BARCELONA PORT – 12 – 27 October 2026
Back in the 1970s I did a lot of “cruising”, it was really my preferred choice of getting from A to B; Sydney to Port Moresby, Sydney to Auckland, Sydney to Singapore and my favourite Singapore to Hong Kong. Many years later I enjoyed the wonderful river cruise that I did with Christine, Rhonda and Ray – Budapest to Amsterdam. So doing a cruise around the Mediterranean sounded wonderful. 
After an hour-long drive from Barcelona we arrived at the dock, thank goodness the driver knew where he was going – I did think at the time we should have taken a train to the dock but on discovering that it was a maze to find your way around I decided that the taxi had been a good idea.
And, there she is Viking’s Vela. After going through security (a procedure we would have to do each time we embarked after disembarking for a tour) we made our way to the ship. Christine intentionally chose a cruise line that had ships smaller than most lines.
My first thought when I saw the ship was “are there enough life rafts for 900 people”?
Some interesting facts, 87% of the 900 passengers on our trip are repeat customers, tells a lot doesn’t it. Pretty much everyone I’ve met is on their second cruise, one couple are on their 16th Viking cruise.
The vast majority of passengers are Americans; I was surprised at first but then thought about it. Why would Europeans and those from the UK pay a small fortune to see something that’s on their doorstep. Given that there are so many Americans I haven’t heard any gossip about politics!
We were then taken up to Deck 7 for lunch and OMG so much to choose from and as much wine as you wanted to drink. We then enjoyed sitting in the sun until we could enter our rooms. We are on Deck 6 and Ray and Rhonda on Deck 3.
The menu is amazing, from sushi and seafood to roast dinners and in the restaurant we’ve been using, it’s a buffet, so I can have some sushi and some seafood or roast lamb. And the desserts, OMG I have to really control myself not to go back for seconds.
The rooms aren’t huge, but we’ll only be there to sleep anyway so size isn’t taken into account. Nice deck with chairs and table where we can sit and enjoy a cuppa as the world goes by. A bonus for Christine & me, they replaced the coffee maker and brought us a kettle (for morning cups of tea), we have a fridge to store the milk.
The sunsets are amazing and Christine and I either sit on our small verandah or go up to the deck above us and enjoy the sunset before dinner.
And another stunning sunset.
I had carried 3 bottles of wine for the 2 weeks and as the wine is complimentary with lunch and dinner, I’m in danger of having to pack 2 of the bottles in my luggage to take back to Australia, or, I could give the bottle of white to Rhonda!
I’ve made some jigsaw friends, Kim and I have been at the jigsaw table almost every day, we finally finished this one.
And started on this one yesterday, I’ve just come back from the jigsaw table and am pretty sure those I left there will finish it off this arvo. There’s a debate now about which one we’ll start next.
I haven’t been able to download any of my Kindle Unlimited books and I’ve only got one left that I downloaded when I was in OZ (saving it to read on the long flight[s] home). However, I’ve discovered that there’s a lending library downstairs so I’ve now got a few books to read.
Each evening we get a handout detailing what will happen the next day and any “shows” in the next 24 hours – we’ve not discovered where the shows are.
There’s a gym, plus saunas and pools, non of which we’ve taken advantage of. Although Christine has found the laundry and has taken advantage of the washer and dryer … going down around 7am to beat the crowds that we expect would also take advantage of the washer & dryer.
Viking cruises have two options with regard to each of the stops that the cruise would make. For Onshore Experiences, you could choose the “inclusions” or those for which you would pay. A couple of months before the cruise they open up a link and you can choose what you want to do onshore. Christine and I logged in one hour after it opened as we wanted to make sure that we would be able to get on all the on-shore trips that were “inclusions” … we need not have worried, they wouldn’t have had any “inclusions” “booked out”. However, we noted that all the really cool looking, additional cost onshore options were “booked out”, we suspect before the link was opened. Possibly those who were “repeat customers” got first dibs on these special onshore experiences. At anything from US$400 to US$800 per experience, Christine and I were never going to select these options so it wasn’t that big a deal for us.
Also, we felt that the descriptions of the experiences were not accurate – or maybe we didn’t read between the lines. I’ll be blogging more about the shore excursions in the next few days.
So, would I recommend Viking – I like the crew and the boat, so haven’t anything to complain about. Christine (a seasoned cruiser) is a little more critical – she feels that this cruise is pretty much the same as all the others she’s been on – there’s nothing that is “stand out” for her. Would I do another cruise? Probably, I’m finding it really relaxing, but let’s see how I feel after 15 days LOL.