CDNPolar

If you are buying cancellation insurance, then it usually includes trip interruption as well. I am not sure what other insurance you would want or need, since you have your medical taken care of.

For us in YYZ Terminal 3 the machines were all new and working.

Is this Viking? What itinerary for January 2025? We have booked a few on board, but if you are being offered a 3K drop now, I would say take it. The onboard bookings generally give you better payment terms, an onboard credit on the cruise you are on, and an on board credit for the cruise you are going on. The only discount that I have seen onboard is whatever current price reduction is available to everyone online.

Anywhere in the world today has it's safety concerns. Go. Enjoy PV. Be diligent about your personal safety. You will have a good time.

The unfortunate thing is that hate is everywhere and it is directed at so many today. Kudos for you to stand proud and not get caught cowering in a corner somewhere! Have fun - glad to hear you are traveling with a large group of gays! Sounds like a blast!

Pardon my comments as they are not intended to be offending in any way, but I think the fact that you are 6'3" as a female will garner staring eyes in itself. My experience with Carnival is years old now, and I don't know what reception you will receive... I think that it will depend on where you are sailing and the demographics of the ship. If there is a good gay population on the ship that you can attach to then perhaps you will at least have a "peer group" to be around. You did not mention if you were travelling solo, or with your gay men friends? I think that you just do you and that is all you can do. What I would like is that you report back after to let us know how your experience was. There are some more posts like this creeping onto CC that are asking similar questions and I don't think that we have enough real and true experience around this yet. Your experience will help others.

We are a label driven society and yes, Sir, and Ma'am are labels too... Miss, Ms, Mr. are all labels. But this is all driven by culture and history. For some this is just so ingrained it is hard to shake it off. Unconscious bias is a big thing as well. We don't realize the unconscious bias that we have and we are promoting as long as we continue to use these gender identifiers. But again, other countries still don't even accept gay, so how will we manage to get them to acknowledge trans, and anyone that is gender queer. We have come a long way - in my lifetime anyway. I lived through AIDS in the 80's where many of my friends died. Where we could not attend a Pride celebration without fear of violence, and we were attacked on the streets on a Saturday night going to a club. My city, my country is not a place where I live in fear any more, but there are many places in the world that we still must be fearful of just because of who we are inside.

It is all about personal preference. We pay for what we believe we want and need. On ocean ships, I don't see the value in paying more money for the identical cabin one or two decks higher, but that makes a lot of people happy and is their preference.

Understood.... as we are Viking loyal (to this point) we have a friend that we want to cruise with and they will ONLY cruise on Oceania. They won't budge to try Viking. I think that we will try Oceania in the coming years!

I see it as a management role and a necessary role that heads all the entertainment and to a certain part too, guest relations. On Viking Ocean ships the Cruise Directors are actors/singers themselves and often are part of the show at some point on the itinerary. The ships that I have been on these folks are very talented. I also see them all around the Viking ships and they stop and talk and interact always. We have happened on three Viking Ocean cruises and quite by chance had the same Cruise Director that immediately recognized and greeted us on the 2nd and 3rd ship.

Early mid sixties here... haha... agree - just have fun and do what you want to do. I guess I don't today understand the need for 'us' to group together. I don't need to meet other gay men on a ship to enjoy myself. We have made great friends cruising and none of them are gay.

The balcony on a River Cruise I feel would be a waste of money. Why? We find that most River Cruises - that we have been on anyway - if they are sailing in daylight, we prefer to be on the top or sun deck to have a 360 view that you cannot get from the cabin. Additionally, if you are unlucky when docked to be between two ships, then if you went on your balcony you would be sitting a foot away from your neighbour in the ship docked beside you. We made friends with a couple that were on our Eastern European Cruise just recently that had a balcony cabin and they never sat on it once.

What is apples to apples FOR ME, is that when I price a cruise I don't look at the price per night necessarily, I look at my total cruise fare. Is it in my budget? 15K for two on Viking I know I don't have to spend more if I don't want to and I have a lot included. Yes, it might be baked into the cost, but I know the price. If I get on another ship and my cruise fare may be 12K, but I have to pay for this and that and the other thing, then in the end it may cost more than Viking where I know what I am going to get. We just like the pricing model of Viking because we know what we will get. This is interesting... We have looked at Oceania and have always dropped back because we felt that to get our Viking value, it would cost much much more and we are not convinced that Oceania is worth more...

You need to interview your TA's before you give them your booking. I am NOT saying that a TA does not deserve their commission, nor am I suggesting that any TA should give up any of their commission, BUT, some do. We cannot talk about specific TA's or companies here on CC, but know there are many TA's that do give credits and benefits for doing business with them and many that do not. You have to ask. We book different travel arrangements - cruise or land based - with different TA's because they offer different things. We have also had TA's that want to charge us an upfront research fee even to talk to us about an itinerary. The range of TA's is huge now. Before you book your next cruise, call and interview some TA's and then decide where you want to drop your booking. We ONLY use the TA for the cash or OBC value, as we book directly with the cruise line first and get everything in place that we want, and then transfer the booking. We book our air ourselves, we book our shore excursions ourselves too.

There are so many products on the market that I am sure there are pros and cons to other lines as there is for Viking. I am often criticized by my husband as I will eat the same thing in a restaurant over and over because I liked it the first time. For food he is different, but with Viking we both liked it and therefore continue booking.

... and the PV water supply is safe throughout the city in the restaurants and bars... This is a plus for us.

We have priced other lines, but to date all our cruising - River and Ocean - except one River Cruise (Egypt Nile) have been on Viking. Why? We just like the product. Simple. I know that this might get debated here, but we really like the almost all included pricing of Viking. We know the ships, we know the product, we like the service. We do price around but so far have not jumped on anything. We tend to fall back to Viking. For Ocean we do want to look at bigger ships, but we LOVE the no children on Viking so if on a bigger ship we would look for an adults only section / concierge section of the ship. (Off topic) And back to topic - Viking do fill their ships and for those that don't like the deposit and payment policy, they don't have to book, but Viking are not suffering because of this group not booking. I look at this perhaps from the wrong lens. We are not wealthy, but we save well in advance for our travels. I can pay the full fare if necessary one year out, but as I have stated, we have always been 6 months payment because of future cruises booked. I know that if you are paying 12 months out that there is interest lost on that cash over that period if it was in a bank or an investment, but in reality it is not that much loss - in my mind. AND, there are no penalties until 120 days out except the $100 pp if you cancel outright. Which means cancel before 120 days and get back your full payment. To us, we are ok with this.

PV is in my mind the Gay Mecca of Mexico. It is the only destination in Mexico that I care to travel to. We have been there 3 or 4 times now, cannot remember, but not on a cruise, always an all inclusive resort. You can walk openly in the streets holding hands and no one cares. You have "zones" in PV North Zone Nuevo Vallarta Marina Vallarta Hotel Zone Downtown Puerto Vallarta Romantic Zone - Old Town South Zone I would suggest you target the Romantic Zone which is the most populated gay area, where the gay beach is and most of the hotels that cater to the gay clients. This is is also where all the restaurants, and shops and interest is in my mind. We stay at the Sheraton Buganvilias Resort (Google Map it) and then we walk south daily into the Zona Romantica and focus our time between the Sheraton and the Old Town. To us, this is where all the fun and interest is. We love Polo's Seafood Restaurant: https://mariscospolos.wixsite.com/polosrestaurant. The seafood platter for two is amazing. Have fun! You will likely want to return for a week at a resort.

We just (or I just - I am the driving force here) want a window that opens. On River cruises on Viking if you don't have a French Balcony or a Veranda cabin, then you are in what I call "the basement" cabins and the window is shoulder height and does not open. The window is shoulder height because everything below your shoulders is under the water line. Perhaps it is a claustrophobic thing, but I need the ability to open a window. This also somewhat came from Covid where on the ship stuck in Australia and all those people in inside cabins for weeks with no windows. I have sailed on Viking in the basement, and the cabin was fine. I just don't choose to be in that category because I want an opening window. Oh, and as a side note, we never sit in the room, we are only there to shower, change, or sleep. The only time our window is open or we are looking out is when the other is in the shower. If we are not sleeping we are on deck or in the lounge.

We were the couple that knew Viking from their TV ads specifically on PBS TV. We never booked a cruise before and we just accepted the payment policy and thought that this was standard. Re the comment about 6 months payment, this is ONLY if you have at least one cruise currently booked with deposit. We now are going to hit our 9th or 10th cruise with Viking and we always have one cruise booked in the future which maintains the 6 month full payment option. I also think that this option may be limited to USA and Canada, and may not apply to other countries? In any case, we are taking advantage of the active $25 deposit now for the future cruises as it reduces the money we have to have on file with Viking to get 6 month payment terms. You can also before full payment move that deposit to another cruise altogether or different dates with no penalty.... so we do placeholders. We intend to do that cruise, but we may move it before we do it... The other thing about Viking and their payment terms? People pay it. Yes, you see the odd person on CC that say they won't book with Viking because of this, but then tell me why we have to book 18+ months in advance to get the cabin category we want? Because Viking fill their ships. They don't have to lower the payment terms.

Exactly! The fact that cruise ships are being inclusive and offering "us" a meeting point or venue to get acquainted is great. Perhaps they are off on their terminology by a decade or 4 is beside the point. We don't attend these gatherings on any ship anyway. When I bring up to my husband when I see it on the daily schedule, his answer is a question, Why? We make friends with friendly people on the cruise ship and don't care if they are straight or gay and any derivation of the alphabet of 2SLBGTQ+.

This is a complicated one. We are doing a land tour of Vietnam and Cambodia in January, and I do know that there are differences if you are arriving or moving through a border by land, air, or sea. We are air across country borders so we are good with electronic Visas, and we are not reentering any country so we only need single entry. I don't find that your US Government sites give specific information. In my mind, your cruise line should have the right answers for these questions? Obtaining the Visa is always your responsibility, but your cruise line should be able to give you the correct requirements, because they would likely deny you boarding if you cannot show the right Visas. I get your concern because navigating and finding government sites whether it be the US or Cambodia or Vietnam, can be complicated and confusing. If you are navigating this without the help of the cruise line, my advice is to ONLY use the official web sites of the Cambodian and Vietnamese governments to understand the requirements for Americans entering the country. You will find a breakdown of electronic vs. paper Visa depending on how you are entering the country. Note as well that one of the two - don't remember now - only issues for 30 days from application where the other is 90 days. So in other words, with the one, you kind of have to apply close to your trip departure. Also I do think that both countries require your Passport to be valid for 6 months after the end of your trip.

I am just looking at the Canadian government site that I use for all travel requirements. Roatan is listed as not required. Panama is listed as recommended. Generally speaking, and this is just my opinion of what I have read in the past, that vaccines like Yellow Fever are required if you are going deep into rural or jungle areas of the country. Not necessarily for a one day cruise excursion. We went to both of these last year and our doctor said no requirement for Yellow Fever for these countries, but that was last year. I would also suspect that the cruise line is going to alert you - even though this is your responsibility - as they don't want to deny boarding or disembarkation if you don't have the required shots.

OMGoodness! This "addiction" is that serious? Haha.

How I wish this was the case. After now 8 Viking cruises, we have tried to email back the person that booked us or call them and they are gone from Viking. Or, they just don't respond. You are lucky that you have been able to maintain the same Viking agent.