uktog

I’m not cancelling I just will review booking Muzak plus the daily hop on hop off guest regime. I’ve had it on MSC yacht club. It’s not for me

Glad it’s worked for you. Shows they can get it right! Maybe we should have persisted. We just wanted to lift and shift which we believed we were eligible to do. Our agent tried we tried all communication remains unanswered today. We past the deadline for making the transaction so we’ve lost two deposits and our free nights. Leaves a horrid taste in our mouths. Our door remains open if they ever wake up 😀

I did one of those hop on hop off cruises on MSC. It was awful guests arriving and departing every day so disruptive. I thought Explora was to be high end, they are certainly charging high end, this change is a disaster. I’ve vouchers to use if I ever get them their back office customer service absolutely sucks and I feel like I’m seen as a cash cow. So as soon as I can unless things change I’m moooving 🐄 out

Muzak is a cheap deal breaker- but I’m stuck with vouchers because they messed me around so much and continue to do so

In December 2000 we made our first ever visit to New York and spent a lovely morning up the Twin Towers. Our hearts were broken so soon after and in 2014 we came to see the Museum and memorial. Today we paused again and then enjoyed the future of the One World Observatory. We had pre booked tickets so no lines - as we arrived they offered us a rebooking for another day due to poor visibility due to weather. As we didn’t have another day we went ahead anyway. Not perfect but pretty good visibility we thought. Surprised they were offering date swaps. Spotted our location for tomorrow 😀 and loved the info IPads they really worked so often gadgets don’t. In the afternoon we did something we’ve always wanted- a tour of the UN. It’s something you have to prebook and there’s a few security and ID checks but a senior ticket is just an unbelievable $18. The tour lasts an hour, the docents are outstanding and you get to go right into The Security Council The Economic Council snd the General Council We learned a lot, a thought provoking day and we’d thoroughly recommend the UN tour in particular. As we’ve hit +20k steps and we are supposed to be taking it easy look out for two people suffering in the morning who will struggle to get out of the sofas in the evening

So we made it to New York despite the challenges in UK airspace. I feel so sorry for those who are now struggling to get flights in time. We are always tired after a long flight (even though this time we had the fab new BA plane layout and great food) so we had set up our go to cruise transfer company Welcome Pickups rather than find a cab. As usual they were on time lovely car. We too were on time for the driver, the Immigration at JFK was one of the best US entries we’ve experienced. This trip having been to New York a few times and stayed around Times Square we decided to stay in the new Hotel Indigo on Trinity Street right opposite Trinity Church. So far it’s very good nice (smallish) room and a lovely view. We ventured out having made reservations in advance to eat at Trinity Street. I’m a Dunfermlime girl obsessed by anything Andrew Carnegie - after all he funded so much of all me and my peers education regardless of our backgrounds. Trinity Street is housed in the massive vault of the Safe Deposit company connected to Carnegies bank and you eat by this massive vault door - the food was pretty good and not unreasonable price. Now we head to see if we can sleep!

We have been so lucky on this one. We took off just before the problem started. I feel so sorry for anyone from the UK travelling tomorrow and needing a domestic connection. It’s not looking good

Indeed welcome to the cancellation of the cancellation club to the newcomers 😢

After a night at our local airport hotel we are off! Two boomerang retirees (we stop, we are persuaded back to help, we stop, we are back - get the picture) who travel a lot. Over 80 cruises but this is just our second on Viking. Having been loyal to one line in recent years (Azamara) for various reasons we are also using others - mainly itinerary. Our first Viking In Search of Northern lights was a success although we did not get a real Viking experience (remember booking to use the spa pool, spitting in the tubes before a morning coffee, having to stay in your room for 6 hours after a pierside test etc). So very much looking forward to this full experience. We have our flights through Viking (couldn’t beat the price independently) but have done our own hotels and transfers. So we are sitting in the BA lounge at Heathrow about to board. First picture from our first flight down to London from Scotland. There are two air corridors into Heathrow- one goes right over Windsor Castle but if you’re lucky you get the city run. To appreciate it, sit on the right hand side as you face the nose (D-F on many planes). Isn’t it a cracking view. If you look closely it’s a Bank Holiday so Tower Bridge is up 😀

Yes but it’s a much much reduced number of books compared to the other three ships. All four ships also have travel related books in the Den by future sales

Love it! Ive got vouchers I will need to use. I’m not letting them go to waste after all the pain I’ve had (never mind the insults from their Facebook groupies who refuse to apologise for the lies they spread!!)

We saw it last year and really enjoyed it. Nice walk to the end of the pier in St Maarten to some permanent staging. you can see the ship in some of the photos Lovely somewhat strong rum punches. It was early December so the bands were in the Christmas mood.

Bizzarely that still shows as bookable on their website. I am trying to sort out Aug/Sept 2024 and just cannot work it out!

They have a Restaurant Desk manned all day next to Guest Services and Shore Excursions on the ground floor. The staff there are very helpful

I read that although getting Greenland 😀 Saturn has cancelled L’Anse again today. I don’t think they’ve made it to that Canadian port all season. It’s replaced with a sea day (so 3.5 sea days in a row). By now other lines would have made a tweak to the itinerary to avoid this tender port. Why doesn’t Viking?

Mine is there for my cruise and I’ve not made final payment

I could not get a photo because I was driving but tourists in Edinburgh will be seeing some unusual things. Today at the bus stop on George IV bridge there was a clown and a fairy waiting to board. Ok we are used to that just now. There was also a pink elephant further up the queue. What was bizarre was the clown and the fairy both had goats on leads with them. I bet that bus was fun!

For goodness sake I was about to tell my TA what to book to use my vouchers now in the plural having had a May and a July cruise cancelled. Whilst it’s maybe for some nice that with what looks like a year’s warning you get a 30% voucher remember 30% is all that’s currently on offer for those dumped off with a week’s warning. Onboard may be lovely but they need to get their shoreside act in order!

Maybe some stability in pricing rather than offer after offer would help as this in addition to the website debacle might convince people to book at the point where air prices are sensible. For us heading to Europe if I’m not on rewards it’s about -6 months long haul is -9 but always watching for the timing of the BA winter sale. Trouble is at those times Azamara cruise prices were crazier

Also some of the very early questions and answers responses on the subject were written in such a way that people might expect there to be a connection between the two schemes

Yes, I gave up on that one (and that was before the cancellation saga!!) Thank you to the reasonable behaviour on this board and realisation that things are good and things are not good. The Facebook page is out of control!!

And work out ahead when you need your passport for other holidays. We built in a four month no foreign holiday period just in case for DHs passport renewal.

There is no loyalty scheme - no tier system - an no one talks about what level they are at or how many cruises they have done which is really refreshing. Their officers are not as visible, which you might like or not like, but it has the advantage no one is chasing to get the attention of anyone if you know what I mean. They have one event for everyone who has sailed before but when we were on our first cruise the cruise director said in her announcement - actually everyone come along this evening we are a friendly bunch! Go to the Viking Board as there is a repeat guest benefit - £200 for everyone - but if you find someone who has been with them before there is a referral scheme which gets newbies to benefit . Its all covered on that board

Unless you want a very specific excursion or date and time for booking it’s very rare to have an issue and in any event onboard they will make adjustments if at all possible. Everyone can board from 1100 subject to “crowd control” to filter you on - it’s just the access to the room that’s phased and doesn’t give us an issue at all waiting until 1 or 2 depending on our room. By the time we’ve been to the safety briefing and had a spot of lunch it’s time to go to the room. Vikings business model is much more about direct booking and travel agents are very very limited on additional perks they can offer. It kind of reflects their onboard culture- everyone is equal, no special areas for certain people or butlers, no captains table so no guest bickering about why did they get asked etc. Direct booking works well, their agents in the UK are very good based in Wimbledon and their website works a treat and is full of great information. As regards flights we’ve let them do ours each time and again it’s working- you can go out ahead if you want so long as you set that up at booking, we ended up getting them to adjust our flights to a better connection time - no problem one call all fixed. Your flights appear in your online account at least 60 days ahead and you have the flight locator so can manage seats etc. The best bit we will be on BA next week business class flying out 2 days early with me doing the hotels in NY at a price far below what I could get doing it myself. Apologies for such a pro Viking post here but just wanted to give experiences on the issues you were rightly concerned about.

So the good news. Funded by my travel agent I have the refund of the portion of the inaugural cruise I paid in cash back in my bank account today The bad news The agent still does not have the refund- I’m sure in part they knew I was starting to consider a credit card claim which would have been against them so they made the gesture to pay There is no sign still of the airfares and hotel refunds There is no confirmation of what’s happening re the balance of the inaugural cruise costs paid for by a voucher recognising the cancellation of a previous cruise by Explora There is no confirmation of what’s happening re the “sweetener” voucher for this cruise other than that Explora won’t allow them to be used for our two November cruises as “they’ve been paid for and adjusting refunds are not allowed” I can see Explora is impressive onboard but they are very very poor re UK back office. You’re treated the same as someone who chooses to cancel a cheap inside cabin on the MSC mega ship.