Mich3554

We just got our hotel to call us a taxi to take us to the ship. Every time we have done this, the hotel mentions that we are going to the Viking XXXX and the taxi driver knows where it’s docked.

Another thing, those who are on the WC and have T Mobile are very happy with their service. I know people with AT&T who are ready to give them the boot. I suspect when we get home, we will be looking at them too. A lot depends on what the service is like in our local area as there are a lot of dead spots.

We have been using Airalo on the WC. We chose a plan that was 20 GB and included a lot of the countries we have visited. It is not without problems. Its easy to set up. DH chose the global plan and I decided to go country by country (initially). When he set up his global plan, no problem. When I set up a plan for New Zealand, no problem. My problem started when I had more than one plan for the eSIM. I lost 3 days of the plan trying to get it to work in Australia. I finally did. After dealing with this, I decided to jump on the global bandwagon, 20 GB/82 countries/180 days/$89. Again, I had issues getting it started and it was another 2-3 days of emails back and forth with Airalo to get it started. Since then, it has been working fairly well. Usually when we get into harbor, it automatically pops in. However, we do not have to be far out of the harbor (I think I lost a signal before we hit the lighthouse in Sri Lanka last night) to lose the signal. When we are in dock, I link my iPad to my phone for faster service, and I’ll video chat with family then. DH just topped off his plan with another 20 GB, I have about another 15 GB left so will top off later. I will say that Airalo is very responsive to problems. It takes 24-48 hours to get a request for info, and once they start working with you they respond very quickly. In fact, getting the global plan to work I had to email them back twice to tell them I could not determine if the correction fixed the problem until we got close enough to land to get the cell signal.

Ditto. I have a Viking agent who I have dealt with exclusively and other than being able to tell me about unadvertised specials by changing sailings, he is far more knowledgeable about Viking’s rules than even the onboard cruise consultant (which I found out when I was trying to plan a trip on board for 2025). When Viking canceled a cruise we had booked while onboard, he was able to get us back the perks we had received while onboard. He had to go up a couple levels, but he did it. I have also given his name and extension and know he has booked at least 4 cruises for friends of mine. Also…..and this is what I found out while on the WC. A friend I met onboard was grousing that she did not have all the info she wanted on her final e documents. The one for the WC was very long and I told her it was there (it was the info that Viking provides about all the excursions offered). She brought up her e document, I brought up mine and compared and her document had about 1/3 the info mine did. Her TA had truncated the last chunk of info that Viking provided, assuming that the customer didn’t need it. Since Viking is only providing into in 2 week segments on the WC, there is a lot of changing around of excursions, and the faster you change, the more likely you’ll get it if you need to be waitlisted. I have done this several times already.

We received checks of our refundable OBC Dec 2021. We both received a nice sized check. It was an ocean cruise, actually 3….Athens to Santiago on the Jupiter.

A friend of mine was traveling with us on a river cruise last spring. We was traveling alone (her spouse had recently died). On a day where we were all going in different directions on excursions, she went off on her own. While she was out, she passed out after lunch. A doctor was with her in the tour, an ambulance arrived and took her to the local hospital. The ship was in contact with the hospital, and as I was back first from my excursion, the ship’s GM contacted me and came to our cabin to tell me what had happened. The other 3 in our party were not yet back, but the GM came by again to speak to all of us together. Our friend was hospitalized for 3 days. A taxi was arranged by the hospital to return her to the ship. When she met the ship, the taxi didn’t accept credit cards and my friend didn’t have enough euros on her. The ship captain met her taxi and paid (which did wind up on her final bill). While there was no one in contact with her directly, the personnel on the ship WERE in contact with the hospital to determine what was going on and determine her best course of action. As the cruise had another week to go, plus her extension, she was well enough to continue on with admonishments to get checked out while home. My friend had to pay her hospital bill when she was released, which she put through her insurance when she got home.

We had a late flight leaving Buenos Aires, sometime after 11pm. Viking had scheduled a hospitality room in a hotel, but we wound up getting a room for the day. We were not flying on Viking scheduled flights, so had to deal with our own luggage. We booked a room for the day, dropped our luggage and went sightseeing. We had a fabulous dinner, went back to the hotel to shower and change, checked out and had the hotel call us a taxi for the airport. Best $70 ever spent.

If you pay with an ACH debit, Viking gives a 3.3% break on the cost at the time you pay.

This I was lucky too. I booked our flights for our river cruise last spring and the WC without issue. In both cases, I went online and found the flights I wanted to be on, and had a first, second and third choice written down. I have always gotten my first or second choice. We fly business class, so I always check to see which way benefits us best.

This has been my experience as well. I normally book our own flights, and don’t bother with Viking Air.

We have received 2 so far on the World Cruise.

Uber eats on Komodo….what’s a big lizard not to like?

I have traveled to Turkey several times with prescriptions, some narcotics. There has never been an issue. I did take my drugs in their original containers, but no one has even looked twice at them. This was all land travel, so did not have the ship’s protection.

Even though this cruise has no segments, it’s being treated as if there were. For instance, our excursion list ends at Sydney and it assumes we are disembarking…..so nothing is listed. As of right now, segments further than Sydney have not been posted on the TV, but that will change maybe this afternoon? I noticed this morning tickets are arriving for the next couple weeks.

Not exactly. I booked Manfredi’s about every 2-3 weeks for our World Cruise on the Neptune. I booked 11 reservations until May. I did NOT book CT, even though I could. For us, it is very much menu dependent. Even so, we’ve gone 3x since boarding, booked either the same day or a day or so ahead.

A week or so ago on the Neptune, DH was talking to someone at the restaurant about one of our favorite restaurants at home. The restaurant had a flourless chocolate cake that he adores. We have been known to stop there for only dessert when we are dining out. Several years ago, the restaurant closed and nothing he has tried has come close to this dessert. The next day, we came back from an excursion and there was a covered plate on the table. Thinking it was a mistake as neither of us had ordered anything, we were ready to call someone to find out what was going on. The phone rang, it was the restaurant manager we were talking to the day before and she asked if we had tried them yet? Tried what? Under the cover were 4 perfect flourless chocolate cakes. They were better than the original DH raved about! They have since shown up on the dessert rotation. A few nights ago, we had an evening excursion, left around 6 pm, got back after 11. The restaurant had sandwiches and soup waiting for us in the Living Room when we boarded around 11:30 at night…..just so we wouldn’t starve after missing a meal.

Yes. Usually a few days before the end of the cruise, Viking will send a form around with a bunch of different options, even if you did not book their air. Our last cruise, after having booked our own air, we were given the option of either being driven to the airport in Santiago, or a hotel. As we were leaving the following day (to avoid a Santiago/Lima/Atlanta/Salt Lake City/Seattle routing) we ate up the balance of our OBC using a private driver to the hotel I had booked for the night.

Our choice. No problem with the dryers, just that by keeping the shirts out of the dryers, they don’t shrink in length.

We use the hooks for hanging hangers for air dry clothing since none of our shirts get dried in the dryer. The wall beside the bed holds 5 shirts, and we have 4 more shirts hanging up on hooks around the cabin (I just did laundry today).

Yep, we are really doing some rocking right now. Once we left the Sound, it didn’t take long for it to start back up again. Luckily, neither of us get seasick.

Nothing has been said yet. If we are tested, I imagine we will be quarantined to cabins. Just realize, what happens this year really is no indication how next year will be handled. I wouldn't use this as an example, as this cruise is nothing like last year’s.

I did not have the same opinion of this tour. Yes, there was a lot of driving, but we also got to see some of the most spectacular scenery ever, we saw parts of New Zealand that I never imagined were like this.. The driver drove quickly and competently, having frequently driven over the pass. I had no concerns about it. We stopped halfway for tea at The Royal Hotel, a charming hotel in a town I’d have loved to explore further, but unfortunately due to time restraints could not. I’d kill for their scone recipe. I could have watched the seals play for hours. They were entertaining, and put on a show for us. There were a lot of pups enjoying the sunny, albeit very windy weather. The winery was fabulous, as was our meal. We used this stop to get rid of our remaining NZ$ for wine. In all, just another opinion of the same tour. I’d do it again, including with the same driver.

Yep, we have been using Airalo, it works beautifully. Both DH and I were able to communicate via messenger when we got separated in Auckland yesterday.

Not to worry. We have yet to check in online prior to any cruise. In fact, on the world cruise they had the lines divided up as to those who checked in and those who didn’t. The passengers from the busses (3 arrived at the same time) were about equally divided. It didn’t look like the checked in group line was moving an6 faster, despite having the same number of reps behind the counter of each side.

The bathroom plug also works for my Sonicare charger.