Mich3554

When I did the focus group for Viking, they asked for suggestions. I suggested that knowing if shuttles would be available in ports might be something they could give advance notice of. The comment was well received at the time, by both the moderator of the group and the other members.

The last few cruises, including the WC we used the 3.3% discount. Our credit card gives us 3% cash back, but for some reason won’t raise the credit limit above $25k. It just became more of a pain to pay off the WC in chunks that way.

We are stopping just short of NYC, in Iceland.

Alternatively, if you stay on the Neptune, it ultimately leaves Fort Lauderdale and winds up in NYC after hitting Norway, Iceland and Greenland.

What is accepted in the more cosmopolitan Istanbul is much different than the more rural Cappadocia.

If you are going to use US $, they need to be pristine, otherwise Turkish banks will not accept them. A Turkish friend emptied her US account to go home after her sabbatical here. She went through each bill given to her by the bank and rejected probably 2/3 of the US currency she was given. She said her bank in Turkey will not accept them. So if it’s the choice of an undervalued lira that will be accepted or a crumpled $10 bill, chances are the lira will be preferred.

Lira. That was preferred when we were there 2 years ago.

The information will be on the cruise documents you receive about 2 weeks before your cruise. This is where we were docked last fall, but no guarantee you’ll be at the same location on your cruise. Piraeus cruise terminal A Akti Miaouli Piraeus, Greece

Agree about the Gentle walkers group. On our last river cruise, one woman we were traveling with was slated for a new knee when we got home. She and her husband went with that group instead of with us. As with others, I don’t remember there being a comparable group on ocean excursions.

We are in 5084 on the Neptune come Dec. When I booked us, there were not a lot of choices for PVs. TBH, I never even thought about using sliders to cull my slim choices. I’m ok with it.

We have only ever had a slider in the PV rooms we had, but will have a door and window on our WC. I guess we will find out which we prefer!

I have a few mobility issues as well, and started taking hiking poles on excursions when they are not necessary in getting around the ship. They really do help considerably. The first set of poles I had were too.one for my suitcase, even collapsed all the way. So they traveled in my backpack with the handles sticking out. DH was afraid they’d get confiscated going through security some time, so we bought replacements that collapse much shorter. In my case, they help a lot more with balance, not just support. My suggestion when you go shopping for them is to pay attention to the weight, the grips and the length they collapse to. REI has a pretty good selection to try out before you buy.

Yep. We go up for dim sum in Vancouver fairly regularly, and those are not quite as good as Sun Sui Wah’s……but close. The ones at our dim sum place also include chunks of shrimp. I also found out that you can order them in The Restaurant for breakfast too.

This is largely my experience with looking at booking extensions too. We just don’t bother, come into a new city and go and do on our own. Your Viking e documents you receive about 2 weeks before your trip tell you where you are docked, and IME hotels and taxis have this info as well.

We were on the Jupiter from 10/31-12/20. Only the current day menu was available for The Restaurant during this time. Menus for Chef Table and Manfredi’s were available though.

We were on the Jupiter 10/19, 12/19 and Oct-Dec 2021. I did not find any changes in the quality between 2019 and late 2021. The only glitch I found in 2021 was that I love the little dumplings served in WC during breakfast. They were replaced with filled won tons (like you’d find in soup). I later found out one of the ingredients was not included in the provisioning and Viking had to pivot. The dumplings were back on the buffet a week later.

And for us, 3 months apart!

I had 4 left in my passport and renewed 5 years early for Viking’s 2022-23 cruise. I’d think with 10+ pages available, you’d be good…..but it depends on where you go. An 18 day cruise in South America, with a side trip to Iguazu (hitting both Brazil and Argentina sides) ate up 4 pages alone of my passport in 2019.

If you decide to do this, then you might want to jump on a HOHO bus for one of the routes. Our last trip, we bought a pass and used it to drop us off at the attractions we wanted to see. While we did use the metro, and it was a more efficient way of travel, the HOHO let you see more. You can also plan your route such that you get off with access back to the cruise bus.

Puerto Madryn was the one time I was incredibly happy we were on a Viking tour. We had gone to the penguin colony in Punta Tombo and were nearly 2 hours late getting back. Then on the way back to the port, a semi took off the bus’s side mirror when we got caught in a horrible traffic backup. The bus pulled up to the ship, we boarded and we were away from the dock before we got to our cabin.

We took 2 cruises on the Jupiter, about 3 months apart. The crew that was still there recognized us from 3 months earlier. With thousands of people passing through, how do they do that? We sat down in the Aquavit terrace, not realizing it was lobster night at the grill. One of the managers eating back there heard me grouse and went to the pool grill and brought back both DH and I a lobster to have with the rest of our meal. DH’s shoes fell apart in Colonia. The shoe disconnected from the sole, and other than sandals these were his only shoes. While we went shopping the next day for new shoes in Montevideo, our cabin steward brought his old shoes to their machine shop. Delivered his old shoes back that evening, looking like new shoes. We were leaving for dinner and a stain on my sweater that I thought it had washed out but was still there (DH helpfully pointed it out just as we were leaving our cabin). Cabin steward heard him laugh at my inability to hit my mouth with food. I went back to the cabin to put on another shirt, and threw the chocolate stained sweater onto the bed to deal with later. Cabin steward took my stained sweater to the laundry and got the stain removed and returned it the next morning.

Yep. We went to Giverny when our cruise stopped in Le Havre. It just didn’t seem to make sense to try to go to Paris as you spent too little time there for such a long bus ride. I love Rouen too, would gladly go back here too. We haven’t done Honfleur, so I’m filing that away for the future.

Neither do I. I have flown Turkish Air and find it is almost on par with Emirates.

My first suggestion would be check with the store first. I made a large purchase in a store in Italy, and the store was very used to sending purchases home for cruise passengers. Best thing, it was free (I’m sure the price for shipping was built into the price I paid). The store shipped it such that I would be home when it arrived.

We recently did our first river cruise this past spring. We had a balcony suite (courtesy of the 125% voucher) but we never used the balcony. The big perk for us was the free laundry. There are other seating areas other than the lounge. However, a few afternoons I took my kindle to the lounge and watched the world go by….just like on ocean cruises. It wasn’t noisy or packed, other than for port talks before dinner. The Aquavit terrace has 2 seated tables for meals. DH and I also ate at the end of a long table. There was no need to communicate with others if we did not want to. We did go with 3 other people, so most times we ate with dinner them. Our cruise was April/May, the Grand European. It happened before testing and masks were dropped.