Mich3554

We had a woman on our world cruise that came on board with a 138 day of Humira. I know it’s not the same thing, but she traveled with a carry on bag full of her meds and cold packs. Her meds were stored in the medical facility and she went to get them as necessary. She got a vacation override, like many do. She then had a spare suitcase for her return home.

The Blue Mosque is set up such that if they say you step inside, it’s not just sticking your head in the entrance, it’s utterly amazing to see the inside of this (unfortunately, last time I was in it was in 2019, where they were renovating it so there was scaffolding up. The renovations were completed this year, but it wasn’t open to the public as it was the end of Ramadan). The underground Cistern is interesting to see for its architecture. When we have been offered the opportunity to do the carpets, we told them ‘been, there, done that, have carpets’ and went off and did our own thing. We do have carpets, but bought from a dealer not in the tourist area (my Turkish friend took us to one the locals buy from….and she negotiated for us). Watching the carpets made is interesting though.

What I did when I had problems with WiFi on board (and this only worked while we were in port), was tether my iPad to my cellular account using my eSIM. It did work very well, particularly the time we had utterly impossible internet and I needed a constant signal to book excursions on the next cruise. While we were in port, I was always tethered as we had a global plan that included more data than needed.

I am really an introvert and don’t particularly want to socialize, especially before coffee! On our river cruise last year, I didn’t find it onerous to find an end of the able. You can either talk or not.

The menu for the next cruise is usually not seen on the TV until the new people board. IME, doing back to backs, the menu doesn’t repeat in a consistent manner, so the menu sequence in the 15 days of one cruise may not be the same sequence of menus for the next 15 days. We did see some menus that were just for 2 days, and I think I saw some for 4 days too.

This is correct. On our last cruise, we did whatever vineyard there was an excursion at…..and bought wine. By the end of the cruise, we realized we needed to drink at least a bottle/day, or we were going to be hauling wine home along with the 8 bottles of scotch. So we brought a bottle of wine every evening we went to dinner (both WC and the Restaurant). They open it, pour it and refill glasses as necessary.

Both beds and food are subjective too. For instance, I just read a review of someone who was on a cruise (Bali to Sydney, I think) and they found the Indonesian food spicy. DH spent nearly a year in Indonesia and found the food spiced down.

We bought Marks and Spencer’s salt and vinegar in Dublin. They were just ok, very mild vinegar flavor. We ate them, but they weren’t a good substitute. I think you were going the opposite direction from us in June, so they got a chance to restock in Isafjordur before the second party hit the grocery store. We must have screwed up their inventory that month! When we boarded for the last time in Hawaii before leaving on the world cruise, I noticed a lot of staff boarding the ship with shopping bags full of chips. I get it now!

Actually, on the Madeira stop where you get a chance to sample a local beverage at a little bar, they had Lay’s salt and vinegar chips. Unknown to me, DH bought 2 bags on his way out of the bar (big bags). Since then, these chips have been a running joke between us. We wiped out the stock on the shelves in the grocery store at the mall attached to the dock in Singapore. We also found them in Isafjordur, Iceland. We found them at a few other stops on the world cruise, and usually in the most unexpected places.

Only a single review? Did you bother to look any further?

Not yet, but it’s on the list. We are booked through May 2025, and I’m wanting to see what the 25-26 world cruise goes.

DH dove Bali on the world cruise. He said diving there was fabulous (he’s hooking up with the same dive company who took them earlier this year, and wanted to go back). One of our trips each year is a dive trip, This is really the only time we have, and the few times he dove on the world cruise wasn’t a sufficient fix for him. The visa issue complicated things by needing to apply for 2 visas, so that made the decision for him. We are already going in 3 weeks before the cruise. Angkor Wat’s going to have to be another trip.

This is the way GenVisa explained it to me for what I wanted to do. We would be looking at entering Cambodia on 3/20. On 3/24, flying back to Bangkok and getting onto the ship on 3/26. I think the ship gets into Cambodia either 3/27 or 28 (don’t remember, but it’s a 2 day stop). You need 2 visas. They only have single entry visas, so you need 2 (and of course, pay for 2). Supposedly, you can’t have 3/20-29 on a single entry visa if you are leaving the country….which we are, going back to Thailand. DH decided he’d rather scuba dive in Bali than go to Angkor Wat so we ditched that idea.

They actually do! We had a cab in Amsterdam and the cabbie said he knew the locationS where Viking docks. We went to the scheduled location, looked and the ship wasn’t there. Cabbie said onto Plan B. Ship was there. He also said he had a Plan C and D.

In case you do not know, Cambodia has only single entry visas available. If you are leaving Cambodia and re-entering Cambodia on a different date, you need to apply for another visa with different dates. I found this out with a very lengthy conversation with GenVisa last month as we had plans on doing this ourselves. I have applications filled out and ready to be sent for both Cambodia and Vietnam on my desk. Need to get pics.

All of the information on MVJ (and more) gets sent to as a PDF in the e documents file you get sent by Viking about 2 weeks before you sail. You can either print this info out from the PDF, or just have it accessible to you in your email on your phone or tablet. When you get onto the ship, all of this info is also programmed into your tv under excursions and dining, other than your flights/hotel info after for extensions.

This is something new. We use the same Viking agent for all our cruises, and he knows we have several booked when I recently booked both a river cruise and another ocean cruise. I had to specifically request the payment date being 6 months out, and he told me without telling me that I had to ask for it. It was kind of a weird minute or two until I caught his drift. I think this was in July. I know the conversations are recorded, so am wondering if something about this has shifted in the LA home office? Always before when I’d book something, he’d say ‘of course, since you have cruises already booked you’ll get the 6 month payment date’. .

Oh, man! I think that by the time we left UK, we had over a case of wine we had picked up along the way and 8 bottles of scotch that DH had picked up some in duty free shops, but most in Scotland.. We managed to get the wine drunk before we got to NYC, but the 8 bottles of scotch were safely packed away in our luggage. We were not asked about alcohol, so we said nothing.

We had a window/door on the world cruise. Only had sliders in the past, so figured we’d get to try them both. take home message for us, it doesn’t matter.

We are leaving early and stopping in Bali first before proceeding onto Bangkok. DH found the diving in Bali incredible while on the WC, and wanted to go back. It was easier (and cheaper) to tack on 10 diving days for him on the way to Bangkok than make a separate trip there. So we fly out on 3/7, but don’t join the ship until 3/26.

We are on the Pacific Explorer next year that leaves out of Auckland to Vancouver. We are not getting on until Bangkok. Excursions for do not open up until Jan 9 for us, so imagine that there will be some sold out excursions when we get to schedule them. We will be getting on the ship a little less than halfway through.

When we took this trip, we took a wine tasting tour as we went to our ship in Valparaiso from Santiago. We wound up bringing almost a case of wine on board with us. I think we had 2 bottles left we took home.

You have got a few choices. First, already mentioned, you can buy wine and bring on board. Depending on where we have cruised, we have done this from vineyards we visited in Italy, New Zealand and Chile. Second, we try the offered wines. If we don’t like them, we go to the Explorer’s lounge and sample a bunch of different wines, choose a few to drink and at dinner will either bring a glass of one of these wines from the bar, or request a glass of a particular wine during dinner. Wines by the glass are pretty reasonably priced.

On the cruises I have been on with many sea days, there was a bridge instructor that taught both beginning and intermediate bridge in the morning. After lunch, social bridge was scheduled. Sometimes duplicate bridge depending on how many were interested.

I agree with this. There were 5 days where I got to have room service for all my meals. Eating at the desk meant I needed to clear things off before my meal arrived. Eating at a table would have been nice. There was only twice we had room service where I was not room bound. One was our last morning on the ship and the other was after we returned from a late night from a show at the Sydney Opera House. However, I think we have found our happy spot with the PV.