OnTheJourney

I assume you're on the Cities of Antiquties / Holy Land cruise? Curious as to why you say "would have"...has there been a change in your itinerary? Curious cause we're doing that cruise in January.

understood...we all have to do what works best for us! I'd love to sail more with Viking if they went out of ports closer to us.

Yes. Great question. It was a huge undertaking for Viking to get everyone home.

Initially, about a ship's length away from crashing into the rocky shore off the coast of Hustadvika. Then, the ship eventually ended up at Molde basically under its own power but with tugboat assistance. As Haworth mentioned, it's worth looking up our rather unique experience. Haworth was also a passenger on the Sky during the episode I'm referring to.

It is a bit of a "paradigm shift" for sure going back to a (much) larger ship. We were just on the RCL Adventure and afterwards sort of looked back wistfully to our time on Viking Mars during the chairman's cruise. SO much more relaxing, but for us RCL and X are very convenient since we don't have to fly anywhere.

Very nice itinerary. I'm wondering how often they were able to call at Bodo anyway. Often weather-related issues from what I've heard. We never made it there, nor Stavanger, nor Tilbury for that matter. Our itinerary ended rather abruptly. We had really looked forward to the post-cruise extension in London too.

I read that there could be several variants coming at once this fall....oh, joy....

Wish we would have gotten it before the Advetnture cruise. Planning on it before the next cruise for sure.

Now I have a question that came up after telling a friend of mine about how with Viking the date upon which you can start booking excursions depends on one's room category. He said it's "the same on most cruise lines" (presumably including RCL and X since those are mostly what he sails on). Is this true? If so, I've never been aware of it. Seems to me that if you go on the website and excursions are already listed, anyone (in any room category) can book them. No? I've never been made aware of any specific date at which excursions become available. Can anyone clarify?

Although stressful, I'd probably give it some time yet and see what happens with prices. Unfortunately they typically go up closer to the date but you never know especially if the plane isn't filling up. Just read that AA is getting rid of their first class seats for international flights since people aren't paying the increasingly expensive costs. Sounds like they will be converting most of them to business class suites. Hoping you don't have to cancel the cruise.

That's sort of what I suspected. Sorry for any confusion.

I never said that Mamsen's needed reservations...sorry if that was in some way implied. Just suggested it as worthy of a visit for a bite to eat.

As mentioned above, I've never once been asked if I want it. They just tack it on to the booking.

Here's my take on their insurance - I don't like how they arbitrarily add it unless you specifically tell them not to. Not sure what the time limit is on having them remove it. I usually don't do cruise line insurance but always forget to say anything when booking a Viking trip.

Try to do both...well worth it. Also Mamsen's for their heart-shaped waffles.

Thanks....at least now testing negative, but still don't feel "right".

DW slept for a few days - literally most of the day - after we got home from the cruise. I'm now testing negative but she's still positive (very faint test line). Hopefully negative by tomorrow. Feeling much better but still not 'right'. We both get fatigued far more easily than normal. Hope your test is negative.....

Not hard to believe. This is the way it's going to continue I suspect. Unfortunately, I've read that global warming could cause increased concern as pathogens mutate and evolve to adapt to warmer temps. Lots of unknown variables however going forward.

Wow. We're surely not done yet with covid, are we? Probably will never be.

Thanks for asking. I wouldn't say very sick - but did have a really bad cough and congestion, some chills, fatigue, achiness. I agree on people coughing especially towards the end of the cruise. Heard lots of it. We were not involved in any slot pulls. Just finished the 5-day paxlovid treatment and now the cough came back though not as bad. Hoping to test negative soon. A bonus to this cruise is that we moved up to Diamond Plus. Pinnacle, at 512 points away (lol), seems pretty much unattainable since we enjoy cruising with a few other lines. Now if they'd keep giving quadruple points like our last two cruises, that'd help. I suspect those days are gone though.

Graham...you always have a way of making the rest of us hungry! 😉

A few shots from the Adventure cruise in no particular order....

Oh my! Just catching up on all this now. So VERY sorry to hear about everything that happened during the cruise. Makes my minor bout with covid by the end of the cruise look rather insignificant in comparison. Hope Jim is doing well now? It's hard to keep up with this thread since it moves so quickly. I only stop in here from time to time and am typically like at least 10 pages behind! So sorry you had to go through all that. What an experience for sure.

Agreed! That's as big as we prefer to go. Loved our sailings on both the Jewel and Serenade.

Yep...same happened on the Viking Sky during our northern lights trip back in March '19. A sighting was also announced during dinner the one night. It was nearly a 2-week trip but unfortunately got cut short - very famous story here on CC.