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Viking Sky cruise review
This was a seven-night cruise titled “Turquoise Caribbean Seas” on Viking Ocean Cruises’ Viking Sky. It had scheduled port calls at Key West, Belize City, Cozumel and Progreso.
Although the ship was docked at Terminal J in Miami, Viking flew us into Fort Lauderdale airport rather than Miami airport. Upon arrival, a local agent acting on behalf of Viking led a group of us to a mini-bus for the hour-long drive to the Port of Miami. After going through the security check and getting our key card, we walked on the ship at about 12:30 PM. Since our cabin would not available until 2:00 PM, we went to the World Café (the Lido restaurant) on Deck 7 for a leisurely lunch. Shortly before 2:00 PM, an announcement on the ship’s public address system advised that all cabins were ready for occupancy. We walked down the aft staircase to our cabin on Deck Six. The ship The Viking Sky entered service in 2017 as the third in a projected series of 16 sisterships for Viking Ocean Cruises. It was preceded in service by the Viking Star and the Viking Sea. We had previously sailed on the Viking Star (see review), so we were familiar with the layout of the ship. This ship is 748 feet and 8 inches in length and has a beam or width of 94 feet and 6 inches. The ship has a gross tonnage of 47,842. There are 465 balcony cabins for a passenger capacity of 930. There are no inside or ocean-view cabins. The ship has a diesel electric propulsion system driving twin propellers. The service speed is 17 knots, with a maximum speed of 20 knots. There are 550 crew. Viking Ocean Cruises is an upper premium/luxury cruise line. The cost is somewhat higher than other cruise lines such as Carnival, Holland America, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian. However, Viking offers amenities that these lines do not. For instance, wine, beer and soft drinks are free at lunch and dinner. Bottled water is provided free of charge at every port. Every passenger has a balcony cabin. Free Wi-Fi is available to passengers. All meals are open seating. Two specialty restaurants, Manfredi’s Italian Restaurant and The Chef’s Table, for the chef’s selections of the day, are free, although advance reservations are usually required. The only restaurant on board for which there is an extra charge is The Kitchen Table. The heated pool, hot tub, steam room and cold room in The Spa are free to all. In addition, as noted in more detail below, one or more free tours are offered in each port. Most of the public rooms on the ship are located on Decks 1, 2 and 7. Passenger cabins are located on Decks 3, 4, 5 and 8, with a limited number forward on Deck 7 . At the forward end of Deck 1 is The Spa, with a heated pool with water jets where you can sit on underwater benches and an adjacent hot tub if you prefer hotter water. Five loungers are on each side of the pool available on a first come basis. There are separate locker rooms for men and women. The Spa also has a steam room and a cold room with snow in which to cool off. Aft of The Spa on the starboard side of Deck 1 are the Fitness Center, Salon and a shop selling perfume, costume jewelry, logo shirts, cameras and tech accessories. Further aft is The Living Room, the lowest level of a three-deck Atrium. On the starboard side, there are three separate areas with couches and chairs and a bar. In the middle of the Atrium is a piano and a dance floor, with a large wide staircase leading to Deck 2. On the port side of Deck 1 is the Business Manager’s Office and three other separate areas. One has three passenger service desks, replacing the purser’s desk on other ships. Adjacent to this room, there are three desks for booking shore excursions. The third area provides additional seating for passengers listening to live musical performances in the Atrium. Beyond the Atrium on Deck 1 are three alternative restaurants, Manfredi’s Italian Restaurant on the starboard side, The Chef’s Table on the port side and, between these two, The Kitchen Table. On Deck 2 at the bow is The Theater for production shows with four singers and four members of a band. Movies are also shown here. There are two alcoves on either side at the rear of The Theater which provide additional seating for shows. These alcoves can be closed off and used as individual movie screening rooms. There is a bar athwartship at the entrance to The Theater. During our cruise there were three production shows “The ABBA Songbook”, “Musical Journey-Coast to Coast” and “The Beatles Songbook”. Directly aft of The Theater are two more shops, one on the port side selling clothing and ship souvenirs and one on the starboard side selling watches and fine jewelry. Proceeding aft along a starboard side corridor you come to Torshavn, the ship’s night club, which has music and dancing at night. Beyond Torshavn is the middle level of the Atrium, where there are tables lining the railings on each side for passengers to listen to the entertainment at the base of the Atrium. On the port side of the Atrium on Deck 2 are electronic game tables, card tables, a puzzle for passengers to work on and a future cruise sales office. Immediately in front of the future cruise sales office is a large cased model of the Viking Sky. At the stern of the ship on Deck 2 is The Restaurant. The Restaurant is open for dinner from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. On each day’s menu, new selections are set forth on the right side, while favorites such as steak, salmon and chicken, are always found on the left side. The dress code at night is “elegant casual”. There are no formal nights. An outdoor promenade deck encircles the ship on Deck 2. Four laps equal one mile. There are no deck chairs along the sides of this deck, but there are several at the stern. The third level of the Atrium on Deck 3 consists of more tables and chairs adjacent to the railings on each side. At the forward end of Deck 7 is the Explorer’s Lounge. This room has two levels, each with chairs facing the sea. The second level on Deck 8 is accessed by staircases on either side of Deck 7. Each level has book cases with books available to the passengers. The upper level also has cases of maritime artifacts. On the lower level, there is a bar amidships and on the starboard side is Mamsen’s, a food counter which offers continental breakfast, light snacks and desserts. Aft of the Explorer’s Lounge is the Winter Garden, where afternoon tea, accompanied by either a pianist or a string duo, is served. Amidships on Deck 7, under a magrodome, are the Main Pool and a long hot tub with loungers all around. A large screen at the aft end is sometimes used to show movies under the stars. At the stern of Deck 7 is the World Café. This café has an open area at the stern called the Aquavit Terrace with its own bar. On this terrace there are four round towers providing heat on cool evenings. At the aft end of the Aquavit Terrace is the Infinity Pool and a small Hot Tub. A small promenade is on both sides of the World Café. On our cruise, the passengers were mostly of retirement age. * David G. Hume is past chairman of the World Ship Society PONY Branch, Mr. Hume has been on more than 80 cruises and crossings as well as numerous ship visits."
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Changes in the itinerary
As mentioned earlier, the proposed itinerary for our cruise was a stop at Key West, followed by a sea day and then stops at Belize City, Cozumel and Progreso before another sea day and arrival back in Miami. The cruise did not go as planned. You may recall that the Viking Sky had suffered an engine failure off the coast of Norway on March 23, 2019 during stormy weather. A large number of passengers were evacuated by helicopter. As it turned out, the ship was also to experience mechanical difficulties during our cruise. The first hint of such difficulties came by letter in our cabin on the day of departure. It said that due to “unfavorable weather conditions approaching the southern coast of Florida”, the port of Key West would “not be suitable for tender operations”. Accordingly, the call at Key West was cancelled and we proceeded directly to Belize. Instead of having a day in Key West and a day at sea, we had two days at sea to start our cruise. This early cancellation led me to suspect that there might be mechanical issues affecting the ship’s speed. In Belize, we anchored five miles off Belize City. Several large tenders from the city transported us between ship and shore. Viking Ocean Cruises provides one or more free tours in each port of call, as well as offering other tours at an extra charge. We had found on our previous Viking Ocean cruise that the included tours are very good. From Belize City, we elected to take an included tour to the Mayan ruins at Altun Ha. Here there are five pyramid temples, two of which are fully excavated, one of which is partially excavated and two of which are still largely covered by earth. This site is well worth a visit. After leaving Belize City, we traveled overnight to Cozumel. We were originally scheduled to be docked from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM. However, on the evening of our departure from Belize City, we received another letter in our cabin indicating that we would stay in Cozumel until 10:00 PM. It further stated that, “due to a technical issue, our maximum speed at which we can sail has been reduced” and that the ship “would be unable to achieve the required speed” between the ports of Progreso and Miami. In order to avoid arriving late in Miami and disturbing flight plans, the decision was made to cancel the call at Progreso and instead proceed to Key West, where the port call would be reinstated. As it happens, the port call at Progreso and the optional tour to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza, were the sole reasons we had booked this cruise. Although the other ports were enjoyable, we would not have taken the cruise if we knew in advance that it would not go to Progreso. By an unfortunate coincidence, a similar thing had happened on our cruise on the Viking Sky. On that occasion, a cruise from Rome to Barcelona, the scheduled ports calls at La Goulette in Tunisia and Algiers in Algeria were cancelled prior to the cruise. Here again, we would not have booked the cruise if we knew those ports were to be cancelled, since we had been to all of the other ports, as well as the ports that were substituted for the cancelled ports. Our stay in Cozumel was pleasant. We were able to dock in port and walk off the ship. We again had elected to take an included tour, this time to the Mayan ruins at San Gervasio. While these ruins were not as impressive as those at Altun Ha, we learned more about the Mayan empire from an excellent local guide. As we had noticed earlier during our cruise, the ship had never sailed at its service speed of 17 knots. During our day at sea after leaving Cozumel, the ship did not go faster than about 12 knots. When we arrived at Key West for our reinstated port call, we were able to dock at the Navy pier. Norwegian Sky was docked close to Mallory Square. Viking provided a shuttle bus throughout the day to take passengers to and from the ship to the corner of Front and Duval Streets. Since we had been to Key West several times recently, we decided to just walk around town rather than re-visit the tourist sites. While in Key West, we noticed that several engineer/technicians from Fincantieri, the builder of the ship, had come on board and were doing inspections. I can only hope they were able to diagnose and address the engine problems. We finished our cruise on schedule in Miami and then boarded a bus to Fort Lauderdale and the flight home. No explanation was given why we were flown into and out of Fort Lauderdale instead of Miami, but the drive between the two cities took only an hour, so it was not a hardship. (All photos on this page courtesy of D. Hume).
Above: A balcony stateroom. Below: The Winter Garden Above: The midships pool area with the magradome open.
Below: The Infiniti pool. Above: A portion of the Living Room.
Below: The Theater. |
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Cruise ship review - - Viking Ocean Cruises - - Viking Sky - - 2020