Selion

This came to mind:

@Crabtrap Hope you had good flights all the way to HKG, and the onboard services made up for the lack of information on the website. That piqued my curiosity and I went to EVA's site. Let's just say the information provided was not as comprehensive as it could be for an airline. Also, the site content doesn't change between North America English version and the Taiwan Chinese Mandarin version. I'm going to assume EVA built the website for Taiwanese travelers (makes sense) and just translated everything else into other languages without adding/modifying localized contents and information.

Assuming you had waited 5 hours when you made the post, you had been at JFK since 1:30PM. Were you on a connecting flight? If so, you should've been checked in all the way to HKG. If not, why did you arrive at the airport almost 12 hours before the schedule departure time? EVA opening the counter 4 hours prior to their departure time sounds reasonable. Last year we flew FCO-JFK, ITA didn't open their check-in counter for our flight until 3 hours prior. Lastly... Viking booked the flights, but what you are experiencing has nothing to do with Viking.

I don't think cruise lines gives any attention on which passenger is occupying which cabin. Otherwise chartered swingers cruises wouldn't be thing.

Enjoy your cruise! We've sailed MSC in YC, Fantastica, and most recently in an inside and enjoyed all of them. Be sure to check out the Venchi bar for its chocolate martini and specialty coffees. My favorite hang out on the Seaside. We didn't get the bundled drink & wifi because Venchi isn't included, but that was all we needed! Too bad the flowing wall of chocolate is no longer running. Otherwise it's full of the delicious aroma of molten chocolates around the bar.

Been looking at Windstar lately. Suddenly I feel 930-passengers ship is not small enough. 🤣

I see automatic gratuities as part of the cruising costs. I still tip extra; maybe not as generously as the OP. Given that, I'd like to see Viking include tips in their cruise fares. A few hundred bucks more in the cruise fares won't make or break a potential cruiser's desire to book a $10k cruise. That said, I don't see automatic gratuities going away on lines like Carnival or MSC. There are always people who think the crew didn't bend backwards, literally, to make their cruise as great as it is.

You can always go to Guest Services and ask them to remove the automatic gratuities.

Are you in Yacht Club? In YC it's never crowded. Outside of YC, buffet is crowded during peak meal times. Atrium parties are always crowded regardless which cruise line/ship you are on.

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IIRC it's $40/person. We used Lyft. It was around $75 + tips.

1. Beer & wine are included at lunch & dinner. You only need the SSBP if you want an expanded selection of wines at meals, and alcoholic beverages outside of meal times. I think it's now $22/day/person. That's only $2 more than what NCL charges for its basic drink package's "service fee." 2. Very few cruise lines include gratuities in their fares when the bookings are made in the US market. If you want your Viking cruise fares to include gratuities, book through their UK office (if Viking allows it). 3. Don't use Viking air and book your own. I've done both. On my first Viking cruise, I dropped Viking air and booked our own after final payment. $$ saved. Used Viking air on the 2nd cruise because private transfers between disembarkation port and the airport would be around $300. 4. Again, I've done both included and optional excursions. While some included excursions are nothing more than a bus ride around the town, some walking tours are well worth the time. At the very least the included excursions will give you a free ride into the cities with a narrated tour. Yeah, there were always free time to explore but Viking guides don't take the groups to shops (except for that one dude at Livorno and we just left the group).

I used MSC transfer in 2019, from Milan to Genoa. There wasn't a separate document for the transfer. The transfer information would be listed on your final doc/e-ticket after checking. They should be waiting outside the customs or baggage claims with a MSC sign. Back in 2019, MSC's transfers did NOT wait for delayed flights. Our flight was scheduled for 12:30PM arrival, but was delayed by 30 minutes. By the time we collected our bags, it was past 1:30PM. There was no MSC transfer agents anywhere in the terminal. I had to call the transfer company and ask where to meet them. They started off by saying my flight was delayed and blah blah blah, but they had a van going to to Genoa and told me to meet them at an arrival exit. Have to say it wasn't the smoothest transfer experience and I haven't used MSC transfers since. Hopefully that has changed for the better. For my upcoming November cruise I'm flying in a day early and taking the train from Milan to Genoa.

I've sailed YC twice, Fantastica twice, and have 2 more in Aurea booked. YC was a great value with Voyager's Club used to have up to 20% off. Nowadays YC's value is only fair. On some itineraries and the fares charged for YC, I'd rather book with Viking. That said, YC is comparable to an entry-level luxury line like Viking, Oceania & Azamara. You get what you pay for, and more. We had two fantastic cruises in Fanstastica; one even in an inside cabin. No, you don't get exclusive sun decks and you get assigned dining time. But neither had any negative impact to our cruising experience. Any cruise is what you make of it. MSC is different to the major American cruise lines. If you are open to try different things, you will find MSC exciting.

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It's actually worse than Southwest. Seatguru lists Southwest seat pitch between 31 to 33 inches depending on type. Fly again on Southwest tomorrow. 6th SWA flight in 3 months. The figures from Seatguru is accurate in regards to SWA.

Assuming you are talking about the CFAR offered by TripMate and sold by Viking. If you are cancelling under CFAR, you'll get a Viking VOUCHER for the money paid instead of a refund. There are pit falls with Viking vouchers. Buyers beware.

Anyone tried to get refund of their Viking cruises from Nordstrom?

This is standard practice by the ocean cruise industry: advertise one city but the actual docking port can be up to 2 hours away. Plenty of examples in Europe: Advert says Paris, docking at Le Harve; advert says Venice, docking at Ravenna or Trieste; advert says Florence, docking at Livorno; advert says Rome, docking at Civitavecchia. Well Florence and Rome are not coastal cities, but you get my gist. I'm not saying this is the right way to advertise cruises, but it's something we need to take into consideration when planning a cruise. That said, Geelong to Melbourne is roughly the same distance and time as Livorno to Florence and the ship is there until 11pm. You'll still get 5 to 6 hours in Melbourne if you leave first thing in the morning. When life gives you lemons, it's time to make lemonade.

What does your situation have to do with this thread? That said, you are not the only one who got burnt by Viking's voucher. At this point all I can say is I hope you have travel insurance, and not through Tripmate.

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Love love love pizza on MSC! Love their crust! 2 MSC cruises ago, DW threw away my half eaten crust when I went to get drinks. To this date I still tease her that she owes me 2 pieces of pizza crust from MSC.

Definitely making inroads with the US market. Our first MSC cruise in 2018 out of Miami, over half the ship were Europeans. We liked it because it felt like we were in Europe instead of an extension of the US.

Take that a step further... If Viking decides to offer a 'No WiFi' cruise, I'd be the first one to sign up.