Cyber Kat

On 9/18/2019 at 9:55 AM, zitsky said:

 

Do you mean I will be waiting for other people often? 

 We never had any problems.  The Viking Daily gives a meeting place and a time.  We went there with our tickets - you need the tickets.  They called for our tour, we followed the Viking staff member.  You can pick up water at the exit point.  You put your sea pass card on the scanner.  Board your designated bus and off you go!

Only time we had an issue was in Guadeloupe when the port authorities decided to do an impromtu safety inspection of every bus leaving the port.  It was nice to know they were concerned for our safety, but it seemed to me that bus inspections could be done at a time when it doesn't inconvenience paying customers!

On 9/12/2019 at 2:30 PM, kcpvwill said:

We have just arrived in Bergen to do ‘In the Wake of the Vikings’ and as we boarded we were told that the ship is sailing tonight directly to Iceland missing out Bergen tomorrow, Shetland and Faroe Islands.  This is to avoid the bad weather predicted for the North Atlantic because of an intense low pressure system developing close to Newfoundland.  They have added 2 extra stops in Iceland instead.  Hope the 2 sea days will be OK.  The Captain wants to get to the relatively sheltered waters near Iceland before the worst of the weather arrives.  

 

 

A familiar name!  You are on our Eastern Seaboard, aren’t you?  Are you bringing our ship over 😁?   See you soon!  Fair winds, and following seas!

I just noticed that you will be arriving in Montreal on 9/28. We board the Viking Sea on 9/26. Will you be following us around on the Eastern Seaboard Explorer as one of your segments?  If so are you stopping at Halifax or Portland?  The Eastern Seaboard Explorer itinerary has Halifax listed, but from our original booking we are going to Portland. Viking can’t seem to tell us why.  Someone obviously knows but is not sharing that info 😁

I didn’t notice when we first got our documents way back when, but when I checked MVJ, it was listed as Portland.  Then for some time the port stop disappeared and they had it listed as a sea day. Then Portland was back.  Doesn’t really matter all that much. We have been to both cities and like both. Just seemed a bit odd.

And now Dorian has done some damage in Halifax, so I don’t know whether we would have been able to go there anyway. Seems Dorian is still creating havoc. 

Perhaps we will be ships passing in the night at some point!

Bon Voyage! 

I found reading the roll call thread for the inaugural World Cruise fascinating. It’s literally an “Everything You Wanted to Know About A World Cruise” tome. Check it out.  2017 World Cruise

17 minutes ago, vnb2003 said:

They are selling a package (samples of body scrub, face scrub, face mask, and face cream) and instructions how and what to use at a particular stage of bathing. 

Ah okay, that makes sense. It sounded like they were charging for instructions.  If they offer this on our cruise I might try it.  Make my Scandinavian ancestors proud 😆

In the first Lerwick one, it says “pick up your instructions and Nordic Bathing Ritual at reception for $25.”  I thought the Nordic spa was included. They are charging $25 for the instructions?  Is this something new - the charge?

1 hour ago, Iamthesea said:

My husband and I are looking into Viking Ocean cruises.  We have sailed with many cruiselines including HAL, Celebrity, Oceania, and one AMA Waterways river cruise.  44 cruises in all! So we are experienced in finding value for our money when we travel. 

 

We mostly sail Celebrity or HAL when traveling abroad.  We then get with CC Roll Call members to plan economical excursions. One of the main draws for us choosing Viking Ocean cruising is the included excursions.  We thought this would compensate the higher cruise fare.

 

Now, after taking a look at excursions, and reading this forum, it appears that only one excursion/one choice in each port is included in the fare.  Is this true?  I looked at one port (I think either the Paris area or Rome) and the only included excursion was a bus ride into that city.  Then you were on your own for the day.  🙄  That's not my idea of an included excursion, or value. 

 

Although we have been to Rome and Paris many times, and could find our way around easily, we would think that Viking would be offering a free excursion that would be more  comprehensive for those that had never been to those places.  Even our AMA river cruise offered at least 2 included options per port.  And those were guided tours!

 

Please tell me your experiences.

We have done 2 Viking River cruises and one Ocean cruise with another coming up in 2 weeks, and one booked for next year.  I've never seen more than one included cruise for each port.  Some included ones are better than others.  It depends on the port.  We usually do a mix, because the optional excursions are generally fantastic - often with limited access opportunities.  We tend to do more included on the river cruises, and more optional on the ocean cruises.  On ocean cruises, the ports are generally at least a bus ride away from most things people want to see/do.  On the river cruises, you can usually just walk off the ship and be in the heart of a city quickly.

While the included tours are somewhat of a draw for us, the whole Viking experience is why we book with Viking.  We just recently took an Azamara cruise, which was less expensive than Viking, but the cruise press and TAs put them in the same category.  We not only had to pay for excursions - we did none through the ship - but internet access and specialty restaurants.  We enjoyed the cruise, but we found ourselves frequently saying, "It's not Viking."

We have a Celebrity cruise booked for next spring - we like to cruise more often than the Viking pricing will allow 😄 so we're kind of looking around for a line that suits us for in between Viking cruises. 

We will be booking another river cruise while we are onboard the Viking Sea, shortly.  If we had unlimited funds, we would only cruise with Viking.  We like the casual atmosphere, the smaller ships, never having to deal with crowds, kids, casino racket, etc.

If you are only looking at Viking for included excursions, I'm not sure if it's the cruise line for you.  It's a whole package!

2 hours ago, Nymich said:

ok MSNBC, FOX NEWS,  HGTV , food network,  ESPN,  and ESPN 2 and CNBC that I can remember 

 

They also have just as many celebrity channels in hopes of generating sales.

 
Thanks I guess he will find something from those - he likes the Food Network.  Wouldn't be his first pick, but it will do!

11 hours ago, sfaaa said:

Still has free movies on big screen. Grab a beach towel and go watch them on the top deck.

My husband likes to watch TV in bed before falling asleep, so that’s not exactly a viable option 😠.

He doesn’t much care what he’s watching as long as it’s somewhat interesting. Is there anything on the TVs at night?

8 hours ago, WorkerBee74 said:

Hi - I'm looking at doing this on Sept 15th in the evening.  I'm not 100% sure yet if we're going to, but if I do I will be sure to get you answers.

 

From what I see, the $18.95 would ONLY be for the Gardens Of Light.  If you wanted regular day access to the botanical gardens during the day, or the Planetarium, it's more.  I'll see what they have for food too if I go. 

Thanks!

I have been looking for things to do in Montreal for basically 1 full day and one day interrupted by boarding the Viking Sea at lunch time.  I have been considering several things, and looking at all the Montreal tourism sights, and I think for the full day, I have settled on the Botanical Gardens.  There seems to be much of interest there - especially the Gardens of Light and the Planetarium.  My question is about the Gardens of Light.  I'm finding it difficult to pin down the price.  It looks like it's $18.95 for seniors, but I am seeing some listings with a range from $18.95 to $34.95.  I'm thinking there must be something else included for the higher price, but I can't seem to find what is included.

I know you have to pick a time, so I'm wondering  what would be the best time for optimal enjoyment.  We will be there Sept 24-27th and our full day is the 25th.  And one last thing.  Is there somewhere to eat in the Botanical Gardens?  Is it decent food?  Or should we look in the surrounding area?

12 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

I would love it if Viking sold these on all the itineraries!  I've often thought about getting a magnetic travel map.  I'd buy one if they sold them!

We - my husband and I - like to do trivia on sea days for fun and the challenge to ourselves. The overly competitive people are boring. 

We had great fun with 2 sisters on our Azamara cruise this past spring. The contests were different than the normal ones we have been used to and were a definite challenge. We did well, I think we won a few times, but we don’t play for prizes. We are at the stage in life where we are getting rid of stuff, not looking for more 😆

I would like trivia without prizes if that would cut down on the nonsense.  I’ll be disappointed if our Equinox cruise next spring has an over abundance of these intense players. I guess we will join @Ken the cruiser and sit in the back in the “unofficial we're only playing for fun" section. 

We played trivia on our river cruise last year and they did the exchange papers thing. Problem was they didn’t say we would exchange papers and the person doing our writing only wrote keys/abbreviations so she would remember the answer. The other team couldn’t understand her code and marked the, all wrong. It was a battle!  I hope they let you know before they start because I tend to not write the answers out completely. 

13 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

I agree with all you very good tips, CyberKat. 

Both the Viking Restaurant manager and the Excursion Manager on a recent cruise also offered up those pieces of advice.

They have the same issues that restaurants at home have (and maybe even tour groups).   Lots of folks (especially with early priority) sign up for everything they can - and then cancel out as the cruise gets closer, and during the cruise as they change plans or realize they bit off more than they can chew!

They also shared that unfortunately, some cruisers book the dinner reservations and are no shows.  For this reason, we often go "standby" and have never had a problem getting a table due to the no-shows whose tables are given up after x minutes (seemed to vary but possibly 15 to 30 minutes to be classified a "no show").   Was surprised at all the no-shows.  The number seemed to increase after a particularly busy port day with lots of excursions, as people just decided not to show for dinner.

Sort of think common courtesy would have them cancel, but because they often don't, it helps those like us out!

So - never give up!

That’s sad and maddening at the same time. It’s really not difficult to think of others instead of yourself all the time and it’s not difficult at all to pick up the phone or stop by the desk and cancel. More often I think it’s just that people don’t think beyond their own noses.

21 hours ago, roothy123 said:

Have never been to Soft Surroundings, and only to JJill once or twice.  But I see they're both in the same shopping mall (Columbia, MD) in my neck of the woods, so maybe I'll have to make a trip there. I'll blame Cyber Kat if I spend too much money....really don't need any new clothes, but do have a cruise coming up later in the year, so...

LOL! I don’t really need new clothes either. I should go through my closet and have a good clean out 😆. 

We really are getting off track, so I feel I owe a tip!

TIPS

if there is an optional excursion you didn’t get because it was sold out when your booking window opened: 

• 1) keep watching MyVikingJourney.  We had quite a few open up again 
• 2) check with the shore excursion desk as soon as you can after boarding. There are people changing theirs or canceling up to the night before that port 

Also for the included - if you are not happy with your time slot, these often change as well as people cancel or change things around. 

As for booking the specialty restaurants, check the desk in front of the individual restaurant, instead of the one in the World Cafe. It has been our experience, that they have a bit more leeway to change things around. 

I don’t know if this will help, but we did the West Indies cruise last spring (2018). We are train buffs so we were focused on the St Kitts Railway and didn’t focus much on anything else for this port. We did have time to do the included tour which visited the Fairview Estate. It was one of the better included tours. 

The reason I responding here is because if you are more interested in the catamaran day than actually visiting Nevis, I highly recommend the one in St Lucia. It was one of the best days on our cruise despite a bit of rain.  

The catamaran was a good size, not crowded and with plenty of seating in either sun or shade. The crew were fantastic!  They served delicious fruit punch and soft drinks in the morning as we sailed up the coast to see the Pitons - which are best seen from the water. On the way we cruised through Marigot Bay - gorgeous!

 We docked in Soufriere and transferred to small vans that took us up into the mountains to Morne Coubaril Estate.  We had an interesting tour around the Estate where we watched them opening coconuts and we got to sample the fresh coconut and the coconut milk. 

We learned about the harvesting and production of cocoa. They sell their yummy products in a small shop. After the tour, we had a wonderful Creole lunch buffet in their open air restaurant. 

We had some free time to look around and check out the shop, then we reboarded the vans for the ride back down to the boat with some lovely views of the Pitons and the bay on the way down. 

We ran to the catamaran through the rain shower, I mentioned before, so our second viewing of the Pitons was through a heavy mist which gave them a rather eerie appearance.  We also stopped briefly in a small cove for a swim. 

After that we continued sailing down the coast. They broke out the rum punch that is served on every island 😁 and cranked up the music. We all were dancing or just having fun. It was a party. When we pulled into the dock, we were singing Sweet Caroline and everyone on the dock joined in. It was just a perfect ending to an absolutely fabulous day. 

I can also recommend the Antigua Catamaran Sail - I think it was Antigua by Land and Sea. The land part is actually the included tour of Nelson’s Dockyard (interesting and picturesque) with a stop at Shirley Heights (gorgeous views but very crowded) and a multimedia presentation of the history of Antigua. I thought this last might be hokey, but it was quite well done and interesting. 

We parted ways with the included tour people and boarded our catamaran - again plenty of seating in either sun or shade depending on your preference. I’m not good at estimating numbers, but both these catamarans (this one and the one on St Lucia) were a good size and not crowded. You could move around from the sun to the shade and vice versa anytime you wanted. 

They took us out to a reef for some snorkeling, if you wished. We just stayed on the boat. The crew made a bbq lunch which was excellent, and after lunch we sailed back along the coast with a narrated tour of the beaches and points of interest, and, of course, rum punch. 

We also did the Champagne Catamaran sail to St John from St Thomas which was also a great day and since it was our last, it was a lovely way to end the cruise.

Sorry, I couldn’t help with St Kitts, but I hope this might give you some alternatives. I also recommend the St Kitts Railway, but if you have motion issues, it is a bit of a rocking ride. Great way to see the island and we had a great local a cappella group singing Caribbean songs to entertain us.  

Enjoy your cruise!

47 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

 

CK, thank you again!!!!

 

I finally got there last night and would have cleaned out the store! My daughter was with me and she didn't go home empty handed either.  Great staff. Very helpful. Can't wait to go back!

Glad to hear you liked it!  I just got an email about a hooded tunic in a pretty print on sale in their catalog.  It looked perfect for our upcoming Eastern Seaboard cruise!  I could easily clean out the store!

Sign up for their emails - they will send you coupons for $20 off a few times a year!  And they have an outlet store online.  Also if you order from the catalog in the store, they ship free!

We’re not new cruisers, but I’m always enthusiastic about pretty much everything I do except housework and grocery shopping (although I can get enthusiastic about food 😁).  

I am excited for our first Celebrity cruise coming up this spring. It has a lot of firsts - which is unusual because most times I’m either cruising the same line, ship or ports. 

This is, as I mentioned, our first Celebrity cruise, first time on Equinox, first time in a suite. This will be our first time sailing from Fort Lauderdale and every port on this cruise is one we have never been to before.  

So we have the adventure of first time cruisers, even though it will be my 17th cruise (my husband has fewer because it took me awhile to convince him that cruising was a good thing 😁).  And I’m excited!

2 hours ago, Liz Masterson said:

I wonder if I could make a French 75 with Prosecco instead of champagne... if I did should I call it a Italian 75?

LOL. I don’t see why not!

 The name comes from a French 75mm gun.  Supposedly the drink has a kick like the gun 😆. Epicurious claims it was originally made with cognac not gin, but that isn’t supported by other sources. 

We were at Havensight last spring (2018). I don’t remember whether there were shuttles - I think there might have been.  We did a Catamaran to St John. 

5 minutes ago, -Lew- said:

Thank you all for your very informative responses.  I should have mentioned we would be storing bathroom items in the various pockets.

 

I have cut two openings in the organizer we use on Princess to clear the hooks on the inside of the door.  These allow the organizer to hang flat against the door...looks like the hooks are in the same place on Viking's bathroom door.

 

With all the storage in the typical Viking bathroom we may consider leaving it at home...

That might work, but I'm thinking you probably won't need it.  Those drawers are wonderful.  My husband had enough room on the shelves on his side, that he didn't even need the drawer. so I spread out 😄  They give you shampoo, cream rinse, shower gel, bar soap and body wash.  I moved those to the shelf in the shower.  It's not one of those little wire shelves, it's the full width of the shower at the back.  Not big enough to sit on, but plenty of room for all the necessities!

I did bring those collapsible boxes you can get in the dollar store.  I found them handy for the shelves by the coffee machine and on top of the closet rack.  I just put everything in them, and I didn't have to worry about losing anything in the back.  They weigh next to nothing and I just put them in the bottom of the suitcase.

There is also a lift up mirror in the desk that has some storage as well.  I used that for my hair stuff - spray, gel, pins, clips, etc.

The night stand drawers are also roomy.  There are plenty of USB ports.  The lamp on the desk has 5, I think, and a decent amount of plugs.

Enjoy your cruise!  Viking is fantastic!

1 hour ago, Crisismon said:

Oh goodness - the French 75!  We had a dear friend that brought the makings for that and set them up with Blue Curacao (I have no idea how to spell that) - beautiful and tasty!  One guest did not enjoy it and offered hers to another.  After the 2 x 75s, the second guest noted that she could not feel her nose!

 

That's a good cocktail!

 

Peace!

Blue Curacao is not one of the usual ingredients ( gin, Champagne, lemon juice, and sugar. ) but I'll bet that was an interesting addition.  I love a French 75.  We are starting our cruise in Montreal, Quebec, so I think that would be most appropriate to toast with!

I'm looking forward to trying some new cocktails.  I drive bartenders nuts because I don't have a "drink."  I always like to change up 🙂

Our flight out of Zurich on our Rhine Getaway, left at 1pm.  Our transfer bus with about 15 of us left the ship at 9am.  They were running all morning.  You will get a document in your cabin with all the transfer times and info.

We went out, identified our luggage prior to it being put on the bus, boarded the bus and we were off!  When we got to the airport, the rep walked with us to show us where to check in.

2 hours ago, -Lew- said:

Having not cruised on Viking Ocean, I wonder whether the hanging shoe organizer we use when cruising Princess will be allowed.  We hang it on the inside of the bathroom door for extra storage capacity.

 

The thoughts of experienced Viking Ocean cruisers will be appreciated...

 

I don't honestly know where you would hang it and close the bathroom door (there are also hooks on the bathroom side of the door), but I don't think Viking would have any issue with it.

There is so much storage in a Viking cabin - even the basic Veranda - that I can't imagine a need for it.  As @Peregrina651 has so nicely illustrated, there are lots of drawers and shelves.  I found the ones in the bathroom more than adequate.  If you are in a PV and above - you could store things for a month's voyage easily.  I could have rented out space 😄

If you still feel you need it, might want to bring something that could be hung on a hanger in the closet.  Lots of room in there.

14 minutes ago, SrCruizer said:

I’m guessing it’s allowed but based on rooms I have been in (DVs & PVs) the only door it could logically hang on would be the outside of the bathroom door. That might be an awkward place. We have had no lack of space to store shoes. I like the nightstand shelf for several pairs. The closet floor and closet top shelf could also be used & for shoes worn infrequently, there is always right under the bed. I have learned to travel light & only bring 4 pairs (My New Balance walking shoes I wear on the plane & pack 3.) plus flip flops. My husband takes 2 pair & flips. 

People on other cruise lines don't use those for shoes.  They use them to store miscellaneous items, like sun glasses, sun screen, other lotions and cosmetics.  I know from reading other cruise boards. not from personal experience.  I've never felt the need for one, and Viking cabins have so much storage, I can't see any reason to bring one.