katlew

37 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

You can also pay less by going direct to the tour company. Lunch also included. Not sure about when you have to pay. Thanks again. 

That's very true & I think we did end up doing that with some of our tours.

46 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Can you give me the contact info for the guide?

It was this tour, https://www.viator.com/tours/Waiheke-Island/Private-Essence-of-Waiheke-Wine-Tour/ but there were lots of options.

On 5/27/2024 at 2:37 PM, oskidunker said:

We would like to visit some wineries.  Since we are in Auckland for a week before the cruise, I would assume we can do this with a local tour or on our own. Any suggestions??

We stayed in Auckland for a week before our cruise & booked a winery tour of Waiheke Island. It's easy to get over to the island by ferry & our driver/guide met us there. We visited 3 or 4 wineries, one where we had a lovely lunch, and an olive oil press. It was a wonderful day. We also booked a day trip to Hobbiton & the Glow Worm Caves from Aukland rather than do the Viking one. It's a long day, but allowed us to do something else that day of the Hobbiton tours from the ship. An Aucky Walky is also another fun way to see some of Auckland with a guide if you like walking tours. We did Vikings Panoramic drive of Auckland which was fine, but a little long. We did enjoy some of the stops & the history.

The other thing we booked on our own was Zealandia in Wellington. It's cheaper to book on your own, but you do need to get yourself there & back, we found Ubers very easy. Since we were 6 people, we had our own guide at Zealandia which was nicer than being in a large group. 

Most of our cruise was messed up & we didn't make it into any ports between Wellington & Sydney, so I can't give much more information.

We didn't do any of the Viking wine tours, but if you have any time in Auckland head over to Waiheke for some wine tasting. We did this tour. It was an easy ferry ride to the island. We visited a few wineries & had a lovely lunch at one. We also went to an olive oil tasting.

There is usually a night they serve lobster in the main dining room & I think there was also a seafood buffet night in the World Cafe when we were on that cruise. For the life of me, I cannot remember which night of the cruise it was!

On 4/12/2024 at 11:21 AM, CCWineLover said:

Funny you mention hips.  Love the beds ALSO because my hip pains go away on a Viking cruise amazingly enough.   And the hip pain comes back on soft beds.

We have pretty firm beds at home & I still do better on the Viking ones!

I love the beds! I have found I don't get any of the hip pains that I do on softer beds. I want to get something similar for home!

My husband and I were your age when we first started cruising with Viking (& he still is). Yes, we were younger than the majority of the people on board, but we weren't the only younger people on board. We've rarely felt like we were held up by others being older. That said, we are not people who want big shows, our photos taken for sale all the time, casinos, and so on... We like playing trivia & also bring our own card games. If we felt like a late night out Torshaven was typically hopping and a lot of those people were older than us. Viking is just more our vibe, there is less of that forced fun feeling.

As for the tours, like everyone else has mentioned it can be hit or miss. A lot depends on your guide. Most of the walking tours on the river cruises have been really good & we typically had plenty of time to explore on our own. On the ocean cruises, yes the included tour is often a bus ride. Some of them have been a great overview of an area we've never been. We had great ones in places like Shetland and Orkney. We've mainly done ocean with other family members, so have started to do a mix of included tours, extra cost tours, & independent tours. You can often save a bit doing a tour independently, for example we booked a Highland Park tasting & tour on our own for much less than Viking charged. Same thing with Zeelandia in New Zealand. Or course, that meant we had to be confident getting places on our own & getting back to the ship on time.

We're on the younger side of Viking guests too, but are not into shows or casinos, so Viking is just rignt for us. We did go to one show on our last cruise & it was enjoyable. We liked the guitar player in the evenings in the Explorer lounge playing songs we all knew. Torshaven was definitely the hopping, louder place in the evening with the band and dancing & it was packed most night of our last cruise. They also showed a movie on night on the pool deck & had a party on the pool deck with the band another night. 

We really enjoyed the included bus tour on Shetland. It helped we had a very good driver. He turned us on to a wonderful local fish & chip shop for lunch. We did the Shetland Museum on our own in the afternoon.

In Orkney, we did the included tour in the morning and in the afternoon we booked our own tasting and tour at Highland Park as it was much cheaper than Vikings. It is a hike to get up to the distillery if you are walking. 

The Edinburgh included tour was not great at all. It was the beginning of the Tattoo and the bus could barley get through the packed streets. We actually spent a lot of time sitting in traffic. 

Do the Bergen tramway on your own. We also did the Flam railway from Oslo to Bergen on our own which was nice.

We did the Trollstigen Troll Road optional tour. It is a long day in the bus & ended up being so foggy we couldn't see anything. We did have one nice stop at a garden along the way.

We did the into the midnight sun cruise and sailed from Honningsvåg to Shetland, Orkney, Edinburgh, and then London. It was August and we had incredibly smooth seas and warm weather. We spent a lot of time in the infinity pool outdoors while crossing the North Sea. It's all luck of the draw really.

15 hours ago, kag3120 said:

Thanks everyone. We have had the good fortune of celebrating an anniversary and Viking sent us a gorgeous little cake. But what I was looking for were things that were offered on sea days to do that aren’t necessarily advertised. Like I’ve heard there’s a cognac tasting?  I’ve read about different classes or other things on board sometimes offered on sea days. Just don’t know what they are as we never took advantage. 
 

Jim Avery—a party with 12 friends would be fun. Too bad we don’t know anybody else on the cruise!  Not sure we’re charming enough to make 12 new friends so fast😊 🙂

On our New Zealand/Australia cruise there was a gin tasting and a champagne tasting. There may have also been a cocktail class. They announced them on board & we had to sign up for them. We were unexpectedly stuck at sea for 8 days, so these were nice to help fill those days.

I'm sure it's very similar to what we had to do to go to Australia and New Zealand last December. It was very easy to do both of those through their apps and we had answers in a day or less. 

Christmas morning on our NZ/Aus cruise there was a man at breakfast in a full on furry Grinch suit! Talk about packing extra!

On our New Zealand to Australia trip we had to show Viking we had all the appropriate ETAs when we were boarding in New Zealand. It's was all on our phones & very easy. We did not have to show it again, even at Australia passport control since it is connected to your passport number.

We did Australia over the holidays and you will need to get an electronic travel authority (ETA) to visit Australia, https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/electronic-travel-authority-601 It was super easy to do with the app on your phone & you'll get a response very quickly. It is good for three months. Currently Australia does not require Covid testing to enter the country.

Another vote for Into the Midnight Sun. It was a wonderful trip. We were also very lucky with weather for most of it which helps!

On our Christmas/New Year's cruise to Aus/NZ it was used to show It's a Wonderful Life, a Christmas concert, and the NYE fireworks from Sydney.

On 6/9/2023 at 4:14 PM, CCWineLover said:

Oh! Laurence was the guitar player on our NZ/Aus cruise over Christmas. We really enjoyed listening to him.

2 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Italy

We drank the boat out of the Barbara over our Christmas cruise to NZ/Aus.

So, we sailed into Sydney in the morning which was wonderful to watch from the top deck (plus we were happy to be getting into a port!). We had lunch on board & then went for the panoramic tour. It was a nice overview of Sydney by bus where we got off at a park and at Bondi Beach for a bit. Then it was back to the boat for dinner and to pack. We had booked the Sydney extension, so we did not chose to do any evening activities in town. The ship does not dock close to the city center, or at least we didn't. Plus your luggage has to be out and ready to go before bed. 

I think if you really want to explore Sydney and the surrounding area it is worth staying a day or two longer. During the first day of extension, we did the Dreamtime walk which was very interesting and still had time to wander around the Rocks, visit the Opera House, and walk through the Botanic Gardens. The second day we booked a private tour of the Blue Mountains. The rest of our party left at that point and my husband and I stayed for another day where we went to Manly Island and explored more of the city. 

I'm a knitter & knitting pattern designer, so yarn from Shetland was a big deal for me to get there. I turned the yarn into mittens using Shetland peerie fair isle patterns. For my husband, his best souvenir was the bottle of Highland Park whiskey that he couldn't get in the states and some tasting glasses. 

We did extra days in Auckland before our cruise in December last year & stayed in two different hotels. For the first couple of days we stayed at the Park Hyatt in the Wynyard Corner of Auckland. What a beautiful, amazing hotel. This hotel was a treat. It's across the harbor from the port area with balconies & beautiful views of downtown. It was an easy walk to the CBD and the area it is in has been turned into all sort of restaurants. It is a bit of a walk to where the boat docks though with all your luggage. We moved to the M Social once the Viking extension started. It was basically directly across the street from the boat. It was a bit of a zoo at breakfast time, though the breakfast was good, & with people everyone checking in and out. It was a fine hotel. 

9 hours ago, Pushka said:

Likely. Trouble is that it was very short notice, Christmas break and personnel on leave. Bit of a cluster really. Tourism was more involved than Primary Industry. 

I had a border force agent tell me in Melbourne that they had been waiting for us on Tasmania. It was all messed up.

1 hour ago, eddieg07410 said:

Does Viking serve any low carb or low calorie desserts for diabetics, besides fruit?

I remember in the restaurant there was always a no sugar dessert option.