CCWineLover

Clay - here you go. We were fortunate to have them on their first Viking cruise - and Russell is easily the best lecturer we've seen! We'll finally cross paths again in a couple weeks, boarding in NYC. Can't wait! June 21 Rey to Bergen is their last cruise for a bit. They are having their 2 sons with them on this voyage. Perhaps they will the 4 of them do some Europe touring then. Will find out. https://www.worldtrippers.com/

We've stopped getting the felt pouches since the COVID shutdown and so have all our friends! Maybe they just do that for you Aussies!

OTJ - Good to see you posting on Viking again. Will be sailing out of your neck of the woods in a couple weeks! Viking Saturn from New York to Iceland. Rumors had it we'd leave out of Bayonne, but fortunately not to be (Boarding at Manhattan Cruise Terminal off 52nd St). Many (many!) years ago I did a ship fire fighting school in Bayonne. Haven't been back. 🙂

Probably because we eat so much good food on the cruise, the room feels smaller at the finish!

Absolutely! 🍷🍷 but keep checking if full. We’ve seen people cancel the day of the wine pairing, and even seen no shows.

gosh, longterm. I feel your pain! Had similar issues on American Airlines and Delta. Seems like there are no good airlines anymore!

Any bartender onboard. We usually do ours at the Attrium Bar, after looking at the wine list.

The invoice you received from Viking has it. Called "Guest Statement" with your booking number. On usually about page 3 or 4 there is the itinerary with "planned" port arrival and departures. There is a little symbol that looks like an anchor that is sometimes next to the port. That means tender. Note: the times and whether you tender or not are also subject to change. Example:

Unfortunately, my magician companion doesn't do those tricks!! 🙂

If we have a room on deck 6, we usually just go down to deck 5. We also go early in the morning during breakfast. Deck 3 has the fewest rooms to service and Deck 6 the most (since it service 7 and 8 as well).

No problem for me Clay (about 15 minutes later). I can get in just fine. If you still cannot - suggest the usual things - clear cache, history, reboot, etc.. depending on the device you are using.

Thanks, Cathy! We hope that you and your husband get better soon! We are still looking for to the new Saturn in a couple weeks! And Verity Brown, the CD! Our friends, Russell and Gail Lee are onboard so we'll finally get to see them again! Russell is such a fantastic lecturer!!

100 % agree with you!

From your Viking material. Interesting that Viking states in writing that the gratuity charge is shared with staff and lists examples, but does not say if this is an “extra” tip or benefit to them above and beyond their “regular” pay.

We do love our wines and have often taken SSBP. However on our last cruise (Dec/Jan panama canal), it was a huge disappointment. Supposedly due to supply chain issues (delivery to Ft Lauderdale), they hardly had any of the wines on the menu in stock. It got to be almost comical amongst many of us. One of the wine stewards at Manfredi's was apologetic after 2 tries and getting either a Zin or a Cab (they were out) and asked me just to order something and he'd see if it was available. We tried FIVE different times and nothing. Just a very very light almost rose blend was left in stock. Same with Whites - no Chardonnays. I said why don't you just cross all those off the wine list (but then it would look obvious). Someone just posted the wine list for their BIE cruise (Venus?) and it looked a lot better. I do see what the poster is saying though. It appears that many wines that were available for SSBP have moved into the purchase a bottle only category. (Such as Kendall Jackson Chardonnay and Penfolds Shiraz), and noticeable lack of US & California wines, which they've had before. Example: There are 13 reds from California and only 1 of the 13 is available for SSBP (ALL others are bottle purchase only). Sad. Very Europe and SA dominated. Overall I would say that easily over 50 % of the menu is bottle purchase only (compared to maybe 10-20% last year and earlier. If so, this is a definite downgrade. (Probably cost cutting, revenue generating move as so many companies are doing during inflation times). We are back on board again in a few weeks to Iceland. Hopefully their issue is resolved (and hopefully not be cutting back on quality). I will keep people posted!

You bet, Maria. We have not been to the Star Theatre except for 30 seconds in our many post-COVID cruises to the shows. We watch them from the safe comfort of our room. We tried once and way too many people sneezing, coughing and non-masked. The good thing is there are so many wonderful places on the Ocean Ships where you don't have to be crammed in with people! And another hot spot to avoid is the elevators - that's fine with us, as we take the stairs! Have to burn off all that good food somehow! And yes they do have COVID tests onboard. We also had friends who tested and quarantined. Plus, pity the poor crew that has to deal with all these sick people! so they certainly have COVID tests available for them as well. Like you said - the choice is either stop traveling or do the best you can to stay safe! We still choose to travel.

Oh I'm so so sorry Cathy. It is just a shame that there are so many selfish, inconsiderate people traveling on Viking cruises these days. We are getting on the Saturn in NYC in a couple weeks - and that is our biggest fear - namely, all those coughing, hacking people on buses. We've seen it before on post-COVID cruises, but have somehow been lucky and managed to avoid COVID (and we are fully (6) vaccinated/boosted even). But - we do want to see things, so we'll just do our best to avoid those people!

ALL of our cruises (over 10) have released excursions exactly at the time advertised. Maybe we were just lucky.

Exactly! That's why we always get insurance policy that covers transport back to HOME for medical!

We did the Midnight Sun cruise on Venus last July. 1. Greenwich - tender dock is right in town. Easy to walk around. 2. Edinburgh - had to take a tender. Viking provided shuttles back and forth to town 3. Kirkwell - docked away from town. Viking provided shuttles. 4. Lerwick - docked a couple miles from town. Viking provided shuttles. 5. Honningsvag - docked in town. Easy to walk around. Town not very large though. 6. Tromso - docked a couple miles from town. Viking provided shuttles. 7. Leknes - docked a couple miles from town. Viking provided shuttles. 8. Geiranger (we went to Olden instead and tendered) 9. Bergen - Viking's home port. They dock right in town. Easy walk to everything. Hope this helps! We were lucky and made every port. (No weather cancellations)

Good points, Linda. We are the same way. The medical, evacuation, and trip interruption are the most important things for us. Yes, it would be painful to lose $10K or so, but we want to avoid having $250K medical/evacuation bills!!

Thank you for your research. I vaguely remember this thread since is was pre-COVID, which certainly caused some memory loss, or is it just we're all 3 years old now? 🙂 Yikes! Quoting Jim Avery's post #29 (and many of our regulars responded as well): "As this subject has re surfaced, I would like to share what I learned on our recent long voyage on the Sun. Like most of us, we get close to many of the crew. A great hard working group if there ever was one. One evening this topic came up. I asked how they got paid the gratuities. I was not happy to hear that they don't get paid at the end of the cruise or any other time. Crew says they are told "it is part of your salary". So no bonus checks, no distribution of gratuities collected for a cruise. So the "gratuities" we are charged or which are included in our fare as an inducement would more accurately be called a service charge. Viking can set the rules as they see fit but somehow this leaves me feeling a bit cheated. Maybe cheated is too harsh a word maybe misled."

We'll be in that lounge in June! Looks mighty nice - and the food too. Let us know how the Saga flight goes. Safe travels. Hoping the airport lines were not too bad at KEF.

Who has established this? I’ve never seen that established. Where is the proof?

Yiikes!! I lived in Seattle nearly 30 years and it has REALLY gotten bad the past several. https://komonews.com/news/local/seattle-downtown-man-stabbed-hotel-crime-violence-crisis-knife-push-attack-drug-use-courtyard-marriott-cherry-street-washington-state-dc-king-county-cell-phone-doctors-homeless-addiction-mayor-bruce-harrell-activation-plan