Welcome Aboard the Viking Mars
Monday 4/27/26 Day 1
We have boarded the Viking Mars, which will be our home for the next seven nights as we travel from Rome to Barcelona. We spent the afternoon exploring the ship and getting unpacked. All Viking ocean ships are identical, so the ship seemed very familiar, as we had been on the Viking Jupiter in 2023. I think their two newest ships may have some subtle differences. The ship is lovely, decorated in a minimalist Scandinavian esthetic, quiet, calm, and perfect for relaxing. We walked all the decks, grabbed a drink at the Aquavit Terrace bar, and checked out the spa and the snow grotto. We hope to have some time to spend there this week, but this is a very port intensive itinerary with no sea days.
We booked a guarantee Deluxe Veranda cabin for this sailing. Booking a guarantee cabin means you will be assigned a cabin in the category you paid for, or any category above that, on the day you board the ship. You might get an upgrade to a nicer cabin, and since there are no bad cabins on this ship, we took the chance for the upgrade. All cabins are balconies, and none are obstructed views. The DV cabins runs from DV 1 through DV 6, with the only difference being the location on the ship. DV 1 are considered better locations than DV 6 (midship is considered more desirable than forward or aft if you are prone to motion sickness). We ended up in 6040, a DV 2, midship on deck six, so no upgrade, but we are perfectly happy with it. We were surprised to find a birthday cake and bottle of Champagne waiting for Steve on the desk. We are celebrating his 60th birthday this week!
We had a short nap before getting ready for dinner and heading to the Explorer’s Lounge for drinks. Everyone on the ship had the same idea! We have 864 passengers on board (maximum 930) and about 450 crew. We had a nice dinner in The Restaurant, which is the main dining room. Viking ships also have two specialty restaurants, The Chef’s Table and Manfredi’s Italian, in addition to the World Cafe (the buffet) and the Aquavit Terrace, which is the outdoor dining venue on the stern of the ship.
After dinner we attended a lecture on the Italian Renaissance, given by this sailing’s resident historian. We really enjoy all the educational offerings when we sail with Viking. It’s one of the things that sets them apart from other cruise lines. After a long couple of days, we were happy to head back to the cabin and get to bed early.
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