Viking’s Welcome Back Cruise Hits Bermuda

Colors grab your attention everywhere you look in Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory about 600 miles east of North Carolina in the Atlantic Ocean.

There’s the pink hibiscus and oleander blooming wild along the roadsides, the painterly pastel-colored walls of the sturdy stone houses built to withstand hurricanes. And the bright white rooftops that funnel rainwater to underground basins all the while mimicking the puffy clouds dotting the sky.

But the myriad colors of the sea—turquoise, sapphire, aquamarine, gray, emerald, indigo, periwinkle, jade—are what resonate. All were on full display during my Viking Cruise Line’s 8-day Bermuda Escape trip in August. Part of the company’s Welcome Back to cruising offerings, the Viking Orion docked in the Bermuda capitol of Hamilton and in King’s Wharf at the Royal Naval Dockyard. The cruise starts and ends in Hamilton, and in between are sea days and shore excursions to keep you busy. Or not.

But before settling in on the Orion, there was a lot of pre-cruise paperwork and testing related to COVID-19, with Viking providing detailed, day-by-day instructions. Only fully vaccinated passengers are allowed on the ship. But even still, passengers needed to get a PCR COVID-19 test, no more than four days prior to arrival. Then, with a negative test result and proof of vaccination, passengers applied to the Bermuda government for permission to enter the country, all within a specific time frame.

The Bermuda government is allowing Viking Orion to cruise with 50 percent capacity, which is 930 passengers. But our sailing had fewer than 200, making for a cruise with lots of extra space.

COVID-19 protocols and testing were followed throughout the cruise. Temperatures were scanned upon embarkation and passengers are required to take the first of daily COVID-19 tests upon arrival. It wasn’t onerous as the tests were the saliva kind, just requiring spitting into a tube. The onboard lab processed the tests daily, and delivered to passengers a printout of the negative results needed for return to the U.S. Each morning, your temperature is scanned and you answer a series of health questions. Masking was required when not eating or drinking, and most passengers seemed to approve the extra safety measures.

You wouldn’t need a full-week to cruise around Bermuda. It’s only about 26 miles long and about a mile-and-a-half wide. But the Orion docked on a downtown Hamilton street and close-up at King’s Wharf,  along with taking us out into the Atlantic, close if not into the Bermuda Triangle, during a couple of sea days.  The Orion would travel nearly 800 nautical miles before the cruise ended.

Pricing specials attract passengers

It was evident from the conversation on board, that the passengers were happy to be out and about after the COVID-19 lockdown.

The buzz around the pool bar at a meeting for solo travelers was all about good value for high-end cruising and relief at finally being out and about.

“The single occupancy and no cost for the air, it’s incredible,” said Popo Flanigan of Philadelphia and Naples, Fla. It’s the best deal I’ve seen in a long time.”

She was speaking about the deal that Viking offered on the Bermuda cruise during August. For some dates, airfare was included in the price, and there was no extra charge for people traveling alone, typically known as the single supplement. At about $1,800, that’s a deal on Viking, one of the top-ranked cruise lines in the world.

“I’m so tired of being punished for being single,” Flanigan said, noting that she used the savings to upgrade to a higher-end stateroom on board.

Some couples looked at the single-supplement waiver and thought it would be nice to have extra space and an extra bathroom and booked two rooms for the same price it would have cost them to share.

But two New Jersey couples taking the cruise to celebrate their 50^th wedding anniversaries—Pat and Jeff Snyder and Elaine and Gary DeGrande –said they didn’t have any interest in the extra space that separate rooms would bring.

“In 50 years of marriage we have never slept apart, and let’s say intimacy is of utmost importance,” said Pat Snyder. “Perhaps that is why we have made it to 50 years.”

So back to the luxury.

The staterooms on Viking’s Ocean liners are spacious, the bathrooms well-equipped, and all come with an outside balcony. The ships are well-designed with lots of open spaces, and even on a full sailing I took a few years ago in Scandinavia, we never felt crowded or waited in lines for excursions.

The food on Viking is terrific

Having sailed previously on Viking’s ocean fleet, I knew the food would be good. But I was reminded this time of the wide variety of options. Even with such a small group of passengers, Viking did not disappoint in terms of variety.

I found myself gravitating to my favorite breakfast spot—outside on the Aquavit Terrace adjacent to the World Café and its huge breakfast spread. This time, instead of filling your own plate from the buffet, servers filled the plate for you.

Trying to avoid temptation, I usually started the day with fresh fruit and yogurt. But I often succumbed to the pan au chocolat pastries. There are eggs, omelets, waffles, pastries, oatmeal and breakfast meats, to name just a few of the options.

Later in the day for lunch, choose between salads and sandwiches  like hamburgers and pulled pork with fries at the Pool Grill or a white-tablecloth experience at The Restaurant with an appetizer of goat cheese and tomato tart along with an entrée of Bavarian style meat loaf with mushrooms.

It’s hard to pick a favorite restaurant for dinner, but I found myself eating multiple times at the Chef’s Table for its inventive options like crab cake with avocado, fennel and citrus, and at Manfredi’s for its standouts like bistecca fiorentina, a thick cut ribeye coated in olive oil and spices,  and the fresh pappardelle pasta in a creamy smoked salmon sauce.

If you have the willpower, you can eat healthy on a Viking cruise. Maybe one day I will make that my mission. But I didn’t this time.

I did indulge in the spa this time—enjoying the thermal baths as well as a massage. It’s well worth your time.

Viking shore excursions are plentiful

Some of the best shore excursions on this trip were the included ones. I especially enjoyed the catamaran trips where we were taken out to secluded coves to swim, kayak or paddleboard. A highlight was a barman delivering rum swizzles via paddleboard to a group of us swimming in shallow waters.

Another included excursion, a boat tour of famous homes and hideaways, was a delight. The captain and crew were locals with musical expertise, so we enjoyed some fine singing along with the slow-paced cruise through myriad harbors and private islands.

I’m especially fond of sleeping with the windows open, especially when a ship is cruising at night. And on this journey, I feared, for a brief while, that I might have been having my own Bermuda Triangle moment. I woke up in the middle of the night, stepped out on the balcony and saw the horizon blocked by a huge brightly lit, pulsing oval. Looking to the left, the right and up in the sky, I saw nothing but darkness. Then, the clouds shifted and the full moon was revealed along with its reflection on the sea below.