Mountain Traveler

We have used "excess" OBC to purchase Maui Jim sunglasses in the boutique. A pair for me and additional pairs that we used as gifts for family.

I changed cabins on my Equinox sailing on July 30. I booked a balcony guarantee in early June directly with Celebrity. Within a few days a concierge cabin almost at the very end of the ship was assigned. I called and was able to move to another concierge cabin a few doors closer to mid-ship.

In my limited experience, the included tours are often a "panoramic bus tour"with a couple of stops or a walking tour. The experience varies greatly depending upon the quality of the guide. The extra cost excursions have always been good and in one case excellent. In my opinion, the extra cost ones are very reasonably priced. On other cruise lines, I always book independent excursions, but I found Viking's offerings to be price competitive. I suppose one reason is that since you are on an extra cost excursion you therefore are not taking up a seat on the included excursion.

Notices say the Elite breakfast ends at 10 am. For those who have been there, do they just stop admitting people at 10 or do they take away all the food? Thanks!

I did receive a MoveUp offer on my upcoming July 30th Equinox sailing. I booked a guarantee balcony on June 12. On June 15 I was assigned a Concierge level cabin and on June 27 received a MoveUp email, however, I did not place a bid. Good luck.

Update - I left a fairly detailed message for my Silversea travel consultant this morning regarding my concerns about the pre-cruise hotel charge. He called back this afternoon and said it took him some digging around and speaking with his manager, but they determined the charge was in error. He is removing the charge from my invoice. Thank you to all who replied. As mchell810 stated, it does appear that currently Silversea's Door-to-Door fare may or may not include a pre-cruise hotel night.

I am booked on a Silver Cloud Expedition in October departing from Ft. Lauderdale and final payment is here. My Silversea travel consultant has informed me that although I booked the "Door-to-Door" fare for the cruise, the pre-cruise hotel is an extra charge - at $310 per person and has been added to my invoice. Silversea Air department picked the flights to arrive the day before the cruise departs and the cruise confirmation document lists the "Silversea Simply Hotel" as being booked for the one night pre-cruise. Coming back to me at this point to charge extra for the pre-cruise hotel does not seem right, but before I argued with them, I thought I'd check here to see if this is something others have experienced. Thanks.

We just booked the Silver Wind Arctic cruise for July 2024 and the hotels are already listed in our confirmation. We are in Oslo post-cruise and the hotel listed is the RADISSON BLU HOTEL AIRPORT.

My group of 8 had a wonderful 3 days in Israel with Nedal Abdo a few years ago. He is a licensed private guide who arranged everything. Appropriate vehicle, separate driver, admission to the sites, etc. We were in Haifa one day and the moved to Ashdod for another two days. He met us at the port each morning for a full day of adventure. He can customize your trip to cover whatever you want, but he also knows Israel extremely well, so can provide guidance. He can be reached at nedala@netvision.net.il. A small group is definitely the way to go.

I am booked on a November Viking Oceans cruise from Barcelona and have signed up for the Madrid Extension. I understand they use the InterContinental Madrid, an IHG hotel. Has anyone earned IHG points for their stay as part of a Viking extension? Thanks!

We usually travel with another couple, so we always book a car service. I can give a strong endorsement of Adam Sparkes of licensedblacktaxi.com. I have used him for four transports - London Heathrow to London City Center (twice) and also from the City Center to either Southampton or Tilbury. Due to the timing of the flights/ship departure or arrival times and hotel check-in times, we always included a stop along the way - Windsor Castle is a great stop going from Heathrow to London; Stonehenge is a good stop between London and Southampton. Our most recent cruise departed from Tilbury (pre-COVID Feb/Mar 2020) and Adam picked us up in London at 10:00 am, drove to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich (home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the Prime Meridian), waited for us to visit the observatory and then took us to Tilbury for our 1:00 boarding. I'm sure a reverse route would work well. The cost at that time was £165 for the 4 of us. We have also used Adam for

Many of the independent "northern lights tours" include a thermal suit you can use over the top of your coat. They are very worthwhile. Also, don't overlook your feet. You will be standing outside doing nothing but looking up for periods of time. Often you are on snow or ice. Your feet can get very cold. We took ankle high heavily insulated boots.

Thanks. I was hoping there was a way to do it on MVJ.

We did not tender in Tromso nor Alta. In Tromso, we docked right in town. In Alta, we were a bit further out, but a Viking shuttle ran to the city center where you can walk around. Both nights we overnighted in port and there was no issue getting back on the ship very late at night.

We are all in the same category cabin, so I suppose I'll be calling Viking next week. Thanks!