biggerbearmom

You can initially insure your trip with a minimum insurance coverage of $250 per person. This will give you the preexisting coverage. Once final payment is made you call and up the amount for full coverage on the trip. Call Steve at the https://tripinsurancestore.com, he is the one who gave me this tip. It gives you the coverage you need plus saves from having to pay the full insurance premium until you are 100% sure you’re taking the trip.

I think what may be the new feature is upgrading the class of seats on MVJ. May 2022 I was able to change our flights from Air Canada to Delta on MVJ. It gives you all the different combinations to choose from, and as someone else previously mentioned there could be an up charge depending on the combination you choose. It’s nice to have control without having to call your TA or Viking to make the change.

By reading the fine print, I found out last summer that due to my 5 day Covid quarantine aboard the Mars, that I was entitled to a voucher for the days missed. I would not have known this if I hadn’t read the fine print. Viking gave a us a very generous voucher which we happily took and used.

That is good to know! Our neighbors on our February 2023 cruise to Panama had their TV up really loud every night, and late into the evening.

Steve is the one who told me about just covering the deposit until final payment. The other thing is that all of the policies he sells are primary coverage. With the Viking insurance you must claim with your own medical insurance before they will even consider or pay on a medical claim. There is really no benefit to using Viking insurance.

I didn’t take the time to read through this entire thread, so I apologize if my comments are a repeat. We typically do our own pre or post extensions, and about half of the time purchase our own air. If you purchase Viking insurance, you are only covered for the dates of the actual Viking cruise, your pre/post and air outside of Viking would not be covered. Just something to consider if you like exploring on your own prior to the start of your vacation. Also, with Viking you are forced to purchase the policy as soon as you book. We always purchase our travel insurance from Steve through thetripinsurancestore.com. We initially just insure the deposit amount which gives us the pre existing coverage. We then up the insurance once we make full payment for the cruise.

Do not use Viking insurance. What you can do to get the pre existing condition on the insurance coverage is you only have to insure the deposit amount. Once final payment is made you then up the insurance to cover the full amount of the cruise. I learned this from Steve at the tripinsurance store.com If for some reason you cancel before final payment you aren’t out a ton of money, plus the tripinsurancestore.com will allow you to move it over to a new vacation.

That’s unfortunate, policies should be fleet wide.

When we were quarantined for 5 days last August due to Covid, we were told to order from the Resturaunt, and we ordered from Manfredi’s the night we had a reservation. They happily brought us whatever we wanted.

I have been to Norway on four different occasions, I can never see enough of it. We leave out of Bergen on September 2, for the British Isles itinerary. KLM and SAS have very good connections to Bergen and Stockholm. I’d take Bergen or Stockholm over Heathrow any day. We have sailed with Princess many times over the years. If you enjoy lots of people, loud music, and children, then pick Princess. Otherwise give Viking a try, you’ll be pleasantly surprised and likely realize it’s worth the extra cost.

If you wait to go to dinner about 15 minutes until after the doors open, you won’t encounter a long line and will only need to wait a few minutes. Also, if you let your wait staff know that you are trying to make the show, they will attempt to speed up the dinner service.

Thanks for the recommendation. I just booked it for two nights in November for $195 a night including breakfast which doesn’t seem that bad for Barcelona. We’ve previously stayed at Hotel Jazz and really liked it but wanted to try something different this time around.

We did Princess last February to Mexico because it is easy to do living in Sonoma County. That being said, we will never sail again on a large cruise line. We will be taking our 4th Viking Ocean cruise in September, and there is no way we could ever go back to the big lines. We took our first Viking Ocean last April and we are hooked.

I participated in the Blue Nose ritual last August, it was held a couple of days later after the AC crossing.

We were in Torshavn last August and really enjoyed the included tour. We had a wonderful guide and the scenery was just beautiful. Afterwards we walked along the waterfront, poked around in some shops, it was a great day.

We did the Panama Canal in February on the Star and had an aft cabin, it was absolutely fine. We did not encounter rough seas.

I just don’t understand all of the concern with excursions. Granted, my experience with Viking Ocean is limited to three oceans cruises (Iceland, Trade Routes, Panama Canal) in the past 12 months. We always book a lower category room and the only excursions we weren’t able to book were a few optional excursions. As has been previously stated, if an included excursion was full, we were able to book a time slot once on board. On the Trades Route cruise the Alhambra was full so we booked it through a private tour operator.

I hope that you shared with Viking the reason for your cancellation. We did the Panama Canal in February, I am glad that we did it before finding about about the dog issue.

It was on the Iceland/Norway ocean cruise and we were confined to our stateroom.

We received $7,000 in vouchers last August for having to quarantine due to Covid. It was very specific in the terms that once we applied the vouchers to a trip, any changes or cancellations would void the vouchers and they’d no longer be available for use.

Exactly!

“I have seen quite a few toy breeds used for diabetic detection dogs, as they need to be carried in the owner's arms or a chest carrier to sniff the owner's breath. Given that about 1 in 10 US citizens are diabetic, and that number isgrowing, it wouldn't surprise me to see that all four animals were diabetic alert dogs. Not saying some of them might be fake, but it wouldn't be out of consideration.” I am not disagreeing with the statements that you made in your post. But are you saying that a dog for a diabetic must always be carried in order to sniff the breath of the owner? That means the dog must always be in proximity of the owners mouth, that just doesn’t make sense. I always thought it was the sweat glands that the dogs pick up on.

That may be the case, but true service dogs do not sit at the table while his person is eating. My best friend’s father was blinded in the Korean War. He had German Shepherds as his guide dogs; in all the years I spent in their home, never once did I see it sitting on the couch, on a chair, sleeping on his bed, being fed table scraps, etc. They were well trained and cared for service dogs. I have no issues with service animals in the true sense of the intent, but I’m sorry, this appears to be someone taking advantage of the situation.

@Viking Cruises, If you truly believe that the dog in this picture is a service animal then I would like to suggest that there’s a serious problem that needs to be addressed.

I thought so too, and I did not put the name of CC in my post. I was just trying to direct more traffic to this thread so that more Viking travelers would reach out to Viking about this issue. As long as this remains an issue with Viking, I will not cruise from a US home port.