CDNPolar

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.

I so have empathy for anyone who has to fight for recognition for who they are on the inside or the outside. In my opinion, as a society, in North America specifically, we are too label focused. We have to put a label on everyone and the unfortunate thing is that the traditional labels are limiting. I know that my opinion was not asked for here, but if you want to travel beyond the USA and Canada and maybe a few other countries, I personally would stray away from the X identifier especially on a passport. You could be denied entry to some countries. Currently the countries that I am aware of that themselves offer passports with X identifiers are Canada, USA, Colombia, Argentina Germany Ireland India, Australia, and New Zealand. Outside of these countries, you may have real issues entering if they are on your travel plan. I understand the want and need for the X identifier - I do. But as @summercruisin' stated, it is about resistance to change. In some areas of the world, it is not about resistance to change, it is about acceptance in general of anyone that is not "male", "female" or in a heterosexual relationship. This could be for some countries decades before we see absolute change and acceptance if ever. Just make your identification and passport decisions with care and with a vision beyond what we feel is right because of where we reside in the world.

If you purchased your air through Viking - which it sounds like you did - Viking will have you on the arrival passenger manifest and there will be Viking agents at the airport to meet you immediately as you exit the baggage area. I have been on 10+ Viking cruises now, and arrived early and late, and the Viking agent is always there and we have always been moved to a bus or transport very quickly and taken to the ship. Now, we have arrived early enough that Viking in some cases have provided an area for us to lounge before embarking the ship, but it will be comfortable and there will be refreshments and restrooms. If you are taken directly to the ship, you may not be able to access your stateroom immediately, but you would be able to use the ship amenities. For your return, it depends on your flight. Viking asks that all guests vacate their stateroom no later than 8am. If your transport is later, you can have breakfast and wander the ship until your transport. You don't have to leave the ship at 8am. If your flight is 6:00am, then you will - depending on the distance to the airport - be taken off the ship at perhaps 3:00am or 3:30am. If your flight is 8am, then perhaps a 5:00am departure. It will generally be two to three hours before your flight. We have disembarked with flights at 6:00pm or later and Viking has taken us to a hotel conference room where our luggage was stored, and there were refreshments, etc., until we were taken to our flight.

We should still be diligent, but we use a car service that we have used for years and I think we are at 60+ trips with them. They specialize in airport, but still that is not 100% guarantee. The driver could pass information on. I like what you say.

Never heard that rule for home insurance, and will look more closely at my home policy. One rule that I have always followed, is that my luggage tags on checked and carry on ONLY have name, email, and phone number. NEVER home address which is a standard field on many cards that are inside the luggage tag. Why? Behind the scenes workers in the luggage handling department then have access to your home address and good intel that you are not at home. I am NOT suggesting that luggage handlers are not trustworthy, but there is an element of knowledge here that for those that are looking purposely to take advantage, might... For that matter, if you take a cab/taxi/limo to the airport, that company or driver know you are away. We always let our next door neighbour know we are away. I don't use Facebook, but I do post on Instagram, but I only have 15 or so close friends that are on my account and they already knew that we were away.

Don't understand why folks are not understanding of this. If you are late you are late. However there can also be the argument that often flights are late leaving for many reasons, but as the flying consumer we have to understand that there are situations on both sides that we have to accept. I also don't understand the yelling at the agent. Never is it the agents fault. There is a small piece that I cannot find anymore that for me sums this kind of situation up and it is just something that we have to understand... It went / goes something like this: Often in our lives we allow minutes and hours to slip by without notice, but the value of that one single minute is never realized more, than by the person that is one minute late for the departure of a train, aircraft, or anything that has a hard stop that was one minute before.

Just so many questions, and all great ones asked above. The only thing that I want to add, is that I agree with 4-5 days is too short. If they want to try cruising, then I would do a 7 or 8 day cruise as a minimum to give them a good taste. I would add, do they have any hesitation going on a cruise? Are there any reasons that they have not in the past gone on a cruise? This might help you to know what line and what itinerary to take them on? I have had friends tell me - that have never cruised - that they don't go on cruises because: * Too much lining up * Too structured * Not enough time in each port or country * They are just big non-stop parties * Too many people... I think if you can understand if they have any hesitations, and what they are, then you might be able to pick the right line and itinerary. For me, if you were to take me on my first cruise, I would never want a Caribbean itinerary, because I don't like the heat, I don't like beaches, swimming, or anything related to beaches, and I have seen all I ever in my life want to see in the Caribbean. I went on a Panama Canal cruise a year ago, and the only segment of that cruise that I enjoyed was Panama City because I had never been there before and the actual crossing of the canal. The rest of the Western Caribbean was wasted time for me. I am only saying this to make a point of knowing what they don't like may be more helpful than what you think they might like.

I have medical through my company as I am still working, and I travel internationally for my company. I always ASSUMED that because this was company sponsored, and I have it because my company expects me to travel, that it would cover me regardless of pre-existing conditions. NO, it does not. However, I have tried from this company - Canada Life - to get specific policy language on pre-existing conditions, stable periods, etc., and they cannot provide anything more than to essentially say that it varies case by case. In my mind, it is a roulette game and there is no way to really know. So, we do buy - sometimes - additional plans, especially cancellation insurance that do carry medical as well. When travelling to Antarctica, I offered the insurance company a letter from my GP and Cardiologist that said I was stable and no med changes, and stable for travel, and they said that this bore no positive standing on any claim that it would be decided based on the circumstance at the time. We are not travelling until late this year again, and I am going to do some real homework now.

I don't know that this indicates undersold, as much as a sales closing technique. I have taught sales most of my career and we would always follow up someone who puts something on or in their shopping cart but does not complete the sale. This is a personal touch instead of an email that you get from an online shopping site where you put something in the cart, but did not check out. Then you get the email asking if you "forgot something"?

I think that it is more often that the person that is upset is not aware that it is a common thing elsewhere. This may be the first time they have ever been asked. It is the same thing when different cultures have different responses to social situations. Some are put off in how someone reacts because they don't realize that this is the common response or reaction in that culture.

Interesting... never thought of that, but the hours that I keep based on the fact that I work with 6 countries that are anywhere from 5 hours to 17 hours ahead of my time, I am often not online when the chat folks are available. Lately however when I have wanted to use chat instead of call in, I find I have clicked on that icon only to be informed that all agents are busy - try again later.

Yes, it is more of a North American thing to ask what you do for a living, and yes, in some countries that question would be looked upon as somewhat invasive, or that you are trying to "rank" them in some way. Or, just too personal of a question on first meeting them. The fact is that many people from other cultures just don't associate themselves with their jobs in the same way that we do. They also - in general - don't work as hard and have more vacation.

So sorry @Aquahound that this is your experience because it sure would not be if you met me! And @puppycanducruise you are so correct that we are inundated with US news and politics. I think that even though I would not speak about it on a cruise, I am more aware of what is happening in the US politically than I am my own country. One could say that nothing happens here that is worthy of attention unless you want to keep consulting the ethics committee about our PM's vacations....

We do that because we never use it, and it is a BIG shelf that it is on. Far better for storage than wasted on something we don't use. I think that you will find adequate space for your winter clothing.

You cannot - in my experience - cancel the hold yourself on a 72 hour hold booked online. You either call Viking to ask them to drop the hold, or just let it expire.

Ok... understood. I work in DEI heavily (Diversity Equity and Inclusion) and wanted to understand where you were coming from. It can be a touchy and slippery slope sometimes in how one refers to an individual that is mobility challenged, or has any kind of limitation that is either physical or if they are neural divergent. Some terms can be acceptable in one country and not in another. It is a shame that some threads are not taking care to how they speak to this segment of our society. The sad part is that many places in the world today do not yet recognize that every living being should have the same accessibility. But when you look at some of these countries and then recognize that compared to the USA and Canada we are but toddlers to their centuries of background and infrastructure that cannot easily or reasonably be modified, it makes more sense. One day...

I wish all were like you. I cannot tell you how often politics or any of these subjects are some of the first questions or statements that come out of others mouths when we meet them and start talking to them. It is almost like the person(s) want to know where you stand and whether you side with them or not. I will say that I am Canadian, and don't have an opinion, but that is often not enough. The other piece however is in dining rooms where tables are close together, I don't want to sit beside a table that discusses this throughout the meal, and that has happened to us as well.