Norwegian Epic – jane sadek

TRAVEL THERE: RESEARCHING CESKY KRUMLOV CASTLE

Our day in Cesky Krumlov was one I will long cherish, but Museum Girl was mad at me. My faithful followers know me and they know that as much as I love to eat, I’m willing to miss a meal in order to visit a good museum (or castle or palace or abbey etc.) I live for museums. I have this ever-growing collection of historical and artistic items in my head and one of my main goals in life is to expand it. On this particular day, I abandoned my prime directive and I’m glad I did, but Museum Girl is still a little miffed.

An Absence of Good Intell

Last week I complimented Viking on their ground game, but I was a little challenged by them on the planning end of things. Because they know what they’re doing, they don’t spell everything out. They know things happen when you’re traveling and they don’t want to spend their days making apologies to disgruntled passengers.

This lack of information is probably a blessing to most passengers. My husband was completely content with the absence of logistical information, but I was a crazy person. I’m driven by that museum in my head and I carefully curate what I’m going to see. On this trip, to a certain extent, I had to just let go and follow the guy with red Viking sign.

So in Budapest, I had no clue what spa I’d be visiting until I got on the bus with my fluffy towel. I’m convinced I was stuck on the castle AND walking tour in Bratislava because the walking-only tour was full. (Yes, I should have spoken up, but didn’t.) As I planned for my day in Vienna, discovering where we would dock was like searching for the Holy Grail and even when I got someone to tell me where they usually docked, they were careful to warn me things could change.

Finding out what we’d see of the castle in Krumlov was pretty much the same sort of thing. The UNESCO website was great, but how Viking plugged into that opportunity was like diving down a black hole.

Kudos to Norwegian

Since I pretty much hated everything about my cruise on Norwegian Epic (except going with my bestie and the day we spent with Sunny Liston, which is still one of my best days EVER) I’m loathe to admit it, but I loved their website. Well I didn’t love everything about it, because I had some navigation issues, but they did have a section of the site devoted to passengers sharing travel tips. (Yes, I read them all.)

Norwegian disclaims in large letters these are experiences of past cruisers and things change on every cruise, but I gained great comfort from knowing what usually happened. I’m well aware things can change (did I hear someone say Josay?), but I like to be ready for what is probably going to happen. The internet allowed me to research everything about a destination, but Viking kept the details, of exactly what they’re going to show you, pretty close to their vest.

Come back next week and we’ll stroll through the castle grounds.

TRAVEL THERE: WHAT I LIKE AND DISLIKE ABOUT DINING AT SEA

Food is one of the biggies on a cruise and Viking has it down pat. You’d have a hard time feeling hungry at anytime on board, yet it’s not the obscene food orgy of ocean cruising.

Cruise Food I Have Loved

My favorite food I’ve ever had on any boat was a dessert on the Carnival Ecstasy. I ordered it the first night, because it was chocolate. I ordered it the rest of the nights, because it was the best thing I had ever put in my mouth. The name of the chocolate creation, which I cannot for the life of me remember, did it no justice. I have no picture of it, but will never forget it. The rest of the food on the boat was good, sometimes really good, but it wasn’t the best overall I ever had.

The best dining experience on any ship was on Royal Caribbean’s Monarch of the Seas. I was traveling with all the people I loved best, so that may have enhanced the enjoyment. This was old fashioned cruising where you really dressed up for dinner and had assigned seating at a specific time in a single venue. Every meal, every night was a unique and wonderful experience. We also had the best waiter I have ever had aboard any ship any where.

What You Won’t Suffer on a Viking River Cruise

I am not a fan of multiple restaurants on a cruise. I don’t want to make reservations. I don’t even want to have to make a decision about which restaurant I’m going to choose. I don’t want to pay a premium. I like it the way Viking had it. They just fed me.

On our “Free-styling” Norwegian cruise a few years ago, my husband felt like the only style unavailable was the one we wanted – particularly when it came to breakfast. Breakfast is his favorite meal. He loves to linger over the menu and the meal. The only sit-down breakfast service on that cruise was quite early in the morning and on a cruise, Bill doesn’t do anything early in the morning. On top of that he had to navigate the huge buffet, when all he really wanted was for someone to bring him exactly what he wanted for breakfast and he wanted it piping hot. Was it a lovely breakfast buffet? Yes, but he didn’t want a breakfast buffet. Viking solves all of this.

Another of our pet peeves with Ocean Cruising has been the battle of the bottle. We like wine with dinner. While we love a particularly good wine, we’re perfectly happy with a decent wine. On-board various ships we’ve ordered by the glass, ordered by the bottle and pre-ordered a selection of wines. Either way we’ve done it we’ve felt the ouch of the price, because we know we can get a perfectly good wine at Trader Joe’s for around $10 a bottle and it bothers us to pay more for less. To make things more interesting Bill loves red and thanks to my sinuses I prefer to drink white. Viking made wine with dinner a breeze for the same price of a breeze.

And speaking of bottles, even getting a glass of water on your average cruise ship is a hassle. They’ll sell you a soft drink package, they’ll tempt you with fancy cocktails and they’ll charge you for a bottle of anything – even water, but try whetting your thirst for free. It’s not easy. Viking completely abandoned that business model. There were bottles of free water all over the place and a dispenser for bubbly and still water at the coffee station.

On most cruises I sort of feel like the emPHAsis is on the wrong sylLAble, as my mother used to say. There’s entirely too much attention paid to shoving food down your mouth. It takes a page or two of the daily newspaper to explain all the food choices and then if all else fails, they will deliver food to your stateroom 24 hours a day. I had all I could eat and more on Viking, but I didn’t have to make a career of managing my food choices.

So now that we have discussed cruise food in general, next week I’ll introduce you to the way Viking does food.

Tag: Norwegian Epic

Chasing Castle Intell

The Question of Food When Cruising

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