CDNPolar

You should not lose visibility of payment deadlines because you are working with a TA. Your TA should be sending you any revision to the Viking invoice as changes or additions are made, and on the top of page one of the invoice is the final payment date. This is always visible regardless of whether you are working with Viking directly or through a TA.

Thank you so much for this!

In early 2025 we are doing Across the Bay of Bengal ending in Mumbai. We are going to stay a couple nights extra in Mumbai on our own, not with the Viking post-extension. Looking for hotel recommendations that are good location in Mumbai for first timers to India. Like more luxury level hotels. Viking put their extension guests at the Taj Mahal Tower close to the cruise port. We have looked at the Oberoi which is in a similar area. Is this not too far out from the centre of Mumbai?

Good advice. I do know that some pre-pay their gratuities for the echeck option of saving 3.3%. Personally that is not enough of a savings for me to consider, and we put everything on our credit cards for the airline points.

Awesome! Thank you.

It can be Wac-A-Mole for sure. We want to buy an annual policy, but the stability period (Blue Cross) is 90 days prior to the effective date of the policy - or the purchase date. Essentially any travel during that year is based on whether you were stable during the 90 days prior to purchase, even if the condition becomes unstable after purchase.

@gnome12 sorry - lazy and don't want to go through the post. Is this coverage you have with TuGo?

With both of us dealing with pre-existing conditions now, it is kind of a nightmare to navigate the insurance companies and select what you are going to buy. It is the stability period. Assume that any condition that you currently are taking medication for (exception being diabetes if well managed) that it is a pre-existing condition. What is the stability period for pre-existing conditions on your policy? If you medication changes that makes you not stable. I have been stable for 3 years and taking a medication for that condition, and my doc stopped a medication because it is no longer needed. I am now not stable until 3 months after the stoppage.

We have sailed with Viking 10 times now - Ocean and River - and have 4 future cruises booked. We find they have great food, exceptional crew and service standards. Viking's most extreme dress code is "elegant casual" for evenings but this is more no flip flops and cut off shorts in the dining venues at night. Relaxed dress code. Clean and covered is what I call it. Viking is not a party environment, however folks do have fun. No casinos, no chain by the inch, etc. Viking seems expensive when you first look at a cabin price, but when you consider what is included, it is worth it. We would spend more on a mass market brand for a lesser experience if we included everything we got from Viking.

We have never found the guest cabins on the "aquarium level" to be any noisier than on deck 2 or 3.

No offence intended by this statement, but I don't understand why you are having this problem as we have used Air Plus on now about 8 Viking cruises - river and ocean - and had a great experience. First question - are you calling the Air Plus department or general reservations? Call the Air Plus, or they should be connecting you to Air Plus from the general reservations department. Here is how we do it. 1) We book and pay for Air Plus 2) We start to look at flights 270-300 days out from the cruise. We look at Google Flights and direct with airline websites and start to pick our first, second, and so on choices. 3) We decide if we are going to have a deviation on either side of the cruise. 4) We call Air Plus and give them our booking number. Now it seems that you must pay for Air Plus and Deviation fees at the time of booking the flights even if this is before final payment date. 5) We give our first choice to the Air Plus agent. We wait for their comments back and sometimes the flights we choose are in Viking contract rates and sometimes they are not. If not then we give our second choice or look at options that Viking offer. 6) We choose and we book, pick our seats and we are done. 7) We ask for our chosen flights to be ticketed as soon as possible. We then move to the airline website and manipulate our seats if necessary. This won't happen until your flights are ticketed. I don't understand why you are being told to wait until your flights are published on MVJ. If you wait for this you don't have to pay the Air Plus, but you will have to pay the deviation fee if you are not going with their per and post cruise dates.

We fly one or two days early depending on the time of year. In winter months (North America) where weather can impact flight reliability, we go a day or two early. During the summer months (North America) and flying to Europe, we fly to arrive the day of the embarkation.

Yep - they are in fact that. If you wander down the stairs to the lower deck you will see a crew only door that leads to these cabins. You don't see crew coming and going all the time from this door as they have an access also from the front of the ship.

Or make a bunch of bookings at the Spa for massage or whatever and spend it that way. We never pay our gratuities in advance because we never know if we will end up booking onboard or if we have other OBC still available. We also do our ship board bookings near the beginning of the cruise so that we have time to use those OBC's. I have seen some people that book 1 or 2 days before the end of the cruise and then they are in the shop buying stuff they probably don't want or need.

In our experience, and we have done this several times, you can transfer any deposit to any cruise at any time before final payment. Once you make final payment then you may run into challenges. I rather doubt that Viking are going to negotiate less than 6 month terms with you, but you can try. Since you are working through a TA, all of this must be done with the TA. I would choose a future date for the same cruise if you are committed to that Itinerary, however note that if the cruise is more expensive in the future date, Viking are not going to honour the price you have now.

Thanks for your words of wisdom. These are just AC points, but what we have found is the great deals in point redemption come this far out. As we look at closer dates, the point requirements go up and the partner airlines that offer better points deals disappear because they are sold out. It is what we thought about Air India and the schedule and that we would never be able to count on the upgrades in time. We are now looking at a potential Air Canada to Delhi and then Air India from Delhi to Bangkok, and then on the way home LOT from Mumbai to Warsaw to Toronto. On this we can get business class all but the Air India Delhi to Bangkok.

Thank you for your reply and the tips on the stability.

@FlyerTalker and others, would love your input. We have never flown Air India before and read horrible reviews often especially about the value of Business Class. We have read of seats and tv's in poor repair and other negative reviews. In March of next year we are flying YYZ to BKK and then BOM to YYZ. We want to book these flights in Business Class on Aeroplan points and it is actually a great deal on Air India. We have read that Air India are upgrading their business class but don't know how to tell if the aircraft we may be booking would be one of these. Below are our proposed flights, any comments, thoughts, or advice? OUTBOUND RETURN

I have used the word "Mandatory" as others have for dinner, but don't take the word as literally as the dictionary definition from my perspective. All that is meant by that is you do what you want to do during the day and we will meet at dinner to catch up. There have been many times that we have booked a specialty restaurant for TWO only and let them know just before we would meet that we would not be seeing them at dinner. We have also decided just before dinner that we would prefer the buffet and they still wanted the menu in the restaurant. In these cases we see them in the lounge after dinner.

Also be aware of any excursions that you may go on that are organized by the ship if they have a meal or a snack attached. I have seen many times that the excursion meals could not accommodate dietary needs. They ship may cater to your needs, but these are independent restaurants and tour providers that may not get it or have the ability to prepare the proper food. I get that you don't want to travel with a suitcase full of food and you should not have to, but our preferred line did not cater well to dietary needs a few years back, but now does a pretty good job.

We find River Cruising to be more casual than Ocean. Also it depends on the river and line you are cruising. Who are you cruising with? Certainly most River Cruise lines are casual in the dining room. Take casual how you will but that generally means no flip flops in the dining room. We have seen everything from jeans to people in dressy evening attire.

We generally find the servers on Viking to be very accommodating and generous.

What @GeezerCouple said, but for certain start to contact the cruise line WELL in advance of either booking or sailing to ensure that your needs can be looked after. Ensure that you have the assurance of the cruise line that they can in fact deal with your situation and that you are talking to someone that is in the know - then get the name of the dietary manager or chef on the ship that you should speak to on DAY ONE embarkation day. Don't leave anything to chance. As much as the cruise lines are very good with this now, I have also heard stories where the reservations agent assured someone that a diet was possible but when they arrived on the ship no one knew about what was promised her.

Absolutely - we have done free air arriving the day of the cruise and paid for air arriving the day of the cruise. To this point we have never encountered a problem. Even with Free Air, you can opt to do one or two nights on your own (not Viking's package) in advance if you are fearful of arriving the same day as the cruise embarks. You will pay a deviation fee of $100 pp and then buy Air Plus at $150 pp so you will spend $500 to arrive a day or two early - if you don't buy Viking's pre package. Plus of course your hotel, meals, and transportation to the hotel from the airport and then to the ship. Sometimes when you add up all these things the Viking package is not that much more. Sometimes... Since you have an overnight stay in Budapest - if I understood correctly - then I would just opt to arrive the day of. If for any reason you are delayed, you have the extra day so you won't miss much.

Agree completely. The ONLY time that you might have a bit of a delay is when half or three quarters of the ship were all on excursion and all return back at the same time. Otherwise for a "normal" service in the World Cafe, you should not have any issue with first glass or refils.