Mich3554

I book cruises I want and just don’t look back at what the price might be later.  Some go up, some down.  I suspect it evens out in the end.  
 

I do the same for flights too.  Once I find flights that are acceptable price, time, connections 8 book and stop looking.

12 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

If you give me some specific "problems" you are facing, I can give some suggestions.  First off, be sure to know that for USA domestic flights, buying a first class ticket does NOT come with lounge access except on Alaska Airlines.

 

 

Not only that, buying such a ticket for ‘international destinations’….like Belize or Mexico….also do not come with lounge access. 

I was told on embarkation day and the evening before disembarking that they let the dress codes slide.  I know on the WC on embarkation day, a group of us were going into The Restaurant.  One in the party had one jeans and went to go change.  The receptionist told us they let it slide on these 2 days as they assumed people had not yet unpacked (or had packed for disembarking).

6 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Can anyone who had Tripmate insurance report on whether Tripmate covered Paxlovid if given by the Viking medical team?  Have convinced our local doc to give us a scrip to take on the WC but won't get it filled if the travel insurance will cover it if dispensed by the onboard doctor 
 

TIA

I do not believe Paxlovid is carried on board.  When I got Covid on the WC, it wasn’t offered as treatment, and no one I knew who was in Covid jail received it either.  I do know a few who brought it on board with them.  
All that was offered by the doctor onboard was OTC stuff for the symptoms.  Since I was well stocked with cold meds, I turned them down as another visit (for a cold) resulted in a $25 charge for cough drops…..for the bag I left on the counter at home and forgot to pack!  
 

I would get it filled before boarding.

This past spring, the WC docked in Greenwich and we went into London for a show.  We Ubered there and back, I think it was about 20£ each direction, took about 45 min.  This was to and from the theater district.  
The only cruise where it was beneficial to use Viking transport was in 2021 to get to Santiago.  It cost us $165 for private transport to our hotel there from Valparaiso.  At the time, stuff was still shut down due to Covid still and our options weren’t great.  (We also had a bunch of non refundable OBC to use).  In 2019, I booked a private tour guide who took us from our hotel in Santiago on a wine tasting tour, a really good tour of Valparaiso and dropped us off at our ship for $100.  

On 10/15/2023 at 11:21 PM, SargassoPirate said:

For your consideration, if you wear sneakers pack a tube of either Shoe Goo or Loctite Shoe Glue for your world cruise.

 

On a recent cruise I had a sneaker that started to separate the upper from the sole.  Left unattended it would have become a flapper.

 

In my standard travel tool kit was a brand new tube of Loctite Shoe Glue.  I repaired the separated area, and over the course of the trip had to do two more repairs.  

 

 

We were doing a back to back to back in 2021…..which was our warm up for the world cruise we had booked for 2022-23.  We were in Colonia Uruguay when the sole started flapping on DH’s well worn Merrill hiking shoes.  We were about 30 days into a 54 day cruise.  Our next stop was Punta del Este, so we went shoe shopping with DH wearing his Tevas sandals (his only other pair of shoes).  We also went hunting for shoe glue to glue them back together.  Got back to the cabin and went to repair the shoes, but they had disappeared.  Turned out our cabin attendant took them and got both shoes repaired.  You couldn’t even tell that they had fallen apart.

14 minutes ago, vnb2003 said:

We returned from our last cruise in January 2020 and didn’t fly since then. All our international business class with Viking was business on all legs - domestic and international.

This has been my experience…..3x since Covid.  I have pretty much stopped using Viking air to book because of it.  If I am going to have to do the legwork (and since we always deviate, I’m not looking for ground transport), the only benefit is cost, and usually have done much, much better than Viking for cost.  When I have to go online, find alternatives and contact Viking to rebook them….in the proper class…..then what’s the advantage?  

20 hours ago, vnb2003 said:

Sorry this is incorrect. We bought Viking Air Plus and are flying business in 3 weeks to 

Los Angeles and back USA portion. Had preferred flights, times and seats. The price was good as well.

  

So you are flying within the US, business class?  That’s not the problem being discussed.  If you book a business class in the US to another US city, this doesn’t seem to be a problem.  The issue about business class seats is when you are flying overseas and booking (and paying for) business class.  Viking tends to book ‘mixed class’ seats overseas where the overseas portion is business, but will book you in economy seats to fly from the west coast to the hub for the international flight.  Almost half my flight distance for an overseas flight is in economy, and that’s not what I paid for.  
My experience is much like @CCWineLoverso after dealing with this so frequently, we just don’t try anymore and book ourselves.

We were on an ATV tour in Isafjordur where the guide recognized DH’s interest in photography, so made our ATV tour visiting various different landscapes.  He was pretty good about making sure that DH was welcome to stop when he saw something that interested him to take pics as long as he wanted, without rushing him.  This was a private tour though, but the guide was one we had been introduced to previously through a Viking excursion.

Interesting.  We were out in Puget Sound on a dinner cruise a few years ago when a pod of humpback whales was seen.  The Dungeness crab dinner was quickly forgotten while we all went out on deck to watch the whales.  Locally, ships are not allowed to get within a certain distance of whales, and the whales were continually getting closer to the boat we were on, so we had to keep backing away to keep the legal distance, rather than getting closer.  20-40 yards was too close, so wonder if this is restriction is only for the local area or a worldwide standard?
We saw more whale activity on that dinner cruise than in the 3 whale watching trips I’ve taken visiting guests out on…..combined.  

The only reason why we started with Viking, even though I was hooked on the idea of cruising was (1) the Oceania cruise we were interested in was fully booked, the sales rep laughed at me and never got back to me with a quote on another cruise and (2) when I called Viking, the sales rep was willing to dig through inventory to let me know what cruises were available for the time we wanted (in about 3 months).  There was a room available on a trans Atlantic, so we booked it.  There was almost immediate payment required (I think I had 24 hours) but their sales staff were far more responsive.

It’s amazing how a single customer service rep being willing to go the extra mile for a newbie wound up getting about $250k of business sent their way over the last 5 years.  I have stuck with the same rep.

18 hours ago, DJVKN said:

Not sure if anyone is still monitoring this board but I have a question.

If you sent luggage using Luggage Forward did you include an air tag or tile in the suitcase or box for tracking? TIA!

Diana

We were told they weren’t allowed, so didn’t use them.  There was a long laundry list of what you could not include in their shipment, and we followed it to the letter.  
We did use Air Tags in the luggage that we brought with us on the flight.  

No children or casino sold us on Viking.  I think only Virgin has no kids, but the ships I have seen they are much larger, and that has little appeal.  I have looked at Regents, but haven’t pulled the trigger on one yet.  

1 hour ago, Kentucky Mockingbird said:

When heading to the Dubai airport. are item such as nail polish, sunscreen and tanning lotion (in your carry-on luggage)  forbidden?

 

These items (and others) were removed at DHL headquarters as they were in luggage shipped by Luggage Forward to Dubai for the 10/26 sailing.

Luggage Forward doesn’t allow these items to be shipped, it’s not Dubai.  We shipped luggage for our world cruise, both to the ship and home.  Medicines (including OTC), toiletries, vitamins, spices, electronics and a bunch of other things were not allowed to be shipped.  
Those items, under 100 ml are allowed in carry on luggage in Dubai.  They are allowed in checked luggage in larger quantities.  I have flown through Dubai several times with all of these.

6 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Only you know if you will be bored.

 

We did over 30 sea days in a row with Viking and even on the days with 25 hrs, it was tough finding enough hours to sleep.

This is the nice thing about Viking, you can be as busy as you want to be.  We adore sea days, but on the WC there were people griping that there were too many sea days and they were bored (I did wonder if they bothered to look at the itinerary).  
If you think you are going to be bored, then don’t do a TA, or any cruise with a lot of sea days, If  you don’t like sea days, find a cruise that’s in a different port each day.  There are a lot of them.  If you do like sea days, find a different cruise that has more of a balance.  

1 hour ago, Codecow said:

Silver spirit was so worth what I paid for it with many sea days.  Unlimited alcohol saved the trip for me!

We actually got an accounting of our alcohol use on the world cruise, since they kept track of it.  Viking made money off of us, as we did not drink 1/2 of what the package would have cost us had we paid fo4 it a la carte.  

18 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Brings to mind our absolute favorite "lecturer" - Russell Lee !

He has to be the absolute best at delivery and entertainment, often making what might seem like a dry subject, come completely to life!   He also puts quite a bit of effort into his preparation.

Kudos!

Agreed!  He even has a tie he wears to match his lectures!  

12 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

Please don't think of this as "free".  The cost of the air is baked into the cruise price, but marketed as "free air".

 

Always look at the total costs, not that one portion looks "cheap" or "free".

 

(Just like "free" award air tickets.  They aren't free, they are just using the accumulated rebate that your FF points have been storing)

 

 

Yeah, I know.  Same with the included Silver Spirit package, generous OBC and included gratuities.  

1 hour ago, CCWineLover said:

Hard to follow your words, but get the gist.

Sadly, this seems to be the case for SO many people (Viking Air experiences).

Happened to us, and that is why we DON'T use Viking Air anymore.  Not worth the hassle, stress, and giving up control!!    But I know that for some people it gives them comfort - but you sure do pay a lot in $$'s and headaches!.

Yep.  I have had to pay a lot of attention to flights Viking offers.  It’s enough of a hassle in that it needs to be a really good price break (like free business class for the WC) for me to consider it, and deal with the hassles of making changes.

We are booked on this cruise this coming Jan, going Bergen to London.  We have been in Bergen several times, London not so much.  While I’ve scheduled us to fly in a few days early, I scheduled much more time in London.  I’d rather get the more complicated flights over early.  our flight home was direct, but the airline now has us connecting in MSP.  Not so happy with that as that gives us a 4 pm arrival in SEA, which means we are going to have to deal with traffic.  Our original flight had us landing at noon.
 

Our cabin is on the starboard side.  

50 minutes ago, Kentishincanada said:

And you can dream that you might just snag a pistachio roll while at the living room bar in the morning, although they seem to be rare of late.

My kryptonite is the Living Room Bar’s almond croissants.  DH also felt like the plain croissants were better there than in WC.  

2 hours ago, rmalbers said:

Ya, now that I know it works I guess I'll probably just go with the global 'everything' next time, that's probably the way to go.  It really isn't that much more money than the regional one I bought.  This was the first time I used it and wasn't sure if I could get it to work or not.  

This is probably a smart move.  
 

We used Airalo on our world cruise this year.  DH chose the global plan (which unfortunately did not include voice or text).  I decided to buy plans by the country.  First purchase was New Zealand.  Worked beautifully, and I had an idea of how much data I’d be using.  Next stop, Australia.  We fought for half the time we were in Australia to get m6 plan going.  After that, I decided to go with the global plan.  Apparently, if you have more than one eSIM plan in function…..even if you are no longer in the country but still hav3 time on it….it jacks everything up.  Once I finally got the global plan working in Indonesia, everything worked great and it was very easy to top off.

7 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

You are under the mistaken belief that Viking Air is a Travel Agent and has full access to every airline seat. They are a bulk purchaser of flight on contract, for pax, officers and crew. They can only offer seats available on their contracts.

 

If using Viking Air, you are wasting your time checking the airline websites

 

 

Having experienced a similar situation, we may have waited until Viking booked flights, but during the entire time we were relaxing in one of the many quiet nooks & crannies, enjoying a meal, or chatting with other pax. We also had no cancellation fees or extra charges. Viking also took care of all the arrangements getting to the airport.

 

It may have been an easy process to change your flights, but I expect they came with some additional costs.

 

 

Negative, we have booked with Viking Air and received business flights in both North America and Europe. However, due to lower demand, I expect they have less contracted Business/First seats on short-haul than long-haul flights.

 

 

Viking booked us Seattle to NYC in coach, NYC to AMS in business class.  The direct flight would have cost us $1500 pp more, I compromised and got us business class seats across the US for *only* $500 more than our quoted business class fare (it turned out not to be a deal).  This was for a river cruise we took 7 months before getting onto the WC.  Interestingly enough, when I booked our flights for the WC, I didn’t have near the battle getting business class seats all the way.  These are the only times we have flown Viking air.  When I booked those fares, I was warned that the direct flights I wanted would come with a surcharge.  When I mentioned it was for the WC, there was some backpedaling.  

I have a set of Leki poles which I bought at REI.  I had another set, but they did not collapse short enough to fit into my carry on bag.  What I did was put them in my backpack, with the handles sticking out.  This worked ok for several trips, until they got confiscated by TSA (I knew it was a risk).  Luckily, they were not an expensive set, but I liked them.  

14 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

You have great answers from everyone here.

 

I would say, if not said before, however it is an additional fee (perhaps a nickel or dime) but buy Air Plus if you are going to do your flights through Viking.  You choose the airline, the routes, and the times of your flights.  While we have friends made on the ship leaving the ship at 3am and 4am for their flights home, we are going to enjoy a leisurely breakfast because the flights we booked don't leave until noon.  And although we have to be out of the cabin by 8, that does not mean we cannot go for a nice breakfast then.

 

The SS is one package, and we buy it not because we get pure value out of it or drink enough to fully compensate us for buying it, but because we don't want to be restricted to the "house wine" that Viking may be serving that day.  If you are not picky on your wine or beer, and will drink what Viking are serving, then buy your evening drinks as you go and you likely won't be as expensive as the SS package.

 

 

You do not have to buy the SS package to get something other than the house wine to drink at dinner.  If you don’t like it, you can buy a glass (very reasonably priced) of whatever you want.  We do this all the time.  Usually we will find a wine from the wine menu, and drink it at dinner instead of the free offerings.