PKNC

Yes, in case someone else has the same issue - I haven't used CC before as a travel agent. Anyway, on the Princess web site, I was able to find my booking by  logging in with my confirmation number, etc. but I wasn't seeing the onboard credits or other extras included in my booking. I was confused because the Princess web site prompts me to upgrade the drink package, etc. and I knew that I had already purchased these extras through CC. What you need to do is under Onboard Services, scroll to the very bottom of the page (ignore the graphics encouraging you to upgrade before you reach the bottom) and you will see your included upgrades listed as "Compliments Of" in various data tables. To see the onboard credits, go to the Payments link, scroll down, and you will see them listed in in a table there. In my case, I can book excursions now and apply the credits because they were issued by Princess as part of the promotion.

Thanks for this info, I will see what I can do! 

I booked a Princess cruise with CC (not naming the warehouse in case it's not permitted) for the first time. I noticed today that a $300 shipboard credit won't be available to use until we're on the ship in July. I'd like to book a few excursions now, but I'd prefer to use up the shipboard credit first. Based on my reading of the Princess excursion cancellation policy, I would only get a shipboard credit, not a refund, if I cancel an excursion within the "closing time for cancellations" while on board. Is this true? Do excursions sell out?

I'm concerned that we won't want to use our credit for much other than excursions. I could delay one excursion sign up costing $79.95 per person because I'm not overly vested in it - it's the last day in port, transfer to airport. I'm sure I could arrange this on my own, but I would go with Princess if available. I'm wary about excursions we're interested in selling out. We have drinks, prepaid tips, etc. in our fare already.

Thank you for this comprehensive info, I will explore these options!

 Any opinions on how early to get to the Vancouver airport in summer 2023? I'm looking at flights from Vancouver to the East Coast. Unless I want to pay an exorbitant fare, I have to leave at 10 AM or wait until the evening and fly overnight. Alaska Air states on its website to arrive at Vancouver airport 2 hours early for international flights as of today. We arrive in port on Saturday, Aug. 5th at 6:30 AM on a large ship, the Majestic Princess. HAL's Koningsdam will be arriving the same day. I know Vancouver is incredible but at the end of our journey, I don't think we'll be up for it. We will definitely consider a return trip though! If we have a day to hang around, what's an easy, relaxing activity to do with luggage before a flight at 6 or 9 PM or so? What's the latest that we can leave the ship, typrically?

This is all good info. Right now, I'm backing into things. I'm planning some overnights with mid morning departures so we don't feel rushed and can recover from jet lag ahead of the cruise. The last cruise we did was fun, but way too compressed for us - falling asleep at dinner, brutal getting up for early excursions kind of thing because we didn't allow time to adjust. Anyway, that's us. But, I am trying to maximize downtime after reading comments here. I have booked the Salmon Berry tour in Anchorage that will transfer us to Whittier for the Princess cruise I booked. We'll see the wildlife conservation center, etc before boarding the ship. I am now holding just 2 nights at Denali instead of 3, I can't do less due to the train departure times, if we want to do an AM park bus. I know Denali is not going to be at the grandeur that it could be but we're ok with it, I'd like to see some of the interior of Alaska before doing the Whittier - Vancouver cruise. Of course, I may still change these plans because hotel can be cancelled and I haven't booked flights yet!

Well, you have a point, that would be more convenient. I did some more reading on Alaska.org, I wonder if it's worth it to make a stop at Talkeetna. I still like the idea of either Fairbanks --> Denali --> Anchorage although Anchorage --> Denali --> Anchorage is also an option. I'd like to get into the interior more ahead of the cruise, on which I hope to see whales and eagles. I wonder if it'd be possible to see bears anywhere on an excursion or if that's a different trip. Flightseeing is not an option for us.

I am also planning a DIY land tour pre cruise with an emphasis on Denali. We are leaning toward Princess out of Whittier at this time. My question is - which motor coaches are the most reliable, from Fairbanks to Denali and from Anchorage to Whittier? Our plan is to fly into Fairbanks, stay overnight, then head to Denali the next day. The train leaves at 8:20 AM which may be too early for us, given flights arrive late at night. Is the train that great or is a bus ok for this route? We'd stay in Denali for 3 nights, then take the train to Anchorage, arriving in the evening. Stay overnight there, and then leave midday or so on a cruise transfer bus to Whittier.  Is it worth it to spend some time in Fairbanks before catching a bus to Denali?

I've been watching the Kaub forecast and see that it's at 106cm and still falling. It's now expected to bottom out later in the week than initially predicted. I'm getting a little wary, we are supposed to cruise the Rhine Gorge on the 17th or 18th, we leave Basel on Dec. 14th. Fingers crossed that it doesn't dip below the 90cm mark.

I'm going to try use an ATM to get local currency when at Christmas markets in France and Germany in a few weeks. Does anyone know if there are Chase Bank ATMs nearby the markets? I will also download the Chase app so I can search when I'm there.

I'll be in Strasbourg, Freiburg, Mannheim, Dusseldorf, Cologne, etc.

I used Air Plus for the second time, we leave in a few weeks  - flying out American, returning on Delta. I am not able to upgrade to Premium Economy but it looks like I could upgrade to Business on the airlines web sites, but it's extremely expensive. I would have to upgrade on each airline ticket (i.e. several thousand on AA, several thousand on Delta), it's not possible to do one roundtrip upgrade. 

My advice is that if you are happy with your flights, get them ticketed as soon as possible. I made a change to our outbound flight that I was happy with, then suddenly, Viking reverted me back to the original flight they chose for me, which has a 5 hour layover. My preferred flights were not cancelled by the airlines (there are several I would have picked before a 5 hour layover), Viking simply took away my choices. And to boot, by the time they switched us back to AA, there weren't as many seats left - they put us in an aisle and middle seat. I moved us to two aisle seats. 

When I checked just now, that cruise is no longer listed so it must have been stale info. I tested out another Celebrity solo cruise fare using Cruiseplum and it worked properly. 👍 Thanks for these great resources, I will try them out!

I tried looking at Cruiseplum but when I clicked through to the actual web site for the cruise, the specified price for the solo traveler was not available, using the exact cabin that was supposed to be on sale (for a 5% solo markup for example). Instead, it just showed double the price as would be expected for that cruiseline (Celebrity). Any advice? I've tried filtering on NCL's web site on solo traveler discounts and for the most part, I can pick up some price breaks but they aren't great.

We are going on a Basel-Amsterdam Rhine cruise in December. What currency would we need to buy small ticket items like food and beverages? Are credit cards accepted in general? We'll mainly be in Germany, but stopping in Strasbourg as well.

I didn't realize that you can cancel Viking Air and Air Plus but keep the rest of your booking, is this standard? Anyway, it sounds like others have had the same experience as me with Viking revoking an itinerary after providing it, even though the itinerary may be available to the general public. 

Does anyone have suggestions on how I can change my flight from London to Basel, or buy a new ticket on British Air, if my AA flight arrives early and I have enough time to catch the morning flight from London to Basel? Right now, I  have a 5 hour layover. In general, it looks like the AA flight arrives early, which would give me 1.5 hours to transfer to the British Air AM flight instead of the noon flight, which I'm currently booked on. I don't mind buying a new ticket if I have to. My concern is making sure my luggage makes it. Not sure if I could rebook as soon as I get off the plane or even while on it.

Just an update - my air was ticketed late last night so I was able to go into the AA site today and pay extra for preferred economy seats (more leg room), although we're on aisles across from each other since other seats were gone in that row. I don't know what happened - if my request reached the top of a queue, or if the agent last night, who sent in the ticketing request a second time, did the trick. I also sent out an email to TellUs but don't think there was enough time for them to rectify the situation. 

Anyway, if anyone else has delays in ticketing, I would recommend that you call Air Plus and ask them to re-issue the request. I still have a bad taste in my mouth that we were left with the original flight with the 5 hour layover. Had I known better, I should have requested ticketing as soon as my changes were authorized 6 weeks ago. My preferred Delta flight has not been cancelled, Viking just took away the option for me. I am wondering if seats were given to others for some reason.

The other note with this ticket - I had the option to upgrade to Business Class on AA's web site but only on the AA portion of the trip. There was no option to upgrade to Premium Economy although seats are available. Just a FYI for others who may be interested in adjusting a Viking ticket with the airlines. I don't know if this is because I'm flying out AA and returning Delta or not.

I called Viking Air just now, and they told me that they would re-issue the ticketing request and could not tell me why it has not been ticketed since my original request 4 days ago. This is after the agent told me this morning that it would be ticketed in a few hours. They could not tell me if there was a backlog or why it has not been ticketed. I am just over a month out from travel, and angry that since they switched my outbound flight (with no other choices now given to me), I can't even sit by my husband because the seats are taken. I'm not given any other options for an outbound choice even though many exist. 

This experience is completely different from my last cruise and it's been horrible service. I don't think I'll do Viking Air again. I guess if I'm not ticketed by two weeks before departure, I'll have to cancel and take a voucher because I feel like there's some kind of problem and no one is able to address it.

Now I’m wondering what else will go wrong. I requested “early ticketing” (we are 42 days out) and was told this would occur in 48 hours.  48 hours has passed and no ticket number. I’ll call again tomorrow, my concern is that we’ll lose our decent flight home. Any thoughts on why this is happening?

Our outbound flight was just changed by Viking Air. We have Air Plus. I was told that Viking no longer has seats on Delta transferring through Amsterdam, although seats are available on Delta's web site. So, we now have a 5 hour layover in London, which we originally changed months ago, on AA.

Does it make sense to just get this ticketed now and call AA to try to upgrade? The flight is fairly full and with my Delta status, I was able to upgrade to better seats. Having status on Delta and a shorter layover is why we changed the original itinerary. 

This is a river cruise but posted here because there's more activity.

I appreciate the updates. We are scheduled to go on our first ever river cruise (Viking) in mid December, Basel to Amsterdam. Looking at the graphs, I'm not convinced that levels will be recovered enough by then for a cruise without buses, switching ships, etc. I believe that we can invoke a two-week cancellation if we need to for a voucher, I am going to start reading about options now so I'm ready to pull the trigger if I need to. It's so disappointing, I have been looking forward to this cruise all year!

Re: Air Plus and the Viking emergency travel phone number, I was glad I had it - I pulled it up on my phone and dialed but then decided to wait it out while transiting through Paris Nov 16th. We were newbies flying to Athens and transited through Charles de Gaulle airport. We chose the flight due to the departure time, travel time, and because Delta was the US airline (partnered with Air France though). Never again will I travel through that airport. In fact, I now have no desire to visit France at all 😞 There was a strike called the day before we were scheduled to leave. Although we had 2.5 hours to get our connecting flight in Paris and arrived early, we almost didn't make it due to the long lines caused by a lack of airport staff (due to the strike). People were cutting in line out of frustration and yelling in French, which we didn't understand. The crowd was getting out of control at points. There were literally two security staff working and hundreds of passengers in line. I have to say it was the worst airport experience I've had in my life, and I have traveled to other countries and for work regularly. If we had missed the connection (we were the second to last on the flight and they were announcing "Last Call" - we had to run to the gate), we would have been in a bad way without Viking to help because there were no other flights on Air France going out that day to Athens. I am assuming that Viking would have taken pity on us and put us on Aegean Air, which had flights every hour. There appeared to be one lousy hotel near the airport - if we were on our own, I have no idea if we would have been able to find our luggage, get a room, etc.   I learned a lesson on that trip, and now, will make sure I have a Plan B for the European connections - choosing airlines that have multiple flights out to my destination, etc. I had lots of Plan B backups in place for the US, I did not anticipate how bad the airport would be in Paris.

On 11/16/2021 at 4:35 AM, Mich3554 said:

This is important.  This trip, 3 times our excursion has returned after we were supposed to leave.  I suspect that today’s excursion will add to this.  We have a 5 hour excursion and are due back at the same time we are supposed to leave.

 

We just returned from our first Viking cruise. It was a wonderful experience and we will sail on Viking again. However, as others have posted on these boards, many prefer to travel onshore independently. I can understand this more now after doing all Viking-led excursions. Three of our paid excursions were phenomenal, two were duds. What was disappointing for us - on the one, the guide went way over the time allotted so we did not return to the ship until close to 3 PM when we were supposed to get back at 12:45 PM, we started before 8 AM. It was draining to hear the guide go on and on and hardly move as we stood and looked at exhibits. On the other less than great experience, Turkey's Amazing Edifices, we were punished for not doing our homework up front. We did not realize that the Blue Mosque is being renovated and there's nothing much to see inside - the interior is covered by scaffolding,  and hidden behind construction netting / draped canvas, etc. There was just a tiny glimpse into the blue tiles on the ceiling visible. There were massive crowds and a lot of waiting in the cold drizzle to get in. Had we done our research, we would have gone on our own to Hagia Sophia which was just across the way. Also, the palace tour was somewhat of a let down because again, we did not see the areas that were promoted on Viking TV and in a shipboard lecture the previous day. We gave some constructive feedback to Viking on this because the areas promoted on Viking TV and in a lecture were not part of the tour and gave us inaccurate expectations.

My recommendation would be to do your due diligence on the Viking tours - are the sites really open that you are going to see or has the country temporarily closed them down due to COVID or renovations? Also, recognize that the Viking tours may go way over the time scheduled and that you will be forced to wait it out with the group.

I'm not sure that Viking would put you in a cab if you have a late morning / early afternoon flight these days with COVID. We just returned from our first Viking cruise and had Air Plus. We opted to do an overnight layover in London before our last two legs in the US so we could leave around 1 PM from Istanbul, otherwise, we would have had to take a 5 AM -  8 AM flight and get up at an ungodly hour. 11 AM or so would have been perfect but there were no options - it was either early morning or 1:40 PM onward into the evening. My body can't take the lack of sleep for the early morning options, I will get a migraine for sure. Some were scheduled to leave at 2:30 AM on a bus by Viking - I'm assuming those with the early AM flights. We were slotted into a 7:15 AM departure but got it moved to 8 AM, the last bus. We had hoped that we could hang out on the ship until around 9 or 10 but there were no options. There were others who had flights at 3:30 or 5 PM that were forced to go to the airport at 8 AM on a bus. The desk was not open when we arrived at the airport, we waited for over an hour before we could check in. On the plus side, Istanbul has a beautiful airport with lots of shopping. 

We are doing our PCR test on Monday and plan to go to a local lab as opposed to CVS. For those living in a large enough metro, in theory, the lab should be quicker because it does the testing on site - no need for a courier to transport the specimen from a pharmacy. There is a CVS a half a mile from the lab, though, so if the lab appears iffy, we plan on making our appointment on the spot at CVS and going there.

Can you use Wi-Fi data on your cell phone on the ship to make local and international calls, without being charged roaming rates?