CDNPolar
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In my experience with Viking Ocean the night before disembarkation, there is no "special" dinner - it is just dinner as usual. Generally speaking there is a Captain's farewell in the Star Theatre but that is generally two nights before disembarkation. There is generally not a show on that last night either as you have to get your luggage in the hall by 9pm. If they had too much going on, then people would miss their luggage deadline. Personally, I would go ashore, find the Gothic Quarter in Barcelona and eat in a square there.
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Airfare paid by cruise line - your experiences
CDNPolar replied to skatie's topic in Canadian Cruisers
My experience with Viking Ocean and River is that we have done some cruises with Free Air. Viking offers Air Plus for $50 bucks per person, and you get to choose your airline, the schedule, upgrade if you want, and the seats. We research the airlines, and the schedules, call Viking and book our air. Yes, it is still free when you do this but you pay for any upgrade. The next free air that we got is to Bucharest and home from Budapest, and we upgraded to Premium Economy, and are paying $1,200 CAD per person which is equivalent to the upgrade cost if we were buying the tickets ourselves. -
Why are you not doing the upgrade on AC with Viking Air? Would this not guarantee you the class that you want? We have regularly upgraded to Premium or Business through Viking Air? Doing the upgrade with Viking Air gives you the upgrade, because I agree with other posters here, that upgrading after the fact may not be possible because of the original class booked. You may be out of luck.
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The lack of general announcements in the cabin has been a pet peeve of mine, because although we don't spend that much time in the cabin, the first morning announcement is often just before we leave the cabin, OR, it is when we are in the World Cafe and people are so boisterously noisy in the morning you cannot hear it. We just came off of another cruise line and we loved their system. You could hit a button on the phone in the cabin and all general announcements came through the speaker on the phone. They did have a set schedule of hours that this would happen, and I think that it was 8am to 8pm. If these hours did not suit you then you could toggle it on and off as you pleased. This was so helpful and welcome.
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Review of Cabin 5107 on Viking Sky Ocean Cruise Ship
CDNPolar replied to berryvillebomber's topic in Viking Ocean
DV3 5107 is a "standard" Viking cabin. It is the same size and layout as the majority of cabins on Viking, but you have earlier embarkation, dining reservations, etc., etc. As far as a review, I have been in this very cabin on all my Viking cruises but have never actually stayed in #5107 if that makes sense. This cabin is 270 sq ft and the identical layout and furniture to the cabins I have stayed in. Very comfortable. As for the pack lighter comment, we don't pack light and we have never been without enough space to fully unpack. Sometimes, what may normally go in a drawer may end up on a shelf, but for us it all fits. The only thing that I can review that is different is that you are right at the aft, so you will get more motion if you have rough seas, but other than that, it is like all other cabins, very comfortable. We prefer mid-ship to minimize motion, but some love to be aft and some love to be forward. -
port or starboard side of ship for 17 day Antartica?
CDNPolar replied to cccole's topic in Hurtigruten
Yes, there are only a few on each deck and just off the elevator lobby. We were very happy with ours as we have always had the traditional deep cabin, this was a nice change. -
Yes, check with the cruise line. We required a negative test for a cruise line on December 28th.
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port or starboard side of ship for 17 day Antartica?
CDNPolar replied to cccole's topic in Hurtigruten
We were on Port side and we had incredible views of everything from our cabin and balcony. We chose specifically cabin 829 because if you look at the deck plans this cabin is wide not deep. We had a balcony that was 12+ feet long. From my experience of just a few weeks ago, other than what AlanCruise says about watching the launch of zodiacs, you have an incredible view of the landscape, icebergs, and whales from whatever side you are on. We spent far more time on deck 11 and you can walk side to side to see all from up there. There was much more to being on the open deck than on the balcony. -
Not really as it is all about the time you have on the Continent. We had one hour on land - give or take - each landing. The snowshoeing seemed longer because there was equipment to get on and we had to wait for all to get the boots strapped in, but in the end we were only one hour on the trail. The kayaking also seemed longer because of the time to coach and then actually get in the kayaks, but all actual events once started are about an hour. The general landings when you are more or less walking/hiking without a guide, you could steal a few more minutes because it is honour system to get back to the landing site, but then you may prevent someone else from landing. You are told very clearly at each landing site when your feet hit the ground what time to be back there. The only extended thing is the camping, but I don't think you are hiking with this.
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Agree. Will be a cold day in hell before I would walk on Russian soil.
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Whatever happened to spontaneity in travel??
CDNPolar replied to CILCIANRQTS's topic in Viking Ocean
Agree with this piece... We just came off an Antarctica cruise - not with Viking - and the biggest part of this was that plans could change at anytime and they did. No research or planning would allow you to know that you were not going to get to this landing point today because weather threw those plans out the window so we are now landing here... We are planners in many ways, but we love the anticipation of the Chef's Table and we leave the knowledge of the menu until we sit down. We don't wan't to know in advance, and we have even said don't give us a menu and surprise us. This will likely get people riled up, but I think that many want to know too much that is really not that important. To me anyway. -
I have said this on other discussion threads. We book the lowest ocean category of cabin because for one, we don't ever intend to spend time in the cabin that we are not either showering or sleeping. What comes along with the lowest category of cabin is an absence of being able to book anything in advance in regard to restaurant reservations. We have NEVER had a problem booking the specialty restaurants after boarding and even on the next day. Pre-Covid or during Covid. The last cruise we were on had over 700 (I know not full) but we got Chef's Table 5 nights for each new menu at the time we wanted with no concerns. We got 3 Manfredi's nights as well at the time we wanted. There seems to be endless hype (sorry for the word) and worry about restaurant reservations in advance - same for excursions - that I wish that Viking would either build a better mousetrap or take away advance bookings so that everyone was on level ground on boarding the ship. This advance booking system seems to bring a lot of anxiety.
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We have air tags, but these won't stop a bag from disappearing but may help in retrieving it. We have traveled internationally through Pearson several times over the past 2 months. We see all the media scandal of what a mess Pearson is/was, but we have not experienced this at all. We have sailed smoothly through checkin, security, and boarding and had no issues. I am not saying that chaos has not happened, but I do believe the media grabs a picture of chaos and then it goes viral, but this is a moment in time. 3 times through Pearson in the last two months - round trips - and we saw none of this chaos. Pack necessary one or two days of clothes / shoes in your carry on. Be prepared for the worst.
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JUST FOUND THIS OUT ABOUT VIKING TRIPMATE INSURANCE
CDNPolar replied to Fieldofdreams's topic in Viking Ocean
Just goes to show that you must read and understand the policy in full. Never assume. -
JUST FOUND THIS OUT ABOUT VIKING TRIPMATE INSURANCE
CDNPolar replied to Fieldofdreams's topic in Viking Ocean
Just goes to show that you must read and understand the policy in full. Never assume. -
We have personally never done this, but my understanding is that when you decline Viking Air, there is then in the Air section of My Viking Journey a link to book transfers. You must be arriving and departing however the same schedule as if Viking Air were bringing you in which would mean that you arrive the day the cruise departs port (or starts) and you depart the last day when the ship docks. If I am correct with this, if you have a pre or post extension that you booked on your own, and not through Viking, you don't qualify for transfers.
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We had to wait for one smaller ship to leave the area at one landing point before we could land. There is a max number of people allowed on the continent at one time at any landing point, so if a ship is there you cannot start your landing. This is not per ship max, it is a max at that landing point. We passed and saw other ships, but there was never another ship landing at the same time, or kayaking in the same bay. My impression is that the ships book these landing points in advance and have to stick to their times otherwise it would always be chaos. We looked frequently on the cruise tracker and there were often 15+ ships on the vicinity map.
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How much of the included tips does the stateroom attendant get?
CDNPolar replied to jonthomas's topic in Viking Ocean
Very true, and I would never push this with crew... I would ask politely and offer them the option of not answering. -
How much of the included tips does the stateroom attendant get?
CDNPolar replied to jonthomas's topic in Viking Ocean
There seem to be a lot of opinions of how gratuities are distributed, and from an email inquiry that I just received a call back for this was Viking's response: All monies received in the gratuity program are distributed directly to all onboard staff as a bonus. No monies are put into enrichment programs or equipment for the staff - all is as a bonus. I asked if this was per cruise, or per contract and the response was: We don't have that information available to us. Any additional question that I asked such as % to different departments, the response was: We don't have that information available to us. We will ask crew that we get friendly with directly in future cruises. -
...should have mentioned Pergrina651 did, and that is that for purchasing transfers you must arrive when Viking would bring you in if you bought your air through Viking. Arriving early or late will not work. Oh, and the Viking Air that we are using in August is because the promotion was FREE AIR, and the cruise cost was not higher, so we would be foolish to book our own air. What we did was book Premium Economy and that ended up as a $1,299 CDN cost per person, but if we did that without the free air, it would have been a cost of about $3500 per person with PE.
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We have booked with Air Plus, with the TA and on our own. There are pros and cons to each. We don't find that the cost of Viking flights booked through Air Plus are more expensive. Before we make any decision on who to book air with we do a full analysis of airline, route, aircraft type, seating configuration, connection time, etc. We look at all that plus cost. We have done our pricing and then we will compare to Air Plus and we are talking "give or take" number of dollars difference. We would rather book our Air through Viking than through our TA because if that flight booking goes south for any reason, Viking Air Plus are on it - in our experience. If we book through the TA, then we have one more layer to deal with. We actually book more air direct ourselves now for more overall control. You will see many situations on CC where people are upset with Air Plus because of airline changes or schedule changes that were done without their knowledge. In reality - to us - this is not Viking but the airlines that are still impacting travel itineraries around the world without recourse. When you book on your own, you get the notification that something is changing and you get to deal with it over someone else just slamming you on another flight that you may or may not have wanted. We have a cruise in March that we booked our own air, and we have a Viking cruise in August that we are using Air Plus. So clearly we saw an advantage using Air Plus for the August one. Oh, and yes, the transfers are included, but you can purchase those through Viking if you book your air yourself. Even if the air with Viking were a few dollars extra, the convenience of landing and finding the Viking rep and handing over your luggage is much simpler than finding your own transport.
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$25 deposit doesn't mean $25 cancellation. Correct?
CDNPolar replied to dcsam's topic in Viking Ocean
"Cancelation" fees don't kick in until 120 days before the cruise date and you would have also paid in full at that time. (This for Canadian and USA bookings) If you are cancelling before that they can only take the deposit, but you always have the option with Viking to "revise" the booking to a different date or itinerary and not lose anything. -
STOP STOP - no, do not book a flight that early back to Canada. I believe that the Hurtigruten information states to not have a connecting flight in BA before 9:30pm the same day. The first flight - of three - that we were on did not leave Ushuaia until 12:30pm and these small charter airlines are often late. This is a 3 to 3.5 hour flight so the first flight would not get you back in time for that. The second flight was 1:30pm or something but the last flight did not leave Ushuaia until 8pm. These flights are only announced as to the departure time - like the lottery - on the wall of deck 5, about 2 maybe 3 days before the end of the cruise. I would personally recommend that you stay the night in BA and fly home the next day. Safest option. We stayed 4 days in BA on our own after. There were several people that were on our first flight out of Ushuaia that had 9pm'ish or 10pm'ish flights out and they were good. If you are intent on going same day, then book as late as possible but cover this with Hurtigruten before you pay for the flight or you may be having some expensive change fees.