OnTheJourney

1 hour ago, Cienfuegos said:

Barron's magazine has a discussion of the Viking IPO in today's magazine.

I just started reading the 270-page prospectus. Much like the (many) brochures they send out, it's very well done. My advisor indicated he has no idea how many shares he'd actually be able to get as an IPO. If not, can always get shares on the secondary market.

2 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

We have no desire to cruise the Caribbean on any line.

I've enjoyed all our Caribbean cruises, but wouldn't be a destination I'd book every year. Much prefer Canada / NE.

4 hours ago, Mike07 said:

Not sure where you're getting said list.

Of course, just referring to what I've encountered on CC. No implication relative to a larger perspective.

7 hours ago, rmalbers said:

I wonder if the cruise industry is going to be able to sustain the growth necessary to fill all the existing ships and all the new ships coming online. 

Good thought. I was most surprised to see the following in the VIK prospectus. 24 ships in the works with options for 12 more! Takes alot of moola or else incur alot of debt.

6 hours ago, Mike07 said:

Eventually people will get burned out by cruising

Sure doesn't seem that way by looking at some peoples' list of "upcoming cruises"!

10 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Neptune World Cruise 

Wow! I would think that, especially for those who paid the full fare, should be above and beyond.

On 4/23/2024 at 3:19 PM, Jim Avery said:

Why can't we get back to good service, hard work, and quality products?  And yes, food and service definitely not as original and in a negative way.

Assuming you're referring specifically to Viking, what recent cruises have you found this to be the case?

28 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

and am hoping they tighten up management and get back to food and service standards.

...which you referred to recently. Interesting. We thought the food and service was up to usual Viking standards on the Mississippi. Have not been with them since that.

2 hours ago, Cienfuegos said:

have no interest in buying shares in the company.

Worth exploring anyway.

4 hours ago, Steve Q said:

While you probably cannot obtain shares in the IPO

I ran it by my advisor. He's going to send the prospectus and look into getting shares as they become available. Can't see how it'd be a bad investment. Definitely on the aggressive growth side of the spectrum. Probably a good idea to give it some time and see where the price range winds up, as you already referred to. It would be good to see some appreciation from the share price. Doubt it'll be a dividend paying stock, at least not initially.

3 hours ago, Steve Q said:

(VIK) will be going begin trading May 1 on the NYSE.

Worth grabbing some shares? If even available. Might only be for the larger institutional investors. Certain mutual funds already have holdings in Viking, I think anyway. I'll have to discuss with my advisor.

On 4/6/2024 at 2:35 PM, Jim Avery said:

so they should be making lots of money.

I'd think so too, especially with constantly building new ships. Given that they already offer pre and post extensions, which has them engaging at least partially in the land tour side of the travel industry, is there really a need to delve further into all that? There are enough land tour companies around that they likely wouldn't compete with anyway. But that's a purely uneducated observation on the matter. Perhaps concentrate on doing what they do best, with a goal of constantly try to improve on it. Spreading too thin could maybe start to dilute the quality of current offerings.

7 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

Many of our cruises are 4 days, so we will try to add on a 3-day to make it a week or more.

That's what I sort of assumed.

7 minutes ago, sandebeach said:

We are also trying to do our bucket list travel cruises now, while we are both healthy and mobile. 

Yep...great idea! My list, I know now, will only be partially realized at best. Waited too long for certain farther away destinations. DW and I are retired as well, and have been enjoying traveling until some health issues intervened for her last year. Not sure yet how it's all going to play out, but I don't anticipate much, if any, foreign travel anymore. I would, but doubt she'll want to at this point.

Sandebeach: I'm curious about your upcoming cruise list. If you're sailing every month, how long would you say you're actually at home relative to days at sea !?! Unless some of them are shorter 1-2 week cruises, I don't see that you're home all that much. Incredibly busy travel schedule! I couldn't do it.

CK info aside, I simply can't imagine being on a ship of that size, although several people have told me that since the ship is so big, it actually doesn't feel as crowded as I might anticipate. There is a certain logic to the size of the ship and number of pax as being relative in terms of it feeling more or less congested; however, I do know that having been on Viking with only 930 guests, I've been spoiled. It just feels so quiet all around the ship. The music is always very low-key, even in the dining areas, and lots of neat places to just sit and read. Largest ship I've ever been on is the RCL Adventure, so I guess at some point should at least try something bigger - if it comes into Baltimore or Bayonne. No interest in flying anywhere to do it.

On 4/20/2024 at 12:48 PM, kwokpot said:

I've never eaten in CK. What's your opinion of it?

 I haven't either since we've never been on a class of ships that has it, but my sister-in-law has always said it's their favorite restaurant on any cruise. She said the food is consistently very good.

On 1/26/2024 at 8:31 AM, Treacher1 said:

We are booked for Beyond March 11 - I went online at 6 am to do check in (first day available).  

I don't think it was anything you did or didn't do. Based on this it seems 11:30 is pretty much the earliest embarkation time - probably for RCL also.  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2819754-is-1130-the-earliest-check-in-time/

8 minutes ago, anthonyy7 said:

We don't sail until Jan 2026

Yeah we probably won't do the GL until '26 also. There is an early October date I like that is offered. 3042 looks to be a good choice. 

On 4/16/2024 at 8:26 PM, Redtravel said:

I wouldn’t recommend this cruise.

Totally different reaction here. Despite our cruise being the northbound that resulted in only being able to stop at a few ports (the rest of the cruise all sea days), we found everything to be typical Viking high quality, including the food and service. The dining room was fine, but we decided for several reasons to spend the latter part of the cruise in the cafe and found it most enjoyable. Sorry that you had a less than good experience overall.

On 4/17/2024 at 6:43 AM, ural guy said:

I've never seen a river cruise crew just gossiping with dirty dishes piling up and plates going out cold.  The Restaurant Managers just wouldn't tolerate it.

That simply didn't happen on our cruise. Service was prompt and friendly, as I would have expected.

On 4/16/2024 at 8:26 PM, Redtravel said:

Best one was Vicksburg.

Which was our last excursion of the entire northbound journey. About half the pax got off for a 4-night shore stay - two nights in Memphis and two in St. Louis, and then rejoined the ship in Alton after that, although once we were told that from that point we'd have to sail straight through to St. Paul with no stops, some people bagged out and flew home. We had opted to stay on the ship the entire voyage. I paid to see the river, and despite not having our planned excursions, we greatly enjoyed the very relaxing sea days - about 9 of them if I recall correctly. Never got to read so much on a cruise before!

On 2/29/2024 at 8:29 PM, big_red5312 said:

Viking needs a concrete dock where they can go alongside.

No they don't. As was mentioned, our experience was also one of often being tied up to a tree along a shoreline. Crew worked hard to tie and untie those long ropes.

On 1/26/2024 at 12:06 AM, anthonyy7 said:

'm trying to figure out if I should pay extra $$ to move up a category and be closer midship.  Cabin 3020 or 3042.  Would there be a big difference if there were rough seas between the two?

3020 is pretty far forward, so greater experience of motion during pitching. I don't consider that cabin to be midship. 3040 would be better. 3042 or 3043 better yet, but if you're really concerned about it and are sensitive to motion sickness, I'd advise deck 2 for lower center of gravity. 2036 and 2037 might likely experience the least amount of motion out of any room on the ship. Or, exact midships on deck 4 with a jr. suite would probably work well also. That's the category I'm hoping to get for a Great Lakes cruise. I assume you're doing Antarctica? With any luck you'll get the "lake" instead of the "rake".

Take along wrist ("sea") bands along with some ginger pills and you'll be fine. I'm a believer in the wrist bands and would never be without them on a ship.

On 4/20/2024 at 9:59 AM, Treacher1 said:

know food is provided at Coco Cay

You can keep it. We weren't impressed. Give me the (former) Barefoot Beach Club buffet anytime over the stuff they put out on CC. 😉

4 hours ago, carlmm said:

Dark suit and tie is minimum.

Oh my. With all due respect, I'll stick to sailing with Viking, RCL, and X. Not into any sort of formal dressing for cruises anymore.

3 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

Expand signature at the bottom of the post to see whether there is something hidden?

Yes. IF there's something there to see, I can see it, but of late I've been corresponding with someone who turns out to have a signature that I otherwise would have never known about. There's simply nothing there on my end. Weird.

2 hours ago, broberts said:

Check that you have View signatures?

Yes...have that turned on. I can see some, but apparently not all.