Mich3554

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.  

3 hours ago, TrulyBlonde said:

Actually, my 1st post ever on CC was due to a problem I had with a cruise line and some mold issues growing under my bed. I was very upset and was also called a drive by because I was new here.

 

I am sympathetic towards the family that were clearly very upset and needed to vent. Have some compassion.

It is far too common to blame the wrong party.  We saw lots of that last summer when airlines were not delivering luggage on flights.  It was all Viking’s fault.

We travel with contingency plans at all times.  Crap happens, and a cruise requires that a lot of things happen as they are supposed to happen to come off successfully.  Statistically, sometime this is going to break down.

7 hours ago, Paul73 said:

Hope you're all enjoying the Neptune while we're freezing in northern Virginia!  One of the world cruise bloggers (Boone) mentioned that Luggage Forward had opened their bag and removed magnetic hooks.  I didn't see magnets as one of their prohibited items.  Did anyone else have this problem?  With all the recommendations to bring wall magnets,  Laura is wondering whether we need to reorder our magnets and bring them with us to LA.  Thanks and Merry Christmas

Paul

We did not throw our magnetic hooks into that bag, but the ones we brought with us.  After reading the instructions, I decided to play things safe and the luggage we sent only included clothes and shoes.  Everything else was brought on the flight with us, or we bought in a Target run in FL.

The hooks are definitely an advantage, I’d reorder them and bring them with you.  They keep a lot up off the floor.

Luggage Forward did open our luggage.  We received it unlocked, with sand all over the inside.

Last spring, one of the women we were traveling with on our river cruise passed out in Salzburg.  There was a physician on the tour and he took care of her until the German version of EMS arrived.  She was put into the hospital, and had some tests run.

There were 5 of us in our party, and all of us were going different directions on excursions that day.  DH and I had split up, the other couple had gone together and the woman had gone in yet a different direction.

I returned first from my excursion, and was immediately called by the guest services person on board, to let me know what was happening.  He came to our cabin to talk to me.  I told him that all of us had separated out that day, and as soon as I saw the others, I’d let them know.

Guest services was in constant contact with our friend in the hospital, and kept us apprised of updates.  After a few days, she was released, put in a cab and driven back to the ship.  When she arrived, the cab only accepted cash and my friend didn’t have enough on her, so the captain paid for the cab.  The chef sent a tray to her room after she got in and got settled, since she missed lunch.  They took very good care of her the rest of the trip.  Even after she got home, they followed up with a phone call.  

6 hours ago, SLSD said:

I think it all depends---on where you would like to have your drinks and/or glasses of wine.  If you wish to just drink in your suite--by all means buy your wine/liquor and bring it onboard.  But, if you are social drinkers, you may want to have your glasses of wine/drinks in lounges/bars on the ship, while visiting with others.  If this is the case, (as it would be for us), buying the package would make sense.  

We just took our bottles of wine with us to the Explorer lounge or dinner.  Some, we shared with others.

When we took the South American cruise, we collected nearly a case of wine from visiting multiple wineries on the tour we took from Santiago to Valparaiso, before we hit the dock.  We unloaded our purchases from the back of our tour van onto the trolly that Viking staff met us with.  Our alcohol tab on board was squat on that cruise!

It very much depends on how you drink.  With the old price list, we found that it was rare for both of us to drink over $20 each every day.  On our 54 day cruise, there were only 10 days where both of us exceeded the cost, so for us it is not cost effective.  
 

We have the package on the WC, so will have to see if our drinking habits change any.  

2 hours ago, shadowlover said:

We currently have refundable and non refundable credit. Do I have to specify that they use the non refundable first or is Viking “smart enough” to do this??  

IME, Viking uses non refundable first.  I asked them this when we had 4 figures of OBC In our account.

3 hours ago, milling73 said:

How did you get from Athens Hotel to ship?  Do taxi drivers know location of ship?  We booked advance nights stay ourselves before our Viking cruise, and are now wondering how to get to ship.  Thanks for assist!!

 

We just had our hotel call a cab for us.  The cab driver knew where to go.  Your docking location is at the bottom of the page in the e documents you should have received about 2 weeks before your cruise, but we never needed it.

2 hours ago, CurlerRob said:

As @Heidi13 noted, you won’t be in the Drake per se, but be aware that the unpredictable weather in the southern ocean is not confined to the passage!

 

Some years ago, we were not able to get to Cape Horn, as conditions were too severe to venture out of the inner channels. Sad to miss the horn, but still a great and safe trip! The pic is from one of the fjords. 🍺🥌

 

Same thing happened to us back in 2019-20.  We got out of the channel and the captain did a U turn and returned to the internal channels.  
Last year when we did this trip, we managed to make it around the horn.  The weather was still pretty ugly.  

8 hours ago, CILCIANRQTS said:

Yes, of course you can make a reservation online or with a call center person, but the real value of.a TA comes through when COVID hits and you need to cancel multiple bookings. Not once did I speak with Viking post COVID, but everything got straightened out by my TA. 
Of perhaps you’re flying into or out of Venice and they change the docking point to 1 1/2 hours away.

Etc, etc, etc.

We had 3 cruises cancelled during Covid, 2 ocean and a river all booked through Viking.  Viking cancelled everything, no problem.  I had bigger issues canceling hotel reservations we had for a wedding and a family reunion somewhat locally.

15 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

Well, we have had OBC that could NOT be used before we boarded the ship.  It depends on how and why you have the OBC.  It is not one rule or situation.  We called Viking and they told us our credit was ONLY available to be used once we boarded the ship.    I am also an experienced Viking cruiser.

There is shipboard credit and OBC.  The WC distinguishes the difference in that we had a certain amount of OBC, and another amount of SBC.  I have noticed that these terms seem to be under interchangeably.  

When we used OBC to pay for excursions, MVJ automatically used it when we checked out.    We had $200 pp for our last cruise, and when I booked our excursions, the OBC was used for Alhambra.  
When I booked excursions for our WC, we paid the balance after the OBC we had was used.  What we received from Viking covered about 2/3 of excursions chosen.

2 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

An excellent response.

 

Viking also walk the talk when it comes to safety and do place pax and crew safety as a priority. The mega ship owners have lots of talk about crew & pax safety, but it is more talk than action. Best recent example is they all refused to install labs onboard for testing, so they actually know the virus load aboard and make informed decisions to control spread.

 

By re-introducing targeted testing, Viking are endeavouring to prevent the recent example of a Princess ship docking in Australia with 800 infected pax.

 

With respect to Argentina, we have no knowledge of the requirements the Master receives from the local authorities, with respect to handling positive cases. Marine requirements have always been different from other modes of transport and local port authorities can implement any requirements higher than national standards. Prior to arrival, the Master must report any infectious diseases and adhere to all directions provided by local authorities.

Last year, South America was an utter nightmare sailing from port to port.  In Uruguay, after 9 consecutive sea days and no cases, Uruguay wanted us tested twice more before they’d let us in  (we were Covid tested 3 times before 9 am).  Despite having no positives on board, we were essentially quarantined for 14 days because we had been to Cape Verde.  That meant we sailed into Argentina 3 days after we should have (14 days, to the hour).  We then had to jump through additional hoops for Chile.  
So I suspect that restarting testing is one way of making it smoother for Viking to jump through the hoops that all these countries on this particular cruise.  
One thing I learned on that cruise is that things didn’t have to make sense.  We just did as requested.

43 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Fantastic, Dee!!   (We also enjoyed Madeira - an unexpected jewel, on our TA last Dec. )

Agreed, Madeira wasn’t on our radar until we went…..we will return.

9 hours ago, snookie1 said:

Where does one go to sign up for dinner at Manfreddi's?  To the restaurant itself, or is there a desk set up somewhere on embarkation day?  We've been on several Viking cruises (ocean and river), and I don't remember anything about "special events".  Some of those tastings sound interesting...  How do you find out what events are happening on your cruise, and where exactly is the place to sign up for them?  Just want to be sure I hit all the important places that first day!!😋

I have always found it easiest to get reservations for either Manfredi’s or CT on the TV.  
Events are usually announced in the Viking Daily, especially for tastings.

39 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Same with us, Michelle!  Likely Fall 2024 and yes, hopefully the Opera House is having shows.  Remember when we were there in Buenos Aires in Jan 2020, all you could do was take the tour. (which was still good).  Perhaps we'll see you in a couple!

Hope so.  Spring 2024 is the last cruise I have booked where we are doing Bangkok to Vancouver.

33 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Good eye!  We want to take this sometime.  We've cancelled twice (once COVID and once because Africa and Brazil are still closed to Viking and those would be highlights to us, as well as still having do do COVID morning test tube testing).   We will likely try again for this in 2024 (March or November) if things improve a little in South America.

We did this last year when we lost both Morocco, Senegal and Brazil.  I still want to do it again when those ports become more available.  Earliest I can see us doing this is late 2024 sailing west, with what we have scheduled.  Hopefully, by then the BA Opera House will still be having shows.  They shut down late Dec until March, and I really want to hear a show there, the acoustics are fabulous.  

Do they have to go on a newly booked cruise, or one that you have booked and not yet paid for?

The reason I ask is last year we each got 3 separate vouchers for this for amounts ranging from $1000-3000 due to interrupted service.  On the cruise that was interrupted, I booked 2 additional cruises.  The vouchers went against those cruises, despite us receiving the vouchers long after we were home.

Nope.  We did 3 back to back last year, but paid for our own flights to Athens and from Santiago.  
 

We did book a back to back for 2024.   We are doing SouthEast Asia Horizons, which is 3 cruises, from Bangkok to Vancouver.  I think we received a discount booking all 3 under Southeast Asia Horizons, but the prices have changed since I booked in fall 2021.  
 

The disadvantage of booking a combined back to back under one booking number vs 3 individual numbers is that if a portion of your cruise gets canceled, the whole cruise gets canceled.  

12 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Agree, Linda!  Well put.

 

Me thinks this thread has run its course.

I agree, but it is disturbing for people to assume that if you do not have the SS package, you are relegated to the house wines and liquors.  The premium wines and spirits are available to ANYONE, package or not.

33 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

Is the included wine "just fine"?  For us, no.  As wine enthusiasts we have grapes and regions that we prefer and the included wines offered daily will never meet our taste.  One day we may feel like drinking Pinot Noir vs. the next a Rioja.  The SS package gives us this flexibility.  To us - no offence to anyone else - the expanded selection is key for us and we probably don't even drink enough to pay for the package!  We buy it solely for the selection.

You still get the selection of specialty wines, you just pay for an individual glass.  
Last cruise we did (where we only had 10 days where we exceeded the package price), we found an excellent white from the menu we drank with dinner.  We only had a couple glasses/day.

1 hour ago, TayanaLorna said:

My husband and I can easily consume 3 cocktails/premium wines/aperitifs per day.  So 2 wines and 1 cocktail cost $22 a la carte vs $20 for the SSP.

So DH and myself, but we normally don’t drink this way on 15 or more consecutive days.  
Our 54 day back to back we took last year, there were only 10 days where both of us hit or exceeded the cost of the package.

My concern is that I do not want to be drinking because I don’t want to waste the money we have spent on the package.  That is a lousy reason for a drink. 

1 hour ago, MSEm said:

We will have an 11 PM flight out of Santiago, Chile on Feb 24.  Any suggestions for a good tour/transfer from Ship to airport.  I really do not want to be waiting in the airport for 12-14 hours.

Thanks for all the great info.

Has Viking made arrangements for a hospitality room in Santiago?  It’s a good 2 hours from Valparaiso to Santiago, are you using Viking transport?  Because answers to this question will change.  
If you are on your own, I’d consider doing a private tour and hit the vineyards between the 2 cities.  Our hotel in Santiago arranged this for us going the opposite direction.  
If Viking is taking you to Santiago, they will likely have a hospitality room set up in a hotel.  If that’s the case, I would book a room for the day at the hotel and do one of the HOHO bus routes.  When you get back, you’ll be able to shower and change before getting on your night flight.  I think all flights out of SA leave at night.