CDNPolar

1 minute ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Did her husband offer to buy her an Asp instead?  🤣

Was not privy to the whole conversation....  haha

I believe that this is an issue for both River and Ocean cruisers that we will have to deal with as time marches on.  

I am most afraid of protesters that may in the future (as they have been known to do already) start to protest at cruise docks.

This could become like union strikes and trying to cross picket lines.

We love cruising but if this starts to happen we will rethink our travel strategy.

1 hour ago, Microman123 said:

I'm doing the Bergen to Barcelona Trade Routes cruise in September. I'm trying to decide side of ship cabin from a see the shoreline perspective. Any comments or suggestions from your recent trip to help me make that decision? Thanks!

Bergen to Barcelona you want to be on the left or Port side of the ship.  Moving south you will get most coastline views with the exception of Portsmouth and Flamouth.

This however never guarantees you a view of the port when you dock, just shoreline when sailing.

1 hour ago, island lady said:

I booked my second Viking cruise, but did not know at the time about the deferred final payment.  When I found out about, I asked to have it deferred and was told "Once you agree to the terms.....that's it"

 

Learned from that mistake, so while doing booking #3 I made sure they understood I wanted the deferred final...no problem, easily done.  

 

Indeed, if you don't ask....and even worse....if you don't know.  

This is a case of call back until you get someone that is "playing nice in the sandbox".

We have booked many cruises that we forgot to question the payment terms and then called back and Viking immediately changed our payment date.

Viking's issue of late is that the shore based services are not as up to par as the onboard crew and service.

We have found that one Viking Rep says NO and the next says YES.  

I would call complete BS on what you were told.  Viking need to be better at these things.

8 hours ago, sjde said:

CDNPolar-Viking was not my favorite river cruise lines so I am hesitant to take one of their ocean cruises.

 

 

Gotcha...

Our first Viking Cruise (of 10 now) was an Ocean cruise.  We fell in love with Viking from that cruise.  Our second Viking cruise was also Ocean.

We did not try Viking river until the third cruise.

The two "products" are so different yet similar but in very different ways.

If I could only go on one more cruise and you offered me ocean vs. river, I would choose Viking ocean.

Viking's river ships are very nice, and the river itineraries are more intimate and "inside" a country or region than the ocean itineraries are.

But, the Viking ocean ships have more space than passengers.  They are quiet and sedate and the experience is just so much more.  With specialty restaurants and entertainment and choice of lounges for a drink.  The Thermal Spa, the option of massages, etc.

To me you cannot compare Viking River to Ocean or in fact any River to Ocean cruise.  They are different.

I guess I would need to know what you did not like about your Viking River experience.

I have suggested to my husband magnetic hooks and he always looks at me and asks - when have we ever needed them, and that is just more junk to pack.

He is right - we have never had a need.  I read here and think wow, what a great idea which fuels a "want" without a "need".

I do understand why some would need them.

12 hours ago, Bobbi48128 said:

 Do people go one deck much during the crossing?  

Most cruises we "live" on deck.

We spent hours on deck in Antarctica every day.  We spend time on deck in rain, snow, and beautiful sun.  Now, with Antarctica there are icebergs and other beauty to see.  On the TA there is only water, but we will be on deck listening to music or reading.

This is one reason that we always have a secret stash of a down coat, or a wind/rain resistant jacket and a sweater.

We like the opportunity of a 360 degree view on deck - even if all you can see is water.

On our upcoming TA cruise, it is with Viking and we know their ships well.  There is always a corner of the upper deck you can snag a chair at that is wind protected.

11 hours ago, Kristelle said:

But surely everyone does this - we did a 14 night river cruise, surely nobody has 14 completely separate outfits.

 

We were on a Nile cruise and there was a woman on this cruise that was nicknamed Cleopatra and the reason was that everyone awaited every change she made during the day including the wide brimmed hats that she always had on.  Now I would say that we saw one or two hats more than once, but never the outfit twice.

On the Egyptian night she arrived at the lounge with the most beautiful "costume" of anyone on the ship - of course.

2 hours ago, Canal archive said:

I’ve heard that if you’ve got the cash you can do anything or if you have to ask you can’t afford it!

 

This woman apparently had the cash.  Never saw how much luggage she brought, but we were in a carpet store and she wanted to buy the $50K USD carpet but her husband refused her the opportunity.  

Thanks... 

We have worked it all out with the hotel - Taj Mahal Tower - and are now booked directly with them.

13 hours ago, mariners said:

 

 

I  For example, we have a hotel booked in Buenos Aires that we booked in CDN, that the invoice has in USD, and states the price we will have to pay in USD will be converted to ARS (local currency) at the "exchange rate on day of payment".  Because we know the amount that we will be paying in USD, we chose to book the hotel despite knowing that the CDN might be less (hopefully, not much less) when we are there.  We also know that we can cancel the booking and stay elsewhere if it becomes necessary for any reason.

 

 

Thank you for your information... here is something that saved us several hundreds of dollars.

Two years ago we were in Buenos Aires and we thought that we would be paying in USD and that is what we budgeted for.  This was the Sheraton.

We found out during our stay that the bill would be converted to ARS.

We were coached by a few friends that had been to Argentina more than once that we should get USD before leaving home and convert there to ARS.  We were instructed about the bank rate, the hotel rate and the blue rate.  

We were uncomfortable with going down the street somewhere for the blue rate, and found that the hotel rate was okay for us.  Better than the bank rate.

We underestimated the amount of USD that we needed to convert to ARS and ran out of cash.  We thought without doing our research that dining would be cheaper in Buenos Aires.

We did some investigating how to get more USD cash to buy ARS and this is what we found:

The Western Union rate of exchange for CDN money to ARS was better than the hotel rate that we had settled on.

AND, for us if we converted to USD then to ARS, we were actually paying much more than we thought in exchange.

The only problem is you must go to a Western Union outlet and the amounts of cash we were getting we felt like we were robbing a bank with the stacks of bills we were putting into our backpack.  We actually exchanged in the beginning only enough for a couple of days of restaurants, but then figured out that we would save a lot if we paid our hotel bill in ARS cash.

So in the end, we paid our hotel bill in ARS CASH, and we calculated that we saved over $300 by the time the credit card would have converted the amount to CDN at the rate that they used.

Just watched the videos on Apple News from the IPO on the floor of the Stock Exchange.  Interesting to follow the stock.  My FA advises not to purchase yet.  Let the stock settle first.

6 hours ago, Mountain Traveler said:

Another consideration ... with Viking Air Plus you can secure flights up to 310 days before departure.  For really, really long flights we have recently been upgrading to Business Class.  I do not want to wait until 120 days before the cruise to confirm flights and seats.  Often, the business class seats on the most desirable routes will be full by then.  Of course, once you have the flights and seats you want, you must ask Viking Air Plus to "ticket" the reservation so you lock in the choices.

Agree - we generally book 270-300 days out.

3 hours ago, kahuna21 said:

 Too good to be true. This offer must have been available only for future cruises with a higher required (non-refundable) deposit?

Nope... good on any cruise, even the $25 deposits....

Obviously Viking know that people maintain these bookings or they would not offer something like this.

I only wish that you could book onboard a River Cruise.  Maybe not a full-time Crew Member, but one of the Guest Services that supports onboard bookings.

2 hours ago, CurlerRob said:

It’s both true and good - assuming the new trip is under the $25 deposit offer (many are). For example, in Dec/23 we booked onboard for an Antarctic trip. $25 pp deposit, $100 pp OBC. 
 

in theory, you are liable for $100 pp if you cancel (std. terms), which would neutralize the gain, but it’s not likely worth Viking’s time to chase you for the delta if that happens. In reality, most people who book onboard intend to do the trip versus clipping a few bucks, and a live booking is always better than a “maybe later” one to the cruise line.🍺🥌

In my knowledge, Viking do not chase you for the full $100 per person, but you are liable based on the ticket contract.  

You never have to cancel Viking anyway before the final payment date, you can just move the reservation and deposit to another sailing and you even keep the same booking number.

15 minutes ago, jjunnila said:

Hi CDNPolar are you able to share those Canadian insurers? I am looking for exactly this, coverage for the voucher portion of the cruise. Thanks!!

I have never done it myself, but... these are ones that I searched one time and found...

Generali 

CLHIA

...and I believe that Manulife will also.

42 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Very true. I used to have my email in my signature until a troll decided to respond there instead of on the board. Definitely not pleasant.

Yeah - I created a specific CC gmail address and to date it has been clean, but if trolls take it up I just ignore...

31 minutes ago, Pushka said:

@CDNPolar - try Booking dot com. 

Thanks - never used this site before because I am not a fan of so called discount sites or aggregators.  I mention and use Expedia to find where I want to stay and then go direct with the hotel and generally get a better deal with the hotel.  I also have had a hard time in the past working through the discount/aggregator sites if we need to cancel or have a problem with the booking.

I did go and sigh up with booking.com but there is nothing on offer that gives breakfast included.  The cost adding the breakfast takes the price WAY above what Taj is offering on their website direct.  WAY above.

Thanks for the suggestion as it was worth the try.

5 hours ago, latebuyer said:

My sister had hers revoked for forgetting to declare beer that was in the car. She had hers reinstated but i’m not sure of timeline-maybe a year?

The key is to declare.

To me an often mis-understood part of bringing beer, wine, or spirits into Canada is "limits".  The limits that are imposed - such as One bottle of spirits of whatever size - is what you can bring in duty free.

Now perhaps I am completely wrong with this but when I arrive back to Pearson airport and go through the Nexus line, I am only declaring that I have nothing above my limit.  So if I only have one bottle of spirits and it's size meets the allowed volume, then I do not need to declare. 

My understanding is that I only need to make a declaration if for instance duty free have a sale and I decide to bring 3 bottles then I have to say that I am over my limit and declare the additional.

In my understanding there is no top limit to what I can bring in as long as I actually declare what is above my personal limit for the length of the trip and be ready to pay the duty.

So the question begs to be asked, did your sister have more than her allowance for beer in the car?

Please set me straight here if I am not understanding this, otherwise I have defrauded my declaration at the Nexus Kiosk and then face-to-face each time I have returned to Canada when I have been brining in what is in or under my limit.

17 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

 .One of the reasons for doing so was that they had a PM option.CC does not have that .If you desire to exchange e-mail addresses you have no choice but to have it be seen by anyone who may be lurking.I have posted my e-mail address and have not had a problem ,just lucky.

I know that CC can enable a messaging system and there are a few folks that I would love to be able to message directly, but I do understand the potential problems with messaging on a board like this.  The abuse can run wild for sure, and I know because I was a Moderator on a very large community board for many years, and the messaging was our biggest challenge.

With the intent of bringing this back on track.... All Viking Ocean ships are identical with the exception that some now have Planetariums on the upper deck of the Explorer Lounge.

We love the vibe of Viking from the decor to the crew, service, and the food.

This is true of Jupiter, Star, and Orion which we have already sailed and we will be sailing on Sea, Venus and Neptune soon.

11 hours ago, like2cruise33 said:

DO NOT TELL THE FASHION POLICE BUT ONCE ON A TOUR THAT INCLUDED DINNER ON Mackinac Island in the Grand Hotel, I did not realize that we had 2 dinners, I wore the exact same outfit for the 2 dinners!! and I got compliments on it. As long as you are decent, and clean, it should not matter. On a different cruise, some teenagers were barred from the dining room, but a gentleman wearing a Hawaiian shirt was allowed to be seated. The girls were dressed nicely but I guess not up to the guards standard - yet Hawaiian shirts are considered dressy??

The same outfit??? !!!  How dare you....

We typically dress fresh today before dinner in acceptable wear for the dining room - River or Ocean - and wear that on our excursions the next day.  

We generally take a couple of extra pieces of clothing that are a bit dressier for when we feel the urge, and these can be worn MORE THAN ONCE.  There, I admitted it.

We dress for our pleasure because it makes us feel good, and we don't care if someone is calling out that we wore that before... 

I love @Canal archive 's description of the fashion police.

On 4/28/2024 at 11:11 AM, mariners said:

We did a pre-cruise 4 night stay booked on our own.  We stayed at the Taj Mahal Tower in a Deluxe Sea View Room that overlooked the Gateway of India, and loved the hotel, location, the restaurants, and the service.  It all depends upon what you want to do, and how you want to do it while you are there as to whether it would be the right location for you.

9 hours ago, taiwan_girl said:

Second the recommendation of the Taj.  Staying in the old wing is a treat.  Oberoi is another very nice hotel in Mumbai.

3 minutes ago, Pushka said:

That is exactly what we did and like you paid for the room overlooking the Gateway. Fabulous location and excellent room. Swimming pool was beautiful. This was exactly, to the day, 12 months ago. And it was so much cheaper than booking with Viking. Taxi to port didn't cost much at all. 
 

Our view. The Pool. The Arcade. 

 

 

 

Thank you for all your comments.

We are looking at the Oberoi too...

The challenge we are having with the Taj Mahal Tower is online their reservations state that you can book and just "tokenize" your credit card and it is not charged until checkin, or no-show.  This is not working and they are trying to take full payment now for almost a year out, but suggesting that we can cancel and get the money back.

We are back and forth with the reservations department and they cannot seem to work it out.

Expedia have the hotel at a comparable cost to booking direct, but we want the breakfast included and WiFi included and Expedia is spotty when they are offering this as an upgrade option.  Some rooms have the upgrade options and some don't.

Anyway - your comments are great and I believe that Taj Mahal Tower is where we will end up...

19 hours ago, CannyScotTor said:

Interesting, we just booked flights for our September cruise. Viking proposed Toronto to Vienna on KLM via Amsterdam with a five hour layover. We preferred Air Canada nonstop, which cost us $600 pp extra.

We have not flown Toronto to Vienna, so don't know if we would have scored a non-stop or not.

This is our experience to date and most of the cruises we have taken have been direct non-stop flights, but there have also been flights that connected through Heathrow or Munich.

However, using Air Plus and researching our flights in advance, we do find that Viking always have contract rates with Air Canada, and then of course partner Lufthansa.  When we find direct flights with either of these we ask and generally get.

I would add that IMO Vienna is a less popular non-stop destination from Toronto and therefore may not have the same inventory of non-stop flights which then makes the connection a cheaper option and a contract option.

28 minutes ago, clo said:

I certainly don't know about other lines but the one we're currently using I have googled "*** sample menu" and found what I was looking for. 

This is Viking.  No chicken fingers 'cause there are no kids on a Viking cruise.  She can get a burger and fries at lunch, but don't know if they will accommodate her with a burger at dinner or not.

29 minutes ago, SelectSys said:

@Globaliser - I understand your point regarding quality of some PJs.  I guess when I find some handed by an airline that don't work for me I will pack my own for the future as I will for my upcoming BA flight.  

 

 

Good, I am happy that you found this thread interesting.  

 

I had never been offered PJs on any flight pre-COVID and I just returned to flying long haul until last year.  My thought was that the practice was more wide-spread now as part of the reduction in first class and the competition between carriers to sell their business class products.  

 

In terms of changing clothes, my wife is the master of changing in her seat - less than a minute.  It makes me wonder if she had a career on stage before we met.  On aircraft with suite doors changing in the seat can be pretty easy and fairly private when the lights are down low. 

 

We have also used the lavatory.  Some are definitely a bit cramped and although others are larger I have thought about germs.  I like Qatar in this regard as they tend to have disinfecting wipes in their lavatories which make it easy to wipe down surfaces before changing.

Yes, with suite doors, it would be easy to change at your seat....  never really thought of that.  Still however not every aircraft has suite doors.

6 hours ago, martincath said:

Even wider spread here - I applied last September, my wife didn't get around to hers until November, her card appeared in the mail this Jan without even getting an email that she'd been approved (same thing happened to me 5 years before), but my case hasn't progressed beyond Pending Review.

 

Technically my current card remains valid until this July so I'm not concerned yet, just growing more annoyed at the difference - especially given neither of us has traveled to the US or anywhere else without each other within the last 5 years; same age, same foreign country of birth, even identical Canadian citizenship date; aside from gender and appearance we're virtually identical in everything that we have to put on the renewal form!!!

My husband and I keep passports and Nexus cards with the same expiry - or used to.

We both applied at the same time.  He got approved online and the card arrived promptly in the mail.  I was called for interview that then got postponed for over two years because of Covid.