flare3192

Thank you wishiwastravelling. This has been very helpful. Yesterday we put a deposit down on the Splendor for July

thank you

I don't understand If, for example, we arrive July 20 and do our own thing for 4 days and then come back to Reykjavik July 24 and want that night in the hotel for a cruise that starts July 25 -- would that night in the hotel and the transfers the next day to the ship be included in the concierge suite? If we had taken their air without deviation the night in the hotel would have been included but if we take their air but come in early and do our own thing can we come back to the hotel for the night before the cruise and would that be included. I understand there would not be a transfer to the hotel from the airport but wanted to know if he hotel and transfer to the ship would be included. Thanks

Thank you all for your help in answering questions. We are going to book the Reykjavik to Southampton. I know that Regents has pre cruise tour but it included things we were not interested in so we are going to do our own pre 4x4 tour for 3 or days before the cruise. If we take a concierge level room that includes one night hotel would we be able to have that for the night before we sail? We would fly in 3 or 4 days early and do the tour. Then we would come back to the hotel and want the overnight and the transfer to the ship the next day. Would that be allowed? Or if we go early do we lose that benefit? Thank you

What do you wish you had known about Regents -- good or bad: Thanks

Thank you. I am reading all you suggest and am looking at what will work. I admit it seemed too good to be true to let them handle everything! The only part of not having them do our air that I will miss is the transfer from London to the cruise port in Southampton. I have done my own air a lot of the time but cruising is relatively new to us. I do think that we would need to arrive at least a day early if we do our own air. I can arrange a car to Southampton and maybe a tour for the next day. The ship sails at 7 pm so we would have a whole day and Southampton would be less expensive to stay than London. We have been to London before and I don't have a big desire to see it again. I found some tours to Salisbury and the Magna Carta from Southampton which would be interesting. We would fly from Atlanta but I found I could not find business class air to London with the return from Reykjavik. I guess that is because Delta does not fly business to Reykjavik but I found it odd that they did not allow me to pick business one way. I agree economy is never fun but hated to spend $3200 for both of us to fly that segment for 5 hours.I would like the equivalent of delta comfort though. And we would still be on regular economy from the gateway city to Atlanta We do want to deviate at the end of the cruise and spend some more time in Iceland -- before we looked at SS we were looking at Regent and they had a 4x4 4 day pre in Iceland we would like to still do and there appear to be a lot of companies that do this type of thing. I believe having them take care of the air with a deviation would incur an additional fee as well. If anyone has experience with this type of thing we would appreciate recommendations. Thank you for all your help.

We are looking at the Southampton to reykjavik. Silver Seas includes air and I am wondering about that. We are coming from Atlanta. I was planning to upgrade to business class to London but there is no real business class from Reykjavik so did not think it would be worth it. There are no direct flights so we would need to fly through NY or Boston. First question is, if you let them fly you economy today there are so many economy classes of economy -- do you have to pay for checked luggage? Can you choose your seats ahead of time? How much input do you get. My experience with cruises is limited. We did do Viking to Antartica and were able on our own to upgrade to either comfort or business which we did. But the carrier with the most flights to Iceland is Icelandair and I am do not know anything about them. Is this who SS uses? I have done a little bit of googling and I am concerned we may have to check bags (we always do carry on only) and that would cost extra. There are several types of economy each with different restrictions and I did not know which type SS uses. How far in advance do you receive your flight information and how much input can you have in it? Thank you

Hello! We are thinking of doing the pre tour in Iceland -- Superjeep and would like to know if any has done it and the feedback you have. Thank you

We are looking into an Icelandic cruise for 2024. I know that Regent is not Viking with no children but read that they have a program geared to children and I wondered if there would be a lot of children on the cruise. It said they had professional youth counselors overseeing a program with movie nights, dance contests, mini putt putt contests and more. That sounds more like the large cruise ships we avoid. Please let me know your experience. I realize this cruise is in the summer when children have off and is within the 2 week time period most people vacation for. I just want to know so that I can make an informed decision as to whether or not we would like this cruise. Thank you

Thank you I am reading all your comments and appreciate each one. Has any one done Iceland?

Hello! We are new to cruising. Our recent (last 30 years) experience consists of two Viking cruises this year and we enjoyed them. I am wondering how you would compare Viking to Regent. What is better or worse? How do the guests compare? How many people are on a tour? What about the entertainment? The dress code? We like this itinerary and are trying to figure out if what you get with concierge is worth the price difference. It is about $2,000 more but, if we use their air we would come in a day early and have the hotel stay included as well as the additional wifi devices that would cost about $500 extra with a superior suite. The black Friday sale took about $4,000 each off the fare which made it more attractive. Having not followed Regent is this likely to occur again? Do they do many sales less than the 2 for 1 they always advertise? How much does picking your flights cost? I have been confused with that. If you don't use their air but stay in a concierge suite do you still get the hotel stay or is that only if you let them do the air? What do you wish you had known before you chose Regent? What surprised you? We are looking at the July 25 Iceland to London trip on the Splendor Thank you

my experience within Europe is that the business class seats to fly from one European city to another are regular economy class seats but the middle seat is left open. So where you woule have a 3 seat configuration the 3 seats are there but the middle seat is left open.

thank you.

Does anyone know if Turkish Air is an airline Viking uses?

i would consider all others have said but also using a travel agent to check often for you

when we were on the cruise in May we booked an Egypt cruise for Oct 2024. When I returned home I realized that the pre to Israel would coincide with Rosh Hashana which meant that three days of the 4 days in Israel would be closed down. The person who suggested the dates to us worked for Viking and was from Israel. I think he should have considered that . In that month the fare went up $500 and we have to pay it to have the date moved 3 days earlier. Since then it has increased $1,000. I think they are getting greedy. I also think that the $25 deposit causes people to claim cabins they will not fill just in case and that hurts the rest of us by making it more difficult to find a cabin and therefore the price increases as cabins appear scarcer than they may be. Just thinking out loud.

I personally like the trip insurance store. You always get the same people when you call and they know their stuff. I am most concerned about medical issues when I am away. So, for me, having primary medical coverage with high limits is important. Once I have paid for my trip, the money is gone. Sure if I can't go it would be nice to get my money back but what matters more to me is not to have a huge unexpected expense. So I always insure the minimum -- which is $500 a person--as soon as I make a payment. It gives me peace of mind. Then I can increase it as I want to -- If I pay $10,000 for the trip I decide to insure all of it or perhaps half of it or somewhere in between. I know that my medical is covered no matter what. And since my husband is 10 years younger his cost is less so I may cover his 100% and mine 50% and be willing to leave something on the table if I can't go. Sometimes I increase it over time -- Add $3,000 one month and then $3,000 another month to help even out the cash flow. There are a lot of companies that require you to have covered everything in order to waive the preexisting conditions coverage but they have some that do not require you cover everything. It is a personal decision -- how much are you willing to lose if you can't go for what would be a covered reason.

I am surprised you will be in Fusina and not Chioggia. We did the cruise and spent the 3 days in Chioggia. There were no excursions you could book on the second day before leaving for the cruise. However there were about 6 or 8 excursions available on the second day that we were not informed of until that week. You have a few days to decide on them. All of them were listed on the web excursion page. There is transportation to Venice the second day to do your own thing if you want to.

i have only done Viking and the experience on the ship is great. However, from what I understand there are times that they are inflexible or their policies are not use friendly. Read this board to find out those things and go with your eyes open -- things like having to pay for the cruise way in advance, the Viking insurance is not one you want to use, vouchers are tricky -- one time use and if something happens you lose everything-- if they have a deal on air realize that the routing may not be preferred. I do think a GOOD travel agent familiar with Viking will help around the things to watch out for-- there are a lot of not very good agents out there so find a good one. But we like the smaller ship -- there is no issue getting on or off -- the restaurants are all available without extra charge -- there are no children -- the staff are amazing. Included excursions are a hit or miss -- we did some and paid for some and used outside guides for some. I do not know how the price of additional excursions on Viking compares to additional excursions on Princess -- maybe someone else can help you here.

I do think that Viking's policies could use some improvement. They are very inflexible. I have not cruised much but I have spent a lot of time reading things here and learned a lot. I did not know anything about vouchers and that even though you paid for the initial cruise, the insurance assigns a zero value when you use them. That hurts if you have not been made aware of things. It is easy to say use a travel agent but trying to find a good one takes trial and error. You really do not know if you have a good one until problems arise and then it may be too late. I signed up for a cruise to Egypt while on a cruise with an agent who is Israeli. He suggested the dates in October 2024. He also knew that going on the pre to Israel was important to me. After I returned home I thought about the holidays in Israel -- Israel is on a lunar calendar so they change from year to year. It turns out we would be in Israel for Rosh Hashana -- basically like being here for Christmas. We were able to get the date changed to 3 days earlier and did it within a month of the original booking but Viking had raised their prices in that month and would not honor the price we had . So the price went up $1,000 for the two of us and there was no grace on their end even though the Israeli sales agent on the cruise should have thought about it. All they told me is that it would be discussed in training and meetings. That didn't help me. I don't have anything to compare them to. On board the two cruises we have taken the service was wonderful. There is a lot to like. And I do know that people would take advantage of them if they were more lenient. BUT I personally think they should have an ombudsman to review situations like this one. There could be a solution that would not leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

When we were in Ireland several years ago, my father in law passed away and we cut our trip short and came home. Since that time we have thought about it and we ensure that we have spent time before we leave with the person. If they were to pass away we do not want to know until we return as there is really nothing we can do for them. The important thing to us is how we treated them when they were alive and ensuring we have time with them before we leave. In my limited interactions with Viking, I do not think they will do any thing to accommodate you.

We are going on the egypt cruise in 2024 with the pre in Israel and the post to Jordan. We will upgrade to business class but am wondering if we should let Viking handle it or if even in business class you are the bottom of the barrel. I will consider doing it myself but am a little concerned about combining Israel and Jordan on my own. The little I have looked because it is not ticketable yet, I am wondering about Turkish Air. We are Atlanta and would usually prefer Delta but not sure about the return from Amman Does any one have any insight into this? Thanks

does anyone know who viking uses for Tel Aviv and Amman? We are going to do the Egypt cruise with the pre to Tel Aviv and the post from Amman. Thank you

We booked Egypt with extensions to Israel and Petra while on the ship. A month after coming home it dawned on me to check when the Jewish high holidays are in 2024 -- something I think the cruise salesman should have looked at before suggesting the dates as he is Israeli and was raised there. We were supposed to arrive Oct 1 2024 and leave October 5 -- As it turns out Rosh Hashona is Oct 2 - 4 2024. That is like Christmas over here -- most things would be closed. We asked to change the date and we are going 3 days earlier as that was available. However in the month since we originally booked, Viking had a price increase of $500 per person and would not do anything for us to honor the original price even though I feel that the onboard person steered us incorrectly -- he suggested the dates to us -- we did not come with dates picked out. As I told Viking, their employee was raised in Israel and should know to look for the holidays as they are on a lunar calendar that is different from our calendat. In 2023 the holiday is Sept 15 - 17 so we would not have had an issue. Unfortunately we are out an additional $1,000. With Viking you have to be careful because there is no grace. Doesn't matter who makes the error

thank you