CDNPolar

Superb airport restaurants are the same scarcity in Canada. Toronto Pearson - I was excited to the opening of Lynn Crawford and Susur Lee's restaurants, but they are just cafeteria style food with their name on it. Quite disappointing in my opinion. But back to the OP! 90 minutes may not give you time to visit Tortas Frontera but definitely put on your list for next ORD experience if you cannot make it this time.

I am also very curious as to what led to this incident? What caused a total stranger to spit in your food in the first place? I am very interested in the whole discussion especially around jurisdiction, but also I personally would have pushed this as far as I could on board with the crew and security. In no way is this acceptable, but knowing what led to this would be helpful to understand the full situation.

Never heard of this place before, and don't often fly through ORD, but will definitely put it on the list of things to check out!

I thought that this discussion was to mention the "Misconceptions" not debate them. If one feels that fresh fish is not available on a ship then that is their misconception to own whether correct or not. I think that food is a major part of people's misconceptions because food is so subjective to culture, upbringing, exposure, and personal taste. Just my opinion and with no offence intended to anyone.

We have never had noise issues on a River ship. The Viking guests are not loud and boisterous in the hallways in our experience. Also the River ships tend to roll up the sidewalks early as there is nothing but the lounge after dinner and that seems to empty pretty early. Back to sboh OP question - on the lowest level, the cabins are the same on both sides. No difference.

The cruise line should be more specific about evacuation insurance.

I agree with you fully on what you are saying. Yes, some ships have helipads on them, but you are only able to evacuate within flying range of the ship to South America, and only if weather permits. The typical distance a helicopter can fly from land for evacuation is about 200 miles. Where we typically cruise in Antarctica there is no airstrip close enough to manage an evacuation. With our evacuation, they first wanted to evacuate the passenger by helicopter but the winds were too high. Then they were going to try ship to ship and the waves were too high. We had no option but to return to Ushuaia.

The only point I was trying to make here is medical evacuation is impossible until you are in helicopter range of South America so it does not matter what insurance you have. Oh, and to the best of my knowledge, all ocean going passenger cruise ships are required to have body bags and a morgue capable of storing a body for minimum of one week.

Please, this comment is made with all due respect. You may have all the insurance that is available to humankind but if you or your travel companion suffered a serious heart attack that was sudden and with no prior history or concern, and you were currently alongside the Antarctic Continent, there is NO medical evacuation when you in that geographical position. The ONLY option the ship as to save your life is to turn around and go back to the Cape at the very least. This is not just about elderly or disabled, this is about anyone that can have a serious unexpected medical event. We talked about this with our travel agent before paying our final payment. She has much experience with this type of cruise, and she warned us that our cruise could be cut short because of a medical emergency and we rationalized this and decided to accept it. Our cruise did turn back because of a fall and broken hip 17 hours into the Drake. Because of this the ship altered it's planned course and we started in the north instead of our planned southern start. The first day there were no landings because of weather. Instead of 5 days of landings we only got four. We could blame that lost day on the fact that our itinerary got turned around because of the injury. We will never know. Regardless, there may be people that lie on their medical forms and doctors that sign them with lies, but there can also be a sudden and unexpected medical event that no one planned for. With expedition cruising, I personally think that this is something that you must accept. It is not about whose vacation/cruise was ruined, it is about saving a life regardless of the circumstance.

You are going to be fine as long as your first flight is on time as stated above. You have nothing to do but move from one gate to another and ORD is very good at moving people if you have to move concourses.

Sorry to have asked a question. Often these discussions go off track and I was not clear what the question was referring to. Sorry if I offended you.

All I can say is we did Viking Homelands and loved every minute of the cruise from the food to the excursions. We have sailed Viking about 8 or 9 times now.

Agree with WestW too! One of the funniest things that happened to us, was in the thermal spa which we frequent daily.... And, this was not taken as anything about being gay vs. straight.... I am quite a bit older than my husband and I did not hear this but my husband did. There were 2 straight couples in the smaller hot tub connected to the larger thermal spa. My husband spends most of his time on the large bench at the end of the thermal spa. I move between the snow grotto and the steam room. Apparently one of the men in the hot tub indicated as I walked between my two favourite places that I was the "Sugar Daddy". I laugh at this because, my husband is much younger, but he also makes much more money than I do... So he is really the sugar daddy. I was not offended by this nor did these folks exhibit any homophobia... it was just an idle gossip comment that could have been directed at anyone.

My experience is the cabins are identical. it does not matter what side you are on.

I agree that the medical is potentially a farce... but this is the cruise line's way of limiting their liability if you have to be signed off by a doctor. I will say that our doctor took the whole thing very seriously and one of us had some serious medical issues exposed on the doctor's report and not one question from the cruise line or with the doctor when we boarded... I was kind of surprised.

Are you asking about Coastal Voyages or Antarctica? If you are talking about Antarctica, the basic ashore hiking and zodiac boat cruises are included. The snowshoeing, kayaking, and camping are extra but you have to win the lottery first. I will have to search up the invoice for these additional costs, but I did not think them out of line. Perhaps 80-150 pp?

This may work for some. We will tip the Host at the check-in desk in The Restaurant. Then we ask for the same table each night and we have had success with that. This way we get the table we want, and we get to know the serving team for that table really well.

We have found that in most countries - most - that the US dollar is good for tipping. I don't disagree with Heidi13 at all and their method, we just have not done that ourselves. We are Canadian, and we go to the bank - just did this yesterday - and get 70+ One Dollar US bills and some 5's and 10's. We use the dollar bills for tipping the guides and bus drivers. Why do we do this? We find that on most Viking cruises, the guest demographic is primarily American and they are freely using the USD for tips and we just have followed suit whether good or bad. One thing to note, unless you are tipping in local currency, do not ever give coins. Loose coins in any currency are not typically able to be exchanged at a bank. The other thing specifically that we found with Argentina and Buenos Aires, that they want CRISP NEW American bills. We booked a private day tour in Buenos Aires, and guide expressed that the bills needed to be new'ish and not damaged or stained in any way. Sorry if I am adding confusion to your question.

Just to further confirm, we have a friend that would do a River over Ocean any day because she needs strong medication on any ocean voyage, but no medication on a River Cruise ever. (And she has been on 10+ river cruises)

I guess one of the things that I think of is that restaurants at home that we go to, there is often not much room between the tables, and you are close to your neighbours... as close as the The Restaurant on a Viking Ocean ship. I think that the difference is when you are in a restaurant at home, you are not typically talkative with your dining neighbour, whereas on a ship, you are on a shared experience and most all are being polite and nice and just want to share the experience. The ship is like a community of people that are together in the experience and most are very open to talking. We are private people and we get a table for two where we can. We have been seated at a 2 top beside the window and at a 2 top along the long wall backing to the kitchen - where the tables are very close. 98% of the time, we have just sat, started our conversation, and not had any "interference" from the neighbouring tables. Perhaps we look unapproachable? Perhaps we look rude an uninterested in talking? I also recognize that some are stating that they cannot have a private conversation with people so close. We talk about the day and tomorrow's attractions and very benign things. If we have something to discuss that is more private that we don't want someone to overhear, we would do so in the cabin.

That is what I what I thought you were referring to... So, the cruise line mandated 50K in evacuation insurance. In Canada I could not get any insurance company to state 50K coverage, and I am covered for personal travel by my company extended medical benefits. All I could get them to do is give me very loose wording that indicated that they would evacuate me to the best and necessary medical facility away or back home depending on circumstances and the level of urgency. Here is where I question the whole evacuation business for Antarctica. Once you are 5+ hours into the Drake Passage, you are out of range of helicopter evacuation anyway. The ship has to turn around. Once you are cruising around the Continent, there is NO land based evacuation, or helicopter/plane evacuation based on where cruise ships sail. You are 48 hours plus to help and that means that they ship has to turn around and head back. We had a broken hip in the first 15 or 17 hours of sailing that was because of the seas and the passenger had a bad fall and broke her hip. The ship had to turn around because we were too far into the Drake for any air evacuation. The next try was to get close enough to the Cape for helicopter but then it was determined that the winds were too high. The next try was a ship to ship transfer but the winds were too high. We had to go all the way back to port. Now, if you need evacuation, your insurance would likely be called upon to pay for the helicopter or ship to ship evacuation if that was necessary close to the Cape. We submitted our policy language and it was accepted. I cannot tell you for sure if my insurance would have paid for a helicopter or not.

Do you mean medical? Cancellation / Interruption?

We are about to embark on our 8th or 9th cruise with Viking and we have been on both River and Ocean. NEVER any concern about being a male couple on Viking for us. We do table for two for meals, and we have our beds together. The Cabin Stewards are amazing and very accepting and never a second glance. We sit together in the lounge for the live music and together in the theatre for the shows. Now we are not a PDA kind of couple, but it is obvious that we are a couple. We have been on Ocean (930 guests) where they have had LGBTQ+ meetups, but not seen that on River. We have not attended the LGBTQ+ meetups ourselves so cannot comment on the number that show up. These have typically been held in the upper level of the Explorer Lounge. On the Ocean Ships we have seen multiple other gay and lesbian couples. We have seen the same on River Ships, but not in the same number, but they are much smaller ships. From our experience you will be welcomed by the crew and feel this welcome throughout the ship. We have never had any situations where we felt that other passengers were opposed to us being there, for lack of any other way to put this... Don't take this the wrong way, but we don't attend the LGBTQ+ gatherings because we don't feel the need to immediately associate with other gay folks. We have met some naturally through interactions on the ship, but more so we have met and made good and lasting friendships on Viking Cruises with straight couples. I think that the main thing here is we were (or rather I was) more skeptical in the beginning way back in 2015 when we took our first Viking Cruise together of the reception that we would receive. We contacted Viking and talked to them directly about it and they assured us that we would be received like any other guest and they were not wrong. We love the vibe on Viking and we are not party people so the quiet atmosphere of Viking without the noise and confusion of a large ship suits us well. We love the lectures from the Resident Historians and we love the crew and the service and the food. Viking just suits us. Not that we may not venture and try other cruise lines in the future, but we are Viking loyal for sure. No, Viking did not give me a free cruise to give you this review! There are others on CC that cruise Viking that will chime in here I am sure.

Regarding the vouchers that you purchase on the River Cruises... We were told by the Cruise Director on our River Cruise in August of this year that the sale of these vouchers was likely to cease in 2024. I have not confirmed this anywhere else, but this Cruise Director announced this during a port talk to the entire ship, so I would hope her information was credible. The vouchers that you have purchased would remain valid with no expiry date, BUT, you would likely not be able to purchase them in the future because Viking was discontinuing the sale of the vouchers. Also to note that you cannot apply a voucher to any cruise that is already booked, whether you are at final payment or not. The voucher ($100 for $200) can only be applied at the point of booking. This rule alone has stopped us from buying these vouchers, because we typically always have one or two Viking cruises booked in the future and so the vouchers are useless to us.

If you do book, don't leave it until the last minute on board because you will get "shipboard credit on current sailing" and that from my knowledge must be spent onboard. You cannot move that anywhere. The first time we booked onboard, we left it to the last day and we had to spend the credit in the gift shop or lose it.