A day at sea brings abundant time to explore the ship.   On board Viking Sky, we did just that.  In the process, we verified a number of claims made by Viking in promotional material.

• No Children Under 18–  I did not card everyone but have not seen any at all.
• No Casinos- Check
• No Nickel and Diming- This is a big one and it’s so true.   Once on board, the lion’s share of everything we do is included.  
• No Charge Wi-Fi- Yes and it works well.   On a day at sea, I uploaded video, a rather huge file.   Appropriate: The Internet should be free worldwide anyway.
• No Charge For Beer & Wine with lunch and dinner – as it turns out, that’s plenty for us but I am still happy we chose the Silver Spirits plan.  Lisa might not have discovered the wonders of an Aperol Spritz
• No Umbrella Drinks- True on the umbrella drinks but I am told that they make a great Pina Collada
• No Photography Sales – About the only thing close to this are some really great Viking note cards in the ship’s stores.  
• No Inside Cabins- Everyone gets a balcony
• No Smoking- I did not even get a whiff of it and I would if there was
• No Waiting In Lines– So far, so good on this one.  We’ll double back on all these post-sailing.
• No Formal Nights, Butlers, or White Gloves–  Nothing against butlers in general, but they would not fit in here.   Think casual during the day, business casual in the main dining room.
• No Charge Alternative Restaurants-  There is no charge for Manfredi’s or The Chef’s Table specialty restaurants. 
• Free Spa- Viking’s Nordic Spa is a unique experience one might pay a $hundreds to use. Here it is included in the fare

I promised yesterday that we will have a new feature on all live trip reports.  That new feature?  An expanded “Learn More” section at the bottom of the page with links to further resources. Launching this feature while on a Viking cruise seems quite appropriate: this experience is very much for people with a ravenous hunger to learn.

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