rmalbers

I think part of it is they don't allow scooters right? I was surprised, the average age was lower than I expected.

To help with decision making we took a taxi from the ship to central downtown Reykjavik (3 weeks ago), same block as a gray line office, and it was $33 (US). This was at around 9:00 am.

They have stuff to make any drink you can come up with.

One thing they said on the last VO cruise I was on, a couple of times, they gave numbers on who was taking the included tours and it was around 2/3 of the passangers each time. I thought that was interesting, I had always kind of wondered what the numbers were. More people take the included than I thought.

Yes, I was thinking about that, that would be another benefit for sure with global. Now that I know more about it I'll be doing global 'everything' for sure next time. With travel these days, you really never know what's going to happen and this is another way to be prepared. The multi SIM ability was one of the reasons I bought the phone I have, I just had the first chance to test it on the last trip (Iceland).

That's good to know. One thing I didn't like is that I really had no idea if my regional plan was installed correctly and going to work, until I got to the 'region'. I should not have been worried because it worked (except for the SMS stuff I ran into) but anyway, now I know. Hopefully, this thread helps some others understand it better also.

Interesting, I'll have to remember that, that sort of makes since after having hearing about it now.

Ya, tmobile sent me a text warning me about charges like that, I disabled my tmobile sim right away. Now that I know it works I won't be without a esim for the areas I'm traveling in for sure, it's real convenient. I never thought about the SMS text problem with purchases until it happened.

OP: Don't get to hung up on the marketing each cruise lines puts out there. There are so many different cruise lines that the thing to do is try different lines and see what you like and don't like. I really think you'll find a fit along the way and you'll visit a lot of neat places while doing it. VO is not for everyone, that's for sure, but VO is a great fit for some people, they run full ships just like most cruise lines.

Ya, now that I know it works I guess I'll probably just go with the global 'everything' next time, that's probably the way to go. It really isn't that much more money than the regional one I bought. This was the first time I used it and wasn't sure if I could get it to work or not.

They look fairly close to each other. Do most of the excursions head west? Are/were they both tender stops? My sister lived there for years, it is a great area for sure.

I know that some people here use airalo ESIM's for data because that's where I first heard about it. I used their esim on the last trip and it work great and I'm really glad I had it but: I had several cases where I was buying (trying to buy) an excursion or tickets and to pay at their checkout required sending an SMS message with a 'code' to my phone number, which, being data only I didn't have (and of course, didn't have access to my US phone number). Do any of you users of data only ESIMs have a work around for that? My google searches and airalo don't really have any answers. Oh, and I'm android so apple imessage is out.

Also to add, they way they do the kayaks takes a lot of the 'difficulty' out of it. They tow the empty kayaks to a small bay or 'feature' and take you to them in a zodiac so there isn't any real rough water paddling/crossing from the ship to calm/er water. But I agree, even with the ease at which they handle their toys, if you are not going to use them you do probably want to pick VO or VR rather that VE.

Yes, split the insurance (or whatever the term is), that is what our TA did for us on the last cruise, it can save a lot of money on costs for longer cruises, especially with a room upgrade, etc.

OP: One thing you need to say, do you want to be in hotel in the middle of the action or a place in a quiet area, by small bars, etc. away from it, (or I guess in between would be an option). There are so many places to stay that you have to narrow it down a little. Also, I think it's been said, you do NOT want to carry/roll luggage around at all in Venice.

What is a 'shaving mirror' anyway? There is a large mirror, that doesn't fog up (heated?), above the sink in PV bathrooms.

Yes, that just happened to us in NYC a month ago. I sort of wonder if hotels have gotten sued or something over meds going bad in the 'cooler'. We asked if there was a fridge in the room and they said no but one would be delivered to the room. It was there when we got there and I opened up the bar cabinet and there was a 'fridge' there. I told the front desk we don't need two and they said, 'oh, that's not a fridge it's a cooler', anyway I said ok. My beer stayed cold the whole time!

So, the there is a cabin between 6001 and the bridge, is that true for all the VO ships because some people make it sound like 6001 is 'right' behind/beside the bridge. I've been wondering about this exact topic because 6001 is available on a cruise I'm looking at.

One thing, with air travel to about anywhere, running full, I sort of expect that Viking air will become even more limited. If the planes are running over capacity it's going to be hard for Viking to get any pricing breaks, which will make it hard for Viking to even offer 'air'. There just won't be any upside, for VIking (to make money) or the airlines (to make more money) in the 'air' sales/cost category.

Didn't read all the comments but Saturn Aug 30th start made it to both Greenland stops. Crew said only this cruise and the cruise before made it all season.

It depends on your cabin, some have more than three.

I'm going on a VO cruise in 10 days. I did a Viking Exp ship cruise in the Great Lakes a year ago, it was great. It was more like being on a large yacht than a cruise ship. Nice public space everywhere and no crowds anywhere. The only downside is cost and less entertainment. Maybe I should add, my X cruise this winter was after the changes started and at this point it will probably be a while before I do that again.

You save 3% by paying via a direct method.

The internet 'quality' will vary somewhat based on the latitude of the cruise you are on. In the north/south there is less starlink coverage. https://satellitemap.space/

I haven't read all the replies but a consideration is how port intensive the cruise is and how long you are on shore. If you hangout in the town port's bars for a while that's less drinks on the ship.