kcpvwill

We were on Viking Venus in October and we also encountered loud and simply rude passengers during the Explorer Society Gathering.  They talked laughed shrieked and drowned out the speeches and entertainment.  I felt so sorry for the speakers and entertainers involved.  
 

It was the first and hopefully last time this happened on our 19 (Ocean and River) cruises with Viking.  Looking forward to our 20th next year being peaceful! 

We had the same problem as Baron Baracuda when on Viking Venus in October in the Mediterranean.  Most days the live  TV  was down and we had no sea days.  Not sure why this happened.  We were able to access news most of the time on our tablets so it wasn’t a big issue, just surprising as we’d not had this problem so much on previous cruises with Viking (11 ocean and 8 river) 

Looking forward to our 20th Viking cruise next year and hoping some new itineraries will be announced in Europe soon. 

Our Monaco stop this year was supposed to be a tender (red anchor shown on invoice) as well, but in the end we docked.  
 

A previous Viking cruise a few years ago was just the opposite, should have been port, turned out to be tender.  Often don’t know till you get there. 

We got no TV coverage on Venus in October in the Med.

We were on Venus,  14th - 28th October and had virtually no live  TV throughout except for scrambled / pixelated.  Usually just message that it was not available.  The internet wasn’t too bad though.  I wonder if Venus was awaiting an update.  We did not get the letter that the OP posted.  
 

Perhaps those on Venus might let us know if it has been updated and is working .

As a matter of interest, why is it called Viking Vela?  Is Vela a star or other astronomical body?  

22 hours ago, Reaniel said:

 

I assume the non-included Viking excursions for Venice were canceled?

I think all the non-included excursions still went ahead but they were very long days!  People were returning to the ship, some after a 12.5 hour excursion about 9pm.  

We’ve just returned from Viking Venus which docked in Ravenna, some 90 miles from Venice.  There were ‘Venice on your own’ excursions which took 3 hours to get there and of course 3 hours to get back.  So about 3.5  hours actually there.  A very long day.  We opted for the included Ravenna Mosaics excursion instead.  

Forgot to mention that we now have to leave the ship in Ravenna at 4.30am for our flights home.  Ouch! 

We are departing Viking Venus tomorrow,  having completed a two week cruise ‘Mediterranean & Italian Sojourn’ ending in Ravenna/for Venice.  It was treated as two B2B  cruises even though we booked it as one.  The change from Venice to Ravenna has meant lots of people departed yesterday to be taken to a hotel.  Looking at Vessel Finder, it seems there are three Viking ships in port today, Venus in Ravenna, Saturn in Fusina, and Neptune in Chioggia.  Ravenna is 90 miles from Venice and it has caused problems.  I wonder why they timetabled three Viking ships to the same area, when it has been known for a long time that Venice itself no longer allows cruise ships.  

I’m expecting to see the Holy Land cruises in November significantly altered in view of the situation happening there. In the UK our Foreign & Commonwealth says:

FCDO advises against all but essential travel to Israel 

so this would invalidate insurance.  I haven’t seen any announcements on Viking website, but the instruction only got posted late yesterday.  
 

Has the US got similar instructions? 
 

We were originally booked on one of these cruises but changed our plans when the problems flared up several months ago.  
 

I hope things calm down soon for the poor people of the region.  

About to board Venus on Saturday and wondered if there was any more news about dogs on board.  

Today’s earthquake in Naples, has anyone on a cruise got any information?  

We should be in Naples on Viking Venus in October and noted that Saturn was there today.  Were there are problems encountered because of the earthquake? 

Tried to quote Boater3 from Canada, but failed, senior brain struggles with things like adding quotes.

Just wanted to say we in the UK don’t get random special offers/promotions either.  We do have the occasional SS free and early booking discounts on river cruises.  Nothing last minute.  Our prices always include Air and gratuities so totally different pricing approach.  

11 hours ago, Twitchly said:

1. Allow customers to pay in full for their cruise closer to the sail date. See other cruise lines for inspiration.  
 

2. Mix up itineraries, regularly add new destinations. Keep it interesting.

 

Those are the top 2 reasons I’ve heard for customers — current and potential — to book elsewhere. 
 

 

I agree with point two as we are running out of destinations in Europe

(19th cruise coming up next month) and I don’t do long haul anymore). 

I started a thread that asked where you would like to sail and many CC members came up with ideas, some of which were suitable for me.  With more ships I am keeping fingers crossed that new ones may be ‘in the pipeline’. Here’s hoping.
 

In UK our final payment is much closer to sailing than  yours in the  US.  I think ours is to do with the law in the UK.  

I totally agree with the met expectations comments.  We are about to do our 19th cruise with Viking next month and every time I cross out these headings and make my own, explaining I have high expectations which are invariably met.  I also ask them to change their headings but it never happens.  

Wondering why Viking Sky appears to have cancelled its stop in Sibenik where it should have been today.  Can’t find any reason.  Unless we’ve got it wrong.  We should be going there in October before finishing in Ravenna (instead of Venice) 

Any ideas or inside information?

Posted 16 hours ago

We have taken a Barcelona to Venice back to back cruise with the turnover in Rome, but that was not an overnight in Rome. At the start of that cruise we were offered a choice of a few excursions in Rome for those of us who were continuing the cruise.

Hi Lackcreativity 

We are doing the Barcelona to Venice in October and wondered if you could tell us the tours offered to you on change over day in Rome, so that we have an idea of what to expect.  Thanks.

We are on Oct 14th Barcelona to Venice (now renamed to San Marino in MVJ) and got the email as mentioned by OP too.  We have booked the included excursion to Ravenna, as 90 miles to Venice means a long time on a coach.  We realise that Viking has no control over the port authorities and appreciate the offer of OBC and FCV.  We also understand the disappointment of the American and Australian travellers who will have come much further than us (from UK) expecting to see Venice.  We were lucky enough to go to Venice a few years ago (with Viking) before the authorities closed it to cruise ships.  Hopefully Viking will put on more Venice on Your Own opportunities, as these appear to be SOLD OUT at present,  so that those who really want to get there can do so.  However, the London office has told us that Ravenna is a very nice place.  

Madmedic
 

We have never had a Viking inclusive tour that didn’t have toilet facilities fairly regularly, but the NL tour that I mentioned in post 3 of this thread was definitely ‘wilderness/forest’.  We only found out about this at the port talk, as we’d assumed it would have the same facilities as the one in Alta.  
When we explained that we were not happy to do the tour with these conditions, Viking refunded our money even though it was after the deadline for cancellation.  
I suggest you see the tour manager to ask about any problems you might foresee as the tour descriptions are rather generic.  This was  true of the Alta and Tromso tours that had the same description but were not identical in their facilities.  I have always found the reception and tour staff on board  (in fact all staff on board and shoreside UK)  to be very helpful.  We have done 19 cruises with Viking.  

The snow boots with built in ice grips that I mentioned can be flipped open or closed.  This is easily done with the tool provided.  

I suggest a pair of snow boots (large enough for thick socks) with built in ice grips to assist walking.  Also a HotRox chargeable hand/foot warmer which lasts for 4 hours.  

Also for your information, we are both 74 and we cancelled our ‘Search for the lights’ optional excursion in Tromso as it turned out that we would have been out in the forest with no facilities for 4+ hours ie no shelter,  no toilets, warm drinks, fire etc.  We only learned this at the Port talk as we assumed it would be the same as the one in Alta (which had these facilities) as it had the same description.  (Wish we’d booked that one).  
 

We are doing MEDITERRANEAN & ITALIAN SOJOURN this October (our 19th Viking cruise) and in Venice we have two possible included tours.  We have been to Venice before with Viking and have seen many of the sites, but have not been to Ravenna.  CC members, any thoughts?  
 

They are :

Ravenna: City of Mosaics or 

Venice On Your Own

Gincolo, your ideas sound great.  Just what we would like, the more islands the better!