CDNPolar

Bags aside, we will pay for Premium Economy (PE) because the configuration is either 2 3 2 or 2 4 2. We will pay for it if we can get the 2 seats (window/aisle) on the side. PE used to be only about $1,000.00 more for the upgrade, but now seems to be $1,200.00. There is more leg room, a wider seat, china dishes and metal cutlery, better "service" depending on the airline, priority boarding, and depending on your status with the airline you may also get lounge access. We will and do forego PE on Toronto to Europe flights at 7-8 hours, but will fly minimum PE if going to Asia and beyond.

We often look at independent excursion providers and are not tied to the cruise line excursions. Sometimes these can be same or similar excursion at a cheaper cost. I have done this once in the past - hired a taxi for a 4 hour drive to wherever... that is good too. Sometimes ships have shuttle busses to the city centre so you can go on your own. My favourite travel hack is Uber where Uber is available. Take an Uber. Just know your back on board time and ensure wherever you are that they are not using a different local time from the ship time. Leave a window of extra time and be back 45 minutes before back on board time.

We have had our "experiences" with Viking customer service and reservations. Many times on CC it is talked about the land vs. shipboard experience are very different. We deal with the sometimes poor customer service and the fact that the information is not the same from each person you talk to because in our opinion the shipboard experience is worth it.

Payment date aside, if you are booking air with Viking because it is a deal, or free, then of course you are getting contracted rates and possibly the least favourable times and routes - this is what you have to expect from contract rates. You don't have to do your air through Viking. We book our air through Viking when a free or reduced offer, but we always use Air Plus and select our own flights. We know who they contract with and we have had great results. We are also a gateway departure city directly to European destinations, so we have that advantage too... we are not connecting once inside the US as many Americans may be. We also book our own air and sometimes get much better rates than Viking, or we find that the fares are the same or very similar. If you book on your own you lose the free transfers to and from the ship.

No, I would never move. I may have paid for this seat and I took the time and initiative to select the seat I wanted in the section of the plane that I wanted. I don't move for anyone unless there is benefit for me. I have noticed people separated, and I got stuck with bad luck in a middle seat, and have offered my middle seat to put them back together so I can have their aisle seat and been lucky...

Always install before you leave home, as in some situations depending on what you want to achieve, you can only change some settings when at home. Once you are in another country the option to choose "Rogers" or other Canadian carriers is gone....

The options from Milhouse are good....! I get your concern about the cost. We have had good and bad experiences arriving the day of the cruise, and depending on the cruise line, and if you booked the air through them, you may or may not have a safety net to get to your cruise at the next port or if you are just out of luck. My brother recently did a Panama Canal cruise, and there were 46 people on his flight to Panama City for that cruise departure. They were to land at 3:30pm in Panama City and the cruise did not leave port - to start the partial crossing of the canal - until 3:30am local time. There flight was significantly delayed do to mechanical and then waiting for a replacement aircraft, and they finally only landed in Panama City about 3:30am. The ship did not wait, so they missed the partial crossing, but the cruise line put them up in a 5 star hotel and created a behind the scenes tour of both the original and new canal from the ground. They then got on the ship on the return out of the canal and completed the cruise. The point to this story is my brother and wife will now never plan to arrive the day of and always at least a day before. We also now as a basic rule do day before, but we hedge our bets based on time of the year, especially considering if our outbound flight could be delayed because of winter weather. That is not just where you live but from where the inbound flight of your outbound flight is coming from. In general, and again I get your concern for the cost, but we include the extra day in a hotel as part of out budgeting.

Depending on the cruise line, if you cannot get a solo seat, and if you are good with the buffet, then you could dine in the buffet and allow your partner to dine where she wants. My husband is quiet. I am not. He is always happy that I carry the conversation, and he may only answer direct questions to him if we are forced to sit at a meal with others. On our preferred ocean line, we can always have a table for two, but on river cruising, when we are forced to sit with others, we tend to try and find some folks that we might meet and talk to on an excursion and then if we do hit it off we sit together often. I am fine either way. I am in a profession that I must be in front of people all the time, but the fact is I don't want to be, but I have taught myself how to be social that way. I personally would prefer to be dining alone with my husband, so I don't seek out the company of others, but will carry the conversation for him if we are in the company of others. I found the title of this discussion amusing, with no offence intended. I found it so, because if we are flying internationally and we are flying economy, we don't sit together. We sit aisle on the left side of the plane and one in front of each other. When I saw this discussion this just came to mind as similar, but not...

Well, to add to this... I only LISTEN to audio books. I don't read ebooks or real books. If not available in audio, then I won't be "reading" it. Reading aside, no politics, religion, or climate change because climate change has become political.

I would suggest the following: Make your home country location mandatory in the profile. I know that folks could put any comment there, but perhaps a drop down that you had to select a country and then an open text where you could if you wanted to add a city or region. But make the country mandatory. Why? On many discussions that I participate in, such as Insurance, and Viking payment/deposits, there are such great differences depending on the country that you reside in. Having Cruise Insurance broken into sub forums that are specific to Canada, USA, Australia, UK and potentially other countries. In the ever favourite discussions about Viking (I know I am limiting to Viking but sure this applies to many cruise lines and different countries) payments and deposits, etc, there are vast differences again about country. I am not suggesting sub-forums here, but this is where the mandatory country of residence would help to understand a response that someone gives or lets us know how to respond, or who should respond. For me, I don't use search much, but do know how to effectively use it in its current state. I more look for current discussions that I can add to. I use the "Mark Forum Ad Read" every day after I have gone through the forums that I am interested in, that way when I come back later today or tomorrow, and go back into that forum, I am only seeing NEW activity. This is an essential tool for me as it keeps me current to the discussions that I might be interested in. I also look at any new activity with an eye to when the original post was started. If it was started years ago, and this is the first activity since, then I don't even open it. Sometimes to me we are beating a dead horse to use a saying that is somewhat distasteful...

Pretty standard in Canada, or for the home owner policies that I have had, that when away, you have to prove that you have had someone physically enter your home after your absence of 7 days, and then again every 7 days. In discussions with an insurance underwriter, the basic response as to why every 7 days was: * You are away for 14 days * On day two the main water into the house bursts in the basement or there is a drain backup * Within seven days of the event, there is significantly less damage to be repaired than if the damage is not caught until day 14. This would be the water damage soaking the sheetrock / drywall and apparently this is something that an adjustor can calculate... they apparently know how long this water has been standing without being reported. The end result is they may deny your claim completely or significantly reduce what they will pay you for the repair.

I think it is like frequent flying. There was a time that I was boarding an aircraft every 2-3 days and this went on for several years. I experienced some crazy rough turbulence and "drops" and missed take offs and missed approaches and go arounds.... Some frequent flyers and some not so frequent flyers get to experience these things and some don't ever... I think the same with rough waters when cruising. We have had what I would call moderate seas, where you are arms outstretched when walking the corridor to your cabin and we have also been in the Drake Passage with 35+ foot waves. I do think that based on the number of cruise ships sailing around the globe at any one time, there is a very low chance and percentage of ships that would ever be in the situation where they were advised to go to their cabins. Ships are going to sail around this weather if possible. But, it can happen.

I think that Viking is gaining popularity in the LGBT community. No offence to anyone on this forum, as I lived through the 80's and 90's and was in a club 6 nights out of 7. I partied and had my fun. I am personally not interested in the party ships, or an Atlantis Cruise, as I just want peace and serenity now and Viking provides that for me (us). My husband and I met when I was 51 and he is a bit younger. He has never been interested in partying, at all, full stop. There are many different cruise enthusiasts out there and that is why there are so many different cruise lines offering different products. The big ships full of kids don't do it for us. Noise and screaming and running and all the chaos is just not what we want. We don't want 'disco' night clubs and dancing under the stars. We cruise for the destination (rarely if ever Caribbean) and look for the knowledge and experience that we are going to gain, and Viking gives us that. There is a reason that Viking is billed as (even if self-proclaimed) "The Thinking Person's Cruise" and "Curated for curious travellers with true explorer spirits." But, Viking won't do it for everyone...

Really? Just barely adequate food? I know that food is highly subjective based on culture, upbringing, and just individual tastes, but Uniworld has always - in my mind - had the reputation of higher quality food??? The only Uniworld we have done is The Nile, and although I would have still rated Viking's food to be slightly above this experience, it was much better than barely adequate. We really enjoyed the food.

I would agree with the above, BUT, this is my opinion, of late, we are not experiencing typical historical weather patterns anywhere in the world. You can do your best to pick a time of the year, but if you pick spring summer and there is drought then you could be in trouble... If there is too much rain you can be in trouble. I know not what you want to hear, but again, my opinion, you have to pick the time of year that you really want to go based on seasonal offerings, and then take the weather that you get. We just came back from Treasures of the Rhine - December 23 - Jan1 and the water levels were crazy high and only the week before us ships were not sailing past Cologne. I believe that this is not typical for the time of the year. We also packed for much colder temps than we experienced - again not typical.

I have always wanted to ask this question - does Steve sell to Canadians as well? I wish we had someone that was so knowledgeable to contact in Canada. I have an insurance broker that we have used and insurance is her business and she cannot answer most of our questions. To me, in general, it seems as though Americans have more specific and understandable language in their policies and for us Canadians, the language is vague and ends up being a case-by-case scenario that you cannot predict in advance.

Yes, unfortunately, if there is one guest on the manifest that you are included on that did not have luggage when they arrived, you will have to wait for them to do their paperwork first. That would delay your transport. Can you comment if a Viking Rep was helping this guest with the luggage paperwork? We have only had delayed luggage with another cruise line and one of the cruise lines people helped us tremendously at the luggage counter. They knew "the guy" at the counter and expedited us through the process.

Could you then make three more? Or did it stop you?

Oh, and I will add, that if included excursions were board a bus while we drive you around, you wouldn't catch me on one of them... I would pay for all my excursions... that would be a waste of my time. I want to not only see, but feel, and experience the places that I am visiting.

Not true at all. Included excursions can be 2 hours or 8 hours. They can be walking tours or bus tours to outlying areas.... Often you will bus to a castle or a ruin of some sort. This also depends on if this is a river cruise or ocean cruise. There can be differences, but they are not JUST a bus ride around the city. If you are boarding a bus then they will take you somewhere and you will get off and do a walking tour and sometimes get back on and go to the next location. Many on the River cruises can be walking tours that start at the ship because you are docking so close. We do most of the included tours because they are so well curated and very educational. We have no problem paying for excursions, but on a 10-15 day cruise we might buy 3 optional excursions and the rest are the included, because Viking's included excursions are so good. Here are some examples:

Can you share what sq ft to your husband that is considered tiny? Just curious without any purpose other than curiosity. I personally am challenged with some river cruise line cabins and the fact that you have to turn sideways to walk beside the bed and that the only open space is the entrance between the closet and the bathroom door. Viking River base French Balcony that we go for is only 135 sq ft. Interesting however that VIking Aquarium Cabins are bigger than the French Balcony at 150 sq ft. We are satisfied with the lowest category of cabin on Viking Ocean which is 270 Square Feet which includes the veranda. This is more than enough room for us with a small seating area and a desk.

Unfortunately it is not... because we are watching mostly American news stations like CNN. And we all know that CNN is fully bipartisan. Haha. What I note is that many people go looking for the news that they want to consume and very little today is actually bipartisan and just the facts. So, we merrily go around consuming news and information that satisfies our individual beliefs, morals, and needs for lack of another term I consume a lot of Apple News daily. What is always interesting is how many of the articles are purely opinion, and not fact based at all. You can have three articles in the same week that are pure opinion with no actual fact that completely contradict each other. We tend to believe what we read in print. I have friends that bring me ridiculous concepts and thoughts about the world today and when I ask where they heard this, the response is Facebook or TikTok or Instagram. I am not suggesting that these social media don't have actual factual news from time to time, but we are so ready to consume any crap that is put on these platforms as fact and truth, that I am fearful for the generations to come.

Not that someone could not find us and know that we are away, but we have cameras in the house that are cloud based storage, and they are in places that even if the intruder knew where they were, they could not eradicate them without us getting a pic of their face or faces. And they are in various points around the house. Actually, this all starts with the front door doorbell camera. These cameras only activate when our phones are not in the house and we get immediate notification - anywhere we are in the world - of any activity. Oddly there are two specific notifications: * One indicates "your camera noticed ACTIVITY" * The other indicates "your camera SAW A PERSON" Two cruises ago, I got a SAW A PERSON notification and kind of freaked! When I started to study the footage, somehow a TV was turned on and the camera had the TV in its view, and it was reporting on the people on the TV. We never figured out how the TV was turned on, and assume that it was either a power off/on or surge, or possibly our neighbours remote pointed in our direction? It has never happened since this one time. But, we know that the camera notification works. But we also know the camera notification works because when we have friends scheduled to do physical checks of our home, it captures them. We aslo use these cameras to survey the house during our absence for insurance purposes. If we detect anything wrong we have friends and neighbours that we can alert within minutes to go and investigate, and they know that their entry will trigger the cameras and then we have insurance proof that our house was monitored during our absence. This may be extreme for some people, but it works for us and we don't see this as preventing a break in, but we will know about it and can then remotely call in whatever help we need to deal with it instead of finding out when we get home.

We love Viking. We have been on 10 Viking cruises now and a mix of ocean and river. Although Viking is perhaps a bit higher priced on the surface, look at what is included: * Every cabin has a balcony (Ocean) * WiFi included * Wine and beer included lunch and dinner * One excursion included in each port * Port fees and taxes included * Transfers from and to airport/ship included if you arrange your air through Viking * No extra cost for specialty dining Viking did not stand out to us when we were first looking for a cruise line as the 2SLGBTQ+ preferred line, but we love it because it is quiet, with no kids (under 18) is not a party ship, and in our opinion the buffet food is an elevated quality. (You have made to order options on the buffet at all meals too) On a ship of 900 odd souls, you. may note a few other gay couples, and if requested Viking will host an LGBT get together. Sometimes there is one and sometimes there is not, but we don't attend these anyway. Viking crew have never been anything but respectful and accommodating which is why we keep going back. We generally have at least 2 Viking cruises booked for the future. Viking overall is a quiet ship with no casino, only one small night club (very small), no art auctions, no pictures for sale, etc. Let us know who you choose and please report back after!

Good luck on your European Cruise and I am anticipating that the Drivers License will not come into play with any customs or immigration officer, so you should sail smoothly through all of this since the passport has the gender identifier that you want it to have. In all my extensive travelling on land and sea, I have never been asked for additional identification, beyond the passport. I hope this goes smoothly for you and please report back! Travel safe and have fun.