PasadenaDave

Kent, Outbound American to Haneda and return on United. Tokyo is sufficiently foreign to us that we are not going early. I know that I hear so much great information about Asia, but for us, I think that we will see enough cultural temples etc. that we will see enough without the need for extra time. Having said that friends were there in March and said it was the best trip ever. When we booked the cruise onboard last December there was no capacity for spring 2025 on this itinerary (reverse) and limited in 2025. I think I read that one of the new ships will sail in this area in the future, but we are stoked for this cruise.

Spot on with your answer which follows our experience. We tried to use Viking Air next May for LAX-LHR four days in London and then LHR-Lisbon and then return Barcelona-LAX. Viking had no opportunities to fly London to Lisbon and returning from Barcelona we were to be routed via Chicago. Much better flights on our own and less money.-LAX. Next month we fly LAX-Tokyo and then Hong Kong-LAX. We used Viking Air and had better pricing than on our own. As always Your Mileage may Vary.

Last Christmas I had taken a book about Shackleton's adventure on the Endurance with me on our Auckland to Sydney trip. I agree, an interesting subject (shipwreck) on a cruise ship. While looking at books in the Living Room I found another book with the same title Endurance which was a collection of adventure stories. Both books completed before arriving in Hobart.

I think that is how I got the bookmark....the chocolate wrapper was what I was using as a bookmark

I pulled out a book which I have not read for a few years and look what I found. Sadly this was a wrapper from a chocolate from a refrigerator in a Viking cabin. I guess I know where I was the last time I read this book.

Central Coast Wine Lover summed it up. What we truly notice with Viking is more often than other places or companies, there are fewer people demanding to be first and unwilling to wait. I am at the stage of life in which I have no issue paying for a great product and if I don’t get seated first, or see a show or get an excursion that I want, no big deal. The journey is enjoyable. I’m not reserving a table at the known restaurant in the port, it is more enjoyable to discover an unexpected find. If I don’t like it, there is tomorrow.

95% of booking capacity for 2024 is impressive

FlyerTalker, I don’t disagree and so much about flying issues are associated with your typical routes. I’m not a huge flyer, probably about 1,000,000 miles in 35 years. Few issues comparatively speaking. Only two snow issues, Boston December 26 and Newark October 31, yes heavy snow Halloween. Crowds and carry on luggage are my pet peeves

Flight challenges are one of the reasons why we generally don't fly during June, July, and August, unless they are one leg flights such as Burbank to Sacramento or Denver. But then again we are mostly retired and have flexibility when we travel.

John5166, if you use Air Plus, it is sometimes better and sometimes worse than booking on your own, always at the first opportunity go to the airline app and confirm seats etc. This doesn't guaranty anything, but you will get notifications of changes directly from the airline.

There is another factor that goes into the cost of flights, government subsidy. Five years ago we did a last minute booking Vancouver to Los Angeles on Princess, The flights to Vancouver on Air Canada were $39! I suspect that had something to do with the last minute to fill the ship and perhaps mass purchased tickets which would go empty. There might have been a subsidy to get tourists to Vancouver in September and that we were going to spend two nights in hotel. Today, given the depressed Yen, the Japanese government might subsidize flight to get Americans to come to Japan to spend money.

I believe that Dr Koob covered leaving Viking for a few nights in Venice in one of his exceptional posts.

This is common given holidays. The port is likely closed with no staff or services to dock a ship

I don't know where the first customer service person was located but the air person to whom i was transferred after more than 35 minutes was located in South Africa. I was attempting to book LAX-LHR, layover a few days, then LHR-Lisbon and then Barcelona-LAX. I don't like to fly say Coast to Coast and then over ocean as you don't get business class on domestic. The call lasted one hour and 3 minutes and they could not help with the London-Lisbon leg and the flights were not our preference otherwise. I took time to calm down and later booked our preferred routing on British Air for an amount $500 more than what Viking would charge if we flew to and from the Viking portion of the journey. The actual cost was $1200 more due to giving up the $700 discount for air from booking on ship. But remember that we would have needed to book the air London to Lisbon and pay for Air Plus. The time spent booking online which included comparison shopping on American for the same flights only $900 more than BA was 10 minutes. I spent another 10 minutes to cancel Viking Air which I could not do via email or chat. Has chat gone away? Again, we love the on ship service.

I have been on the phone with Viking for 25 minutes now trying to book LAX-London, London-Lisbon, and Barcelona-LAX. I have provided the legs and dates four times already. They came back saying that they don't have any flights London-Lisbon. I asked if they could provide pricing without the London-Lisbon and she put me back on hold. This is to see if Viking can beat independent travel pricing...I am doubting it. I understand why Andy aka Heidi has left Viking due to poor stateside customer service. I love the Viking product and have two and soon three trips booked, but unless you are going from major airport to major airport with no deviations, their flight department is challenged.

understood

We did a winery tour at one stop in New Zealand and two couples joined forces to buy a case to take back to the ship. They said that would be part of their alcohol consumption for the rest of the journey! Purchasing by the case lowered their shipboard purchases considerably. I will add that the Sprits package is very expensive since both cabin passengers need to purchase and that given the carry on alcohol policy the package isn't in my opinion worth the price. Having said that, Your mileage may vary.

The resurrection of this thread, Oh Mighty One help us now and deliver us from those who want to have the rules changed for them.

I guess I messed up as I used a 5 X 7 envelope via USPS

Seldom does one hear about exceptional service from a governmental agency, this is one. I realized that my passport expires in January 2025 and given a trip set for October, I figured that it would be best to do it now instead of waiting until November which would impact flight bookings for April. Yes, there is a beta test of remote passport renewal and I checked a few days but tired of having to figure it out. July 2 I mailed the application from California to the passport facility in Philadelphia with the postal service estimating arrival on Monday July 8. I paid $60 extra for expedited handling which is 2-3 week turnaround. In my mind I thought August 1 I would received my new passport. It arrived July 20! 18 days roundtrip, but what is impressive is that if I don't count the date received or shipped by the passport office as nothing would have occurred on either day due to office distribution, The handling time at the passport office for full processing was 7 business days. I hope that you have similar great service.

The time in Cairo is about right. If I recall our time was: Arrival Day Muhammed Ali Mosque and Older Museum Pyramids Day Morning spent traveling to Airport and flight to Luxor On return flight from Luxor to Cairo and a day at the Mummy Museum Flight out.

I agree, but how often do you read people complaining about sea days. I love sea days.

Egypt, August 2, NO THANKS. We were lucky in April 2023 with only one afternoon over 100 degrees. There is a reason Viking usually doesn't sail the Nile in the summer, TOO HOT

I am thinking about how crowded some markets are getting which is a possibility why Sea isn't making it to the Western Hemisphere: 1. Panama Canal getting crowded especially with drought. 2. Alaska is crowded, I think someone posted seven cruise ships at Ketchikan. 3. Viking isn't a resort island cruise line like others in the Carribean. 4. Few people want to do a transatlantic cruise. We enjoy sea days and liked the itinerary of San Juan to Los Angeles as we want to see San Juan but don't like nearby ports. I also want to do the Panama Canal which my wife did on Princess. We might look into Oceana from Ft Lauderdale. I like the Viking Florida to Santiago via the canal but that is a bit long for our tastes. Perhaps thinks will work themselves out in a few years