bookbabe

I’m on Viking Saturn, boarding March 13…I’ll try to post something that evening if there’s a chance you’ll see it before boarding. If not, I’ll probably wait until the next evening after we’ve left Istanbul. 😉

Is this the right website for the Barcelona Day Tours company people have used and recommend? https://barcelonadaytours.com

We will be at Galataport late next week, and can look around for info if no one has posted anything by then. At the very least, I can take a few pics to add to the thread.

It can be very wavy, depending on the weather, and you have to climb up and down a ladder to get into and out of the boat. Depending on where they anchor, you may have to swim a short distance to get to the sandbar. People regularly overestimate their fitness level or swimming ability (not saying you are, just that it happens) and so the cruise lines likely compensate for that to try to avoid having people run into difficulties. Every month or two I read another story in the paper about a water-related incident or death, and it’s generally a tourist who didn’t realize how strenuous ocean activities can sometimes be.

Is that you? If so, SCA or other group?

As Xerxella says, that’s pretty close to our list. Who did you go with? We ended up with Regent, in a bigger cabin so we can have any restaurant, incl specialties, delivered for dinner as room service. The evenings DH doesn’t want to wear pants, we’ll just hide in the cabin. Their itinerary was pretty perfect for us, so that was a big part of our decision-making.

Weird. Our 2026 Regent WC was booked in April, and the Viking has been out for a couple months, I think. Didn’t realize that there were other lines that hadn’t released theirs yet.

If you are looking for 2026, see which cruise lines are not sold out in your desired cabin class. The cheapest and most expensive cabins are likely sold out already, and on some lines the majority of cabins may be gone already for 2026.

We have Trade Routes booked for April, and our excursions are there (they lock MVJ tomorrow, so good timing, I can still see stuff). The shortest Stonehenge tour is 5 hours and leaves at 8:30am. (There’s also a longer full day option, which is the one we are on.) The Mary Rose excursion is 4.5 hours and leaves at noon. You could maybe do Mary Rose on your own after getting back from Stonehenge, it sounds from the description that it’s not too far from the port, but as I haven’t been I don’t know for sure.

You can likely BYO to any of the public beach access points, with restroom facilities and chair rentals that would be Public Beach. None of the other beach access points along SMB have facilities, AFAIK. There’s access points every couple hundred yards, if you decide you are okay with just throwing down a towel. If you are okay with a beach club to buy drinks at rather than BYO, you’ve got Coral Beach. https://coralbeach.ky Or one of the dozens of bars or restaurants along SMB if you just want to hang out and drink watching the waves as opposed to actually swimming.

As long as the weather cooperates, you tender right into downtown. Lots of shopping, mostly high end or tourist stuff, lots of restaurants, plus a small museum.

See my previous post. Dressy is in the eye of the wearer, IMO. If you never wear long pants, putting them on every evening is a big change, and yes, DH and I consider that Dressy. One of the things we love best about NCL and the Haven is the ability to have a good meal in shorts and a t-shirt and not be forced to hide in the cabin so our wardrobe preferences won't offend people. 😉

We live on a beach. T-shirts, shorts and sandals are our way of life. DH owns a couple of pairs of long pants, bought specifically for cruising, and puts them on at the last minute before dinner and takes them off again immediately afterwards. For us, the lack of an evening casual option for dinner is why we consider Regent "too formal" to cruise on much, and why it was worth booking a Grand Suite for their world cruise, so we can have good food delivered to us while we are forced to hide in our cabin due to a lack of interest in pants. 😉

Yeah, that's the part that kills us too, the Regent no casual spots after 6pm. Dressed up for work for years, no desire to do it on vacation, and we live on a beach so formal wear isn't really a thing for our lifestyle. Our solution was to book a Grand Suite, which includes room service from the specialty restaurants for dinners. On our 7 night cruise, we only went out to eat twice. We aren't into hanging out in the bars and such, so it worked for us. A little worried about the world cruise, but DH loves the itinerary enough that we decided we can suck it up for six months and he'll put on long pants. Viking's buffet in the evening is a good one, with a lot of the same dishes as the main restaurant, and you can go in shorts. Viking is also no passengers under 18, if that makes a difference to you. No casino, as the PP noted. No photographers or art sales either. Haven't tried Oceania or Royal Caribbean yet, we might at some point when we have a gap in the schedule. Have done Carnival, but only when traveling with friends or family that insist on it. Disney is good but pricey and there are lots of kids, depending on how you feel about that.

We were having to buy CAD or use a USD credit card to make the CAD payment, since we moved outside of Canada last summer but still had some bookings in CAD. So I didn't factor in any currency exchange fees since that would have made my savings unreasonably high due to the double conversion needed. The price difference I quoted was the straight CAD price my booking was in converted to USD via google, versus the straight USD my new booking was in, and then I subtracted the $25pp cancellation fee for switching the booking.

We've sailed all three lines, plus some others, and have cruises booked on all three in the future. Viking - small ships, slower pace, lower-key activities. Good food. Will have to wear slightly more formal clothes than on NCL for dinner anywher other than the buffet. No butlers or priority onboard services even for the biggest suites, but service is good and there's so few passengers we really haven't noticed the lack. Beer and wine included with meals even if you don't have the drink package. One included tour per port, usually the generic walking or bus overview-type tour. No shows or "big" entertainment, think lectures plus solo performers and duos mostly, lots of classical or older popular music. Excellent included spa area. Regent - small to mid-sized ships, slower pace, way more formal than NCL. Good food, but no evening casual dining options at all other than room service. No evening buffet. No shorts or casual wear in public areas after 6pm. Bigger suites have butlers and a few perks. Lots of good included excursions. Regular drinks included, think some premium choices might be extra but we didn't run into any. Can't remember what entertainment there was, and we just sailed a couple months ago, so it was obviously pretty unmemorable. Over the next few years we've got PoA and a Jade Alaska booked with NCL for different family/friend group cruises; and for just the two of us, a 36 night Istanbul to Norway and a 15 night British Isles booked with Viking Ocean, a 15 night Europe river cruise booked with Viking River, and a World Cruise booked with Regent. We like them all, but they are all much different experiences. We have more fun on NCL, but Viking has better itineraries (although Regent has a better world cruise itinerary). Wish there was a way to pick and choose bits from each cruise line to create the perfect experience.

I just saved the equivalent of about $800 pp CAD on a Viking cruise I recently booked for March 2025 by booking in USD. Same cabin, inclusions, etc. Worked for us, especially since we have the US funds already to pay for it, but even just converting the funds that day and putting them aside for final payment we would have been ahead that amount.

I've been following these ones... Viking https://mandmtouchettravelers.blogspot.com https://drsla-wc.blogspot.com Regent https://regentworldcruise2024.wordpress.com

Ouch. For that price, it better be a really nice mug. But thank you for checking, that helps solve the packing dilemma.

If someone here is onboard Saturn now, or in the next couple of weeks, I was hoping to ask a favour… Does the onboard gift shop carry Tervis-style lidded coffee cups? Preferably Viking logo ones, but any pattern would do in a pinch. I know the WC has to-go cups by the coffee, but I really like morning room service coffee on the balcony in my pjs, and I’m hoping to avoid having to bring a whole stack of cups and lids back to the room. We’re onboard for 36 days, so having a decent lidded coffee cup would be really handy, and I’d like to avoid lugging one along. Or, does anyone remember seeing anything of that sort for sale in Istanbul? Someplace either at the port or near the pre-stay hotel (Conrad) would work.

We were on NCL in May 2022

Seriously, you just have to contact the cruise line, and then possibly talk to the Security Officer on board to confirm and make final arrangements. It’s very easy. When my mom did this, the CBSA folks at the Victoria terminal were completely nonchalant about it, I actually even had to wave one of them over to collect her customs form, which they took but didn’t even glance at. The CBSA does all of the arrivals paperwork before the ship lets anyone off, so as long as the onboard security officer has done their correct paperwork, CBSA doesn’t care about a Canadian getting off one port early. It’s the ship that cares the most, since they have to do that paperwork and figure out about any “missing” passengers at all aboard time.

They really have something against telling passengers about changes in a timely fashion. I would love to know what they’re really thinking they help by delaying. We ran into this same unwillingness, on a much smaller scale, on In the Wake of the Vikings in September. We knew from CC that the tender dock at L’Anse aux Meadows had been damaged, and from seeing reports here about other cruise lines skipping the port and that the tender dock was not even in the process of being fixed, which is understandable since we were one of, if not the last, port call of the season, but Viking refused to admit anything about the port change until the day before. Granted, rerouting a whole WC is much harder, but if everyone else has managed, you’d think Viking could get their act together. RCI is putting it to a passenger vote, for pity’s sake. At least confirm whether you are being rerouted or not, even if they don’t have the exact ports yet. That would let people cancel private excursions and such at the dropped ports. This is making me happier that DH didn’t like the itinerary for Viking’s 2026 WC, so we’ve gone with Regent. I feel so badly for all of you left in limbo. Fingers crossed for an announcement soon.

My mom was able to get off in Victoria (she lives in Comox) rather than in Seattle on an NCL Alaskan cruise in May 2022, but the cruise line wouldn’t confirm that she could ahead of time, we had to wait and talk to the Security Officer onboard to get the final approval. Once arranged, it was easy to do. They had her wait until the rush was over, then we took her and her luggage down to the gangway area where we were met by the Security Officer. Took a bit longer than the usual to scan her card and such, but then we just walked her and her luggage out to the parking lot where my brother was picking her up. Very easy process. The tense part was having to wait until we boarded to get the final approval, since if they’d said no we would have had to scramble for last minute flights for her. If your plan is to ferry home if you have to go all the way to Vancouver, then it’s easier to arrange that last minute than to try to find decently-priced flights.

If you choose LHR for your flights, check out the Hilton Paddington Station. Very easy to get to and from Heathrow via the Heathrow Express train. Very convenient location.