cmaasfamily

We recently did this and did not lose the onboard booking discount, but our prior guest discount was cut in half because of the time between our last sailing and the date of the revised booking. I believe that was "standard practice", but we had lots of other topics to debate with Viking (not relevant to discounts) that may have influenced the final outcome.

Yep, ours dropped back down by $4K per person. I've seen glitches like this with airlines (but not recently) where prices were haywire for a few hours - typically earlier on Sunday mornings. I hope no one panicked and booked the crazy prices expecting them to go higher!

Checked in today on the April 2025 cruise we have planned and others we are considering, and man, there were some big jumps! Our British Isles cruise is up 40% since we booked it. There have been minor intermediate increases, but most of that was in the last day or so. Sales must be good if they can get away with those numbers? Is anybody else seeing the same?

OK, I guess Dad jokes aren't a thing on here. Nuuk - Nuuk Who's there? Guess I'll just amuse myself from now on. 🤪

Considering this one, but we're not sure who's there. Good night, everyone! I'll be here all week.

As noted, the possibilities are endless. However, LAX to AMS is likely to be your best bet. SkyTeam Alliance, mainly DL, KLM, and AF, but Virgin Atlantic too. VA is frequently code-shared with DL.

We went on our first Viking cruise at 56/55 and were definitely below the median. Our most recent was at 63/62 and we felt about average. That said, and with no self-flattery intended (nor deserved), I would add that most folks skewed towards the lively/active (spry, perhaps?) side relative to their age cohort in the general population. (Even accounting for the old dudes who refuse to get hearing aids when they are clearly needed. Seriously, if you need 'em, get 'em. No shame in that.)

Not to pile on, but add to what others have said... economy seats with the middle seat blocked is THE standard for all EU/UK continental business configurations. Nothing special to BA. Sometimes the food and beverage service gets an uptick over regular economy but not always. (KLM/AF tend to do so more than others in my experience.) EU "business class" is almost always filled exclusively with passengers connecting to international flights. That's why it exists, so they don't have to explain to everyone buying a business ticket to Europe that they will sit in economy when they connect.

Our observation: Viking sets a price but shows it with a variety of discounts, sales, promotions, etc., which net out to the same thing (or within pocket change of each other). They are all "compelling events" manufactured to create a sense of urgency. Book when ready; you'll be fine.

I'm a daily gym user and there are occasional small classes (2-4 participants) early in the morning of the yoga/stretching variety. I've never joined in personally. I've seen more personal trainer-led, one-on-one sessions. My impression is that the trainers are quite competent. As others have said, it's not a big part of the Viking experience.

We intended to go but never made it. I will second that the astronomers on board were very interesting. We more or less casually dropped in on the first lecuture but eagerly attended the remaining. (Still don't fully grasp dark matter - but that's likely on me. 🙂 ) I will say I thought the planitarium itself - regardless of the content within - seemed an intrusive and unappealling use of space compared to the Upper Deck of the Explorer's Lounge on other ships. I'd vote for reverting to that design on the next dry dock.

I've wanted to post something like this for a while. The repetition at Chef's Table is even more of an "issue" than it is at Manfredi's. We do like the menu but it's intended to be somewhat of a travelouge of unique cuisines. Not feeling so you unique when you get the same menus every time you sail. Same with ABBA and the Beatles - we haven't been back since the first time and no plans to return. Seems like most people we met were on their second, third, or fourth Ocean sailing , so my hunch is that repeaters are a significant share of Viking's audience. Newbies won't know the difference and old-timers would appreciate a little variety. (My eyes are beginning to stray - Viking!)

Individual cruises change ports due a variety of reasons. Our June Viking Homelands dropped Mariehamn a month or so in advance. I heard it was due to availabity of excursion vendors, but I don't really know. I know other recent cruises have had port changes. For what its worth, Alborg was our least favorite - not awful, just nothing special.

On our recent Viking Homelands it was two devices per person connected at the same time. If you add a third it will ask which of the other two you would like to disconnect. Not too onerous, IMHO. Also, I can't address Amazon Fire specifically, but in additional to speed issues, you would have out-of-market license issues with Hulu, Netflix, and others; you would not be allowed to stream content.

Note that there are two Radisson Blu's in Stockholm in close proximity. We stayed two nights at the Radisson Blu Waterfront before our recent Homelands. We booked ourselves but it is also the hotel Viking used for pre-cruise extensions - a Viking desk was set up in the lobby and there were quite few folks on that extension. Both Blu's are well located for walking over to Old Town, Waterfront has a slight advantage. Hotel was comfortable. Walking to the ship would have been too far to walk for us (we are not noted as light packers) and certainly not in the temperatures we hearing about now. But it was a quick, easy cab ride.

Check your plan with your carrier. With our AT&T plan (as much as it pains me to say nice things about AT&T 😀), we discovered that while 'in country' our unlimited data and messaging plan was included - no roaming charges at all, just like being home. I heard folks with other providers say the same thing. The only thing we had charges for were when we were at sea (e.g. ship to shore) and sent messages while inadvertantly *not* on Viking wifi. Text messages were $0.50, picture/ video messages were $1.30, and data was somewhere around $2/per mb. Again, no charge at all (per use or daily) for unlimited data while in France, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Denmark and Norway. And we used our phones A LOT.

The "cloud" portion I referred to is between the payment terminal and the financial institutions; your device is out of the picture for the rest of the equation. Eventually, when you next connect, there is some sync'ing that occurs, but that is limited to the reporting of transactions you see, not the transactions themselves. BTW: I was very suprised to find that our AT&T plan also had free unlimited data in the countries we visited - didn't know that until we were back. I was bracing for a giant bill as we had turned roaming on for map purposes several times. We did pay for sending texts and pictures while at sea (and not on ship wifi) but it amounted to less than $15 for the whole trip.

Can't answer for Verizon specifically, and "overseas" is a bit broad, but by design Apple Pay does not require a connection of any kind to be active at the time of payment - just as the chip in your card does not require a connection. You validate yourself to the device (face, touch, etc.) and your device provides a secure token to the payment terminal via NFC (Near Field Communication) - same as your card does - and it all happens in the cloud. We paid exclusively with Apple Pay on our recent Viking Homelands and it worked flawlessly everywhere we went.

I can't address whether TA is a factor; we have not used. Here's a screenshot from "my" MVJ. See the sentence at the bottom... "To purchase transfers..." No idea why you wouldn't be seeing it. Could be TA. Could be Canada. I'm sure you could call or chat with Viking and they'd help.

I know first hand how disappointing a cancellation can be so I empathize. On the other hand, any July day I don't have spend in Louisiana is like a vacation. I love gumbo, I just don't like stepping out into air as hot, thick, and wet as a cauldren of the stuff.

MVJ - Air - Transfer Request Form. $49/per person each way. Its been around since at least 2016 because we used it then. (and will be again in a couple of weeks)

Similar to others, we've had very light conversations with non-US passengers - more answering specific questions they were curious about than anything approaching a political debate. While not overtly political we did have one experience encountering a nearby large table at dinner with what appeared to be a patriarch of some sort that made a grand theatrical production (one might say of biblical proportions) praying before each meal. Certainly their right to do so, but I'm not sure the practice really required thunderous lecture-disguised-as-prayer to the dozen or so tables in the vicinity.

Working for me. For what that's worth.

Typically the new promo is the same as the old promo. Known in the sales game as creating a "compelling event". (e.g., "order before midnight tonight", "first 50 callers", "these prices won't last", etc.) If anything, I'd expect airfares to rise a bit.

True, very good news on very low death rates. I cling to a slightly higher bar than "not dead" 🙂, but still, very welcome. We are collectively not good at statistics - keeping them, communicating them, understanding them. Covid hospitalizations and deaths have always had a high co-morbidity factor. So in addition to the questions you raise, you'd really want to also understand if the non-Covid thing that got someone admitted would have warranted admission had Covid not also been present. And, I'm sure, a vast number of other complications and correlations that are beynd the reach of my 30 year old B+ in stats brain. Anyway, we're here to cruise, so I think I'll revert to discussions of drink and food. and drink.