SantaFe1

6009 has the slider, which we prefer, and faces forward. That’s my favorite combination. However, on the world cruise we had 6013, which faces forward, but has the door and has the door and window combo. We were fine with that for 4 1/2 months!

Our captain did the same on the 2019 WC.

We LOVE six forward! Our next three cruises we are in 6007, 6008, and our absolute favorite, 6009.

I just went to the site and couldn’t got on right now, either. But I was on yesterday, pricing private tours vs. group tours. I’m sure they will be back up shortly.

I do believe they are. I had two things booked with them in 2020 that we had to cancel. They were easy to work with, everything was refunded, including the skip he line Sagrada Familia ticket, which they bought for us as a third party. I haven’t yet booked for March, but plan to do so.

Ours has been moved to the Athens Marriott. Not the greatest location, but seems a nice enough hotel. from MVJ: Athens Marriott Located on bustling Syngrou Avenue, the Athens Marriott is within walking distance to many cultural attractions. Guests can relax in comfortable accommodations featuring well-appointed amenities, then savor a taste of the Mediterranean at the Made in Athens restaurant, before enjoying sweeping views of the city and cocktails at the e&o rooftop bar.

Remember, you are most likely to hear from people who have had things go wrong. People don’t usually write in about their air when everything goes fine. We have used VA+ several times and have never had an issue. In fact they have bent over backwards when blizzards impacted our flights. We are booked again in February, and so far all is well. Just a six minute flight change by the airline. Would have happened with or without VA.

Yes, we are flying back from Barcelona on Lufthansa in business class. And our seats are “typical” European business class seats—a regular economy row of three seats with the middle seat vacant. Fortunately, we are only flying to Frankfurt on that flight, then changing to a nice United Polaris business class seat for the long haul.

Oh, of all people, I can’t tell you how much I hate to hear you say this!!!

If it were me, I would get off the ship at 8, have Barcelona Day Tours take us and our luggage on a four hour, half day tour, and then take us and our luggage to the airport. You can always have lunch at the airport. But what fun to have someone chauffeur you around Barcelona for four hours! And not have to worry about luggage or a taxi. And they are quite reasonable, in my opinion. In any case, good luck and have fun! We’ve missed Barcelona three times in three years. Fingers crossed for March!

We had much the same dilemma. We needed to find a way to spend half a day after disembarking around 9 and checking into our hotel around 2. And we will also have luggage with us. We decided on Barcelona Day Tours. They will pick you up at the ship, give you a tour of the city of your own design, and then drop you off at the airport or your hotel later in the day. This can be a private or group tour. https://barcelonadaytours.com/our-day-tours/

“Ha! I knew I’d find a use one day for this crash-test dummy … “ LOL. In California, years ago, people used to put the dummies in the passenger seat so they could use the carpool lane to get through all the L.A. traffic. Then, there were so many doing that, or something similar, that the carpool lane was no help! I think there is a moral to this story somewhere here…

I know I am going to regret getting into this fray, but this is exactly my definition of a chair hog.

I’m not a huge fan of Viator either. And I’ve never used them for shore ex, just when we were on our own. On our upcoming cruise finishing in Barcelona, where we will stay over a few days on our own, we will do one half day trip with Tours by Locals, and one with Barcelona Day Tours, who will pick you up at the ship, stow your luggage while you do a tour, then drop you at your hotel when it is time to check in. Perhaps check them out in addition to Viator.

You make a good point about the airlines. But please remember that once you have a booking with Viking, you can, in our experience anyway, negotiate a future cruise final payment to six months out. Call, ask, try several sources. Get a supervisor. And, up to 120 days in advance, you can cancel for $100 pp. that’s really not too bad, in our opinion.

Last year, when Viking first restarted cruising, it added a feature to book Restaurant reservations. This was due to COVID, I believe, to keep the numbers down. They kept that option open for 6-8 months, then dropped it. Now it is as it always was: the only places needing reservations are Manfredis and Chefs Table. The Restaurant is just walk in, regardless of Cabin category. Since you do not get any advance reservations at the two specialty restaurants with a V category cabin, just go to the reservations desk when you board and make them, or go to your cabin and use the TV to make them. It’s easy, and as many have posted, your nearly always get what you want.

We have a Mediterranean trip in February-March, which might have some comparable optional excursions. Of course, it always varies, but for this trip, 15 days, the prices range from $49 to $279pp. For example, we are doing an eight hour trip to Carcassone, which is $179pp and includes lunch. The 3-5 hour excursions tend to run $89-109 for most. Hope this helps. And if you have other specific excursions, ask and I can look them up for you if they are on our Mediterranean Antiquities cruise.

No, I retracted this weeks ago. So sorry.

I would never cancel a cruise I was looking forward to because of the opinion of a total stranger. As you read through here, many people have a few things they don’t like or would change. We do too. But it is a lovely ship. The service is great. What they don’t have is the best: no kids, casinos, photographers, etc. etc. Viking was just voted number one again in its size class. For the second year in a row. Really, try it. I’m sure you will find much to like! And I am the pickiest of people!

You know, we never liked the Restaurant much from Cruise #1. It almost kept us from doing our 2019 World Cruise. But we did, and I think in 128 days we ate in the restaurant fewer than 10 dinners. It’s not much fun to have to get dressed up, sit around waiting for service, etc. etc every night for over four months. So, we treated the two specialty restaurants as our going out nights, and ate in the WC the rest of the time. We did enjoy some nice breakfasts in the restaurants when we have many, many sea days crossing oceans. as for the beds, I hated them, my husband loved the firm mattresses. As everyone says, to each their own. We are on Med. Antiquities next in Feb-March and can’t wait, mattresses aside!!