sleepybobo

1 hour ago, Pushka said:

 

We’ve had tendering on other cruise lines and it’s worked out fine. 

 

Speaking last night with another couple who are in a very high end suite and have done multiple Viking cruises and they are very frustrated at the management right now. It’s not just me who is having issues, everyone is! 

 

The crew are fabulous as is the food and servers; as is the bar crew. But something is going astray up the line.  

 

Our ports have been Ketchikan, tender; Sitka, Berth; Juneau, tender; Skagway, Berth; ISP, tender; Valdez Berth. Then final Seward. Then we didn’t have a Berth for Vancouver so we couldn’t board until after 6.30pm. 

I cruised the Alaska Inside Passage with Celebrity in 2010. The ship docked at all ports, including Ketchikan and Juneau. So I didn’t thought of tendering when I booked an Alaska cruise in 2021 with Viking. Hopefully the tendering process in this sailing will improve as Viking gains more experience in Alaska. 

We were on Deck 3 forward twice - 7-night Adriatic Sea and 10-night Baltic Sea. We were awaken by loud thumping noise around sunrise when the ship docked only once. That probably was just an isolated incident. We experienced noise from the theatre. Fortunately, evening shows always ended by 10:30, which was before our bedtime. So we were not bothered. 

We tendered in Kotor two years ago. It was an efficient process with more than one tender boats being utilized. 

17 hours ago, azdrydock said:

The up to $1000 is from the Travel Agent. What you have are discounts from Viking for booking onboard. You are given a limited time to transfer your booking to a travel agency of your choice. The new travel agent is prohibited by Viking from giving you a discount or cash back and some other things. The TA is allowed to give you an OBC. This is usually based on the price of the cruise but is limited by Viking. Online TA's give the best discounts but sometimes the worst service. Your local TA may give lower discounts, if any, but should be able to better help and advise.

 

 

Thanks for the clarification. 

My TA offered me $100 OBC per person for my next 11-day VO cruise. We booked V1 category. So I’m wondering if I can do better than that when I saw your post saying OBC has jumped. 

The Hermitage is definitely worth re-visiting. Ideally, I’d love to go independently at my own pace. But given the size of the place and crowd, it’s challenging not to join a tour unless extended research and planning was done ahead of the trip. 

Agree with you that Viking could cut one stop from the included Bornholm tour so that people have more time exploring the town. The two stops are very similar anyway. 

Tip: As mentioned by the OP, the sail away/in from/to Stockholm is not to be missed. For this itinerary from Copenhagen to Stockholm, the ship starts to slow down at around 2pm the day she sails to Stockholm, Explorers Lounge is the place to be to soak in the scenic views of the Archipelago. 

1 hour ago, azdrydock said:

I think Viking may have just changed  what they allow the TA's to give. I've been tracking a 17 day cruise for next March and the OBC's were running between $300 to $500. About a week or so ago they all jumped up to $1000. 

Multiple TA's so it is probably Viking sanctioned.

 

Could you post the link stating max of $1000 OBC?

I only managed to get $400 ($200 past guest discount and $200 onboard discount) off my next Viking cruise. 

We completed this cruise about a week ago on Jupiter from Copenhagen to Stockholm. Throughly enjoyed it and found the itinerary worth taking. I agree with the above two posts mostly. I’ll offer my own two cents below. 

Embarkation: very smooth at the Oceankaj terminal. This terminal is further away from the city center, but it’s still just 30-min driving away from City Hall. Our taxi fare was about $45 USD. Once we got to the terminal, it took no time to get onboard. 

Copenhagen: love the city. Too bad our time in Copenhagen was cut short due to flight delay. We stayed at the Scandic Palace the night before. Highly recommend this hotel. Convenient location, reasonable rate, comfortable bedding, good breakfast and great coffee. We managed to walk around City Hall and do some shopping at Royal Copenhagen, Illums Bolighus and HAY House before boarding the ship because this hotel is within walking distance to Stroeget. It’s actually a Viking appointed hotel as we see people who did the pre-cruise tour stayed at this hotel.  Now to the excursion - we took the included 3-hour walking excursion. Regretfully, this was my least favorite Viking excursion thus far. Jet lag and bad weather probably made it more tiring than it really was. We walked from the Langelinie (the ship moved from Oceankaj to Langelinie overnight) to the Little Mermaid statue, Kastellet, Gafion Fountain, Amelienboug and ended up at Nyhavn. There was no bathroom break until almost the end of the tour. By the time we got to Nyhavn, we were exhausted. And it was raining. So we decided to take the shuttle bus back to the ship instead of staying. If I were to do it again, I would have taken the Viking provided shuttle to the city, do a short stroll around Nyhavn then visit Rosenberg castle or the National Museum. I simply didn’t find the Kastellet or Amelienboug that interesting.

Bornholm - a pleasant surprise. I knew nothing about Bornholm before the cruise so I didn’t have any expectation. I thought it’s a rest stop before Tallinn and SPB. We took the included bus tour. We spent more time on the bus than actually in the towns. The ride was pleasant with scenes of beautiful yellow flower blooms along the way.  But we were allowed 8 min at the first stop and 24 min at the second stop. I complained to the tour guide and told him we needed more time to explore as these towns are charming. He said Viking limited the tour to 2.5 hours. 

Visby - a lovely well preserved medieval village. We took the included walking excursion and enjoyed it this time. Our guide was a British expat. He was funny and did a great job explaining the history of the place. 

Tallinn - for me, it’s a let down. We took the leisurely walking tour, which was one of the included tours. It was freezing in the Upper Town. We had a hard time focusing on the guide because it’s too cold to stay outdoor for too long. It rained by the time we got to the Lower Town, where the famous town hall is. The Lower Town reminded me of the Old Town in Kotor. We were given less than half an hour on our own to explore. We only managed to look at a few souvenir shops before heading back to the ship with the guide. 

SPB - highly recommend doing independent tour with Alla.  We did a 2-day tour as we thought doing a full-day tour three consecutive days would be too exhausting. Taking Alla Tour in SPB turned out to be the best decision I had made on this trip. Alla really had it down to a science. Our tour guide, Yelena, was professional, friendly and knowledgeable. We visited the Hermitage, Church of Spilled Blood, St Issacs Cathedral and Peter and Paul Fortress on Day 1. It’s a tight schedule but Yelena was great at keeping up with the itinerary. The Hermitage and Church of Spilled Blood were impressive. On Day 2, we did the subway ride, canal boat tour,  Peterhof Garden and Catherine Palace. Subway ride was just okay. The stations we visited were clean with interesting mosaic and long escalators. But they weren’t as grand and museum-like as my expectations. Canal boat tour was a tad too slow.  The highlight of the day was Peterhof Garden.  Blessed with glorious weather, we had a great time walking around the beautiful garden. On Day 3 in SPB, I decided to skip the Viking included tour and stayed in the ship. 

Stockholm - my favorite port in the entire sailing. Stockholm is a beautiful Scandinavian capital. We did the included tour in the morning. It’s an okay bus tour with photo stops at the City Hall and the palace. I visited the Vasa Museum on my own in the afternoon. There was a hop-on-hop-off boat to the museum near the cruise terminal. I happened to miss it by seconds. I watched the boat leaving. Instead of waiting for the next departing boat, I decided to seek alternative way to get to the museum. I asked a local person. He suggested me taking the subway from Slussen. While I found my way to the Slussen subway station, I saw a ferry sign to Djurgården. I thought taking the ferry would be more interesting than subway. So I followed the sign and got to the ferry about 10 min later. The ferry ride round trip was about $5 USD and the museum admission was about $15. Vasa Museum is very interesting.  Highly recommend it.  

Echoing the above two posts. Overall, this was an amazing journey. With Viking, we found a good balance of spending time at interesting destinations, enjoying excellent food and relaxing on the ship. 

There were some misses with shore excursions but not enough to be a deal breaker. We booked our next cruise with Viking onboard. 

2 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

 

Can anyone post pictures of the differences?

Sorry, I haven’t been on the Jupiter yet. I saw from a previous post that the upper level is always full now which was not the case when I sailed with the Sun in 2017. 

23 hours ago, Focused1 said:

There is a big impact on the space so this upstairs and popular area of the Explorer Lounge is always full due to limited seating. 

This is unfortunate. The upper level of the Explorer Lounge was among my favorite public space. 

Based on the overly negative reviews, Viking should consider getting rid of the planetarium and restore the space to iris original design. 

When will the 2021 Alaska itineraries become available? We are going to be on Jupiter in a May. I’m thinking of booking a 2021 sailing onboard.  

Thanks. I downloaded the app. But I guess it’s only useful when connected to WiFi onboard. 

Thanks. Is the app Viking Voyager?

It's been a while since the last time I was on this forum, even longer since my last sailing with Viking.  Can someone remind me where to make reservation for Manfredi's? Is it at the World Cafe?

Thanks for all the above inputs.  I haven't been looking into this almost a year after my original post.  Life gets in the way.

I'm still thinking about Alaska, but in 2021, instead of 2020.  I don't think Viking has the 2021 Alaska itineraries available yet.  

Missymssy - how do you like your Alaska cruise on Orion?

I’m planning a cruise to Alaska in 2020. I sailed with Viking to the Adriatic Sea last year and loved it. I’ve booked a sailing to the Baltic Sea with Viking again next year.

I have a sticker shock when I see the price of Viking’s Alaska itinerary. It seems to be more more expensive than other cruise lines.

I don’t mind paying more for better experience. In reality, I got good value for what I paid for my Viking cruise last year.

However, Viking’s itineraries in the America’s (Alaska, north eastern US/Canada, the Caribbean’s) just seem so much more expensive than say Celebrity’s.

Also, Viking seems to be new player in the Americas. Any thoughts?

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I’d like to book a 8-day cruise departing in September 2018. There’s no itinerary that fits my search criteria.

I can’t take more than 1 week off from work in September. But I still want to have a short getaway.

Will there be any new itinerary be added in the coming months?

Or, are all 2018 sailings finalized already. If so, I may need to look into another cruise line.

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I had a strawberry and banana smoothie at the Mamsen’s in the morning. Not sure if it’s made with fresh fruit though.

If memory serves, there’s smoothie in the World Cafe. Flavor changed daily.

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Yes, seems inconsistent as I just read mine & posted the exact words which are different.

I don't have problems with them evolving their policies.

I DO have a problem when I'm charged at onboard booking over $1,000 more for a newly announced but not yet posted on the internet cruise than the actual price when it's finally posted on the internet later that month. Unconscionable.

I agree with you. It’s not fair business practice to charge people more for a not-yet-posted itinerary. In your case, you really should get compensated with the price difference.

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You are completely correct. It is 4 months, not 6 as I'd posted previously.

 

My booking on board paper reads, "Flexibility to change any itinerary or date up to 4 months before departure."

It seems Viking’s onboard booking policy is quite inconsistent. On my booking doc, it’s said a change fee of $100 per person would be charged before 120 days prior to departure.

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I was on the Sun October 17 to 25. The Infinity pool at the back of Deck 7 felt cool (I don't know the exact temperature) when the outside temperature was in the upper 70's. I am 6' 1" tall and I could stand at the shallow end and keep my chin dry. At the far rear I could barely stand and stay above water when on the tips of my toes. If I was guessing, I would say that the shallow end was 5 feet and the deep end was 5' 9".

 

The main pool was also cool but not uncomfortable. I could stand in it, but the water was up to my chin.

 

The pool in the Spa was probably about 4 feet deep. One day the water was warm (like a very modest hot tub) but on another day it was cool. That was OK when part of the cycle of hot tub, sauna, water bucket shower, snow grotto, etc.

Interesting! I sailed on the Sun from Oct 4 to Oct 11. I found the water temperature of the main pool to be a bit too warm. I had to get out of the pool to cool down after 5 laps. I’m about 5 feet 7. At the deeper side of the pool, the water was up to my forehead. I couldn’t stand even if I tip-toed. I think it must be at least 5 feet 6 inches deep.

Didn’t try infinity pool.

I can stand comfortably in the thermal pool at the spa. Water temperature was lukewarm.

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With more new ships joining the Viking Ocean fleet in the coming years, I’m truly hopeful that more new itineraries will be created to attract past guests.

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My favorites are:

Nordic Spa: I didn’t expect to enjoy the spa so much. The snow grotto and thermal pool are so much fun. Make sure you wear a pair of sandals when going into the snow grotto.

Main pool: Blessed with wonderful weather during our sailing, the retractable roof was not closed during most day time making it very nice to relax by the pool.

Explorer Lounge: It’s a perfect place to hang out after dinner. I love the elegant and cozy ambience. If you go there in late afternoon, you can get the delicious Success Cake and Norwegian waffles from the Mamsen’s.

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We did Empires of the Mediterranean, and also missed out on Istanbul and Ephesus, and hope things settle down there (for the Turks as well as the tourists.) Maybe include Rhodes and Crete, something in southern Italy, then Sicily?

We did a similar itinerary (Venice, the Adriatic and Athens) last month and loved it. This sailing misses on Slovenia and Santorini though. I’d have booked Empires of the Mediterranean, but the sailing dates don’t work with my calendar.

I am definitely interested in Turkey with some Greek Islands and southern Italy.

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This is a fun thread.

I’m hopping for another alternative eastern Med route going to Istanbul when the situation in Turkey becomes more stable, along some Greek Islands (Santorini and Mykonos in particular) departing from Venice or Athens without repeating too many of the same ports on Empires of the Med sailing.

I second Peregrina651’s suggestion of western Med itinerary going down to Morocco.

Hawaii island-hopping.

Spain and Portugal. Viking has a similar itinerary (Iberian Explorer) now. My personal preference would be substituting Portsmouth and Tilbury with Lisbon and Porto.

Hope Viking is reading this and turn some of our suggestions into reality. [emoji3]

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Be careful booking onboard.

While on Viking Homelands in June, I booked onboard for the Med Odyssey cruise October 2018. The cruise was just released so it was not listed on the Viking website at the time. So we asked the Viking sales rep onboard if our deal (round #s) for our same PV3 cabin which we liked at $6800 per person was going to be the June standard price. With a $400 onboard discount we paid $6400 each. I know that booking with a TA I might get onboard credit almost as much but felt secure booking eye to eye with Viking and we were happy at $400 off list.

Turns out that the PV3 list price posted online throughout the summer June-Sept (before Oct price increase when almost fully booked) was $6250. So, pretty much everyone else going on the cruise paid less than we did. We paid more than PV1 guests.

I contacted Viking and after weeks back & forth and all they'll do is give us a $200 (per person) onboard credit. They offered a cabin upgrade but it does not interest us as we like our PV3 cabin as is.

I am NOT happy about their on board pricing game. I've booked half a dozen cruises with Viking and this was not satisfactory.

My complaint is with Viking corporate, not the people onboard Viking Ocean who were excellent.

I booked Russia and the Baltic Seas in April 2019 while onboard. I asked the cruise consultant what happens if the cruise price drops. She said I could cancel and rebook. But she said cruise price usually goes up, not down.

The V1 on the sailing I was on (Venice, the Adriatic and Athens) increased to $3,174 in Oct 2018 from $2,699 in October 2017.

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I didn’t feel rush dinning at Manfredi’s. We spent about an hour and a half there.

On average, our dinner was about two hours long while onbroad. Some may say the service is slow at the Restaurant. But I quite like the slower pace so we can relax after a long day.

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