CDNPolar

For us it is only about the deals and the OBC. We are quite confident doing it all ourselves.

I would agree that they are trying to make the loading and unloading of luggage easier, but we typically handle our own carryon. We rarely leave that with the checked luggage to arrive in our cabin, because this bag is where we have the medications, laptop, and other valuables. So, we are technically only giving any cruise line one bag pp to schlep. And, yes @gnome12 this is a great suggestion and this is how we store our bags at home too...

Great review and great pics! Glad you enjoyed it.

Great - MVJ gets easier to navigate as you get used to it. Not the most intuitive platform, but it works for the most part. My only complaint about MVJ is that if you are using a TA then you cannot see your account and payments. I don't need the ability to make payments on the cruise portion, but I would like to see the payments made and outstanding.

Since we first received our Nexus cards, we were aware that all family members (immediate only I believe) could do something that could result in us having our cards revoked if they were found or caught doing something that was against Nexus rules. This is in the fine print somewhere. Seemingly my brother could falsely declare goods either driving or flying be pulled into secondary, have the false declaration exposed, and lose not only his Nexus, but cause the loss of ours as well. We had this discussion with my brothers when we first signed up. I personally don't think that this has anything to do with your kids using your address. I think that "they" know who you are and who is family.

If it were this easy to "stay on board" I would refuse to pay my bill on the last day!

Yes, I have mentioned that we do this exact thing because we found that it significantly reduced our packing not thinking about a separate wardrobe for evenings. But, we don't dress in jeans and t-shirts or tank tops during the day, but find that our dress is acceptable as "elegant casual" in the evenings. We have over the years purchased a lot of comfortable travel clothing that is smart for day or evening.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! The only comment that I have as someone that has claimed and received back a significant amount of money for an unforeseen medical event that caused a cancelation is don't skimp on the insurance. If you are one that wants to insure your trip, don't look to save a few hundred dollars. We always do what Steve suggests above and insure per person cost - the only saving grace for us as a couple is we are the same cost so we do take the total cost and divide by two. Very good blog post Steve! I was not so aware of this before reading this. I just wish that you sold insurance in Canada!

Welcome to Cruise Critic and I too am sorry to hear of this situation with your Dad and it must be stressful planning anything, let alone thinking also about the potential of cancelling. I went through this with my Mom over several years not knowing exactly when the time was going to come, but fortunately she passed when we were home and able to be with her. Now, Canadian insurance can be different from what is available in the USA, but from my understanding in Canada anyway, a family members illness or medical situation that is not travelling is never considered anything to do with a pre-existing condition. However, our policies have language like what you have quoted: Unforeseen" -- and "Unforeseen" is defined as "not anticipated or expected..." I would think that regardless of what you might "swear" that the insurance company is going to look at the doctor's reports and hospital records to determine if this could have been anticipated when you bought the trip and the insurance, and the most critical date is the date that the insurance was purchased. In short, and in my opinion, if you are purchasing a trip and insurance with a reasonable expectation that you might have to cancel, then the insurance company is going to see it the same way and you may not be covered unless you pay for CFAR insurance. Personally I would contact the insurance company on the phone and spell out your exact situation NOW and let them guide you. Get it from the source. Sorry again about your Dad.

Yes! Thanks! Cannot wait!

We spend a lot of time searching for and finding the government websites from the country we are going to. I have seen here on CC people paying over $100 for a Visa when we got the same visa from the government website for $25. You have to be very careful where you are landing and that it is a credible site. Often the URL tells you a lot.

Well, it gives your Partner the full menu to browse and no worries, because you always get included wines with meals. In essence this has cost Viking nothing to upgrade you.

Yes, I can be "harsh" sometimes and was more so in the past and have had some posts removed. Now I just look the other way, count to 10 and convince myself that the person meant well and if I was speaking to them in-person I would hear the sarcasm in their voice. (Even though I know it's not sarcasm). Walking away is the better thing to do.

Well we have an interesting one coming up. My brother and his wife - never travelled with them before The wife's mother and sister - know them both well, but never travelled with them My brother's high school friends that are a couple from high school Eight of us on the ship. Only agreement now is that we will eat dinner together. Let's see how this plays out. My Husband and I are extremely independent and prefer to go our own way on the daily activities as discussed above... especially during the day as we have very close interests as a couple that don't always jive as a group.

Yeah, for me New Year is a "forced" reason to be in a good mood and to be social. This is probably why my Husband and I just stay to ourselves for New Years. I think however if I were on a Viking Ocean ship I would force myself to stay up and attend because the demographics are so different from a Carnival ship.

Not that we have not had some issues, but more from people that have "connected" to us on the cruise that we did not know before. Sometimes these are suggesting meals or excursions together or let's go back into the city together. I think that with the best planning and communication, your interpretation can always be different from their interpretation.

I think that we all can get offended from time to time because of sarcastic responses to something that we have said, or from people who disagree with our opinion. I have talked about this before. Textual based communication is often mis-interpreted because it lacks the vocal tone, inflection, body language and all other cues that we take for granted in face-to-face communication. The person that just replied with a comment to one of my posts can boil my blood, but what I don't know because the reply is so short is whether they are joking or serious. If joking, then great, but if serious then you have just completely offended me. One post recently that I left the reply alone and did not counter was a short response that in my part of the world carries the connotation of a four letter work starting with F and a You after it. I work in 8 global countries and what is offensive to me may not be in another country. Some sayings or words that I may use may offend the Australians, but not folks from the UK. For this reason I walk away from many things and consider the source. I just walk away from anything that I consider to be offensive to me because it may only be offensive to me. There are discussions that get way out of hand with debates that don't benefit anyone. These ones I just tend to walk by. Perhaps I am too easily offended but I still appreciate that the vast majority of people on this site are very respectful of others and the information and learning gained from Cruise Critic is of huge value.

I have been on two cruise lines on new year's eve and both were disappointing. The first was on Carnival and there were no people jumping in the pool fully clothed, but there were a lot just wearing bathing suits and far to drunk for my liking. The other was just no excitement at all, but it was a River Cruise and most had gone to bed. But, I don't care for "mass parties" with people I don't know... so I am not a good judge.

We have cruised now to most regions around the world. When we do our research and prep for the cruise, we look to the Canadian government site and also the country specific sites (We avoid Visa sellers and look for country government sites that we can verify as trustworthy) that we are travelling to and we STUDY the passport and visa requirements. If there are requirements for either, we note them and then start the process of logging dates in the calendar to get the appropriate paperwork done in time. We were recently faced with needing Visas for both Cambodia and Vietnam. The process was different and the timeline of the Visa validity was different for both countries but we figured out how to get both in advance and that would meet the requirements. We never rely on the cruise ship site or the cruise reservation folks because this is not their job. We do this ourselves and if we are denied boarding then it was because we failed in our own research. We realize that it is our responsibility to understand and comply with passport and visa requirements. We only renew our passports for 10 years to reduce the number of times we have to worry about our passports. Our passports expire in Feb of 2026 and we have already logged in our calendars to renew after our first travel in 2025 so that we don't run out of time. We have also logged a travel blackout period in the calendar to allow for us to get our passports renewed.

No, they will not refund the difference. Viking vouchers have no cash value. You also cannot divide the voucher over two cruises. You either have to upgrade your cabin, buy all the optional tours, or spend the money on Spa services, or alcohol or on the gratuities. (Can't remember for sure, but think voucher value can be spent on gratuities....) This is where at the beginning of the pandemic some folks got caught with vouchers that we 125% and for some that was a very enticing offer until you had to spend it. If you were rebooking the same cruise it would be hard to spend 25% more. We will only take cash back refund regardless of the voucher offer.

We have talked about staying one extra night and have not decided yet. There should be no issue with Viking if the ship is in port overnight and there are excursions to Bangkok the next day. We would just inform them and it would be like our flights were cancelled or delayed and we arrived one day late. We would have to toy with trying to connect with the excursion with our luggage, or just pay for a cab to the ship the next day. We have often come in a day early or stayed a day late on pre and post packages and made reservations at the same hotel either pre or post and indicated to the hotel that we are with Viking and could we stay in the same room and it has always worked out. Yes - your experience will cause us to really plan our time well when we are there, even if we have to get up and out sightseeing at 5am the second day.

I guess that I have one question: You say that others "expected" to have dinner every night and that you thought that it was understood that you would only do some things together. Did you actually talk about this openly, or was it an assumption? Sorry - not calling you out, but we actually have this direct discussion at the planning stage with the people we are travelling with. We often detect a sigh of relief from them too when we talk about this. I not only stopped travelling with, but actually ended a friendship with someone that I shared a cruise cabin with that was the most annoying cling-on that I have ever experienced. She took over an hour to get ready in the morning but I was not allowed to go on deck or wander around, I had to wait for her to be ready so we could go together. One sea day, I asked what do you want to do today? Her response was sit on a deck chair all day and read. We got deck chairs and an hour in I got up and she asked where I was going. I said, I am bored with reading I am going to wander and explore the ship. She started to pack up to accompany me, and I suggested that she wasted to sit the whole day and read... and she quickly responded, "well, I don't want to do it alone".

We have not had anyone disagree... We just reason that we all have things we want to do and see and one of us should not lead the way if others are not interested. One thing for sure is that if we go ashore outside of a tour, we never go with anyone else - just my husband and I go. Husband and I have very close interests in what we want to do and see so together we are great. When we go ashore outside of an excursion, we want to spend the time we want to spend in a shop, or whatever and don't want to feel that others are not interested in what we are interested in. We know that our shopping interests are not the same, so we just go alone.

I have seen a few friendships go on the rocks after travelling together, but these were two singles sharing a cabin.

We have cruised as a couple, but we most often cruise with others. We have a couple that we have cruised with many times, and we also have cruised with family and friends. Of the 4 future booked cruises we have, all of them are with others. We have very clear "rules" that we set out and we set them out boldly when we cruise with others. First is we don't coordinate the same excursions. We research and book our own excursions. Sometimes they cross and most often they do not. Sometimes we are on the same excursion but on a different bus. We don't even try to get together on the same bus. The days are our own, and if we cross we cross. The only thing we do is commit to having dinner together, going to the show, or not, and then perhaps to the lounge after dinner. Evenings are for catching up and sharing our stories of the day. Often we don't see the ones we are cruising with any day until dinner. This works for us because I never want to feel that I have to conform to someone else's plan.