.
• 10:02
  Dan: They're, in my opinion, good but not exceptional food.
• 10:07
  Mikkel: Yeah, nothing to write home about.
• 10:09
  Dan: Yeah, I wasn't blown away.
• 10:10
  Dan: But on ocean, holy cow.
• 10:12
  Dan: Yeah, this is where they shine.
• 10:14
  Dan: Yeah, it was definitely a step above.
• 10:16
  Dan: And I'm sure there's a variety of reasons why that is, but uh I was pleasantly surprised.
• 10:23
  Dan: Multiple restaurants, significantly better.
• 10:27
  Dan: Food quality presentation was real done really well.
• 10:30
  Dan: I I can't really think of too many meals that I thought, uh, this is a miss.
• 10:35
  Dan: There were there were a few, but um, I mean, maybe it was my poor ordering choices.
• 10:41
  Mikkel: Look, you can't have all highs and no lows.
• 10:44
  Mikkel: Well, I guess you could in a dream world, but you can't have the rainbows without the rain.
• 10:50
  Mikkel: Wow.
• 10:51
  Mikkel: It wasn't rain.
• 10:52
  Mikkel: I shouldn't say that.
• 10:53
  Mikkel: But we did record an episode dedicated to the food and drinks while we were on the ship, so you can look forward to that being released next week.
• 11:04
  Mikkel: And if you are listening to this past the third week of November in 2025, that means that you can listen to both right now.
• 11:12
  Mikkel: We also talked about in a previous episode what you can expect in terms of buffets on small ship cruises.
• 11:20
  Mikkel: Now that was recorded before we went on this Viking Ocean.
• 11:24
  Mikkel: So I would like to state for the record during this episode that they do a buffet right.
• 11:30
  Mikkel: We did not go to the restaurant but one time, which we like a seated served meal.
• 11:37
  Mikkel: We didn't go to, it's literally called the restaurant, the restaurant that you don't need reservations for.
• 11:42
  Mikkel: That's one of the options on the ship.
• 11:44
  Mikkel: We only went once because the buffet was just so good, and there were so many amazing options, and we knew we could pick and choose what we wanted and just get up and get more.
• 11:56
  Mikkel: We also, I don't think we said this on the episode next week, we realized a couple days in to the cruise that we should do our own little sushi and pizza happy hour at 6 p.m.
• 12:10
  Mikkel: every day on the ship because we were on board most days by that time because of the itinerary for our Empires of the Mediterranean cruise.
• 12:17
  Mikkel: We should go upstairs to the World's Cafe, get ourselves a plate of a slice of pizza.
• 12:24
  Mikkel: This is personal-sized pizza, so I think that it was acceptable.
• 12:27
  Mikkel: The pizza was really good.
• 12:28
  Mikkel: And a few pieces of sushi, because they always had sushi every night on the buffet.
• 12:33
  Mikkel: And I have to say, it was good.
• 12:36
  Mikkel: It is better than a lot of Japanese restaurants I've been to, and certainly better than any other cruise ship I've been on.
• 12:42
  Mikkel: Viking sushi, another hot tip.
• 12:45
  Mikkel: So look forward to the food, and please tune into the episode next week when we go into more detail about the restaurants and that significantly better food quality on ocean versus river.
• 13:00
  Dan: So I think just a side note, I think that'll be my name on the morning show that we start is Viking Sushi.
• 13:06
  Mikkel: Okay, so you're Viking Sushi, and I'm fresh squeezed.
• 13:09
  Mikkel: Okay.
• 13:10
  Mikkel: Done and done.
• 13:12
  Mikkel: So the only other thing I want to say about that dining is that that Aquavit Terrace is something you can look forward to on river as well as on the ocean ships.
• 13:23
  Mikkel: On the ocean ship, it is the after the ship.
• 13:27
  Mikkel: You have that infinity pool to look out to so you can wine and dine yourself out there and have the most incredible view on that Aquavit terrace.
• 13:38
  Mikkel: On the river ships, it's in the front of the ship, and it's kind of a little bit of a competition sometimes to get that seating.
• 13:45
  Mikkel: You're throwing elbows, you're throwing elbows, especially if the weather's nice.
• 13:49
  Mikkel: People are throwing elbows, like you said, to get those seats.
• 13:52
  Mikkel: It didn't really feel like that.
• 13:53
  Mikkel: There was one morning it was gorgeous out, and we couldn't get a seat, but the servers just set a different table for us outside that wasn't set.
• 14:01
  Mikkel: So they were really great about that.
• 14:03
  Mikkel: But they do have that terrace, so that's a really nice thing too.
• 14:06
  Mikkel: Let's move on to onboard entertainment and enrichment.
• 14:11
  Dan: Right.
• 14:11
  Dan: So no casinos on board.
• 14:13
  Mikkel: No casinos, great point.
• 14:15
  unknown: Right.
• 14:15
  Dan: Uh but there was plenty to do.
• 14:17
  Dan: So I I know a lot of the times we have these conversations, we have conversations, and people are saying, Well, I think I'll be bored on a river cruise, or you know, uh, maybe I I like the entertainment, I like a little bit more.
• 14:31
  Dan: Well, this is was a really nice medium in between that, right?
• 14:35
  Dan: There was a there was a lot of options for entertainment, and there was a few times where like, well, which one should we go to?
• 14:41
  Mikkel: Right.
• 14:42
  Dan: 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 the lounge.
• 14:51
  Dan: You know, there's just self-reading, not stories.
• 14:54
  unknown: Yeah.
• 14:55
  Dan: Not somebody reading to you.
• 14:56
  Dan: But on the ocean, there was definitely more elaborate shows, multiple music venues, bigger productions.
• 15:04
  Dan: Uh, the guest lecturers were phenomenal.
• 15:08
  Dan: I think there were three on board.
• 15:10
  Mikkel: There were three guest lecturers, and there was a lecture every day, in addition to the cruise director and the shore excursions manager talking about the port that we were gonna go to the next day.
• 15:24
  Dan: Right.
• 15:25
  Dan: Yeah.
• 15:25
  Dan: And the lectures were very different.
• 15:28
  Dan: They were enriching and really gave a lot of color to the ports that we were visiting, but the styles were different and just overall it was very fascinating.
• 15:37
  Mikkel: Right.
• 15:37
  Mikkel: The styles between the three different guest lecturers were very different.
• 15:41
  Mikkel: And that was nice because if one didn't resonate with you, you know, for me, one of them didn't as much as I will call out Russell Lee was incredible, incredible.
• 15:52
  Mikkel: I was blown away by his memorization of the entire presentation.
• 15:57
  Mikkel: He was not reading off of a computer or slides.
• 16:00
  Mikkel: He had his presentation so buttoned up with the storyline he was doing.
• 16:06
  Mikkel: He did one on Game of Thrones because we were going to Dubrovnik, Croatia, and so much of it was filmed there.
• 16:11
  Mikkel: So it went into the history of Game of Thrones, and it went into the historic places we were gonna visit in terms of what they were built for and what they were used for in the movies.
• 16:24
  Mikkel: He did one on Greek mythology that was fascinating.
• 16:29
  Mikkel: So, yes, the the star entertainment for me was actually those guest lectures that you can watch on your TV too.
• 16:36
  Mikkel: So you can either watch them live on your TV or you could watch them afterwards on your television, kind of Viking on demand, or you could go live, obviously, in person.
• 16:47
  Mikkel: The low-key entertainment you were talking about, uh pianist on River, there's a single pianist.
• 16:55
  Mikkel: And on Ocean, there were three different musical entertainers.
• 16:59
  Mikkel: They were in rotation the entire time, and that's partially because there's just more venues.
• 17:04
  Mikkel: So there was a gorgeous Steinway uh computer.
• 17:10
  Mikkel: There was a gorgeous Steinway piano that was a fixture in the Grand Atrium, which is three decks high with that huge staircase.
• 17:20
  Mikkel: Now, I will say, actually, on that note, the staircase was a feature of the ship in ocean that kind of harkened back to the river cruise ships that also have a gorgeous staircase.
• 17:31
  Mikkel: But again, this was kind of on steroids.
• 17:33
  Mikkel: So there was that piano there, and there was a pianist that would play solo Sergey on our ship, and then there was a duo, so a pianist and a violinist, and then there was also an electric guitarist, this man Alan, that was really great.
• 17:48
  Mikkel: So they kind of rotated.
• 17:49
  Mikkel: There was also the Viking band that was really good.
• 17:52
  Mikkel: They played in that club at night, the very small club at night.
• 17:58
  Mikkel: Club.
• 17:59
  Mikkel: I I use the term club loosely because it kind of is a jazz nightclub, it looks like, but nothing like you would picture on bigger ocean ships.
• 18:08
  Mikkel: And then there is that theater for the bigger performances where the guest lecturers are and port talks, and also two of the walls on either side come down to make one and two cinema one and cinema two, and they play movies there.
• 18:23
  Mikkel: So there was like a one-hour movie playing about World War II history in the area.
• 18:28
  Mikkel: There were a few interesting movies that were playing, and that could be found on your Viking Daily if you were interested.
• 18:35
  Mikkel: The last thing about the entertainment was that very similarly to Ocean and River, is that you can expect that cultural enrichment.
• 18:43
  Mikkel: So, what I'm talking about is like you are in, let's say, Germany on River, and they have um, you know, a brass band come on board or Austria.
• 18:51
  Mikkel: And very similarly, when we were in Greece, they had a Greek band come on one night.
• 18:56
  Mikkel: They had dancers come on in can't remember if it was Montenegro or Croatia, but that was very similar and reminded me of River to a T in that regard.
• 19:08
  Dan: Yeah.
• 19:08
  Dan: So overall, you're gonna have plenty of options for onboard entertainment if you choose Ocean.
• 19:15
  Mikkel: But again, to reiterate, like you said, there is not a casino.
• 19:19
  Dan: Right.
• 19:20
  Mikkel: And it is not for party people.
• 19:22
  Mikkel: The club is very mellow at night with the band.
• 19:26
  Mikkel: But also in that regard, I mean, we didn't really encounter anybody that was missing that.
• 19:32
  Mikkel: So I think they know their audience on Viking Ocean really well.
• 19:35
  Mikkel: But if you're listening and you're deciding on it and you really do want that stuff on an ocean ship, then Viking's not going to give it to you.
• 19:42
  Dan: Right.
• 19:43
  Mikkel: We also forgot to mention one of our favorite discoveries, the game area.
• 19:48
  Mikkel: So they have a few game tables on Viking Ocean and they're digital.
• 19:53
  Mikkel: We saw a bunch of people playing Canasta, we saw somebody playing Mahjong, but also digitally they had a couple games, and there's four seats, so you could pick your game.
• 20:02
  Mikkel: So while other people were playing Blackjack or the digital version of Mahjong, we were playing Memory.
• 20:11
  Dan: Right.
• 20:11
  Mikkel: And that was so fun.
• 20:12
  Mikkel: I really enjoyed playing memory with you.
• 20:14
  Mikkel: It was like even if we just wanted to stop and play one round, which inevitably turned into two, we could play that.
• 20:20
  Mikkel: So that was kind of a fun anytime entertainment on board.
• 20:24
  Mikkel: Okay, one more.
• 20:26
  Mikkel: There's another area of quote-unquote entertainment that was really nice on ocean that River just simply doesn't have the space for.
• 20:34
  Mikkel: Kind of a Norwegian history museum of sorts that you can visit anytime.
• 20:40
  Mikkel: It's just an area on the second deck, and then they have some of the costumes and traditional outfits that Norwegians wear starting in the 19th century kind of thing that you could see.
• 20:51
  Mikkel: But I really enjoyed that.
• 20:52
  Mikkel: I stood there reading it.
• 20:54
  Mikkel: I would read a section of it one day and then I'd pass it the next day, and I'd read a little more about Norwegian artifacts and history, and some Norse gods were mentioned in there.
• 21:03
  Mikkel: So I thought that was a really nice touch and really made me feel more connected to Viking cruises as a Norwegian brand.
• 21:12
  Dan: Yeah, would definitely agree.
• 21:14
  Dan: And it was fun also that the art curation on board was pretty impressive as well.
• 21:19
  Dan: And you could learn about the art through your app.
• 21:22
  Mikkel: Yes.
• 21:22
  Mikkel: That's another form, to your point, of low-key entertainment.
• 21:27
  Mikkel: You could really open your app anytime and listen to that narration about the paintings.
• 21:32
  Mikkel: Uh I do wonder why they picked the narrator they did.
• 21:36
  Mikkel: A little sleepy-toned.
• 21:38
  Mikkel: If I can if I can give some feedback that maybe someone a little more excited or enthusiastic would have been a better voice recording.
• 21:46
  Mikkel: Um yeah, but we did listen listen to a couple of them on the tapestry in the staircase.
• 21:54
  Mikkel: They have the Bayeux Tapestry in the staircase on both sides, forward and aft.
• 22:00
  Mikkel: And then they also had on Monk, so we listened to a few on Monk's paintings that I thought were interesting.
• 22:06
  Mikkel: So yeah, that was a nice form of entertainment.
• 22:08
  Mikkel: Good point.
• 22:09
  Dan: Yeah.
• 22:10
  Dan: So again, ocean, the ships are much bigger than river.
• 22:14
  Dan: So there's gonna be more amenities on board.
• 22:16
  Dan: There was a spa uh that was pretty impressive.
• 22:21
  Mikkel: Yeah, for sure.
• 22:22
  Dan: The cold plunge in in each locker room.
• 22:24
  Dan: There was a sauna in each locker room, then there was a sauna out in the common area.
• 22:30
  Mikkel: Steam room.
• 22:31
  Dan: Oh, steam room, right?
• 22:33
  Dan: Then a hot tub out in the common area.
• 22:36
  Dan: Uh there was the snow room out in the common area.
• 22:39
  Mikkel: Loved it.
• 22:40
  Mikkel: Speaking of Norway.
• 22:41
  Dan: Yeah, so there was plenty of opportunities within just the spa area.
• 22:47
  Dan: There was a gym.
• 22:48
  Dan: Quite a sizable gym.
• 22:49
  Mikkel: 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.
• 22:55
  Mikkel: And also, they had a salon on ocean, so you could get a manicure or a pedicure, you could get a facial hair trim, like a beard trim, you can get a haircut, you can get a blowout for your hair.
• 23:08
  Mikkel: We got massages.
• 23:09
  Mikkel: How was your massage?
• 23:10
  Mikkel: We didn't do a couple's massage, they didn't offer that on Ocean, but we got separate massages.
• 23:15
  Dan: Yeah, I really enjoyed mine.
• 23:17
  Dan: Yeah.
• 23:17
  Mikkel: Yeah, I enjoyed mine too.
• 23:18
  Mikkel: I got some sort of Nordic rejuvenation that was nice, and I hadn't seen on a spa menu on any other cruise line.
• 23:26
  Mikkel: So I I took advantage of that, and that was really nice.
• 23:29
  Mikkel: So you have to pay for things like massages or the haircuts and manicures and such, but really nice perk.
• 23:38
  Mikkel: The spa is open from morning till night, so around 8 a.m.
• 23:42
  Mikkel: to 8 p.m.
• 23:43
  Mikkel: every day, and you can go.
• 23:46
  Mikkel: It's open to every guest, it's included in your cruise fair.
• 23:49
  Mikkel: So that's definitely a highlight and a perk, and I'm glad we took advantage of that.
• 23:54
  Dan: Yeah, that's a that's a good thing to remember.
• 23:56
  Dan: There was a few times we're like, hey, we've got a spa, we need to go to go and experience it.
• 24:01
  Mikkel: Yeah, it was definitely least busy in the morning when most people were off the ship for excursions.
• 24:07
  Mikkel: The other good time to go was as soon as you got back on the ship from your excursion.
• 24:13
  Mikkel: As soon as you did.
• 24:14
  Mikkel: If you waited a little too long, it got busier and busier.
• 24:17
  Mikkel: And then also right before it closed.
• 24:20
  Mikkel: So kind of in that dinner time from 6 to 8 p.m., there was, you know, almost nobody in it.
• 24:26
  Mikkel: So just some tips on when to go.
• 24:28
  Dan: Yeah.
• 24:29
  Dan: If I remember correctly, there was a few ships that we were on that had a library.
• 24:33
  Dan: So it was a small section, maybe a few comfortable chairs, and a couple, you know, a hundred books or something like that.
• 24:41
  Dan: But the library on Ocean was it felt like a library.
• 24:47
  Dan: There was books everywhere and lounge chairs, like big, comfy seating, and it really felt like a nice lounge.
• 24:55
  Mikkel: And in multiple areas, there was that kind of official library area, but then you could also go to the winter garden area that had books on the shelves and kind of little lounge seating.
• 25:06
  Mikkel: You could definitely get lost in a book.
• 25:08
  Mikkel: You could also go to the Explorer's lounge area, which I loved.
• 25:12
  Mikkel: It's on the forward of the ship, it's double-decked, it's deck seven and deck eight, and grab a book there with an amazing view.
• 25:19
  Mikkel: So there were a few opportunities for education and learning in terms of books.
• 25:24
  Mikkel: Yes.
• 25:29
  Dan: That were and there were sprinters, so it felt like a little office area, and they were kind of tucked away, so you weren't getting a lot of traffic if you wanted to do a little bit of work.
• 25:38
  Mikkel: Yeah, so I think there were probably about six computers compared to two computers on river.
• 25:43
  Mikkel: And also, like you said, the library exists on the river too.
• 25:47
  Mikkel: And I would say like you could take a book and kind of go to some chairs that were around the second deck on river, but yeah, definitely bigger in terms of the computers in the library on ocean.
• 25:58
  Mikkel: What about those top decks?
• 26:00
  Mikkel: So I think they do a good job of the outdoor decks on uh river and ocean.
• 26:05
  Dan: Yeah, I would agree.
• 26:06
  Dan: So river typically on the sun deck, you got an herb garden, maybe a small putting green, something like that, a track that you can walk around, and seating up there.
• 26:15
  Dan: It feels really it's more for sightseeing.
• 26:18
  Dan: But on ocean, you had the sports deck, there was mini golf, ping-pong, shuffleboard, duck pin bowling.
• 26:26
  Dan: There was a lot going on up there, plus the track, plus seating out there and sightseeing and things like that.
• 26:33
  Mikkel: 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 nooks if you know it was a little crowded in other areas of the ship, and we were in a port and we knew not that many people were on the ship, and they had nice fake greenery that kind of like built walls between couches out there, and I thought that was really nice.
• 26:53
  Mikkel: Lastly, just to go back to the hot tub pools.
• 26:58
  Mikkel: So there's that pool which I mentioned earlier, that infinity pool by the Aquabot Terrace, but there is an outdoor infinity pool with a hot tub.
• 27:06
  Mikkel: So now we have the spa hot tub, we have the outdoor hot tub, and then lastly, there's an indoor pool with an indoor hot tub that's under a retracting glass roof, so it can become an exterior uh area to swim and soak in the hot tub if the weather is nice enough.
• 27:25
  Mikkel: And they did open that retractable roof during our late October cruise twice.
• 27:30
  Mikkel: We were lucky enough to have great weather in the Mediterranean area.
• 27:35
  Mikkel: And on River, there is no pool, no hot tub for sure.
• 27:40
  Mikkel: Maybe they know their audience and they just, you know, wanted to maximize the amount of stay rooms on Viking.
• 27:45
  Mikkel: This is one of the things I wish Viking River had because other cruise lines like Riverside, like AMA waterways, have a pool on board.
• 27:54
  Mikkel: But I'm just stating the facts, there is no pool on Viking River.
• 28:00
  Dan: So let's talk about motion.
• 28:02
  Dan: As I've disclosed many times on the podcast, I get seasick.
• 28:07
  Dan: And on river, that's not really an issue.
• 28:10
  Dan: You're not gonna you're not gonna get seasick.
• 28:12
  Dan: But on ocean, obviously, there is more opportunity for that.
• 28:16
  Dan: Where we were cruising, it was pretty low waves and and it wasn't that rough.
• 28:21
  Dan: I think there was only one night that I put on a patch.
• 28:24
  Dan: But that is something to consider if you're gonna go from ocean to river or river to ocean.
• 28:30
  Mikkel: Speaking of, with that motion and where the ship can dock, river really goes right up to the port.
• 28:37
  Mikkel: You never tender.
• 28:38
  Mikkel: And we did have to tender twice on Viking Ocean, so that seasickness and motion could come in with tendering because sometimes the tender can be a little rocky in the water.
• 28:50
  Dan: That's a good that's a good point.
• 28:52
  Dan: Just that accessibility and then that addition of the tender, that's the wild card.
• 28:58
  Mikkel: Yeah.
• 28:59
  Mikkel: And then also with the motion and comfort, let's say, of Viking Ocean versus Viking River, something that I thought was really interesting was that everybody I spoke to on ocean had come from river with Viking.
• 29:15
  Mikkel: I'm sure there's people that sail on Viking Ocean and have not been on river, but everybody I spoke to, I would say about 10 to 12 people, um, which isn't a lot, but it's actually not as easy to connect with people on ocean because you're not really forced to be with them as much because there's so many people on the ship.
• 29:36
  Mikkel: But we did run into some of the same people over and over, which was nice.
• 29:41
  Mikkel: But there were times that we were seeing people and we said to each other, we've never seen that person, it's eight days in.
• 29:48
  Mikkel: So you know, where they come from.
• 29:50
  Mikkel: But the intimacy of the group on Viking River versus Ocean.
• 29:55
  Mikkel: And my point was when I spoke to people who had come from river, their greatest miss from river actually was that it was harder to connect with people on ocean because of the size of it.
• 30:07
  Mikkel: But to that point, I will say that I thought that the ages and the diversity of age ranges on ocean was better than river in terms of you know more people in there 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s versus majority of people being late 50s and up on river.
• 30:28
  Dan: Yeah, I would agree there was more multi-gen families there.
• 30:32
  Mikkel: Yeah.
• 30:32
  Dan: And there was a lot more diversity there also.
• 30:36
  Mikkel: Even on Viking Daily there was a solo meetup every couple of days and there was an LGBTQIA meetup on the ship that was scheduled, which I thought were both really nice things.
• 30:48
  Dan: Yeah.
• 30:48
  Mikkel: And you don't get that on river just because there's only 180 people kind of thing.
• 30:53
  Dan: Right, right.
• 30:54
  Dan: Every meal is a meetup on river.
• 30:56
  Mikkel: Every meal is a meetup.
• 30:57
  Mikkel: Put that on a bumper sticker.
• 31:01
  Dan: Okay, so as we're wrapping up here, final thoughts, recommendations, what what do you think?
• 31:08
  Dan: Ocean, river?
• 31:10
  Mikkel: I think ocean is great.
• 31:11
  Mikkel: I would love to go on another itinerary, especially like let's say Norway, because it is a Norwegian ship in Norway.
• 31:19
  Mikkel: And I really loved that I got more of the Norwegian vibe from Ocean.
• 31:24
  Mikkel: I love Norway.
• 31:25
  Mikkel: We've been to Norway several times and I just love feeling that hoog, you know, that warmth that coziness.
• 31:34
  Mikkel: I love that the Nordic spa had a pamphlet that was talking about Norwegian culture and kind of the sauna to the cold plunge and the order of operations and why Norwegians do it that way and Lago Health and they were explaining what that is.
• 31:48
  Mikkel: So I love that and I love the Norwegian museum and I love the food was amazing.
• 31:53
  Mikkel: So I really loved Ocean which I think I don't think I was expecting to love it as much as I did just because we're such small ship people and it is a small ship but I thought I would really miss the river experience and it's not like I don't love a river cruise ship.
• 32:10
  Mikkel: I do and I I of course we want to sail on rivers as much as we can but I just was surprised by how much I loved the Viking ocean experience.
• 32:18
  Mikkel: I would say even a little more than Viking's river experience.
• 32:23
  Mikkel: I just thought there were so many great unique aspects of it that I haven't experienced on other ocean ships.
• 32:29
  Mikkel: What did you think?
• 32:31
  Dan: Yeah I would agree I was definitely very pleasantly surprised with the product and I thought it was a grown up version of the river experience.
• 32:41
  Dan: I struggle a little bit with Viking River where I think the furnishings are a little too minimal a little too IKE the food is just okay but then the ocean experience was like wow this was a curated experience the interior design of the ship was quite impressive the variety of amenities that were offered and just the experience as a whole in my opinion was so much more than what their experience on river is.
• 33:16
  Mikkel: Amazing so tune in next week be sure to follow and subscribe and you will hear the episode about Viking Ocean dining and beverages and again if you're listening after the third week of November you can listen right now to that and we'd love to hear your feedback so be sure to rate us and review us and reach out if you have any questions and we will talk to you next week.
• 33:42
  Dan: All right until next week keep cruising