ebdb

On 3/6/2024 at 3:19 PM, ebdb said:

 

We booked a Viking China cruise on Feb 29, found out about offer code FV324 while reading this topic, sent our TA on March 5 the "Dear Valued Future Guest" letter kindly provided by Travel Lion (thanks, Travel Lion!), and got a $500 pp reduction that same day. 

UPDATE: Surprise -- adding the FV324 offer moved our PIF date from 05/09 to 03/31. We learned this in an automated Viking email received 03/10. My TA was told that Viking erred in giving us that discount because we had booked one day before the promo was announced/became effective!  After some lengthy back and forth, Viking allowed us to keep the discount and moved the PIF to 04/30 -- we can live with that.

On 3/2/2024 at 7:54 AM, slewis7 said:

My wife and I very recently made a new booking with Viking so I have emailed my travel agent to see if we can apply the “Special Future Guest Promotion” retroactively. 🤞

We booked a Viking China cruise on Feb 29, found out about offer code FV324 while reading this topic, sent our TA on March 5 the "Dear Valued Future Guest" letter kindly provided by Travel Lion (thanks, Travel Lion!), and got a $500 pp reduction that same day. 

8 minutes ago, ebdb said:

Thanks very much, Becky2010! BTW, I was able to create a Ponant account using my desktop. Awaiting a response to my status match request. 🤞🏼

Oops, I fear I may have disqualified myself from using a referral discount by creating the account. Yikes. We’ll see.

7 hours ago, Becky2010 said:

When I started looking at this cruise, I was emailing with a Ponant Rep who was actually in Europe. She held the cabin for me, and I send her a screenshot of our Marriott Bonvoy gold elite “digital cards” from the Bonvoy apps in our phones. She applied the discount to the quote she had given me. Then when I was ready to book, she actually transferred the booking to Ponant US and then I booked it through my travel agent (so that I received an additional discount). The booking created a Ponant account number for me, and when I went ahead and set up the account on the Ponant website using that number it also showed that I was at an Admiral level. Btw if only I had the Bonvoy status they wouldn’t have taken the discount off of my husband’s rate, but he also has the same status since he has his own authorized user card. And for anyone reading this who has an Am Ex Platinum but hasn’t set up their status on Bonvoy - it’s very easy! You log into your Amex account online, and go to the benefits tab. Then go to Marriott Bonvoy and enter your account number there (and set up a Bonvoy account first if you haven’t already). Then it takes about 24-48 hours for your status on Bonvoy to show up! Hope that’s helpful! 🤓

Thanks very much, Becky2010! BTW, I was able to create a Ponant account using my desktop. Awaiting a response to my status match request. 🤞🏼

On 11/3/2023 at 2:59 PM, Becky2010 said:

We have never sailed with Ponant! In fact we've only ever taken one cruise and that was with Silversea. But we used our Marriott Bonvoy status for the status match, and Ponant recognized it straight away. We were given the 7.5% discount when we booked our upcoming trip! Many thanks to this forum for the tip!

What was the process for getting the 7.5% discount on your first Ponant cruise? Did you get an email confirmation of your new Admiral status that you then mentioned/forwarded to your TA? A number of folks have remarked that they did not receive any indication that their status match request had been approved, while others found out their status had been matched only after they logged into their account.
 

On my mobile, I am not seeing a way to create a Ponant account — is this only available to those who have already booked a cruise?

On 11/3/2023 at 2:59 PM, Becky2010 said:

We have never sailed with Ponant! In fact we've only ever taken one cruise and that was with Silversea. But we used our Marriott Bonvoy status for the status match, and Ponant recognized it straight away. We were given the 7.5% discount when we booked our upcoming trip! Many thanks to this forum for the tip!

On 11/3/2023 at 12:33 PM, jpalbny said:

 

I think not, based on my reading of the T&Cs. Go for it.

Thank you, Becky2010, for your specific answer (very helpful) and jpalbny for the encouragement! Appreciate everyone's contributions -- happy sailing!

Is the status match only available to those who have already sailed with Ponant? I am about to book my first cruise on Ponant.

https://us.ponant.com/ponant-benefits#modal_referral-program

So if your wife refers us, she’ll get €500/$600 to use towards your cruise.

https://us.ponant.com/ponant-benefits#modal_referral-program
 

On 2/26/2023 at 10:36 AM, Los_Pepes said:

My wife has sailed Ponant and I have not. We have our eye on a cruise and I am curious how we can leverage either a referral or past cruiser discount. Can she refer me as her husband and traveling companion? Can she use her past cruiser discount for both of us in the same cabin? Any and all advice is welcome how to get the largest discount in this situation. 

 

Thanks!

Here are the particulars re your circumstances:

✓The sponsor and the person sponsored refers may not share the same stateroom.

✓The sponsoring request will be rejected if the person sponsored or any member of his/her household has already been sponsored.

✓A sponsor can refer any number of people, but only one per household.

On 2/26/2023 at 10:36 AM, Los_Pepes said:

My wife has sailed Ponant and I have not. We have our eye on a cruise and I am curious how we can leverage either a referral or past cruiser discount. Can she refer me as her husband and traveling companion? Can she use her past cruiser discount for both of us in the same cabin? Any and all advice is welcome how to get the largest discount in this situation. 

 

Thanks!

We are interested in an NZ cruise. Would your wife (or anyone reading this) give us a referral for Le Ponant? Many thanks.

Hi. Does Atlas Ocean Voyages have a guest referral program? If yes, details, please. Thanks. Happy cruising!

16 hours ago, AnyWayIsGood said:

Speaking of all things covid-related, I have a question relative to this policy:  

 

Guests may take a COVID-19 antigen test (with a laboratory-certified proof of negative result) within 24 hours prior to boarding your first outbound flight from your home country.  

 

If I'm doing an international trip and have, for example, a 7 p.m. flight, I assume the testing protocol means that I can't take the test before 7 p.m. the day before...is that right?

Given that most local testing sites don't operate that late in the evening, this almost forces me to schedule a test the day of departure - which is really awkward given everything else that needs to be done that day - including transportation time to the airport.

 

I'm stressed even thinking about it. Our most recent experience with scheduling a pre-cruise covid (antigen) test did not go well in that they canceled our appointment around midnight before the following morning's scheduled test time. I had to scramble to schedule an alternative. It wasn't too much of a big deal given that I had to take the test no more than 2 days before the cruise. But this 24 hour timeframe I'm not digging too much. I have no interest whatsoever in trying to finagle a test at the airport. 

 

Further complicating the situation is that we're doing a 3-day extension before the cruise, so how does that work? I know Viking indicates they will provide specific info on MVJ but just trying to think ahead on how all this will play out. During the extension will they require another test pre-embarkation? 

If yours is an official Viking extension, a PCR testing station will be set up at your designated Viking hotel. This was the information given to us by Viking.

If, like us, you’re staying on your own independent of Viking, the most stress free option is to order a proctored/supervised test kit from eMed.com. It’s pricey at $150 for a kit of six individual tests, plus tax and overnight FedEx shipping (total was about $180 for us). You have to download the Navica app and register preferably before you leave the US. Then, within 24 hours of EMBARKATION, make sure you have reliable wifi, place the UNOPENED test kit and your passport on a flat surface, and select the option in the app to start the test. The response from eMed is prompt. Though the clinicians proctoring the test are based outside the US, they’re patient in giving the instructions and easy enough to understand. You will need to prop your phone or laptop so that it can focus on your face for identification and later on the test itself for the entire process. The test is completed in 15 minutes and the certification is available in the app and via email shortly after. 

We did ours at 7pm ahead of a 3pm embarkation.

For our return to the US, we were relieved to learn that the test needs to be done in the 24 hours BEFORE THE FIRST TICKETED DEPARTURE, as long as the transit stops and connecting flights are all booked as one ticket. If you have separate flights booked, you can do the eMed antigen test anywhere with reliable wifi, even at an airport.

On 3/23/2022 at 3:23 AM, LisaDee said:

 

If we hadn’t left the cabin by 8:30am our stateroom attendant knocked on our door and asked for our samples (this was Feb 2022).  Some days I just feel like being lazy…sleeping in….or reading on the balcony…at the very least on my lazy mornings I’m in my PJs and don’t want to answer the door.  But I felt like we had to leave for breakfast every day by 8-ish or else track down the cabin attendant in the hallway to give them our vials.  If leaving the samples outside the cabin (for example, in a bag hanging on the door) had been an option, that would have been okay because I could have done that at night before bed but that option wasn’t offered.  Putting them on the floor outside the door seems unsanitary.  Maybe they could put collection baskets by the elevators or something so we can drop them off at the time that works for us?

I concur on every point you’ve made. In addition, there was the problem of no one available to answer the door/phone if DH was out of the stateroom while I was in the bathroom or vice versa. So I fashioned a PCR SAMPLES bag.

1) Using the opaque sanitary bag found in each stateroom bathroom, make a HORIZONTAL cut at/below the first fold, between the folded sections.

2) Indicate the sample vials are held within by writing on the bag itself (I always travel with a Sharpie pen) or by writing it on a piece of paper to hook onto the cut in the bag.

Four of us were booked to cruise Basel to Amsterdam on Crystal Debussy 27 Sept to 4 Oct 2021. Crystal has canceled that cruise; it's now a chartered sailing.  We've rebooked for 5-12 Sept 2022 instead.

If you’re shopping for fun/unusual gifts in Bergen, do drop by the gift shop at KODE 1 (there are four KODE museums in the same area). They’re having a sale on right now with 50-70% off almost everything. Was there yesterday, Jan 26.

Arrivals: We had planned some of our own ( car) touring before the cruise and so did not use the free transfers from the airport. We were travelling with friends, some of whom were staying at the Emerald hotel in Amsterdam and they were provided with free transfers to the boat from the hotel.

Andona, thanks for such an informative review! DH and I will be on the Classic Rhine cruise starting in Amsterdam next month. Where did the Emerald Sun dock? How did you get to the ship? We will be at the Kimpton Hotel.

Does Viking accept shipboard credit towards payment for gratuities? Read that some cruise lines do not accept OBC for gratuities.

Oops, missed the thread that answers my question -- didn't scroll down far enough! Viking Ocean now accepts OBC.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2571312

Does Viking accept shipboard credit towards payment for gratuities? Read that some cruise lines do not accept OBC for gratuities.

Remembered a fellow dinner companion mentioned he had a Fitbit. Started keeping an eye out for Scott. Was hopeful but not particularly optimistic as, often, we never meet cruise mates who share our dinner tables again. Happily, our paths DID cross and Scott graciously lent me the charger cable to pass to Rafael. Hooray for kind folks (like Scott and Mary) and small miracles!!!

P.S. Internet connection was unavailable ship-wide for almost two days. Has been very unreliable since service resumed.

DELETED - Redundant post, thanks to iffy connection.

Quote:

Originally Posted by potterhill View Post

That unlimited internet is practically worthless now that they give it away. Usage far exceeds capacity. Only time it works well is in the middle of the night if you happen to have insomnia.

Mo

It was pretty good on Riviera for the 17 days we were on. At times it was a bit slow but no worse than on other cruises when most people paid for it.

What surprised and annoyed us was that Oceania dictates only ONE DEVICE at a time can be logged in to use the Internet! So if DH is using the Oceania wifi, I cannot. :mad:

It's been MY personal experience that once on board people don't look at the roll call or this thread. (Not entirely true since *I* do although I tend not to bother with the roll call anymore once we are under way.)

 

So, yes, the concierge is probably a better bet.

 

I was on one cruise where another passenger contacted me on behalf of another passenger who didn't have the cable to charge his Olympus camera. I was able to oblige. So it CAN happen!

 

Mura

Yep, a shot in the dark. Just trying to help a fellow passenger ...

Have you asked the Concierge or your butler (if you have one) they are pretty resourceful ?

Yes, unfortunately no luck with either.

and this is the perfect example of how an intranet would be so useful on a cruise.

 

Mr. Wonderful always carries a wide assortment of cables and chargers and that info became common knowledge on our last cruise. We were on board for a long time so he became Mr. Useful....but you had to find him when he was needed.

 

Messages left on the door seem unnecessary these days when there are better and more private ways....or so i think!!!

Agree!

Wish Mr. Wonderful was on this cruise and that I could find him. In that spirit, if anyone needs it, I can lend charging cables for a Pebble Classic, mini USB, micro USB, iPhone lightning, and iPhone 30-pin.