planterx2

Asking for a friend who is not on Cruise Critic.

Does Disney use the Magic Bands on their ships.  Does anyone bother with them or do you just use your room key card?

Thank you.

I just checked my notes, and it looks like 5009 has the slider onto the deck.

Whoops!  Read my notes incorrectly.  Sorry about that.

According to my notes 5091 has the hinged door, not the sliding door.

I have so much sympathy for the crew on board who were looking forward to seeing their families.  Several of the crew are from the Philippines and from having spoken with them on past cruises, those who are working on ships that travel to their home area are thrilled beyond belief to have the opportunity to see family members while the ship is docked there.  Now that opportunity no longer exists and they must carry on until their contract ends.  So for the passengers affected, please accept the changes and remember that you are traveling on a Viking cruise with a loved one.  What could be better?  Enjoy yourselves no matter where you travel.

We were in 5111 last year.  The room itself is the same as all DV staterooms.  We loved the view off the aft facing veranda and would select that room again.  It was so quiet back there that we never saw anyone coming or going from the rooms around us over our 15 day cruise.  The supply room for the room stewards is directly across the hall, but do not let that worry you.  You will never hear any noise from them.  We actually like seeing several of the stewards there in the morning getting ready to start their day.  It gave us the opportunity to talk with several of them and they were all a joy.  Enjoy your cruise!

You can almost always find chocolate cookies.  They will be in the World Cafe at lunch and dinner or at the Viking Bar on deck 1. As mentioned above there is also chocolate gelato available at lunch and dinner in the World Cafe.  In the main dining room or Manfredi's there is almost always a chocolate option for dessert and if not, head up to the World Cafe for dessert.  Also  there are chocolate bars in your mini bar which are replenished daily depending on your room category.  We had a wonderful chocolate buffet one evening, but that was on a Christmas cruise, so not sure if that is always offered.  The Chef's Table may not always have a chocolate dessert as it is a set menu.  If not, once again, head to the World Cafe for dessert.

We were on the same cruise last Christmas. The ship is decorated for Christmas, but in Viking style, the decorations are very tasteful and tend to blend in with Viking's minimalistic look.  The decorations are beautiful but not "in your face".  The shows and food are the same as they normally would be.  We did have Christmas caroling one night in the atrium with a wonderful chocolate buffet afterward.  We are currently ending 15 days on the Viking Sea and did not have the chocolate buffet and have not had it on previous Viking cruises, so I assume it was for Christmas. As far as the weather is concerned, the seas were quite rough as soon as we left Lisbon and remained that way for several days.  Things improved the further west we went. Just be prepared.  One of our cabin attendants told me to eat a green apple each night before I went to bed which apparently will calm your stomach. 

Although there are activities during the day, be prepared for a lot of down time.  There were several people on the cruise who were working on quilts, knitting, reading, etc but it is a very relaxing cruise. 

Have a a good time.

CCWineLover,

We each have an iPhone and an iPad so we do not have to log off of one to log onto the other, just as it was when Viking Ocean originally started. More recently we would have to log off of one before we could log onto the other, but you are correct in saying the process was easy and quick.  We have had no problems with connections or speed, and today was a sea day so we probably would have noticed it today. I do not remember which thread it was on, but I did read on Cruise Critic in the last 1-2 weeks were the Wi-Fi service was shut down for a period of time one day to make updates. Wonder if this is what they were working on. 

We are currently aboard the Sea and received the following information upon arrival:

"Please note that guests can operate two devices per person in the stateroom.  Should you wish to use third device, simply log on to the Viking Wi-Fi and you will have the option to log off from either of the connected devices."

So internet access has recently been changed back to two devices per person.🙂

I have previously taken care of these tasks at 3:00 a.m. as I live on the east coast. I thought I saw something on Cruise Critic about the times changing but cannot find it. Can someone please confirm what the current time is to sign up for excursions/specialty restaurants for the east coast. Thanks so much for your help. 

Thank you to all for your help.  I guess the key is to just be patient.  Hopefully all will go well.

Thank you very much Cole Thornton.  I will use the cell phone lot. 

I have been asked to pick up friends as they disembark from the Gem in Boston. Can anyone tell me what this is like or give me any helpful tips?  I can only imagine the congestion.  They will not take public transportation to a more convenient location and ask that I pick them up right at the port.  Any help is greatly appreciated. 

I believe ALL passengers are allowed to board the ship beginning at 11:00 A.M.  There are no specific boarding times assigned to each stateroom category.  The assigned times have to do with stateroom access. As a DV passenger, you will not have stateroom access until 2:00 P.M.  You will still be able to have lunch when you arrive.  If the World Café has already closed you can have lunch at the Pool Grill, which is very good.

No need to change your flight.

Enjoy your cruise.

roothy123

When you go into the "Make Reservation" a drop box will appear with all of the dates for your cruise. As you go through each date, that night's menu will be shown. I went through each date first to see which menu was available for each night. Like you, I wanted to space our optional restaurants out as much as possible. Then I went back and selected the menus we preferred on the nights we preferred. I made reservations at the Chefs Table first and then made the Manfredi's reservations. The availability of the Chefs Table menus on the reservation site is such an upgrade as there is no more scrambling once on board. The sample menus that were shown on My Viking Journey before reservations were available were shown on a horizontal scroll, so I can't say if they were in any particular order.

I just selected our optional restaurant choices this morning, but had been looking over them for the past several days. Our cruise is for 12 nights. There were 6 sample menus for the Chefs Table available for us to see prior to registration opening. When I made our reservations, the same 6 menus were what we had to choose from, each available for 2 nights only. On previous cruises, the menu was the same for 3 nights. As your cruise is for 8 nights, the 4 menus that you can see on My Viking Journey as sample menus will be the only 4 that will be available to you. They will each be available for 2 nights. I am a pretty picky eater, but on a previous cruise we had the Sweet and Salty menu. I enjoyed the entire meal. I thought it was excellent and was happy to see that we would have the choice of that menu on our upcoming cruise.

We have friends who had the same issues on an "end of season" Viking River Cruise. Supplies ran low or ran out for certain items. Since it was the last cruise of the season, they were told that the crew were trying to use up the supplies on hand. Most river cruises stop at the end of December (or earlier) and are not in use again until March, April or even May. For that reason, we would not want to take a river cruise for the last, or possibly the last 2-3 sailings.

Viking Ocean ships cruise year round so you should not run into this problem. When one itinerary ends, the next one starts right up.

The cruise to Pulpit Rock is definitely worth it, but it is not necessary to take the Viking optional excursion. We used Rodne Cruises last August for less then half the price of the Viking excursion. You are no more then a 5 minute walk from the ship to where the Rodne boats are docked. We reserved our tickets on line ahead of time. There is the possibility of just walking up and purchasing tickets the same day, but you run the risk of them being sold out. You need to carefully check the times of the Rodne tours vs your time in port. At certain times of year when Rodne offers less tours per day, you may not be able to do this based on your time in port. There is another tour company that several previous Viking passengers have used as their tour times worked out better for them. I think the name of the company was Norled, but maybe another passenger who has used them can confirm the name.

The day we went to Pulpit Rock the weather was gloomy, but it did not affect the scenery at all. It was beautiful. You will not regret going.

We also used Alla for our 2 -day St Petersburg excursion last August and would highly recommend them. It is never too early to contact them for information and/or reservations as you can cancel if necessary. I contacted them to see if we could get a better price if we were able to put our own group together and then posted the information on our Viking Roll Call on Cruise Critic. We were able to form our own group of other Viking passengers from our Roll Call and received a reduced rate. I think you may also receive a discount for booking one of their tours early. Just call and ask.

Also, keep in mind that at least with Alla, we waited in no lines. At the Hermitage we were allowed early entry before they actually opened and walked past a very long line outside and went right in. I do not know if you would get this on the Viking tour. So even if the time allowed may seem shorter, none of it will be spent waiting in long lines.

This was our experience from August, 2017, however, I realize it can vary from tour to tour.

Try to find last years postings for Viking Homelands as the information provided from past passengers on this itinerary is absolutely invaluable. I know it made our planning go so much smoother being able to do that.

Have fun planning. It is a wonderful cruise!

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions concerning St Petersburg. It is very much appreciated.

philw1776, Thank your for the information. We are scheduled to dock in St Petersburg at 7 a.m. Our tour tickets with Alla Tours show a meeting time of 8:30 for day 1. Our Alla guide will be there by 8:00. Based on that, should we still try to exit before the large Viking excursion group? Thanks for your help.

vnb2003,

Thank you so much for your response. I didn't expect the time to be that early as the ship doesn't appear to have docked until 7:00 a.m., but we will just have to go to bed extra early the night before.

Thanks also for the comment concerning the motion on the 6th floor. I was not planning on bringing anything for motion sickness, but as our room is also on the 6th floor, I may change my mind.

I hope the seas calm down for you. Enjoy the rest of the trip!

vnb2003

We will be on the Viking Homelands in a couple of weeks. Could you possibly look at your Viking Daily for the first day in St Petersburg and let me know what time the Viking tour "Ultimate St Petersburg" had to meet prior to their exit from the ship. We have booked a tour with Alla Tours and would like to make plans with our group to try to exit the ship prior to the large Viking tour group if possible.

Thank you for your help.

I guess I totally missed this one. I thought we were still docking in Gdynia which would involve a 30-45 minute bus ride into Gdansk. Thank you Dauntless for pointing out that we are indeed docking in Gdansk. It will make the short time there easier to plan, even though it will be early on a Sunday. I learn something new from the posts on Cruise Critic almost every day. Thanks to all who share their knowledge.