Heidi13

This information is NOT correct. As per the Government of Canada website, pre-testing requirements are still in place for pax boarding a cruise ship in Canada, or pax already onboard a cruise ship calling at a Canadian port.

Nothing to be stressed about. In determining the requirement for any country, Google is your best friend. It took me a few seconds to find the current Canadian requirements. https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/cruise

Sorry, but that's a rather lame excuse, as that ratio isn't that uncommon with longer cruises. To put it in perspective, on the MMT, after departing Darwin, we only had 3 days ashore in 71 days, until we disembarked in Gibraltar. So much to do on the ship, we had no time to stream anything, even if we did wish to contravene Viking's clear wi-fi use guidelines. Since the wi-fi was always available and useable, I'll suggest most, if not all pax followed the guidelines.

Prior to taking any action, may I suggest contacting the good people at tellus@vikingcruises.com Explain the situation, your concerns with current TA and see if they have any suggestions to assist in eliminating your current TA. Even if you have to cancel, they may be able to assist with a smooth transition to a new booking.

Depends on the number of ships in port, but Invergordon does have 2 berths suitable for Viking ships.

On the 20/21 Magical Mystery Tour, we departed Bali on 10th March and had continuous sea days until disembarking in Gibraltar on 10th April. Fortunately, we had a number of 25 hr days, as it was tough fitting everything we wanted to do, or see, into only 24 hrs.😁

Unfortunately, the memory isn't so good these days, as it was almost 5-yrs ago. However, I didn't prepare a list of questions, just sat down for an informal chat to get some idea of their experience, what service we could expect, how can they assist compared to me dealing with the vendor directly, and probably most importantly - get a feel from them as a person, if it was a good fit. Very low key, nothing akin to interviews I did during my working days, where even interviewing candidates for exempt positions, we had to have prepared questions and record the answers.

The cruise lines do not have access to the NCIS database or the Canadian equivalent, therefore they are not privy to information that any pax would be inadmissible, due to having a criminal record. Even if the pax sailed previously and was removed from the ship, the CBSA does not advise the Master why any pax was removed from the ship. Therefore, the cruise line has no specific information to prevent a pax boarding a subsequent cruise.

I wore out the shoe leather, while I met with and interviewed prospective candidates. Very happy with the result.

They must submit 2 photos with the application, so not sure why 1 of them isn't included with the visa.

Was your test result being 4 hours late due to your flight being significantly delayed, or did you fail to adequately research and plan. Surely, when scheduling your tests, you accounted for the time difference and potential airline delays, which these days are certainly prevalent. Since you didn't mention the flight was late, why were your tests 4 hrs late? Your experience is no different than many nationalities entering the US, even before COVID. If I enter the US on my UK passport, I am treated like a criminal, with mandatory fingerprints and photograph. BTW - this is consistent for all nationalities, except US & Canadian citizens. Do I complain - No, that is the prerogative of the country I wish to visit. Those of us that travel the World extensively are used to the various entry requirements, even before COVID. Personally, researching the requirements and getting it done is part of the travel experience. You stated, "Canada is the most restrictive country in the World" Wow, you clearly haven't travelled to many countries, or have a very short memory. I could tell you some stories about the entry requirements for many of the countries I have visited in the past 50 years. To put it in perspective, in 1 country, which no longer exists, upon arrival, they required us to provide a blood sample, before they would even consider clearing the ship. This was a country behind the iron curtain, which had significantly lower standards than us. Sorry, having to redo tests because you were late, is a minor imposition, in comparison to some of my experiences.

Affirmative, you will be required to upload your vaccination record when completing ArriveCan. It is completely independent of VeriFly.

Suggest calling back until you get an agent that both knows what they are talking about and will also take the time. Other option is to contact tellus@vikingcruises.com

GTY - We have experienced GTY cabins not being assigned until check-in, so no worries.

With Air Plus, you can request a Qatar flight as your first choice. Worst case scenario is you may have to pay extra for your preferred routing.

The pax/crew ratio is more than adequate to provide Viking's level of service, provided the crew are all healthy and able to report for duty. Unfortunately, a side effect to the cessation of daily COVID testing and mask mandates, that many pax pushed for, is increased infections onboard the vessel. As I anticipated, the infections also spread to the hotel crew, who must isolate when they test positive. While those that complained about the daily testing and masking won, when COVID is present on a vessel, we will all now suffer the consequences of reduced pax service, as crew members are quarantined. Unfortunately, at sea, you can't pick up the phone and call in replacements. The remaining healthy crew also have to work longer and harder, which results in fatigue, making them more susceptible to both injury and infection.

You won't find the experienced Alaska cruise lines offering cruises to Alaska in October, for very good reasons - weather, little open and reduced daylight. I've sailed this coast for 35 years and no way I would book an Alaska cruise in October.

We received an email with a promo code (EBD) for the Longitudinal World Cruises on the repositioning of the Expedition ships. Checked it out and it didn't change the regular prices and offers available to everyone on the website.

You raise a very interesting point, with respect to the "Included" shore-ex. Pre-COVID, Viking simply added additional tours to meet the demand. However, in the current situation, do they have sufficient vendor resources available, in any given port, if all pax booked the "Included" shore-ex. I'll be watching this one, with interest, over the next few months.

Short answer is proximity to land, shallow water, extreme currents and lots of small boats. To provide some examples: - Back in my deep-sea days, I have gone many days standing on the Bridge and never altered speed, altered course or even seen another ship. Coastal navigation: - We navigated through a narrow channel that had 2 - 90 degree turns. Currents were up to 6 kts. Southbound, approaching the 2nd turn, we were doing about 20 kts, a mere 500 feet from the rocks. When I started, the entire width of the channel at the corner was filled with small boats out fishing. - Seymour Narrows which is 100 miles north of Vancouver. It also has a couple of 90 degree turns, but current can be up to 16 kts. We ran this 4 times per week at any state of the tide. Cruise ships only go through at slack water. Cruise ships also have a local pilot, whereas we navigated the coast without a pilot. - In coastal waters you have lots of small boats. Unfortunately, most of them have zero training, so their navigation often contradicts the collision regs. - Docking - cargo ships dock a few times a month, while cruise ships dock about 3 to 5 times per week. On the larger Ro/Pax, I did 4 dockings per day (8 hr day) and on the smaller ships, up to 16 dockings per day. We also docked under conditions that cruise ships would not attempt. - Docking times - cargo ships and cruise ships have very slow and relaxed dockings. We approached at full speed (20 - 21 kts) until 1 mile before the dock. From the first reduction in speed to being alongside was about 7 minutes. Cruise ships and cargo ships have reduced to 3 to 5 kts about 1 mile before the berths and could take 3/4 hr+ to complete the last mile. - I recall a very experienced ULCC Master I had for familairisation that couldn't handle the coast. Every time he saw a small boat, even if it was 10 miles away, he wanted to stop. In his experience, a ULCC takes over 10 miles to stop from about 12 - 14 kts, while my ship could stop in 1/3 mile from 21 kts. We had a schedule to maintain, so unnecessary slow down/stops weren't acceptable. He just couldn't transition to the coastal operation - Radar - on a 12 mile range, deep-sea you rarely had any targets, on the coast you could easily have 20 to 30+ targets, all of which must be monitored to determine if a close quarter exists.

You can hire one of the Visa procurement companies to obtain the required Visas for you. For our last cruise, the cruise line paid for GenVisa in Washington DC to procure all required Visas. We completed the forms, mailed them with our passports and they were returned in about 6 weeks. About 15 yrs ago, we used a local company in Vancouver to get us the China Visa, as I was still working and didn't have 2 days to stand queuing at the Chinese Consulate.

Glacier Bay - in addition to viewing glacier(s) and wildlife, the Park Rangers board the vessel and provide interesting commentary. Been into Glacier Bay many, many times and have never failed to see at least one glacier. Hubbard - Larger and probably more impressive than the glaciers in GB, but ice in the channel may prevent the ship from seeing the glacier. I have missed Hubbard only a couple of times.

The cruise line only receives information that CBSA wishes to conduct a face to face interview with specific pax. Even after the meeting they are only advise the pax can go ashore, or not. No reasons are provided, which could be many, not just convictions. Whether the cruise line would accept a subsequent booking, unfortunately I have no knowledge/experience, as I wasn't involved in that part of the business.

Rob, With respect to the Mississippi delays, to simplify the issue, I will consider Viking as the ship's owner. When building, or refitting a ship, the owner has representatives on site throughout the entire build and the owner's team will expand as the build progresses. In the Viking business model, I'm not aware that Viking have any Deck Operations or Marine Engineering departments, similar to the major cruise lines, so these functions are provided by the ship managers - Wilhausen Ship Management. They will have at least a Chief Engineer assigned from day 1 of the build and a Master early in the build. Other Deck & Engineering Officers are added as the build progresses. Technical Superintendent will also be onsite, as are Classification Society Surveyors. As the build progresses, Viking hotel staff will be added to the build team. In my experience, each build team member provides updates to the Superintendent, who provides updates to the company and negotiates with the shipyard. As a project approaches completion, it is always surprising how quickly they progress, but experienced officers have a reasonably good feel for when projects start to slide. Therefore, yes, the owner receives progress updates both from the shipyard and their onsite representatives. I can provide you an example from my experience. During a refit, where I saw the schedule slipping, the shipyard continued to deny any slippage. In updating the VP Ops, I suggested he may want to develop contingency plans, as it was looking increasingly likely we might be delayed. These plans were made, but could not be enacted until we received confirmation of the delay. The Chief suggested another potential delay, which is crewing. While my only knowledge of the US requirements is based on the Chief's posts, we had similar standards in Canada. All crew must be trained and certified. Even the basic hotel staff required a month, or more of training, much of which took place aboard the ship. For the Survival Craft training we had in-house certified instructors and a facility with examples of all the lifesaving equipment. I doubt Viking has these resources, so must rely on local training/certification providers. Getting a seat on courses is becoming increasingly challenging due to recertifications and owners trying to hire new crew. Since this is the first ship of this class, even if they have been able to hire sufficient crew, the crew cannot commence the onboard training until the ship is nearing completion. Another factor to consider, while interview processes can weed out poor candidates, those selected don't all make it through the training phase. When hiring Deck Officers, all candidates had to be fully certified, but only about 50% completed my training & familiarisation, with some lasting less than an hour. Many deep-sea crew just cannot adapt to the rigours of coastal and river operations. The marine industry is no different from many others, in that they are experiencing an extreme shortage of Masters, Officers & Ratings. Therefore, even if Viking had managed to hire sufficient crew, they may have a tough time finding replacements for those that fail the training & familiarisation phase. No doubt, you have seen on the news that my old company is cancelling hundreds of sailings this summer, due to lack of crew, sadly this is now the industry norm. In summary, I concur that only providing 2-weeks notice of cancellation is bad form. Viking should be capable of providing better customer service than this. However, potential issues causing the delays abound with many players involved - shipyard, ship owner, ship manager, crew training/certification providers, crew availability, etc. While Viking's name is prominently displayed and they have all the accountability, they have minimal influence over all of the parties responsible. This is a significant issue, but without knowing what information was provided to Viking and more importantly when, calling this a Viking Management issue is no more than ill-informed speculation.

Unfortunately, those interests are fairly generic and really not much help, especially as you didn't mention the ports. Bangkok is a great city and is very walkable around the Royal Palace/Emerald Buddha. However, very few ships dock in the river, as most of them are dock in Laem Chabang, about 80 miles from the city. Kuala Lumpur is similar in that the ships dock in Port Klang, which is about 30 miles, but with traffic can easily be an hour each way. Where the ships dock in both those ports there aren't any areas close to the ship worth walking around. Therefore, as I noted before, I suggest researching each of the ports on both cruises and list the points of interest that are important to you. I still complete this research and I have been to many of the world's ports, lots of them multiple times. Good luck picking the best cruise.