biggerbearmom

I posted yesterday about this discussion on a Viking FB group and it generated quite a few responses and then was removed.

Then it would seem that as TayanaLorna pointed out, this is happening on cruises that originate in the U.S.

Where did this cruise originate?

We were on a Princess Cruise to Mexico in February 2022. There was a young couple that had a dog in a stroller. I first became aware of it as they were two tables away from us in one of the main dining rooms. I was shocked they were allowed to bring it into the dining room. That was a first for me and our last time ever that we will cruise with Princess. I have no problem with true support dogs, but I think we all know that the whole support dog issue has been abused.

We were on the Star in February and the days I happen to use the pool the roof was open, and also noticed it being open when having lunch at the grill. Not sure why it would be different now…

The first three days of quarantine I was sick with fever, headache, cough and body aches. All I wanted to do was sleep and occasionally eat. My husband on the other hand, who tested positive but felt mostly okay had a harder time. He watched TV, movies on the Ipad, read and napped. By day 5 I was feeling better which was the day we were in Flam. It was a beautiful day and I was melancholy as I watched people leave the ship, knowing they were all going off for a wonderful day of exploring. Having previously been to Flam, I knew what I was missing out on. When we arrived in Bergen we were ready to be off the ship, so we disembarked a day early and traveled on to Sweden.

We did this on our own last April after the Trade Routes cruise and it’s truly wonderful. The left side traveling towards Oslo definitely has better views, I had also read that the right side was better and booked our seats as such. But as noted by the OP, moving around from side to side is not an issue. Our only issue was the train was over 90 minutes late in leaving Bergen which caused us to miss our flight out of Oslo to Sweden. This August prior to our British Isle cruise, we will fly into Bergen four days early and take the train to Flam, spend two night there, and then take either the train or ferry back to Bergen for the start of the cruise.

When we self tested last August and came up positive, we called the medical center. I told the nurse that we wanted a PCR test to confirm our positive self test (I had symptoms so I was pretty certain). The nurse told me the the same thing, if she came up to test us, and if we tested positive that we would be in quarantine, and then asked if we still wanted to be tested. We chose to test and spent the remainder of the cruise in quarantine. I was too sick to do anything else, plus as others have said, it’s the right thing to do.

Last April we had no issues getting a cab to the airport after disembarking. I believe we paid around $50.

We did this train ride in 2017, we thoroughly enjoyed it and is so easy to do on your own.

Are you aware that Viking will compensate you on a pro-rated basis for the days missed while in quarantine? We contracted Covid last August while on our Iceland cruise and based on the passenger contract, we were given a generous voucher for the days missed.

Last August we disembarked a day early in Bergen. We just had to let Guest Relations know of our plans and had no issues walking off a day early.

We disembarked on February 11 at Fuerte Amador and there was no problem whatsoever. We collected our luggage, boarded a bus and off we went to the Panama Hilton.

We are able to get the 3.3% over the phone with our travel agent.

The first time we did the Flåm Railroad in 2014, we bought our own tickets directly through the railroad website. It was something we really wanted to do and we were concerned tickets through the ship would be sold out (we were on Celebrity). It was super easy, and Flam is so small that you walk off the ship and the rail station is super close. We took the early train, and then when we returned to Flam we still had the remainder of the afternoon so we took the ferry to Gudvagan, which was spectacular. Once in Gudvagan we took the bus back to Flam. The scenery is absolutely stunning.

We did it on our own, and it’s easy to do. I bought tickets for the train directly through their website a few months in advance and preselected our seats. We had planned to change trains in Oslo that would take us to the airport for a flight on to Sweden. But due to over an hour delay out of Bergen, we missed our flight out of Oslo, so we ended up taking a train from Oslo to Sweden. We are doing the reverse this coming August, starting in Oslo with a stopover in Flåm and then on to Bergen. As far as tours go, all the tours we took were really good. We did the included tours in Torshavn and Seydisfjordur. The Golden Circle tour through Viking was excellent as is the train in Flam.

We did this cruise last August and it was just fabulous.

Best piece of advice I can give is to buy trip insurance separate from Viking. We use the tripinsurance store.com, and buy the insurance based on our total dates of travel.

How could I forget…Keukenhof Gardens is just stunning, absolutely amazing. But, it is only from March until May.

Viking now offers a 19 day itinerary that includes South Georgia Island, with the lowest rate starting at $19,995.

This is a fabulous itinerary and you will enjoy it. It is a lot of bang for your buck. A few highlights for me was visiting Montserrat Abby, Monet’s Garden and Home (both were Viking Tours) and we did The Alhambra with Spain Day Tours which was just wonderful. In Barcelona we visited La Sagrada Familia on our own. We booked a tour directly through their website and it was spectacular.

And I am Biggerbearmom because my son played football at CAL, he was the starting left tackle for three years (2003-2005). 😊

lackcreativity, I agree with you wholeheartedly. The side effects of the pandemic have a created a host of problems, but I am not going to wait around to travel abroad. Yes, I enjoy great food, do I travel because of the food? No, I travel to experience new surroundings and learn about different cultures and customs. Excellent food is a bonus as is air travel with no glitches.

I am currently half way through A Path Between Seas and it is a fascinating read.

We cruised and traveled in April with friends who were in a PV and we were in the lowly V1. There was not a single issue with the difference in stateroom categories. We had no problems syncing our dinner times in The Resturaunt, Manfredi’s and The Chef’s Table. All of our excursions we were able to be together in the same group. Because their room was bigger be would gather in their room/veranda before dinner and have drinks.