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I think you are right but it goes a little deeper than that. "Norman" is indeed derived from “Northmen” and refers to the ethnic group living in the northern part of what is now France around 1000 years ago. These people were descended from Vikings, who settled in the area during the ninth century. As I’m sure you already know, Duke William of Normandy landed near Hastings in 1066 and took the throne of England by killing King Harold and defeating his army. The tapestry depicts this invasion. King William’s Norman associates quickly established themselves as the ruling class across much of England, laying the foundations for many great castles, churches and cathedrals. They physically dominated the countryside and, in the same way, they also imposed Norman culture. The Normans were the last to successfully invade the British Isles. As a result, it is their culture (with its Viking roots) that can be seen as underlaying British society to this day. In more recent centuries this underlaying culture has, to some extent, permeated out into the diverse English-speaking countries of the world. Viking customers, being predominantly English speaking, can claim to share a degree of cultural heritage that flows back (via colonial Britain and ninth century Normandy) to the Vikings. It is also worth noting that the word Viking originally meant a traveller. To quote from “The Conversation” website: “A víkingr was someone who went on expeditions, usually abroad, usually by sea, and usually in a group with other víkingar (the plural). Víkingr did not imply any particular ethnicity and it was a fairly neutral term, which could be used of one’s own group or another group.” Whether our home is in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK or the USA, the Bayeux tapestry is a reminder that we share a common Viking cultural ancestry. Whenever we are on a Viking ship, we are all Vikings!

The new Elizabeth Line is real game changer for the transport options to and from Heathrow. So it should be after taking 13 years to build at a cost of well over $20 billion. By following the excellent route description by @Island2Dweller I don't think you would have to walk much further with your bags on the way to Greenwich than you do when you go through many of the large international airports. Another change is that the old Oyster card is now redundant as far as visitors are concerned. It is much easier to use contactless bank/credit cards or phone payment at the barriers. The system is also clever enough to calculate and charge the minimum rate that is appropriate for any journeys on a particular day. Addison Lee is certainly the company that the VIPs use and, if you are lucky, might get you to the ship in about the same time. But do be aware that London traffic can cause considerable delays in that road journey from one side of the city to the other. It may sometimes be faster to take the 69 mile trip round the M25 Orbital Road rather than going 23 miles straight through central London! A search on Google Maps shows Heathrow to Cutty Sark as taking anywhere between 1 hour 15min, and 2 hours 30 minutes by car. On the other hand travelling on the Elizabeth line is shown as a reliable 1 hour 11 minutes.

You might both like to visit the virtual explorers lounge thread. You are welcome to chat as much as you like in there with free virtual bar and lovely views out over the location of your choice 😁

Alcohol free beer is certainly available, Heineken Zero, if I remember correctly. It is free of charge during lunch and dinner meal hours.

My point exactly 😁

Another option might be the private room at each of the specialty restaurants, which are available free of charge. I believe these seat up to 12 or 14. Your party might be slightly on the small side, but there is no harm in asking in case no one else has them booked.

I would agree with others that this is an extremely easy excursion to arrange for yourself, as we did. The funicular station is a short walk from the ship and one-way tickets can be purchased online to avoid queues. As well as the cost saving, a big advantage of doing this on your own is that you can judge the weather on the day. As well as the frequent rain the top could be in fog or cloud. If so you can easily change your schedule depending on the forecast for the day, or even decide to do something else instead.

You are most welcome!! I'm really glad it has worked in the way that I hoped - as a place for chats of all sorts, just like its real world counterpart. I may not have contributed much myself, but I still enjoy sitting quietly here in the corner and eavesdropping over my Maker's Mark old-fashioned. 🥃 Skål 🙂

That's what I was hoping to hear. Thank you 🙂

We have OBC which is valid for excursions and I believe that this will automatically be applied to the optional excursions we select on MVJ. I just wonder how this works in practice? Once the excursion is in our cart is there a further step required to apply the OBC? If the excursion cost is higher than the OBC remaining, does a option to top up with cash appear? We've never had the benefit of this sort of OBC before, but know the importance of completing the payment process promptly, so detailed guidance would be appreciated 🙂

Thanks for the suggestion Andy. Unfortunately, my vaccination was for a business trip and so done through a private clinic rather than the NHS. I think that's why I have not managed to locate it on my NHS health record, which I do have access to online.

That's reassuring, thank you 👍🙂

Thanks for that very quick response and the up-to-date information.That was very much what I was hoping to hear 🙂 I see that @shipboy is, like us, in the UK and it would also be interesting to know from them if Viking UK included the requirement in any of their documentation.

Thanks for that info on Mindelo My understanding is that yellow fever vaccination is required when travelling between Brazil and Cape Verde. Did Viking point this out to you? I had a yellow fever vaccination back in the 1980s, but lost the certificate years ago and don't have the details required to get it replaced. DW has not been vaccinated and is not keen as the risk of side-effects goes up steeply with age. We are looking to get exemption certificates which, apparently, may or may not be accepted by the port authorities. This is why I was wondering if Viking flagged up the issue ahead of the trip?

Firstly, thanks to @JWY5119 for starting the thread, and all who have posted - I've learnt a lot! I can certainly understand you being somewhat upset. However, if that is the case in general on back-to-back cruises, I must admit that it would be the other side of the coin for me and maybe work to my advantage. in my case the whole trip appears as a single voyage on MVJ and only one date is shown regarding the opening of excursion availability. So can I ask if it is normal for booking excursions on the second cruise of a back-to-back to open when the first does?............ @Peregrina651???????? 🙂

My sentiments exactly. Fraudulently bringing a pet on board in the guise of a service animal is undoubtedly despicable. However, in practice, that really wouldn't matter at all to me provided the owner was required to stay with the animal at all times, and to control its behaviour in the same way that a genuine service animal user would naturally do. As you will have gathered from my previous posts, my real gripe with Viking is that they claim to have a policy about animal behaviour on the ships but for some reason are reluctant to publish it. I have requested a copy of the policy from customer services in the UK and will post the result once they have replied. Watch this space 🙂

That is true, and as it should be. However, unlike some other cruise lines, Viking do not seem to have published their policies detailing what behaviour they consider inappropriate or unacceptable for service animals. I did ask where these might be found on post 234 but no answer has been forthcoming so far. It does not seem unreasonable for customers to wish move away from a cruse line where they have no idea to what extent the company mandates how a service animal will be expected to behave, towards one who has clear published guidelines. Unfortunately, the behaviour of the passengers on any alternative cruise line would still remain to be seen 😉

That sounds like a great alternative to Dakar. I know that the last two BA to Barcelona crossings have skipped Senegal and I really hope 2024 is no different. Having made a couple of working visits to West Africa, it is not on my list of vacation hotspots. In fact DW and I have already decided not to leave the ship, though I am pleased to hear that @Kentishincanada had a good visit to that wildlife reserve. In my experience East Africa is fine, West Africa much less so.

Thanks very much indeed @TayanaLorna That was exactly the information I was looking for. From what I've read the area immediately around the port in BA is not particularly safe. Although the distance into the centre of town is relatively short, I understand that walking there from the port terminal is not recommended. It was kind of you to look up the relevant daily. I know there is at least one other reader of this thread doing a back to back. Therefore I hope the OP will forgive me hijacking it slightly to ask if there were other ports on the South America and Chilean Fjords itinerary where buses to the town centre were provided?

Thanks for the quick reply, @TayanaLorna Did you happen to notice if there was a Viking shuttle to the town centre, and if so, where did it stop?

It would be good to have some up to date information. However, I expect those on the current cruise would have been busy packing and preparing to leave the ship at the time you posted. They are most likely travelling at the moment. Maybe better to "bump up" the post again in a few weeks once they are settled back home. However, if anyone from previous years would like to comment in the meantime, that would be helpful. I have read elsewhere on CC that Buena Aires port is not the best and so specific experiences from Viking passengers would be welcome.

Understood. My question to Viking was in relation to the last two sentences on the FAQ. These infer that Viking already had policies relating to the "improper behaviour" of animals on their ships and that these have now been updated in the light of recent reports. I believe it is important that Viking should make their policies in this area public for two reasons: 1/ The information that there are specific behavioural guidelines for animals on board, which owners will have to ensure are followed (ideally with the potential penalty of removal from the ship) may well act as a deterrent to those considering making a bogus claim about the status of their pet. This would not impact on genuine service animal users, who already take the necessary steps to make sure their animals behave appropriately. 2/ The publication of the policies would inform all customers of the required behaviour of animals on board, both genuine and bogus. This would provide reassurance in advance of booking cruises that the experience is unlikely to be spoilt by the owners of badly behaved pets. It would also give guidance, once on the ship, regarding what "improper behaviours" could reasonably be brought to the attention of the staff.

I really appreciate you stepping in to provide some definitive information on what is obviously a sensitive and contentious issue. Might I ask if these policies are publicly available and if so where they might be found?

That makes sense. Thank you for the prompt clarification. Sadly I fear you might be correct and it seems there is little that can be done to sanction those who choose to abuse the system. The only hope we have is that Viking will very strictly enforce restrictions that would be reasonable for a genuine service animal, such as keeping them off furniture and banning them from being fed in restaurants.

I very much respect your knowledgeable contributions and would appreciate it if you could put what you say in this quote within the context of Viking's statement that "Guests who request a service animal must provide appropriate documentation to support the request." Are you saying that it would be illegal for Viking to require "appropriate documentation" as they suggest?