CDNPolar

Delays happen. Not a new one for Air Canada or any airline in my opinion. We always have to be prepared for this kind of thing. I will add, and I am not defending this passenger, but if I left my bag with Gate Agents tagged for the belly of the aircraft, and then the gate was moved, I would initially think that the Gate Agents would look after that. I personally would probably at some point before the actual departure think to myself - is my bag at this gate now? But I am equally sure that some would never think of that because they left the bag with Gate Agents and they expect that it is being taken care of. I feel that this problem happened because the Gate Agents were negligent and should have made announcements for those that checked a bag to retrieve it. Because they did not do this, then that bag is now an "unattended" bag sitting at some gate... I will blame this whole incident on the negligence of the gate agents and that this could have, should have been avoided.

Here is my new dilemma which is just for Interruption and Cancellation insurance on the annual plan from Blue Cross. This annual plan has a max payout of $5K per person, BUT you can buy an additional add on plan for the amount above $5K if you wish. This add on is done trip by trip. Here are the challenges that I am still trying to get clarification on because I have a pre-existing condition: The annual plan states, but is not clean in the policy language, but will be clarified if you speak to anyone the following: For each trip, you must be able to demonstrate 3 months of stability against that pre-existing condition before any payment is made towards a non-refundable cost of the trip. It is not about being "stable" when you buy the annual plan, but reestablishing that stability 90 days before each trip. So if you are buying this plan to support several trips over the year, it may or may not be valuable. I will be calling back to get a better clarification on this because this is the part that I don't understand. We pay in full at 180 days. Is my 3 months stability 3 months before paying, or is it 3 months before the first non-refundable cost of the trip that starts at 120 days out and is a sliding scale. This could be a game changer and not cover you for the pre-existing condition when they keep imposing the condition again and again. Now, they have clarified that I can still be covered for other unexpected events, but not for a pre-existing condition.

We had to cancel a trip that was to take place this last January because of a medical situation that popped up. This was a land based tour but regardless the entire trip was in 16-17K range. We had an annual plan with Blue Cross, but the insurance from the land tour company was so cheap we added that. This was Arch insurance in the USA. Submitted the required forms to Arch and the case was settled and paid out in a matter of weeks. Never actually had a phone conversation with anyone - all done online. Needed to deal with Blue Cross because the flights we purchased were not part of the land tour. Same thing - submitted the same information we sent to Arch and in about 3 weeks without any human interaction we received a cheque in the mail. I was amazed. I was about to start to call because I could not find any decision or update online. Then, the cheque arrived.

John - I agree with you here. I have abandoned reading forums like Trip Advisor because the complaints are often nothing to do with the overall experience but one tiny little thing that has no bearing on the full experience. I most often remember a review of a hotel that was absolutely horrible - I think in Venice Italy - because the hotel did not provide washcloths or facecloths which are common in North America, but are not common in all areas of Europe. Comments like never stay there again... Don't book this hotel... When I brought this up to management they did nothing to fix the situation... Makes me laugh actually.

I agree - talk in real time. Address these things with the Restaurant Manager or the Chef when they come up. On our preferred line, the Chef or Manager are always willing to cater to our needs - this is our experience anyway. If we approached and said that we did not want "something" served with "something" I believe that that would be noted on our account and the servers and the kitchen would know. On one of our tours of the kitchen, the Chef showed us where the dietary restrictions were managed and all the passengers with dietary restrictions or preferences were listed there on the board and the kitchen catered to these.

Yeah - I have never done the switch. We make our flight decisions pretty quickly based on certain rules we have created for ourselves. Because we are flying out of Toronto, we are typically direct to the first major city in Europe and so we pick the flight where we like the departure/arrival time. If this city is our final destination then we like to arrive around Noon. If we are connecting in this city then we choose an arrival time much earlier to ensure that we can connect earlier and therefore make our final destination at a decent time. Always a 2.5 hour connection time if we are connecting in a European country to the final destination to allow for passport control, security, and not having to rush in case our inbound flight is late. We look, assess the options, and generally in 10-15 minutes of comparisons we make the decision and lock it in. We fly a lot so we know what we like and what works for us.

Would you share who they are? We can talk about insurance companies, just not travel agents.

I agree with you on this. I left Facebook a number of years ago, but when we were considering various different travel options friends told me about all these great Facebook groups that I should join. First you have to complete your "application" and in that application make an oath to never do this or that or the other thing, and like you say, heaven help you if you are negative. I also noted that as a new member to one of these groups your posts are put into purgatory until a moderator reviews them and decides if they are worthy of being posted. Cruise Critic discussions can get out of hand from time to time, but this is rare, and only if people are being really disrespectful are things shut down. The folks that look after Cruise Critic are top in their game and I love that you can have opposing views and still be part of the discussion.

I think you can change as many times as you want before ticketing, but if there are additional fees, I don't know how that works...

Welcome to Cruise Critic! I am sure someone will flow with recommendations.

Really well stated. Thanks for this! Can't wait to hear your reviews. I will also add that different regions in France have different profiles, as do those from Italy and other countries. I personally don't believe that you can just love Italian wine. You will like some, love others, and dislike others from the same country. Then we get into light, medium, and full bodied wines. I don't understand Whiskey, Bourbon, and Scotch but there are lovers of all these spirits and they have their favourites and ones they dislike. Same thing. We have a friend that is very particular about Gin, but to me every Gin tastes the same as soon as you add tonic - or even if you drink it straight up.

The biggest lesson I learned when I started travelling extensively was that ship happens. Flexibility is my middle name now. I used to look for the perfect vacation. Now I can plainly say that every vacation I take is perfect because I leave my expectations at home and go with the flow of everything. Everything that happens from an airline delay to bad weather is an adventure. Not that I don't plan, but you will never me say the one thing that I hate to hear anywhere: "This is not how it is, or tastes, at home." I think that forums like CC are amazing for most people but can really complicate the situation for newbie cruisers that want and need a lot of information about the decisions they are making. I have seen one innocent question turn into a debate so often that even as an experienced cruiser and traveller, I don't know what the right course of action is after all is said and done. I have learned so much and continue to from CC and would be lost without it now.

I believe that like food, wine is very subjective and some people - NOT all, but some - have their favourite wines and regions and when they cannot grip onto these they are not pleased. So many wines are influenced by what you are eating with the wine - if you are drinking at dinner. Some foods make some wines sweeter and some make the wine sour tasting. If the wine is first not properly "opened" and had time to breathe and then it is paired with a food that impacts negatively its flavour profile, then we are unhappy. I am a believer that there are no bad wines, just wines that don't meet my expectations. We have friends that have money to burn and they drink regularly at home $80 bottles of wine. We have been served this at their home and would never buy it. We don't like it at all, but they love it. Go figure. We like Viking's selection overall. Have we had wines that we mark as not to drink again based on our likes? Yes, but we always find wines we like on the menu.

Interesting - I also have a Casper at home and this has been the best mattress I have had in my life, but I love the Viking beds. I have a question... I come from the hotel industry originally - from way back. Most often hotels claim that the mattress is part of their experience and they pride themselves on that mattress and use it chain wide. Some hotels sell their mattresses. Do Viking use the same mattress on all ships? On River and Ocean? I see some say that they dislike the Ocean mattress but like the River mattress? Just curious. If they potentially use the same mattress, then perhaps it is age of mattress that is causing some grief?

Welcome to Cruise Critic. I hope that you will not be denied boarding, however know for future that some countries are 3 months and some are 6 months. You can be denied boarding to a ship that is going to a country where the requirement is later than your passport expiry. You can also be denied entry into a country...

I agree with @gnome12 coming myself from a place where winters are below freezing. I don't consider jeans a winter wear fabric if I am going to be out in the cold for any length of time. If I am going to wear jeans then I will have wool long johns on under them.

Yes. Provide the card onboard, and then one or two nights before the end of the cruise you will see the gratuities on your account and it will settle automatically to your card. You can watch your account on your cabin TV throughout the cruise. When onboard the charge could be in USD or Euros depending on where you are cruising. The only thing you might consider is when you pay for gratuities through MVJ before you go, you will pay in the currency that you paid for your cruise in avoiding foreign currency charges and potential exchange.

No, I don't believe that more options will appear as time goes on. If you have used something like GoogleFlights and found alternates, you can add Air Plus and call and see if these are available, BUT you will pay $150 pp for this service. There is no guarantee as to how much time you have before ticketing. Even the reservations department say that flights can be ticketed at any time, but generally not before 75 days from departure. If you are going to opt for one of the options on MVJ with an additional cost, then choose sooner rather than later.

No, you are not. You can if you want to but you are not required to. What they ask is that at some point in the first few days of the cruise that you come to guest services and offer your credit card. We have often had charges on our account before actually giving the credit card. No one seems concerned. Very relaxed.

Don't know about when they get paid, but our first cruise experience we worked with a very large agency chain that specializes in cruise vacations, and out agent by mistake forwarded and email with the cruise line commission statement for our booking. We were a bit shocked at the amount that the agency was being paid. Now that will be divided by the company and then filter down to the individual agent, but if our agent was independent, it would have been a lot. This prompted us to call the cruise line - we did not disclose that we saw the statement - and ask if we would get a better deal going direct... and the answer was no.

We are smaller ships with no kids. Viking is our choice. 930 guests on an Ocean Ship.

I have done some Googling and it would appear that CFAR is not available in the UK. One of the things that I have noted however is that CFAR insurance is often offered by the cruise line or the tour company directly if you buy their insurance policies. In this case most of the time, it is not cash back but a credit that you hold with the cruise line and they keep your money. Check the travel insurance offered by your cruise line or tour company to see if CFAR is included. If it is an option, it generally must be purchased at the time of booking or very shortly after booking.

In the past year we have had to cancel two sets of air tickets. The first was with EVA and the route was Toronto to Cambodia, Vietnam to Toronto. We cancelled these flights for $200 per ticket. We bought this fare and cancelation option purposely and it was only marginally more expensive than a fare with a credit. The second was just recently and these were with Korean Air and these were Toronto to Shenyang and then Shenyang to Toronto. These had a $250 per ticket cancelation but because there were minor changes to the flight schedules they allowed cancellation for no fee. Again, these fares with cancelation refund were purchased purposely in case... There are fares out there if you are booking far enough in advance that include cancelation. The question is are you going to pay for cancelation insurance or a slightly higher fare with the option to cancel. With both of these the increased fare was cheaper than insurance.

Really - I had not looked at there being a difference between River and Ocean. Interesting....

This is all about the contract rate. I don't believe - others will correct me if I am wrong - that there is one class that Viking books under. I have had flights that I could upgrade with Viking because of the class and flights that I could not upgrade because of the class. Airline miles are based on fare class. You won't know this until you book. Same answer as above. Two ways to do air with Viking: 1) Wait until the air is selected for you and posted in MVJ - this is usually about 150 days from departure. Now you have about 60 days to "play" with your air choices on MVJ until they ticket the air that is selected for you. Once the air selections on MVJ are ticketed, then you are dealing with change fees potentially to both Viking and the airline. 2) Use Viking Air Plus from the start. Pay for Viking Air Plus ($150pp) and research your flights and then call in and give the agent your preferred itinerary. If your choices are available within Viking contract rates, they will book them for you and then you have your desired itinerary. If not within contract rates, they will offer you a fee to pay for what you want, or an alternative. You can also in option "1" move to Viking Air Plus once selected flights are in MVJ if you cannot modify them to your liking. Some have suggested that Viking Air Plus is going away. I don't believe that this is the case. Adding the functionality on MVJ to modify your own air is the DIY'ers version of Viking Air Plus. For others that want more help, you still have Viking Air Plus. We have always used Viking Air Plus in the past and for the first time we are anxiously awaiting to see what flights will pop up for our next cruise. The only downside to this is that we have generally always gotten the flights/seats that we want by booking as much as 270-300 days out with Viking Air Plus. This is a trial for us.