larry1365

Took a Corregidor tour during a previous World Cruise. I found it extremely interesting. Amazing to see how unprepared the US was for WWII in the Pacific.

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Docked at Brunei today and we have declared a sea day. Not very comfy with the Sultan’s imposing strict sharia law on his subjects with all that entails, especially for women, while he owns places all over the world like The Dorchester in London. Tales of his excesses are easily found. Then he returns to the largest palace on the planet while thousands of his subjects live on stilts over the river without basic sanitation. So he has a gold toilet, so what? I have seen Elvis’s gold bathroom on his plane! Who has meant more to the world, Elvis or the Sultan? Ok, that’s about as political as I need to be on Cruise Critic.[emoji481][emoji483][emoji41]

We enjoyed the best “included” tour, with a wonderful Hindu Chinese guide. We visited a very clean dry market, a small but interesting history museum and a visit to part of the water village. Yes, the houses are on stilts and have all the conveniences but waste water pipes. 30,000 out of the 150,000 of the capital city live there and apparently don’t want to move, even when offered very cheap subsidized housing. 70% are Muslim and there is a very relaxed Sharia law. The civic legal system is based on their English heritage. The people love the 29th Sultan (king) whose family has ruled for 400+ years. Yes he lives in luxury, but many more people now live in modern large 2-story houses than when we were here 7 years ago. The country has $0 debt, no taxes, $1 cost per medical visit (including hospital stays and surgeries) and free education. Their money comes from offshore crude oil and natural gas platforms, making them the 5th richest nation in the world. The people and school children were very friendly. A really good day and fine world cruise experience.

We are leaving NZ now, crossing the Tasman Sea for for 3 days before 7 port stops in Australia. My only disappointment for my fellow travelers is that they didn’t get to experience the beautiful sounds, snow-capped mountains, glaciers and multi-colored lakes we saw when we did a Tauck tour of both the North and South Islands. It truly is a spectacular country.

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Thanks. We have a trusted Dogsitter of many years who also house sits. But our dog is not in the best health, can't go up and down steps very well, and I just don't think she would live through four months. When we went on the Eastern Seaboard cruise in October, she stopped eating, and Dogsitter had to put canned sardines in her food. She has us wrapped around her finger--paw. I think I have mail and bills figured out now. I am wondering how many of you WC folks used Viking insurance or where you did get it. I called this morning and Viking quoted $7200 for the two of us...

Viking was a couole thousand less than that for our 120-day WC that we board on Friday. It was cheaper than several others I looked into. Also included pre-existing conditions. We are both in early 70s.

If you you use online bill paying it's not difficult. I know some are hesistant to use internet banking, but I have used USAA Bank for many, many years and have never had a problem. Most bills go to Costco Visa (great rewards...3% for travel, including WC) which is paid off every month from my USAA checking accoujt. The others are direct-billed to my USAA checking account. I only have to be concerned about property tax, which is billed twice per year. I paid 2nd half early (which happended even before the recent tax legistation made that a wise decision.) Otherwise I could leave a check with someone to mail in. So I was able to check off "banking" from a long checklist for preparing for a 120-day trip.

Thanks Jim...this will be a tremendous help for all of us taking the WC. FYI, the Roll Call thread was started on Oct 9, 2016 and in the 14 months it is up to 195 pages and 3,887 posts! We've been an active group...with lots of shared, helpful information.

No forward open deck on the Explorer to go for sail-in/sail-out like on the older ships.

Peggy

Peggy -- That would be a killer for me. Miss sailing wih you.

As in the past, on our World Cruise I will have a 2'x3' map. I will mark in red our intended 120-day route. As we progress, I will fill it in with black magic marker. (Caution: if the map is paper, tape some computer paper to the reverse side in case the black were to bleed thru.)

Very well said DEEC. Our situation too including two 90+ year old Mothers. We lost our dear dog in May which sealed the deal for us as we would never have been gone 4+ months and left her. So, with so many things lining up and with Viking's over the top help and inclusiveness, the age old question of If not now, when? came up and we said NOW!! Looking forward to meeting you onboard soon!:cool:

Nice replies Deec and Jim. Lookforwrd to making friends with you two and so many others on this world cruise. Viking has been so very helpful in planning this expereience, as have all the pariticpant on our Cruise Critic thread.

Found my own workaround. Searched under my thread on forums and it brought up "Viking Sun 12/15/17 World Cruise." Was able to get in that way. Still no pull downs on my profile. Many propblems still being reported on the opening Community Page under ""Report Bugs & Glitches."

Drop down memus from the upper right profile area are not working for the second day. Resulting in an inability to reach subscribed Viking World Cruise 2018 thread. Anyone know a workaround to reach that thread?

Heartily disagree. For those who say "why not an elitist name?" -- I thought the last time I checked into this RSSC page there was a great deal of dicussion about the need to attract younger passengers. From what I read Millennials, GenXers and some Boomers, even, aren't very interested in elitism, much less formalities, fancy gold and crystal.

Our Antacrtica, South Georgia and the Falklands cruise on Lindblad/Natiponal Geo was life-changing. No churches or castles!

Just a friendly reminder, especially to newer members, that we aren't allowed to name travel agencies (brick and mortar or online) by name or ask for recommendations of agencies or volunteer to share the name of our TA's (even off line). CC is really strict about its TA policy and will delete posts and/or suspend posting privileges and/or lock this thread (see Guidelines). We can talk about our experiences but we can't name names.

 

Please don't shoot the messenger.

Innteresting, when I click on the Guidelines link in your post and the Guidelines link on the CC home page, I get a warning from McAfee on my PC, that it's a bad site and won't connect me. Though I could access them using my iPad.

Only ctritcism was their attempt to create "drama" and that they didn't show more shots inside the ship...since we haven't been on the a VO ship yet. Buffet lines looked a bit croweded.

Caution: Adapters and converrters are two diffrent devices. An adapter only allows us plugs to work. It does not change the voltage. A converter changes both the voltage and the cycles (60HZ to 50HZ). Most computer/phone type products only need an adapter. But it you have products that run on 50-60 cycles (such as a medical nebulizer) you'll need a converter. However, since the Sun has US power sockets, there will be no problem.

Viking enticed us back to ocean cruising. Before our 2016 cruise with Viking, out last ocean cruise was 2009 and we really hadn't even contemplated another ocean until 2014 when we saw the new Viking Oceans brochure and the 2016 Midnight Sun itinerary which we booked within days of seeing it--even though it was two years away on a cruise line that had yet to sail its first ocean voyage and for a ship that was not even under construction. We had done two Viking river cruises up to this point (China in 2010 and Ukraine in 2013) and booked our third river cruise (Eastern Danube, 2015) at the same time we booked our first VO. And, we booked our second VO cruise before we even took our first, because we saw something we liked.

 

We had long since sailed our last Caribbean cruise. Ship as destination doesn't work for us either; we can sit around at home for far less money and so we had started exploring river cruising, which would take us to places we were interested in seeing and exploring. I thinking VO came on the scene at just about the time we might have taken the leap to the Regents/Oceania/Azamara and since we liked the Viking river product, we were fairly sure that they could translate the experience to larger ocean going vessels.

 

There is a lot about the mainstream cruise lines that has become less appealing to me (too many people, on-board hard-sell, etc.) and a lot about river cruising that I really liked (small, laid-back, included tours). A river boat is a traveling hotel taking me to places I want to explore. It is a big improvement over a land tour covering the same territory--no packing and un-packing, no days wasted getting from one city to the next.

We have taken 8 or 9 ocean cruises...inicluding 2 Regent World Cruises. A few years ago when Viking Ocean Cruises launched, I became intrigued with their planned ships -- clean Scandinavian exterior and interior spaces, generous-sized cabins, 360 degree promenade deck, airy eating spots, etc. Then when they announced their first World Cruiise in May 2015, we immediately signed up. Everyhting that has transpired since with VO and the positive reports of passengers has convinced me that our 120-day cruise is going to be just what we are looking for. (Regent has priced itself out of our price range.) While the Viking Sun will have about 200 passenger more than our two previous WC's we like its similarly, all-inclusive nature. As much as we look forward to the ports of call, we know we will appreciate the shipboard life for 4 months -- enjoying lectures & excursions and relaxing & dining with new friends.

Thanks, good to hear...we are in 6012 for the World Cruise, LA to London.

Yes, Dolebludger...they seem to be all more than $1,000 per day...some way more.

Currently the OBC's for US residents is 1/2 the original offer back in early 2016.

(And they appear to be gone for the 120 day cruise!)

Not surprising. We are booked on the 120-day cruise and the WC is pretty well sold out. That may all change once final payment is due.

On the initial 2018 World Cruise promotions all gratuities and service fees, plus the Silver Spirits beverage pkg, were included. (Plus onboard medical services, full-service laundry and Business Class air). Additionally there were OBCs for excursions, spa services and shopping. I haven't looked recently to see if these OBCs have changed.

Just dipping into the Regent board once again to see what's up. This top posting seems to be typical...way off topic, in this case whining about children, rather than how or should Regent attract millennials? Some 56 posts (and dominated by over-frequent posters) that don't carry the discussion forward. Also the NYT reporter said a 10-day cruise started at about $580/night per person -- or $11,600/couple for 10 days. From what I've seen, per diems on the Explorer quickly rise to about or above $1,000/day.

Excellent comments Peregrina. Those are Viking attributes I keep reading about on this board and look forward to experiencing on our Viking World Cruise next year. However, I have been -- and still am -- a fan of the Celebrity experience: two cruises on the Millennium and one on the Constellation (including inaugural seasons for both); and one on the larger Reflection in 1915 to the Eastern Med for a family celebration of our 50th -- with 9 of us including twins (7) and brother 4.

Here is a link to changes to Viking's entertainment changes:

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=7590

In addition to not having any production shows on the 2018 World Cruise, also included is info that Viking also plans to offer some off- the-ship overland tours.

It will be interesting to learn locations and details.

On our 2007 and 2010 Regent World Cruises overnight hotel visits in Bangkok and Cairo were included for all world cruisers. We paid for an overnight to Agra in order to visit the Taj Mahal. There were other multi-nights offered on each cruise, but in our opinion the high per diem already being charged did not warrant the added expense. We are looking forward to hearing more about Viking's plans.

Looking forward to more information regarding planned 2018 Sky World Cruise overnight overland tours. This is the first first notice we've seen that any will be offered. It will be interesting to learn locations and details. On our 2007 and 2010 Regent World Cruises overnight hotel visits in Bangkok and Cairo were included for all world cruisers. We paid for an overnight to Agra in order to visit the Taj Mahal. There were other multi-nights offered on each cruise, but in our opinion the high per diem already being charged did not warrant the added expense. We are looking forward to hearing more about Viking's plans.