CDNPolar

Mixed bag... We have many times with Viking Air paid for and got an upgrade, but on the most recent with Air Canada from Toronto to Amsterdam and home from Basel, there was no upgrade available through Viking but Air Canada would sell it to us at the gate. We have also had no option with Viking Air and the airline refusing at the airport too because of the booking class.

Uber can be a good option in most cities... Check out Viator - owned by Trip Advisor - and look at private and group tours. This has been a good experience for us and as an aggregator they offer a lot of different types of tours.

You are probably very aware of this, but just be cautious whether you are taking the train or renting a car, and any reservations that you make, that: 1) You are back onboard the ship 30+ minutes before sailing time 2) You have good cancelation with either a car rental or a train ticket, or an attraction ticket in case the port and itinerary change again. That can happen.

Both of these destinations you could fly to Munich on Air Canada, Lufthansa, or United from Toronto. Regensburg is almost certainly only Munich. Munich is a bit far from Passau, so I would suggest that you could consider flying into or out from Linz. Not sure if Viking would bus you from Munich or not as this distance is about 125 KM. We have not done Passau to/from Toronto, but if you check Google Flights I would suspect that the flights I am seeing would qualify on Viking's Air Plus. We always first find our flight options on Google Flights and then call Viking Air Plus. For Europe destinations with Viking we have almost always been on Air Canada or Lufthansa, and on the occasion British Air.

Think this was discussed on page one of this thread. There are different opinions on this, but I think the final assessment was that you had to be "near" food to have this option. The Pool Bar is one place, and perhaps the Explorer Lounge in the Mamsen's area. I doubt that you can be served in the Living Room, or just at the Bar in the Explorer Lounge. It also depends on the individual server that you are working with. We have had various interactions around things like this - one will and one will not. Unless you are completely opposed to this, just go and sit by the window in the World Cafe and have your drink and put a bread roll on a plate in front of you...

Just ensure that you log with Guest Services when you want to disembark and that you are taking your own bags off. Since you are not using Viking Air, and you are arranging your own transportation to the airport, I would suggest that you manage your own bags or you may not find your bags shoreside when you want/need them. If you are in port overnight, you can disembark anytime you want.

Sorry - at that price, for me/us personally, we would never drink that much daily to warrant the price of a package. But then, does this line offer wine included with meals? On Viking they do, so if you are good with the house wines then for us it does not make sense to add the package as it goes up in price.

Yes, it is complicated and the truth is that until you have a claim - even if you do a health question - you don't know if your are covered or not. As consumers we should demand more specific language from these insurers.

Again, everyone's taste is different, and before meeting my husband I had my go to wines that were relatively cheap and I thought they were great until... My husband is a WSET Level 3 graduate, and will probably progress to at least Level 4, but this is just for fun and not for work. Now every trip home from the wine store we are drinking something different and my palate is now open to every country and every grape, and it is far more interesting than the Ralph's Red Wine. Haha.... https://www.wsetglobal.com/

Although hearing something like this is not a surprise, I have asked insurance companies if an injury was not in anyway related to a pre-existing would they pay and their answer was yes. My Mother was a SnowBird for many years and bought Medipac insurance annually for her time in the USA. She had a very bad pneumonia and had to see doctors for it's treatment. Not hospitalization, but a few doctors visits, tests, and medications. Medipac contacted her and informed her that if she was fearful of any further treatment necessary for the pneumonia or if there was possibility of a recurrence, that they would not cover her, but she would be covered for any other ailment that was not related. They suggested she go back to Canada if the pneumonia was a concern.

This might be similar to entering the Panama Canal. We were on deck at the front of the ship (Viking Explorer Lounge outdoor) at 4:45am. There were 5 other people there when we arrived. The approach to the canal lock is spectacular in the dark morning because of the lights. We maintained our position at the railing. Other decks had lots of viewing area, but folks like this one because the Explorer Lounge was serving coffee and early continental breakfast. We heard many comments about people hogging the railing, but we were there when you were still snoring. We film (video) our cruises because we produce a movie for each completed cruise. We get up early or stand for a long time to catch and get the view. We watch most all sail aways from the open decks, and we watch most docking from the open decks. We like this part of cruising. We plan for these events and plan to get the best vantage point. We have been 'late to the party' before, but would never dream of making comments for others to hear about giving us space at the front. If we are late, we stand at the best point we can find and are patient and if someone leaves, then we step in. Nope - would not give up my position. Sorry if that is harsh.

If you are bringing on board with you, it can be in checked luggage or hand luggage. No requirement to declare or expose it, as it is fully allowed. If you are bringing from home, it would have to be checked luggage, where if you were bringing from a connection point duty free, then you will likely be hand carrying it. Either way, no concern.

To me wine and art are similar - if you like it, it is good. If you don't like it, it is bad. You think Veuve is Basic, but we like it and think that it is more than basic. Veuve "fits" our palate. Our tastes are different.

Thanks for posting the menus, but in 10 Viking cruises we have never seen more than two "Champagne" options. Sure there are sparkling and prosecco but the OP is looking for Champagne options. We also find that they can be different based on the region the ship is sailing in. I guess that Viking does not have much call for Champagne. Oh, and on the recent River Cruise that we were on, the Veuve was on the menu but they did not have it on board. There was only sparkling and prosecco available. No Champagne. I would recommend to @Ibis that if Champagne is important to you, to take it onboard. Buy it duty free on your journey to the ship.

The SSBP does always offer Champagne - from Champagne region in France - but it is not included in the daily lunch and dinner wines. You can get Prosecco in the daily included wines at lunch and dinner. As well, every ships wine list is not identical as Viking does not source from one country and supply globally. Often the ship is restocking from the ports that they are docking at and some wines/champagnes may or may not be available. I have said in previous posts that Veuve Clicquot used to be offered by the glass inside the SSBP on River but not Ocean. More recently, Veuve is still offered on River, but not as part of SSBP - you have to pay for it by the glass. Our experience is that there is only one or two at most "Champagne" options if you are looking for Champagne from the Champagne region of France.

First, I am very sorry for your daughters diagnosis, and hope that she will come through this well... I want to be devils advocate however and ask why you would make final payment only to turn around and do a claim back? If this is the route that you are going to take, I would make VERY sure that this is a covered reason - which means that a doctor will have to issue a letter or report of the diagnosis and the subsequent chemo treatments and that his/her/their recommendation is that they don't travel. What is your deposit total? I am assuming that you don't have insurance to cover that? Is the deposit refundable? My other question would be, that if you have not yet purchased the insurance, and this diagnosis pre-dates the purchase of the insurance by making final payment, could Carnival consider this a pre-existing condition and not pay out? If this is the case then you would be better to forfeit your deposit than pay full cruise fare and then find out that you are losing it all. Hope what I am saying makes sense.... especially about the pre-existing condition.

Some ships have limited or no tables for two on a River Cruise. I think that meal time will be the tough part for you. The other tough one is the lounge before and after dinner, as depending on when you arrive, you may be forced to sit with others. Excursions are the ice breakers for me/us. This is the casual waking through a city or site that you are visiting and you are now casually able to say hello and interact with someone in a non forced way. This is where we most often pick up our dinner companions and I will often say as we end the excursion - "Dinner tonight together?"

Very cute...

It seems that you are truly not enjoying your experience. Sorry to hear that. I can relate to you having slow service, but the fix was already suggested above. Also as a note, if you choose to sit on the upper level of the Explorer Lounge, you will definitely experience slower service. The other experience we have had is that the Living Room before dinner often has faster service, if you don't want to go to the bar for your first drink. We love the food on Viking. Food is subjective to each person. We don't understand the fanfare around Manfredi's as we find it just ok food, but we love the Chef's Table, The Restaurant, and World Cafe. Before dinn

We took the cruise, we were never offered a drinks package, we only consumed the wine offered at the meals. The amount quoted above could only be worth it if you wanted to be drunk the entire sailing.

My knowledge on this is that you cannot do this before actually being on the ship and appealing to Guest Services. You may have to talk with the manager. They of course do this so that the "non-drinker" does not down the shot when the server turns their back. I am NOT saying this is your situation... but you know that there are many that will do anything to save a buck. The one time that I know this was done was when a friend of ours was travelling with her 18 year old granddaughter. They would not talk to her online or on the phone about it. She appealed to the Guest Services Manager and then the Beverage manager once on the ship and she got approval.

From what I understand now, the crowds are there all season that the ships are running. If you really want to reduce the crowds, then do as we do... Book the first date in the spring that the cruise is available, or the last date in the fall that the cruise is available. We don't like heat and would rather sail when it is colder anyway.

Yep! And that is more in Canadian dollars and we think in Canadian dollars. $68 per day CDN. That is a lot of drinking. We were a bit wine snobbish when we first started with Viking and wanted the extended wine list with each meal. Now we find that the included wines are very acceptable and on day two or three as you get to know the wine server, they will offer something else if the wine of the day does not please. We also took the SSBP because at that time on River Cruises Veuve Clicquot was included in the SSBP. This was never included on Oceans. Veuve Clicquot in Canada is $79 bucks per bottle, and we would easily drink 2 bottles of that a day... At that time I think that the cost of the package was $15 USD per night. We more than got our moneys worth. Now Veuve has been discontinued from the SSBP. Still available, but not within the package.

Of course Viking are charging a markup - healthy as we might think it is - but there is a lot of coordination to these excursions and most of all you are paying for the convenience of not having to book yourself. Booking yourself holds a host of challenges that you have to shoulder such as: 1) Time of arrival - what is the earliest you can join a tour? 2) Where do you join the tour? Do you have to Uber to the location where the tour starts? 3) What time will the tour end while keeping in mind the departure time of the ship? 4) Do you have a cancelation option if the ship misses a port due to weather or other reason? Many Viking guests - including ourselves - choose to book and pay the markup for the convenience. We have booked independent tours, and will likely in the future, but that is because we found something that Viking did not offer that interested us more. For instance, in a city like Barcelona, we would rather disembark the ship and do the Hop On Hop Off bus instead of a city tour by Viking.

I agree with @mom says but our experience in the last few years is that weather does not always follow historical patterns. Often today you can be taken off guard with lows or highs in temperatures. We were on a cruise in Europe over Christmas and New Year and the historical temperatures were 0C but we experienced 8-12C daily. We completely overpacked for cold, but were glad we had it. We travel a lot and have down puffer jackets that fold down to almost nothing but will keep us warm to -20C for short excursions. We pack wool under-layers that don't take any space. We also take a fleece zip jumper for under the down jacket if needed. We always have a couple of hats and scarves and gloves. We are ready for any weather and what makes us ready for any weather really does not take much room in the luggage. We dress in layers as the mornings and the evenings are always the coldest and that is where you experience the lows in temperature and we will strip off a layer during the day if necessary.