philw1776

Chat as mentioned above has worked well for me.

On our Transatlantic from Bergen to Montreal In the Wake of the Vikings we did reach one Greenland port, Nanortalik. We took a Viking excursion on a RIB to tour the Icebergs around the outside of the harbor. One of the best ever.  "In search of Icebergs"

I travel to Greenland from Stratham several times per week.

              THIS ^^^^

TMI Follows...
I sweat like a lawn sprinkler so I need to carry several outfits and don't wish to spend expensive cruise time doing laundry. I do sometimes wash T shirts in the shower with me.

Awful news.

Prayers for him, his family and crew mates. Casts a pall.

Remember folks that your tip deducted at cruise end is also distributed to all these behind the scenes crew members you may never encounter, deck crew, engine crew, dishwashers, laundry room, etc.

You will identify your bags before they're loaded onto the bus. A brief window of opportunity for you.
You will also then take possession of your bags as they are offloaded from the bus at the airport. Another window,
I prefer simply to shove any nightclothes into the carry on in the morning in our cabin and avoid the stress of opening bags in the hectic rush of loading & unloading onto the bus.

1 hour ago, janetcbl said:

When you reach “a certain age”, the Viking insurance is the only one with a reasonable price. Now, for the cost of ones we have used in our younger years, we could pay for another trip! If anyone knows of a better one for the older generation, please let me know. Thanks!

THIS ^^^^
The other packages are much more expensive for old coots. Need insurance in case of accident or health emergency during trip.

Only on my recent "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise was I totally unable to get Chef's Table reservations onboard for ANY night (that were not at unacceptable to me 8:30PM seatings). I was in a PV.

That was not really a problem on this great cruise but now worried about fall cruise where when I went to book Manfreidi's, the 1st 5 nights were totally unavailable and subsequent nights were all @8:30PM or later. I hope that something significant has not changed. Again in a PV.

Bathrobe phenomena around the ship is new to me. Saw several on our June Into the Midnight Sun cruise. NOT talking about someone going to/from Spa but in the common areas like Living Room.

dmoser  "The Edinburgh included excursion was basically a minimally informative bus transfer into town... in heavy traffic, that dumps you off near the castle (which was sold out of tickets) for 45 min of on-your-own touristy shopping before returning.  No walking tour component, very little info about Edinburgh.  In Leknes (Lofoten), the included tour was totally different than (and way way worse than) the tour described pre-cruise on the My Viking Journey site, and described on-board on the Viking Voyager app.  One of the 3 stops on the tour was literally a highway rest stop where the only activity was using the toilets, for 30 minutes.  It was just to kill time."

Agree with both criticisms of these included tours. Good recommendation on the tram. Worse yet our Lofoten tour guide was one of the worst ever. Could not finish a thought. At tour's end, we were running late she decided to stop the bus, stand up and face us delivering a 15 minute monolog that was instantly forgettable.

Otherwise we enjoyed our 24 June cruise very much.

DANGER WILL ROBINSON!
Weird thing happened to me yesterday. Had used Viking Air Plus via my TA to book business class seat for September and change/select our VA assigned seats to one behind each other in single seat aisle by the window. Plane has 1-2-1 config. After months, I noticed yesterday that my seat was moved to across the aisle from wife. My TA called Viking and got it changed back in 2 hours.

Would have fixed it myself as I originally had moved my Viking Air assigned seat but for some strange reason Swiss Air claimed my password was bogus and when I try change password they claim my email is bogus. Am I on some Lufthansa/Swiss persona non grata list?

Just flew BA and did not have to pay to change & reserve a seat. World Traveler Plus.

52 minutes ago, formernuke said:

Thanks for the info! Yes, we've been to London before and love the waterfront attractions and views. Did you by any chance try their afternoon tea service?

No we did not. Cabbie told me it is not what it once was. Bet we would have still enjoyed it though.

2 hours ago, MoBro713 said:

What about my Covid vaccination card?

 

Thanks

They don't care.

16 hours ago, formernuke said:

Thanks for the review. How was the Royal Horseguards? Staying there next April with Viking BIE Churchill pre-extension 

RH was once a 5 star. It has declined from its glory days but is still a fine hotel. Our double bed room was small but it faced the river and the London eye. We loved it there. Location is superb. Enjoy the gardens on the river facing side of the hotel and be sure to walk along the embankment to view the monuments to the RAF pilots and the defense of London. Everything is within walking distance; cradle robbing wife is 80. The nearby river boat excursions are not expensive and worth the money. You view the dock where the Mayflower left. Recreated Shakespeare's theater, Tower of London and Helen Mirren's home plus many other sites along the river.

16 hours ago, Fieldofdreams said:

Phil - 

Really enjoyed reading your summary review. By chance have you ever completed a Viking cruise of Italy, the Adriatic and Mediterranean (including Greece). This is our trip coming up at the end of September on Viking Jupiter and would like to hear your thoughts/opinions on any excursions that you may have taken if you have been on such a trip.

Thanks

Don

Thank you. Going on that cruise 8 September. 

Stayed in London pre cruise at Royal Horseguards in Westminster. Wonderful time viewing the many WWII historical monuments along the river.  Churchills War Room which Viking advertises for this cruise and a major expectation for us was mysteriously “not available” for this sailing. So thankful we were able to see it on our own. 
Enjoyed Thames river boat tour from Westminster to Greenwich & back.

SUN  JUN 25  London                                                                              5:30PM Sail out          

TOWER OF LONDON   4H   9AM-1PM  

This tour was ok at best. Also guide was unclear where to meat up after self-tour. Instead of traffic limited bus rides to & from Viking should use an UBER boat to take us to the dock there & back saving time and adding tour value.

Missed the afternoon’s excellent Greenwich walking tour because we were exhausted.
Winds kept Venus in port missing the 5:30 PM sail out and even rising at 6:30AM we missed the very early AM sail out start. What we did see was very nice.

D4: TUE  JUN 27    Edinburgh, Scotland   

EDINBURGH HIGHLIGHTS  3H  

Typical panoramic bus tour. Unfortunately somewhat rainy. Fun time limited walk along Top of Royal Mile. Good guide with interesting information.

ROYAL YACHT BRITANNIA  

Did this very pricey Viking tour on our own. Despite fairly long walk to & fro in moderate rain the self-guided tour was excellent. Seems like there were bars everywhere on the ship. Good times.

D5: WED  JUN 28   Orkney Islands, Scotland            

ORKNEY’S STONE AGE  4H

Outstanding tour with great archaeologist guide.   Only complaint was way too little time at Ring of Brodgar stones. Skara Brae oceanside site was excellent and had enough time. Gorgeous Orkney countryside. Learned much on bus ride as well. Highly recommended.

D6: THUR  JUN 29  Shetland Islands, Scotland   

ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS OF THE SHETLANDS  4H  

Another outstanding tour with an outstanding guide. 5000 year old Jarlshof site was fascinating with surprising opportunities to crawl inside the stone structures by the beautiful seaside. Inhabited for centuries by different cultures through Iron Age and then Viking Longhouse remains. Learned about, saw and went inside remains of multistory Broch towers. Scenic countryside drive to & fro but not as pretty as Orkney. Not to be missed.

D7 & D8 : FRI & SAT  JUN 30 & JUL 1   SEA DAYS   

Some of the roughest sailing I’ve ever experienced on 1^st day but settled down the next day. Love hanging out and eating too much on Viking ships. Lectures continued to be excellent especially those by the ship’s resident historian. She was entertaining and informative.

D9: SUN JULY 2     Honningsvag, Norway

DRIVE TO NORTH CAPE  3.5HR   8:45AM-12:15PM

Short but scenic bus ride to North Cape monument & museum. I was dressed for the cold and had good weather with some blue sky for picture taking. Great views. Museum was decent, not great, but very comfortable. As we left for the ride back to the ship it clouded over ruining this picturesque tour for the afternoon folks.

HONNINGSVAG BY FOOT & PLAY  2HR   

Punted on this planned tour as it was pouring rain and guest services said it was an over 20 minute walk to the play. Enjoyed reading in Explorers Lounge instead.

D10: MON  JULY 3  TromsØ, Norway    

PORTALS TO THE ARCTIC   3.5HR  

Outstanding tour this morning.  Good weather & good guide.  Started with visit to the A frame Church, then onto the Excellent Arctic Museum with plenty of time to tour. Then off to the cable car ride to the mountaintop with fantastic vistas. Again, plenty of time.

WALKING TOUR OF TROMSØ   1.5HR   

Afternoon  included tour was informative.  Young lady resident was a good guide.

D11: TUE  JULY 4   Lofoten, Norway                                                                           

LOFOTEN VIKING EXPERIENCE   3.5H   

Informative fun tour of a Viking longhouse replica.  Large. Enjoyed a typical Viking snack with mead while the re-enactment host told us how women ruled the roost while raiders were away. Many actors doing crafts etc. and stuff you could touch. Then the on-site museum was OK but very comfortable. Funny, entertaining 6’8” guide.

PANORAMIC LOFOTEN   2.5HR   2:45PM-5:15PM

Others rightly rate this tour highly but our guide was way below par. Could not put 2 sentences together and drifted off topic. Then long silences. The overlook site views at stops were gorgeous but at the end she insisted on stopping the bus so she could stand up face us and deliver a long uninteresting monologue which I forget and which made us late getting back by 20 minutes. 

Received back at the ship by crew singing & dancing which deeply offends some on cruise critic.

D13: THUR  JULY 6  Geiranger, Norway                                             

KYAKING GEIRANGERFJORD   3H   9AM-12PM

We cancelled this at deadline 3 days before because of rain forecasts. 3 HRS rained on in a kyak did not sound fun. Of course the real weather that morning was excellent.

EAGLE’S BEND OVERLOOK & PANORAMIC DRIVE  3H

Switched to an early morning tour but arrival of a 4,000 passenger tour ship delayed our tender departure by half an hour. Bus ride up the fjord along exciting switchbacks with outstanding vistas. First stop also included a waterfall where we could stand in the spray for photos. Luckily not killed by traffic.  Multiple stops ending with a lake back in the hills and a lake side Inn. Got great photos, a tour not to be missed. By that time weather had turned overcast. Good guide.

Gorgeous sail out by the Seven Sisters and numerous other photographic waterfalls even in the rain. Watched from our veranda. Geiranger is a gem.

D14: FRI JULY 7   Bergen, Norway

Been to Bergen twice before. Toured on our own again and went up the funicular for city and harbor overviews which were good despite overcast skies. Checked out the fish market, etc.  After lunch the dreaded packing task began.

Viking Venus crew was excellent without exception. Food was good with good service. We were unable to get any Chef’s Table reservations even while onboard. We don’t dine at 8 or 9PM.  But no big deal. As previously stated, the lectures were excellent, a great feature on Viking.  Wife enjoyed a massage and I was too lazy to visit the spa pool as I have done on previous cruises. Internet was poor. Could not send even one photo.

Nearly 2 hour hellhole in line waiting for Amsterdam passport control in extreme heat and humidity. Stressful. Missed our early boarding flight perk. Otherwise flight back was great.

I was aboard Venus on this same cruise. Good crew. Good service.

Will add my review with our different excursion choices once I have time this week.

On 6/13/2023 at 8:44 PM, TayanaLorna said:

When you upgrade a cabin you pay the price of what that cabin cost at the time YOU originally booked the cruise not the current sale or promo price.  So if a PV cost $7599 when you booked your cruise and the current promo has it for $6599, you still pay the difference between what you paid for your DV and $7599.

THIS  ^^^^

Had a different experience 3 years ago. Stayed at Albergo Terminus in Lake Como and Hotel Academia in Verona. Terminus was right at the lake. All meals were terrific with lunches and dinners at very fine restaurants. Not at the hotels. Cooking demo was at a different hotel across the lake. Weather was down pouring rain with streets flooded ankle deep. Nothing is perfect.

Despite ~10 Viking cruises I have received no brochures for the last 3-4 years except one for Expedition ships. I must have done something quite unacceptable on one or more of my cruises.

I think so but my 2 cruises had no formal nights. Yah, that's a deal breaker for me.
The bathroom is superior with huge shower and jacuzzi tub even in lowest cabin.

Silversea has small ocean ships ~ 600 passengers. I've enjoyed my cruises with them. They have many different itineraries. 

45 minutes ago, Packman1000 said:

Why would it be necessary, or beneficial, to transfer to a TA after booking?  I'm still trying to decide if booking with a TA or directly with Viking is better.  Seems like a TA would provide OBC where Viking doesn't.   But would a TA give OBC after booking?

Yes they do.