OneSixtyToOne

Venice is an outlier but it does illustrate that procedures may be different depending on the port. Some ports are industrial and or shared with the military and because of safety and security everyone needs to be escorted to a secure/central area. Most others are fully functioning cruise ship terminals, making disembarkation easier.

After walking 5-10 miles a day on daily excursions, I have no desire for additional exercise while on vacation.

Everyone should read this article about how airline schedules this far out are only placeholders. It’s all subject to change.

I suggest reading the Post Viking Promos thread for the latest.

Viking limits the OBC that TAs can offer because they can. They do everything they can to protect their base cruise price and discount in other ways (free air, limited OBCs, free SSP)

RAR is a file compression format similar to ZIP. It handles larger files but uses more memory. ZIP is ubiquitous and predates RAR. RAR is proprietary which is why it is not built into more systems. The WINZIP program usually handles RAR. Linux geeks love RAR. It's another computer religious war because RAR is more efficient and Linux users love to show they are superior.

Boiled cornmeal, think gruel and Oliver Twist.

Outside of water, I don't believe there are any bottled or canned non-carbonated options. They may have non-carbonated Fanta orange but I'm not sure. Coffee and Tea are available 24/7 in the World Cafe and room service is always available.

If you have never been, I highly recommend visiting the Borghese Gallery It has some of the most incredible sculpture I've ever seen.

It uses Neroli oil from the blossoms of the bitter Seville orange.

On our last cruise, DW had to have her picture taken again when checking in but not me. Maybe the picture she uploaded was out of spec or she changed hairdos. I did notice that when you tap your card to board/unboard your picture appears on their screen and they visually ID you. They want a clear and current picture.

Closest guess yet. You are on the right track with cherries, but no stone fruits are used. Pemberton’s French Wine of Coca, which used a cocaethylene mixture, was the original patent medicine made in an Atlanta drug store that became Coca-Cola. The cocaine was removed because of the alcohol used (prohibition), not the cocaine. Coca-Cola still uses coca leaf for flavoring. The leaf is processed to remove the active ingredient, which is sold to the pharmaceutical industry. Coca-Cola uses a “debuzzed” coca alkaloid from this process for flavoring. Along with cola nut, this is one of the major flavor components of Coca-Coca. Another is the extract from a real bitter orange. Pepsi uses lemons, which is one big reason they taste different. While we are on the topic, DYK 7-Up use to contain lithium citrate, a drug used for treating manic states?

Didn’t see any Diet Coke on our last Viking cruise, although I didn’t ask. All I noticed was Coke Zero in the World Cafe.

One word….Marketing. Although Coke Zero tastes more like Coca-Cola, the word “Diet” has become pejorative with recent generations. When it was introduced, Diet Coke was the most researched, taste-tested new product introduction in the world. It was marketed to get men to drink diet soda. Up until that time, Coca-Cola’s diet drink was Tab. In its magenta can and swimsuit model ad campaign, it was targeted towards women. The Diet Coke rollout featured a pinstripe can and celebrities like John Wayne and Telly Savalas kicking back cans of Diet Coke like it was beer. When we have that drink on a cruise together, I’ll tell you why this all has a direct connection to the “New Coke” fiasco.

Definitely not prunes. Dr. Pepper predates Coca-Cola by one year and was invented in a drugstore in Waco, Texas. At Dr. Pepper HQ they serve hot Dr. Pepper as a coffee substitute.

Wrong on both.

The fridge is stocked with 6 cans of soda (4 browns 2 clears) and two small bottles of mixers. You can ask the steward for whatever you like and they will almost always be able to accommodate you. I replace the tonic with ginger ale which BTW is Schweppes made with real sugar instead of fructose. It’s delicious. I was in the beverage industry for 20 years so allow me to digress. Most of the soft drinks bottled outside the US are non fructose because sugar is cheaper and fructose used in beverages is liquid, which makes it difficult and costly to transport internationally. The US highly subsidizes the corn industry, which is the primary supplier of fructose. BTW If we ever meet on a cruise I’ll tell you the inside story of “New Coke” and the secret ingredient in Dr. Pepper.

Here is a link to a blog about VO cabins as well as cabins to avoid. As far as searching is concerned, most search engines require a minimum number of characters to work properly, otherwise the query may timeout or simply be ignored. Using two characters is not an ideal way to search a database.

We connected in Munich twice last month. Cleared passport control in less than 2 minutes. One of the easiest airports we’ve ever been through.

App is now working.

I just downloaded the new Lufthansa app and it’s down.

Tea for two is a LOT!

Tea is 4:00-500

These are cruise specific and sometimes quirky. For example they served Turkey on our one stop in Turkey. Seems like to there is always a seafood night soon after embarking an overnight port, probably because they can obtain fresh sea food. Italy had Italian night. Crete had Greek cuisine. Just about every night had regional cuisine. Not sure how this plays out on long cruises with a lot of sea days.

Interesting. On our April cruise there is no “Venice on your own,” only the full tours. It appears Viking is not providing and other way to get there.