CCWineLover

Fantastic! We are on Dec 24 Malta, etc on the Saturn, May. We'll see you there! Kent

Yes - I just saw you posted on our Dec 1 '24 Saturn Roll Call! We also have been to Barcelona (many times), and Marseilles, and Rome (Civitavecchia) but the others are all new!

Great idea! Please send an email to Viking explaining in a nice way your suggestion of having more details in written format on the excursions. This would be great! Instead of saying "Why can't you do this" perhaps make a positive suggestion to them and show the example you posted here. I would chime in as well! And don't wait for another cruise to do so. Thank you!

Here's another thought - inspired by Azulan on another thread. Since so many enjoyed their Welcome Back 1 week Bermuda cruises in summer of 2021 when Viking "reopened", why not have some more of those? We'd do it again in a heartbeat! Take a week and circumnavigate Bermuda. Would be so great to see it again post-COVID !!

Patti and May - yes, we are indeed very fortunate to be able to travel and have the health to do so. We also enjoyed thoroughly the Welcome Back Bermuda cruise we did in July 2021. We also wish Viking would "reinstate" something like that. They could do maybe a month of one ship doing 1 week round Bermuda cruises like back then. FYI - we are going on the Neptune this December on a Transatlantic from Lisbon to Fort Lauderdale. It stops in Hamilton, Bermuda (as well as Azores). I think it's a one off though.

Sadly, we are starting to see a "Carnival" atmosphere coming to Viking. No pun intended 🙂 But we have observed very bizarre total oblivious behavior a number of times in the past year or so. Didn't see it on Viking pre-COVID.

Totally agree. We consider ourselves travel-savvy and are somewhat adamant as well about when and how we travel by air. We've done Viking Air twice with no so good experiences. However, we understand the whole Airlines Contract issues with Viking and so were expecting issues. Too many people don't understand and blame Viking. When you do Viking Air you are at the bottom of the barrel. That is why we always do our own arrangements. Take control. I do realize that Viking Air can be great for those who are newbies, or just don't want to deal with the whole flying thing. Thus it serves a purpose for them. For others, a do it yourself approach works wonders.

I would suggest contacting Viking directly - and get it in writing. No matter what anyone says on this board, it may or may not apply now, and may depend upon your specific cruise port and itinerary. Other's experiences don't necessarily apply. Only your specific circumstance does and Viking should be able to answer this. Note: if you don't like what you hear, do a HUCA (Hang Up Call Again), and or speak to a supervisor.

I'm so very sorry to hear about your granddaughter. May she receive the best care possible. Here's a thought. You don't mention your itinerary or when your cruise begins, but . . . It may be different in the UK versus the USA, but I know that we have successfully transferred a given booking (keeping the same booking number) to a new itinerary and date way into the future (like 2 years) when we didn't want to chance not going. This in the USA at least, can be done if you are greater than 120 days out and have not made full payment yet. Since we don't do Viking Air or Viking Insurance, I can't say how that works. I would imagine if the flights had not yet been ticketed you might be OK. (And you can't get ticketed until you make full payment). Let us know how it works out. Perhaps best to contact Viking UK and see what their special rules are for UK.

Thx May! you sound like a fun person to cruise with and love your attitude! you said you are on Saturn in Dec 24? Malta by any chance? Kent

Pushka - We had zero Viking people at the buffet. No one reminding anyone to wash their hands. This was June. Sadly, I think Viking has moved on as well. Also sadly, passengers have moved on and back to their old bad habits of not washing and picking at food at the buffet with their hands. We won't change these people's habits, so best to just keep ourselves safe by washing constantly!

I always think of viking ocean ships as “coming home” ! We love that comfortable feel of knowing where everything is. It’s like going to Disneyland over and over as a kid!!

We just got off Viking Saturn to Iceland. We are now 12 days past the ship and 10 days past flying and are still healthy! Yeah! We observed a very religious regime: when we got to World Cafe, we washed our hands (most did not). But here is the key. We would go to the buffet counters, get our food, use the tongs, bring the plates back to the table we had already put our things at. And then we would go back to the WC wash sinks and thoroughly wash our hands with soap and water for a long time. Then we would go back to the table and have dinner! A little inconvenient, but it may have worked for us. We also would try to pick our table nearer the sinks, and avoid the mob scenes at the buffet lines by being either very early or very late. In the end, it really wasn't that much of an effort and we felt it definitely helped! Note: we also avoided the Star Theatre which is a petri dish of germs and spreading!!

Priced out the offer on a cruise we had booked last end of March on that sale. The "new" sale price + offers was all told, $500 more. Will stay with what we have. No doubt the sale depends on the number of open cabins. Systems are so sophisticated these days they can target specific categories and itineraries differently.

Same here. That is probably the 2nd reason we enjoy Viking and have not looked elsewhere. We are so comfortable here. When I grew up my mother loved Danish furniture and items and so it sort of gives me a feeling of being home. Never gotten tired yet after 13 cruises. I don't like gaudy. But thankfully there's something for everyone! (Note : 1st reason is no children).

I'd vote for that! We lived in Seattle for nearly 30 years and go back there many times a year. Would enjoy sailing out of Seattle again!!

Love it! The "marketing middle" - that's where we are too!

Great to hear about your adventures! We are doing the exact trip in Feb/Mar 2024 and also the Umbria pre-extension and Athens 4 day post extensions. Will be our first Viking ocean extensions (we always do our own before). Hopefully that time of year will help reduce the crowds! Looking forward to Delphi!

After 2 tries we are finally going to do the Buenos Aires to Barcelona itinerary!

We love to do that! Sadly, our past cruise New York to Iceland, wasn’t practical. We boarded in NY during those horrible days of Canada wildfire smoke! Could barely see the Statue or Skyline sailing out! next time!

Nice writeup and figures. However, no one as addressed how to you put a price on some of things Viking is known for? -Cost of having No Children? Priceless for some -Cost of having No Casino? Priceless for some -Cost of no Photographers? you get the picture A strict $ for $ may work for some people and for others there are non-quantifiable aspects. Thanks goodness there are cruise lines for everyone's needs and interests.

We always go to World Cafe upon boarding. Every cruise we've had (and there's a few), without fail, the menu has wonderful salmon on embarkation day! That, with a nice glass of white wine and maybe a small salad, makes the perfect "welcome aboard" lunch while we wait for our rooms to be ready!

We went ahead and booked using the deals. Bird in the Hand. Sure it might be better in a month, but since its a cruise we want, why wait? Everyone makes their own choices. Sort of like investing, there is not easy or right answer.

We did Aerolineas - and were quite satisfied. We had some very nice moderately new 737 jets and everything went well!

Absolutely right! We just finished Iceland circumnavigation on Viking Saturn. We new we would just get a "taste" of Iceland this way, but my goodness what a taste! We enjoyed it so much that we will now be making plans to be back next year and go explore areas on our own!