SJD117

A price increase won’t deter a thirsty Viking cruiser. Down the hatch! Barkeep, I’ll have another one! 🤣

Good luck with that! (See Paragraph 12 of the T&Cs.)

My wife and I have been on six Viking cruises and will embark on our seventh next March (this same itinerary). Counting the upcoming cruise, every sailing with a single exception has involved at least one canceled port (sometimes more than one). We don’t hold any of these changes against Viking, nor should we — the Terms and Conditions for cruising make it clear that Viking can cancel a scheduled stop whenever it wants. Enjoy your trip.

That's very interesting! Did Viking give you any reason for the substitution? The change to your sailing is the first I've heard about since Viking made the same change to our March 2025 trip more than two months ago. Perhaps the substitutions are unrelated. We'll have to wait and see if Viking makes similar substitutions on other sailings for this itinerary.

@Australia08 We visited Petrohue Falls during our 2020 cruise. Viking then took us to a very nice restaurant nearby — perhaps the same one you enjoyed! But our excursion also went about halfway up Osorno, giving us the opportunity to hike the trails on the volcanic landscape. Did your tour go up the mountain? (The snowline looks fairly low in your pictures, so perhaps the bus couldn’t navigate the roadway.)

We stayed several nights in Puerto Varas in 2000. I can confirm that PV is a much more interesting town than Puerto Montt.

And my update: I received my new passport today, eight days after uploading an attractive photo and submitting the other required information. What a quick turnaround compared to the process I went through in 2015. Thank you, State Department!

Chefchaouen is a great town. We spent a night there in November 1984 — 40 years ago! — during our road trip from Tangier to Fez and Marrachech, when we avoided camels on the road and tried not to get asphyxiated by our rental car’s exhaust system. We’re on the March 9 sailing, too, so we’ll see you on the ship!

Glad I could direct you to the post you wanted. Enjoy your visit next March!

@knoxclone stated at #64 that, per the Viking daily, all Viking excursion buses in Algiers today would be accompanied by an armed convoy.

Lots of chatter on the site that can’t be named about Viking’s visit to Algiers today. Let’s just say the comments were mixed, with quite a few people writing about the heavy police presence throughout the city (and accompanying the Viking excursions).

We never buy the SSBP and we’re still happy.

Perhaps those of us on the March 9 sailing got lucky when Viking canceled Algiers and substituted Tangier.

Isn't every hour on a Viking ship a happy hour? Nobody has time to be sad! 😃

Indeed. Also to be safe, one should never get between a Viking cruiser and his or her bottle of choice.

Every sailing is different. Your sailing gets to go to Algiers — our sailing (embarking on March 9) does not.

You and I are on the same cruise — see you then! We’ll find out whether your experience holds true in winter 2025.

Viking did you a favor. Dutch is a nondescript port, rough around the edges. But Homer is a great little town.

This is good news. I’d planned to renew this week with the hope I’d receive my new passport by the end of the year. That may actually happen even allowing for the holidays!

Tangier works for us as a substitute for Algiers. We’ve been to T once before, in 1984, but only to pick up a rental car that we drove to Fez and Marrakech.

So-called “operational changes.” Viking wouldn’t elaborate.

Viking has already canceled one port (Algiers) on our March 9, 2025 sailing. Tangier is the substitute.

The New York Times wrote last week about winter cruising in the Mediterranean. The paper described Viking as a leader in this emerging market. That's because we the passengers are all "thinking people" who are "interested in culture" (according to Viking's Executive VP for Marketing). 🤣🤣🤣 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/11/travel/mediterranean-cruises-winter.html?unlocked_article_code=1.aU4.UXYj.YC0GkUe0_3cL&smid=url-share

Keep your hopes up! On our March 2020 cruise, we missed Puerto Madryn but made it to the Falklands. Hopefully you’ll be able to visit both places.

Every so often, like clockwork, a thread pops up that proves the old adage: “To each his or her own.” And here we are.