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I am really sorry that you are having to deal with this and very much appreciate that @florafun and yourself have brought this issue to everyones attention. If I was in your position my next step would be to email the ship (as I recall, the address is in the dailies, or you can get it from guest services) and title the message "For the attention of the General Manager" You could CC the message to the Tellus address too. You don't want to be wasting too much of your time when you're supposed to be enjoying your vacation, and could maybe speed things up by cutting and pasting some of your posts to this board into the message? However by stating the problem in writing in this way, you have a record to show exactly what you brought to the manager's attention and that, apparently, no significant action was taken as a result. It will also be a matter of record as to whether the GM takes the trouble to respond promptly to your email.....or not! Despite all this, I very much hope that you have an otherwise enjoyable cruise.

Just read on the rollcall for the current TA on the Jupiter (post dated 22 March) that the deck outside of the Explorers Lounge has been “permanently closed.” There is the suggestion that this might be connected with an “incident” of some sort, possibly on another ship. Hopefully this is just miscommunication and limited to the Jupiter because of some special condition, but it would be interesting to know if this limitation has been imposed (temporarily?) on other ships too?

Fortunately not yet on longhaul though, just copied this from Lufthansa.com: “On intercontinental flights as well as on continental feeder flights, advance seat reservation is free of charge for passengers in Business and First Class.”

Air France/ KLM just announced that they will be introducing charges for seat assignment in business class 😠 While it doesn't include flights to from the USA (at the moment!) this may well be the opening of the thin end of the wedge that BA pioneered. I would imagine that Iberia and Aer Lingus will follow shortly. It will be interesting to see if the charge applies to seats bought on the Viking contract?

I think that we have found a solution that works perfectly, at least for us, here in the UK. When looking at cruises we initially talk to the Viking agents to check what deals maybe available, to work out the details and select a particular cabin. All the Viking agents I have spoken to are perfectly happy to then contact our TA to pass on the arrangements we have agreed, including any promotions. Our TA then comes back to us with their "improved" deal. If we decide to go ahead our TA takes payment and confirms the booking. If it is possible to operate in the same way in the USA, particularly if you work with a Viking agent that you've built up a good relationship with (as mentioned in previous posts) this would seem to be the ideal solution. It gives access to both the expertise and experience of the Viking agents and the cost saving (as well as other benefits previously mentioned) of using a good TA - Best of both worlds!

We now always choose that area of the ship, by the forward stairwell. However, we have decided that we prefer DV6 cabins on deck 3. Admittedly they are 2 decks (or about 30 seconds by stairs or lift) further from the Explorer's lounge than those on deck 5. But, by the same token, they are closer to all the restaurants and public areas in the lower part of the ship. More significantly, they are that much closer to the gangway when we return after a long day 😴😴 I would also add marginally less "rock and roll" on the lower decks and the small cost saving over the higher DV categories is no bad thing either!

I did mention that earlier but, having now investigated Iberia and Aer Lingus, find it is just a BA thing. Interesting that it does not seem to apply to some cruise contract tickets. Maybe one of the few advantages to booking BA tickets through Viking? BTW thanks for chipping in FlyerTalk, I am a fan of your excellent posts and way of "telling it like it is" 🙂👍

I think it's fair to say that it is no longer ideal to visit Venice as part of a cruise, if it ever was? The local authorities have imposed restrictions, which apply to all cruise lines, forcing them to berth a considerable distance from the city. The solution Viking have adopted so far is to dock at the small town of Chioggia which, though some distance away, is still within the Venetian lagoon. This allows them the option of running excursions using tour boats rather than buses to transport groups into the city. IMO this is a more pleasant form of transport and we thoroughly enjoyed our journey from the ship into the city, with the benefit of seeing the villages and day-to-day life of the lagoon along the way. That said we only had a few hours in Venice itself and considered it just a taster for a future visit. The small town of Chioggia looked to be pleasant and interesting in its own right although, in our case with only a day and a half in the area, we did not have chance to explore it even though it was just a short walk from the ship.

Hello Tom, On embarkation day there will normally be someone at the maitre d's desk at the entrance to Chef's table (Deck 1, one port side, aft) who will arrange bookings for both of the specialty restaurants. There is also a reception desk for these restaurants as you enter the port side of World Café (Deck 7 aft) This is also normally also staffed during breakfast and lunchtime hours, at least for the first few days of the voyage. Almost forgot........ You might want to start with the The Voyager app. You should install this on your device before leaving home and can activate it once you are connected to the ships Wi-Fi. However, if there are any complications and you want to talk to a real person, you'll find them in the locations given above. 🙂 Have a wonderful trip to the Viking Ocean!

Agreed, I like to be right but I am always happy to learn too. 👨‍🎓 These boards are great sources of information and I'm gradually getting used to the fact that one's relationship with airlines through cruise contracts is very different from when dealing with them direct. As in the example below. That is really helpful to know. I have always sorted seat allocation for myself and would never of thought to ask my travel agent. Something to try in the future 👍

Hi Clay, Having not flown with them, I initially took valparis at their word when they said that Iberia made the charge for BC seat assignments. Your post prompted me to doublecheck. In fact, advance seat selection is included in the fare as evidenced by the screenshot below from the Iberia website. This allows me to maintain that BA is the only major airline to charge for seat assignments in business class. I hope valparis will forgive me for making this correction, I do like to be right 😁

Great to hear that the agent was straight with you. You've certainly done the right thing to get a placeholder on those seats. It's just that I never feel completely comfortable until the ticketing has been actioned. Even then, of course, equipment changes and so on can throw a spanner 🔧in the works, Fortunately the vast majority of time everything is fine, thank goodness, so have a great trip to the Mekong!

Sorry missed them, not having flown with Iberia.... I did stand to be corrected 😁 I'm not surprised though as Iberia are owned by IAG, just like BA. To their credit Aer Lingus (who are also part of the IAG group) did not charge for assignments in business last time I used them though that might have changed. Generally though, I do think it is valid to reassure US customers that free seat selection for business class passengers is generally standard practice in the industry worldwide and that (IAG aside) airlines that dare to make this charge are still very few and far between.

We did this last September and can only give it 5 out of 10 The main issue was that the description suggested we would take the river cruise first, followed by the walking tour. Our plan was then to stay on in Split to explore further our own. In the event we got a rather truncated walking tour first, followed by the river cruise. The river cruise was okay, but used boats with rather noisy outboard motors. After a reasonable snack at a riverside restaurant we were then returned directly to the ship as traffic congestion prevented us from being dropped off in Split. This meant retracing our steps for 15 to 20 minutes back along the road into town that the bus has just driven down. As we still had a QuietVox units with us we "tagged-on" to one of the included walking tours that we came across. This guide turned out to be excellent (and was tipped accordingly!) We saw and learnt much more about the town from him than we had done on the walking part of the paid for tour. Bottom Line....... We found Split to be a fascinating and photogenic town in its own right. Unless you have a strong reason to do otherwise, I would suggest taking the included walking tour, and then exploring further at your own pace before returning to the ship.

Do be aware that those assignments are almost certainly provisional and (despite showing as selected for you on the airline's website) will not be fully confirmed by the airline until the flight has been paid for and ticketed.

I would agree with that. It might be worth adding that the cruise does need to be paid for in full before Viking will ticket flights.

I stand to be corrected, but in my experience it's only British Airways who have the audacity to charge their business class customers for advance seat assignment. Just one of a number of reasons that I avoid them where possible.

We used the bus from the airport into Bergen and thought it was a good option. For your reverse trip the nearest stop to the port is Dreggsallmenningen flybusstopp. If you put that into Google Maps, it should show you the exact spot. As I recall, it was right outside Raddison blu hotel and you could wait under the hotel porch if raining. However, I notice from street view that there are some covered bus stops a few yards away on The Bryggen and it might stop there. A quick email to the Raddison blu would get you the exact location, I'm sure. In any case, both places are about 10 minutes walk from the cruise port. You can buy tickets on the bus or online for a reduced rate https://www.flybussen.no/en/airports/bergen-airport-flybussen-bergen/

It was only after posting that it occurred to me that I do have a parallel but, in my case, I find I am more easily distracted by what I can see than by what I hear. This is most likely related to my career in the visual arts. I could say how I feel about what some people wear around the ship, but that would be a whole other thread........ 😁

I have sympathy for your sensitivity though I'm fortunate in that I don't suffer in that way. I've spent many hours in the area of Mamsens and The Explorers Lounge but, try as I might, I really can't recall what background music was being played. I am sure there was background music but, in contrast to your strong reaction, it did not register with me in the slightest. In the same way, I don't remember if there was normally background music in The Wintergarden, however that might make a good location for the sort of quiet area you suggest? At least Viking is generally free of tannoy announcements and the sound of screaming children 😱

As it happens, I was on the Viking Octantis when Tor made that statement about future ships, though sadly not a part of the media group to whom he was speaking. While the announcement confirms that the new ships "will" run on hydrogen, it does not say that it will be the sole fuel used or even that the ships will be capable of operating on hydrogen from launch. Given the excellent information in the articles that Chengkp75 and Jim found for us, it seems very unlikely that all the engineering solutions will be in place by the time 11 and 12 go into service. I strongly suspect that these hulls have been designed to allow installation of hydrogen power at some point further down the line. You may well be right, although I don't think they will be used exclusively in those areas. Even when hydrogen power is introduced it is almost certain that the ships will use conventional fuels for much of the time with hydrogen reserved for sensitive areas and, perhaps, transition in and out of port. As a Norwegian flag carrier this move by Viking can be seen within the context of the Norwegian government's interest in the low emission production and use of hydrogen. https://www.regjeringen.no/contentassets/8ffd54808d7e42e8bce81340b13b6b7d/hydrogenstrategien-engelsk.pdf It is even possible that Viking may have accessed some governmental funds to help the move towards hydrogen propulsion for their ships. However it has come about, I think it is to Viking's great credit that they are taking an active part in exploring novel power systems. While it will certainly take some time to put solutions in place , there is a clear need to work on reducing the environmental impact of the cruises that we enjoy so much. It is nice to know that even a small part of my "cruise dollar" is being invested in a cleaner future. A big thank you to voyager23 for pointing us in the direction of that cruise critic article, which had somehow passed me by.

Thanks for the extra information, now I know that date I might be able to throw a little light on your experience. We were on the Viking Sea a few weeks before you and, like yourselves, had only been able to book shared tables pre-cruise. So I took the opportunity to sit down with the ship's overall restaurant manager to talk about the issue. It may seem hard to believe, but from his reaction I am absolutely convinced that he had no idea that the on-shore operation was encouraging people to accept shared tables when they really wanted tables for two. He seemed genuinely shocked that was happening. I also took the opportunity to ask him about something that had really puzzled me. What possible advantage Viking was gaining by putting people on shared tables? He had no clue either! He suggested that the explanation for the problems most likely stemmed from issues within the "My Viking Journey" portal (MVJ) and the systems used by on-shore agents. These are different to those used by the ships and there have been ongoing difficulties with the way they interface. He was open about the fact that obviously, and inevitably, the finite space within the specialist restaurants means that they may well be fully booked in the earlier part of the evening. However, he also confirmed that there is almost always availability later, say after 8 pm. The problem seems to be that MVJ has not been making that later evening inventory available, thus requiring passengers to make these reservations once on board the ship. That fits with my experience and that of others. I have consistently been able to get acceptable reservations in the specialist restaurants once on board. My gripe with Viking has always been that they continued to promote pre-boarding restaurant booking as being a cabin benefit in DV, sending out emails and so on encouraging us to book, even during the time that it was completely unavailable because of some glitch or gremlin in their system. It is very heartening to hear that you were proactively moved to a table for two and (while I can't necessarily take credit) does suggest that action was taken, at least on the Viking Sea, following my conversation. Thanks for this Pushka and to Melsmom47 for the screenshots of the new look MVJ booking page. It seems as though Viking might finally be getting their act together again, not a moment too soon!

Of the places you list, the included tours in Monte Carlo, Corfu and Split are ones that we recall as being some of the best we've done. They were mostly, if not completely, walking tours which generally seem to be better than the "panoramic" drive-bys. There is also a degree of luck involved as the tour guide can make a great deal of difference to one's enjoyment. However, we have never had a really bad guide with Viking and some have been brilliant. The three places I mention also have direct walking access from the ship into the historic centre so with a bit of research on the web, you can create your own excursions. For instance, I made our own arrangements to visit the Motor Museum in Monte Carlo at the end of the included walking tour. Although both the included and paid for excursions can be good, we find it is nice to break up the trip by doing our own thing from time to time. As you say you are quite mobile, you might want to do as we did in Dubrovnik and avoid the excursions altogether. We left the ship as soon as the gangway opened and took a 45 minute walk from the cruise port to the old town rather than waiting for the first shuttle bus to depart. We had purchased tickets to walk the walls online in advance. Though the city was already busy in the morning, we enjoyed exploring it at our own pace and got the free Viking shuttle back to the ship about lunchtime by which time the place was becoming really packed. I feel sure you will enjoy the Viking experience and I think the itinerary you have chosen is a great introduction to southern Europe. It seems people rarely do just one Viking cruise so, hopefully, next time you will come and visit us in the northern part of the continent 🙂

Could I check what cabin category you are in? The shared table issue has only ever affected those in DV cabins. If you are in a DV, that would certainly be good news.

That certainly is interesting, would you mind me asking exactly when that was?