CDNPolar

We love almost every venue that Viking has on the Ocean ships and I will rank in order of preference: Dinner Big Number One!!! The Chef's Table (Every menu change) The Restaurant (In between menu changes for Chef's Table) Manfredi's (Once, perhaps twice on a cruise - our least popular) The World Cafe. (When the menu in the restaurant does not excite us) Lunch The World Cafe. (Not sure we have ever eaten lunch anywhere else - we just like the selection and help yourself) Breakfast The World Cafe. (Not sure we have eaten anywhere else - we just like the selection and help yourself) Never Eaten At: The Pool Bar - menu does not interest us Mamsens - menu does not interest us other than the Success Cake, so I guess we have eaten from Mamsens.

If you go, even the charcoal will not help. You will need antibiotics. Uniworld have doctors that will come to the ship, and for me we were at the Four Seasons at the end of our trip and the hotel has doctors that they call and the doctors come to you. I had Imodium, charcoal, and probiotics - nothing helped until the doctor visit and the meds he prescribed.

I am sorry if what I personally have experienced challenges what you think you know. I have been stopped because my middle name is not on the ticket and does not match my passport. I will continue to put my middle name on my tickets, and you do and give out the advice that you feel you have to. I will follow my own path.

No, some don't have a field for the middle name, they ask you to run it together with your first name. Case in point, when I was booking a flight with EVA and there was no place for my middle name, I called and they instructed me to put first and middle names together in the first name field.

I beg to differ with this statement. I have been stopped twice in the past because the name did not match, and when I showed various forms of ID I was let through. These were in European airports. This may not be necessary in North America, but if it does not have some impact somewhere in the world, why does my travel agent, the agent when I book cruises, and others, ask if the name I am giving is exact to my passport, which includes my middle name. This is then the name that goes on the cruise booking, and the flight booking.

Wow... what a kerfuffle this whole thing is with Egypt Visas. I just hope that all goes smoothly for you and that you have a wonderful trip! Egypt is a beautifully striking country and it will go down as one of our favourite and best trips ever. Our of 40 some odd countries, it is in the top three. Just one word of advice from a traveller that got a dreaded Egypt stomach bug on the last day and missed the pyramids, be very cautious of what you are eating and drinking off of a ship or outside of a hotel. Note also that typical North American remedies like Imodium do NOT work for these stomach bugs.

I opened this only because we are flying EVA for the first time ever in January 2024. Not through JFK, but Toronto to Taipei, and then on from Taipei. Don't know anyone else's experience, but we fly internationally from Toronto often, and whether carryon only or checked luggage, the electronic boarding passes never get you anywhere until you have gone through the counter and had your documents / credentials checked on the landside. This is standard, right?

Because of the need to match the name on the passport, I must give my middle name as it is on the passport.

Please don't take offence to this comment, but the measurements are the measurements, and if a bag bulges in the middle and is rejected, then it does not meet the standard, and should be rejected. I have a carryon that has the extra zipper that allows you to expand it by an inch. Even with the expansion zipped closed, it would not pass the laser measure, and for the metal guide at the checkin desk we have to physically squeeze it together and kind of force it. Now, if we put a luggage belt around it and pull it tight, it fits. Not sure that it would pass the laser test, but fits the metal guide. Again, no offence, but offering a little leeway never works, because then there is always an excuse or an exception that one person gets that another does not. We have several bag sizes and we research each airline because none are exactly the same, and we choose our luggage based on the airline we are flying.

The amount of concern that this causes people, I just don't understand why the airlines cannot insert a space between first and middle.

I was under the impression that evisas obtained before October 1st for travel after October 1st were going to be rendered invalid? Did this change?

I fully support the pharmacist discussion! Go there first, and see where you go next. I don't believe however that a Pharmacist in Canada can prescribe the seasickness patch, so you will have to go back to the GP if you want it. Or, go to a walk in clinic and get a doctor there to prescribe - if they will. However get the pharmacist to explain all the possible side effects and what the doctor's concerns are. I do know that some doctors may be hesitant to prescribe certain medicines that are elective and asked for by the patient in case there could be significant issues, because they don't want to get sued. I have a deep tissue massage every three weeks and have had for decades now. I require a prescription from my doctor for my benefits to cover the cost. I have had TWO doctors in the past that would not write me a prescription for massage. When asked, one said he just did not believe that massage had benefits, and the other said that if I ever suffered any kind of injury from massage that I could sue him for the recommendation.

We have several sizes of both carry on and checked luggage cases. We decide what we are using based on the airline we are flying. Depending on the airline now, you also have to be aware of the size (and possibly weight) of what they refer to as a personal item. You will see various discussions here on CC about airlines starting to crack down on size and weight of carryon and personal items. Just as a note, we fly British Air a lot. Carry on dimensions aside, BA allow the carryon to be up to 23KG. We are flying on EVA Air in January, and the dimensions for the carry on are the same, but the max weight for the carryon is only 7KG and they weigh them to check. My smallest lightest case weights 3KG itself with nothing in it.

Don't want to assume, but you are aware of the Egypt Visa issues for Canadians right?

Guess we are part of the 10 on the disembarkation day. This is a travel day. We are relaxed and don't want to feel like we are rushing home... we just take our time.

My happy place is inside a Numbers (Apple) or Excel spreadsheet and I budget every trip we book, and often before the booking is made. My spreadsheet has every possible charge and cost that we have incurred over the years of travelling. I see the gratuity added at the end of the cruise as part of the cost, so it is part of the budgeting process. Whether Viking hide it in the total price or not, we budget for it and accept it as part of the cost. As many have said before, if you can afford 10K per person after cruise fare, airfare, excursions, and whatever... then a few hundred per person for the gratuities should not be a concern. Oh, and we tip directly to specific people on board too that show us exceptional service.

When using Viking Air Plus, we have had conversations with the Viking Air Agent, and given the Airline and the time we wanted to fly. Each time they have offered us earlier departures, or rather I would say encouraged that there were earlier options that would get us home sooner, that we declined and insisted on the time we asked for. They gave us the time we asked for, so there were in fact several options under Viking's contract.

If I am not mistaken, the prepaid option - for Canadians anyway - is cheaper than letting them add to the bill on the ship. I chose not to do the prepaid on our most recent Passage to Eastern Europe and I am going to dig out my final invoice to confirm, BUT, the prepaid option was $20 CAD per person per night, but we were charged on board, 20 Euros per person per night which is almost $29 CAD per person when calculating the exchange. We do pay the gratuities and do not ask for reduction, so I am going to look at this further and probably prepay before MVJ shuts you out prior to the cruise. Off topic, but this is the same for excursions and silver spirits. If we add to our bill before departure, then it is in CAD and if we add on the ship then it is in USD or Euros that will significantly increase our cost from prepaying.

Well, I don't disagree that some have two or more connections to make, but when we have allowed Viking in the beginning to book our flights, we were always on a 6am departure when there were several options later in the day. We did our share of disembarking at 3-4am in the beginning until we learned the game. Yes, to Toronto is much easier as most European cities have direct to Toronto.

I get all of this, but I am a keen observer, and although I can only see what is immediately around me, I don't see many people at all wanting to use the under the seat option because it is so limited, especially on a long flight. I am 6' so I need the leg room. Now in aircraft that only takes my wheeled carryon flat in the bin, then I use the limited space on top of that for a personal item or coat. If the bin takes it on the side therefore giving more space for more bags, I hold the personal item until after everyone is seated and I have never had an issue getting that small extra bag in the bin. It is all about strategy.

We only take our passports with us outside of a hotel, or cruise ship if required by country law to carry it with you. We have pictures of all our ID (Passport, DL, Health Card, Travel Insurance) on our phones and in the cloud. We do carry at least one form of ID and that is generally a DL and then a CC. We just experienced a couple on our Eastern Europe River Cruise that had their passports pickpocketed because the cases were sticking up out of an outside pocket of their shoulder bag and they did not even know it at first. This was an included tour and there were multiple groups that were on this tour and they were doing it at slightly offset times and even in opposite directions. Lucky for this couple. A vendor found the cases discarded on the ground and asked our tour guide if these people might be part of our cruise. As soon as she opened the passports we recognized the couple and the vendor let the tour guide (local and known) take the passports. The tour guide immediately called the ship and the Program Director who got in touch with the guide with the guests to let them know we had them. We met up with their group about 20 minutes later and passed them over. The passports were discarded likely because there was no cash in the cases, and that was all the pickpockets were looking for. I know many people who thought before they were pickpocketed that this would never happen to them and it did. Pickpockets are slick and professional at what they do, and even if you think you have put something somewhere that they cannot get it, well, they can.

Probably said before, but don't want to read 5 pages of responses... 😀 A battery back up that has two charging ports and two charging cables. We use our iPhones for all photography, and we build movies of our trips after that go on our YouTube channel. Without that battery backup we would often run out of juice on a day long excursion. If you have one that is large enough and fast enough you can take your phone from 10% to 80% in 20 minutes or less.

From all the chatter here, I think that moving forward, the only time we will use Viking Air is if the air is free through Viking. Would not make sense - to us - to not use Viking in this circumstance. However we still pay for Air Plus when air is free because we want to pick our free flight route and schedule. We are the ones in the World Cafe or the River ship restaurant having a nice breakfast and you have left the ship at 3am for the airport because Viking booked your tickets for you. (I am certain that Viking picks these early departures because it gets more people off the ship before the cabin crew even start working, so they can attack the change over immediately.) However with the free air option, like a cruise we have coming in 2024, there is no upgrade option to either Premium Economy or Business, so there can be trade offs. We typically already accept that we will have the cost of a hotel one night in advance as we will typically always fly in one day ahead of the embarkation so we don't miss sailing. (And you can miss the sailing even using Viking Air) I have travelled for business for over 3 decades and always booked my own air and hotel, and not been forced to book through a corporate travel agent, so I/we have the knowledge to do so and manage it well. I do understand however that some folks want to give this to a TA or to Viking.

Large bandaids - talking 1 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches. These are for the unexpected heel blisters that sometimes happen even when you are wearing a pair of shoes that are broken in. They also must be strong to adhere and the small regular size bandaids don't stand up to the rubbing that the shoe will do against it.

That is a good one, isn't it.... "carry on like pork chops" Even though I have no idea how a port chop would carry on, it does paint a picture of many people that we have encountered on our trips.