While our London, Paris, & D-Day Viking river cruise itinerary did not start on the ship, I always like to start my reviews with a photo walk-through of the cruise cabin as that is the most requested part of my report. Even more than a food review if you can believe it!
The Viking Radgrid, and yes spell check likes that name as much as my dad hates to try and pronounce it correctly, is one of Viking Cruises' longships with 168 guests and 46 crew members. Most of the onboard activity occurs between the 2nd (known as the Middle Deck) and the 3rd decks (known as the Upper Deck.) The Middle Deck houses Veranda Cabins on the starboard side and French Balcony cabins on the port side. Public areas on the 2nd deck are Guest Services, the small onboard shop, Cruise Director Mia's desk, and the sole restaurant on board.
The third deck houses veranda cabins on the starboard side but a mix of Veranda Suite and French Balcony on the port side. The two biggest cabins, known as Explorer's Suites, are at the aft of the ship where the hallway breaks off into small wings with one cabin on each side of the ship. The rest of the deck is made up by public areas such as the two computer station sized Internet Cafe, the library where you will also find some board games as well as books, the lounge where port talks, musical entertainment, and happy hour is held, and lastly the Aquavit Terrace which hosts some indoor and outdoor tables for overflow or later dining. If you prefer to sleep in on your lazy morning and don't want to rush to breakfast in the restaurant before 9AM, visit the Aquavit Terrace which has a similar menu with table service but not as much of a buffet. Service there runs until 11AM. There is only one seating for each meal time so if you miss it, you'll be making your meal out of the cookies left by the coffee stations. Or out of a couple mints from the roll you purchased during a quick "technical stop" (Viking tour guide speak for rest stop potty break) during the first tour.
You will definitely work off those cruise calories heading back and forth to your cabin each day. This is looking back at the long hallway between our cabin and the library.
Above: Right before the cabin hallway splits off into the two wings. Below: The wing leading to the port side Explorer's Suite and the public door leading to stairs leading up to the Sun Deck. There is a walking track above on the Sun Deck but they told everyone in the Welcome Aboard talk on day one that the walking track was closed from 10PM to 8AM "so as not to anger the deck 3 passengers."
Below: Looking down toward our suite and the starboard door to the Sun Deck.
Our front door to Cabin #337, the Amundsen Explorer's Suite.
Let's use our ship card, read by the door scanner, to see what it's like inside! New to us on this cruise also is the honor system of unmanned card scanners at the ship entrances where passengers are on their own to scan themselves in and out. No making sure your face matches what shows on screen either like ocean cruises. Just a message that says your name and either Have A Good Day Out or Welcome Back Home!
Nice big entry way with a closet on one side and bathroom on the other.
This full length mirror on the back of the entry door keeps catching me off guard because from across the cabin, it looks like the door has been left open. Because of its placement, there is no peephole. The do not disturb sign hangs on a hook mounted in the mirror when not in use.
While we've never had to use this keycard holder to operate the lights like on some ships, the bottom panel listing several light options is positioned in each section of the suite. We still can't quite understand how to work them despite being shown by the hotel manager (showed us to our suite on day 1) and the steward. We are making do with just the all on or all off options.
The closet has two sliding wooden doors with a motion activated light. One side has hanging space and the other has shelving where you'll find laundry bags, a shoe horn, and a basket for submitting your shoes to be shined. Both laundry and shoe shining are complimentary with this suite. Given that we spent 4 days in a London hotel first, we sent off laundry right away. It has been very consistent getting back hours later. Note about the laundry - they don't pre-treat any stains so if you're messy like me, you might want to get a travel stain spray. Got a few things back that I'll probably replace once I'm home.
There are pants hangers with clips and regular wooden hangers. If you need more, your steward will be happy to bring you more. There is plenty of room for hanging long and tall items. Dress code is not strict and with open seating, not even manned so don't feel the need to bring your Sunday best unless you want to.
In case you aren't in a suite, here's what laundry service would cost per item:
Now on to the cabin bathroom - this also features a nesting sliding wooden door. The light switches just outside control the overhead lights and the vanity lights inside the mirror.
View of the shut door from inside the bathroom
The counter-top space is mostly taken up by the sink. There are drinking cups along the sides so it doesn't leave much room for keeping anything but single items next to the sink.
There is a small ledge underneath the sink where the trash can sits. Underneath that ledge is a nightlight that is on all the time. I switched to a layered toiletry kit that folds in on itself and pared down relying mostly on provided toiletries so thankfully my kit fits on that shelf.
On the right side of the counter-top is a razor outlet and a control knob. The control knob allows you to turn on the heated bathroom floor. This is a Viking Cruises perk that isn't exclusive to suite cabins.
On the left side of the counter-top is a toggle switch that says Window with a white circle above and a black circle below. This switch is for how much privacy you would like in your bathroom shower. When the black circle area is pressed, the glass is clear allowing you to see the scenery and in cases of multiple Viking ships docked together, your neighbor's shower time and vice versa. If you're feeling like an exhibitionist, have at it but if you'd rather not share and be shared with, you can flip the switch and a gas is released to fill the space inside the glass panes obscuring the view in and out.
Obscured view:
Clear view:
The width of the shower is quite substantial spanning from the front wall to the bedroom wall. It is a glass door that opens inward so the most water on the main floor you'll get is from your own steps post shower. There is a little lip to step into the shower. The floor is the same wood grain as the rest of the bathroom and feels very stable when wet.
There are a couple "snack shelves" that fit a lot of product bottles. There is a temperature knob and a separate on/off knob that work great as loofah holders. The shower head is height and angle adjustable but I couldn't seem to get it to be handheld. We have a wooden stool inside the shower that Dad found helpful, stable, and comfortable to use as needed during his showers. I don't know whether that comes standard or by request.
There is a clothesline that can be pulled across to hang things to dry.
The space opposite the sink and mirror offer the most storage space for the bathroom. The hand towels are hung above the toilet so it's an easy turn back to dry after washing. Though I don't miss our London hotel bathroom sink that would make loud sounds as water went down the drain. I started likening it to getting applauded whenever we'd wash our hands.
The folded towels above the hand towels are of nice quality and a fairly decent size for fluffy travelers like myself. It felt more like hospital gown draft than true back-draft mooning when using them after a shower. The shelf/cupboard structure has saved us by giving space to put our daily used toiletries so I rarely have to open my travel kit on the small counter.
Viking uses the Freyja brand of toiletries and we have been provided with shampoo, conditioner, body wash, bar soap, and lotion, which was replenished as used up. Unfortunately, it doesn't like my shorter hair any more than it liked my longer hair last Viking cruise. Even with conditioner which I rarely use at home, I had clean but tangled hair after using it. Dad has no problem with the shampoo results so perhaps it's only an issue for female hair or my fine to medium wavy hair texture.
The only hanging space in the bathroom is these two hooks in the little 4 inch wall between the shelving unit and the sliding door. Since the door slides out of sight, it can not hold any hooks for hanging items. I love traveling with my thin wraparound hair towel. Takes up barely any space in the suitcase and works so much better than a hotel hand towel.
Time to finally get out of the bathroom. Next we head down a passageway with the wall to the bedroom space on your left and the array of counter-top and storage items on your right.
Tucked in between the cabinetry and the closet is a luggage rack. We just laid our suitcases out on the floor long enough to empty them.
This area of built in furniture looks elegant and hides a few key items.
Our cabin comes with a fruit plate delivery. First couple of days was green apples we didn't bother to eat and for the last few days it's been these mildly browning pears. Seems to be a lot of apples, pears, and tangerines on offer at meal times. The fruit plate I ordered as dessert one day did feature melon. I'm pretty sure Viking bought stock in pistachios because a lot of dishes have crumbled pistachios dusted as garnish on top.
We have an ice bucket in our room, something Viking Mississippi did not include, but it's never been filled. I did find a machine in the hallway that seems to be self serve so I guess we're supposed to get our own. We've had no issue with using cold drinks from the mini fridge so I haven't bothered to ask. Our room came with a champagne bottle and a bottle of wine but we haven't touched either. The provided "water bottles" replenished in every cabin each day have been these reusable glass carafes closed with a cork stopper. 99% of them have been sealed with plastic wrap when replenished and it wasn't until 2/3rds of the way through the cruise did I realize they have a little pull tab around the back of the bottle so you're not having to cut and pick apart the plastic wrap.
The little golden strip just below the lip of the bottle on the back is a pull tab.
We have the use of a Nespresso coffee machine just in case we can't wait until getting to the restaurant or one of the several self serve coffee corners around the ship. Non refrigerated creamers, sweeteners, and honey is also provided in the cabin and replenished as used. We haven't used any of it.
The first phone in the cabin and the coffee maker take up most of the plug situation on the counter.
Now you might be asking - what about a room safe like you find in the closet of most cruise cabins? Here's the first secret hidden away. If you open the top drawer closest to the closet, you'll find the large keypad controlled safe. It takes up the whole drawer and is large enough to hold money, passports, cell phones, and small electronics. Guest Services has a code that overrides the one you set on day 1 in case you forget yours and need to reset it.
Second secret this furniture is hiding is a pull out cabinet/drawer second from the left end. Inside is a built in caddy to hold wine and champagne glasses. We finally had to ask our steward to find us a bottle opener (all the sodas are glass bottles that need an opener), and he revealed the other hidden feature with this drawer. Once you open the drawer to reveal the glasses, you can slide out a top level that holds coffee cups, the sweeteners, and the bottle opener.
There's an assortment of green tea, peppermint tea, and English breakfast tea among others. For sweeteners, there is sweet n low, Splenda, regular sugar, and that natural sugar as well as honey sticks.
The last hidden surprise is in the left hand cabinet underneath the coffee maker. The cabinet hides a mini fridge which you can choose to stock however you like with what they have on hand. You could fit one bottle of bubbly in addition to several of the tall glass bottles of coke products. All have been super cold when freshly pulled out of the fridge. Works great for storing medication needing chilling.
We chose to swap out for diet coke and sprite. The standard fill also includes small bottles of wine behind that champagne bottle and tonic water behind the plastic water bottle we brought with us from the hotel.
Rounding out this section is a large trash can that has come in handy for leaving glass soda bottles, caps, and no longer needed papers.
Tune in for the next installment where we walk through the living room, bedroom, and balcony spaces of the suite.
