benjaminnicholas

This topic reminds me of how many **** there are when traveling. If you're sick, stay home or in your cabin.

Like a lot of things VV does, it's still half-baked. Perhaps their app and the loyalty program will be fixed this year. Dare to dream.

It's nice, but I wouldn't go that far

If there's fudging going on with the medical release, Viking needs to put in place better roadblocks to keep people who aren't fit for this kind of travel away. Do not be selfish and put a whole ship at risk of ruining their holiday just because you want to cross something off your bucket list.

*dad joke alert*

But Veuve is.... Basic.

FYI: Expedition ships are using Starlink, so it's much speedier than Ocean or River ships.

While there are number of competitors in the space, Viking changed the game with brand new, larger, modern ships doing the route. No other ship is as comfortable (imo). I've done several expedition ships, but they all felt very... Bare bones. True design was missing. You can't say that about Viking's expedition ships.

The sole reason I wouldn't cruise on Mera again is that their gym is entirely too small for the number of pax. They undersized it... And for what reason, I don't know. It's almost always a zoo, without enough room or any mirrors. If you're fit, this is a terrible ship to try to stick to your workouts on.

If the guest can play the way this gentleman plays, I'm fine with it. He did a spectacular renditions of Chopin, Mozart and Stravinsky.

THIS. Their Caribbean ports of call are dull, dull, dull. Their Euro ships have much more interesting itens, albeit not so much so that I'd choose them to sail the Med.

Certain repeat guests have carte blanche to play in the YC lounge. I've seen a very regular guest on the Mera give impromptu spectacular performances and the crew never said a word. My butler said the gentleman is well-liked by the crew and is allowed to play in the lounge when he likes.

You've never sailed them, so you wouldn't know.

Not on Virgin. Not on Viking. Not on many lines. Which is why I tend to sail on those lines.

Frankly, and I have enjoyed 6 cruises with VV, I don't see their current pricing as anywhere near what you get when you're on-board. There's no correlation. I can no longer drink the kool-aid when they price themselves like this. At these prices, you can get into much higher end ships with MUCH better service. While it's not an apples to apples comparison, I'm doing Viking Expedition in late April when I had originally thought about doing another VV cruise. While I'm paying more with Viking- but not much more, honestly- I'm getting a lot more that I wouldn't have gotten cruising on VV. We shall see how this all shakes down for VV.

I'm in HK on a monthly basis. It's fine. Go see the world.

If you had done your research, you'd have known not to book that early with Viking based on their terms of carriage. Viking is in this to profit, plan and simple. I can't blame them for getting as much as they can from early adopters and then offering deep discounts when rooms don't fill. Some have reported getting courtesy OBC from them, but I think that's only if you have a good amount of loyalty with them to begin with.

Good lord these brands are weak. Even MSC is stocking Hendricks and Goose in the Yacht Club rooms.

Unless it's a private yacht, a true butler does not really exist on a cruise ship (big or small). In all of the cruises I've taken that tout 'butlers,' they've all been... Window dressing. I prefer the understated luxury that Viking provides, especially on the Expedition ships.

I've done both and prefer the design, service, food and spa on Viking ships. O, even the newer ships, feel stodgy. Especially the tech. It's woefully behind the industry.

It's trivia that's not as bland and boring as other ship's trivia

More likely the MSC Meraviglia, as Red Hook is their home port for that ship.

Always read your rules of carriage

It's ALL shtick. Appealing to anyone on television, especially any specific group, is theater. It's producers/agents/talent/marketing sitting around and figuring out segments of the population who will tune in, buy merch and support the brand.

Ah, but as others have already said, the US is a country of immigrants. It's our strength. I can take you to many Indian spots in NYC, San Francisco and Chicago that would rival the best curries in India. Having traveled extensively through India, I can attest.