Carol and I have always enjoyed traveling. In our younger days, we took many road trips, some to play tournament bridge, some to visit baseball stadiums and some just to see the country.
In those days, we cut corners by staying in cheap motels and driving 14 or more hours to save an overnight. I once booked us into the Conoco Motel, not realizing that a motel attached to a gas station might not be so wonderful.
Our first trip to Europe was in 1984. I planned the entire thing, in the pre-Internet days, flying on a charter and enlisting a friend who was a travel agent to help me look for hotels. We got a Eurailpass and traveled from London to Paris, Lyon, Strasburg, Brussels and Amsterdam. Some hotels had no elevators and no air conditioning but we saw sights all day and went to plays and concerts at night.
Over the years, we became a bit more savvy and were able to stay at slightly nicer hotels. We still took driving trips, visiting all 50 states, still driving long distances to save on overnights.
Using a "Circle Pacific Fare" we had our first Asian trip, landing in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Singapore and Bali, with a stopover in Hawaii built in so we could cross that state off of our to do list.
We had friends and acquaintances who took cruises, but we felt that cruises were for old people, families with young kids and people who couldn't or wouldn't take the time to plan their own trips. Also Carol is not a fan of boats so the thought of a watery grave deterred us.
In 2006 we finally gave in and took a luxury river cruise on the Irrawaddy in Myanmar. We actually enjoyed it very much. Of course it was a small ship, with a French chef and spacious accommodations and you could see both shores at all times. It certainly didn't make us sign up for a trans-Atlantic voyage.
As fans of PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" we began to see commercials for Viking River Cruises. I loved trying to imitate the broad British accent of the pitchman, no doubt designed to make Americans think taking a Viking cruise would make them lords and ladies!
Finally, though we are dedicated independent travelers, we booked a Viking River Cruise to Bordeaux. It looked like we could visit some places that are difficult to reach on one's own and also drink some nice wine. My brother and his wife wound up booking the same cruise and we had a generally good time, although river conditions forced the ship to stay docked in Bordeaux for several days, transforming the excursions into bus tours.
As compensation for missing out on some cruising days, Viking offered everyone a voucher for a future cruise. We enjoyed Bordeaux enough that we decided to try to find a suitable cruise on which to use it. Our theory of cruising is that we prefer to go somewhere that would be difficult to access on our own and which is not filled with wonderful restaurants and cultural activities. The plus side of cruising is that you don't have to pack and unpack more than once and you don't have tricky logistics such as infrequent flights or trains. A cruise enables you to visit someplace just for one day and then move on.
The negatives of cruising are: inflexibility, you can't decide to stay another day; other people, who can alter your experience; superficiality, as you don't spend much time in any one place so can only get an overview.
At the time we were considering how best to use our vouchers, Viking expanded into ocean cruising. Although neither of us was wildly enthusiastic at first, we began to consider a 50(!) day cruise from Istanbul to Stockholm. Although it seemed a bit ambitious for our first ocean cruise, we liked the fact that it went to ports and countries that we had not yet visited and that it would be difficult to reach. While we had been to Istanbul some years before, we had never visited other parts of Turkey and we thought it might be interesting to stop in Croatia, Montenegro and the Greek island of Santorini. The itinerary was actually four separate cruises, so only about 100 of the 900 passengers were with us for the entire 50 days.
The middle two legs were Venice to Barcelona and Barcelona to Bergen, Norway. This was a Mediterranean cruise that included Monaco, Naples and Bordeaux. During this time we were able to go to Pompeii, which wouldn't have been so easy on our own, without committing a lot of time to reach Naples and other points in Italy.
It was very interesting to meet some of the other passengers. We are not extremely social, as we are used to traveling with just the two of us, but we don't mind the odd conversation over drinks or when seated next to others at dinner. Most of the people tended to be "cruisers" who travel mainly on cruise ships, though many of them have gone independent or at least tacked on other destinations before or after the cruise. I'd have to say that we didn't meet many who have traveled the way we have, but they were mostly knowledgeable and had done at least some research into our cruise destinations.
Carol and I, together with a Swedish friend, did take an Alaska cruise on Princess and, although the scenery was spectacular, the cruise was everything we had dreaded: cramped quarters, thousands of other passengers, many dressed in matching t-shirts, swarms of people at the buffets touching things with their bare hands and everything a la carte, from drinks to excursions. There was even a charge to sit in the "quiet area" away from children.
This Viking cruise was much different. We booked a suite which was quite spacious, but visiting smaller cabins we found them not too confining. All staterooms have a balcony. There is an included excursion at each port. Dining in specialty restaurants is included as is beer and wine at meals.
The final leg of the cruise was Scandinavia and Baltic Sea, so we got to Helsinki, Tallinn and St. Petersburg in addition to Bergen, Copenhagen and Stockholm. While it was only an overview, it made us feel that we might wish to return and explore in more depth.
We did interact with a lot of crew members, who helped me learn a few words in Serbo-Croatian and Bahasa Indonesian. We also struck up a friendship with Grego, the pianist. Most evenings we would listen to him play a set or two and he often challenged us with musical games. I also spent a good bit of time at the Explorer Desk, where the Guest Services staff was very helpful.
While we were onboard, there were several pitches about Viking's first ever World Cruise, a 141 marathon with stops on 5 continents and passage through both the Panama and Suez Canals. The thought of being shut up in a ship for such a long time was not really so attractive so we didn't really consider it, despite many of the crew telling us we should sign up.
The idea of spending over four months on a ship was not something we ever thought we'd be doing, especially with over a third of the time spent cruising. We did listen to the private sales talk and were told that signing up early would bring several attractive perks. Still, it would be quite expensive and that is a LONG time to be cooped up.
Over the next couple of months, we got emails and brochures and actually began discussing the possibility of signing up. It would truly be a once in a lifetime trip and would include Australia and New Zealand, which we have previously avoided, Cuba and also Jordan, with a visit to Petra, which we have long wished to do.
After several months of going back and forth, we finally put down a deposit, which we could get back if we cancelled within a few weeks. Once we did that, we looked over the perks: a generous shipboard credit towards optional excursions, spa and shop credits, beverage package including nearly all alcohol, not just at meals, gratuities included, saving about $30/day, laundry and even round trip business class airfare! The cost was quite high, but booking through a travel agent saved another 10% so we finally decided to go all in! I also pointed out to Carol that we get 3X points on our Chase credit card so can get a lot of free travel in the future.
Each month I put more money down on our credit card, once using new cards to meet minimum spend and earn 100,000 bonus airline miles until finally the trip was paid off. We did purchase insurance which gives us the option to cancel and receive our money back in the form of Viking vouchers but we are definitely in the mood to go!
Soon it will be time to book shore excursions, spending our credits when we prefer optional excursions to the included ones, and to give ourselves a couple of days pre and post cruise. I hope it won't be like reading Proust, where having done it is more enjoyable than actually doing it.