Berlin Bear

4 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

Please see my posts at #7 & #9. My experience is different.

Thank you. That is good to hear. So, I shall simply presume that these drinks are included at mealtimes and go ahead and order them 😊. If refused, I shall refer to all your experiences.

i love this crowdsourcing function of CC!

9 hours ago, Capt_BJ said:

Was that included in the „complimentary inclusive wines, beers and soft drinks at mealtimes“?

 

We've cruised both ocean and river and experienced differences 'tween

 

BUT in every case the 'included wine' was a choice of the day - a red and a white - but ONLY that one and not anything from the wine list.

 

On our river cruise the included beer was the 'tap' beer which was Carlsberg as I recall. On subsequent ocean trips it appeared they would provide any beer they had (can) at lunch/dinner under 'included'.

 

At both meals on both o and r at lunch and dinner no charge for coke, coke sugar free, <sometimes 'zero' some times the EU product of Diet Coke ...> can not comment beyond other to say they have ice tea which I always take unsweetened

Aha - thanks for this additional information. As it’s an ocean cruise we’re looking at at the moment, I can probably rely on being able to order „complimentary“ non-alcoholic beer with lunch and dinner, but possibly/probably not non-alcoholic wine. OK, I can live with that 😄.

You are all so helpful - thanks for answering my question! Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

1 minute ago, LindaS272 said:

I have had non-alcoholic wine at Chef’s Table before, both red and white. The white was not too bad, but the red wasn’t great.

Thanks for confirming. Was that included in the „complimentary inclusive wines, beers and soft drinks at mealtimes“?

Thanks for the tip. We frequently cruise on the German Mein Schiff (TUI Cruises). They have a really good selection of non-alcoholic cocktails which are not too sweet. But no wine of the non-alcoholic variety at all unfortunately.

Many thanks for these speedy replies. I can imagine it being the case for non- alcoholic beer, but was less sure about the wine. I know, non-alcoholic wine is not always particularly palatable, but at least it gives us the choice 😉

A simple question - are non-alcoholic beers and wines included at mealtimes?

As we now drink very little alcohol, it’s not really worth us getting the SSP, but we would be very happy to drink something other than water, juice or lemonade with our meals. We‘ve had the SSP in the past, so I know that non-alcoholic beer and wine are available on board, just not sure whether they are included.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge!

I was born and bred in Liverpool so we don’t take ship tours when we’re there on a cruise - three times up to now. But on our last visit there we had my SIL with us. It was her first visit to Liverpool so we decided to take a City and Beatles tour leaving from the Albert Dock (about ten minutes walk from the ship) on a double decker bus. We booked it in advance via get your guide, but you can also just turn up.

We drove through the city centre out towards the two cathedrals and then through the leafier areas of Liverpool to Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, John‘s and Paul‘s houses. We had a very knowledgeable guide who sung to us and it was great fun. The trip took an hour and a half, leaving plenty of time to do other things.

When the gangway is really steep they provide a service to drive you up or down - at least they did in June 2022 when we were last there.

Hi all, born and bred Liverpudlian here - you can, in fact, see the three graces from the ship. If you stroll past these buildings you‘ll get to the Royal Albert Dock where the Maritime Museum is located. It really isn’t far - perhaps ten minutes at the most. The International Slavery Museum in the same building is also well worth a visit.

Last time we docked in Liverpool we took a City and Beatles bus tour from the Albert Dock. We had my SIL with us and the tour, which took one and a half hours, gave her a good overview of the city centre and some of the leafier areas of Liverpool, including the two cathedrals. Really worth considering.

Whatever, it’s a very walkable city.

Following your crossing with great interest. We did Buenos Aires to Barcelona in March 2022 and would actually like to repeat this trip sometime soon, as Brazil, Senegal and Morocco were not open for business at the time, we missed Punta del Este (a replacement for the Brazilian ports) because of high winds, and we spent the first 10 days in quarantine! So please keep reporting on your experiences!

Regarding the use of former prisons, we’ve experienced a few good examples over the years - Dornoch Jail in Scotland was also turned into shops selling clothes and arty gifts in 2000, in Ribe (Denmark) we spent a couple of nights in Den Gamle Arrest, the former prison, in a very small cell, and a while ago I attended a meeting in the Stirling Old Town Jail (also Scotland). Great idea turning these old buildings into something useful and attractive.

1 hour ago, Mrs Miggins said:

The email was dated Nov. 2nd.  and was headed "Escape the British Winter".  it offered special prices not available on the website.  Prices from £1599 per person for 24th Jan Ancient mediterranean Treasures.

 

First e mail dated 25th October was "Last Minute Winter Escapes to the Mediterranean" and that offered Journey to Antiquities from £1799 and Greek Odyssey 11 days from £2999.  A Silver Spirits Beverage Package also included.

 

Might still be worth a phone call if you are interested.

I also find this very interesting. It would be really nice if you could post these offers under the thread Post Viking Promos. Up to now e are only seeing promotions for the US market.

An interesting article from today’s Guardian about recent developments in Cyprus https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/13/cyprus-becomes-safe-haven-after-hamas-attack-israel-middle-east

4 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

In the UK Viking have sent out emails offering excellent deals on sailings on the 12th(Athens -Athens) and 20th December (Athens - Rome)and 17th January. (Athens to Istanbul)

i would have no hesitation in taking any of the offered itineraries (not available on website - phone for details).

Interesting - we never receive promotional emails from Viking despite having booked several times through the UK office. And we don’t have access to the UK website either. Would you mind letting me know what prices are being quoted for the Athens to Rome trip on 20 December?

Many thanks!

On 9/18/2023 at 11:34 AM, BRWolf said:

I too would like to see a discussion about coffee.  Presumably it is a European style not American style, but which brand and the strength of the coffee available in the restaurants is important.  When we lived in Germany there were some German coffees that were way too strong for us but others that were quite good.  Thanks for any insight.

Ok, living in Germany I’ll jump on that one. We found coffee on Viking to be weaker than our normal (not too strong) German coffee brands. So you should be ok.

Not a big fan of Heathrow, but our flight last year from Heathrow to Buenos Aires with BA - booked by Viking - in economy was absolutely fine. Wouldn’t hesitate to use the airline for long haul again.

Dear Mr. Hagen,

Stop ignoring your fellow mainland European citizens / potential customers!
Please make it possible for us to book a Viking cruise either through a Viking office based somewhere on the continent or through our travel agents.

Thank you!

It’s not going to happen, I know. 

5 minutes ago, Critically Cruising said:

If you ever went to one of those "Cheers" knock-off bars, that's what you get with Rick's.  The original you saw in the movie was just a set on the Warner Brothers lot.  This is a restaurant that capitalizes on the old movie to make a new cafe that copies that look.

 

There used to be a "Rick's" in the Hyatt hotel as well, but I think that one closed and was repurposed.

 

Getting out to the Hassan II mosque is one of the more impressive things in Casablanca.  As well as shopping for carpets.

Fully agree. Casablanca was our first port on our first cruise in 2011 and we had no idea what we were doing at the time. We simply took the shuttle bus into town from the industrial port and wandered through the open air market to the mosque which was very impressive. We were incredibly lucky in being able to join a small German-speaking group (there were four of us) to tour the mosque, including the hammam.

13 hours ago, uktog said:

As we are at the Manhattan terminal we have the lovely sail down past everything soon. 
 

Love all the sports on this deck (putting skittles shuffle etc) and lots of people here for the view. This area was closed off on our Northern lights cruise understandably 

 

Envy🤢.

When we sailed from Manhattan on the Viking Sea in October 2018, we were, despite a full ship, completely alone on deck! Made ourselves comfortable on a sofa. We put it down to the fact that our North American sailing companions had seen it all before 😁

6 hours ago, uktog said:

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 😀

 

Did you manage to leave Heathrow before the air traffic control network failure? Keeping my fingers crossed for a safe departure and looking forward to following your travels!

I quite liked this one, seen in Nairobi. Note to myself - try to look busy when sitting 

Well, we’ve certainly gone off topic now, but we’d love to repeat the trip as well. Although we spent 10 days in quarantine, we actually only missed one port - Montevideo. 

8 minutes ago, duquephart said:

 

What does the owner's nationality have to do with how he conducts business?

Nothing at all, of course. I was simply bemoaning the fact that the European owner does not cater for his fellow European citizens - tongue-in-cheek, so to speak

I really like the Viking Ocean product, but I think we must all recognize that the owner has been very smart in choosing such a streamlined business concept (English language passengers only on identical ships). This is not a criticism, it is simply stating a fact.

Still love the ships though!🤩

BTW, shipboy, I believe we were on the Southern Atlantic Crossing together in March 2022.

4 minutes ago, shipboy said:

If you use a VPN to access the UK site, you should be able to bookmark the link and then access it without a VPN. I managed to do that from the UK for the Canadian website 

Ok, thank you. I will try that.