Mich3554

As mentioned by Andy, this is a very open ended question with no guidelines. We do not get seasick, nor do we have a preference for bed direction or whether we have a slider or door to the balcony. This gives us a lot of options as to where we prefer to stay. I like being on deck 5. We are port side on the WC and the advantage is we are a straight shot to the laundry room. I miss getting up and watching port activity on the starboard side though. Our sweet spot seems to be a PV room. We started in the smaller room but appreciate the space vs price difference. I think larger isn’t likely going to happen for us unless it’s given to us. Personally, I prefer the aft end of the ship as there is a bit less traffic. The only people passing are those going to cabins. It all comes down to your preferences and price you are willing to pay. Our criteria may not be acceptable to someone who has 3x our budget…..or half.

I’m on the world cruise now and had booked Manfredi’s about every 14 days or so all the way through the cruise when reservations opened. I did not book anything at CT though when I booked Manfredi’s. Since we got on, we’ve eaten at Manfredi’s 3x, once as a guest of someone who had a reservation. We have eaten at CT once, adding another party to our reservation a few days later. Since the new menus have been dropped, I’ve booked 2 more reservations for the next 2 menus. All reservations at CT have been made while on board. We ate at Manfredi’s 2 nights ago and it was the busiest I have seen it since I’ve been on the Neptune. There were several tables for 2 open, tables set up such that they could be pushed together for larger parties if needed. There are more tables for 2 than larger tables overall. I don’t recognize it being much different than when I was on the Jupiter last Dec.

Looking at the space between the end of the bed and credenza. Yes, there is enough space to get a standard Walker through there. However, on this cruise I have seen a few walkers that seem wider than normal.

I thought Monet’s gardens and home and Stonehenge were the best tours we did, unfortunately, we did not get Alhambra, but it’s supposed to be spectacular. It poured the day we went to Stonehenge. Even in the rain, it was fantastic. We did not do Paris for 2 reasons, despite it being one of my favorite cities in Europe. One we had been there and the very long bus ride to get to the city did not leave sufficient time to do anything justice.

I have dealt with a LOT of unexpected in cruising. Last year, we lost Alhambra, Morocco, Senegal, 2 stops in Brazil, 2 stops in Argentina and Falklands (a given). We did make it to 2 new places but it doesn’t mean that I can’t be disappointed in the places we missed. I have have been to both islands and I prefer Kauai over Oahu, THAT is my disappointment. Lord knows I know how to make lemonade, or limoncello out of lemons.

But we lose Kauai. I’m not calling this a win.

Yikes! We didn’t pay anywhere near that, but the place does have a resort fee. I booked us an extra night because Viking used it as the pre extension hotel, our flight was getting in in the evening and we were meeting friends for dinner before we left. Luckily I did book to come in earlier as our flight was delayed and had I not booked it, our dinner plans would have been toast. We never do extensions, but did this time. Knowing what I now know, I wouldn’t again, I’d just find another hotel to stay at.

Just saw one at the Atrium bar. How obnoxious. I hope they are few and far between.

It was ok. The associated restaurant was very good, but the hotel was under construction in the section we were in. The elevator was out and it was a mess. The hotel was directly across the street from the beach. Our room overlooked the cooling tower, but TBH we were only there to sleep.

Boarding in FLL, the pre cruise hotel was the Westin Beach Resort. Knowing what I now know, I’d have booked someplace on our own. I usually do for other cruises and have never in the past had an issue. In FL, we would have been cooling our heels in the terminal rather than the lobby of our hotel when the USCG dragged their feet on the inspection. I think it was after 3 before we wound up boarding.

I’m sorry this happened to you. We got canceled as well when Viking pulled the Neptune off this route, but did get notified about it (I went back and checked and got notified 7/13/22). It caused a whole cascade of events that the Viking rep I used had to go pretty far up the chain in order to make me happy with the fix. He did go to bat for me, which I appreciate. Not being notified of the change is reprehensible. For us, we were offered 110% of what we had invested in the cruise. This was a newly booked cruise, not paid for by vouchers so am not sure if that will make a difference. This might be a place for you to start with Viking.

Just to let you know…..we are on the Neptune right now and have been so since 12/22. We have eaten at Manfredi’s twice and BOTH times the restaurant was able to seat someone asking about dinner but did not have a reservation (they were ahead of us checking in). The second time, the guy was asked to come back in about 15-20 min, but the first time the guy was seated immediately.

Nope, no Viking excursions. I called the WC desk to ask about this and got a totally unsatisfactory answer as to why they hadn’t scheduled it. The poor girl on the phone I spoke to just seemed cluelessly illogical, so just shook my head and went my own way.

They brought a couple of bottles of wine around for us. We haven’t opened them yet.

Ocean, not river. Our 3 Christmases on board have all been sea days.

This past Christmas was our third on Viking during the holiday. As mentioned, the gingerbread houses are set up. Dinners include classic holiday offerings, we were offered mulled wine and egg nog by roving waitstaff. The ship is beautifully decorated (which I think is coming down tonight). There were Christmas shows and caroling. Oh, and there were small panettones left in our room on turn down service. It was quite good.

I have noticed that Viking has increased their plant based options from wha5 I have seen in previous cruises in all the restaurants we have hit (which is, all but CT). Even their gelatos have gotten a makeover in their offerings.

Yes, but you will need to find out their customer number and you have to mention it. Viking reps are not allowed to offer it. The discount must be on an incoming call.

DH bought these. He bought a dozen, and we have everything hanging we can hang. Wish he had brought more, as we air dry shirts after doing laundry and realized we could use those hooks to help doing that too. https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Facilitate-Kitchen-Workplace-Office/dp/B08K35SM33/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?keywords=Magnetic%2Bhooks&qid=1672699214&sr=8-2-spons&smid=AADRPL0EEP9MO&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExTTZPQ0VWUzI0Vk1TJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjkxNDMyMUNNOEZDVTVCSzlVJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA4NTM4MzczSjUyTjY2NjlMNUJCJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ&th=1

Nope, our shore excursion offerings on the TV stop in LA, nothing after that. We have received no notice for other excursions after LA in any other manner either.

Not quite. You can book with Viking Air, pay for a deviation and Viking is not responsible for your transfers. I have done this a few times myself.

We have the door right now on our world cruise, no slider was available when I booked it. TBH, I really don’t care which we have anymore after using it, nor do I understand the appeal of the slider.

We never book in advance for either of the restaurants on any of our cruises, yet still manage to eat at them several times, regardless of cabin category we book. Since I have no idea what I want to eat tonight, let alone 3 weeks from now, the idea of booking this far in advance doesn’t work for us. Usually, we check out the daily menus in the morning to try to figure out where we want to eat that day. This pretty much always works for us, unless we have made arrangements with another party.

We picked up 4 different ports last winter when we lost several ports due to countries not letting us dock. So YMMV.

We are in a PV during this WC and this room seems to hit our sweet spot.