TeamBAlways

We just booked our trip, Antarctic Explorer 12/4/24 

I agree that it was quite a shock going from the pampering of the OS to our post extension. 

6 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

You’re bringing them along to show how you’re spending their inheritance? 😉

Exactly! 

I cant wait to here all about it.  We have our eye on a Polar Expedition in the OS. Our Adult children will be joining us on the adventure.

50 minutes ago, cruiser02 said:

We have booked the OS for next year.  Is the beverage package included?

If you select a wine from the wine cellar in the suite are your charged extra?  I'm a bit confused on this amenity.   Looks like fun.   

It is my husband's 80th 

We love Viking and the British cruise we chose. ALL tibs appreciated.

Congrats! You will be so spoiled after staying in this suite. We were never charged for any wine from the collection. In fact the sommelier at meals would

come over and recommend wines for us. We were never charged for the extra wine at meals either. Your steward will provide you with any alcohol/mixers your prefer in the suite as well. I believe that an unspoken perk is the drink package is included because we have stayed in the OS twice and we never charged for drinks. I could go on and on about unwritten perks so ask away

10 hours ago, notjaded said:

For anyone who has stayed in the owner's suite, I noticed it was located close to Mamsen's and Wintergarden: Can noise be heard from these locations when you are in the suite?

 

Thank you.

We have been lucky enough to sail in the Owners Suite twice. We never heard any noise from Mamsens or passers by. It was always very quiet. 

On 3/24/2023 at 2:13 PM, BlairsvilleCruiseGirl said:

If we have the ship do our laundry, can we request cold water wash/low temp dry?  Or should we just assume everything we put in the laundry bag is going to be washed in one load with warm water/high heat dry? 

We always asked for cold wash air dry and it worked perfectly for us 

On 1/25/2023 at 1:42 PM, Clay Clayton said:

For me it’s to make sure I don’t miss anything.  If it wasn’t for these boards there are many things I wouldn’t know about.  

Like those heavenly Pistachio buns in the Living Room!

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

Great story but please don’t tell us you found it on your finger😂

No lol it was in our state room though so I did feel quite silly. I tried to blame jet lag

I lost my wedding ring immediately after embarkation on our Homelands Cruise.  A crew member saw I was a little frantic looking around and asked me if I was ok.  As soon as I told him I felt like the entire staff dropped what they were doing and started looking.  That included looking in the parking lot, calling the taxi company and port authority.  They even said they would empty the vacuums if it wasn't located.  The bartender brought me a glass of wine and a cookie (you would think he knew me lol).  I ended up finding it within an hour.  The way everyone made sure I was ok and jumped on it was above and beyond! Of course they all jokingly asked me if I had my ring for the next couple of days.

We were in 7001 and can confirm it is very quiet and easy access to everything.

We will be there May 20 and are trying to do Vasa on our own.  We depart at 2:30pm.  I am confused on the easiest/fastest way to get there  either from the ship or leaving the included excursion early.

I would trade an extra day in Stockholm over Mariehamn!

We are doing the Bergen-Oslo extension on our May 20 Homelands.  I just checked our final docs and all its says is transfer to Thon Opera Hotel and the date, no time is listed.

Just now, PasadenaDave said:

No

That is good news

Are they still doing contact tracing?

1 hour ago, Jimmyfan said:

What does SE mean?  We are going in September.  Can anyone talk about people with mobility issues?  Dealing with intense back pain and currently need a walker.  Going through therapy so hoping I won’t need it!

SE is Shore Excursion. Best of luck with therapy!

2 hours ago, jrkear said:

Update for all those planners, OCD, etc (like me).  I was stressed out because I didn’t know the schedule to plan meals, SE, etc, but each day we have been able to adjust dinner reservations for the next day after the Viking Daily came out around 5PM (pro tip look for it on your TV or phone as it shows up there first) to Port talks, events on ship, etc.  I have been told the many people have been able to change or adjust SE, we have not tried but after having one canceled in Copenhagen in the middle of the day, so we may get to see if we have any luck.

Thank you very much for all of your info, it is greatly appreciated by this OCD planner

56 minutes ago, jrkear said:

We are and will be posting pictures on our instagram/Facebook stores …

What  is you instagram?

51 minutes ago, jrkear said:

We are off to the first Homelands sailing. Thank you everyone for your advice. We will try to give updates on how it is going.

 

Woo Hoo I am so excited for you.  We leave in 14 days so cannot wait to hear your reports!

LMAO my first thought is always "that is a horrible thing to do to a dog"

We are just thankful that we get to be in a gorgeous suite in an amazing part of the world.  We understand things are beyond their control which created the need to adjust the itinerary, which in turn created chaos with excursions.

I/We refuse to let this tarnish the experience.   If it is something we cannot imagine missing out on we will hire a private tour.  Although, I was looking forward to an Artic Detox on sea day and that we cannot hire out lol 

Life is good!

3 minutes ago, duquephart said:

 

This is not fair to those in the higher category staterooms who paid extra, in part, for the perk of earlier booking. Imagine a person in the owner's suite being "beat out" of a popular excursion because his window did not open until everyone elses.

*raising my hand

We are in the OS and missed out on some excursions because they were sold out before we even knew they were there.  Our TA is speaking with Viking on our behalf. Fingers crossed

On 3/15/2022 at 12:46 PM, WestW said:

We are on the May 20 Homelands Cruise leaving Stockholm.  We have not received any OBC or voucher (yet). 

Excursions for the ports we won’t be visiting have been cancelled and refunded to our account. 

Strangely, rather than just moving the dates, the excursions for the ports that we will be visiting on different days from the original schedule have been cancelled and refunded, too.  And we can’t rebook them as those days still show the old port excursions. Plus, even though our final port, Bergen, hasn’t changed dates, Viking cancelled those excursions and they now all show as sold out. 

Understandably, it’s a little bit like musical chairs at the moment…hopefully, Viking will honor our original requests once they reschedule excursions to the new dates. 

We are on the same cruise.  Most but not all of our excursions have been cancelled and not yet refunded.  Unfortunately,  they kept our spa reservation on the date that is now Berlin instead of a sea day.  When I tried to change it all time slots were sold out.  One of the perks of our cabin category was that we got early access to reservations, that is certainly not happening now.

I am disappointed by the new itinerary. We already have the Oslo extension booked so 2 more days in Oslo sounds like a waste of time to me.  Sadly I am not as excited as I should be to go. My DH says we will be on vacation in beautiful countries we have never seen so it will be great.

18 hours ago, jrkear said:

I just heard from Viking on 3 possible new routes for the Homelands cruise. Has anyone else received information?

Do tell..... you are keeping us all in suspense. We are booked on the Homelands May 20 sailing