My wife, Heidi Leppert, and I had a blast in the Caribbean as Viking Ocean Cruises’ Viking Star explored the region for the first time, so in our usual fun way, we present a “he said, she said” review of our time in the tropical destination here.
He said: One of the greatest things about revisiting the Caribbean, a destination I’ve sailed to dozens of times before, was the opportunity to check out several islands that were entirely new to me. The Viking Star is a smaller 930-guest ship that can dock at more unique ports well away from the mega ships. In fact, we were pleasantly surprised to be the only vessel in town on most days, only meeting up with others in Puerto Rico, where we delightfully strolled passed hundreds of guests re-boarding a Carnival Cruise Line ship to hop on ours with zero wait.
She said: I too have visited the Caribbean, though not as much as Jason, but I was excited to see how Viking did things differently. We decided to do a mixture of included tours and paid tours to get an idea of everything Viking has to offer. One standout for me was how well everything was organized. It was always very easy to find our tour group, and there was never any wait to get underway. Get off the ship, meet our guide, and Viking was always ready nearly immediately to board our bus/catamaran/safari vehicle. One nice touch was the crew member handing out free cold bottles of water as we exited the ship in every port.
He said: The real treat was making it to gems like Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands via Road Town, Tortola and Basseterre, St. Kitts; decidedly our favorites along the roundtrip route from San Juan. We particularly enjoyed taking our plush Viking Erik traveling companion along with us to playfully pose in several scenes along the way (as pictured above). We only wish now that we had purchased a bottle of delicious rum punch from Mount Gay Rum in Barbados to take home with us. Thankfully, there’s always next time!
She said: In Tortola, we had booked the tour to Virgin Gorda & The Baths, which was sadly canceled due to low participation. We decided to book the Escape to Jost Van Dyke tour in its place, and we’re so glad we did! We took a catamaran to the secluded White Bay, about a 45 minute ride. Then we descended the steps off the front of the boat into some of the most picturesque Caribbean water I’ve ever seen. The bay is home to the famous Soggy Dollar Bar, which is known for inventing the Painkiller cocktail. We had the most perfect afternoon of relaxing in the water and testing out the Painkiller (for research, naturally). And Jason even spent some time in one of the hammocks available for use (also pictured above). We would do this excursion a
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