The Roaming BoomersHow to Choose the Right 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 the right stateroom.
One of the first things to know is that all of the Viking Ocean Cruises ships are identical. Therefore, our Viking Ocean Cruises Stateroom Guide will help you regardless of which of the Viking ocean ships you’re considering.
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 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 explore 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 with 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
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 – roughly 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 reservations 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 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. They are large, luxurious, have 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 the type of stateroom you desire, the next decision is where on the ship you’d like your stateroom to be located. 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
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 figure out which stateroom 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.
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 fare is exactly the same booking direct with Viking or booking directly with us.
- Through our various industry affiliations, we often have additional perks like shipboard credits to share with you from time to time.
- If Viking is finding that a particular sailing is selling softer than they desire, it is not uncommon for them to issue a special “flash sale” that will not appear on their front-facing website. We keep a close eye out for these 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’re going to have a great deal of advice to send your way.
- And lastly, as we are a relationship driven organization, our first goal is to earn your trust and bring value to the relationship. We understand that you’re likely to need help with many travel options in the future, and we’d love to have you as a client and help you with all of your travel needs as 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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10 Comments on “How to Choose the Right 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,