Viking Ocean Cruises

You know, then there's this category of 750 to 1,000 passenger ships.

You're going to see, like, Regent Seven Seas cruises, Oceana cruises, Azamara cruises, Viking Ocean cruises kind of fitting into that space.

There is a lot of competition in that space.

And there are both premium and luxury options in that small ship, you know, that big small ship.

But I cruise because I want to see the world and I want to see the ocean.

and a lot of what cruising is today is about the onboard experience in terms of like you can't even forget the ocean is even out there right like uh like these world caribbean ships are amazing i'm a big royal caribbean fan but like the ocean and even the itinerary is kind of just an afterthought right like you're there for the shows and the the flow rider like surf simulator and all that and like that's amazing but like it's not really as much about experiencing the world now is it used to be right there's still some cruise lines that do a really good job of understanding that right like i think we went on our first viking ocean cruise over the summer one thing like their founder said is like a viking we never want the the cruise to upstage the destination and that really resonates with me right like because to me it's still about the destination right like i I care a lot about people.

That's why the crew is such an important part to me, right? Like I want to understand what different cultures are like.

I want to see the world in, you know, like.

But so for that, that one stretch, we get our couples cruise for the year.

And like, we're so blessed that like our parents give us that opportunity because it's a great opportunity to like reconnect and like, you know, just remember why we fell in love to begin with.

Cause you know, you've got kids, you know, like between sports and everything else, like it is like, I know I'm going to miss this someday, but it is a lot of chaos often, right? Like, uh, and so, uh, This year, our couples cruise was Viking Ocean.

Last year, the couples cruise was Explorer Journeys.

It expanded into ocean in 2015 and expedition in 2022, which is surprising because they have a decent amount of expedition ships already for only being in the game for four years.

Viking has a combined fleet of over 118 ships just on the rivers alone, as well as I believe 15 ocean cruises and three or four expedition ships.

In October of 2026, Viking announced that it had been named number one again for Rivers and Ocean by Condé Nast Readers Travel Choice Awards for its six consecutive years.

Most competitions, which is why I don't win them, are also popularity contests.

So like I'm not going to put a huge amount of stock in that, but just it's a piece of saying, you know, They do amazing marketing reach.

So the signature longship was introduced in 2012 and they are all identical, which is nice.

So if you do have an issue on the rivers, like it's been going on with the low water, um, You can go from one ship to another and have the exact same room and it look identical because their ships on the inside look exactly the same.

So if you've been on one Viking Ocean cruise, I mean, river cruise, you have been on all of them in what they look like.

They had them.

Viking Ocean offers them.

And then, as I said, going up into your smaller, you know, more elevated luxury ships like Oceana, Azamara are going to have these itineraries.

What I found really surprising was that Even some ultra luxury like Windstar, Piano.

But if you're on a river, let's say you're on the Danube or something like that, and unfortunately this year the water levels are extremely low, there, you're not gonna feel anything 'cause there's, there's more likely than not there's no tide on the river and then the, with the water level being s- so shallow to begin with, there's not a lot of movement that's happening.

But if you're something, if you're out in the ocean, maybe, like we said, we just did Viking Ocean around the British Isles, I definitely felt it in a few spots there, even though that is a bigger ship.

And then we did a yacht cruise off the coast of Ecuador, and I definitely felt it there 'cause the ship didn't have stabilizers.

It really depends on the body of water and then your sensitivity to it, I would say.