Heidi13

I spent 2 seasons cruising out of Vancouver to Alaska and I can assure you it does NOT matter. When outside the narrow channels you are so far off the coast that mostly all you see is tops of mountains and also much of it is at night. Since I worked on the Bridge, I saw all the scenery on both sides and knew how far offshore we were.

My excuse for planning cruises and RV trips is that I am a Navigator and we don't leave port without having a detailed plan on getting to the next port. When cruising, when you have limited time in port, planning in advance helps to maximise the benefits of limited time. Even having been in most ports at least once before, I still want to maximise what we see. When pulling a 41' 16,500 lb trailer, you only hit a dead end once and have to back up a considerable distance, before you plan, plan and plan again.

The Carnivalisation of Cunard started in the late 1990's, about 5 yrs before they purchased P&O Cruises. I never worked for Cunard, but did work for P&O and know many of the P&O Captains that also served on the Cunard ships. At one time the Commodore and Captains/Staff Captains on QM2 were all from P&O. Jim has extensive Cunard experience and when we compare, P&O was just slightly below the Cunard standards. Sadly P&O today is but a shadow of the once great cruise line and I have no doubt Cunard is the same. If your first Cunard cruise was only 4 years ago, the Carnivalisation process was well advanced and while still better than Carnival/NCL, etc. it would be a shadow of the incredible service that Jim experienced in the 60's. Back in those days the waiters were exemplary, completing flawless "Silver Service"

You are making an incorrect assumption that the cruise lines save money when they cancel a port. Yes, they save money on dock fees, pilot fees and longshoremen fees, but they also subject to a number of additional costs, some of which include: - Bunkers: since the ship is now at sea, in addition to burning fuel for the hotel load, it is also burning additional fuel for propulsion. You are aware that bunkers are the largest operational cost - Meals: since pax and crew didn't get ashore, more meals and drinks are consumed onboard - Shore-ex: they save the cost of the included shore-ex, which are cheap basic tours, but they lose all the profit from the more expensive optional shore-ex. On cruise ships, shore-ex revenue is one of the highest revenue streams. - Crew changes: most ports have some crew joining and leaving, so flights, hotels and schedules must be reworked, often at additional costs. May also end up paying 2 crew members for a single position, until the next port. Entertainers: changes in ports also require changes to their contracts and travel arrangements, with additional costs. - Stores: these are shipped many weeks in advance from Germany in containers to a specific port. If stores were due in that port, hopefully the container arrives in sufficient time to be sent to another port. Additional shipping costs are incurred shipping to a new port. Worse case scenario is the container is written off. - Bunkering: if the ship had purchased bunkers in the cancelled port, they may face significant costs getting the bunkers at an alternate port. - Critical part/technicians: these are often sent to ships, so again additional costs result from changing delivery of parts and/or technicians.

After the incident, the Engineering Dept will draw up a scope of work required to return the vessel to full operations. This scope of work falls within the owner's insurance coverage, so will be issued a specific tracking number to capture all costs, regardless of when the work is completed. On reviewing the full scope, they will determine lead time for materials, which in this case includes multiple windows and most likely a number of entire cabins, which are built in factories off-site. The windows must be Class rate for fire, so in my experience when replacing windows, replacing just the glass was not an option. We had to replace the entire unit, which had to include Flag and/or Class rating. Therefore, a number of materials are clearly long lead items, so they could not return the entire ship to full operations in the short term. To return the ship to operations, with temporary repairs, the Engineering Dept develop a plan to ensure the ship is returned to full Class, or a condition of Class, if so issued to the Master. Class will approve the temporary repair plans. When the ship was out of service for a cruise they simply welded steel plate over the damaged windows and probably did weld testing and hose tests to ensure it was secure and watertight. The damaged cabins remain out of service when the ship resumed operations. So yes, the ship has been operating without being fully repaired, but it was repaired to the extent that it is safe to operate. If my memory is correct, the repairs completed in Chile, resulted in the vessel returning to full Class, so the Master was not issued a Condition of Class prior to departing the shipyard.

Please note that I never determined the Tripmate coverage on private excursions, as with the Tripmate medical insurance being so low, we take out an additional emergency medical policy from a local broker before we depart. With our first Viking cruise, no local or online broker would cover the risk, so we had to purchase the Tripmate plan, if we wanted to insure the risk. However, we only used it for trip interruption, delay, cancellation, etc.

Totally agree. While the ships are definitely of a Scandinavian design and their core operation is based in Europe, the majority of their marketing is US based. We have somewhat similar experience in Canada in that we have no Canadian sales office, having to suffer dealing with the LA Office.

Most of the other cruise lines have North American based purchasing, whereas Viking purchasing is based in Europe, specifically Germany. Could be a reason why they are weaker of some selections. Growing up in UK, I had never heard of Canadian Whisky and thought "Bourbon" was a biscuit, not a drink. Viking is very much a European cruise line and as such, personally I enjoy the differences, which includes the drinks, from the US based shipping lines.

Having previously sailed with Viking, I expect you know the benefits of Viking's Air + and the risks of not paying this premium. If getting onboard early to make additional reservations was important, why didn't you pay for Air +. We have also sailed on a full ship and never had any issues getting seats in the Alternative restaurants. We never book in advance, making a reservation the day we want to go. never had an issue.

It reduces the normal deposit from $500 pp down to $25 pp at time of booking - based on taking a shorter cruise of < 35 days.

The policy covers any pre-post extensions you book through Viking. This is clearly explained in the Tripmate terms and conditions with respect to the commencement and completion of the covered risk. Another potential issue some have raised is if you are covered on private excursions in a port.

Jim, You not only know and experienced Cunard before Carnival, you know and experienced the Cunard way from before they were purchased by Trafalgar House Investments.😁

To find other pax on your cruise please check out the Viking Ocean Roll Calls. Select Saturn and look to see if a roll call exists. If not, you can start one.

If Viking include Business Class flights, we have our TA book the flights and select seats with Viking Air. Otherwise, we book our own First/Business flights, normally using points, accepting the loss of transfers. Viking Air will no longer upgrade flights using points/miles and there is no guarantee the fare class booked by Viking Air can be upgraded with points or cash.

I can think of many operational and non-operational reasons for cancelling a port of call. Who cares what the reason is, time to move on and enjoy planning the numerous other ports on this itinerary. Viking taking pax for granted couldn't be further from the truth, in our experience, at the premature conclusion of the 2020 World Cruise. Due to the pandemic, since we couldn't get into any ports, Viking decided to conclude the cruise in Dubai, flying all pax home, regardless of whether they used Viking Air, or not. Once the airlines ceased operations, 8 pax remained onboard the ship. Did Viking kick us off in Dubai - No. We remained onboard until they found a port that would accept us and had access to flights home. We were all upgraded to Explorer Suites, given crew name badges and treated like "Royalty" for 3 weeks. The 3 weeks onboard was totally free, as they mentioned the cruise was cancelled in Dubai, so they refunded us the portion from Dubai to London. Now compare the similar situation on HAL, which concluded their World Cruise in Freemantle. All pax using cruise air got flights home, other were disembarked to make their own arrangements. The only advantage Viking took of us was killing us with kindness, with a pax crew ratio of 8/460, officers and ratings dining with us every evening, and any meal we requested.

Welcome to the Viking Board. Please see my thoughts and experiences in red.

When the World Cruise ended in Dubai, Viking initially booked us BA flights from Dubai - LHR-YVR. Not Hong Kong, but we had no issues getting BA flights from the Middle East. Unfortunately, Viking Air will no longer upgrade the class with Avios, as they did a few years ago. Therefore, unless Business Air is included, we book our own flights in First/Business using Avios.

Wow, didn't realise you were also on the World Cruise, to know what drinks were produced.

You drink "Bourbon"???? I know Bourbon as a tasty chocolate biscuit.😁

Don, I concur with your point that South Georgia adds considerable distance to an Antarctica cruise, but your 1400 nm from Ushuaia may be a little high. At 17 kts, a ship covers a shade over 400 miles per full day of steaming, so 1.5 days steaming would be about 600 miles. If the distance was 1,400 nm that would cover over 20 degrees of Latitude, which would place the top of Antarctica at 78 S. I'll suggest the distance from Ushuaia across Drake Passage to the first stop is 575 to 625 miles.

Wasn't my experience on Viking Sun, as I enjoyed a few of them in the L/R bar prior to dinner.

I'll suggest the SOP, if someone tips the Kayak, does not include getting back onboard. The RHIB will be tasked with hauling you out the water, as being salt water, the temperature could be less the OC/32F, even as low as -2C/28F.

The document you posted, as you point out, dates from 2009. The document posted by the Chief is dated April 2015, with the scope stating its application to vessels in the marine environment. Since it does NOT specify commercial or private vessels, it is applicable to all vessels in a marine, estuarine and freshwater environment. Therefore, as a Master, I would follow the document the Chief posted that dates from 2015, as the Orion was a vessel operating in the Australian marine environment. Just out of interest, who do you consider as the 2nd IC Officer.

Totally agree, Port Hardy is not easy to get to without a car. Back in the 1980's we used to operate the service to Prince Rupert from the mainland terminal at Tsawwassen. We did 2 round trips every week, except in the summer when we moved to Port Hardy for the alternating north/south schedule. The 2 R/T during the non-summer months covered the entire BC Coast, so having worked that schedule for a number of years, plus 2 seasons in Alaska, I got to know the coast rather well.

Rob - I believe that cruise line is called the personal yacht ine 😁 Mind you our son even has poor service crossing the Atlantic when no owners are aboard, only a few crew.