PasadenaDave

I promote Britomart Hotel. We had a great Mediterranean lunch off an alley a few blocks inland from the hotel and there was a great coffee shop one block off the coast road a block south of the hotel. We were there December 19 last year. The light switches in the room were a challenge. in Quebec the new large ship terminal is off by the industrial wharf’s. I grew up in Maine and skied at St Anne two or three times including breaking my leg there in 1978...that was a long five hour drive home. The cruise was my only summer visit. Mum grew up in Montreal so I know the province and most of my Canadian family live in Ottawa or Gatineau.

Like you, we stayed at BritoMart Hotel, which we found via airline points which we also used for Marriott in Sydney at the end of the cruise. We like pre-cruise extensions for certain destinations such as Istanbul, but others not so much. Examples of silliness: Departed ship in Sydney and took taxi to Sydney Marriott and checked in. We left the hotel one hour later and the long line of Viking people waiting in line to check in. Spent pre-cruise at Chateau Frontenac in Quebec on a HAL cruise. We saw the pre-cruise desk and inquired about transport to the ship. $40ppCAN and need to be in lobby at 0900, when I said that 10:45 cab will get us to the ship prior to opportunity to board we were told that there won't be many taxis available. No wait for taxi and it was ten bucks! Post cruise extension in Venice was worth the money spent for fabulous hotel and free water taxi to airport and no hassle with transfers with luggage in Venice. Having said this, I do understand that many have challenges with understanding new places and if pre-excursions allow them to see these places despite it being very expensive that is good

Eventually people will get burned out from cruising? I would agree with that statement if my only experience was on mega ships in the Caribbean. There are many one and done, or two and done cruisers. Dealing with thousands of people and party atmosphere on private islands is boring to me. Other than a trip through the Panama Canal or perhaps a transatlantic journey, I have no interest in Miami or Port Everglades, but that is me. We are at the point of a cruise every 6-9 months which we find to be about right. We likely have 6-8 itineraries that today pique our interest so that equates to 5-7 years of cruising and that doesn't count a short local cruise or two. If Ukraine calmed down and cruises to the Baltic, Black Sea and river cruises in Russia returned I could add 4-5 trips to that list. There are not many ocean cruises available to our liking as we are spoiled with 900 passenger ships, but we could see ourselves going the Oceana slightly larger ships. We can deal with short Pacific Coast large ships since we can take an Uber to the ship.

I think what Mike07 is stating is that service and quality across all of life is not the same as it was prior to January 2020. It isn't an excuse, just fact. For instance in Southern California, wages have risen for low level service personnel to such an extent that fewer people are hired to serve and thus service levels have declined. I see evidence of that at Target, Coffee Shops and Eating Establishments and don't forget searching for assistance at Macy's! Some places we like to eat don't open until 5:00 so forget about a nice lunch. This is no excuse for the cruise industry in which prices have risen, but I assume that the same number of service people are still required.

You have been away from the US long enough for US Currency to be thought of as monopoly money

Thank you, that will help with our planning and we recognize that they might use a different hotel

Anyone get off the ship in Hong Kong and have late flight? reason I ask is that we do the Tokyo to Hong Kong trip in October 2024 and we fly out in the early evening. I wonder if there is an excursion with a drop off at the airport mid-afternoon. We might just go to airport in the morning, check bags and sightsee from there.

I like the revenue increase from 2019-2023. You can’t look at 20-22 due to pandemic and all of the 125% cruise credit vouchers which built a lot of goodwill. The payback time for both river and ocean vessels is decent. My concern is the number of new ships to be delivered given available ports and shoreside customer service. I could see them having one ship on the west coast sailing depending on season between Santiago and Vancouver. There is also likely demand/capacity between Barcelona and Baltic for two ships plus another Southwest Europe/ Canaries/ North Africa. Plus a ship year round AUS/NZ/ Asia. Perhaps my concern of the fleet size is unfounded. No, I won’t be a buyer, unless there are worthwhile perks, then maybe a small position

I came really close to buying some Exxon in January 2021, but my broker who is not a proponent of fossil fuels advised against. I actually would have bought close to its bottom at that period. I won’t buy any shares in Viking, but I like the revenue increase 2019-2023, you can’t look at 20-22 due to pandemic and all of the 125% future credits issued.

Consider flights from Orange County about the same distance. I note that you are in Kentucky, thus Orange County or Long Beach flights would be connections, but then again depending upon location in Kentucky, LAX might not be nonstop either

I note that you are in New Hampshire. A flight from Logan to a major European airport is doable for most in economy. A flight from the west coast to Europe or Asia is a different story. Like other things in life. Mileage may vary

Don't underestimate the issue of non-stop versus multiple stops. If your local airport is not a major international hub, you might find yourself flying a short flight from home airport to Hub and then change again in Europe. Each segment brings risk. Depending on where your home airport is, consider driving or flying a budget airline to a hub for a direct nonstop flight. I recall a business trip to London in the early 90's when we changed return flight routing from Heathrow to LAX to Heathrow-Dallas-LAX. It was a Friday afternoon and after flying forever and then changing planes to drop down to an MD-80 to LAX was misery....and I was still young!

I have also had hit or miss activity with the "Los Angeles" office. Most recently in arranging flights LAX-Tokyo and Hong Kong-LAX. The Los Angeles agent from her home in Phoenix with a dog barking was very helpful and efficient, as well as patient with me as I worked through having to log out of My Viking and reload to see the booked flights. Confirmation of the booking showed up in email while on the call prior to it being populated in My Viking Journey. Pre-Pandemic, I spoke with a local person from the office. I do some consulting and some small organizations have the remote work issue dialed in. The large customer or lack thereof service firms are sorely lacking.....but not always

Paul McCartney had an issue with “medication” Japan.

Also you can bring on a bottle or two or three or.....

We booked our stay with airline miles so did not pay attention to the price. Also the hotel on miles was cheaper than Hilton or M Social. There could have been a myriad of reasons for that. We find that we use air miles for hotels rather than flights as flights seldom work for us as always your miles may vary

Look at BritoMart, much smaller than the hotels you list but that means no waiting at desk and excellent service all of these places are within a five minute walk.

We docked in Napier in December a beautiful day, but we don’t think we will go to another winery as they are all basically the same except for tasting. Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing the geography, but Napier is a cool town and we would have preferred to explore it rather than wineries

We did the included inclined tram ride and tour of the city and botanical gardens in Wellington. Don't do it. The inclined tram is fun to ride and easily done on your own, but you have likely visited and will do so again much nice botanical gardens

Thule, Greenland. My father was an early visitor in that he did the site development for the airbase prior to the famous fleet arrival. Sadly the base doesn’t accept visitors, but I have photos that my father took of the Inuit living in their traditional ways. He was part of a very small group of construction workers allowed to have contact with the Inuit, due into the fact that the construction contingent was a small group at that time.

We find that when we return to LAX from an overseas flight, that there is often a line for Uber but none for taxis. Given surge pricing and airport fees, we always opt for a taxi. The price may or may not be higher for a cab, but after a 12 plus hour flight, the small extra cost, if there is one is worth it.

We stayed at Hotel Britomart two blocks from Shed 10 in December. Great place and great location. We didn’t see any other cruisers. Quiet new hotel

If many people dropped off the WC in Mumbai and the segment from there to Cape Town was offered, that might entice many people. There aren’t many opportunities to cruise that part of the world.

December 18 taxi from Auckland Airport to hotel two blocks from cruise terminal was $65 New Zealand. No waiting and no hassle

Lesson on following directions, “don’t hang clothes to dry on the balcony”