SantaFe1

How about this: Dee, you get him on Octantis next month. Then in March he transfers to Neptune for the second half of the WC and stays on for our BIE which we board in Greenwich the day the WC ends.

I thought he was assigned to and has been doing the expedition cruises. But we enjoyed him on our WC too.

Wow! Huge differences. I’m looking at Malta for 2026. Maybe I should just book it. But even my Dogsitter has begun saying to me for these years off cruises, “I hope we are all still viable by then!”

I try not to do this. I was taught a long time ago to stop looking after you have bought your prom dress!

These last several months it has only been a risk of $25 per person, which has caused me to book four cruises between Feb. 24 and April 25. We don’t usually buy “green bananas” either! (Thanks to Jim Avery’s mother for this chestnut). But remember final payment is only 6 months out if you have another cruise booked or book onboard. A first time cruiser might have to make final payment a year + in advance. And, at our ages, we think it is all the more reason to buy travel insurance!

We talked about this last night and decided to wait for the second round of cruises to see how people like this product. They are quite inexpensive if they are indeed fully curated, that is, all excursions are included.

I saw some of them in Los Angeles (well, Santa Ana, at the Bowers museum) about a dozen years ago. They were fabulous!

Yes! Our WC ship. I watched the video and they identified it as such.

Just got an email from Viking on this. I watched the video and they identify the ship as the former Viking Sun. Too bad we are booked out for 2024. Hopefully they will extend these cruises into 2025 and beyond.

This was our WC Ship too. It will be interesting to see what transpires.

Yes, but after spending several anniversaries onboard, they seem to know that, too. On this last cruise, the CD told me that a memo goes around to everyone with each days’ birthday people. Now, 2024 will be interesting, because I celebrate my birthday the day we disembark. After birthday breakfast on the ship, I get to spend the rest of my birthday at LAX 😕

I never notify Viking of any occasions, but they always seem to find out. My birthday fell during our Med. Antiquities cruise this year, and on the morning on my birthday, everyone, from the captain to our room steward, wished me a happy birthday, by name. They brought me a special cake at Manfredis that night and everyone sang. It was really quite embarrassing, in a fun sort of way.

We will be on this cruise in April 2025, but, of course won’t have Dailies to share until we board. And there aren’t any of those cruises until April 2025, so no way to see a Daily until then.

Yes, I do remember hearing about the vouchers. I think I would rather book on an ocean cruise. Thanks!

I have two questions about this. First, can you book a River cruise on an ocean cruise? Second, does a River cruise have the capacity to book another cruise while onboard at all? Thanks!

You can make a tentative booking and see the times for that particular cruise. Then let it go and don’t pay if you don’t like it. But to put the times on the general webpage would be imprudent as so many things affect them. The Thames, for example, is dependent on tides.

Your invoice shows your arrival and departure times ( usually. Our Douro River cruise doesn’t). Of course, they are always open for change.

Yes! It doesn’t just appear. I always ask for it to post as soon as we make final payment. Otherwise it sometimes doesn’t appear until you board. I like to use it to pay for shore ex. But I bet there are as many stories here as there are travel agents.

It does, and I can do that! Thanks.

Good to know, as I also have to book excursions for our May cruise while on our February cruise. But I don’t know how to do this tethering?

For flights abroad we use Viking Air +. We choose flights as soon as they come available. Then as soon as we pay in full, we ask to be ticketed. Flights for us are hard, because we have to fly to a gateway city and then maybe another stop. So when we find something we like, and Viking has it, we book ASAP.

I like to think of it more as we pick up pretty quickly on people we want to socialize with. Although I must say, we are doing our first River cruise next fall, and I dread breakfast with the masses!

Well, I guess. But if you travel a lot, everyone has a horror story with flights. We had a flight canceled to Lisbon from DFW, then the flight the next day, they lost luggage our luggage. This was with Regent. So we have really have never seen Lisbon, and have booked again for next year. And then this year, we had 17 minutes to make a Delta flight, booked through Viking, canceled and changed at the last minute, and made it!! Flying these days is a roll of the dice!

Absolutely agree. We booked our own flights to L.A. in Feb. on Delta using miles, then used Viking Air for flying to London and especially home from Bergen. We have Viking Air for our flights to Lisbon and home from Porto, next fall, but will probably do our own in 2025 for flights to L.A. again and home from Vancouver once we check prices.

We do this too. On almost all European business class flights we get a much better price with Viking and Air +