BlairsvilleCruiseGirl

16 hours ago, PasadenaDave said:

Scenic bus ride in Kotor to Citinge (spelling not accurate) takes you up switchback road to see rural Montenegro and a village and museum was one of the best excursions between Istanbul and Venice

We did that tour in June and loved it.  The little town is Cetinje (we were there on a Sunday and it was quiet, but beautiful to stroll around).

Remember to bring a driver's license with you if you're planning any excursions that require self-driving, e.g. 4x4 Jeep in Corfu.  We had to bring our driver's license down to the customer service desk the day before the tour and also bring it on the tour (or at least the person driving had to have it)

On 7/13/2023 at 3:51 AM, SJD117 said:

We’re on our way to Longyearben, about to pass Bear Island (the southernmost island in the Svalbard archipelago). The temperature has dropped like a rock — 77 degrees F yesterday, the low 40s and misty today. Brrrrrr! Perfect weather, though, for the Saturn’s Blue Nose ceremony in about an hour. Linda assures me that she will jump in the ice-cold water with no hesitation.😁

I'm curious if you did the Blue Nose ceremony, and if you did, did you have to kiss a fish?  LOL, I know that sounds funny, but I've seen YouTube videos of the ceremony with no fish involved, but also have read blogs where people said they had to kiss a fish!  🐟

I had a Veggie Burger on the Viking Sea last month.  First bite and the "burger" smooshed into a weird pasty consistency.  Anything would be an improvement!

20 hours ago, HDS said:

Any age limit for the driver?  Upper limit that is?  

Not that I know of.  They just sent a notice to the cabin telling us to bring our driver's license to the customer service desk, where they took a copy. The vehicles were from a rental car company, and when we got there, they had the drivers sign a simple rental agreement.  Not sure who the "leader" was with, maybe the rental agency?  She would zip off, and end up losing half the following vehicles because they had to stop for a light or a pedestrian.  At one point, over half the group was left in this little town, waiting for a person to cross the street.  When we finally got going, no sign of the lead.  Made a couple of wrong turns, finally chose a route that we figured might take us down mountain and in the general direction of the coast.  She came back, looking for us.  Happened a couple of times - we started laughing about it, Lost in Corfu!  Enjoying the adventure.  But seriously, they needed a sweeper/chase car to keep us together.

Just got off this extension and wanted to update the forum in case anyone came searching in the future.  Based on our experience, I wouldn't recommend it.  We found out when we got our final documents that they changed the hotels from the ones advertised to ones which were miles outside of Como and Verona.  This meant we had to be bused to/from the towns and tours, eating into our exploration time. 

The food was not good, it was served banquet style/plated for all 3 dinners and the lunch.  There were no options - you got what they put in front of you.  Vegetarians had mixed responses to "I don't eat meat."  Sometimes they were given just a simple salad (dinner in Verona), other times they got a better meal then we did (lunch in Verona)!  The first night's dinner was in a restaurant on the water in Como, but in this small room, with no view of anything.  The second- and third-nights' dinners were in the hotels' restaurants.  The hotel in Como's dinner was fish, but not very tasty (the table next to us bailed out about halfway through dinner and went down the street to a pizzeria!), the hotel in Verona served "Grilled Beef Tartare" .... yes, Beef Tartare is supposed to be raw, but this was a very thin slice of way overcooked beef.  Dessert was "Chocolate Mousse Cake" but was actually a very dry chocolate muffin.  I'm going to guess there were translation issues?  But that didn't excuse the quality of the food.  

It was especially frustrating that the hotels that were advertised on Viking's website were right in the middle of Como and Verona and we walked past them on the way to/from where we had to meet the bus.  

The positive was the day we took a boat tour of Lake Como, had free time in Bellagio and Como - that was great.  However, the "cooking demonstration" was in the hotel ballroom. An Italian-speaking chef stood up front, using a pasta rolling machine to make sheets of pasta and stamp out ravioli.  A few people "assisted" but, since the chef only spoke Italian, our Viking rep had to try to translate what was going on.  I felt sorry for the chef - he lost most of his audience half-way through, chatting amongst themselves, playing on their phones... to be honest, the Proseco they served was the highlight!

Yes, we all mentioned these issues to our Viking rep who encouraged us to write it up when we got the review form on the bus from Verona to the port.  Hopefully, it will be addressed for future cruisers!

Just wanted to update this thread in case anyone is looking for info in the future.  Just got off the Viking Sea and the Corfu 4x4 tour was a lot of fun.  They used beat up little Suzuki Samurai's, but only 2 per vehicle - there really wouldn't be room for 4 per vehicle, especially considering the rear window was folded down into the back.  Be sure you can REALLY drive a stick shift as you're going up and down a lot of mountains, frequently starting and stopping while at a steep incline.  So if you learned to drive a stick in flat terrain, you might have some trouble when you're trying to start your vehicle on a narrow road, with just a couple of feet of clearance in front and behind!

On 3/4/2023 at 11:41 AM, oskidunker said:

Excellent site! A few questions. How was the included wine? Do the have Sommeliers? 
 

i seeRack of  Lamb only in the specialty restaurant , right?

 

How was the Lobster? Can you order two entrees? Looks like the night of the Lobster is also Prime Rib.

 

 Whats the best entree on the cruise and what would you avoid?

 

is Manfredis worth it or would you stay in the dining room?

Just got off the Viking Sea/Empires of the Med and towards the end of the cruise, the Restaurant had Lobster Thermador and Prime Rib on the menu.  However, the World Cafe had Lobster Vol au Vent on their menu, but ended up also grilling lobster tails and filet mignon al fresco (of course, they would do it inside if it was bad weather).  So be sure to check the Daily for both restaurants and maybe ask the chef in the World Cafe if they're going to be doing lobster tails too.  No limit - we saw one man get 4 tails!

On 6/1/2023 at 11:18 AM, CILCIANRQTS said:

And you can make special requests - I ask for shrimp, oil and garlic and linguini. Yum!

Just got off the Viking Sea and Manfredi's has a couple of new menu items, including Cappellini e Scampi Avvolti Nelle Zucchine: Tiger shrimp wrapped in a little see-through strip of zucchini in a lemon sauce over angel hair pasta.  It was REALLY good!  Definitely would get it again.

We loved this tour (August 2021).  Yes, long bus ride but beautiful scenery.  And we really enjoyed the zodiac ride into the glacier lagoon.  Here's a picture of the coat they provide (the rain pants were our own and since it had drizzled before we got there, I was glad to have them on when I got into the damp boat) and the shoreline you have to walk down to.  And as others have said, the lunch is good, tomato soup and fish, which is what we had at another port tour.

And in case no one has warned you, if you go to Iceland in the summer, be sure to buy a face net.  We could have auctioned ours off for big bucks when we went inland during our Akureyri port call!

5 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

We in the US used to call them thongs also.  When did we switch to flip flops?  The Jimmy Buffet song? Blew out my flip flop.  Stepped on a pop top.  Thong just wouldn't work.

Born and raised in Miami, Florida and we always called them Zoris (pronounced Zorees).  Never called them Flip Flops until after I heard the Jimmy Buffet song (but could totally relate to the "blew out a flip flop" line because we were always pulling the toe post out of the bottom!).   And thongs were what late-teen/20-somethings wore to the beach or on a boat to get an almost-all-over-tan!

We stayed for 5 nights pre-cruise in 2019 at the M-Social and loved it.  Front Desk and Concierge staff were great (Concierge helped us book a tour to Piha Beach - beautiful!).  Location could not be beat - you're right on the waterfront, walking distance to many restaurants and the ferry docks are right down the street (take the ferry over to Waiheke Island or over to Devonport).  We were on a Celebrity cruise, but I think most cruise ships dock in the same area, which is right across the street from the M - took us 5 minutes to walk!

And if I recall, the bathrooms have blinds that pull down and a pocket door.  But that was 3+ years ago so I may not be remembering correctly!   🙃

You made me look!  We're 58 days out and my Daily calendar view shows tours and dining reservations, but only shows Arrival/Departure times if I have a tour booked.  My Summary shows tours and dining but Arrival/Departure is inconsistent, i.e. It's showing Arr/Dep for Koper and Dubrovnik, but not Zadar or Corfu (both of which I have tours booked). 🤷‍♀️  Viking really needs to work on their website!

Keep in mind that (legit) service dogs aren't always big dogs.  My friend has a service dog for her epilepsy and he's a poodle!  He's such an amazing dog - I watched when he "alerted" one day and my friend sat right down on the ground, the dog came over to her to offer comfort, at the same time gave me a little bark (I'm guessing he was saying "HEY!  Help needed here!") and sat right with her while she had a seizure.   But whenever we're out in public, the dog is wearing his official "vest."

4 minutes ago, PRH said:

Not jeeps but stick shift.  4 per vehicle.

How did they determine who drove?  I know DH would not be happy in the back seat! 

1 hour ago, PRH said:

Yes, we did this one.  Lots of hairpin turns going up, stop in. Small village for food and drink then down to another place for coffee & dessert (which had to be paid for separately—no one was info’s this beforehand) and then back to the port.  A great way to see the island and terrain.  Not for faint hearted drivers!

Thanks PRH!  Were these Jeeps or Subarus?  And were there 2 or 4 people per vehicle?  

If we have the ship do our laundry, can we request cold water wash/low temp dry?  Or should we just assume everything we put in the laundry bag is going to be washed in one load with warm water/high heat dry? 

Has anyone done the 4x4 "Jeep" excursion in Corfu?  If so, did you like it?  Were there 2 or 4 people per "Jeep"?  We want to do this on our Empires of the Med cruise, but my husband is hesitant as he doesn't want to get stuck in the back seat (we've had Jeeps for 30 years and definitely want to be in the driver's seat)!

I've checked both this forum and the general Greece excursion forum but no luck on finding out more info.  Thanks!

On 3/9/2023 at 3:57 PM, lackcreativity said:

This was our first ocean cruise, and we were thrilled with our choice of Viking and this itinerary in particular. 

 

If your physical capabilities allow, then the hike up to the Acropolis and all of Dubrovnik (especially the walk around the medieval walls) are must sees in my opinion. I only walked half way around the wall in Dubrovnik, and then met my husband back down below because the many many stairs are challenging, but so worth it in my opinion. 

 

Santorini remains one of my favorite all time places, which was aided by our early spring visit when the Star was the only ship in port. A few places weren't even open for the season yet, and some shopkeepers were still doing their spring housecleaning, but having the place pretty much to ourselves was magical. 

 

Koper Slovenia was a difficult choice, because I wanted to go on two different excursions which was not possible. I still would like to see Ljubljana, but we really enjoyed Predjama Castle and Postojna Caves. I am a castle fanatic, and that one was really unusual. 

 

I am hopeful you enjoy this cruise as much as we did!

While we're anchored in Santorini, there are going to be 5 other cruise ships there, so really not looking forward to trying to maneuver ashore!  

We're doing the Predjama Castle/Postojna Caves tour too - it says there is a meal but doesn't say where/when.  Where did you go?

To make it easier for someone to comment, the port calls are: Koper, Slovenia; Zadar, Croatia; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Kotor, Montenegro; Corfu (Kerkyra), Greece; Katakolon (Olympia), Greece; Santorini (Thira), Greece, and Athens (Piraeus), Greece.  

1 hour ago, hensus said:

What are some of your favorites? We usually plan way ahead…this time booked “last minute” on this great cruise in May.  Thanks in advance .for sharing.  

Are you on the May 31st sailing?  We've got a roll call on that.

6 hours ago, KBs mum said:

 

We agree about the food, it's the equivilent of a UK inexpensive chain pub, a fellow brit compared the buffet to school dinners (not helped by cold rice pudding, 'blanc manger' and the dreaded frogspawn appearing on the menu😝) An Australian opinion I heard would not be allowed by the board moderators😁

 

I've got to ask... what is frogspawn?   I'm thinking... "they served tadpoles?"  LOL!

4 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Tea for two is a LOT! 

Holy cow, that's a lot of food.  Can we ask for a half amount or something?

14 hours ago, jasardeax said:

Not sure where the schedule for the Port of Chioggia could be found online, if at all. 
Viking and Azamara are the only ocean cruise lines, that I am aware of, that are using Chioggia for their Venice alternative port. 
So if Azamara doesn’t have a ship in port the day the day you are embarking/disembarking, you will be the only ocean cruise ship there. 
There are also some river cruise ships that visit Chioggia. 

I found their website but they only have up to February posted: 

https://venezia.ilogis.it/riepiloghi/pages/riepilogoNavi/layout_riepilogoNavi.zul;jsessionid=FCB3E3FF00197775D05D6AA3DD1B74CB

16 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Magnets don't work in the bathroom.  I bring suction cups with hooks that work great on the mirrors and glass of the shower enclosure. Great for drying hand laundry and bathing suits. 

Does Viking usually have one of those retractable clothes lines in the shower?