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Vikings are Back



 
 
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  #21  
Old December 3rd, 2006, 06:06 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Sue and Kevin Mullen
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Posts: 1,664
Default Vikings are Back



Charles wrote:

In article , Sue and Kevin Mullen
wrote:


Maybe they loved the ship so much that they stayed on for another
cruise.LOL



Debarking and flying from San Juan is pretty grueling. About the worst
debarkation port for flights and the worst airport in my opinion. I got
in around 8 pm and hit the sack early. I guess Tom wanted to get in his
report first. G.


It is a long time since we cruised from San Juan, but I do remember
hating the airport there.

sue
  #22  
Old December 3rd, 2006, 07:00 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Charles[_1_]
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Posts: 3,112
Default Vikings are Back

In article , Tom K
wrote:

The Vikings are back home after a week on the Crown Princess. Had a nice
week with the group, and a new itinerary for me that included Bonaire,
Aruba, Grenada, and St. Kitts.


Susette arranged some very nice optional excursions for those in the
group for those who were interested. On St. Kitts we went with Greys
and while I did not care much for St. Kitts the tour operator was very
good. On Grenada we we went with Mandoo and he was excellent. The tour
of Aruba with ER tours was very good too. On St. Thomas twenty-seven of
went to Trunk Bay together. The ship docked at Crown Bay and we were
able to negotiate with a driver on the dock who had one of those open
air taxi's to take the whole group to Red Hook for the ferry to St.
John. And he picked us up when we came back. Others went shopping since
the ship called at St. Thomas on a Sunday and the shops closed at
1:00PM. The shops at Crown Bay are still unoccupied. Bonaire is a
snorkelers and divers paradise.

--
Charles
  #23  
Old December 3rd, 2006, 07:06 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Ermalee[_2_]
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Posts: 659
Default Vikings are Back

Charles wrote:

In article , Tom K
wrote:


Loved Bonaire. Liked Aruba. Grenada was rather different from the typical
Caribbean port. I liked it. Didn't care for St. Kitts. Went to Trunk Bay
in St. John, which I love.



Pretty much in agreement here. What is interesting about Grenada is
that unlike many other ports this island has an actual working economy
with agriculture and support industry.


I really wanted to join y'all on this one, but stayed home to attend a
baby shower in Atlanta (having another great grandchild :-)).... turned
out that we not only didn't go to Atlanta, but DH ended up spending most
of the week in the hospital with an episode of congestive heart failure
plus stomach ulcers. He had to receive 2 units of blood. I spent every
night there with him We're back home now, and by golly, I am now
determined to take one of Sue's Viking cruises. It just seems like
they're always at the wrong time of the year. Still, I want to go on
one with Susette!!!
It sure sounds like this ship was pretty different from the one you went
on for the SGC.

Ermalee
  #24  
Old December 3rd, 2006, 07:07 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Sue and Kevin Mullen
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Posts: 1,664
Default Vikings are Back



Charles wrote:
The tour
of Aruba with ER tours was very good too.


We will be going to Aruba in Jan. on the Volendam. Could you tell us
more about this tour and maybe a link for ER tours. The one time we
were in Aruba(long time ago), we were not impressed.

sue
  #25  
Old December 3rd, 2006, 07:12 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Jeff[_8_]
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Posts: 785
Default Vikings are Back

Actually Tom has been a pretty big Princess fan on and off over the
years if I recall correctly. I just recall he often favorably mentioned
the Sun class ships many times and food/service comparable to Celebrity.
There are always bad sailings of any line of course and I think he's
mentioned this about Celebrity as well! In any case....

Jeff



Tobie Gerbrandt wrote:
You know, Tom, we were just talking the other day about how we expected you
would go on Princess trying to find as many things as you could to complain
about.

You didn't disappoint us in that regard. I guess that's OK though, because
your beloved CELEBRITY can do no wrong, but all the others are inferior in
your opinion.

Tobieon an Island in the Pacific

  #26  
Old December 3rd, 2006, 07:26 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Charles[_1_]
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Posts: 3,112
Default Vikings are Back

In article , Ermalee
wrote:

I really wanted to join y'all on this one, but stayed home to attend a
baby shower in Atlanta (having another great grandchild :-)).... turned
out that we not only didn't go to Atlanta, but DH ended up spending most
of the week in the hospital with an episode of congestive heart failure
plus stomach ulcers. He had to receive 2 units of blood. I spent every
night there with him We're back home now, and by golly, I am now
determined to take one of Sue's Viking cruises. It just seems like
they're always at the wrong time of the year. Still, I want to go on
one with Susette!!!
It sure sounds like this ship was pretty different from the one you went
on for the SGC.


Really sorry to hear your your week.

Next year's Viking Group will be on the Liberty of the Seas, Dec.8. I
expect that will be a very good sailing for the group. That class is
good for large groups. I have booked it already.

There can be a lot of subjectivity in rating a ship and also the food
on board. People on the same sailing can have very different opinions.

I like the nine day itineraries it does out of New York. Both have a
lot of sea days which I like. The southern itineraries out of San Juan
are very different. Only one sea day. But I got to see three new ports.

--
Charles
  #27  
Old December 3rd, 2006, 07:43 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Tom K
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Posts: 2,578
Default Vikings are Back

We did 5 ports in 6 days... and we hung out as a gang of 6-8 of us most
every night... no time for MUTS. Though some watched USC vs. ND last week.

Everyone was always geting lost. One floor stopped here, and other there...




"Jeff" wrote in message
news:xMAch.1123$bW2.245@trndny04...
Very interesting Tom! Well glad you had a good time anyhow.... I am with
you on the anytime dining thing, although, it did work for me a bit in
August since I skipped out a few nights and did my own thing, and our wait
staff was among the best I've ever had! So you got the short end of the
stick on that score it sounds like. Def sounds like they are having some
food issues there!!! What did you find confusing about the layout? I
kind of liked it and it seemed fairly comparable to the Golden in most
ways. Did you do Movies Under the Stars at all?

Jeff



Tom K wrote:
The Vikings are back home after a week on the Crown Princess. Had a nice
week with the group, and a new itinerary for me that included Bonaire,
Aruba, Grenada, and St. Kitts.

Loved Bonaire. Liked Aruba. Grenada was rather different from the
typical Caribbean port. I liked it. Didn't care for St. Kitts. Went to
Trunk Bay in St. John, which I love.

The ship? Not my cup of tea by any means. Most confusing layout I've
ever seen. Pretty ship. I like the very restrictive smoking policy.
Ship in perfect condition since it's brand new.

Service? We had a table full of people one night with dinners that went
un-eaten because they were so bad, and the head waiter Antonio came
proudly and asked how our dinner was. When we said "Not Good"... he got
into a fight with us. When Susette said the food wasn't very good... he
jumped all over her and told her that it was "only her opinion". That
sure made the comment card.

I've never had a crew member get into a fight with someone before.

Overall much of the crew seemed.... maybe I'll use the term "surly". Not
happy. Interaction of crew with passengers wasn't good.

Dining room waitress was excellent. As was my cabin steward.

Anytime dining? I hate it. Because of it, our group couldn't all be
seated in one dining room. It definitely didn't work for us.

Food? IMO... now pretty much worse than both RCI and NCL food, which I
don't care for. Lots of really weird items on the buffets and dinner
menus. Lots of scallops, muscles, etc. Not my cup of tea. Steaks sent
back. Fish that smelled "fishy". Beef tenderloin that didn't even taste
like beef (I just ate the veggies that night). Excellent pizza.
Excellent cold seafood buffet the first evening. Lobster seemed OK. Not
crisp, but not mushy either. Veal chop in Sabbitinis that was fatty.
Fillet in Crown Grill that came out overcooked (ordered medium, came out
well done) but still tender. Neither specialty restaurant seemed worth
the money.

Overall, fun week, but many in the group said they won't go on Princess
again. I most likely only would if it was an unusual itinerary, that did
something like Iceland or Norway's North Cape.

--Tom



  #28  
Old December 3rd, 2006, 07:44 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Tom K
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Posts: 2,578
Default Vikings are Back


"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article , Sue and Kevin Mullen
wrote:

Maybe they loved the ship so much that they stayed on for another
cruise.LOL


Debarking and flying from San Juan is pretty grueling. About the worst
debarkation port for flights and the worst airport in my opinion. I got
in around 8 pm and hit the sack early. I guess Tom wanted to get in his
report first. G.

--
Charles


I slept almost 4 hours on the plane... so I was up past midnight.



  #29  
Old December 3rd, 2006, 07:46 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Tom K
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Posts: 2,578
Default Vikings are Back


"Charles" wrote in message
d...
In article . com,
" wrote:

Wow, it's hard to believe that so much has changed in three short
months since the SGC. We had wonderful food and great service and
didn't find any surly crew. I'm curious as to why a large group would
have chosed Personal Choice dining, I think you might have been better
to chose a traditional seating. It's too bad you didn't have Sergio in
the DaVinci dining room, he would have taken better care of you than
your Head Waiter.


Most of the group did have Traditional dining including Tom and myself.
Some of the group did not. The reason is that some booked later.


Yes they booked later... but that was mid summer. Just not as early as we
did last XMAS.

To not be able to accoomodate them with is is simply not acceptible IMO.
Not when they have 6 months notice.

--Tom

Since
there is only one traditional dining room and two for Anytime dining
the later bookers ended up on Anytime. Since more passengers request
traditional than anytime the late bookers could not be moved as the
traditional was full from those who had booked it early. The issue with
Anytime as I see it is that they should probably do either all
Traditional or all Anytime but since Traditional is more popular they
keep it, but Anytime requires more dining room space to work.

--
Charles



  #30  
Old December 3rd, 2006, 07:48 PM posted to rec.travel.cruises
Tom K
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Posts: 2,578
Default Vikings are Back


"Sue and Kevin Mullen" wrote in message
...


Charles wrote:

In article , Tom K
wrote:


Loved Bonaire. Liked Aruba. Grenada was rather different from the
typical Caribbean port. I liked it. Didn't care for St. Kitts. Went to
Trunk Bay in St. John, which I love.



Pretty much in agreement here. What is interesting about Grenada is
that unlike many other ports this island has an actual working economy
with agriculture and support industry.


Welcome home Charles!

Now that I read what Tom has to say about the food and service, I am
waiting to hear what you have to say. Do you think that Tom's food/service
issues are things going down or just anytime dining vs. traditional dining
issues.


We were in Traditional. But some of the group was in Anytime since Princess
couldn't handle them in our dining room, even though they had 6 months
notice.

Both dining rooms had the same issue with food according to group members.

--Tom

sue



 




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