Port Hope

I booked our tickets online the night before we docked in Bergen once I’d read several weather forecasts. We had a beautiful sunny day and I was glad to skip the ticket line. 

We paid for our excursions in Canadian dollars but when we were refunded for a cancelled excursion, the money was credited to our onboard account in US dollars. 

I have celiac disease and Viking took excellent care of me on our two cruises. The last one was in 2018 (and we are going on our 2020 cruise in 2023!) so my experience is a bit out of date but I can’t imagine that Viking’s service has changed. We ate most of our dinners in the Restaurant and made sure to sit in the same section every night so that the waiter got to know me well. One night I asked our waiter Simon how he knew which meal was mine when two meals looked identical. He said that mine had a little marker on it that said “gluten free” which he discarded just before he came through the door from the kitchen.  As was posted above, I too got the menu for the next day delivered to our cabin the night before and dropped off my selections in the morning.  Here is a link to an older thread with more info: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2197020

We use Flyer Talker’s second method and it works for us as difficult as that first day might be. The only time it didn’t work was on a trip to visit relatives. We had no problem the first day as we had so much to catch up on. We got a second wind and stayed up until midnight. However, since we were so sleep deprived we slept in the next morning. That day was great but the jet lag caught us on the third day. After that experience we make sure to set an alarm and get up reasonably early the next morning in the new time zone. 
Does anyone have any tips for east to west trips? We both take at least a week to adjust. (Usually we have a 5 or 6 hour adjustment.) We try our hardest to stay up until at least 10 pm when we get home but then we are wide awake at 4 am. 

Thanks for posting your review Twitchly. We are booked on this cruise for April of 2022. Surely Covid will be under control by then! 

Here’s a link to an older thread on this topic:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2515648-viking-homeland-pre-oslo-amp-bergen-railway/

Our cancelled 2020 cruise was to end in Bergen and I had been researching options for getting to Oslo, hence the bookmarked link. In the above thread there is are references to “Norway in a Nutshell” which is another option you could explore. 

On 4/16/2020 at 12:47 PM, tomworldwidewaftage said:

Viking cancelled our April 3, 2020 29 day cruise Mumbai to London on March 11th.

We told Viking on March 11th we wanted a refund.

 

Viking said 21 business days for our refund, which would have been April 9th.

On April 10th Viking said refunds were going out by next week.

Now Viking is saying 90 days for our refund.

 

Stock analysis are say the public trading cruise lines will be burning a Billion dollars a month.

 

I convinced Viking won't stay out of bankruptcy before we get our refund.

We had the opposite experience. We cancelled a booking on April 5. Refund  appeared on credit card on April 16. 

I have really enjoyed reading through this thread and imagining myself back in the Explorers' Lounge. Here's one of my fond memories taken as we sailed away from St. Petersburg in April of 2018 on the Viking Sea. 

Our friends had a room directly across from the laundry room on our first Viking cruise together.  They, like Darcy Willoughby, heard nothing. We were two doors away and I too used the laundry sign to navigate. 

I never thought about that, Heidi13! I brought my own lunch for our private 2 day tour in St. Petersburg. Luckily we sailed through Customs and no one searched my purse. But since I get violently ill if I consume gluten, it’s too big a leap of faith for me to trust that the communication about my issues will be accurate. So, I will have to think about how to cope on our next cruise should there be an included lunch. Go hungry is an option, I guess.

On our cruise last April on Viking Sea I had two days where lunch was going to be a challenge for me. In the morning, in the World Cafe, I got a gluten free bun and made myself a sandwich using the cold cuts and cheese that are always part of the breakfast buffet. Then I didn’t have to worry about gluten free options at lunch time.

Living in Canada, I can’t get on the US or UK Viking sites. For our first Viking Oceans cruise in 2015, we had to pay in US dollars. For our 2018 cruise we were able to pay in Canadian dollars. Last winter, before we went to Florida, I printed out some cruise fares in Canadian dollars. In Florida I was able to get on the US site and do a price comparison. What that one time experiment showed me was that Viking is giving a fair exchange rate and the fares were comparable.

We used DenRus tours for 2 days in April this year. There were 4 of us and we were able customize our tour exactly to our liking. Excellent guide and driver. We saw more than the Viking 2 day tour at a lower price.

Dimensions of safe on ship.

My husband has contacted Viking by phone and email but hasn’t been able to find the dimensions of the safe in a DV room on the Sun. He is trying to decide if a 15” laptop will fit in the safe. Any ideas?

I’m writing from the Viking Sea. I don’t have a ruler, but by using a piece of 8.5 by 11 paper, I think it’s at least 11” deep by 17” wide. The door opening is narrower but you could get your laptop in.

We’ve left iPads, iPhones and jewellery out and never worried about it..

Lobes1 - many thanks for the tip about WiFi calling on the newer iPhones. I had no idea this existed and will make use of it on our Viking Sea Cruise this spring.

I agree, this is a fun thread. But I wish Viking good luck in meeting all our requests. I like lackcreativity’s suggestion that kicked off this thread but I would add a longer stop in Naples or perhaps Naples and Sorrento so that I wouldn’t have to choose one of Capri, Pompeii and Herculaneum. And I really enjoy sea days!

Thanks for the link to the Viking Dailies CharTrav. Very helpful since we will be in many of the same ports in 2018. I can see that they have changed the assembly procedure from when we were onboard on 2015. Included tours meeting on the pier probably cuts down on the congestion on the stairs down to the gangway.

Yup - I remember last year on VH where they checked us to make sure we had our passports in hand before we even went into the Star Theater. I just don't remember now how many times that happened. More than just St Petersburg?

 

 

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CharTrav - just picking up on one part of your comment so my question is a bit off track: Is Viking having everyone who is booked on an excursion go to the theatre and wait for their tour to be called? On our 2015 Viking Star cruise we waited in the Living Room which I thought was great. You could get a coffee, use the washrooms, wander around etc. We are booked again in 2018 and are eagerly forward to another great Viking Ocean experience.

Bookworm61 - as always Peregrina651 gives great advice. I'd just like to emphasize one point. You pay the $50 to get to choose from what Viking is offering. Our TA has started to look at flights for our cruise next April. He found a one stop flight home for us from Stockholm that was a combo of British Airways and Air Canada. Viking won't book that since those two airlines are not partners. So instead we will have two stops using a combo of SAS and Air Canada. Still, I think it's worth the $50 to see all the possible options and choose the one that suits you best.

stretchcruz - thank you for your detailed comments about the ports and excursions. Very helpful since we are on this itinerary in April of 2018 and like you will take many of the included tours. We were on the Viking Star in 2015 and are eagerly waiting for a second Viking Oceans experience. I also picked up on a couple of your comments about the weather. I will pack my down jacket and hope to enjoy the balcony at the start of the cruise.

How was the transit of the Kiel canal?

Here's a link to another thread about gluten free options on Viking Oceans:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2197020

We are scheduled to leave on April 21, 2018 from Barcelona on the Sky so I am also wondering what is going on. I have not heard anything about our

schedule. We would be the first cruise after the transatlantic.

We just heard from our TA today that the April 21, 2018 "Barcelona, the Baltic and Beyond" has been cancelled as the Sky is being deployed elsewhere. No more info than that. However we can book on the earlier sailing of April 10 for the same itinerary on board their new ship. I asked the TA to see if he could find out if that's the Spirit? It doesn't launch until 2018. Plus, the Sea is on the same itinerary on the same dates (April 10). Are they going to have 2 ships on the exact same itinerary at the same time?

Will post again when I get answers.

I have celiac disease and was well treated by Viking Oceans. Here's a link to another thread that you might find helpful:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2197020

Thanks for the advice Port Hope. I too am very sensitive to gluten (Celiac). I will make the head waiter my best friend and reward him with a generous tip if he comes through for me.

I had such a good experience on the Grand European river cruise. The kitchen even baked up gluten free croissants for me. I was in heaven! That is one reason I am sticking to Viking.

Any more tips on gluten-free dining is welcome. Were you able to eat in any of the speciality restaurants?

We did eat in each of the specialty restaurants. Manfredi's was no problem; the Chef's Table was more challenging and they had to bring in a substitution from the Restaurant for me.

I saw/heard several people asking in World Cafe about whether specific items were gluten free. They got quick answers from knowledgeable staffers, often indicating "Yes." They seemed to be aware that this is a concern for passengers.

We were on the Viking Star last October. I am a celiac who gets very ill when I consume any gluten. I had no problems dining in the restaurant and like another poster I got the menu the night before. However, I was very careful in the World Cafe. Viking staff are very eager to please and when I asked one server about gluten free options he told me everything was gluten free! I would advise walking around the Cafe and looking for the head waiter on duty. They are the ones that can safely guide you to gluten free options.