OnTheJourney

even better doing a cookout on the beach 😆

Uh-huh...as good an excuse as any I suppose. 😁 "Can't cook" = doesn't really want to. Just razzin' you....

Prayers for all the families and everyone in Greece affected by the recent train tragedy. 🙏 So very sad...

Yeah..you're always going out for lunch...and breakfast....and dinner......😆

...yeah, or keep it till whenever the next chance might be to use it, and so pretty much the same story here. Not much shopping abroad and basically just eat on the ship. Often we'll do some quick duty-free shopping at the airport before flying home as time allows. We had a pile of rubles left after our days in St. Petersburg during a Baltic cruise and so gave them all to our Alla tours guide as a tip - all that after fretting for days over getting rubles onboard. Every day there was a huge line. Eventually they ran out. Not even sure if they provide much foreign currency on ships anymore. That was with Royal Caribbean.

Enjoying this thread! Looking forward to more. We've done Aqua Class once before on the Summit and found it quite nice. Doing it again in a few months. Wishing you a great cruise!

Same cruise I was on! I have no idea where the extra charges came from but I'm not going to spend additional time trying to find out since I don't think I can anyway. Did you do the Athens extension also?

Quick update...I just got a picture from Barbara, so if anyone from the group wants a copy let me know.

Interesting replies, for which I'm appreciative. I contacted one of the merchants in question, and they assure me that nothing was added directly from them. He referred to possibly a POS company that tacked on extra fees or possibly some other more obscure foreign transaction fees. Guess there's really no more to be found out about it, other than going back to BOA and asking them again if they'd have any idea where the extra charges may have come from. Just so I understand the process, once the purchase is made at the vendor, what exactly happens next? Is the charge than passed through some other agency before making it's way to BOA and my statement charges? I don't really agree with this, having used BOA for a long time and never had any issues, to the best of my knowledge, with "extra" foreign charges. That was, however, with an AMEX card, not VISA. Not my experience! We got a pack of 200 euros before going on the trip and they charged me a handling fee (or whatever) of 50 euros! Talk about getting ripped off! Wish we would have waited and just got some once arriving in Rome. Oops...just saw your correction!!! We'd gotten euro packs at AAA before but...sheesh...should at least have a gun if you want to rob me. Most interesting, although some quick research shows around a 1% fee (?). The charges I incurred are roughly 8% on each transaction. Also not my experience at all. I've never had trouble getting through to an agent at BOA. Sounds like the most likely explanation. I was going to call BOA one more time and just see if I get any further with it. All this is not a huge deal, but it's nice to at least know whom I'm paying my money to above and beyond the original charge. Guess I may never know. Your explanation is very thorough and presents some concepts and business practices I wasn't aware of.

Had this been done, wouldn't the individual transaction listings on my statement be in all USD rather than any mention of the initial amount in euros?

Just read through my account info - under the list of "transaction fees" there is nothing referring to any sort of "foreign" fees. I also confirmed this on the BOA website for my specific card. The agent confirmed that they didn't assess anything - so it must have come from the individual vendors. Perhaps a combination of VAT and whatever they typically charge for credit card purchases in general.

No...my statement, under "purchases and adjustments" is in euros for all the foreign transactions. Then, the far right column (total amount per transactions), is in $ No charges. I (allegedly anyway) verified this. I wound up talking to 3 different agents. They kept passing me along to 'someone who could help in that area' (??) correct...no conversion info whatsoever I don't think so. Been dealing with the same bank for decades; however, it changed from a longtime AMEX card to Visa a few years ago. Unfortunately this involved a new card number. Hate when that happens. So many people to notify.

Yeah...and probably whatever they see fit to tack on at the time 🤔 I don't recall ever running into this before.

No..nothing like that on my statement or slips.

No...charges on all the slips are in euros. I didn't see any $ conversions till receiving my credit card statement. I don't recall being asked if I wanted charges billed in USD, nor did I request such.

If it is, it's coming from other than Bank of America since they have no further info and said they don't assess anything. If a merchant is charging anything additional, it should either reflect on the slip or be verbally told the customer. Not sure it's worth disputing these transactions however since I'm not sure how much the credit card company would even be able to find out. I'll see what I hear back from the Vatican gift shop. Some of the other smaller merchants don't even have websites. I'm surely not going to waste additional money on a long distance phone call. Makes me think that it's best to always just pay local currency (unless a larger purchase) over there.

Pertaining to the same recent cruise - the Cities of Antiquities- at various merchants, including restaurants, I used my Bank of America VISA card and, despite the exchange rate being basically 1 for 1 all the time we were over there, I'm seeing about an 8% mark-up to arrive at the total USD charge. Why is this? The credit card slips I have don't reflect any VAT or any other additional charges, so where is the extra coming from? I just contacted the credit card company and nothing is coming on their end. I actually expected the USD amount to be about the same. Is it VAT by any chance? I'm seeing a current VAT amount for Italy as being around 5% (fluctuates I suppose) so if you add that on plus whatever the individual merchants might be assessing for using a credit card, that could account for it all I suppose. Doesn't VAT typically reflect on a credit card slip? The only thing I see on one of the slips (Vatican gift shop) is "3.5% exchange rate mark-up" which would only account for an additional $1.75 though. I've emailed them to find out more since they have a convenient website to contact them. Thanks for any helpful thoughts.

...and gave their camera to Barbara to have the group picture taken when we were at Epidaurus, could you kindly send a picture to her so as to be forwarded to other group members who would like it (including myself)? I've been in contact with Barbara about getting the picture, but she informed me that she didn't take one with her own camera but rather used those of other group members, so she said if any pictures are forwarded to her, she'll gladly send one to me or whomever. I have her contact info if someone needs it, having asked her for her email address being that I'm not on facebook. OR, if someone can forward me the facebook address where the group picture is located, I'll go from there and try to get it somehow. Thanks...

It’s a really amazing cruise. I would advise taking along something for motion sickness though just as a precaution. North Atlantic can get rough on the way to Tilbury. It was our first cruise with Viking and we really enjoyed it till things went bad. Hated to leave the ship (especially by winch!). Scenery is fantastic. Extra time in Oslo is well worth it. We did Viking’s extension.

Of course. I should have made the connection to the one that was delayed coming into Tilbury. We never got that far on the March 2019 sailing. Huge storm system - actually a bomb cyclone - which ended the cruise off the coast of Hustadvika. (More like WAY too close to the coast actually)

Definitely good idea depending on where you plan to go where you might wind up walking around on packed-down snow. I seem to recall we used them at Polar Park. Waterproof boots are highly recommended also.

meaning what exactly?

When we were just on the Sky during the NFL conference championships, Viking recorded both and had them available to watch anytime on the stateroom TVs under the "Enrichment" category (lol). Otherwise, it involved watching the games late at night. Some people did (till like 4:30 in the morning) and then had an early excursion the same day!

Often wondered if some of these pro sports are somewhat, shall we say, choreographed? These guys are good enough to accomplish that.

Who, for the 2nd game in a row, had the benefit of a costly penalty called against the other team in the last minute.