There are many dangers associated with cruising. Rough seas, perhaps. Missing the ship after an over-enthusiastic shore excursion. But on a Viking cruise, I discovered the greatest threat of all: the food.
Because when the dining is this good – and so much of it is included – maintaining anything resembling your pre-cruise waistline requires a little strategy.
Let’s start with World Café, Viking’s very casual buffet restaurant, although “buffet” really doesn’t do it justice.
The choice and quality are brilliant, whether you’re after a healthy breakfast, colourful salad, fresh seafood or something considerably more calorific.
The danger, of course, is that you can have a little of everything. And then go back for the things you particularly liked.
Then there’s Mamsen’s, named after “Mamsen”, the affectionate family nickname for the mother of Viking Chairman Torstein Hagen.
Appropriately, this cosy Scandinavian gourmet deli-style café specialises in authentic Norwegian family recipes. It’s also the sort of place where popping in for “just a little something” can become another meal entirely. The waffles are legendary!
And we haven’t even reached the serious temptation.
Manfredi’s Italian Restaurant (above) is as good as many Michelin-starred restaurants I’ve eaten in.
Inspired by Italy’s beloved trattorias, it serves the sort of hearty Italian favourites that seem particularly comforting when you’re cruising through Alaska. The osso buco was divine and the lasagne quite simply the best I’ve tasted outside Bologna.
And don’t get me started on the tiramisu.
Then there’s The Chef’s Table, where a delectable rotating multi-course tasting menu takes you around the culinary world, complete with paired wines.
With both Manfredi’s and The Chef’s Table included in the cruise fare, Viking is foodie heaven – and a potential disaster for your jeans…which aren’t allowed at dinner time. Floaty numbers definitely work best!
Thankfully, Viking provides the perfect antidote: one of the best gyms I’ve encountered at sea.
Forget the pokey room containing two tired treadmills that sometimes masquerades as a cruise-ship fitness centre.
Viking’s gym is spacious, beautifully equipped and comes with the sort of views that make exercising considerably less painful. There’s an impressive range of cardio equipment, weights and strength-training machines, so there really is nowhere to hide.
My strategy? Get in there before breakfast.
Thirty or 40 minutes of cardio and weights earns you a certain moral superiority when confronted by the pastries later. I like to think of it less as burning calories and more as creating room for dinner.
And afterwards comes the reward – the fabulous LivNordic Spa.
One of Viking’s great points of difference is that its thermal suite is completely free for guests. There’s a hydrotherapy pool, hot tub, sauna, steam room, heated stone loungers, an icy plunge pool and even a snow grotto (below).
The signature Nordic bathing ritual – alternating hot and cold experiences – is a must and available to all guests. There’s something wonderfully appropriate about emerging from a sauna into a snow grotto while sailing through Alaska.
For those wanting to take relaxation to another level, there’s also an impressive menu of massages and facial treatments, and even a hairdresser onboard.
You can essentially work out, plunge, steam, soak, massage and emerge looking considerably more glamorous than when you went in.
Staying active doesn’t need to happen entirely in the gym either.
Viking itineraries naturally encourage you to move. Pick the walking tour, hike instead of taking the easy option, take the stairs rather than the lift and choose the more active shore excursions.
In Alaska, with mountains, glaciers and wildlife providing the backdrop, clocking up thousands of steps hardly feels like exercise.
And then there was my unexpected secret weapon in the battle of the bulge: line dancing.
Was it fat-burning? Absolutely. Was it fun? Eventually. Was it also excruciatingly embarrassing as I attempted to work out which foot was supposed to go where while trying not to collide with considerably more coordinated fellow passengers? Definitely.
But embarrassment apparently burns calories too – or at least that’s what I told myself as I shuffled, stomped and grapevined my way towards earning another tiramisu.
The other secret is balance rather than deprivation. Viking makes healthy eating remarkably easy, with fresh fish, salads, vegetables, fruit and lighter dishes sitting alongside all that temptation.
So if dinner is going to involve osso buco, paired wines and tiramisu, perhaps lunch doesn’t need to be a three-course affair.
If you indulged the night before, hit the gym the following morning. And if you’ve really overdone it, I’m fairly sure shivering in the snow grotto must burn at least some calories.
Because nobody goes on a Viking cruise to count calories.
Use the gym, walk whenever you can, embrace the active excursions, make liberal use of that fabulous spa and if all else fails, humiliate yourself at line dancing.
And occasionally say no to dessert.
