Mich3554

10 hours ago, Moonlion said:

Sorry, I don’t really know what people are tipping the guides/drivers on the Viking excursions which are usually large bus tours with 40-50 passengers. From what we could see, most people discreetly handed the tour guide some kind of tip at the end of the tour but I have no idea the amount. 

We have done quite a few Viking excursions and there has not been a single one that we’ve been on that has had 40 passengers.  Most passenger counts tend to range from 20-35.  Our trip in The Shetlands was a boat tour to a bird sanctuary (which was fabulous) and there were 10 passengers.  My excursion today in Bergen had 21 passengers, DH said he had 22 on his (we went in different directions).

We are still on the Neptune and looking into what would be involved in staying on until NYC.  Bergen has come up incredibly quickly, we dock there the day after tomorrow.  Hopefully the Cruise Consultant can help us out here, this one is new…..not from the WC.  
 

Everyone else is gone, and we will lose Michael in Bergen.

I’d just have them call a taxi.  As I remember it, a taxi from the airport to our hotel (which was booked fairly close to where Viking docked) was about the equivalent of $50 when we flew into Bergen.  
 

We have also used a car service through Viator to get to the airport, but not in Bergen.  The only time I have used Viking’s service is when we needed to get from Valparaiso to Santiago.  We had non refundable OBC to kill and Viator didn’t have any options available.

35 minutes ago, Cathyvee said:

I am sorry for what you went through. 

 

Things have changed. Viking didn't even have COVID tests on the ship, I was told. I'm not sure.

Huh?  I tested positive for Covid on the WC.  I missed 5 days of ports, despite the fact that I was barely sick (no cough).  I was tested in the medical center, and DH was also tested in the medical center for the 5 days I was in quarantine.  He also caught bronchitis earlier, and was also tested for Covid at that point too.  
 

Viking most certainly has test kits on their ships.  

For lunches on excursions, they’ll usually ask at the beginning of the tour.  One tour, they called out a list of cabins, which I’m assuming was given by the shore ex manager.  I 9only know that because friends were in one of the cabins called out, and one is allergic to seafood, and mostly eat vegetarian….only some fish.  Usually there is a vegetarian choice on most excursion lunches I’ve been on.  I don’t remember anyone discussing gluten free though.  

7 minutes ago, Berlin Bear said:

As a Brit/Liverpudlian, I’m really enjoying your daily reports.

Just a comment on Kirkwall - we’ve visited this port on three separate occasions with two different cruise lines and have never tendered. Always docked and then taken the shuttle bus into town.

We were told that the dock was under construction.  There were 3 cruise ships in town, Viking Neptune, Venus and AIDA Luna.  Where we were tendered dropped us off in the middle of Kirkwall.  No shuttle needed.

On 5/15/2023 at 10:12 PM, bwknsf said:

Thanks, mstadleraz - I think we’re struggling with limited time and balance between Mumbai/WC experience and the Taj Mahal.  This may be our only trip to India. There are a lot of sea days after Mumbai. After talking with other passengers with varied Taj excursions, do you still agree that missing two days of the three in Mumbai was the best option?  I really appreciate you sharing your fantastic journey with us!  Brian 

We only missed half a day in Mumbai as we left from Cochin.  By doing this, we missed only Goa and a sea day.  Our flight arrived about the same time the ship got into Mumbai.  TBH, I could have used another day there.
 

My concern leaving for Delhi out of Mumbai in that you have very little wiggle room if something screws up.  If you miss catching the ship in Mumbai, there are several sea days, with the next port being Jeddah.  I would not want to try to fly into Saudi.  

We did the Singleton Glen of Ode excursion today.  Very interesting excursion to a distillery, with a gorgeous tour through the Highlands.  Both our guide and the distillery guide were excellent.   We now have an additional 3 bottles of scotch to fit in our luggage.  
 

Sadly, there was a horrendous bus vs semi accident on the way back, where we got stuck in a very long line of traffic.  We did finally get back to Ullapool, but an hour after the last tender was supposed to leave.
 

The laundry room was totally empty this evening.  All 4 washers were free on our floor.  I took up 2 of them! 

I’m very sorry to hear this, Andy.  I appreciate your concise explanations, and hope that some day the problems you encountered can be resolved.  

On 5/13/2023 at 11:50 PM, MoneyGuy said:

How’s the library on the Neptune? Do they stock it with books on your destination? 

Yes, and everything else.  Right now, DH has about 6 books he’s reading that are stacked in our cabin.  We go some place, he forgets to bring reading material, chooses and starts another and adds it to the stack.

There is also a shelf in the LR of books people brought, read and donated for someone else to enjoy.

On 4/6/2023 at 8:43 PM, KBs mum said:

There is often no reason to book a tour with anybody, ship or local. Often a bit of research will let you see the things that interest you, using local transport or just by walking. 

We book a tour only if independent is impossible for some reason

Not always.  We took a Viking tour in Singapore to a Night Safari just outside the city, maybe 45 min?  Friends of ours bought tickets to do it on their own.  They had a horrible time getting a cab (ride share was impossible) to take them out there, and had we not run into them and gotten them a ride back with us, they’d have been stuck there.  
Uber and taxi numbers are a fraction of what they were pre Covid and that ey are not bouncing back fast…..at least not in Singapore.

38 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

And it’s easy to do on your own 

It is.  We had a good chunk of time to wander on our own, but we did have a fabulous tour guide who pointed out parts of the city that we’d have been clueless about, had sh3 not told us the history.

I think that there is a balance you need to hit with regards to imparting information, and giving free time.  Since our guide was local, she knew where to taste and buy the homegrown ciders, and what other places to check out.  That day, a very nice balance was hit.

17 hours ago, Cubs Fan said:

How far is the port dock from the city itself?  We are doing a pre-extension and we may have time on our own in Istanbul.  Thanks for all of the advice!

The city is not far from the port, however traffic can be horrendous at certain times of the day.  Also, the new airport is on the Black Sea side of the Bosphorus, so it can be a long ride into the city.  A few years ago, we flew to Istanbul to meet up with Turkish friends and go on vacation with them.  They picked us up from the airport, drove into the city.  We could see our hotel, but we’re in such a traffic jam that it took us over an hour to get to it.  My point is to just be aware and leave yourself a LOT more time than you think you should need…..especially if it’s during rush hour.

3 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Do you know if they will accommodate any dietary restrictions, if you tell them in advance? For example, I don’t eat any pork or red meat. On other lines, the chef has made substitutions for me.

Yes.  We have a friend who doesn’t eat meat.  They switched any meat out on the menu for fish.

We are on this sailing on the BI cruise as holdovers from the World Cruise.  
 

About the food, in my experience the food in The Restaurant has been very uneven from the time we got on Dec 2022 until today.  There have been fabulous meals, and meals that left me wondering where the rest of my meal went.  TBH, we have found World Cafe to be much better, and usually the same meals.  
 

I do think that there are some switchover pains on the ship going on right now.  We lost a large chunk of crew 4/30, in Barcelona.  We lost an equally large chunk at the end of the WC a week or so later.  I think that since they were such huge switchovers, since most got on the ship at the same time it first set sail in Europe, that the steady gain and loss of fewer staff that normally happens on established Viking ships has made the loss of staff (and resulting loss of service) that much more apparent.  

On 5/10/2023 at 11:48 AM, CILCIANRQTS said:

Second for Honfleur.

Charming little community with plenty to see and do. Easy walking.

Wouldn’t spend that long on a bus to Paris unless I hadn’t been there before.

Third for Honfleur.  We did this a few days ago, and it was fabulous.  We also went on market day, which was even better.  We did not get near enough time there to do what we wanted.

19 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Yes they are usually $100 apart from each other, but occasionally there is a $200 difference between each PV.   

 

We've been in all 3 but like the PV2's a lot.  You might also consider that half the PV's have slider doors to the balconies and half of them have swing open doorknob doors.  Lots of threads on Cruise Critic on which people prefer and why.  People have posted diagrams of which rooms have sliders and which have doors.  Basically they lay out 2 sliders, then 2 doors, then 2 sliders, and so on.

 

 

We are in a PV with the 2 doors.  TBH, I don’t get the preference of slider over door after having lived with a door for the last 137 days.  It doesn’t matter to me.

3 hours ago, johnhst said:

As a future WCr  on the Neptune (23/24 FFL to London) I have a question about the beds.  I have read somewhere on these forums that the Viking mattresses were like boards and it was recommended that you should bring along a mattress topper of some sort.  Just wondering if anyone on the Neptune is having a problem with the firmness of the mattresses.  Thanks for your time and thanks to everyone for all the great information that you have given. Enjoy the rest of your WC.  

I think the bed is comfortable, and I have enough scar tissue in my hips that it usually causes issues in some hotel beds.  Viking beds do not cause issues.

5 hours ago, tomv2950 said:

Thanks again for your great insight to us future wc's.  Just wondering if you would consider a future wc or is once enough?

For us, maybe if the route changes.  We don’t want to do this route exactly the same again.  
Also for us, a lot of things had to wind up in perfect alignment.  It wasn’t easy to put the pieces together, and there was a certain amount of tooth gnashing to get here.

18 hours ago, Margaretwelker said:

Good to hear you’ve booked two more cruises. This means you are happy with the whole experience.  I’m wondering about the food. You must not have gotten tired of monotonous meals. Did you find that entrees changed as you were traveling in different parts of the world?

Not at all.  There have been a couple new Chef’s Table Menus.  Manfredi’s has put out a new menu (I think) 3 times.  The Restaurant always has a destination meal, along with the old favorites, plus a few others.  
We probably eat about 80% of our meals at WC.  I do sometimes wind up eating some strange combos of meals (I think last night I had pizza, salad and king crab legs), but have always been able to find something to eat.
They have also expanded the Asian bar in the back.  In the morning, there is dim sum.  In the afternoon  and evening, there is usually a couple different soups and something stir fried.  More than once, I’ve gotten rice from the main line and just put stir fry over it (there was a fantastic beef Szechuan stir fry a few weeks ago.
Then there are times where I just want a burger and the Pool Grill does a decent job.  Also have fabulous onion rings.

6 hours ago, Twitchly said:

Or what if Viking got rid of its in-house people and instead featured local talent? I suppose that would take a good deal more coordination, but I would absolutely love it. Imagine listening to Irish bands when docked in Ireland, Spanish performers when in Spain, etc. 

They do do this.

However, what happens about onboard entertainment on sea days!   The in house people are interesting.  In addition, Viking frequently uses them to herd cats (passengers) on excursions.  I’ve met a lot of the entertainment this way.  

3 hours ago, nevetsnehoc said:

Thanks for the warning!!!! Besides that, was the time and effort worth it to see the Taj Mahal?  Did you go at sunrise and if you did, were you able to see some of the interior? Thank you!

Absolutely.  We booked it on our own.  We did not go at sunrise.  We got into Delhi at 2 am, and the driver was picking us up at 9.  It was a 3+ hour drive there, and a very long day.  I believe it was nearly 11 when we got back to the hotel.

Very worth it, glad we made the effort.

20 hours ago, nevetsnehoc said:

Hi!

We are booked on Sky 23/24 WC and wonder if you can share how you put together the tour via Memphis tours to the Taj? (lcohen51@gmail.com)

Just be aware that if you stop at a spice market, the TSA equivalent in India WILL NOT allow you to fly with spices in carry on luggage.

 
There is NOTHING in the New Delhi airport about this (nor was there in Cochin when we boarded) about spices being contraband.  We were lucky in that I had time to go back and check our bag.  I know at least 2 other people who traveled with us who got the spices they bought tossed.

All 3 of our bags got snagged going through security, we were with 2 backpacks and a carry on bag.  My tweezers got snagged.  DH had an electrical adapter in his backpack, and the spices we had put in the carry on bag.

On 4/29/2023 at 10:19 PM, Little Monty said:

Well done to you for a good attitude and a positive outlook. Is on-board testing still happening or did you test yourself ? Does everyone have to test before they board ?

 

We board in Barcelona in June and Viking haven't sent us any information about testing (not as yet anyway). 

 

Best wishes, LM

 

 

I had symptoms, was concerned and went to the med center and got tested.  Idiot me, I forgot to throw tests into my bag before we left.

No, no testing before or on board unless requested.

51 minutes ago, Cuculla said:

We are about to embark on our second Viking cruise but as the first was pre Covid we have forgotten about many of the arrangements. We cannot remember if we store our luggage in the cabin? 
Our choice of stateroom does not include free laundry. Previously on a long cruise with sea days I used the laundrette.  As we are signed up for a post cruise extension we would like to disembark with clean clothes. Presumably it is possible to pay for laundry service? 

Luggage fits under the bed easily.

There are laundry facilities you can use, or you can send your clothes out for a charge.