Heidi13

I use our local library, requesting books and short films on each port.

Most of the ships I worked and sailed as pax had similar tendering arrangements, with a floating platform (older ships) or one that folded out from the hull. The platforms were accessed via similar external stairs. This was the case with all P&O and Princess ships from the 60's until at least the Royal Class. Viking are the only cruise line we have sailed that tenders directly from a shell door. Am interested which other ships you have sailed on that also tender directly through a shell door.

Provided you are changing an itinerary and they keep the same booking number, we have received credit for the Tripmate Insurance premiums. We changed from a River/Ocean Combo, to a Meddy/N Europe and again to a World Cruise. Your TA may have to call a few times to find an agent that will make the transfers the way you want.

The short answer is it will only affect your enjoyment of the cruise if you let it happen. I also question your assumption that the Stbd side will have better views, which in my 40 yrs of working in these waters is not factual. Departing Vancouver, on the port side you pass one of Vancouver's jewels - Stanley Park, while the Stdb side sees bulkers at the sulphur docks. The transit through English Bay, in my opinion also has better and more varied sights on the port side, than the West Van shore on the Stbd side. Once you clear Bowen Island, the sights are fairly balanced, although on the port side you may see the sunset. Depending on tides at Seymour, most, if not all of Johnstone Strait is at night, although Robson Bight can be around 04:00 - 05:00 and that is also on the port side. Once the ship reaches Queen Charlotte Sound, usually by the time most pax are awake, the views are basically the same both sides. In Hecate, you'll see tops of mountains. At the Glaciers, the Captain rotates the ship, so both sides get views. Even with a balcony cabin, I am up on deck for the best views. The Bridge has the best view of the scenery, for good reason, and it's at the front of the ship.

Having a tough time remembering the first thing you lose with age, so I'm in the same boat as you.😁 I'll dig out my journal from the Otaio and see if I mentioned anything the week I was Peggy. However, I vividly recall scrubbing them with a tooth-brush when doing my week as Mess Peggy on the Otaio. Crossing the Indian Ocean on Wild Auk, we encountered a little swell, causing us to roll 45 degrees each way for about 3-days. Nothing but cold food and sleeping on the deck for duration.

Most cruise lines remove this type of equipment and return on the last day. You may be asked to collect the case containing the kettle, if it is noted during scans.

To provide some perspective @chengkp75, although now retired, he has served as Chief Engineer on cruise ships. Therefore, he is the resident expert on this subject matter and will be the onboard authority who determines which electrical devices, brought aboard by pax, can be safely used onboard. As Chief Engineer, he is responsible for reviewing and recommending any changes to the company policy for all things pertaining to the Engineering Dept and other areas of the vessel.

If you are interested in tracking the ships, most of us retired mariners use Marinetraffic.com Personally, I only use the free version, but the paid version includes tracking the AIS signals by satellite, whereas the free version only tracks with Ground Earth Stations.

The Crown Princess is a Grand Class ship, which transit Seymour Narrows, so use Johnstone Strait to the east of Vancouver Island.

I both worked for and cruised with Princess for about 40 yrs. We have completed a World Cruise with both lines. On our travel blog I have a number of posts outlining our experience with the differences between both Lines. Feel free to check out our posts - www.AndyandJudi.com Unlike many blogs, I gain no benefit, financial or otherwise from others checking out our posts.

Catamarans have a large GM, so any rolling would be the polar opposite of the normal slow gentle rolling on a cruise ship. Catamarans list then snap back quickly.

Noted a little typo. Rather than High Tea, in the afternoon they are serving Afternoon Tea. High Tea is a different meal, usually served after 17:00 and comes with a plated dinner of meat, chips & veg, plus the tea and cake/pastries/scones triple decker stand. Often served in a village pub, so you can also wash it down with a few pints.

Been cruising for 40 years and often book private excursions. We have missed a number of ports and never lost a penny. Only book private tours that are payment at time of service, or have full refunds, if the ship is unable to deck/tender. Based on those parameters, we don't purchase cancellation insurance, which would be an option.

The size of the ship has very little to do with sea keeping ability and since larger vessels have areas further from the centre of gravity, they actually experience more movement. Least movement is experience midships, on lower decks and in the middle of the ship. Therefore, in rough seas, use the Living Room rather than Explorers. In the MDR, request an inside table closest to the Host/Hostess Desk. Experienced a couple of Tropical Revolving Storms and a deep frontal depression on a single cruise and the Viking ships handled the seas well.

In the 1970/80's, when I worked for Princess, I'll agree the pax were definitely an older crowd, but on our last 1/2 dozen Princess cruises to Alaska, that was not our experience.

Good news, as the longshoremen's resumption of strike action has been deemed illegal by the Industrial Relations Board and they have been ordered back to work. They did not provide the required notice of job action, so cannot commence any new job action until Saturday.

As per our experience, you nearly always have options to purchase insurance from a 3rd party vendor. For our 2nd World Cruise, I checked all our local brokers and the online store and nobody would accept the risk, since we booked so far out. Although the PIF wasn't until 6 months, the deposit at 2 yrs before departure was more than most people pay for a cruise. Therefore, our only options was Tripmate or from our TA.

Having spent 40 yrs at sea and completed 2 World Cruises that has not been our experience, as violent crime is present in many of the World's ports. The safety suggestions provided by cruise lines tend to be generic and often don't provide individual warnings for specific areas. However, this type of information is provided by the FCO and other country equivalents. Another factor is many of us don't book cruise line shore-ex, or private tours, preferring independent exploration, so don't have a guide.

Having used charts from many countries, i would look for a local or online retailer for British Admiralty charts.

The reason the Tripmate Insurance, available from Viking, doesn't cover vouchers is because they did not charge premiums on the value of the vouchers. You only paid the premium on the portion of the cruise paid with cash. Since pax with vouchers have previously booked with Viking, they should have noted the reduced premium when booking with vouchers. Even getting multiple insurance quotes would have shown that the Tripmate Insurance premiums were lower than expected. Even if Viking did not advise the vouchers weren't insured, these are red flags to ask why. As with everything regarding insurance, you get what you pay for, and the cheapest policy is probably not the best coverage. Unfortunately, not enough consumers practice due diligence before making significant purchases.

The pool deck is often washed down at night, so that could incur dragging of chairs, tables, etc.

The Longshoremen were on strike from 1st to 13th July, but returned to work with a tentative agreement. Today, the Union's Executive has voted to reject the tentative agreement, without going to the membership, so the longshoremen are returning to picket line duty. This only happened late this afternoon, so Viking have responded quite quickly. Edit - just noticed Rob had already responded.

The new dam coming online in 2025 will most likely be our last. They are now looking at alternative renewable resources, as with population growth, increased usage for heating and electric vehicles and export, they figure the new dams capacity will be used by 2028. I believe we sell a fair amount of power to you in CA.

It doesn't matter how many people you ask. If you want a definitive answer on the crew size, you need to ask the right people - Master or any of the Senior Department Heads. On the "Behind the Scenes Tour", I'm not aware that they provide pax with the max crew compliment, actual crew compliment and contents of the MSM Document. Without having that information, you may suspect the ship is short a few crew, but you cannot know for certain. Even on the Behind the Scenes Tour you see/meet only a very small percentage of the crew.

In addition to that, you also have some crew, even when the ship is at compliment, complaining they are overworked and short of crew. Having told some amazing stories to pax over the years, especially during Bridge visits, I tend to take anything provided by a crew member, unless I really know them, with a grain of salt. As you indicated they are expected to not disagree with pax, so will often answer accordingly.