Squawkman

While the flights we were assigned were OK, last night I decided to take a look at our air choices on MVJ. I found better flights on a different airline (United) where we have frequent flyer accounts for $154pp. During the process, we discovered the few economy seats offered would not work for us. This morning, I thought about it again and realized these flights were significantly better - and we should just take whatever seats we could and then change them on United’s website. The only seat upgrades offered by Viking in MVJ were to business class at $3,500pp - not worth it to us. Now here comes the interesting part: The cost this morning was now $14 each! So I started the process but was stopped after filling out the payment screen as the flight was now “sold out”. So I thought a bit, and figured it wouldn’t hurt to check for other alternative fights. So I start the process over again and - lo and behold - these same flights are available again - at a cost of $74 each! So I paid Viking, got the flights, and then went on to United’s site where I was able to upgrade to decent “preferred economy” seats for $51pp per flight. The only standard economy seats offered by United were the same exact undesirable seats offered by Viking. Has anyone else experienced anything like these Viking price changes?

The only thing we lost was the $200 pp OBC we earned by booking within 2 weeks of disembarkation. Ironically, we gained it back as we got $400 pp past guest discount on the revised booking.

We booked March 24 2025 which is Buenos Aires/BCN and $500 more per person than your date. We also used $200 Viking River certificates we bought a year ago.

We booked this past Friday and got $400 past guest discount each. My Viking agent is on vacation this week or I would ask him for you. We revised an existing booking to do this - and our original booking was $200pp past guest discount. Maybe this offer expired mid-April? Maybe ask your agent again?

That will be added in the final stage of booking. I booked mine with my Viking agent - I assume any travel agent - or booking with “price and build” will do the same.

I just wanted to share this as it wasn’t obvious when I first read this promo announcement. The current promo code for Med cruises - AAM24 - is also good for two sailings of the Southern Atlantic Crossing (which does have 2 port stops on the Med). This 22 day cruise sails from Buenos Aires to Barcelona and includes 8 excursions in 6 countries and 3 continents. The promo provides free air and free cabin upgrades - pay for a V2 and get a DV2. Both sailings have several DV2s available. The package for the 10/18/24 sailing is $4,999 PP before the past guest discount which is currently $400 PP - or a total cost of $9,198 per couple for a DV2 with free air. The 3/24/25 sailing is from Buenos Aires to Barcelona and costs $500 more per person. This promo expires 4/30/24.

Just tie it in yourself over your collar, then slip it off and slip it on the young man, put it under the collar and then tighten.

Yes - you can do that at embarkation too.

Based on my current booked cruises, Ocean is $17 and River is $20 per person per night.

Agree - and I will add that we love the bread basket served at Manfredi’s.

The one time we had an upgrade offer (November, 2018), we were given a choice over the phone to pick our upgraded cabin.

It must be a new cruise and applied when booked. What we’ve done on river cruises is buy the certificates, then book our next cruise (any type) with our Viking agent within 2 weeks of disembarkation. This gives us a “welcome back” perk of $400 free shipboard credit. We also apply the certificates to get a net of $200 off fare on top of any promos. As we usually have at least one other cruise booked, we also get PIF 6 months before embarkation.

According to my Viking agent, yes. We will be taking our first cruise with the restrictive OBC later this year. I was told it could be used on anything once on board -including excursions.

There are two flavors of OBC - one can be used prior to embarkation for excursions, SSBP and gratuities, The other can only be use once on board. The first OBC is found on page 3 of your booking statement while the more restrictive OBC is found on page 5 under Gift Orders. We always use the same Viking agent so we have never had any OBC from a TA, but have had both flavors of OBC.

It would be interesting to know if Viking make more money from selling SSBP or from charging for individual drinks. At the Meet & Mingle on a Med cruise 4 years ago, my wife chatted with the Chief Financial Officer who indicated the SSBP is a money maker. He told her our cruise had 38% SSBP which was low.