CCWineLover

Maria / can’t help but agree with your frustration.. still looking forward to seeing you and Mike next month!

Interesting! Which cruise line is this cabin from?

Agree with you on Sea Days! In fact, we could have cared less about Nicaragua. We did have fabulous sea weather all up the coast from Costa Rica to Los Angeles. Wonderful sunsets as well. So much to do on sea days - we had some excellent lecturers as well. We thoroughly enjoyed our Panama Cruise. I do see the other side where people feel they were "sold" something that wasn't delivered, but I have come to expect that in the tourism industry post-COVID. Not just Viking, but airlines, hotels, destinations, and more. Just have to go with it, and look for the good things, else you might as well just stay home. 🙂

Clay - of course we'll expect from you the same level of fantastic day by day descriptions and pictures! So many World Cruisers do blogs since they write and post so much (versus multiple Cruise Critic posts). Perhaps you can create a blog too! It would no doubt, be fabulous reading! And you'd have many followers. Wouldn't it be great if you could be a guest lecturer on Architecture? Keep us posted on your plans.

Totally agree with you, Maria. See my post above to Romocruiser. Certainly they should have done a lot more for their customers. As I said, they are at least consistent in their lack of communication. All we can do is make our own decisions with our pocketbooks. I've resigned to either accept this negative aspect of Viking or not cruise anymore with them.

I totally agree with you. Viking should have been more public about the Nicaragua thing. Maybe they were holding out hope. Unfortunately for many, this news has been published by cruisers (FB and Cruise Critic) for over 2 years, so no surprise for us, even when we booked the cruise, but understand not everyone is connected to social media reports or is able to do research. We also have a Viking cruise scheduled in late 2024 that includes North Africa (and Malta). I am fully aware that the North Africa ports might be cancelled due to strife and whatever. I've read reports in the past that this has happened before. That being said, I made the decision to book anyways - I have until 120 days with just minor penalty if I choose - or I can transfer the booking number to some cruise years into the future at no cost. Yes - sadly, Viking is a good cruise line in my opinion, but does a very poor job of advertising and communication - and always has been that way. I guess we either accept that or don't cruise with them.

We did this itinerary way back in March of 2022. No Nicaragua then either. Funny thing - no one seemed as upset as this group is. Yes - this cruise has a lot of sea days and it was made even more by "missing" Leon. It sort of never was there in the first place. Probably Viking should just "Remove it" but when I asked, they said that they carefully state any and all ports and be eliminated or changed at any time - which is no doubt true. We left Costa Rica for LA and had lots of sea days. Sadly, a passenger health emergency caused the ship to make a middle of the night drop off in Puerto Vallarta, thus having us arrive in Cabo around dinner time. People could go ashore for 1-2 hours but all excursions cancelled. We bowed out, as the view from where we anchored and the sunset was spectacular. So by the time we got to LA, we had perhaps 7 straight sea days and just one stop from Panama. Central America/Mexico is not really a highlight of these cruises - it is the Panama Canal. Our thought is that it is almost like a repositioning cruise. Fortunately our expectations had been set low enough ahead of time. Having expectations too high or wrong seems to be the cause of most people's angst, understandably so. Traveling these days is full of unmet expectations, so we've adjusted ours downwards on all trips - else you might as well not travel 🙂

Or Jerry Seinfeld's Puffy Shirt . . . .

Loved your post! I too have always felt like I grow every day onboard Viking! But enjoyably 🙂

Clay - I was about to say an almost identical thing! And Lorna beat me to it. It's how I'd feel as well. Carpe Diem! We've had too many friends and relatives pass recently at our age - makes you take a look at things differently.

Linda - we also like forward cabins on 5 and 6! We also were on Saturn (as you know) in June and right nearly across from crew access door. We were in 6011. First I was worried, but there was not much activity except 8-8:30 when we were off to breakfast or going off the ship!

Chlorine is doing it (the loosening), not the spinner. Rinse suit thoroughly with water after the pool or spa and only then use the spinner. It’s not the spinners fault.

I hear you! pun intended! We always seem to have the Loud obnoxious "happy hour" folks come out to the deck 7 front of explorer's lounger as we a silently cruising into a beautiful place - like Norway's fjords (Flam) or a gorgeous city (like Oslo). Sadly it is just the world we live in now. People are oblivious of others. But definitely 1st world problems!

Oh my how sad. Certainly hope that the crew member recovers. I'm surprised we don't hear that much about crew being injured. We get on the Mars in a few weeks.

We do exactly the same thing with Steve! He's so good. For others who don't know about Steve Dassios and thetripinsurancestore, he has a thread on Cruise Critic going again. Steve's Cruise Critic Handle is: imtrustworthy https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2648-qa-cruise-insurance-with-steve-dasseos-of-the-tripinsurancestorecom-summer-2023/

Thanks! Will do!

Joe - it WAS indeed one of the better cruises, wasn't it! Remember Tarragona, what a fun city to walk around! We liked it so much that we are doing the Trade Routes next May, '24, finishing in Bergen. Lots of things we wished we'd done but didn't get to. This time Viking is doing Honfleur, as Le Havre is eliminating or reducing cruise ships, like so many other ports. And we do need to do the Mary Rose in Portsmouth.

A simple search on google for "Wine Stores in Tarragona Spain" will give you plenty of opportunities.

Peregrina - Viking is NOT mostly cheaper in our experience. 13 cruises. All of them more expensive if we'd used Tripmate as I do comparisons with 3rd party insurance. Plus better insurance and more flexibility with 3rd party. We have friends over 75, though, who say Viking Tripmate MAY be cheaper than 3rd party at ages over 75.

Agree! The general forum is for general topics and each cruise itself can have its own thread (roll call). Look under the (I assume) Jupiter Roll calls. Perhaps the CC monitor can move this thread over. Regarding the cruise - you will absolutely enjoy it! We did this exact itinerary on Jupiter leaving Valparaiso on Dec 21 2019. It was quite the festive Christmas and New Years cruise. Christmas decorations, caroling, special foods, entertainment, and more. Quite nice! The Chilean Fjords are spectacular and cross our fingers you make the Falkland Islands as well!

We always use a Travel Agent - a good one. They can give us OBC's (On Board Credits) and do so at the maximum that Viking allows for TA's. (150, 300, 500 PP depending on cruise length). They are also quite helpful in many ways - help us get our air flights (since we don't do Viking air). We also have a very good and favorite Viking rep - so we make both happy by first contacting that rep, booking the cruise and getting immediate access to what rooms are available. Then we contact the TA and have the booking moved over to the TA. Both then get the commission. And they both are fine with us doing that. Works well. Insurance - we believe it is always better NOT to get insurance from the cruise provider (Viking TripMate). First, it costs more on a % basis (usually) and second, lots of issues with the vouchers, and more. Note - if you are older than 75, 3rd party insurance may cost more. Hope you have a great trip! When do you go? We are doing the Rome to Athens portion (not doing the Barcelona to Rome portion) of the Viking 4 leg runs that they do back and forth (leg 4 is Istanbul). We go February '24. OK - I'm curious - what is Sasha123? Not your normal topic name.

Lido1 - just so that you know and are aware for the future: You don't have to specify the Viking Ocean ship name (i.e.Neptune) when you ask about cabin numbers. At least for now, they are all the same layout for the current 9 Viking Ocean ships (Star, Sea, Sky, Orion, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Neptune, Saturn). There are some small variances around the ship and in the cabins, but not the cabins' locations.

This is sort like asking doe people get seasick and how much. It really depends on the individual as well as other outside factors (like drinking too much alcohol on the flight not being hydrated). Your mileage will vary. Direction of flight can matter. I know that I never seem to have difficulty going from California to Europe as far as Jet Lag is concerned but returning back west takes me a few days to adjust. My wife needs at least a night in Europe and a good night's sleep to feel somewhat normal. We tend to always go to Europe well ahead of a cruise - partly to see the sights and partly to make sure we are feeling great. We did a cruise out of Rome last year and spent 5 nights 4 days enjoying and exploring Rome. It was well worthwhile! If you have the time, I'd highly recommend spending some day in this wonderful city!

Yes we are looking at May 24. Inflation is up and so is demand. Thus prices keep skyrocketing. Have not seen it like this before an we fly a lot. have to decide if I can take the gamble and wait. I don’t see demand decreasing post Covid and oil prices are higher. So will probably just go head and not look back.

Same case with vouchers. If you have some pieces of vouchers that must be used before boarding, Viking automatically applies that amount to excursions you select. We also did the ACH Checking thing since it saved LOTS of key time. It was VERY fast that way and it is 3.3 % off. (I know people like their credit cards, but buying one excursion at a time goes much faster with ACH, and minutes count!)