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I Cruised In A Viking's Top Explorer Suite. Here's What I Thought
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Jan 28, 2025
I booked to cruise in an Explorer Suite on Viking Ocean Cruises to see what it looked like and was like going on a Viking cruise vacation in one of the best suites on a Viking Ocean cruise ship. I show you around the suite and all the features and perks and talk about if I would book it again - and things for you to consider if you thinking of booking this type of suite on Viking Ocean Cruises ABOUT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS: If you want to get cruising right, Tips For Travellers makes it easy to plan and have the incredible cruise experiences you dream of every time. All my Tips For Travellers advice, tips and tricks tips draw on everything that I have learnt on the 77 cruises I have done to date. BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTs ————————————————- Check out my T-Shirt range: http://bit.ly/TFTStore SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ————————————————————— Become a Channel Member and get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers Make a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=V9STJGYSEMGLJ Buy my book “Cruise Traveler’s Handbook: USA Amazon https://amzn.to/2YVFmG4 and https://amzn.to/3tzIxBn UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3oXbzYc and https://amzn.to/3qawqIQ FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA ——————————————— TikTok: @garybembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
is it completely and utterly crazy to
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spend between $11,000 and
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$1,500 a night for an Explorer Suite
0:09
onboard a viking ocean cruise ship if
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you're new here welcome aboard I'm Gary
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benbridge and my goal is to help you
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make it fun and easy to discover plan
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and have Unforgettable Cruise vacations
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now to have an unforgettable vacation in
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a cruise Suite there are seven things
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that every Suite has to tick in my book
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to make it a great site so I'm going to
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take a look at how this explor Suite on
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Viking Venus hits those seven must haves
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there's a couple of disappointments to
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come and some highlights so stick around
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every Cruise Suite needs a good seating
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area on an Explorer Suite you have
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actually a combined open area which has
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a seating area and a dining area more on
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that later the seating area is pretty
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good it's a good siiz area you have a
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sofa you've got a couple of occasional
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chairs a really big coffee table which
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has various magazines books and that
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kind of stuff on big interactive
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television there which is pretty much
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like most cruise ships you're able to
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look at things like your onboard account
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excursions talks that have happened in
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the theater you can actually watch live
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events that are on in the theater there
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the map of where you're sailing to and
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so on the choice of movies was okay uh I
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tend to bring my own anyway I download
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the most current ones off Netflix it was
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an okay range of movies not particularly
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incredible the second key area in the
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suite is a dining area of some kind now
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here on the SP speed it's a pretty big
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area there's this big table here which
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has a rather nice modled kind of glass
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effect here and seating for four people
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to be honest with you I used it once and
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that's all I ordered some room service
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breakfast cuz I felt I kind of had to
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use this table so it does take up a lot
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of space it looks pretty good but of
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course the question is do you really
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need a dining table but certainly it's
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always a key part of a sweet the ability
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to dine and this is a pretty good one
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you also have a table here which has a
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mini bar it has where you have things
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like your Vox system system a coffee
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machine which is actually great really
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nice coffee as well and those are one
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the little touches you have the mini bar
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which is also in here is pretty good and
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there you have drinks both alcoholic and
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soft drinks to your choice replenish
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daily the mini bar also had some rather
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nice snacks a couple of tobleron and
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these rather nice snacks which I got a
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bit addicted to the great thing is
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they're refreshed every day and it's uh
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there's no charge for that it's
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including the fair one other big
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difference to other Cruise Lines is when
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it comes to the plugs so normally when I
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recommend people going on a cruise ship
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I say take lots of two pin us style
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plugs however on the Viking ships it's
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slightly different you need much more of
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the European round plug adapters lots of
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USB charge points as well here and
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you'll see later in the bedroom as well
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there is though one disappointment in
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this Lounge dining area and that's
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behind the curtains because if you open
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the curtains there's an amazing balcony
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which overlooks the bow of the
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ship however you can't get out there
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it's a fake balcony you can't get out
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however it's not a total disaster
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because behind this curtain is a
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protected balcony which has some amazing
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lounges and stuff it really is very very
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nice so even though it's actually a
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really windy day uh it's completely
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protected and you can sit out here even
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in sunny weather in rainy weather in
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windy weather and it's a great really
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space to relax so that's that's a big
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tick as well but pity about those other
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balconies cuz they do look really
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inviting the third area that sweet
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should have is normally some kind of
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walk-in dressing area type of thing now
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this is a pretty good one you've got
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hanging space down here although not
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huge amount of hanging space it was just
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me on this particular trip and I took it
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all up myself then you have loads and
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loads of drawers you have a really big
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safe here really good size safe where
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you can fit huge laptops or big je boxes
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or whatever you Happ to bring with you
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uh but as I said loads and loads of
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space you also then have here a rather
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nice little Dressing Table area so as
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you can see it's a pretty nice Dressing
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Table area really big drawer there uh
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magnifying mirror for your makeup or
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whatever you need to do so that's pretty
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good that then leads into the bedroom
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the bedroom is great it's a really big
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size you've got F of a big king bed
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which of course is two single beds that
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you can split and have it as a twin room
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and again you got a really big
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Television over there as well
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there is one slight downside though to
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this room which is it looks out onto a
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fantastic balcony over there however you
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cannot get out on the balcony so the
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same as in the dining Lounge area that
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is a kind of a fake balcony it's rather
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tempting you get a great view out over
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the bow of the ship but you can't go out
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there so that's a bit disappointing so
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the next key feature of a suite is the
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bathroom and bathrooms on Suites should
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be a bit of a wow factor and this
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certainly does not disappoint let's go
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take a look at the bathroom and see why
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it's something special so probably a
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little bit echoey in here but the bathro
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is a really really great size and it's
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divided into two areas so you have the
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twin basins here with big mirror behind
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me as you can actually you can see over
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there the toilet of course uh heated
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Tower rails heated floor but what's
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really fantastic is you then head into a
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wet room and in the wetroom you have a
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shower which is great with a little
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space to sit down if you want a shower
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when you see down there's a great
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looking bath there of course many people
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don't like baths me I do at least at
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once during a cruise like to soak in
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some bubbles so perhaps something I did
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on this particular Cruise so just to
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give you a sense of just how big this
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room is this is me I mean complete
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stretch out so it's a massive big room
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so definitely the bathroom does
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definitely have a really big wow factor
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it's a big tick for that one the other
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thing I also liked is the toiletries
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which are brand named toiletries which
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you normally find a sweet it's not a
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brand I know if it's it's called free
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what I really liked about it is the
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writing is huge on it body wash shampoo
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conditioner that kind of stuff problem I
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only have with brand toiletries is it's
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all very sophisticated and Tiny I can't
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really see what it is but of course when
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one gets to an age it's really good to
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have those big bold lettering for the
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products there is one slightly strange
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thing in the bathroom and this is this
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magnifying mirror here I'm
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6'2 and it's just I can just see in it
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when I was shaving for example so
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certainly if you're any shorter than 6
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or two this is no good to you there is
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one however in the dressing area that
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you could use and actually move in here
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but slightly strange that was put so
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high up now the other area when it comes
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to Suites is Perks and bonuses and all
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that kind of stuff now on many Cruise
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Lines when you're traveling in a suite
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you'll have things like you'll have a
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butler which Viking don't have you might
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have a very special restaurant for sweet
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guests Viking don't have that but you do
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have the various uh included specialty
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restaurants which you can dine at pretty
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much as much as you like if you pre-plan
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but they don't have many of those other
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features that you do have for sweet any
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guest so the real thing it's about the
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cabin itself it's about the suite itself
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and it's not just about all the perks
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and bonuses that go with it you do get
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quicker access and earlier access to
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things like ability to book excursions
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to book those specialed restaurants but
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it's very much about the cabin or should
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I say the suite are there any things
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that I would change about the suite well
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actually there was very little that I
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would change about the suet the only one
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thing that I think would be fantastic is
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in the bedroom is they had full blackout
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blinds they have very beautiful curtains
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but they're not Total Blackout so
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particularly if you're doing something
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like traveling right up to the north to
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the nor wi and Fs you know bringing ey
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Shades would be a good idea but other
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than that I was very comfortable with
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the suite and I enjoyed all the bits and
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pieces that it had was it worth the
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money to stay in the suite it was a
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magnificent Suite it was extremely
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comfortable and I was actually on a
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cruise which had mostly C days it was
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one of the return to Cruiser so only had
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two ports in 7 days so having the suite
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to retire to to Retreat to was actually
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pretty fantastic cuz we were setting
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where there wasn't incredible weather
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all the time so from that perspective as
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an experience it was definitely worth it
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of course the big question is will I do
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it again will I book an Explorer Suite
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again I'm not sure that I will be
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reading the piggy bank again because
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looking at some of the other cabins they
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are absolutely magnificent too but it
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was a fantastic experience so certainly
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I was doing it as a special occasion if
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you got a special occasion and you have
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a big piggy bank to raid definitely give
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an explor s a try I really really
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enjoyed my experience here if you want
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to find more about Viking why don't you
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watch this playlist that I put together
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here including one of the most important
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things that Viking does different to
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other cruise lines so click on that and
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I'll see you over there
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