Heidi13

Further to Clay's reply. If you haven't already made a booking, you can call Viking and make a tentative reservation for the cruise of interest. They will send you a Pax Statement that includes the list of ports and ETA/ETD's. You normally then have a couple of days if you decide to follow up and confirm the reservation with a deposit. Unlike other cruise lines, Viking does not include ETA/ETD's on the website.

Thanks Michelle - since we had to cancel, I forgot they changed Neptune from Stockholm to crossing the Atlantic.

Based on your post, it looks like the cruise you are considering is not even doing a partial transit, it is only docking in Colon. As a mariner, I have been through the Canal well over a couple dozen times in both cruise ships and a couple of cargo ships. Some have been Panamax dimensions and a couple were smaller 500' ships. Yes, the experience is different depending on the size of the ship, but for me, the primary reason I still book Canal cruises, is for the additional experiences of going through the entire Canal and enjoying a relaxing day aboard the ship. My preference would be looking for a cruise that does the entire Canal for your first experience, preferable a Panamax size ship using the original locks. Personally, I would never consider taking a ferry through the Canal, with the additional associated travel. On the cruise ship, I am out on deck before sunrise, as the vessel approaches the breakwater. I remain out on deck throughout most of the entire transit. I can still enjoy the creature comforts of the ship, if I desire, such are heading to the buffet for a quick lunch and enjoying a few drinks during the day. The tendering off the ship, ferry trip and then bus back just wouldn't be such a relaxing day, as seeing the Canal from your cruise ship.

Viking's does Ft Lauderdale to London, but if you also book the Trans-Atlantic prior to the World Cruise, you will do a complete round the world (about 150 nights). Many of the cruise lines that do an entire round the world in 100 to 110 days spend less hours in ports and have way more sea days. To get a reasonable ratio of port/sea days, a number of overnights and double overnights and more hours per port, a complete circumnavigation of the globe requires at least 5 to 6 months. We have completed a 104-night complete circumnavigation of the world and a 120-night from L/A to London. Until COVID hit, we saw way more of the World on the 120-night partial WC.

Jim - You make MV Rug Rat dam sound soooo appealing!!!😁

An increasing number of cruise ships are dual fuel LNG and diesel. Some that I recall are Iona (P&O), Carnival Mardi Gras, Disney Wish, NCL Prima and I recall an MSC ship, but can't recall the name. My last command also went for conversion a couple of years after I retired. It has now operated for about 5-yrs without issue. Deep sea ships use a variety of fuels. Most of them use heavy fuels, which require heating, so even those ships switch over to marine diesel for manoeuvring. On the coast, we only used marine diesel, which is somewhat similar to land based diesel. Unfortunately, I have no experience with hydrogen, so don't know which ports have it available and I don't know the bunkering process. I can only assume it would be somewhat similar to LNG.

Not being a Marine Engineer, I only have a basic understanding of the latest technology in marine engines. I recalled reading an article on the development of dual fuel hydrogen engines, which was rather timely with the Viking announcement. The LNG ships still require diesel, as the engines are started on diesel and even when operational, they still inject some diesel with the LNG. I just found it interesting that they were developing similar dual fuel engines for hydrogen. Our resident Chief Engineer is the expert in this field, so hopefully he can provide some info. @chengkp75

With respect to tipping, probably the biggest difference between a World Cruise and shorter cruises is you will notice a higher turnover of the crew. We provide discreet gratuities to the crew members who went the extra mile, to make our cruise exceptional. Since it is a recognition of the specific crew member's efforts, we provide the gratuity at the end of the cruise. Since many of the crew may head out on leave throughout the cruise, it is important to get to know the crew, especially those who are going that extra mile, to determine when they are heading out on leave. For those crew members, we wish to provide a gratuity, that sign-off before the end of the cruise, we search them out their last night and provide a discreet gratuity. Others we address on the last evening. Whether the crew members can retain any gratuities received, depends on the cruise line's policy and their employment contract. Our preferred cruise line pays the crew directly at a level above the minimum, so the crew members can retain any cash gratuities received.

I expect the DG's will be dual fuel engines, which can use hydrogen or diesel. When they can't bunker with hydrogen they will probably revert to diesel.

To add some perspective to the subject from the marine industry. When I worked as an officer on the cruise ships, my salary was considerably higher than the base wages of the hotel ratings. With this disparity, why do so many keep returning to the ships. The reason is that the wages afford them a significantly higher standard of lifestyle than the average person in their home countries. When chatting with many of the crew, while they made considerably less money than me, many of them were significantly more affluent than me, and maintained a higher lifestyle than I could afford. When moving to Canada, I experienced the fact that your salary is only relevant in your country of residence/employment. In UK, I made reasonable money, easily beating most of my age group, but on moving to Canada, I could not have survived on my UK salary. When I started working on local ships, my salary increased > 300% over what I made in UK, but my standard of living was still lower, due to the cost of living. As I experienced, comparing salaries in different countries is not a measure of affluence. Yes, crew members in the Philippines can't afford a World Cruise on Viking, but neither can most people in the western/developed world. However, to compare apples to apples I will use local ferries, which are common in the Philippines and the developed world. The cruise ship crew members can easily afford to use their local ferries, but in the developed world they are becoming unaffordable for an increasing number of people.

When I did my trip with PanOcean-Anco, on one of the chemical carriers, I recall all the radios being "Intrinsically Safe". On the cruise ships and latterly on Ro/Pax, we just had standard commercial Motorola portables. All our portables were toned to provide access to the ship's repeater system, with each ship having a different tone. Therefore, radios assigned to a ship were useless on other ships, unless not using the repeater. All radios had a selector switch, where we could bypass the repeater system, for line-of-sight transmissions. The Master and Deck Officers all had VHF/UHF portable, while all the others were UHF only. I don't recall seeing EU Wheel mark, LR/ABS approved, etc. Only approvals were radio requirements. While they were sealed, I don't believe they met the "Intrinsically Safe" criteria for use on tankers.

The Canon SX70HS is highly rated and is within your range. Previous year models can be at the lower end of your range.

Unfortunately, that isn't correct. Any business has the right to decide which form(s) of payment they will accept and can refuse to accept any, or all banknotes. Here is the relevant information from Bank of England. https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/what-is-legal-tender The 3 Scottish banks and 3 Northern Ireland banks that issue bank notes are not licenced by the Bank of England. Like the Bank of England, they are authorised to issue banknotes by the UK Parliament, an arrangement which was established back in the mid 1800's and most recently updated by the UK Banking Act 2009. The notes are not trading tokens, they are legal currency, which is not the same as being legal tender. To protect the public, in the event of a bank failure, the Banking Act requires any bank issuing currency to maintain reserves equal to the value of the currency in circulation. The Scottish & Northern Ireland bank's reserves are retained at the Bank of England. With respect to "Legal Tender", in Scotland and Northern Ireland, no banknotes are considered as being legal tender, only coins issued by the Royal Mint. However, all British banknotes, regardless of the issuing bank are legal currency, and can be accepted anywhere in UK, at the discretion of the business. https://www.scotbanks.org.uk/static/uploaded/8c982ba6-85c8-4569-965a6f21d196b46d.pdf

Due to poor propagation of radio waves through steel bulkheads, the only portable radios that work are the officer and crew radios that have access to the internal repeater system. Even the main 25W Bridge radios could not penetrate through the decks. Therefore, as another professional mariner, I can attest that No consumer portable radio will provide effective communications throughout the ship. As the Chief mentioned, this is not a commentary, this is facts derived from using radios at sea for 40 yrs.

I may also tend to plan excessively and am happy to share. Since we have nothing booked at present, I am updating my port docs. If you drop me an email, listing your ports, I'll provide a copy of any port doc I have on file. One of my email addresses is included in our travel blog - wwwAndyandJudi.com

It depends on which ships are in port that day. However, similar to Michelle we also used Berth A at the cruise terminal.

On the 2020 WC, I completed daily blog posts. You can check it out at www.AndyandJudi.com Some other blogs: - https://lowestravels.com/category/where-we-have-been/world-wonders-cruise/ - https://roseandtedsexcellentadventure.com/

When using Viking Air, if you request to arrive 1 or more days early, they can charge a deviation fee. However, I find Viking are open to negotiation and if you can make a reasonable argument for arriving early, they may waive the fee. They have flown pax early where no scheduled flights are available to get pax to embarkation prior to the manifest being submitted ashore.

For the 2020 WC, all shore-ex were released at the same time, but on almost all other Viking WC's they have been released in tranches. It looks like the upcoming 22/23 WC will also be released in groups. A WC is no different than the shorter cruises in that people change their plans frequently. While you may find some tours fully booked online, once aboard, the shore-ex dept can add additional resources and you also have pax cancelling tours. When we booked tours for the 2020 WC, we got every tour we wanted and at our desired time. We were in a DV cabin. Except for a special occasion, we never make alternative restaurant reservations prior to that day. If we decide that morning to try Manfredi's or Chef's Table, I turn on the TV and check what's available. Never failed to get a reservation within about 1/2 hr of our preferred time. Some nights we would walk down to the host/hostess desk asking if they had space. Again, we always got in. Most other cruise lines don't/can't fill an entire ship for a World Cruise, so fill the ship by creating segments. This can be positive, or negative, depending on several factors -On our 2015 WC with Princess, less than 20% were taking the entire WC, with some segments being only 2-days. The atmosphere on the ship changed every segment and in reality, it didn't feel like a WC, just several B2B's. Our 2020 Viking WC had 4 segments, with about 50% of the pax on for the duration. While the ship did change slightly with new pax, it felt like a WC. Viking are also vastly superior to Princess in creating a WC ambiance aboard the ship. I see you joined the 23/24 Roll Call, but I suggest joining, or at least reading through the 22/23 Neptune Roll Call, which currently has almost 6,000 posts and 230 pages. It will take some time, but there is some excellent information included from several previous world cruisers.

The passing of our much beloved Queen Elizabeth II may result in a number of impacts to your excursions ashore throughout the UK. I believe all Royal attractions are closed, including the daily "Changing of the Guard" ceremony at Buckingham Palace. London is a busy and chaotic city at the best of times, but over the next 10 - 14 days it we be even busier, as many descend on the city to pass their respects to Her Majesty, and also see the new King. Closer to the funeral, you will find road closures and an increasing number of Heads of State and other dignitaries, who will be in London for the funeral. A number of businesses may also be closed, the day of the funeral will most likely be a National Holiday and a number of events throughout UK are being cancelled. It also won't be just around London, as for the next few days Edinburgh will be impacted. I also expect you will find various impacts throughout the entire UK.

For anyone booked on a cruise visiting UK in the next 10 - 14 days, due to the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II yesterday evening, a number of Royal attractions will be closed. Some other businesses and event may also be closed, postponed, or cancelled.

With Viking, if you request to fly in early, they charge a deviation fee. If using Viking Air and they fly you in a day early, Viking cover all the costs. However, I have found them open to negotiation in special circumstances. Prior to our World Cruise, which on departure L/A, spent 8 days at sea to French Polynesia, I pointed out that in the unlikely event of snow in Vancouver, we could miss the ship. Even a couple of inches of snow on the West Coast can result in gridlock and disrupt operations at YVR. I pointed out that if we were delayed by snow, Viking were responsible to put us in hotels for over a week and fly us to join the ship in French Polynesia. They graciously waived the deviation fee at both ends of the cruise.

"Rig of the Day" is my way of describing a cruise line's policy/recommendations on attire, especially when they have formal nights. We used to enjoy formal nights, as when I worked on the ships, every night was formal, and everyone dressed up. However, that is no longer the case, so we now prefer the more relaxed atmosphere and smart casual of Viking. With some extensive research, you'll be surprised at how close you can come to setting realistic expectations of a new cruise line. I read extensively from cruise line websites and then read posts on CC and travel blogs to determine from actual pax how close the experience is to what the cruise line advertises.

Prior to moving to a more inclusive cruise line, I researched all of them, then shortlisted to Viking & Oceania, spending more time with thorough research. We now sail with Viking and your experience is exactly what we expected. With respect to the "Included" shore-ex, I concur, most are the most basic tours, being bus trips or walking tours. However, in some ports, the included tour is exceptional - Komodo Island included the walk with the dragons and Safaga was a 10-hr tour to Luxor and the Nile. When researching cruises, the "Included" tours are described on the website. Personally, we average about 30 - 50% of the included tours, with the remainder being private tours or the optional shore-ex. Overall, I found Viking's optional tours cost slightly less than similar tours with other cruise lines. On short cruises, Viking only provide complimentary drinks at lunch and dinner, although from what I read, they are very generous providing additional drinks as you leave. We take longer World Cruises, which are truly all-inclusive, with every drink up to $15 included. In 4-months we never found any drink that exceeded the $15, so had no bar bill. It has been a number of years since I did the research, but from memory, Regent did provide all-inclusive drinks (not sure if they had a max price point) and included a better selection of tours. They were also more formal than Viking and I found a disconnect between the cruise line "Rig of the Day" policy and what pax posted in CC. I seem to remember they also include complimentary flights on all cruises, whereas Viking only provide these on World Cruises, and some select cruises. Regent was more expensive, but definitely provided a more inclusive experience. Might be worth completing the same exercise I did, developing a State of Requirements. Since no cruise line will provide everything you want, my list includes "Must haves" and "Preferences" You can then research what each cruise line offers and compare it to your SoR. This exercise assists in determining if the more inclusive cruise lines provide the value you expect.

Sorry, not even close to being factual. - Prinsendam - Engine room fire caused sinking in Pacific Ocean in early 1980's - Achille Lauro - another fire resulting in sinking off Somalia in mid 1990's - Oceanos - flooding and sank off South Africa in early 1990's - Sun Vista - Engine room fire caused sinking in Malacca in late 1990's Just a few that I recall since I went to sea.