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If you have not been to Iguazu Falls, I highly suggest you take the time and go. It’s a short flight from BA through their domestic airport. This really was a side trip of a lifetime. When we did this trip (we have gone in both directions), Viking set up a hospitality center at one of the hotels in BA. Those who had earlier flights went there, those with later flights got a tour. We flew AeroMexico to Seattle to Santiago through Mexico City the first time, Delta the second. The Delta flight through ATL was a much longer day. For getting from Santiago to Valparaiso, we spent a few days in Santiago, then hired a private driver who took us to vineyards and wine tastings, we got a tour of Valparaiso, then dropped off at the ship. In BA, we used the hospitality room to catch our domestic flight out of the airport (not EZE, it was a short cab ride) to Iguazu.

As I remember from last year, roads exiting the port were……rustic. It was a good haul into the city.

We just booked the 2025-26 world cruise on Viking. This cruise dropped mid Jan, I got a call about it before it was made public.

I contacted my Turkish friend, heard from her yesterday and she’s looking into it for me.

Just be aware that these prices are in euros, but the prices look about where they should be in $$ from our trip last month. I could see the menu on my iPad.

We were told that they tend not to enforce dress codes in restaurants on the day you embark, the day before you disembark, and if your luggage has not arrived. I know of several people on one of our cruises who boarded without luggage and due to her size could find nothing in the stores before boarding our Barcelona to BA TA. Unfortunately, none of m6 stuff fit her either as I offered.

I have a friend in Istanbul. Let me ping her and see if there is anything she can find out. Her daughter works next door. Hopefully, she’s in town right now.

Galataport is a huge terminal and there will be quite a bit of walking just to get to the exit, both from the ship to the outside and the entrance to the ship. You go up multiple levels via escalator, and before you get to the ramp to th3 ship, you get directed though the store (even though they could open an exit so you don’t have to walk an extra 100 yards. I do not remember seeing anything about wheelchair services when I as there last year. I see that there are concierge services there. Yo7 might want to check here.

There was a carafe of hot chocolate, along with marshmallows at the bar on deck 7 by the pool on the Venus. We didn’t see it until the last day.

We have kept a running total of our drink tab over every single cruise we have taken….both river and ocean (courtesy of my engineer husband who adores spreadsheets). This includes one river, 9 stand alone cruises and a world cruise (where they did keep track of what we drank, despite the cruise fare paying for the SS package). Our results…..we ordered what we wanted, when we wanted. No restraints. We wound up paying 1/4-1/2 of what the SS package cost in alcohol and other drinks. On a back to back to back (Athens to Santiago) there were a lot of sea days. The cruise was around 55 days. I think we only drank 50% of what the package cost. There were only 10 days out of 55 where our bar tab met or exceeded what the daily package cost. This is the way WE drink. On our first cruise, DH suggested that we go a la carte and see where we wind up. A lot of cruises later, the answer is still the same.

When I booked our first Viking cruise, the Viking rep DID inform me what the gratuities were at the very beginning, and that they’d be charged to our account automatically but were optional. I booked directly with Viking.

We did this last year, got on in FL and off in NYC. However, for us the London to NYC legs were marketed as 3 separate legs for an additional 6 weeks. Originally, we were going to get off in Reykjavik, but added Reykjavik to NYC while on the cruise. There were about 12 of us that got off in NYC from the world cruise. We are considering the 25-26 cruise. If we can work things out, get on in Barcelona before the WC and get off in London.

There are 2 versions. One is an excursion on a port day where you go shopping with the chef and prepare a meal. The other is an excursion only on sea days. It starts at 10 am in the morning, where 12 people get together and help the chef cook a set meal. At the end, you sit down and eat a late lunch around 1. This pops up on the excursion section of the interactive TVs in your room as an offering on sea days, and it’s $69 pp. At the end, you get to keep your Viking apron and receive a printout of the recipes you cooked. I left the world cruise with 4 aprons. I didn’t do all of them that were offered, but only the ones that interested me. I signed up for the one on our Northern Lights cruise we just returned from, but rather than a sea day, we were flown to London.

The last few cruises we have been on there has also been an evening session of trivia at 8 pm too.

This is easy to do. On the world cruise, we had to make a decision as to whether to commit to bridge, or to take advantage of the other things going on on the ship. Bridge takes a huge chunk of time, so we decided not to play that trip.

Interesting. On the cruise we were just on, both DH and I both ordered sodas in the Explorer’s Lounge during lunch, but not eating. We were not charged for any of them.

I suspect a wheelchair any wider than 22” will make passage down corridors for others more difficult coming in the opposite direction. It’s probably more about not having bottlenecks here.

They send you all the info in your MVJ booking in a consolidated email as a PDF about 2 weeks before you leave. However, I ALWAYS go directly to the airline site via the booking locator number they provide. That is where you’ll get the most up to date info on your flight.

On Viking, you’d not know a laundry room was there without seeing the sign for it. It’s very quiet.

Above menu currently on the Venus right now.

They will supposedly call your phone on any sightings, they cue you about signing up for this on the TV after watching the safety video.. We finally are due to leave Alta today for Tromso. We spent an extra day here, due to a pretty severe storm going on. Unfortunately, seeing lights so far has been a bust for us. That being said, I have found that there is more than sufficient drawer and closet space on the Venus. We have a PV, but over half our drawers are empty. I’m using 3, DH 2. Plentry of hanging space for bulky coats.

Our experience on the Neptune last year was that Viking air was rescheduling everyone who was booked before 11 until after 1. Despite us getting into NYC with plenty of time, they would not release the ship for while. As I remember it, they finally allowed the first group off the ship at 9:15ish, we were in the second group that they released at 9:30, then stood in a very long line to get through customs. We flew out of LGA, got there in time to check in, eat lunch and get on our 3 pm flight with about an hour to spare. The big hold up was NYC officials would not release the ship. This happened in FL when we got on, and in LA too.

We went over to the Asian side of Istanbul to buy our rugs. We also brought my Turkish friend who did the haggling for us. The place was definitely off the tourist route, it was the dealer my friend also used for herself. Watching her haggling was an experience. We had 2 rugs we were interested in, she negotiated for one and we decided to buy both but she had concluded negotiating for one. We told her tgat we wanted both, so she had to start all over again. The deal was sealed with tea.

It poured on us last year on the Neptune. Moorea and Bora Bora were done in downpours and we got drenched on the included excursion and the ATV trip.

At last on the world cruise, the menus seemed to be regional. The 2 classes I did then were Indonesian and Thai cooking. We were near those places. Up the coast of Norway for Northern Lights, we have Norwegian cooking, so this seems to hold out.