rmalbers

I think it shows how much FCC money has to still flow thru the cruise line, I think it will be really apparent, when the FCC flow ends.

I didn't read all the replies but my wife said the instructions were only in one spot off to the side so she said one person read the instruction well the other pushed buttons. This was on octantis exp.

That's interesting, no risk assessment. It sort of isn't even insurance then. It's sort of a trip protection fee, lol!

Ya, the voucher would sure be better than the regular cancel costs that's for sure. Yes, that's right about purchase timing. My TA has already got me into a cheaper insurance but I got the email for a trip that had: "This plan may only be purchased up to 120 days (180 days for voyages of 35 days or longer) prior to your scheduled Viking cruise departure date." There was other fine print I didn't read also, loL.

I couldn't tell you any of the captain's names but I did see captain kate before she got a ship, I'm in the 'I like her' club.

Wow, I never thought about it until I saw this, I was on a Viking Expedition cruise last month and there were no ship photographer/s.

I 'thought' a big reason to go with viking is because their insurance had 'cancel for any reason', I thought that's why it cost more. Is that not correct?

Wow, you should post that in the 'Ports of Call' section. BTW: I recognize some of those, my sister used to live there.

Yes, I think that was part of it but our travel agent also had to say that whatever they had for day1 travel would not work for us. The story is even more crazy actually: on the return they wanted us scheduled to get off at 3AM. Our TA said there is no way and had that straightened out to the later flight 11:00am, for a while, then they reverted it back to that 3am thing. It gets crazier, at end of cruise we are waiting at 3am to get off and they announce the flight has been cancelled. We end up on the 11:00am flight that we were actually scheduled on originally. It's so crazy I hardly believe it. It was a 22 hour trip home and not even that far, I could have driven it in 1/2 the time. Oh, I didn't know we could say prices here but I saw another post that had price stuff in it. That trip did/was part of a $399 airfare deal that was going on, I think, the first part of aug or last part of July if that makes any difference.

Ya, our TA just mentioned the 3.3% savings if payment is direct (no credit card), that's a chunk of change on a 15 day cruise down payment and final payment! I'm new here but haven't seen that mentioned before, maybe it's new.

Our TA arranged both, the hotel and transportation where both thru Viking and on our viking invoice (trans isn't listed separately on invoice). To get to the ship Viking used a bus that was, I would guess, 2/3 full. I think Viking must have used more than one, night before, hotel in Milwaukee. I just looked at the invoice, the Westin Milwaukee was $0 and included under the Air Fare as 'Additional Item'. The trans from airport to hotel and hotel to ship are not even listed on the invoice. Our TA has been in the business for a while and really knows what she's doing.

Interesting, we had viking air, pre hotel and transfers and came in a day early and had viking van transfer to the hotel, we were the only ones he had to pick up at that time, he add others later. This was for viking expedition great lakes so maybe that was different. I think how they do it is if you don't have many/any other options, maybe. But these days, you have to fly in at least a day early, really two days early is better, right, so maybe things are changing.

For me it would depend on the itinerary. I would pass if it's a carrib cruise because there is going to be a lot more late night noise/drinking back there, for example. If it's a cooler weather, older crowd type itinerary I might do it.

Pricing has been mentioned a few times that I've seen. I know there is food/fuel/employee inflation but I was on a Viking cruise last month and I can't believe how many times I heard people say they were using FCC (Viking has a different term for it). I think there is still a lot of FCC that has to move thru the system on all cruise lines and then maybe we'll get at least a little better pricing.

Strange, the bars were open in US waters when I did the Mil to Thunder bay three weeks ago.

I think it's because most people have cruised to the places they've wanted to go. I did a Viking Expedition ship in the US Great Lakes for something new and different (and have another Viking cruise booked).

Ya, teachers say all the time that the kids will learn more on a trip than they will in school for that same period of time.

My wife got two birthday cakes, not sure how that happened. One at the specialty restaurant two days before her birthday and another one in our cabin on her birthday, with a bottle of bubbly.

Shorts and tee shirts weather to gale force winds with everything I brought on. Just take a lot of layers and you'll be fine. There were only a couple of us out on the deck after a while at the southern tip of SA.

We did a Christmas/NY cruise around south america. There were a lot of people and kids from Spain, I wasn't expecting it. They were all great kids and had a really good time from what I could tell. That was really a great cruise.

For all you sushi fans, I was on Viking's Octantis last week and their sushi bar is included and has it's own separate area by the buffet area. I'm not into it but it was very impressive looking.

Ok, I've always thought that there would be no way I would sail X in a cabin with a infinite veranda but after sailing in a cabin with one in the Great Lakes last week on a Viking Expedition ship I'm changing my mind. I really liked it for the weather conditions we had that time of the year. It was also nice standing right in front of it without the wind (and rain, sometimes). Not saying I would do it in the carib (I'm not in Jan 2023) but for some locations I think it works perfect. I'm converted.

You still need verifly if your cruise hits canada.

But they will continue to eat, they don't get much time to screw around. (source: last week) They do have meet and greets that makes it easy to ask questions.

A Celebrity captain said once his favorite button on the ship was the horn!