Selion

You're welcome! Got free time at work, might as well put them to good use!

@UWDawg Yep, YMMV! Rhine Getaway, just over a year out. Total cost in Standard (F) with econ air ranges from $5998 to $7996. That difference is half of another cruise!

It's Tuesday and there's a new Viking promo code for RIVER cruises: Reduced Fares Plus, FREE International Airfare ASK FOR OFFER: RVT22 https://www.viking.com/promotions/us/river/RVT22/20221013 Offer valid on bookings made from Oct 18 to Oct 31, 2022. Free international airfare based on 2023 departures of Rhine Getaway; Romantic Danube; Danube Waltz; Grand European Tour; Paris to the Swiss Alps; Cities of Light; Holland & Belgium; Elegant Elbe; Capitals of Eastern Europe; Passage to Eastern Europe; European Sojourn; Mar 2023 departures of Tulips & Windmills. Prices are in US dollars and for US residents only. Air does not have to be purchased to get cruise/tour offer. All fares reflect cruise taxes, port taxes and fees. Air prices are per person based on cruise or cruise tour check-in date and include transfers. Air seats are limited; airfares are subject to change until full payment of air is received. Airfares vary on other gateways and departures. Air offers not valid on Alaska, Hawaii, San Juan and Mexico City; call for details. Book by Oct 31, 2022; pay in full by Nov 30, 2022. Offer expires Oct 31, 2022.

Well, poorly designed process is poorly designed process. Luckily, if you can call it that, we sailed out of Port Canaveral for a weekend cruise. The only language used in PA - English. I can't imagine being on a Med cruise with this cluster of a process. My major critique is why do we have to watch the safety video at the designated time? We could've watched the video the moment we entered our stateroom, then call the automated line to confirm we watched it. On MSC? Nooooooo.... Safety video wasn't even playing on a loop before the time shown on the daily planner. The result? Every guest getting out of their staterooms within a 15-minute time frame to go to their muster stations. Jam packed stairways and elevator lobbies, with crew confused with who had completed the muster drill and who hadn't. The most frustrating muster drill I've experienced so far. On the other hand, both NCL and Viking requested guests to go to their muster station immediately upon boarding and scanned ship cards. Afterwards, guests need to watch the safety video in their stateroom. We had to watch the safety video before we can access any other functions on the TV. Once the video ended, that was it! Best muster drills, ever! Put that in contrast with the mess MSC calls muster drills...

Haven't been on Seashore, but assuming MSC uses the same process for all ships in its fleet. This was the process on Divina in early September: 1. Watch the safety video in your room at designated time 2. Call the number on screen at the end of the video 3. Walk down to the muster station (elevators can't be used unless you have mobility issues; my father has bad knees so the crew let him use the elevator) 4. Scan your ship card at the muster station 5. Fight your way back to your room or any public areas; very poor traffic control once you exit the muster station area Edit: Of the 3 post-pandemic cruises I'd been on, MSC's muster drill process was the worst. It was even worse than MSC's own muster drill process pre-pandemic. It's a cluster f the it is.

Agreed. Their current muster drill process is even worse than their muster drills before the pandemic.

Because that has never worked, and probably never will knowing how MSC's IT works. You'll have until the end of 2nd day to register your card with your onboard account. Don't need to rush and wait in a line on the first day. 2nd day early in the morning usually works best.

Agreed, and the quality of the included tours depended largely on the tour guide. One of our best excursions on our last (and only, so far) Viking cruise was an included excursion. The guide was very engaging and entertaining with the group and made tour worthwhile. On the other hand, we had 1 included tour that was a complete waste of time and another that fell into the "would've, could've, should've, but didn't" category.

We did Venice to Athens in March and took all included tours except for one. We took the included tours in Venice, Split, Dubrovnik, Corfu, and Katakolon. The terrain wasn't difficult, but the routes may include a few steps here and there and getting on and off the tour buses. That said, the walking tours lasted 1.5 to 2 hours. While they were mostly stop-and-go every 5 to 10 minutes or so, there weren't opportunities for participants to sit if they so desired. You can expect to be on your feet for the duration of the tours.

Ah! I see where I misread it. I just read it's $600 less without the promo code. Totally missed the part where you said that included air as well.

We know nothing is truly free. Another way to look at this is: Will you be able to book $300pp roundtrip tickets from North America to Europe on the dates you needed?

Talking about free air, and now free booze... South America sailings, book by Oct 31 Promo code: VXP23 https://www.viking.com/promotions/us/expedition/VXP23/20220901

Off topic, but... Free air is worth it if you're willing to slum it while getting to the ship. LOL! 🤣

I'm a sucker for aft wake-view cabins. This is a no brainer for me. Had a similar cabin on the Divina, on deck 11 starboard side. Loved it. The balcony is deep enough for a lounger.

Yep, MSC lingo is "Travel With." Taken from my upcoming reservation.

HUCA. Hang up and call again. Yes, they can definitely be linked. We were in 2 cabins on Divina earlier this month. 2 separate reservations, but linked together so we can have the same dining table assignment.

I use Travel Guard.

Thanks! Good to know. I couldn't make any reservations at Manfredi's for my last cruise pre-boarding, and delayed making Manfredi's reservation onboard until the 3rd day into the cruise. By that time they said they were booked solid for the remainder of the cruise, but I didn't check with them again. But hey, need an extra excuse to book another Viking cruise. 😁

Viking Ocean does the same thing, especially in the Mediterranean. Itineraries are available in 7-night cruises, or you can book 14-night, 21-night, 28-night cruises on the same ship. The longer the cruise "block", the harder it is to find availability since staterooms can be booked by other guests on one of the shorter blocks.

Call Viking and tell them you will be celebrating your DH's birthday. They will usually provide a cake and a bottle of sparkling wine. We celebrated our 20th anniversary earlier this year on the Sky. The cake and sparking wine was already in our stateroom when we boarded.

Also check how much YC is with a new booking. Might cost less than bidding. There's another thread going on about bidding and money grabbing. 🙃

Free air on select river cruises, ends Oct 17, 2022 Promo Code RAP22 https://www.viking.com/promotions/us/river/RAP22/20220922

Call again. Once I had a rep who told me MSC would charge $40 to $60 to make a dining table arrangement request pre-cruise. With MSC, your BS detector needs to on and set at the highest setting.

MSC's just different than what we are used to on American cruise lines. On our 2019 Med cruise on Fantasia, announcements were made in SIX languages and English was only the 4th in line. The typical American cruise entertainment of stand up comedy, singing and Broadway-style shows wouldn't work well when there are multiple languages involved. MSC's entertainment tend to be more physical, i.e. dance groups, acrobats, jugglers, etc. They also did an abridged version of Madam Butterfly opera on the sea day. One show only. They are different but not better or worse in my opinion. If you are thinking about MSC in the Med, do it. It'll be a total immersion experience.

All these amazing onboard experience stories with Viking are wonderful. Let me throw couple wrenches in this thread: amazing shore-side customer service. Earlier this week we decided to cancel our Rhine River cruise under RFG and book a Viking Ocean cruise departing the same week in this November, because the promo is pretty good and we don't need to ever worry about ocean levels dropping. Anyhow. RFG vouchers may take up to 2 weeks to be issued and our concern was that we may miss the promo window. So I started a chat session on Viking's website. Emilia, the Viking chat rep, took my chat session. I explained to her what we wanted to do and expressed our concerns that we may not receive the vouchers before the promo expiring. She patiently waited for me to type everything out, and offered to manually confirm the booking (full payment would be due within 24 hours since it was 68 days out) with a typical Viking deposit (so that we get the promo), keep an eye on our RFG vouchers, apply them to the booking when they are issued, and refund my deposit for the new booking in full. That was this Monday. Earlier today I received an email from Emilia, stating she had applied our RFG vouchers and our new booking is in "final" status, and she had processed the refund of the deposits made on Monday. She took care of everything! I didn't have to follow up with her, or anyone at Viking, since our last and only contact. For me that's a breath of fresh air. So many other companies and cruise lines require constant follow ups just to receive what they promised they'd provide. And one more interaction with a shore-side staff: When I still had the river cruise booking, there was a Christmas market excursion at Strasbourg. By the time we decided to book that excursion, it was sold out. I called Viking, and the rep said she'd keep an eye out on that excursion if there were any cancellations and would contact me when spots opened up. A while past and I got an email from her saying there were 2 spots opened up on that excursion. I immediately went into MVJ and booked that excursion, and thanked her for the update. Don't know how they keep track of excursion spots, but I'm both amazed and grateful that they can. Viking isn't perfect, but for us they are pretty amazing. 😊