Little Monty

9 minutes ago, Silver Spectre said:

And here she is, parked just behind the Silver Whisper

 

Thank you SS .. many of us have been hoping some WC'ers (or Segmenters !) would let us know where you are and how you enjoying the experience. Please feel free to send more updates.

Safe travels, LM

1 minute ago, Parsley Cruises said:

Just wondering ….. the pre-paid grats card - is this something new, or is it because you booked through a ta?  

We didn't have any such card for our last cruise, however, I did take a hard copy and an electronic copy of our last invoice which clearly showed stuff such as pre-paid grats (which was 'free' for us). 

hello PC .. Aussies are different in several ways so maybe it is just a local thing. 😀

We booked direct with Viking.

In Australia our price always includes gratuities (obviously the up-front figure is higher for us to cover this) but I'm not sure if your bookings are the same ? 

Our pre-paid gratuities status is in the system - so the cards are probably just to make us feel better. In NZ when we checked in they told us to keep the cards as a souvenir.

It is nothing flash .. a white card with some printing on one side, a logo, a picture of a ship, and a thank you. It does remind us that bus drivers, guides etc are not covered by the pre-paid arrangements and therefore we should tip them directly.

Regards, LM

1 minute ago, Pushka said:

 

Oh wow, yes it is a perfect fit. Thanks for that, I’d have thought the pouch was much smaller. I received the Einstein quote. Seems to be a bit of a cat fur magnet! 😂

Einstein quote and cat fur magnet here as well.

I forgot to add .. there has been some discussion in this forum about the need to produce the booklet in the pouch ('Cruise Documents') when you board. When we were boarding in NZ they did ask us to produce it along with our passport as we passed though security - I had it in my bag so no problems. Some people had to go searching for it.

As best as I could see .. some people could not produce it (assume it was in the luggage which was already checked in), but that didn't seem to stop them from boarding.

So I guess, keep it on you just in case. LM

2 hours ago, Pushka said:

And just like that, they have arrived by courier. The package is the best I’ve received from any cruise line. And I like my first Viking pouch. Also included a card to say we’d pre paid gratuities - part of the price in Australian bookings plus the SSP. The usual tags and baggage labels plus our booklet. It must really be happening now!  We are 5 weeks from the cruise in Alaska and 3 weeks from leaving Australia for the US. 

G'day Pushka. Ours arrived today as well for departure from Bergen in mid May. The pre-paid gratuities card says it should be handed in at check-in, but on both occasions so far we have been told on-board it is not necessary (the computer system knows all!). Same for SS package.

FYI .. if you have an I-pad, the pouch is just the right size.

Yes it does make it real. Cheers, LM

I should have added .. by my reading you will need a multiple entry visa and you may be refused entry to the first Chinese port of call if you have plans to visit more than one port and only have a single entry visa.

Again, please check how this all applies to NZ'ers. LM

35 minutes ago, harbourside said:

My cruise  FAR EAST DISCOVERY  Hong Kong to Beijing, has two Japanese ports during cruise. 

Does that mean I have to get a multi entry visa for China, as I will have left China for two days visiting Japan, then returning to China.

 

 

hello again Harbourside.

The Chinese Embassy in Australia has a website which explains (in a confusing way) what Aussies have to do to obtain a visa. In relation to multiple entry visas for Tourists the website indicates ..

L visa is issued to those who intend to go to China as a tourist.

The invitation letter should contain:

1) Information of the applicant, including full name, gender, date of birth and etc.

2) Information of the planned visit, including purpose of visit, arrival and departure dates, place(s) to be visited, relations between the applicant and the inviting entity or individual, financial source for expenditures.

4. Consular officers decide

Consular officers are authorized to decide whether or not to issue a visa and its validity, duration of stay and number of entries.

Again, this relates to Aussies but it seems to suggest we have to explain (in the application) that we will require multiple entry (and why) and they then decide.

I assume NZ citizens would have a similar process to follow.

I'm not sure if the Chinese Embassy in NZ has a similar section - but if not you may have to get in touch with the Embassy and seek advice. Cheers, LM

17 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Oh, they use our Passport photo?  😥Not sure what happens in other countries but in Australia they do something awful with the photos so a reasonable one on providing it to Customs when you apply for the passport ends up looking like you have died! Mine is disgusting. Other cruise lines take the photo at check in so at least you can smile in it. 

Pray for a technology failure !

In Auckland they scanned my passport photo (as I assume they did for everyone) but after we boarded I received a call from Guest Services - the scanner had failed to capture mine. I was asked to come to Guest Services for a new photo (nice smile allowed 😀

7 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Could someone explain the last picture?  What is that hallway?  Is that part of the pool area or the spa area?

Pool, the gentleman in the red shirt is standing at the Pool Grill. The pool is left of screen. Have a look at a deck plan as this helps to put the area into perspective. LM

9 minutes ago, Islandbc said:

Yes, Salt Spring Island is a great place to spend spring, summer and fall.  

Just looking at the map and locations of hotels in Sydney.  Holiday Inn is fairly pricey at this time, but will continue to watch for deals.  Are there other areas that are interesting for 1 1/2 days in Sydney?  How about Rushcutters, Darling Harbour ...etc.?  We are OK with using public transportation, but don't want to spend all day on trains or buses.  Thanks for your input.

Booking so far ahead I think you will be able to pick up a deal. Perhaps contact the hotel directly to see if they have any special deals to offer. As you suggest keep checking and keep an eye on prices through some of the booking websites;

https://www.wotif.com/

wotif was originally Aussie, now owned by Expedia but still does a good job.

If I was travelling from the other side of the world to visit Sydney I would stay on or near the harbour / near the Rocks area (ie near where the Holiday Inn is located). Rushcutters Bay is a fabulous (expensive, very expensive) area to live but it is not where I would stay. Darling Harbour has some places of interest, but I would stay elsewhere and visit if there are places of interest to you.

Of course I don't know your interests and you may prefer something away from the hustle and bustle of the Rocks area - in which case perhaps Balmain or Balmain East might do the trick (close to the centre, good ferry services, plenty of history and good food options).

Enjoy. LM

4 hours ago, Islandbc said:

We are going to be in Sydney after our cruise ends next February.  Can you recommend an area that is convenient to the sights and also transportation to the airport?  It looks like there is a rapid transit option from the city to the airport.  We will have about a day and a half to explore prior to our flight which leaves at 3:45 pm.  If you know of specific hotels that are reasonably priced, we would also appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks

hello Islandbc and thanks for the message.

There are a number of 5 star hotels with 5 star prices around the harbour - but this is the one we use and can recommend;

https://www.therocks.com/stay/holiday-inn-old-sydney/

The hotel is perfectly positioned, reasonably priced, and has good amenities.

If you are lucky enough to berth at Circular Quay (which is located between the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House) you can literally walk to / from the hotel (about 300 yards). If you berth at White Bay (as we did) it is a 10 - 15 min taxi ride to the hotel.

Either way - the hotel is in an ideal position to walk to the key points of interest around the harbour area. Once you have walked to the Opera House, through the Botanical Gardens, across (or above) the Harbour Bridge etc - make sure you try the ferry from Circular Quay to Manly (or Watsons Bay) and back if you have time.

The train to / from the airport leaves from Circular Quay railway station, about 500 yards from the hotel. It is only about 20 min from Circular Quay to the airport station.

February will likely be quite hot and possibly quite humid, so come prepared.

And wow .. I've just looked up Salt Spring Island on the map. What a great location. We visited BC / Alaska etc a few years ago and loved it.

Enjoy the planning and the trip. Regards, LM

On ‎3‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 11:59 PM, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Compensation for missed ports?  You're lucky.  I've never gotten that on any cruise line I've been on. 

 

Only 4 sea days?  Hard to cover much of Australia and NZ without sea days.  Our upcoming cruise on another line has a LOT.  I'm learning how to deal with them, however.  Hope Viking put on extra activities on those days...some of us don't know how to relax.  Sounds like you do, though - good for you!

 

Anyway, thanks for the review.  And enjoy your Empires cruise.  We did that - wonderful!  I didn't do a review or post CC, but my photos are here: https://pbase.com/roothy123/root&page=all   There is a good amount of narrative to go along with the photos.  You'll have to scroll down to the gallery "Venice - Sept. 2015."  The galleries following the Venice ones are for Kotor (be looking outside close to sunset as you sail away from Kotor in the Bay of Kotor), Dubrovnik, etc.  I don't think you go to Pula (long tendering, lots of people complained) or Istanbul (no longer visited by cruise ships, such a shame!) 

I've always said it is better to be lucky than good .. but yes it was a pleasant surprise.

And thanks for the link to the photos - I will look through them (and yes, Istanbul is a place I still want to get to .. one day). LM

7 minutes ago, BC Eddie said:

I find just going to Google and typing e.g.,  "time now in London England", "time now in Paris France" is very useful.

Yes I agree - that's how I found out what time is is in LA.

Conceptually I just wanted to explain during winter months we have 3 time zones (east / central / west) but from Oct - April the times are all over the place as some areas have daylight saving and some don't. Cheers, LM

11 minutes ago, roothy123 said:

Times zones confuse the heck out of me. I've been looking at ships visiting various ports in Australia and New Zealand and trying to convert their time to my time.  Just when I got things figured out, the U.S. went on daylight savings time (or maybe went off it?) and that messed up my calculations.  Maybe something like that happened with Viking. 

 

For New Zealand, I finally just bookmarked a webcam which shows local time, and I use that to tell me what time it is in New Zealand.  Of course it's not as easy in Australia because of the multiple time zones, including the one that's a half hour behind or ahead of a nearby area.  (I think the ports we visit, in January,  are Adelaide & Melbourne, but I could be wrong.)

 

In case anyone like me has trouble converting time, here are two websites that might help, although I'm not positive they take into account when a country or state goes onto or off of a special time zone like daylight savings: 

 

timeanddate.com

timebie.com

Yes it is a pain.

Wait till 8 April 2019 when Daylight Saving ends in Australia and we will all be back to 'normal' (whatever that is !).

From 8 April onwards;

Auckland will be 2 hours ahead of Sydney

Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Hobart will all be the same

Darwin and Adelaide will be 30 minutes behind Sydney

Perth will be 2 hours behind Sydney

As I type this it is 9am Thursday in Brisbane (10am in Sydney) and 4pm Wednesday on the West Coast of US (so we - Brisbane - are 17 hours ahead and Sydney are 18 hours ahead of LA).

Good luck with the planning. LM

19 minutes ago, Pushka said:

We were given access to NBN in July but instead we went completely wireless with Optus modem. Just plug it in and download/ upload of 40/5. And it works wherever there’s an Optus signal so we can take it anywhere pretty much in Australia and have wifi.

Interesting .. thanks for the tip. LM

6 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Oh don’t worry. Viking are changing things all the time.

Like this excursion thing. They insist it’s 7am AEST. So 6.30am for me. I didn’t agree. So at midnight PST just now I checked what it is here and it was 5.30pm. Which means it must be 5.30am and not 6.30 am. So an early wake up tomorrow.

Good luck .. I hope the NBN doesn't let you down at the key moment. Our experience with the NBN is less than impressive.

On reflection - I do remember there is a difference between 'Viking' OBC and TA OBC .. but thanks again for chipping in with a correction.

Best, LM

14 minutes ago, just_dont said:

Thanks LM. Those are actually the answers I was hoping for.  

While I have registered a card for onboard purchases (will have to wait to see if it will propagate to the ship), I actually want to use a different card for booking the excursions. 

I also don't want to deplete my OBC.  Will save that for a spa day or maybe some premium hooch in Torshavn.   Although, when I login to MVJ, it gives me a popup telling me I have OBC to spend.  Why would it tell me on MVJ if it wouldn't let me spend it on MVJ?

Anyway, looking forward to booking excursions soon, and getting really excited about the upcoming cruise.

Cheers.

Apologies .. Pushka has corrected my post. 

Enjoy.

5 minutes ago, Pushka said:

Every time I log in I get the message to spend my OBC. So I did. On Silver Spirits Package. Just yesterday I used OBC given to me by Viking to make a purchase. It was deducted automatically before advising the amount that was to be charged to the credit card. And I know you can also use this to buy excursions. The only OBC that is not usable prior is that provided by a TA perk. 

Wow .. live and learn. Thanks Pushka

36 minutes ago, Relaxing Rita said:

CLOTHES LINE ... question... is there a pull out line in the bathroom to hang out our wet socks etc??? Would be hand if there is. Thank you

We were on Orion in January .. and yes there is a pull out line in the shower and yes we used it. The heated floor in the bathroom also comes in handy if you want to lay socks etc on a towel on the floor overnight. 

We were on Star in 2017 and I am fairly certain there was a pull out line inside the shower - but someone else may wish to chip in to confirm.

Regards, LM

55 minutes ago, just_dont said:

Question for those who have recently booked excursions through Viking:  When it comes to paying for optional excursions, do you supply credit card information at check-out, or does it use whatever credit card you've registered for onboard charges in your MVJ account?

Also, if I have OBC, will it automatically deduct excursions from the OBC?  

Paying for optional excursions - yes, credit card details need to be supplied when you 'check-out'.

The credit card detail you enter in MVJ is for 'on-board' use and isn't automatically linked to your optional excursion purchases.

However I recorded a credit card in the MVJ system prior to our NZ cruise in January and when I boarded I had to supply the details again as that information was not swept across to the on-board system (so recording the details in MVJ was a waste of time - I'm not sure if this was a wide spread problem or if the problem still exists). 

As best as I understand, OBC is for use only on-board so I don't expect you would be able use it to book prior to boarding - but you should be able to use once on-board (but if you wait you may miss out on your choices).

Regards, LM

52 minutes ago, Viking Cruises said:

Greetings,

 

We’re happy to step in to provide information and clarify confusion about the new booking windows that have been discussed on this thread.

 

As of March 16th, the time at which shore excursions, dining and spa appointments go on sale has been adjusted from 12am PST to 12pm PST. This adjustment was made with all guests in mind, and after careful review of feedback from past Viking travelers around the globe.

 

While My Viking Journey accounts, as well as our website FAQ section, were immediately updated to reflect this change, email notices communicating the correct times are also being distributed to each impacted guest the day before their booking window opens.

 

We appreciate this opportunity to share the news and hope you all remain excited to plan your upcoming voyages. We continue to welcome any questions or feedback at tellus@vikingcruises.com.

 

Thank you for traveling with us, and for being a valued member of this community.

 

Best regards,

Viking Cruises

Thank you Viking.

So .. according to Google ... it is presently 5.20pm PST (Monday) on West Coast of US (but actually 6.20pm as daylight saving has commenced there).

On the East Coast of Australia it is presently 11.20am (Tuesday) in Brisbane but 12.20pm in Sydney (as they have daylight saving, and we don't).

So .. Brisbane 'standard' time is 18 hours ahead of PST.

So .. we are scheduled to book excursions this weekend. If they open at midday PST it will be 6am the next day in Brisbane (7am in Sydney, until daylight savings ends in a couple of weeks).

Simples ! 

Regards, LM

6 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

What was the time before?  Some of us were planning to get up at 3am to do bookings.  I'm glad they changed it.

Yes there are winners and losers. For us it has gone from 6pm to 6am (or maybe 7am, or possibly 5am??).

No big deal, we are early risers. It's just a bit confusing and I feel Viking should have have handled the change a little better.

Re your earlier question re 5 excursions and 1 not available, it sort of depends on the process you use. We have a couple of optional excursions we are really keen to book this weekend .. so we will book and pay for them first. We will then go back and book the included excursions - and if one is not available at the time we want we will either select another time or just give it a miss and arrange something once we are on-board.

We are in one of the earlier groups to be able to book so we don't usually have any problems. LM

18 hours ago, Pushka said:

The operator was quite adamant she was right. I knew she was wrong. At least for this week. She kept saying 7am NSW. I told her it was 6am and she just said, I’m right. It was like she couldn’t give a toss. And this was after I’d been on hold for 30 minutes.  Not impressed. 

Pushka ... MVJ does in fact state 7.01am Australian Eastern Standard Time (thanks Richard2 for the tip). 

Visit My Shorex Excursions page

*at 12:01 PM Pacific Time, 3:01 PM Eastern Time, 8:01 PM GMT, 7:01 AM AEST and 9:01 AM NZST

However it also says 8.01pm Greenich Mean Time and we (Brisbane) are 10 hours ahead of GMT so 8.01pm GMT is equal to 6.01am AEST (not 7.01am).

I am totally confused.

2 hours ago, CharTrav said:

@SM77 and @Littlemonty - many thanks to you both. I'm an inveterate planner; have already prepared a planning spreadsheet for a nominal posited departure from Bali in October 2022 using the excursions listed for 2019, knowing full well that the excursion lineup will change over the next 2-3 years. But am assuming not radically so. What I won't do until we actually book, is create my usual day-by-day detailed excursion report (look in my signature block for the ones I've prepared for past and future cruises.). 

hello CharTrav  .. apologies, I didn't recognise your name - I now realise I've made reference to some of your spreadsheets / other saved documents in the past.

Best wishes for your next adventure. LM

35 minutes ago, SM77 said:

CharTrav,

 

You might find it useful to look at some earlier live posts from Little Monty who did the cruise from Bali to Auckland.  My only regret is that I didn’t think about how much more time I would have liked in Sydney.  We went with doing both segments since it is such a long journey from the U.S. east coast.  And I really wanted to go to Tasmania but could have skipped the two sea days to get there from Dunedin - even on a good day it’s a hard passage for those who get seasick easily.  I’m assuming heading eastbound, the ship sails in mid-day so you get the full effect of sailing into Sydney Harbor.  That is not to be missed.  For us, this was the easiest way to go, minimal work on our part & being taken care of the entire time.  Yes, there are some trade-offs but we are fine with that.  It is a lot of work to plan an entire itinerary & I don’t have the patience to do it all.  I have a hard enough time just planning the odd free day!  Hope this helps. I have found excellent information and advice on many of the Cruise Critic boards.

Thanks for the plug SM77

CharTrav .. we actually did Auckland - Sydney and I wrote about the experience if you would like to read (below) ...

I also started a topic named 'Crossing the Tasman' (or something similar) which generated some useful discussion (hopefully a quick search will locate).

For me the perfect New Zealand - (southern) Australia itinerary would include a visit to either Doubtful or Milford Sound and an overnight in Hobart. My reasons for this are in the review. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Regards, LM

6 minutes ago, travelingman said:

 

Sorry for my slowness here but please help me out.

The East Coast has now changed to 3:00PM.

so, if I would booked on Monday at 3:00 AM under the "old" system does that mean it will now be 3:00 PM Monday afternoon.

In other words, the same day and not a day earlier.

 

Thanks.

 

Stan

 

12 hours later than you were originally advised. So yes, 3pm Monday