The Roaming BoomersHow to Choose the Perfect Stateroom on a Viking Ocean Cruise
Viking Ocean Cruises Stateroom Guide
How to Choose the Right Stateroom on a Viking Ocean Cruise
Now that we’ve sailed with Viking Ocean Cruises on the Viking Star and have given you the first impressions from our sailing, we thought it might be helpful to circle back around and offer you some help on how to choose a stateroom that’s right for you.
One of the first things to know is that all of the Viking Ocean Cruises ships are identical, so our Viking Ocean Cruises Stateroom Guide will help you regardless of which of the Viking ocean ships you’re considering.
If you’re looking for our guide on choosing the right stateroom on a Viking River Cruise, then please click here.
The Viking Ocean Cruises ships hold a maximum of 930 passengers with 465 staterooms divided into the following categories:
- 42 Veranda (V) staterooms
- 272 Deluxe Veranda (DV) staterooms
- 104 Penthouse Veranda (PV) staterooms
- 32 Penthouse Junior Suites (PS)
- 14 Explorer Suites (ES)
- 1 Owner’s Cabin (OS)
As you can see, Viking Ocean Cruises has designed every stateroom to have a veranda with the smallest offering passengers a comfy 270 sq. ft. This size is quite a departure from competitor ships where many of the entry level staterooms can be as small as 150 sq. ft.
All right, let’s start by exploring the specific differences between the various staterooms, and we’ll share our opinions at the end of this article.
Highlights of the Viking Ocean Cruises Staterooms
Note: click on all of the photographs below to see larger views.
Veranda Staterooms
There are 42 Veranda Staterooms (V) on each of the Viking Ocean Cruises ships. These staterooms are located on Deck 3 with the V1 staterooms towards the front and the V2 staterooms towards the rear.
Each room has the following features:
Size including veranda: 270 sq. ft.- 11:00 a.m. embarkation
- 3:00 p.m. stateroom access
- Priority shore excursion reservations: 60 days prior
- King-size Viking Explorer bed with luxury linens
- Large flat-screen LCD TV
- Luxury toiletries
- Direct dial satellite phone & cell service
- Security safe, hair dryer, 110/220 volt outlets
- Wi-Fi
- Interactive TV & movies-on-demand
- 24-hour room service
Deluxe Veranda Staterooms
When choosing a stateroom remember that there are 272 Deluxe Veranda Staterooms (DV) on each of the Viking Ocean Cruises ships with classifications going from DV1 – DV6. Besides earlier access to your stateroom and shore excursion reservations, the biggest difference between these staterooms is the location on the ship. You will also find a small difference in price between each of these categories. Let me explain:
- DV1 – there are just a dozen or so of these staterooms and they are located in premium spots on the ship alongside the Explorer Suites. These sell out quickly as there are so few of them.
- DV2 – there are quite a number of these stateroom located primarily mid-ship on decks 5 and 6.
- DV3 – again, just a handful located in desirable locations on the ship.
- DV4 – there are quite a number of these staterooms located primarily mid-ship on deck 4.
- DV5 – about 25 of these located on deck 4 fore and aft.
- DV6 – less than 20 of these located on deck 3 just behind the atrium.
The Deluxe Veranda Staterooms are physically identical to the Veranda Staterooms and offer the following improved features:
- Size including veranda: 270 sq ft
- 11:00 a.m. embarkation
- 2:00 p.m. stateroom access
- Priority shore excursion reservations: 67 days prior
- 1 guaranteed priority reservation at each specialty restaurant (60 days prior to departure)
- King-size Viking Explorer bed with luxury linens
- Large flat-screen LCD TV
- Mini-bar with soft drinks, water & snacks, replenished once daily
- In-suite binoculars, coffee maker & cashmere blanket
- Luxury robes, slippers & toiletries
- Direct dial satellite phone & cell service
- Security safe, hair dryer, 110/220 volt outlets
- Wi-Fi
- Interactive TV & movies-on-demand
- 24-hour room service
Penthouse Veranda Staterooms
There are 104 Penthouse Veranda Staterooms (PV) on each of the Viking Ocean Cruises ships.
These staterooms are the largest of the Veranda Staterooms, are located on decks 5 and 6 and come with the following more improved features:
- Size including veranda: 338 sq. ft.
- 11:00 a.m. embarkation
- 1:00 p.m. stateroom access
- Priority shore excursion reservations: 77 days prior
- 2 guaranteed priority reservations at each specialty restaurant (70 days prior to departure)
- King-size Viking Explorer bed with luxury linens
- Large flat-screen LCD TV
- Mini-bar with alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, water & snacks, replenished once daily
- In-suite binoculars, coffee maker & cashmere blanket
- Luxury robes, slippers & toiletries
- Direct dial satellite phone & cell service
- Security safe, hair dryer, 110/220 volt outlets
- Wi-Fi
- Interactive TV & movies-on-demand
- 24-hour room service
- Shoe shine & pressing
- Bottle of champagne
Penthouse Junior Suites
There are 32 Penthouse Junior Suites (PS) on each of the Viking Ocean Cruises ships. These junior suites each feature a close-off between the bedroom and living area and come with the following features:
- Size including veranda: 405 sq. ft.
- 11:00 a.m. embarkation
- 11:00 a.m. priority stateroom access
- Priority shore excursion reservations: 87 days prior
- 3 guaranteed priority reservations at each specialty restaurant (80 days prior to departure)
- King-size Viking Explorer bed with luxury linens
- Large flat-screen LCD TV
- Mini-bar with alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, water & snacks, replenished once daily
- In-suite binoculars, coffee maker & cashmere blanket
- Luxury robes, slippers & toiletries
- Direct dial satellite phone & cell service
- Security safe, hair dryer, 110/220 volt outlets
- Wi-Fi
- Interactive TV & movies-on-demand
- 24-hour room service
- Laundry, dry cleaning, shoe shine & pressing
- Bottle of champagne
Explorer Suites
There are 14 Explorer Suites (ES) on each of the Viking Ocean Cruises ships. Each of these suites is large, luxurious, has the very best locations on the ship with expansive verandas, and are certain to appeal to luxury travelers looking for the quiet ship experience that is found with Viking.
- Size including veranda: 757+ sq. ft.
- 11:00 a.m. embarkation
- 11:00 a.m. priority stateroom access
- Priority shore excursion reservations: 97 days prior
- 3 guaranteed priority reservations at each specialty restaurant (90 days prior to departure)
- King-size Viking Explorer bed with luxury linens
- Large flat-screen LCD TV
- Mini-bar with alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, water & snacks, replenished once daily
In-suite binoculars, coffee maker & cashmere blanket- Luxury robes, slippers & toiletries
- Direct dial satellite phone & cell service
- Security safe, hair dryer, 110/220 volt outlets
- Wi-Fi
- Interactive TV & movies-on-demand
- 24-hour room service
- Laundry, dry cleaning, shoe shine & pressing
- Bottle of champagne
- * Stateroom configuration varies depending upon the location on each deck
Stateroom Comparison Chart
Note: click charts for much larger views.
Deck Plans
After you choose a stateroom, the next decision is where on the ship you’d like your stateroom to be located. So, to help with your choice, here’s a peek at the various decks on Viking Ocean Cruises ships.
Note: click on the images below for much larger views.
Putting it all together to choose the perfect stateroom
At the end of the day, I suppose it will be your wallet that will determine which of the staterooms will best suit your needs. But once you choose a stateroom that best matches your finances, you will also notice that the staterooms also have a further division into various classes. For example, the Deluxe Veranda (DV) has six different classifications (DV1 – DV6) depending on its location on the ship. Therefore, a DV1 stateroom, as it has a better location on the ship, will carry a higher price tag than a DV6 stateroom.
In our opinion, Viking Ocean Cruises has built a ship that will nicely meet the needs of a great swath of the boomer travelers – you should be able to choose a stateroom that fits your needs perfectly.
Want Some Help?
It’s certainly no secret that you can call Viking Ocean Cruises direct to book your cruise. However, if I can offer a shameless plug for our travel agency, here’s a few reasons you may want to consider having us come alongside and help you plan a fun Viking Ocean Cruise:
- The cost is exactly the same booking direct with Viking or booking directly with us.
- We sometimes have additional perks like shipboard credits to share with you through our various industry affiliations.
- If Viking finds that a particular cruise is selling tickets as well as they want, it is not uncommon for them to issue a special “flash sale” that will not appear on their website but we will have access to. We keep a close eye out for these sales and publish them in our Saturday morning newsletter.
- As we have personally sailed with Viking, and have been to many of the destinations they visit, we have a great deal of personal advice to send your way.
- And lastly, our first goal as a relationship driven organization is to earn your trust and bring value to the relationship. We understand that you may need help with travel options in the future, and we’d love to have you as a client and help you with all of your travel needs. We are certainly not limited to just Viking! As a full-service travel agency, we can bring you help and advice on nearly any travel option you can dream up.
To book a fun Viking Ocean Cruise, or to get your Viking questions answered, call our travel agency at (480) 550-1235, or use our convenient online information request (click here) and we’ll reach out to you.
Link: Viking Ocean Cruises Website
Note: all photos and charts courtesy of Viking Ocean Cruises.
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33 Comments on “How to Choose the Perfect Stateroom on a Viking Ocean Cruise”
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We are retired so have flexibility. We would like to cruise the Mediterranean right after first of year. Should we book now or will better offers come along?
Hi Kathleen, I don’t know if you checked the availability on Viking’s website: http://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans?agenturlid=roamingboomers but availability is VERY limited.
Therefore, the hope of a special offer to increase bookings is very unlikely. Our recommendation is to book now. You might also enjoy this article that we just wrote about the best way to make a Viking booking: https://www.theroamingboomers.com/best-way-to-book-an-ocean-or-river-cruise/
For our help, call (480) 550-1235. Thanks! 🙂
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Your comparison of state rooms is very helpful. However perhaps you should point out that the Excursion booking in advance according to state room category means that those in the lower categories at the end of the line can be seriously disadvantaged. We are booked into a Veranda Stateroo for our upcoming cruise to Japan and have discovered that all the prime iconic sites are fully booked – the reason for spending so much money on the cruise was to be able to visit them and now we find we cant. e.g for the two days we are docked at Hiroshima not one paying excursion is available to us. Many other excursions in the cruise are also fully boked.
We feel this to be very unfair,and that we have been discriminated against by wealth. Surely Excursions should all be released at the same time and not with a possible 40 ,day difference.
Perhaps it would be helpful if you could warn your clients about this.
Hi Catherine,
Thank you for stopping by and sharing kind words about our website. Here is a link to a helpful chart that describes who can book what and when by cabin category: https://www.theroamingboomers.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Ocean-Stateroom-Amenities-Chart.pdf
First of all, don’t forget that everyone gets a complimentary shore excursion in every port. So, everyone gets a complimentary tour that will give you the highlights in each port.
However, after that, the optional shore excursions are bookable by stateroom category with the Suites getting first dibs and the regular Veranda staterooms getting the last availability. And as there are only 42 Veranda staterooms on the Viking ships, there are a lot of folks ahead of you vying for the available optional excursions.
With this being the case, we recommend that: 1) consider booking at least a DV6 if this is a problem for you. 2) Mark the date that the shore excursions come available to you and call right away. Most people forget and tend to want to book these shore excursions at the last minute.
If it’s not too late, maybe the best course of action would be to upgrade to a DV6 and get access to those shore excursions at an earlier date.
Again, thanks for stopping by, and we hope you enjoy your Viking Ocean Cruise in Japan.
I’m looking at the Romantic Danube Viking Cruise. What does River-view stateroom with half-height picture window mean (stateroom E&F)? Do you have to stand in the room to see out the window?Stateroom size: 150 sq ft
River-view stateroom with half-height picture window
Hi Carol,
Trying to find out is the Deluxe Verandah and above can accommodate a couple and a 20 yr old grandson.
Hi Melissa,
Hi,I am trying to figure out what is the best part of the ship to not get Sea Sick. We are booked for the Viking Homelands which has been my dream for many years. I do get a little sick with a lot of ship movement so I was wondering what is best for that since this is an Ocean Cruise. Thank you so very much.
Hi Christine,
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We have booked a DV2 room on the Viking Star on level 6. It appears that this room is directly under the main pool. Have we made a mistake? Is there going to be a lot of noise above us?
Hi Steve,
If you can, you might want to move forward under the Wintergarden. If not, however, it’s not like this boat is full of 30-year-old partiers. The ship is going to be pretty quiet after dinner.
We’re sure we want a Deluxe Veranda category but as you said within that category there are different locations. We were leaning toward a DV4 but can you mention any other advantages of location on the ship in terms of forward, aft, which deck, port or starboard. Also just to doublecheck within the categories DV1-DV6 you get the exact same amenities? Thanks so much, your article is helpful!
Hi Deb,
The amenities for DV1 through DV6 are identical. The only difference is the location on the ship. I generally don’t make a big deal out of which side of the ship you sail on as you will ultimately be sailing in the shipping lanes 20 or more miles out to sea. That far out, you really can’t see much. The DV2 and the DV4 staterooms are popular as they are more midship and will offer less movement should you get into high seas.
We are booked for a 28 day ocean cruise in room 6060 on Sun across from the elevators….will this be noisy?
Hi Pam,
I wouldn’t worry about it. With these ships being full of baby boomers and older, the ships are pretty quiet and most everyone is in bed after dinner. 🙂 Have fun!
We’re looking at a Norway cruise in May of 2021. Will we spend much time on the veranda (we like it outside, did an Alaskan cruise in June, and spent most of the at sea time on the veranda)? Is it worth the money to upgrade from Penthouse Suite to Explorer Suite? I saw a review that said the ES 3000 (bow on deck 3) was noisy from anchors and thrusters – is that the case? And is it a good idea to use Viking Air to make flight arrangements? Thanks!
Richard,
Thanks for stopping by. I wonder, with all of the questions, if it might make more sense for us to chat on the phone. Please feel free to give me a call at 480-550-1235. Thanks. I think the suite question is more of a personal preference kind of thing. If you plan to spend a lot of time on your deck, those Explorer Suites are very nice. My personal favorite on these ships are the Penthouse Jr. Suites. However, I would not likely spend a whole lot of time on my deck, so the Penthouse Jr. is kind of like Goldilocks, “just right”. Again, happy to talk on the phone.
Thanks very much! I’m at work – I’ll call from home either tonight or over the weekend.
We are booking a Viking Homelands cruise next May. We prefer an aft Explorer Suite. Wondering about the two suites on Deck 6 below the infinity pool. Any recommendation?
Hi Denise,
Well, if you’re not already working with a travel advisor, I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend that you book with our company. Here’s an article that might help you understand why: https://www.theroamingboomers.com/best-way-to-book-an-ocean-or-river-cruise
With regards to your concerns about being below the infinity pool, keep in mind that Viking’s ships are full of 70-year-olds. Not a party ship by any stretch of the imagination. Therefore, the only sounds that you are likely to hear are the occasional movements of a chair on the deck above your head. And the most pronounced of this would likely be in the early evening as people are getting ready for dinner and the staff is preparing the area for the evening. And, as most are sound asleep by 10:00, I don’t know that I’d be too worried about it. I hope this helps. 🙂
We’re booked on a 2021 Western Mediterranean Ocean cruise on Viking (unfortunately rescheduled from this year) and I’m currently researching a possible 2022 In Search of Northern Lights cruise. The ships, although different names, look identical in their layout. We’re booking a DV4 on our first cruise and we’ll be on Deck 8. I noticed that on the ship’s layout there are only a few DV4 rooms on Deck 7 and Deck 8 and the rest are suites. Wondering if you’ve seen this layout on the cruise(s) you’ve been on and can comment on how the location is? Also can you comment on using Hurtigruten Expedition instead for Northern Lights? Thanks!
Hi Deborah,
Just so you know, Viking’s ships are all identical when it comes to stateroom layouts. The DV4 staterooms are all on deck 4 with a few DV1s on decks 7 & 8. If you don’t mind being towards the front of the ship, we like the location of the DV1s on decks 7 & 8. If you like, please give us a call and we’d be happy to help you with the booking.
With regard to Hurtigruten, they are a completely different kind of experience as they are expedition ships. We like that, you just have to be careful NOT to get on one of their “mail ships” that stop in every port along the way. Hurtigruten’s new expedition ships are beautiful and we look forward to sailing with them ourselves one day.
What are the differences between Explorer Suite 1 and 2. We already know about the location but my question is which has more windows and light in it, explorer Suite 1 (forward) or Explorer Suite 2?
Hi Dr. Burrus, thanks for stopping by. The ES1 suites, on the front of the ship, are larger with larger verandas. I’m not certain about the glass space from one to the other, but I would guess that the ES1, being larger, might have more light in the room. Did that answer your question? If not, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected].
We have the option of booking cabin 8001, but will this be noisy with the Explorer lounge next door and foot traffic to that area? Cabins are very limited on the cruise we are booked on. Basically, is upgrading to this cabin worthwhile?
Stateroom 8001 is a fairly quiet area of the ship. Generally speaking, folks are going to enter the Explorers’ Lounge from deck 7. If you’re booking is a new booking w/ Viking, without vouchers, give me a call as we have perks to share. However, if you are booking with a voucher from a direct booking w/ Viking, we can’t help. 480-550-1235
What a great help your website is. The comparison chart helps so much. You have done so much of the comparison work, I feel like I need to send you a fee.
LOL. You don’t need to send us a fee, but we’d love to help you with your booking. 🙂
We would like to talk with you. I have researched 2022 Baltic cruises pretty thoroughly and keep coming back to Viking. We haven’t decided between Russia & Baltic Sea and Viking Homelands but we know the door is closing on both. If we could design our own cruise, it would end in Copenhagen because we want to visit the south of Sweden for a short time. But we could travel from Stockholm or Bergen. And, we want to use our reward miles to fly first class or at least business. That’s a brief description of what we are working with. Per the Cruise Critic article today, I would love to think Viking would add more Baltic cruises next summer. We would like to know how you could help us and the cost for your service.