ropomo

Just back from TA Ft. Lauderdale to Rome on Mars. I met several couples on their first trip to Europe and didn't realize that many/most places that you want to use plastic require a PIN. They had never heard of a credit card having a pin and were having significant inconveniences on shore. Make sure you know your PIN or set up a PIN for any cards you plan to use in Europe.

More complex answer, sort of. There is a heavy felt tote in the cabin that various Viking magazines are in. It is not complementary and stays with the cabin. It can be used while on board. We frequently use ours to take clothes to and from the laundry. If you do take it, you will be charged for it. The price is shown on the price list for items in the cabin if you take them.

Doesn't address the OPs question, but as info for others, the binoculars on the expedition ships seem to be of a decent quality.

If Tillan, Estonia was eliminated, that is a real shame. A beautiful city that still holds its medieval charms. The tour was very good, and the city is memorable.

We really enjoyed the included walking tours in Talin and Stavanger.

I have experienced the same, better to start it and have minimal response, than to not and have none.

The Restaurant is smaller on the Expedition ships and the WC is much larger (we never had any issue finding a nice table for breakfast, lunch or dinner) and has a much wider selection and cooked to order items at the Grill within the WC, including steaks, lobster tails, etc. Our experience was after placing your order at the grill, a server would ask where we were sitting and would deliver our food to the table. We found the WC to be a very good dining experience despite our usual preference for a table service venue. There is also a dedicated cold seafood area with a great selection of crab legs, shrimp, mussels, etc. and a large made to order sushi area. We had no problems getting reservations at the Restaurant or Manfredi's on any evening we wanted, at times as late as 5:00pm the day of. After the first day or so, I noticed that pax were gravitating to the WC due to the flexibility, quality and selection. There is Manfredi's on the Expedition ships, just no Chef's table.

As referenced above, and to clarify, only EXPEDITION ships require reservations in the restaurant.

The view count on threads is not updating. Probably linked to lack of notifications.

Blue lagoon is nice. Hard to believe they have built such a successful tourist destination from the effluent of a geothermal plant. Yes, the Blue Lagoon is the "waste water" from a geothermal plant.

The Viking Homelands itinerary is very port intensive and to be honest, you probably won't spend a lot of time in your cabin. We were on port side and had no issues with it. Most of the time while sailing, we were either sleeping, eating or enjoying the public areas of the ship. I don't believe you can go wrong with either side. As for viewing the fjords, most of the transits of the fjords was done in the dark.

Our bags were inspected for fruits and vegetables at the port in Acapulco

With the SS package, you can get doubles, triples or whatever (the $18 price cap of the SS package applies to the cost of a single only). If like me, a bourbon drinker, I usually just get a glass of bourbon that is enough for several drinks and can then pour over ice with a splash of water as desired.

Beverages also available from room service.

Just speculating here, but was on Polaris, an expedition ship in 2023, for over 2 weeks doing laundry in the free facilities numerous times had no notice of any scent whatsoever. I am extremely sensitive to fragrance in detergents, etc. I suspect your experience was from a previous user of the equipment.