NavyCruiser

Have a few questions for those who has successfully done Princess' Bid for a Stateroom Upgrade offer. Just saw online that we're able to do a bid to go from oceanview to balcony for a very low reasonable price at low end to same as regular price on the high end for our Feb 2023 cruise. Currently there's plenty of balconies avail for our sailing. Question is chances are good if we bid the lowest offering price? Also, there's 12 of us currently booked, with all 6 cabins in a row on good Deck 8. So is there a way to do bidding for all 6 bookings at the same, to ensure all or none gets upgraded or not, & also to ensure we're all staying together nearby. Or is it too risky that we'll all be scattered all over the ship, like being a "Guaranteed" booking & be on different decks & different parts of the ship? Thanks,

We have a different take on this. We always/usually fly into embarkation port 2 days prior to debarkation date, just to 1. Just to be safe from not missing ship departure 2. Relax & tour port city For our upcoming cruise out of Barcelona next month, Although we've been to Barcelona twice before, we still wanted to further the city's sites & enjoy the food on our own, which is still much less expensive in cost per day. Once we check onto cruise ship on debarkation day, we've already enjoyed 2 days onshore, so we always try to relax & enjoy onboard lunch, do safety/muster drill check in, check our dining table assignment, explore & tour the ship, gym, spa, etc, rest/nap, more food, so by then ship should be underway soon thereafter...

Group of us have already made final payment for our upcoming Princess cruise next month. Quick questions: If we purchase the $500 gift card today, we can immediately input it into our account online? Or have to wait until boarding ship & have cust service desk apply? Can it be used for excursions, onboard shop purchases, casino, gratuities...? Let's say there's $100 leftover, can we get that credit back, or it's lost forever/non-refundable? Thanks,

On our Viking Grand European river cruise last year, One elderly couple used the "Luggage Forward" service & never received their luggage. So they wore Viking logo clothing the entire 2 weeks. We've always were leery of those type of services. Luckily, we're still middle aged, so don't mind lugging our bags ourselves, & using Tile tags...

Done a wonderful Viking Grand European river cruise last year with a few couples, including our Aunt & Uncle. Had some covid related issues & missed a few ports. Viking issued all of us, let's say $3000 Voucher, per couple to book new cruise. We all booked a Viking Ocean cruise on the Venus for early 2023, let's say for $7000, thus $4000 net after the $3000 Voucher applied. Our Aunt & Uncle cancelled this cruise a few months ago, but the rest of us are still going. Our Aunt & Uncle just went with us on a family reunion cruise last month, but doesn't plan to go on any more cruises in 2023 & 2024, & wants to transfer that $3000 Viking Voucher to us to use to book another new Viking cruise for later next year. However, Uncle just called & said Viking stated that since they applied Voucher to Venus cruise, then cancelled, so now the $3000 Voucher was also cancelled. Doesn't make sense to us. So is this final? Any other way for us to re-use that unspent $3000 Voucher at all? It expires end of Dec 2022, so sorta urgent, & hate to waste $3000, & not put it to use. Any suggestions...? Thanks,

Of course, I'll go back to the gym to take a shower afterwards...

Don't care about Princess tracking me, it's my wife tracking me that I'm concerned about. Don't want her to find out I'm in the casino or cigar lounge, after I told her I'm going to the gym...

For us Newbies, don't think we get complementary laundry. We're spending a few days before & a few days after our 7 night ocean cruise, so are there self service washer & dryer machines, or laundry rooms, that us peons can use? Would like to do a washing halfway thru the cruise. Also, need to bring our own detergents, or they have that avail for purchase onboard? Thanks,

Thanks for all the great responses above. Since I had all the 6 couples' reservation #, had all 12 of us listed as traveling companions. I went down to 3rd tab on Princess app, clicked on "Dine my way", then "Reserve for the time each day", then clicked the first set of 6 people for 8pm at Da Vinci dinning room. Then had another person booked another table for 6 for same time & same restaurant. Guess once onboard first day, I'll go to see restaurant manager to put our 2 tables together, or see we'll fit large round table for 12 or 10 squeezed in...

Just checked our mvj, it says we're 58 days out. But both Manfredis & chefs table still still says reservations not available...

Haven't sailed on Princess for past few years. Just learned that there's no more Traditional same time, same table, same staff MDR reservations anymore. Our group of 12 will be on Ruby Princess in February. So how / who do we contact to request old Traditional style reservation for our group? Thanks

In addition to lower military pricing for our upcoming Princess, Holland America, & Carnival cruise bookings in the next 11 months, all also added $100 OBC military veterans, + another $100 OBC for Carnival stock shareholders. Does Viking offer any of the above...? Thanks,

A "Train" engineer once told me that "Airplane" mode doesn't work on "Cruise Ships"... 😁

6 of us traveling on our first Viking ocean cruise (Venus). We're all reg balcony cabins. Unlike our previous Viking river cruises with just One main dining room sitting & no other specialty dining restaurants, Online Dining reservations on myvikingjourney opens next week, & we have a few questions. Are we assigned an early or late dining time, or anytime dining at the main restaurant? How many, or can all 6 of us make at least One reservation each to Manfredi's & Chef's Table? Is there a min & max number of reservations avail for the 7 nights? Beer, Wine, & soft drinks avail for lunch & dinner, which is fine for most of us. But if One of us want/need to buy the silver spirits pkg, does the other spouse in same cabin have to purchase it also...? Thanks,

Another point of view. Pre or Post Pandemic, within any large group gathering, there's always a few people that will annoy you. That will never change. After 2 yrs of lockdown & numerous cancellations, we're extremely happy just get away from "normal" life & go on needed vacations, including cruises. Yes, it happens everywhere, from 1 star hotels/resorts/cruises to 5 stars, not just on Viking. Yes, there are rude idiots in ALL social economic classes. So just ignore these very few people/instances of rude behavior, & just enjoy your vacation...

I am cheap. I'm bringing onboard a 12 pack of these damaged clearance priced generics....

I've been to a few cities that has parking garages that has lots of green & red lights overhead to indicate that a parking space is available, so a quick glance down the row will show which parking space is avail. Both of our cars has airbag sensors & lights that indicate if there's a person sitting in front row passenger seat & whether the airbag is on or off. So combining the 2 observations, I have a simple solution. In the near future, these deck chairs will auto sense that if once a person's has left/vacated the seat, top of seat shows red light or red flag, internal timer starts, so let's say 15 minutes later & no one's (weight) sits down, light or flag will auto turns green, meaning chair is now avail for use. Thus a quick glance on deck will quickly shows if there's seat avail...

Carnival just updated / enforcing their policy: https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1121/kw/lounge RESERVING SUN LOUNGERS Carnival has a system designed to ensure that all guests are able to enjoy equal access to sun loungers by preventing seat saving in outdoor deck areas. Shipboard team members monitor sun lounge usage and if they observe a seat that contains a towel or personal belongings but appears to be unoccupied, a notification is placed on the chair indicating the current time. If the chair remains unoccupied for 40 minutes, the contents are removed and held for the guest’s safekeeping. Guests are advised of the system via public address announcements by the cruise director, signage in outdoor deck areas, messages displayed on the Seaside Theater poolside LED screen, as well as notices in HUB App.

We're mid-50's, but after numerous Carnival cruises when our kids were younger enjoying their kids club on Carnival, we're now going the opposite direction & now enjoying more upscale lines such as Viking, Celebrity, & Holland Amer... etc. Now just with us 2, we're splurging a little more with the All-included/Have-it-all perks...

Not a problem on Arctic & Antarctic cruises... 😀

I call HAL upsell dept 3 wks prior to our Rotterdam sailing to the Norwegian fjords, 2 months ago. Didn't even bothered our TA. Orig balcony cabins were $700 pp higher than our booked inside mid Deck 7 cabin. They offered $250 pp for mid Deck 7 balcony, across the hallway. We took it. Def worth it for the beautiful Fjord views...

For international flights, we always book to stay in debarkation port city a for few extra days. But flying domestic from FLL earlier this year, we had a 11:30am flight. Went down to purser's desk to ask for earliest debark # group. After picking up our luggage, immigration & customs took less than 5 minutes, the most efficient port ever. Got into waiting taxi, no lines, arrived FLL airport in less than 15 minutes. Arrive at airport lounge with more than 2 hours to spare...

Total BS! We've just came back from a week's cruise to Norway. Local people were very nice & friendly. Probably from a small fringe protest group...

We only book thru Viking, since we always book/take advantage of their "Free Air" promos. One question I have is: Viking's $350 pp fee to modify the flight once ticketed (about 2 months before fight). If it's the Airline's that making the unreasonable change/cancellation (not by us), then wouldn't be reasonable for Viking to help us to make update/correction back to near our orig planned flights without charging us the $350 fee? Otherwise, once ticketed, we could make our flight changes/update/corrections directly with the Airlines, without involving Viking, since it's the Airlines that made the change?

Yes, I've received email from SheerID Verification:     Congratulations!   We have verified your eligibility on this special offer you requested.     Redeem Offer   Book as early as tomorrow and receive your onboard credit offer.   Share this offer   $100 Onboard Credit   Share   Kind Regards, Holland America Line ========================================================== Just very confusing, so I called HAL phone & agent says to wait 72 hours for it to be applied. Email should said that instead...