bookbabe

If we liked wine, that would be an option. As it is, it's easier to just give the bottle to a neighbouring cabin.

In an Explorer Suite on Mars right now. The mini-bar is the same as everyone else's, but it gets replaced daily and you have some ability to customize it by swapping out types of soda or tiny bottles if you prefer one item over another. For example, DH had them swap out all the Coke Zero for more Coke. We also have a bottle of champagne, which we don't drink but usually try to find a neighbour on board who wants it. We also grab extra bottled water at the gangway and wedge some in since that's not included in the mini-bar.

On the Mars right now, brand name seems to be Bossini. However, I'm in an ES2, so I don't know if they differ by cabin.

They also won’t let you change your initial booking country and currency, even if you move. They’ll change your address on file, but your booking will still always match your residence at the time of booking. Better yet, online, the credit card section and the ACH section will always default to that initial country and there is no way to change them. Meaning you need to make sure you always have a bank account or credit card with an address in that initial country if you want to be able to pay online. So, as I’ve discovered, you would lose any ability to make payments for ANYTHING online and would have to call in to make all payments, including not just final payment but also shore excursions. Your only option for changing your country of booking would be to cancel, pay the penalties, and then rebook at whatever the current rate is…they will not price protect or help you out in any way. The moral of this story is to book the cabin and date you want at a price you are content with, and not only don’t look at the website prices again but don’t move countries before your cruise. Basically, whatever you book with is what you have to live with. It’s a good thing for them that the onboard experience is so good, because their booking policies stink to high heaven.

You can get the past guest discount applied to previously booked cruises…our PCC did it for us after we got back from our first cruise. We just had to remind him.

Most car rentals are at the airport. Andy’s has a Seven Mile Beach location, and I think there used to be one other local company that had a spot downtown, but I don’t know if that one survived the lockdown. The airport is easy enough to get to by taxi, or you could check if your favourite international chain has a port pickup option. As for what to do, a car rental is most useful if you want to explore the further parts of the island from the port. I don’t recommend it for things like Seven Mile Beach, Hell or the turtle farm, that’s much easier by taxi or bus. What types of things were you interested in seeing? Party makeup? A little more detail will help guide my responses, please.

We also did this cruise in December. Our excursions (prices in Cdn $) are screenshotted below. Best was the chocolate making, closely followed by the river tubing. Those were both great. Worst was the St Martin included tour, mostly because of the guide, that’s 2.5 hrs of my life I’m never getting back. The St Thomas included is pretty much an excuse to drag you by souvenir shopping spots, depends if you like that or not. Antigua was good, but mostly because we had a great guide.

Depends on when you travel and what time your departure port is on. Cayman does EST year round, they don’t do daylight savings. Taxi app claims $30 US each way for 1-4 passengers.

If you start one, post here that it’s up and running so I can join it. 😉

@gnome12 is correct, I still have a way to go before any Egypt trips. Just hoping the process will still be online by the spring, a consulate visit is not easily doable from my new residence, and I really don’t want to have to mail my passport off for an extended period since we have other trips booked we’d need it for. Living on a tropical island instead of a big city like Toronto has a few unexpected issues, as we’ve found. 😉

Here’s a screenshot of the email Viking sent me on Friday. FWIW, I haven’t received any updated info from Adventures by Disney, and we are travelling to Egypt as part of a trip with them in June 2024, and our Viking cruise isn’t until March 2025. I’m anticipating the rules will change a few more times before we travel. It is what it is.

You can also skip the credit card part of checkin entirely and give a credit card in person at the ship. We have to do that for our cruise next week, since all of the payment info defaults to Canada and we’ve moved since booking but there is no way to change the default country. Just calling in to make payments and to give a credit card at the ship was the only solution offered by our PCC in consultation with his supervisor.

Viking has indicated that E-Visas are fine, it’s just the Visa On Arrival that we can no longer do. https://visa2egypt.gov.eg/eVisa/Home?VISTK=DQ9J-L9UW-OSR4-EZTV-46FX-LD4C-Z43U-I8IS-K497-8PU3-EOWX-UCXO-89WU-S2GV-ZSF4-D0Y6

Not a lot of options https://caymanresident.com/things-to-do/sports-fitness/golf

^^this^^ I can tell that none of the people dragging along coffee makers of whatever size had careers in teaching or nursing. When you’ve gotten used to drinking cold or (if lucky) reheated-for-the-third-time-in-the-staff-room-microwave coffee, even the buffet coffee on a cruise ship will be just fine…

Today is day 13 from the start of our official pre-extension, and we leave home in 10 days. We have received none of the items. It is what it is. Part of that is likely because we’ve moved countries since booking, and while we changed our address with Viking the mailed portions are likely taking longer to catch up. And we can’t do the whole of Comfort Checkin because our credit cards now have a different country for the address than the original booking, and there is no way to change that. (As a side note for anyone interested, both ACH and onboard credit card options on MVJ will forever default to the original country of booking, you will only ever be able to make final payments by wire transfer or over the phone with an agent.) However, Viking isn’t worried, and neither are we. They have our flight info and will meet us at the airport before the pre-extension. They’ll deal with luggage tags at the port when we eventually get there, and they said just go to Guest Services when you board to give them a credit card to use onboard. As long as you know when and where to board your plane, and where to go when you arrive, and your passport, essential meds and credit cards are in your pocket or carryon, everything else can be easily dealt with along the way.

However…if you look, the “room service from specialty restaurants” has disappeared from the suite descriptions on the website, at least for the ones I’ve checked, and in fact for Grandeur there’s no room service listing at all in the amenities. Hoping it’s an IT glitch, but I can’t get more than an “I haven’t heard of any changes” from my PCC.

Congrats to those with Viking WC bookings. Sadly, since Viking has been slow out of the gate to announce the December 2025/January 2026 WC offering, DH booked us on the Regent WC for January 2026. Not what we’d planned, but a great itinerary so we needed to jump fast to get our preferred suite. Sigh. Why, oh, why, Viking, are you so slow?

Maybe try posting in the roll call for the cruise right before yours? Although who knows how long it’s been there. Nice of you to turn it in.

After reading all of this, I’m kind of glad we booked a suite that included unlimited specialty dining reservations and I’m not planning to make any in advance. Hopefully onboard it will go as smoothly as I’ve read. My only dining worry is room service. When we booked, room service from the specialty restaurants was a listed benefit, and one of the reasons we booked that suite for both our test cruise this fall and the 2026 WC. That benefit has now disappeared from the cabin description, and my PCC assures me that it’s just an IT glitch, that nothing has changed. Here’s hoping he’s correct. From the sounds of it, the IT situation is chaotic enough that it wouldn’t be surprising. Good luck to all of you making reservations! Hope it goes as planned and not as expected. 😉

Not sure about stores, but many of the restaurants that serve breakfast will be open. I’d try Waffle Monkey - https://wafflemonkey.net - they open at 7am, so will be likely open by the time you can get there. Bread and Chocolate - http://www.cafe.ky - is good, but they don’t open until 8am. There’s a few other breakfast spots that might be open - https://www.caymangoodtaste.com/best-of-cayman/the-best-breakfast-spots-in-grand-cayman - look for ones in George Town and then look at the map to see how close to the port it is to see if it’s feasible.

What do you mean by good? Cheap? Tasty? Local food? Fine dining? Trendy? Vegan? And how far from the port are you willing to venture? Walking distance only? Taxi? Bus? A good website to help you narrow down the options is Cayman Good Taste. https://www.caymangoodtaste.com/restaurants

Contact Viking asap. We're also on that cruise and pre-stay, and there's a number of tender ports (plus the train as a PP mentioned) that might make wheelchair use problematic.

A friend's nephew is still missing after the fire. May have been on a yellow motorcycle. Additional info has been posted to the Maui People Finder FB group. Anyone with news please contact me and I'll pass the info along back through the chain. Thanks

Ack. Almost all of the ES2 cabins have been reclassified as ES1, including my fav deck 5 ones. I'm assuming that will mean they will be charging more for them. Boo.