OneSixtyToOne

I’ve found the Star Theater to be very cold. I think they keep it chilly because of the theatrical lighting. I always grab a blanket that are on some of the seats.

I believe most cocktails and mixed drinks are $8.50

I hate to throw cold water on your plans, but last year on our Mediterranean Odyssey cruise our stay in Venice was cut short due to bad weather. We did not overnight there and instead left around 7:00 PM. We headed to Crotia in heavy seas and gale force winds where we picked up about 100 passengers that missed embarkation. To compound matters, the Italian air traffic controllers had a one day strike. People arriving that day saw nothing of Venice. Make sure to contact the ship to confirm you will indeed not depart early.

Could also be location dependent.

Same with us. Probably has to do with the chip in the card being needed to authenticate the charge.

Depends on location. In Chile, I couldn’t get my phone payment to work and needed a card with a chip.

Is this a desktop or laptop computer? It sounds like it’s just a link to a web page, not an app.

This is not true, All the hand knotted rugs change color based on direction because of the weave. I have both and both shift color. Silk is denser and you can tell by the feel and sheen. Also they knot the ends differently. This is wool from different directions:

Viking has a list of vetted shops. When you buy, you sign the back so you can be sure the same one you bought is the one that is delivered. The official shops are state sponsored and the shipping is included because the government also subsidizes that.

They are quite beautiful. All hand knotted and colored using organic dyes. The wool is from Angora goats.

Very beautiful. I assume it’s silk?

This looks really shady. There is a site called MyVikingJourney.net that has an app. At the bottom it states it’s not associated with My Viking Journey. I think this is an app written by someone who is connecting in the background with MyVikingJourney.com. They bought the domain MyVikingJourney.net. They are probably selling ads, displaying the real website, and capturing your data. The .net website appears to give you information about how to use the .com site. I would not trust anything associated with this. As far as I know there is no official app from Viking for MyVikingJourney.com that is a substitute for using a browser.

Owner’s Suite entrance is between the Explorers Lounge (it shares the conference room fireplace) and the rest rooms. Its designation is OS. 7017 must be a typo. 7014 maybe?

I’ll add one more thing. I lover ginger ale and I found that on some sailings the Schweepes Ginger Ale is from European suppliers and has cane sugar not HFCS. Again a big difference in taste.

The number one factor in taste is the water supply used. Every bottler is supposed to have the same standards, but internationally things are not always the same. Personally I never have a soft drink with ice. Sometimes the ice tastes horrible. Although this doesn’t apply to diet drinks, the other big factor in taste is sweetener. After “New Coke” was abandoned, they replaced one thing in the returning Coca-Cola, using HFCS (corn syrup) instead of cane sugar. In some places in the world cane sugar is still used (Brazil, Mexico) because it’s cheaper and subsidized by their governments. Since we live close to Mexico our Costco stocks “Mexican Coca-Cola” still with cane sugar. There is a big difference in taste. In the US, the corn lobby and PACs (Archer Daniels Midland) is the reason HFCS and corn is found in all our junk food.

Correction on my previous post. The rollout of Diet Coke was at Radio City Music Hall. Telly Savalas delivers the tag line “just for the taste of it.” Notice the subliminal message to men: “Drink for the taste not for the weight loss.” YouTube Link won’t paste but Google “Diet Coke - The very first commercial at Radio City (1983-)”

They are not the same. They are formulated differently and have a different taste. Coke Zero tastes more like original Coca-Cola. I can spend an hour talking about Coke, Diet Coke, Tab, and New Coke and some crazy behind the scenes stories. (Anyone who has met me on a cruise has probably been subjected to my ramblings, My apologies.) Here is the short version about Diet Coke. Diet Coke was originally formulated and marketed to attract male soda drinkers. Tab was one of the first diet drinks on the market. It was created in the 1960’s and featured a magenta (pink) can and matching “bathing beauty” ad campaign to attract female customers. During the late 1970s Coca-Cola decided to try tap a new market of weight conscious men. Diet Coke was THE most reformulated and test marketed new product in history. It promised a “bolder taste” that men would prefer. The original can had pin strips and the the product kickoff was in Hollywood with stars like John Wayne, Bob Hope, and Telly Savalas all drinking from cold sweaty cans. Overnight it became the most successful new product in history. The legacy of this success was that the person who led the product development and rollout of Diet Coke later was chosen to lead the disastrous introduction of “New Coke.” Pinstripe logo

Also worth noting, I worked in the soft-drink beverage industry for 15 years. Marketing is changing away from using the word “Diet” because it’s seen by younger generations as negative. The word of the day is “Zero” and some countries have discontinued Diet Coke and only sell Coke Zero. Therefore on some itineraries it may be difficult to find Diet Coke. I fully expect Diet Coke to be phased out in a few years, in the same way as Tab was removed from the market. As far a “Caffeine-Free” is concerned, this was another trend that started in the 1980s when the decaffeinated colas hit the market. I venture to say that most people don’t realize which soft drinks have never contained caffeine. Whoever you spoke with probably was thinking solely of decaffeinated colas.

Orange, lemon-lime, ginger ale, and tonic water are all caffeine free. Not sure what your definition of caffeine free is because they always have the above. If you mean caffeine-free cola, no, they don’t carry it. They also don’t carry root beer.

Introduce yourself to the wine steward and ask for a recommendation. During your cruise if you happen upon a wine of your liking, he may set aside low stock for you. This has happened to use a couple of times.

Non-alcoholic coffee drinks are included. Max SSBP drink price is $18, which covers almost everything except some champagne.

Never seen this before. You need to provide payment information when you book the excursions and the MVJ shopping cart is separate from the cruise fare balance, so I would hope there is no issue.

Chat is only available when agents are on duty. It is not 24/7. When active, it appears as a popup screen on the website.

Actually, it IS on the back of the card. Never noticed that before.

The ship’s phone number and email address is listed in your final documents email. It’s a U.S. based phone number (not toll free).