geordie_jim

Whilst sytle of music and entertainment are very subjective, for those looking for something a little (it is Viking !) bit more upbeat, generally the guitarists/singer in the explorer lounge (pretty much most nights) have ranged from good to brilliant for us , the last cruise we were on in Nov 23 had John as the Guitarist and I would say he fell into the category of brilliant, he did a session in Torshvan once at around 9:30PM and opened with Stairway to heaven and the already quite full Torshvan crowd appreciated his performance with a standing ovation. Torshvan can be pretty lively , we have had many a late evening dancing the night away, but as is often the case it depends on the crowd on the ship, if you want this style of fun , it is there. 

On 11/19/2023 at 10:17 PM, MikeyB said:

Deec...I 

I might be in love with you.  But time will tell.  On board the Sky now. And will find out tomorrow if its combinable with TGS23.  Wouldnt that be nice. 

For the future world cruisers.  The Viking singers/dancers just came onboard in Barcelona. 

Although i saw four board. Only 3 performed at the welcome aboard.  There are a number of rooms being refurbished on deck3 Starboard.  Sounds sometimes like Gaza Strip.  Not really what you should expect.  Stewards are friendly and outstanding.

The captain is a giant.  Jenna is onboard.  Prio is the bartenderr in the Living Room.  Third cruise with him.  Alan on guitar. Its 11:17 now.  Must have another drink

Can I ask , is that Alan the Guitarist  from the UK?

JIm

8 hours ago, millybess said:

We did the West Indies to Spain in March.  It was very nice.  As CCWinelover said above there were no "pool parties".

 

There was a "dancing under the stars" evening.  On our cruise that was just watching the entertainers dance under the stars rather than us dancing under the stars - lol.  But from other posts I've read, that could have been an anomaly.  

Thank you for your update, Dancing under the stars evening sounds good, but I think I was hoping if the weather allows the Guitarist / entertainment team might put on a day time event , we shall see. Certainly on previous warm weather cruises this has happened a few times , but these were longer durations. 

Jim

I would be interested to know what the current shows are and also who is playing in the Explorer lounge at the moment. Also are they doing any pool parties , we are onboard in early November for the West Indies to Spain - Barcleona to San Juan.

Jim

Again. so sorry regarding your Granddaughter's siuation.

Another possibility , which depends on timing and therefore may not work for you, but you may be able to change to another cruise , potentially well into the future. If Viking have not ticketed the flights at this stage they should charge a £100 pp change fee (but they have the descretion to waive this) and if the timing was that the flights were ticketed then I would check with Viking UK but again I think there is some flexibility to change to another cruise but with additional costs that Viking UK would incur being passed onto you. Both these options would at least protect from a 20K+ loss. I would ring Viking UK to check the information I am quoting, but I can certainly say that I just last week spoke about changing a river cruise later this year to another cruise in 2025 and this was an option that Viking would have allowed, I didn't do it in the end but it was an option offered.

Jim (UK)

17 hours ago, LTC said:

Hi, As suspaul says Vietnam is a fantastic place to visit. We were there from March 24-April 10 this year. Hanoi and Ha Long Bay were on the cool side but when we went to Siem Reap, the cruise part of the trip and a few days in Ho Chi Minh the weather was oppressive, very hot and humid. 45C, think that's about 113F. Clothes were changed every time we got back to the boat or hotel. Our guides were saying that this was hotter than usual for this time of year but summer was hotter. They did mention the rainy season saying we picked a good time of year to go so that we didn't experience the hot weather and rain that comes in July and August. One guide told us there were 3 seasons in Vietnam, hot, hotter and hottest with lots of rain. If you can handle that weather go for it but as you say there is a reason why it's cheaper that time of year.

Thank you so much to suspaul and yourself for the updates. Yep looks like the July/August will be exceptionally hot and wet and humid. It was interesting that you specifically mentioned Ho Chi Minh in March/April as we are booked on a different Viking Ocean cruise arriving Ho Chi Minh 30th March 2024 have 2 overnights , then heading towards Ha Long Bay, looks like we will be packing very light and quick drying clothes !

Thanks again 

Jim

We are debating doing a Viking River cruise in 2025 , and the prices are significantly cheaper in July/August. Can anyone update us of the weather conditions (rain/heat etc) and other implications. I suspect we know it is "cheap" for a reason, but a "little" rain never hurt anyone, surely ........

Jim

We are booked on the March 2024 sailing and whilst we have a list of the optional excursions, we don't really have any idea of the prices. I was wondering if anyone who has been on this cruise has a copy of the prices Viking were charging? While I appreciate these will not be current prices, it will give us a ballpark number to make a more informed decision.

Jim and Hilary (UK)

Apologies if this info is within the thread, we are on this ship in 3 weeks time, just wondered if anyone can indicate if there is a guitarist/singer onboard , how regularly they perform and who the performer is currently on Octantis.

Jim and Hilary (UK) 

5 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

When I click on the link, I don’t see the lower price…is there a code mentioned?  I want to share it with some Scottish friends as since it includes air and gratuities it is quite the deal. 

Offer code is EXPP , you can use this to build a price. I will pre-warn your Scottish friends in advance that the flights are poor, London only and indirect .... but the price is great and it also includes the SSP as well.

It is for UK residents only of course

1 hour ago, Hockeyump said:

Just received an email from Viking with a very good offer but probably only applies to Viking UK bookings.  May be a similar offer elsewhere.

 

Chilean Fjords & Patagonia Explorer

 

15 Days | Buenos Aires to Santiago

 

 

 

12 & 17 March 2023 departures
Was from £9,695 per person
Now from £4,995 per person

 

Just for additional info, this is a EXPEDITION ship , so quite a good price. We are booked on the 12th March leg.

On our last cruise with Viking Ocean, (August 2021) the maximum number of guests allowed within the spa area was six and there was a high demand to book for entry times, the time allowed within the spa was from memory restricted to 50 minutes e.g. 10 minutes cleaning time allocated for each hour.

What are the current rules / procedures to access the spa?

Jim

3 hours ago, hmorrow said:

Greece no longer requires testing for fully vaccinated , on cruises 9 days or less.  Princess and Celebrity, have acknowledged this on their websites, and have followed suit. But, not Royal. Wonder why and if they will do a new update.(they JUST did one, and didn't include this) I sent them an email, asking about it. We cruise from Athens on the 17th. Would be nice to not have to test!

Out of interest, where is this information published? Is it on an official Greek website / government website. I really struggle to find out what the current "rules" are for cruises leaving a Greek port other than on Cruice Critic forums!

J

We are doing the Voyage of Marco Polo in late October , I think we require a covid test to be allowed to board the ship, is this true? Also it appears that the Greek authorities indicate this is a EU requirement, but I am pretty sure if I got on the ship in Spain I would not require a test.

Jim

Question relating to the Malta / Croatia cruise on the Viking Venus 23rd August. Are we allowed to get off the ship on our own for any of the ports? I would appreciate if anyone is knowledgeable regarding what happens in : Malta / Croatia / Montenegro / Gozo. Also we stay on the ship for the Greek islands commencing 2nd Sept... again is it allowed to get off the ship by yourself?

4 hours ago, geordie_jim said:

UK guest question: Malta departing 23/8

 

on myvikingjourney a new document (effective 29th July)  has appeared which references the tasks you should do before the cruise. In the section "before your flight" it states -  assemble your documents and have a "valid passport" - makes sense , but also "UK guests: Valid residency visa (in addition to a valid passport) ......

 

Any ideas what this visa is and how I go about getting one??

 

JIm

I can confirm that I have emailed viking ukoperations and they have responded 

"I would like to confirm that this is incorrect information, and you do not need a residency visa for Malta. We have advised our IT team of this error."

So it appears at least one part of the administration mountain does not have to be done!!!

Also just received an email from Viking suggesting they have negotiated some discounts off PCR testing .... I will see what the price is ....

Jim

UK guest question: Malta departing 23/8

on myvikingjourney a new document (effective 29th July)  has appeared which references the tasks you should do before the cruise. In the section "before your flight" it states -  assemble your documents and have a "valid passport" - makes sense , but also "UK guests: Valid residency visa (in addition to a valid passport) ......

Any ideas what this visa is and how I go about getting one??

JIm

Hi, I am a little confused about one aspect of preparing the (UK) paperwork for the cruise Malta and the Adriatic Jewels, , specifically the Malta PLF (the digital version I guess) and it's requirement to be linked to the "Verifly Malta Arrival" trip or not. I was merrily printing off the Malta PLF and writing in the details when I came across a post on the roll calls which indicated the digital completion of PLF was the procedure to follow. I tried to investigate and I can not see any email or update from Viking to me which indicates this is required, I have a suspicion that the US customers may have this requirement, but I can't find anything from a Viking UK viewpoint that this is a process we need to follow.  I have downloaded the Verifly app and I am "ready to travel" for "A trip with Viking" but I have not done anything regarding the "Malta Arrival" element of verifly.

Any updates on the correct UK procedures are appreciated.

We are looking forward to the 23rd AUGUST cruise, does anyone know how many passengers there is likely to be on the ship? I appreciate that bookings are still coming in, but it would be interesting to know current booking levels.

Jim and Hilary

17 hours ago, Mrs Miggins said:

We are in the UK and still have no information about these cruises - although they are mentioned in our cancellation email.  May be interested but need details obviously.

Just a quick note to say these are now bookable in the UK , they are on the UK website , although for the Malta / Croatia cruise you strangely have to specify "october" in the filter before it shows this cruise even though it is available in August/September as well. We have just booked the August 23rd Sailing , looking forward to sunshine , but slightly confused why the UK gov did not put Malta on the "green list" in the update yesterday.

Looks like our September cruise to the Fjords is in the process of being cancelled!

MVJ is locked for this specific cruise , and if you try to book the cruise (UK website) the first available Fjords cruise in now April 2022.

Jim

On 12/7/2020 at 4:47 PM, geordie_jim said:

Well it looks like this cruise won't be going, the UK website for Viking Ocean cruises no longer has any cruises going in Jan-March 2021. This specific cruise is no longer bookable (on the UK site) so I think that tells this particular cruise is "cancelled". 

And now it confirmed, all cruises are cancelled up to the end of March 2021. Viking have updated the website under my trips , updates on current sailings as at December 8th to reflect this.

Well it looks like this cruise won't be going, the UK website for Viking Ocean cruises no longer has any cruises going in Jan-March 2021. This specific cruise is no longer bookable (on the UK site) so I think that tells this particular cruise is "cancelled". 

Interested to hear views on whether this cruise will happen or not. We suspect not as this is a repositioning cruise after the Chilean Fjords , as Viking have cancelled these in Jan/Feb 2021 then it seems unlikely that Viking will send the Jupiter from it's current location (Norway) over to BA empty,  so that it can then take passengers on the Southern Atlantic crossing over to Barcelona.

Interested if anyone has information / theories on whether this cruise will go ahead or not?

Jim

Getting closer to our September 4th Cruise, we have just checked in on-line and we now have our seats allocated and our boarding passes for the first two flights (london - warsaw, warsaw to odessa). Not many seats presented on the map - only two rows , I guess quite a few of row 5 and 6 will be Viking guests?

See you all on the ship...looking forward to the Ukraine. only 2 more sleeps...

Jim and Hilary

 

 

 

Hilary and Jim - yes sure we will bump into each other at some point and as you say probably in the bar! We have also done previous river ones with Viking where we have been the only ones from the UK. What times are your flights - we are leaving Heathrow at 0630 and then the layover in Warsaw for the 1130 (I believe) to Odessa with LOT Airlines.

We are on the same flights, I think the Warsaw to Odessa leg is actually 11:20 , but pretty certain we will be on same flight(s).