This tour really left me feeling like going over (in) a barrel

While you won't find snorkeling, catamaran rides, and beach days on a Great Lakes itinerary, you will find a lot of interesting tours to visit local landmarks. Before the cruise, according to your cabin type, you will have access to book tours a certain number of days out from the cruise. There is at least one tour in each port that is "Included" but you still need to sign up for it so they have the right number of buses arranged. They will check your name off a list as you board the bus for each tour. Depending on the itinerary times, it may not be possible to book two tours in the same port but there is usually time to do a tour and explore before or later on your own if you desire. 

In the next day's issue of Viking Daily that is delivered in the evenings to your cabin, you will find a page in the middle with a chart that looks like this:

There are no physical tour tickets to hand the tour provider or shore excursion rep like most ocean cruise lines provide. The tours you booked before the cruise, (and possibly onboard at guest services if space allows) will be listed in your daily schedule in the Viking Cruises app. The app will show where you are to meet and when for your tour along with your group number as well as the matching channel on your cabin TV. This chart in the daily program will also give you the information about when and where to meet but you would need to know your tour group number. In the case above, the Niagara Up Close tour was so popular it had four tour groups. The tour group number was also the bus number you were to use. Crew will be stationed outside each meeting place asking to verify your tour number to be sure you're heading into the right meeting place. In tours where the QuietVox is required, a "QV" will be listed next to the tour entry. During those tours, they will have you turn your QuietVox to the channel number that matches your tour group number. 

Our first port stop was Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada but every tour included Niagara Falls. The two included tour options were called Niagara Discovery (labeled easy with a duration of four hours) and Niagara Up Close (labeled moderate with a duration of four hours). A good chunk of that time frame is having to ride the bus to and from Niagara Falls. The basic difference between the two is whether or not you want to ride on the boat that goes under the falls. Niagara Discovery is a scenic drive (a.k.a. the drive back and forth) and a walk along the top of Niagara Falls. 

Niagara Up Close, the tour we chose, means you weave your way through a long line to a gondola system that carries you down to the dock. There you resume the long line wait until you eventually reach the area to get fitted for a poncho. Then it's a bit more of a less orderly wait until the next tour boat returns and lets off the current group of people. Pro Tip- everyone will crowd the top open layer of the boat. If you stay on the bottom level and find a spot along the open rail, you will get the same views and the same amount of wet. You just won't be stuck behind a brick wall of people all trying to get the same picture. Having been to Niagara Falls before, I had Dad pose for his picture with the falls behind him before we got underway. Great picture and I could safely tuck away my camera and phone in my bag worn in front of me under my poncho where it stayed completely dry. I didn't have to worry about any electronics getting wet or slipping out of my wet hands. It took all I had to hold onto the railing as we reached and went under the falls between the noise, pouring water, and amount of people who wandered down to try and force their way into a spot on the bottom railing. This is definitely not an excursion if you want to wear your finest clothes or avoid getting your hair wet. Anywhere that wasn't completely covered by poncho was soaked. The force of the wind and the water will blow off your poncho's hood so by the end of it my head, shoulders, calves, socks, and shoes were soaked. Those of you with glasses will look like you should have tiny windshield wipers. You are encouraged to wear sturdy shoes for the wet surface of the boat.

Downsides from our personal experience of this tour: 

1) Long bus ride to Niagara Falls that eats up a good bit of time on site but unavoidable

2) We arrived on a day that a ton of tour groups were also visiting. Buses had to park several blocks away and we had to walk back to the Falls entrance with our guide since they couldn't pull over to unload us. Things were chaotic at the gondola entrance until park employees started pulling tour groups to go ahead of regular individual visitors. Then it was only mildly chaotic and a long wait in line.

3) We were left to stand around waiting to get in line for the gondola because our guide had to go buy/pick up the tickets. It was a good bit of confusion as this spot for waiting was also our one opportunity for a bathroom stop. Dad took the chance and got back moments before our guide led everyone away. I know there was no chance I'd make it through the women's restroom line before the guide was back. 

4) Once on the tour boat and we got close to the set of falls you go directly under, two women who had brought several children mostly young toddlers and infants screamed and demanded almost to the point of using their children and strollers to push us that we move so they could be at the railing with their children. Their children soon added to the noise as they proceeded to scream and cry at being subjected to the deluge of water and thunderous sounds. By the time we emerged on the other side of the falls, the two women had moved back under cover to console their babies. What? Little babies and toddlers aren't fans of being drowned in water and subjected to loud sounds described by the tour boat's guide as "a thunderous roar? Hmm, who would have thought? For the record, I did step back and let in an elementary aged child to stand along with her mother by the rail moments before the two womens' attempted assault.

5) We had been told that our type of tour ticket would allow us to ride the gondola back up rather than have to walk the multiple steps and inclined ramps just to reach a packed elevator before more steps. We followed the crowd getting off the boat following this system of railed off ramps that left only one path to take. Once at the elevators we asked a nearby employee about how to get back to the gondolas but he insisted we had to keep following everyone else. By the time we reached the main level, we had to fight through the crowds in the gift shop and then find our way back the several blocks to the buses. While I'm glad Dad got to scratch another experience off his bucket list, I was disappointed that we had no time left to walk around or to browse the gift shop. Thankfully, my past life working in the classroom helped me last until we returned to our ship before I finally got the chance to visit the restroom.

New things to experience on a Viking expedition ship

In this post, I will cover three other experiences you can have while sailing on the Viking Octantis on this Great Lakes cruise itinerary. These will include our evening spent traveling through the Welland Canal, our launching a weather balloon from the ship and tracking it online as we sailed, and touring the bridge onboard. All are free events and included for all interested regardless of loyalty status or cabin category.

The Welland Canal first started construction in 1817 and eventually evolved into a channel dug deep enough for boats to travel into the Welland River and on to Lake Erie via the Niagara River. The series of eight locks that took us from Lake Ontario and Toronto where we boarded the ship to Port Colborne where Ontario borders Lake Erie was slated to take all night and some of the early morning. Our first daily schedule called the Viking Daily listed the approximate times that we'd enter each lock. The times ranged from 8:30PM for lock one to 6:45AM for lock eight. Everyone was invited to gather on the bow (bring your bug spray) and enjoy the view this first evening. The bridge cam channel on your cabin TV looks down at this bow so it was fun lying comfy in bed watching the late night passengers who ventured out to watch after dark. We missed the very beginning of the passage due to slow service in The Restaurant but it made for an interesting view as our lower vantage point allowed us to see the venue's windows go from showing sun and water to showing concrete, rivets, and momentary darkness. 

We made it up to the bow after a quick stop back to the cabin for our vox boxes just in time to hear the officers and expedition team members be introduced. Drinks were offered while Osian serenaded the crowd to kick things off. Expedition team member Chris Croxson used a headset with microphone to give some history on the canal and routine updates as we moved into the first lock. It was nice to have the vox box to listen as the evening went on because you could move around the bow looking at different areas while still hearing the lecture. Chris offered to stick around answering questions and many passengers stopped to ask questions. He continued to wear the headset so those of us across the bow listening through the boxes could also hear the answer. It was fun to watch all the people stop on the street level and wave up to us shouting their own questions about the ship. We hung out on the bow until around 10PM before deciding that we needed to surrender and give the space back to the mosquitoes. I was surprised to wake up early the next morning and find that we'd made it through all eight locks hours ahead of schedule. 

A couple days later, we had printed certificates with our names certifying that we'd transited the Welland Canal left in our cabin. They are signed by General Manager Sujith Mohan and Captain Hakan Gustavsson. 

Normally a cruise ship will frown upon throwing anything overboard but Viking's expedition ships have approval to launch a helium filled biodegradable weather balloon from onboard. The balloon is attached to a transmitter and when it reaches a certain height in the atmosphere, it naturally pops and descends back to Earth. Every passenger who is interested can witness the send off and then head back down inside the ship to Expedition Central where Chief Scientist Dr. Kimberly Galvez pulled up the transmitter's info showing location, weather, and many different measurements. Dr. Galvez also showed us how our released balloon was one of thousands all over the world and how we could view the same info from the website on our own devices. 

Dr. Galvez is demonstrating how small the transmitter is by showing us one they'd previously used and recovered.

The deflated weather balloon

The last experience I will cover is getting to tour the bridge onboard. While on most cruise ships, a passenger is only allowed this experience if they are invited (such as an occasional perk for suite guests) or any passenger who is able to book and pay for the Behind the Scenes onboard excursion, we learned while onboard Viking Octantis that they welcome any passenger who wishes to tour the bridge. However, just showing up and knocking on the door expecting a welcome hug with tea and cookies will not work out in your favor. Due to the controlled environment, those who wish to tour the bridge need to let Guest Services know. They will put your names and cabin number on a list and if there is space available during an approved and scheduled small group visit, they will call your cabin to let you know. 

The only time we've actually met the Captain during one of these tours is when we paid for the Behind the Scenes tour on Carnival. Getting a photo with the Captain was part of the experience. That of course was over a decade ago so your mileage may vary if you choose to book that tour. In this day and age given the importance of the bridge officers' duties, guest services did hand out masks at the start of the tour and ask us to wear them for our time on the bridge. Moments into our visit however, the officer told us that we could feel free to take off the masks because "we've all been together on this ship all week already!" I have heard from cruisers who have been invited to the bridge tour on other lines post COVID that they were required to wear the mask the entire time. Keep that in mind as a possibility if you want to pursue this experience. 

Usually, your tour is led by one of the officers on board who is not currently on duty. Having had the privilege to be on several of these tours, I've seen some variation in how much the officer covers in their explanations and how quickly they finish with the tour. I was impressed with how much Wilcliff, 2nd Officer Safety, in this visit took us around showing more than the average spiel. He seemed to thrive on answering our group's questions and took great effort in showing us how and where on the bridge they handle whatever was asked about. 

In case anyone is curious, the bridge officers' drinks of choice are regular Coke and Fanta:

We were welcome to wander around looking at whatever we wanted and pose for pictures. Several took advantage of that classic "I'm the Captain now!" photo at the helm. 

Pretend like you're driving the ship in a storm and just hit a rogue wave:

An extra special part of the experience was that our visit coincided with the time that the local harbor pilot was on board. He helped answer tons of questions about his duties and told jokes and stories along with the officer about their past experiences. During the visit, a boat appeared on the radar system and we got to watch the harbor pilot in action communicating with the boat.

Food, Glorious Food! What else is there to eat on Viking Octantis?

Aside from room service (check out the menu in my cabin tour post), we sampled every food venue on board. While we found the service in our first couple visits to The Restaurant to be lacking, it greatly improved when we had the pleasure of not only sharing a table with two lovely sisters but also having the great wait staff team of Daniel and his assistant Naomi. It impressed me as well that when we were thanking and praising Daniel at the end of that first meal for his team's wonderful service, Daniel made a point of calling over Naomi so she could hear the praise from us directly. We asked for all future reservations to include being seated at one of their tables and made sure to share our praise with management and on the surveys left in our cabin.

Another praise I'd like to share is from an afternoon in the World Cafe. Dad and I took separate excursions which meant I returned back onboard about 30-45 minutes before he did. I headed to the World Cafe in search of lunch and a few of the crew stopped me to ask why Dad was not with me. I explained and thanked them for their concern. As I'm sitting at a table enjoying my procured lunch, several crew came and found me to let me know that Dad was now back on board. Dad told me later that they too came up to assure him that I was safely back as he stood in line at the grill station. 

This post features a variety of the dishes we tried during the week in Mamsen's, World Cafe, and The Restaurant.

First night's menu in The Restaurant:

Tiger Prawns - poached and chilled, cocktail sauce from the Classics: Always Available menu. Would have liked more than a drop of cocktail sauce but the taste was good.

Chicken Consommé with shredded chicken, fresh coriander, red onion, and lime wedge. Dad's starter from the Classics menu. He said the taste was good but he would have liked more chicken. Keep in mind that this is coming from a guy who thinks every meal could use more meat.

Angus New York Strip Steak 8 oz - grilled to order, french fries, beurre maitre d'hotel. While I don't usually get dishes like steak or seafood unless I'm out to eat or on a cruise, I found myself having to choose this or the chicken dish from the Classics menu quite frequently. I did add the compound butter slice from that little bowl which took some effort to spread around the steak. The steak was not delivered hot enough to melt the butter as intended. I wished there was some sort of liquid or cream based sauce to go with the steak as well.

From the regular side of the menu, Dad ordered the Beef Tenderloin with horseradish mashed potatoes, roasted red cabbage, and red wine sauce. This one was definitely a winner.

We slept in on day two and found a late breakfast at Mamsen's. We were the only ones there until another couple came in just before we finished our meal. 

Dad enjoyed the famous Belgian waffle but I wasn't hungry enough to get one of my own. Vowed to try it later in the cruise and just never took the time to eat much breakfast. Today I made up a plate of made to order scrambled eggs, a cinnamon roll, and some sausage.

Lunch after an excursion from the grill station at the World Cafe - hamburger and hot dog. The hot dogs had an unusual taste to them and it was often hit or miss as to whether the burgers were going to be fully cooked. One evening we were dining with our pre-cruise extension friends in the World Cafe and Dad ordered a steak from the grill station. It was severely undercooked and he took it back to the station to report it. They offered to cook him another ribeye steak but Dad opted instead for a filet mignon. By the time he was back at the table with the filet mignon, three crew members including a manager stopped by the table to ask what was wrong and offer to get him another steak made. It was nice to see how much of an effort the Viking crew did to make things right even without raising a fuss.

The "Viking Burger" with onion rings from the grill station:

Our dinner in The Restaurant where the host asked if we'd mind sharing a table. The venue did not seem too full so I'm guessing it was more about filling a four top table. It ended up being a lovely dinner with wonderful company.

Lobster Ravioli with steamed carrots and basil infused foam from the Starters menu. While I usually cringe at main entrees that have ravioli because they'll give you one or two total, I was pleasantly surprised by this starter. It was one single ravioli but that entire center was filled with a huge lump of solid lobster meat. It was like someone had made a lobster version of a proper crab cake and closed it inside a ravioli. 

And look who had himself vegetable soup? Roasted Carrot Soup with pistachio and mild spices blend. This may be the one and only occurrence of Dad raving about a dish that was solely vegetables.

After a repeat of the steaks, we went different ways with dessert. My Mille-Feuille of puff pastry layers and light vanilla cream from the unique menu:

And Dad's Iced Vanilla Parfait with warm chocolate sauce and toasted meringue from the Classics menu. He raved about this dessert and encouraged everyone that we dined with after this evening to order it as well.

Tired of a huge sit down meal, we opted for dinner at the World Cafe one evening. I made a plate of the filet mignon and lobster tail from the grill plus a few of the shrimp cocktail from the sushi section. No that's not a chocolate frosted brownie on my plate, that was the nearly bite sized filet mignon I was served. I think I'll save my future steak indulgences for specialty dining on the other lines.

A couple nights before the end of the cruise, all of us on the pre-cruise extension opted to dine together and made a group reservation for The Restaurant. I was impressed to see how well the Viking crew handled a table intended for 13 (several two top pushed together in a line). Though I'm guessing the wine works a lot better when it is drunk and not knocked over onto your fellow group member. Gives new meaning to not being able to hold your liquor! And in this case, things really do come out in the wash. And of course, a fresh glass of wine was readily available to replace it.

The snow crab leg starter. Dad and I both ordered this as nothing else appealed to him. When the plates arrived, he handed me his snow crab legs and I handed over my corn on the cob. 

The Beer Marinated Chicken from the Classics menu - roasted tomatoes, Diane sauce, and your choice of side dish. This dish was a bone in breast and leg piece and was quite tasty. The side dish options are Steamed Vegetables; Charred Maple Syrup Brussels Sprouts; Mashed Potato; Creamed Spinach; and Rice Pilaf. 

For dessert, Dad and I both went for the Iced Vanilla Parfait from the Classics menu but what came was something moderately different topped with what appears to be candied chopped walnuts. If anyone recognizes what this dessert was really called, please comment below. 

Our last dinner of the cruise had us back in The Restaurant. I ordered the Chunky Langoustine Bisque with sour cream from the main menu and a caesar salad from the Classics menu as none of the main courses interested me. I appreciated how the waiter always asked if the person ordering caesar salad wanted it with or without anchovies.

And for our final dessert, we once again ordered the Iced Vanilla Parfait and this time what showed up was back to what Dad enjoyed the first time.

Mangia! Mangia! Time for some included Italian food!

If you know me, then you know Italian food is considered like another food group in my world. I may have a slight scampi and carbonara addiction and think garlic bread is simply a way of life. I was excited to be on a ship this time with an included Italian themed restaurant. Unlike "The Restaurant", Manfredi's on Viking Octantis does not change their menu at all. Keep that in mind when making your reservations pre-cruise so you can decide whether there is enough variety for your tastes to want to visit more than once. We chose to visit twice during this seven day cruise.

Our first visit to Manfredi's on night two was delightful. I only wish I could remember the name of our waitress because she was fantastic! Very personable, funny, and amazing service! 

It should come as no surprise that my first dish, ordered from the Qualcosina (A Little Something) section of the menu, was the Calamari Fritti - crispy parsley, bottarga, and balsamic aioli. I would rank this calamari as one of my top favorites on a cruise. Lightly breaded without being too crispy and the calamari itself was fresh and not overly chewy.

From the Un Po Di Pasta E Risotto (A Bit of Pasta & Risotto) section, between us we shared the Spaghetti con Lardo di Colonnata - fresh spaghetti with lardo from Tuscany region and the Gnocchi Freschi di Patate con Crema di Tartufo - hand rolled potato gnocchi with a black truffle sauce. I appreciated our waitress' patience and kind way of explaining to Dad that this spaghetti would not have his preferred red tomato sauce but simply an oil based sauce. I think it helped him be more willing to try something different and we enjoyed both options.

And you know I wasn't leaving an Italian restaurant without sampling the carbonara item on the menu right? Bucatini Freschi alla Carbonara - fresh bucatini pasta, smoked pancetta, creamy parmigiano reggiano sauce, and Italian parsley. Is bucatini the new spaghetti when it comes to carbonara? Virgin Voyages also used bucatini pasta in their carbonara dish from Extra Virgin. The taste and flavor was there but I miss the ease of twirling spaghetti around my fork. 

From the Piatti Unici category, Dad went with the Parmigiana di Pollo - lightly breaded chicken breast topped with tomato sauce and mozzarella. I joked that Dad finally got his red tomato sauce after all. He enjoyed this dish as meat covered in cheese and sauce is definitely right up his alley. Also right up his alley was pushing off and ignoring the pile of leafy greens they added on top.

For dessert we both enjoyed scoops of gelato. Each ice cream order came with a half sized Pepperidge Farm style pirouette cookie stuck in the scoop. Dad loved it when we both ordered gelato because he got to enjoy both of our cookies. Pictured below is my Cookies & Cream gelato after the cookie had been passed over.

Our second visit to Manfredi's did not go as nicely with service. We were seated at a two top table around a partition that was next to a large booth. This time I questioned whether our waiter doubled as a magician because he had a habit of disappearing when we needed something and reappearing at the large booth next to us chatting and socializing. We'd try to catch his eye and call him over but he'd turn his back to us and walk off. Courses took a lot longer to arrive and be cleared and we sat waiting for drinks and drink refills for ages. At one point we did get his attention to ask about a drink refill and he cut us off to insist that the food would be out soon and scurried off before we could say anything else.

Tonight's choices were Insalata Caprese - buffalo mozzarella, vine ripened tomatoes, basil, and extra virgin olive oil; some sort of pasta that I remember thinking looked nothing like it did last time; Lasagne al Forno alla Bolognese - handmade pasta layered with minced beef, Béchamel sauce, and parmigiano reggiano; Bistecca Fiorentina - thick cut ribeye coated in garlic oil and rubbed with porcini mushroom powder, kosher salt, brown sugar, and red chili flakes; and of course gelato for dessert. 

Insalata Caprese

Mystery Pasta?

Lasagna al Forno alla Bolognese

Bistecca Fiorentina

Vanilla Gelato with pirouette cookie

Is Manfredi's worth a visit on your Viking cruise? Absolutely! Is it worth multiple visits? Maybe not as our second menu choices weren't as good as the first visit. The nice thing though is that as long as you can get a reservation (and we did change a few while onboard), it's similar to specialty dining on other cruise lines but without the fee. I will leave you with this pro tip: The bread offered in Manfredi's is these soft pull apart popover style rolls. If you're dining in The Restaurant and don't care for the crusty bread assortment they offer, kindly ask your wait staff for the rolls from Manfredi's instead. So much nicer and tastier for someone like me and perhaps more detrimental to me because they kept bringing us more! Several tablemates and neighboring tables would ask how to get bread like ours so I think we started a trend. As the saying goes, it never hurts to ask!