Dad has always dreamed of seeing Niagara Falls so when I saw that Viking Cruises' new expedition ships were sailing Niagara and the Great Lakes themed itineraries, I thought it was the best way to appease everyone. What is unique about the expedition ships, named Polaris and Octantis, is that they are made for cruising in the most extreme conditions like the Arctic and Antarctic. When the weather is not fit to sail in those regions, the ships sail regions like the Great Lakes. While most all of Viking's ships can sail in the smaller waterways leading to the Great Lakes whereas mainstream ocean liners can not, what is different about these two ships is that you won't find water slides, flashy production shows, or a casino onboard. Instead, you'll find submarines, kayaks, zodiacs, and a science lab. Instead of guest entertainers, the theater is used for lectures, talks, and daily briefings by the expedition team members. The expedition team members are similar to a cruise director and their staff on an ocean liner except they are leading nature talks and educational history lectures instead of trivia and bingo games.
So what is the suite life like on an expedition ship? We booked a Nordic Junior Suite, the third largest cabin and the second largest cabin that still allows for the beds to be split. Other than more space in general, the bulk of what you get in perks is minimal but beneficial. Our cabin category included complimentary laundry, free use of the mini bar contents replenished daily, earlier embarkation and stateroom access, and an earlier time for port excursions, spa appointments, and dinner reservations to be booked online pre-cruise.
Our cabin was #4023 and was centrally located to many frequently visited spaces on board. The cabin was only two doors forward from the midship elevators. We had a running joke much of the week that the way to make an elevator come faster was to push the button and then one of us started walking to push the button for the other set of elevators. That other person would make about 3 steps and bing, the original elevator shows up! These elevators in general were some of the fastest I've ever had on a ship but I guess it helps when your passenger load is more like 1/4th of the crowds on a mainstream cruise ship. Although, the one that was second in from our cabin hallway seemed to have a mind of its own. We'd press up, it would go down. We'd hop in and choose our deck only for the doors to never close.
The decor of these ships has a lot of attention to detail. Not only with the educational and nature references everywhere but also lots of tactile features like these sorted colored pebbles underneath the stairs. This ship may be adults only but I couldn't silence my inner child's desire to run my fingers through the pebbles. It was like a zen rock garden meets fidget spinner.
These little public alcove spaces with floor to ceiling windows just off the stairwell on each side was like a hidden gem. Those chairs are definitely angled in such a way that you can't help but nod off. Or maybe it's because you will have a hard time getting back up again so you just give up and sleep there instead.
I loved the frequent signage in the hallways. It really helped when we'd wander for a while and wonder whether we passed our destination yet.
Elevator lobby signs:
As you head into a corridor:
Heading down the hallway leading to a stretch of cabins:
We soon got the hang of recognizing little features as soon as we stepped off the elevator to indicate which way to turn to head to our cabin. After excursions it was nice to only have to walk from the elevator lobby and past one other cabin before reaching ours.
Each cabin had a lit up room number display where our steward would leave little notices when we hadn't gotten up yet in the morning. Our booking was marked for Dad's aversion to seafood so each morning, our steward put the menu for our reserved dinner location in that display. We never got up early enough or had the time to notice it on our way to a morning tour but the printed menu requires the passenger to call or visit guest services by 9AM to make their choices or requests for something to be altered for that night's dinner. We also were asked by our waiters at dinner if we had any food allergies.
At the bottom of this cabin number display is a little doorbell with a lighted circle around it. If you have the Do Not Disturb set, that light will turn from blue to red. No little magnets or hanging placards to use.
This ship does use traditional cruise cards but reads the chip in your card simply by holding it up against the sensor on your door. Unfortunately, it won't read it through your crossbody purse so you will have to fish the card out no matter how much gear or snacks you're trying to bring back to the cabin. The sensor above the handle will turn green and sound a little click to show the door has been unlocked.
Inside the room, there is also a deadbolt lock to turn and a peephole. We learned a few days in that the peephole is the perfect height to see whether pushing the Do Not Disturb button was active without having to throw open the door and flash your fellow passengers.
As every ship cabin has, the safety information and your muster station location are displayed on the inside of the cabin door. You enter into this little hallway with the bathroom on your left (as you're facing the door such as the picture below) and two sliding closet doors on your right. There are motion activated lights inside the closet doors. The sliding closet doors did have a tendency to slide back and forth when it was rockier. The slamming sound took us by surprise until we got used to it.
We often found ourselves fiddling with the temperature buttons on this console by the door. Most of the time we'd be shivering from how cold the room felt. Pushing the "more filled in thermometer" icons seemed to help but then we'd find the room cold again later. While composing this post, I learned from a current cruiser that the cabins have motion sensors. When we'd leave the cabin for an extended period of time, it would revert back to the default temperature setting.
The hanging rod in these first closets by the door had a good length for hanging shirts and folded over pants. I ended up using half of the shelves at the bottom to hold shoes and my folded casual clothes that I would normally stow in a drawer. If you plan on bringing long dresses, they would be better stored in the other closet by the bed.
There is shelf space above this small touchpad code safe that is built into the wardrobe. I wouldn't expect to fit anything bigger than your phone in electronics inside the safe. There are four shallow drawers underneath the safe.
The one remaining part of this first wardrobe features an open counterspace with a coffee machine and provided coffee pods. We don't drink coffee but the cabin description on Viking's website does confirm that these pods will be replenished as used. Above the coffee maker is a cabinet with two shelves. A nice place to store random items or a tiny stowaway.
The Nespresso coffee machine, provided pods, and some little cups of half and half.
From all outside appearances, the space underneath the coffee maker looks like two small drawers and one large drawer. The top drawer is where you find real china coffee cups, saucers, and small stirring spoons. The small section next to the dishes is where our included "snacks" were stored.
The snacks consisted of two Melkesjokqlade chocolates and two small bags of roasted almonds with raisins and cranberries. These were considered part of the included minibar and replenished daily if used. Dad gives the chocolates two thumbs up!
Second drawer holds a wooden shoeshine brush and shoehorn. Also found here is the form to fill out with how many of each item you're putting in for laundry service. We confirmed with our steward that laundry was included for our cabin category and each time it came back by the evening the next day. I believe one time we noticed a charge appear on our onboard account but it dropped off later that day.
The large bottom "drawer" is actually a rectangular fridge. It has specific slot inserts for each product so it doesn't leave much space for you to add anything of your own. We can confirm however that our boxes of fudge from Mackinac Island nestled nicely on top of the soda cans and stayed cold. The only thing pictured here that does not get replenished one for one each day is the large bottle of champagne/wine. The standard contents are tonic water, ginger ale, regular coke, diet coke, canned beer, and airplane size bottles of liquor. Once or twice our steward replenished our used can of soda with a bottle of the same soda. We never bothered to ask whether we can choose to swap out items to get all diet coke. We went into this cruise a bit concerned about not having the Silver Spirits beverage package because it means we couldn't get a soda whenever we wanted around the ship. Like our past river cruise experience with ACL, Viking allows you to have as much soda, beer, or wine during lunch and dinner as you wish. Between that and having a can out of the fridge with a snack we brought back to the cabin, we never felt like we missed having a drink package. Only downside is that with only two of each item, Dad would often settle for drinking a beer or a regular coke to ensure that there was always one diet coke left available for me that day.
Turning our focus back to the bathroom - as with all our other cruises, the lightswitch for the bathroom is outside the door. There is also a running light underneath where the light switch is pictured that is turned on when the cabin is otherwise dark. It is a little too bright even for me as its little glow would make the entryway look like someone left an overhead light on. Another thing to note is that unlike most other cruise lines, the threshold into this bathroom was not a large step up. Caught myself instinctively stepping high going in and out. As expected, there is a deadbolt lock once inside the bathroom.
On the inside of the bathroom door is a couple hooks where I kept my nightgown.
I'm not sure I'd try and have more than one person getting ready in here at one time. It isn't so cramped that you have to shimmy sideways between the sinks and the shower but trying to both stand at the sinks would be cramped. On the plus side, a decent amount of storage with shelves along each side, a countertop next to each sink, and a fairly deep drawer underneath each countertop. I could have easily stowed my bulky travel kit inside one of the drawers. The shelf by the shower half of the bathroom holds the larger towels and washcloths. The other shelf by the toilet holds extra toilet paper and sanitary napkin disposal bags. Viking provides nice quality toothbrush holder, soap dish, drink cups, and tissue box holder for use in the bathroom. Don't think about adding any extra weight to your luggage for the trip home though unless you're willing to be charged a good chunk of your next cruise fare. Part of the paperwork left in every cabin is the list of prices they will charge your account if they find any in cabin use or decor missing after you've finished the cruise. A trash can is tucked away inside the cabinet under the sink.
Two things that I found troublesome about this bathroom involve the sinks and the floor. And I'm not talking about Dad's tendency to toss his used towels into my sink as he got ready for the day. The position of the faucet handles - they are operated by pulling out at an angle. You know my accident prone self was constantly banging my hand into the handle while washing under the water. Second thing is a big selling point for Viking cabins - the heated bathroom floor. I have watched video tours and played button roulette but never did we manage to get the floor to feel heated. The video tours helped us figure out the button that needs to be on just inside the shelving by my travel kit in the above picture. We pushed that button to make the light next to it come on but nothing felt different when we returned later.
The shower stall itself is quite spacious. I appreciated the little shelf ledge for holding products. However, that little circle is a hole cut straight through the glass to serve as the door handle. Granted, you'd probably have to be doing some shower acrobatics to direct the water at such an angle but it reminded me of trying to keep water in a bucket that has a hole in it.
There are no floor markings for safety and the only grab bar inside is the horizontal one on the back wall. Our shower took a little bit extra time to drain making the suds collect on the floor of the shower occasionally. Possibly a design issue with the little drain situated in the back corner forcing the water to navigate up and back behind where it was coming out of the showerhead. I liked that the showerhead connected to a handheld wand but it made the whole showerhead have the same reduced pressure as a wand. I liked that you could move the showerhead up and down on that rod to a desired height but at 5'7" I had to duck slightly to rinse out my shampoo. The water didn't get as hot as I would have liked but wasn't cold either. One other improvement I'd suggest is something like a small soap dish or caddy mounted by the showerhead side of the shower. It was tedious having to step out of the water to grab the product bottles from the shelf. There is a clothesline mounted in the shower stall but with the other of Viking's unique features back in the main cabin area, this clothesline wasn't needed.
I liked how the toilet space wasn't angled or wedged in the corner. There was a more decent amount of space for us fluffy folk when sitting. I did find that I had to move the toilet paper roll to sit on top of the holder as my knee would bump it. One item I found unusual here is the safety grab bar mounted vertically above the toilet. I can picture a male passenger perhaps using it while using the facilities but how does that do anything for us ladies? Perhaps I'm just not seeing the obvious rationale for the bar's placement. Or is it just that Viking bought chrome by the yard and wanted to use every inch?
Not to be outdone by the toasty floor heating your toes, your cabin bathroom also comes with a heated towel rack. It gets turned on by the little knob in the bottom right corner. The rack normally only has the two hand towels pictured. The slightly bigger towel shown above is one we hung up there after using to wash up at the sink.
The supplied toiletries in our suite cabin were of the Freya brand - body lotion, conditioner, shampoo, and body wash. The two small boxes below it are a vanity set and a shower cap. Pictured below them is the drinking cups, toothbrush holder, and tissue box cover that Viking will charge you for bringing home as a souvenir. I have slightly long (mid back) mildly wavy hair. I normally have no problem using provided shampoos on trips but this Freya shampoo left my hair a tangled struggle of a mess to comb out. I'm glad I had a small sample bottle of regular shampoo still left in my travel kit. My hair was much easier to comb out once I switched to the shampoo I brought.
Back out into the main cabin area - right after the counter with the coffee maker, there is a full length mirror and trash can. The top left drawer pictured below is where you'll find the hairdryer. Decent drawer storage in this dresser for folded clothes. We had a tendency to spend our days going from walking shoes to dress shoes for dinner so would often slip from one to the other leaving them tucked under the dresser. Otherwise I'd normally have them stowed away in a cabinet or closet shelf. This large flat screen interactive TV got lots of use. Yes, we spent some down time watching on demand programming. It was also great for standards like viewing your account, the bridge cam, and a voyage traveled map. One of the nice things about Viking is that they hold daily briefings in the theater about the next day's port. You can either attend in person or watch it livestreamed to your cabin TV. We took advantage of that option a few times when the briefings were held just before our dinner reservations. I'm sure the crew and fellow passengers appreciated us choosing to watch the livestream rather than dress for dinner in the theater. You could also watch Viking TV produced programs on demand as well as the various informative lectures put on by the expedition team members in the theater.
Like Virgin Voyages, Viking provides a carafe of water and drinking glasses in the cabin that gets refilled during routine cleanings by your steward. While we had no ice bucket, always having this water on hand got tons of use by us. One major plus I thank Viking for is the fact that they provide free bottled water to everyone heading off the ship to explore in port. They keep a supply as you walk in/out of meeting points for ship tours (usually one of the restaurants for us) and right at security so you can get some even if you're not on a ship tour. These bottles are usually chilled. As someone who drinks a lot of water, it was so nice to not have to buy a $5 bottle from a gift shop out of desperation.
Standing with my back to the TV, you have both the second closet with sliding doors (left) and the famous drying cabinet. Both of these have lights that sense when the door is open. This second closet has some built in shelves but the bulk of the space is floor to ceiling hanging space. In here is where you'll find provided robes, slippers, and an umbrella.
Inside the drying closet, there is a small button on the left wall that needs to be pressed to activate the closet's drying system. There are rounded hooks at the bottom for slipping on any wet shoes or boots as one would more likely get on one of the ship's Antarctica sailings. The clothes hangers are for jackets and other clothing items that may get wet. The black life jacket style items hanging on the wall is the provided life jacket you are required to wear while riding on the speedboat or other small watercraft. They will help you put it on when you arrive for the activity.
We had the beds separated in the typical fashion of moving one to the far side and putting the nightstand in between. If the beds were together, each side would have a nightstand. Either arrangement requires a bit of a shimmy shuffle to go between the right bed and the closet. We didn't have enough stuff to hang to require using that closet. Each bed has a top sheet and weighted duvet on top with two standard pillows. During the day, the beds also had throw blankets folded over the bottom.
Each nightstand had a cubby space, a small drawer, a countertop space, and a European outlet, a US outlet, and a USB port. The remainder of that row of outlets is light switches so you can control the room's lights from bed as well.
Above each bed is a mounted light sconce that can be turned on/off individually by a button underneath. The circles directly above the pillows were bendable reading lights. You can push in the discs to make them shine out or shine down on you in bed. The small button at the bottom turns them on and off.
Next to my bed on the left was the immobile bookshelf partition that sectioned off the bedroom space from the living room space. This is where a good amount of nature/educational books were provided as well as the binoculars for your use on board. Great for stowing bedside items but not so great when I was stuck having only one path easily out of bed.
I lost count how many times I bumped into that bench at the foot of my bed. Great for sitting to put shoes on. It wouldn't have been so much in the way had we kept the beds together since the bench is meant to sit in the middle of the big bed.
There is also small storage hidden inside the bookcase. I used the unopened drawer in this picture as a place to store dirty laundry. Probably chuckled at my own joke about designating a drawer for my dirty drawers way too often during the week.
On this bookshelf is where we found the door hanger for ordering room service breakfast. Nice to see some more hot options than your average cruise ship room service continental breakfast. Also appreciated the options for soy or almond milk and gluten free bread. First time seeing where you have to specify that you want the bread choice toasted or not. And of course it wouldn't be a European founded cruise line if it didn't have seven kinds of hot tea in the beverage choices.
As you move from "bedroom" space to "living room" space, the floor goes from a thin carpet to tile. Opposite the small leather sectional that buts up against the bookshelf is a desk area. In addition to the mirror above, the middle of the desk lifts up to reveal a lighted vanity mirror.
Also on this desk is where you will find more outlets and the charging box for your QuietVox headsets. Make sure you return the headsets to the charging box when you return from each tour. Not only to keep from losing them and getting charged, but also to make sure they are fully charged for the next day's tour. Once fitted in the slot, a yellow light will appear and eventually turn green when the device is fully charged. Also on the desk is a nice pen and paper holder. While they don't mind you taking the pen and paper, they will charge you for taking the container, the headsets, or the charging box. I liked how our cabin phone displayed the name and either location or cabin number of the caller. When our new friends from the pre-cruise extension would call to organize having dinner together, it would come up as "Mary LastName" Cabin 22222. First time I've seen cruise ship caller ID.
A few things to note about these QuietVox headsets used on board - They are designed with one ear bud to fit in your left ear only. I learned that through trial and error before I realized they actually have a little L for left printed on the side of the earbud. One of our group asked about using it with their behind the ear hearing aids and the tour guide suggested she remove the hearing aid and only use the box. If your tour requires the use of the headsets, it will say QV next to your tour in the printed schedule or the schedule on the app. Viking numbers their tour groups based on amount of people going on the same tour. So there could be 200 people on the same tour but they split you up by a numbered busload. Each bus gets their own tour guide so you only have to compete with 30 of your new closest friends to see what the guide is talking about. This assigned number is important to remember. It directs you to which time and place to meet for the tour and they will ask you for the number upon entry to be sure you're in the right place. The number is also the number printed on a sign in the window of your bus so make sure you always report back to the right bus number. And lastly, the tour group number also serves as the channel you set that QV to in order to hear your group's guide.
Left sitting in the cabin was a nice grey tote bag with some brochures and magazines to peruse. These too are only an option to take home if you desire to return home with a heavier suitcase and a lighter wallet.
The living room space at a glance - the throw pillows are moveable, the back cushions are not. The blue folded blankets pictured are the Traditional Norwegian Marius-weave throw blankets that sit on our bed during the day. That brown folder on the table holds a good bit of informational papers like deck plans, a regular room service menu, and the price list for what each item will cost you if you take it home.
Tucked away almost out of sight as the sheer curtain covers it is a set of outlets on the wall next to the couch. These are at a great height if you want to be charging your device while relaxing on the couch or plug in a computer sitting on the table.
More at eye level above these plugs is another switch for the main lights as well as a control panel for what Viking calls your Private Nordic Balcony. This must be where Celebrity Cruises got the idea for their new Infinite Balcony cabins.
It's a floor to ceiling clear glass window that can be partially lowered at the top to enjoy the fresh air. Unfortunately for someone like me who enjoys having the natural light to see how far we've sailed during the night, Viking insists that the shade be closed at night to protect wildlife who might be attracted to our cabin lights and run into the glass. Plus the shade being raised or lowered always caused a good deal of noise so it was best to wait until all cabin occupants were awake for the day.
While I missed having a regular balcony I could step out onto and shut out noises like the loud action movie Dad chose to watch, I felt like I got to see just as much as I would have being outside on the balcony. I can see how this setup would be very advantageous for the ship's typical itineraries in Antarctica. Enjoy all the views without freezing your penguins off!
