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Thanks 1982CruzStart, that is what I have bee finding out but mayby someone out there had come up with a way to do it .... Thanks all for your feedback

Sorry I'm sure this was asked prior but what paramiters can I enter on ITAMatrix to get business class refundable fares.

We recently returned from a 15 day New York to Iceland cruise. In the past we used Luggage forward to ship a large suitcase of clothes so we could get a majority of the cruise done with minimal washing. This time we looked at the cost of the laundry done by Viking and went carry on only ... for 15 days ... in a nutshell, our Viking laundry bill was about $250 at the end of the cruise even including the 50% surcharge for next day turnaround. Luggage forward would have been 3x that amount ... we are big fans of Viking laundry service. They do an outstanding job, save money in shipping additional clothes and give us the ease of travel with only carry on luggage ...

While we were there in Aug. the bugs (guides said they were midges and didn't bite) were not bad but quite annoying. The people that brought the head nets were very happy .... over all a few people said they had been bitten but as for myself, a mosquito magnet I didn't get a single bite with no head net.

We made it into both ports in Greenland on our Aug. 7 cruise on the Neptune. As Chirk mentioned above Quaqortoq was a great town to walk around and enjoy the scenery, views and local people. We took the Fur House excurstion and very much enjoyed it. One thing to note is there is only one bathroom that we were told about in the visitors center and there was quite a line .... later we heard there was one available but not "advertised" in the beautiful old church. On our cruise Nanortalik was changed to a visit to Paamiut which frankly was a disappointment ..... the only tour available was the free Viking excursion. The guide was a local and it was his first tour .. ever ... he tried, he really tried but he and several other guides didn't speak enough english to provide any kind of reasonable tour and people simply walked away and toured the town on their own. The town itself was closed up on a Sunday so what very little that was to be available was closed. Iceland was really great on the other hand ... worth another trip in our opinion.

Cardboard box with consumables ... good idea Jim, We will likely still use LF in the future ... we feel the damage was done while UPS had the luggage. However on our last trip .... Canada, Greenland and Iceland, 15 days ... we decided to go with just 2 carry ons and a soft side briefcase .... very tight but it worked fine for us since we paid for the service laundry on board the Viking Neptune ... laundry total was approx $250 for 15 days vs many hundreds more for the LF service. I will depend on the quality of the laundry on the ships in the future .... Vikings paid laundry service is fantastic.

The service is great, we used it 3 times with differing results. There was confusion with the first on the ship and where the passengers should pick up their luggage ... the ship was wrong and the baggage was still on the ship when we disembarked, not in the terminal for pick up by Luggage Forward ..... the Luggage Forward representative at the terminal said we could go on to our flight home and he would take care of it ... he did ... he called the ship, go ahold of the purser who at first said the LF rep was mistaken but finally went and found the luggage and it was taken by LF and shipped back to us. Second time it was flawless Third, the bag arrived to the ship right on time, LF rep picked up the luggage from us at the terminal at the end of the cruise .... BUT ..... when UPS delivered the bag to our home it had been treated badly and had split open at the zipper all the way around (no it was not cheap luggage) ..... luckily I always put one strap around the long and one strap on the wide part of the bags and the straps held the luggage closed so that we didn't lose anything (that we know of) .... the UPS guy just set the bag on the ground and never said a word as he walked away ....... we may still use them but will always double strap the bags shipped.

I obviously can't speak for Viking but like any business they lay out guidelines for their cruises (casinos, level of entertainment, decor, dress code etc.etc.) so a prospective customer can get a general feel for what to expect if they choose to purchase one of their offerings. The cruise industry includes a vast range of what is offered for prospective customers and it's up to the "guest" to choose what shipboard experience they prefer. My wife and I no longer want formal nights/evening cocktail dress/jackets with tie etc so the guidelines helped us choose Viking since we don't mind dressing a bit nicer than our jeans in the evenings ... full disclosure though, we do eat in the World Cafe about half the time and keep our jeans on for the evening. We honestly have not found that Vikings guidelines in particular attracted snobby or "slightly pretentious" passengers. Every cruise has a different crowd of course but we have enjoyed most of all fellow passengers and love the ambiance of the ships overall.

Great, thanks so much for the information ....

Thank you very much .... We love the California and want to try the Lotus. Thanks again and enjoy your cruise .....

My apologies this is off topic, beach bunnie ... we will be on Venus in little over a month ... any chance you could tell us what days the Chef's Table menu rotation is scheduled. I know it might change ... but might not. again my apologies for off topic.

We contacted the Restaurant Manager and received the menus the day before as Heidi13 mentioned. We also mentioned the allergies to the servers to make sure they double checked with the kitchen .... they were always very nice and talked to the chef. In addition one day my wife had a "reaction" (not due to a staff error) and the Restaurant Manager arranged to have a special broth made with ingredients to her needs and helped her get back to normal ...... FANTASTIC Viking attention to their guests!

When we boarded our Alaska Inside Passage cruise May 13 - 23 I asked at guest services about any special tours and told that no special tours were available but they "thought they might on future cruises"

We are on the Orions next north bound and am curious about any highlight shore excursions or event on board. Sorry about your Manfredi's experiences we have been looking forward to the much touted rib eye steak .... Great to hear the weather has been warm .... This will be our first Viking cruise so any other comments or suggestions would be appreciated.