Heidi13

I suggest checking out Viking and Oceania. Viking sails westwards, which is my preference, as i prefer clox going backwards for the 25 hr days. Oceania is steaming east, so clox are moved forward, so 23 hr days.

The entire West Coast is an IMO Emissions Control area, so ships must use low sulphur fuel and/or scrubbers. I also note than management of coastal waters is Federal, not a Provincial jurisdiction. Therefore, I have no doubt the information you mentioned is not factual. A couple of Princess cruise ships do not use the "Inside Passage", but that is due to their size and poor handling characteristics, which are not conducive to safe navigation in confined waters, especially at Seymour Narrows and Race/Current Passage. This decision was driven by the Coast Pilots, not the provincial Govt. The Inside Passage runs from south of Olympia (WA) to Skagway, Alaska. The majority of the cruise lines today see very little of the entire Inside Passage. If you want to see the entire Inside Passage, rather than a cruise ship, I would investigate the ferry options from Alaska State and BC Ferries. If a cruise ship is the preference, check out the smaller ship cruise lines, some of which still use the Inside Passage for most of the route.

May I suggest you need to determine what is your primary interest in considering a World Cruise. If the primary interest is sailing entirely around the World, then one of the mainstream mega ships is your best bet, unless wanting to spend 180+ days. The mega ships circumnavigate the World in about 100 days, whereas Azamara, Viking, etc only do about 3/4 in 120 - 140 days. To achieve this feat in just over 100 days you get less time in port and the port/sea days ratio is biased towards sea days. When you primary interest is seeing more of the World, with numerous ports having overnights and some with 2 overnights, your choice is taking 180+ days to circumnavigate the globe, or doing about 3/4 in 120 to 130 days.

Welcome to Cruise Critic. The Viking ships are of a size that probably can reach up river to Saigon, but I recall my son advising that when he worked SE Asia with Princess, he mentioned the river charts were poor. Hopefully that has been addressed since then. Most cruise ships use the commercial berths at Phu My or even one of the docks a little further up river. The exact berth is assigned by the Harbourmaster, subject to operational conditions. Unfortunately, when using a commercial berth, there are no guarantees, as those ships often experience delays. Probably best to allow aout 90 mins to/from Saigon, any less is a bonus.

I'm not privy to the Viking salaries, but was well versed in P&O/Princess rates until about 10 yrs ago. Generally, the Master, Deck Officers and Engineering Officers make reasonably money, based on their country of residence. However, cruise ships do tend to pay the lowest salary in the industry, for any given position. Our son makes double on private mega yachts compared to what he would make if he stayed with cruise ships. Since they had multiple contacts, 3 officers in the same position could be making a different salary. The Hotel Officers are probably making a living wage, but less than the Deck & Engineering Officers. Again with Princess, when our son was 3rd Officer, on his initial US contract (lowest paid Princess contract) he made almost double the salary of a 2.5 stripe Shore-ex Manager. Petty Officers and ratings are generally paid according to the contract from their country of residence. Based on average earnings in their country of residence, they are normally well above the minimum, probably about the equivalent of middle class. Back in my days as a Deck Officer, while my salary was considerably higher than the ratings, most of them were considerably more affluent than me.

At the time of the previous post the ship was still in the North Pacific, within a few hundred miles of the equator. Since they will most likely be using the geostationary satellites, they will be at altitudes of over 85 degrees, or almost directly overhead. When in higher latitudes (say 55 and higher) the altitude of the sats are low on the horizon and get lower as the Latitude increases. In addition to being easily blocked in coastal waters by shorelines, other factors also degrade the sightlines to the sats. I would be very interested to see how other cruise lines have figured it out, as during numerous Alaska cruises on another line, the connectivity was worse than Viking. Only option I can see is raising the ship's satellite dish many miles into the sky to provide a higher altitude sight of the satellite. Having tried to connect in these circumstances at off-peak times and being unsuccessful, this is not a bandwidth issue, but a sight of the satellite issue, which no technology can improve. Ships have only 3 methods of connectivity: - hard wire: not happening mid-ocean - satellite: unless within the footprint of a low orbit system such as Starlink, the only option is the geostationary sats, which only cover most of the World, with a focus on major shipping lanes. The route from Hawaii to French Polynesia is not a major shipping lane, so is liable to have areas of no to low connectivity. I recall somebody posting that in addition to internet, to expect blackouts to the TV reception, which is proving the problem is satellite coverage, not bandwidth. - W/T and R/T: no longer utilised on ships, as it requires a trained radio officer and aerials hundreds of feet in length. It was also extremely slow. Could Viking improve, probably by purchasing additional bandwidth and including software that identifies and shuts down bandwidth hogs. Regardless, if connectivity is a requirement, a World Cruise is a poor choice for seeing the World.

So you have been in the same parts of the World on many other cruise ships, so you are providing an accurate comparison. BTW - in my 40+ yrs on many cruise ships, having crossed the oceans many times, in my experience, Viking had the best internet. However, if connectivity is a primary requirement for you, I'll suggest booking a World Cruise, was not the best choice for a holiday.

Another consideration is to review the times in port, as Seattle is further from Alaska and the ships must also visit Victoria, so less time in Alaska.

I can assure you the Captain and Deck/Engineering Officer are not included in the tip pools. Don't know what the Viking Masters make, but I doubt they are hurting.😀

Based on the information we were given aboard Viking Sun, when we were 8 pax with 460 crew, all crew have access to the fund. Many crew have received funding for further education, which has enabled them to receive promotions and I recall an example of a crew member who was flown home early for what I believe was a family emergency.

Sorry, but bandwidth limitations at sea have been discussed extensively, especially on the roll call for this cruise. Last time I checked the ship doesn't have a fibre optic cable attached to a satellite. When we cruise or hit the road in the RV, we don't expect to receive great service. If you want similar service to that at home, don't cruise, or purchase your own personal satellite time. Since starlink has limited world wide coverage, I'll suggest INMARSAT and their geostationary sats. With respect to prices - comparing both our previous World Cruises on Princess & Viking. The Viking base fare was double the Princess base fare, but by the end of the cruise, the daily cost was virtually identical. So while the Viking fare appears expensive, in reality it is no more expensive than a budget cruise line. Even if Viking did cut back on internet, in favour of quality food, service, lectures, entertainment, more time in port, etc. then I'm all in favour. Personally, quality of the internet is way down on my list of priorities, when I'm off to see the world. I'll also note that when requiring bandwidth, I had no issues on Viking Sun, I simply timed my usage when less pax and crew were online. Had no issues uploading by numerous blogs, which contained many photos. If it is an issue, perhaps Viking need to introduce bandwidth management controls, throttling back those users that are constantly utilising extensive bandwidth, such as streaming, large auto-updates, video calls, etc.

So sorry, I was unable to assist, as I did receive confirmation he forwarded the issue to the office. Based on a recent experience I had with the L/A office, I wasn't impressed with either of the 2 senior managers I dealt with, after forwarding the issue to Basle. Probably best to write them off and re-book. Good luck with a future booking.

Just be aware that Princess & HAL, in addition to both being owned by Carnival, are both part of the Holland America Group - HAL, Princess, P&O Australia & Seabourn. As such they share many of the same managers.

The distribution and exactly who participates in the fund on any cruise line is a closely guarded secret. Our son attained Senior 2nd Officer with Princess before he quit and was not privy to this information.

That was not what we were advised while taking the crew introductory course on the Viking Sun. At that time they advised the crew receive a better than normal industry wage, regardless of discretionary service charges. Any money that is collected from the DSC is all contributed to the crew welfare and further education fund. We were provided a couple of examples of how it is used to help crew members in need. Effective April 2020.

Just a quick clarification, as in the Wintergarden they serve, "Afternoon Tea", which is a completely separate meal from "High Tea" High tea is served a little later (17:00 to 18:00) and comprises a full hot meal, followed by tea, cakes and scones. When growing up in UK, we often went out on a Friday evening after work and school, to one of the local village pubs for High Tea, and a couple of pints. It was traditional hot pub fare followed by the traditional triple layer stand with the scones and sweet treats.

Sadly the current Cunard is a long way from the once proud shipping line, prior to it being purchased by Trafalgar House Investments and latterly Carnival. Both the once great shipping lines of Cunard and P&O are a shadow of their former selves, due to the Carnavalisation process.

Rather than following the Terms & Conditions that you agreed to, when paying the deposit, I assume your suggestion is to be a "No Show" at time of embarkation. Saving a whole $75 pp or $150, which is a tiny percentage of the cruise fare. If it's fair for you to break the terms of the contract, is it also acceptable for Viking to advise you at the embarkation port that they cancelled the contract, without compensation. If 1 party can break the contract, surely the other party can also break the contract. Surely, if you have to cancel, as an upstanding citizen, you adhere to the terms of the contract you agreed to by paying the additional $75 pp cancellation fee, or using one of the options listed in the previous post.

In addition to Viator, who are a 3rd party retailer, with a little more research you can find the actual tour operators and book directly. If you have others from your cruise that are interested, I find that dealing with the tour operator, I can get private tours and better discounts.

They recently posted the northbound longitudinal cruise, repositioning from Antarctica to the Great lakes (Spring 2024). I noted a segment from Ft Lauderdale to Toronto. They may wait to see how cabins sell before introducing shorter segments. They have not yet published the Autumn 2024 southbound cruise, at this time. You may possibly see smaller segments published in 3 - 6 months, if they still need to fill cabins. I suggest checking the number of cabins remaining on the full voyage and the Ft Lauderdale to Toronto segment, to have an idea of when they may publish shorter segments.

Rob - the other consideration is the HQ Executives were all in LA when I forwarded the issue to my contact, who was in LA and was aboard Neptune for the naming ceremony. I have no doubt the OP was contacted, and they suggested not to discuss on social media. In the big picture, this should never have become an issue, as even a junior customer service agent should have resolved it at the first call.

The best location to view the canal transit is on the Bridge, but since that isn't available to most pax, the short answer is any outer deck depending on the ship's location. For the approach to the first set of locks, I prefer a fwd facing deck, preferably higher that doesn't have any glass. This provides the best photograph opportunities. I also use this location for the lake and cut transits. When in one of the sets of locks, you should visit the promenade deck before lifting or after lowering to get the experience of being able to reach out and touch the side of the lock. It is also impressive to be at the aft end of the promenade deck to watch the rear gates closing.

In Alaska, an interior lounge doesn't work for me either. Best viewing, especially for photographers is on the outer decks, where you aren't dealing with tinted and/or salt streaked glass. Best ships are those with full promenade decks and those with fwd viewing decks above or below the Bridge that aren't bordered by glass. If I can also see down both sides of the ship, as per the Viking ships, it is a definite bonus.

That's what I figured.

On Viking Sun, on a couple of our visits, they had halibut as the fish of the day a couple of times. Both times it was excellent. Cooked to perfection.