CCWineLover

Two points: you need to start this in the Viking SEA Rolls Calls, rather than the general one. There are guidelines as to how best to name your thread, rather than the minimalist title you started. Perhaps something like Viking Sea Sep 29-Oct xx, 2025 Athens to Venice Here is the Viking Sea Roll Calls https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/785-viking-sea-roll-calls/

Great idea - except that as discussed earlier in this thread, Viking works with operators and those can fluctuate in offerings and pricing and thus even Viking does not know what the pricing might be, much less which excursions for sale might be offered. It just isn't practical to have people "buy" some excursion that doesn't exist when they made their booking. Sadly the world post-COVID doesn't work that way anymore.

Lorna - we usually fly out of SFO and go nonstop on TAP airlines (Portugal) to Lisbon and an easy connection to Barcelona. Really great airline and good service. Doesn't help going out of LAX though unless you go LAX-SFO first. Also - we never do Viking Air so who knows if Viking even works with TAP, given that their contracts (and flights) are a subset of what the general public can do on their own.

I heard on that other social media site that a passenger was informed that the Sea lost an engine and was crippled, and that is the reason. Have you heard anything about that?

Hi Dee. We loved Copenhagen. Well worth a few days, possibly 3 if you spend a full day touring the countryside (Viking Museum and Elsinor). As for the airport, it was quite nice and easy. We actually flew SAS SFO-CPH and then connected CPH-BGO to get to Bergen. That was the cruise we met you and Patrick (Bergen to Amsterdam on Jupiter). Much better airport to connect through than CDG or FRA or LHR or even AMS.

Thanks, shipboy. We are signed up for this exact cruise in March 2026.

I beg to differ. Operation issues can cover a multitude of things. We've had "Operational Issues" cancel a scheduled port on Viking and it turned out the reason was due to a planned political demonstration where there was concern about potential violence.

Thanks. Yes - the onboard classes are only on sea days and more importantly, only offered when the Chef sets them up (not every sea day). Again, the limit is 12 max. When you visit the Excursion Desk, if there are classes and availability, you get an excursion ticket. The price has been $69 pp this past year (I looked at my leftover tickets) and it was billed to the cabin account. Interesting, I never heard of the Cooking classes referred to as Kitchen Table by Viking. For us they always called them "Cooking Classes". We've done about 8 of them over the years and consequently have a number of Viking Aprons!! We've never done the Kitchen Table optional excursion so we were excited to book the one in Montevideo for our March Southern Crossing cruise. It was only $249 which tells me the pricing varies depending on location (makes sense).

My goodness! When we booked this cruise, we knew that Algeria (and quite frankly Africa) has always been an iffy proposition due to conflicts, politics, etc. Nothing is guaranteed in this world. There should be no expectations that a port will be visited - particularly in certain countries. Another reason to set expectations properly, and NEVER book a cruise just for one port.

I believe you are confused with the terminology, which is causing the misunderstanding. 1. Viking uses the term "Kitchen Table" to refer to a specific kind of optional excursion that is purchased ahead of the cruise. These are somewhat rare and depend on the itinerary and the Head Chef. The excursion is land based and involves 2 parts: the small group goes ashore in a port with the Chef and visits the markets, and picking out the food for the evening meal. This usually occurs in the morning. Part 2 is when the group gets back together again at dinner and the meal is cooked and eaten in the kitchen demonstration room. We just signed up for one of these (as they are rare and not often given) for a future cruise and it costs $249 pp. These are the excursions that are signed up for on MVJ (if they are even available). 2. Viking uses the term "Cooking Class" to refer to onboard cooking classes. I believe this is what you are referring to, not the words "Kitchen Table". These can only be booked onboard. They are only held on sea days. The menu and number of "classes" are determined by the Head Chef. We've done many of these. They are usually about $69 ppn and vary in menus from French, Mexican, Norwegian, etc. They occur from usually 10:00 AM to about 1:00 or 2:00. The classes are limited usually to 12 and are held in the small demonstration room between the Manfredi's and Chef's Table restaurants. Again - these are 2 different types of cooking/eating experiences.

Yes it seems to be the new Viking policy now. If you have a cruise on the books, and then book another one in the vicinity, that leaves within 30 days of the 1st cruise finishing, even if they are on separate ships, Viking will force you to merge them together into a "B2B". We went through this mess a couple months ago - we had a Barcelona-Reyjkavik cruise on Vela on the books. (2026) Decided to spend many days in Reykjavik and then booked the 7 day Reyk-Reyk cruise on Mars. Viking would not allow the 2nd one to be a separate booking number. However, they now will allow you to cancel one or the other and keep the one left. Before if you cancelled one, the other was automatically cancelled. Important distinction. And - you get the advantage of booking excursions for the 2nd cruise when the 1st cruise time frame would have come up. (Which might be important in Iceland!)

Yes that is indeed true. We have done it multiple times. Sadly it is a disadvantage to those on later legs (like leg 3 or 4 of a 4 segment cruise). We now always take into account where the ship has been and where it is going next when booking cruises. As for the in between days (i.e. between leg 1 and 2), when some get off and some get on, Viking thus far for us has provided at least a couple possible excursions that we could buy. These were not detailed or known about until we got closer to that port (i.e. end of leg 1). Purchasable at the Excursion Desk.

They used to have maps handed out at every port (pre-COVID). That was stopped when they resumed in 2021. Since then not have not seen them, but was told by Viking that most customers did not want them, preferring their phones or their own maps. I seriously doubt they will ever come back. Most people we see do their own thing with phones, purchased or brought (printed) maps, etc. I guess it's a sign of the times that the Viking audience is getting more smart phone sophisticated.

Wow! That's fantastic. Much appreciate all the work you do to help us all out. 🙂

Can you verify with documentation from Viking that it applies to ALL transfers? A bit suspicious. I can certainly understand the long trips, but a short ride from say, San Juan pier to San Juan airport for $129? Since we are doing that in 2 weeks, I will ask specifically and post back.

Again, a long ways. Do some searching on-line. I always use Rome to Rio or else just Google "Best way to get from NRT (or HND) to Tokyo cruise terminal" It indeed is amazing what you find in a minute with a couple searches. In fact (I'm interested as we'll be doing this), I found this in 10 seconds:

I believe that was specifically from Tilbury to Heathrow in London only. That is a long, expensive distance.

I'm hoping you can just do a cancel (lose the $50) and the do a rebook. Sometimes you have to wait a day in between. Some reps do it and some don't. Definitely your TA can help you out of you have one. Ours did this for us not that long ago.

We are actually on Hawaiian Sojourn in January. Here is the Itinerary with port arrival/departure times.

Thanks, Dobie!! Everyone bailing on us. So glad you will stay with us. Don't let Dee talk you into switching! Yes - we'll all 3 be on some day the same time and place! Still plan to see you in Tucson in February. Have a great trip to S.America!

No. You will either have to use a VPN or other facilities. But I remember that we had to turn off our VPN since the Viking IT folks said it was the reason we couldn't connect to Viking wifi. Or use your mobile network. Tough to run a business and go on a Viking cruise. Have to make allowances. They also kindly request you don't stream or do videos or zoom as well as it brings all passengers down. (Truly does! the wifi comes to a halt most of the day/evening).

Yes - it is the Captain's decision. I think the point is that some Captains may have the deck closed all the time even in calm seas, while others may have it open and closed (like your trip and our previous trips) depending on conditions.

This seems to be typical these days - on our last Viking Cruises it was definitely the case. (Lots of cancellations on Chef's Table, when showing full). I actually spoke with the Restaurant manager. He said so many these days book their allocations and then cancel, either because they go once and dislike the concept (without understanding that CT is different), or they talk with others who dislike it so they cancel. They also suffer quite a bit of no-shows (10-20%). It's why we never bother to try to get a CT reservation ahead of time. We can usually always just walk up and go standby and get seated from 0 to 20 minutes anyday.

Who's your captain? We never had the deck closed until recently when it was closed the whole cruise for "Captain's Decision". While I agree that it is necessary for safety, in this case it didn't seem that was the real reason. Perhaps certain captains just prefer it that way. We could keep a record/count of which Captains do this.

I'd do any of these! Viking needs to revise/expand their Indian Ocean potential. I believe there would be lots of Viking veterans like us who would flock to these cruises!