mariavii
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Posts posted by mariavii
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On 7/7/2022 at 4:29 PM, Clay Clayton said:
He wanted to let me know that there was a “flash sale” on some with a 50% solo supplement. Had him email me and here’s what he said:
Pursuant to our phone conversation, the following itineraries have a 50% discount off the single supplement fee on Veranda or Deluxe Veranda cabins:
Iconic Western Mediterranean
Journey to Antiquities
Ancient Mediterranean Treasures
Greek Odyssey
Australia & New Zealand
Komodo & The Australian Coast
Bangkok, Bali & Beyond
Across the Bay of Bengal
Ancient Mediterranean Antiquities
Mediterranean Antiquities
This offer expires on 15 JUL 22 on select dates and while supplies last.
Earlier this month in a fit of IPS (Itchy Passport Syndrome) I had randomly called Viking asking about any reduced single supplements and was offered this - thus my Jan Med Treasures.
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Thanks for the replies! I'm sorry of the question was worded oddly. I meant... do they try to go ahead with maybe some walking tours, or are there no excursions whatsoever? I 100% am not expecting anything, I just wondered if Viking got creative.
I'm already looking at what the locals do ("Throwing of the cross"?! - 12 years of Catholic school and I never heard of *that* for Epiphany).
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I will be on Ancient Med Treasures in Jan 2023 and Rhodes (Greece) is scheduled for January 6 (Epiphany). How does Viking handle ports during a national holiday where almost everything is closed? Any experience with Greek ports on holidays?
Thanks!
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On Midnight Sun, my ex and I were among the youngest (we were in our 40s). I loved Viking so much that I have just booked a solo winter med cruise to celebrate my 50th. Age is just number, right? that works both directions.
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Enjoy the trip! We did the Midnight Sun 2 years ago (Bergen-London, June 30) and had spectacular weather on all but 1 day. It was our first Viking Cruise and our first cruise (as adults) and we loved everything about it. The sites and scenery are spectacular. Shetland was a must see for me, so we hired a private guide who was great (Kitty Wake tours) and we covered a lot more of the island than a Viking tour.
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4 hours ago, terrydtx said:
B of A sells Euros at what ever the exchange rate is for that day with no fees. We are a large depositor so maybe that is why.
Bank of America will also mail your currency to you. It always adds to the excitement of an upcoming trip when an envelope of foreign money shows up in the mailbox (Rubles this past summer!).
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18 hours ago, Jim Avery said:
Ristorante Limoncello in the North End. One of the best I can remember having. VS has had prosciutto and, usually Fontina Cheese, in a white wine sauce. Don't know the ingredients exactly as I am a diner, not a chef, but I have had it this way in NYC, most major US cities as well as in Rome and Florence. The way it is prepared in Manfredi's is unique in my opinion. Dry, crispy broiled prosciutto, and no sauce??? You obviously cook more than I but does that sound like the right way to do it? I know dishes can vary greatly depending just where you are standing in Italy but you would think such differing dishes would have different names.
I remember Limoncello...I lived just few blocks from there. Mmm.....
As for Saltimbocca...it should just be a nice thin cutlet, two or three sage leaves and then a slice of prosciutto - all held together by the magic of Italian love for good food. it gets a light dusting of flour (no dredging, breading, etc), then sauteed until the cutlet is cooked and the prosciutto has a touch of crisp on the edges by is still tender. Then the pan sauce of a little butter and white wine. Dry, crispy, broiled...all no-nos (and an example of why Manfredis hurts my feelings) 🙂
The cheese is not traditional and I prefer the simplicity of the original, but I can see why some add it (Cheese is delicious!). However... it just makes it an italian cordon bleu.
Away from food...Thank You all for taking the time to add to this thread (and the past world cruise one). I am a ways off from having the ability to take a cruise of that length (work gets in the way!) so i am traveling vicariously with all of you, and adding to my list of must-see places.
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1 hour ago, Jim Avery said:
In Boston I had one of my fave Italian meals, Veal Saltimbocca. It was perfectly prepared and was in a beautiful white wine, cheese sauce. In Manfredi's it was the above named breaded pizza sized dish with prosciutto on top grilled to a crispy crunch. No cheese, no sauce. Yuck! On the plus side we have been enjoying the mussels and other appetizers as well as the lasagne and other pastas. Sorry I cannot get good veal saltimbocca. Had veal Marsala last night and it was pretty good. Not breaded. In general we have really enjoyed the fare at the Restaurant. We feel it is a considerable step up from last year. Same for the World Cafe. Safe to say we ain't going to starve....😎
On and off topic...
On topic...I was not impressed with Manfredis the two times we went on our Midnight Sun itinerary (Star). Generally speaking as a restaurant, it was good. As an Italian restaurant - I would rank it lower. (The breads were delish, iirc, though - I hope they still are)
The off topic bit... where in Boston did you have the Saltimbocca of which you rave?? Though i am also curious...saltimbocca shouldnt be in a cheese sauce. There shouldn't be cheese anywhere near saltimbocca. Is this a thing now? As a lover of cheese, I would put cheese on almost anything, but saltimbocca is sacrosanct. 🙂
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As a former Bostonian (and North End resident)...avoid Mikes and go to Modern Pastry. Avoid Hook and go to Yankee Lobster (not far from Cruise Terminal). And try some fresh bread from the Pannettiera behind Bricco. Grab a Drink at Drink (in the seaport) and back in the North end, grab some Oysters at Neptune Oyster.
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We just connected through FRA to Russia (to StP, fr Moscow) on Luftansa.
TL; dr: no rechecking either way, though on the return flight we did have to go through security screening (and all the requisite passport controls in both directions).
Long form: We had a 2 hr. connection, of which 1 hr was eaten up by a delay departing PHL. We were "lucky" enough to deplane at a gate, however it was one of the end gates in terminal A and we had to get to gate B30. After an OJ-sprint through the airport and a shuttle ride, we made it to the plane and on to St. Pete. 1/2 our luggage, though, did not arrive with us.
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21 hours ago, zitsky said:
Do you mean I will be waiting for other people often?
It's usually built into the timing for the excursions, but times, unless you are the one being waited for, you will be waiting for... very slow bus entrances and exits, a LOT of restroom breaks, etc. We knew this going in, but after 2 weeks it gets old.
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Patience. (And the ticket viking provides.)
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We were on Midnight Sun Last year.
There was a shuttle into Leknes and we went into town after our included tour. HOWEVER, all the shops closed up pretty early and only the grocery store was open (though I did get some regional food-type gifts there).
Lerwick had a shuttle. though we only used it to get back to the ship. We had a private guide for the day who was great (if you need a suggestion).
In Edinburgh, we tendered at Newhaven. I dont recall the tender ride being very long. There was a shuttle from the dock to/from Charlotte Square (a bit out of the way). We also walked from the dock to mall area where the Royal Yacht Britannia is docked (about 1 mile). There was a great shop with local artisan stuff in that mall.
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The choices in the bread basket were the best part of the meal at Manfredis. I was unimpressed by much of what we ate on the two occasions we tried it out.
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2 hours ago, SrCruizer said:
For instance, I would never recommend Viking to anyone younger than 45.
My partner and I were 40 and 45 when we took out first VO cruise last year (Midnight Sun - on the Star) and looking forward to booking another when our schedules permit (Alas, not among the retired set...yet). We loved the ship and the entire trip despite being well below the average age. We are not ones for crazy nights out. We just enjoy nice meals, and relaxing in style and peace. The explorers lounge was our place to be most evenings...and we often closed it down (there were very few other passengers in there "late night" most nights).
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9 hours ago, just_dont said:
From the port website link above, it looks like Kai 8 is right in the center of town. Kai 24,25 are probably the ones farther north by the botanical gardens.
Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
Erg...you are correct - I got the numbers reversed. Either way, the Star was not in town. Maybe I need another cruise to refresh my memory 🙂
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On 1/12/2019 at 4:59 PM, Capt_BJ said:
was there this year for midnight sun and pretty sure any cruise docks in the same place .... there are not multiple piers for cruise ships in Tromso .... unless I'm mistaken .... but as a former ship Captain I kinda know what I'm looking at .....
Use Google earth and look at Tromso ... and you'll see a cruise ship. TaDa
if I'm wrong, I owe you one frosted donut.
walking distance to Mack microbrewery in their old building ...
We were there on the Star this summer (I think it was the Sky that was also there the same day). While the Sky got the central location, like another poster said, we were at Kai 8 (near the botanical gardens) and needed to take the free shuttle into town.
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We were on Midnight Sun in 2018 and there were no optional excursions to the Trollfjiord. In fact, our time is port (Leknes) was pretty short and the since it was a Saturday, everything shuttered fairly early. I don't know that a private excursion would even have been possible.
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I did not use Viking Air for our Midnight Sun, but my TA pre booked a Viking Transfer to LHR for $40ea. You do not need to use their air to purchase their transfer. Yea, you may need to be off the ship at 3am, but they'll get you there. The option to purchase the transfer was also on the disembarkation form we had to fill out.
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technical points
2. where the ship is cruising can have a significant impact on your internet access via the ship system. In layman term ... look around your neighborhood, or maybe just your house .... Do you see a home 'satellite dish'? Is it pointed UP at a 45 degree angle? This is because of the position of the satellite 22,000 miles above the equator. If a ship is in similar latitudes the angle needed to 'see' the satellite is also similar. Now let's talk about a cruise NORTH .... while in the ports of our 'midnight sun' trip I observed home dish systems almost horizontal ..... this is the angle you need "up north" to see the bird (satellite)
What happens when the ship is in a deep fiord???? When the 'line of sight' to the satellite is into the face of a mountain????? (hint: no connection)
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Exactly! We were not surprised at the lack of connectivity in fjords and far north...more surprised at hearing others complain about it. It's fairly common sense... I live in PA and lose XM radio service like clockwork when I drive behind certain "mountains."
I was happily surprised that my VoIP went through so easily...though I think we were south of the Circle by that point.
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While the wifi was spotty and slow on the Midnight Sun, I was able to make a pretty clear VoIP call via my Comcast app to deal with fraudulent CC purchases. (Just a reminder to *always* have a backup cc while traveling!!)
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On the day our tours opened. I set the alarm for 3am. We are on the east coast. I got everything we wanted. I booked the tours we had to pay for first and then went back for the included ones. I had back up times for included tours and had to switch twice. We are DV2.
We did the same (at 3am!), except SO and I both logged in so we could book optionals quickly. We were DV6 and got all the tours we wanted...at the times we wanted (for Midnight Sun).
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p.s. there is a bus that goes from the Radisson Blu to the airport ... the pickup point is about 600 meters from the terminal door ... about $12us per person (cards accepted) It is an easy flat walk ....
The Flybussen. We took it from the airport into Bergen. It was super easy.
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We mostly ate in The Restaurant and almost always had wonderful service and never had a complaint about the food (until our last night...creme brulee was not...er...bruleed). We were late eaters, typically seated around 8, sometimes later so service was attentive, but we did lose the wine stewards as they left dinner to head to there night assignments.
We were disappointed that our 2 favorite wines ran out as we reached Scotland.
As for specialty restaurants, we only ate at Chefs table once as SO does not eat fish l. The one time we did eat there (gastronomic journey menu) the food was excellent. Service, however was atrocious. We were seated at 8pm and it was 20min before a waiter or the wine steward came over. It was 1/2 empty so I'm not sure what that was about.
We tried manfredi and were excited for an excellent meal when we saw the interesting bread basket. However the food did not live up to the hype...heck aome of the food didn't even resemble the menu descriptions. It was not Italian italian... closer to over seasoned and improperly prepared italian-american fare.
But we decided to give it a second try thinking maybe it was an off night. Not really.
Lunch was typically at the pool grill and we enjoyed that. As we did the world cafe for lunch.
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Scheduling flight out of Barcelona
in Viking Ocean
Posted
This is only the case if you book through Viking and not a TA. That Request Invoice tab was there until I transferred my booking to my TA, then it disappeared. Now I need to get it through her.