SailorPaulH

Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere, but when reviewing various itineraries for this year 2022, I have seen them as 'SOLD OUT'. Yet I have seen posts here that are seeing capacities of 70-75%. Is this an indication that 25-30% of customers are cancelling their bookings? Is VOC reducing capacity (from 930 passengers) at the outset, or is it some combination? Is this being seen on other cruise lines in similar category to VOC? 

1 hour ago, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

That's what I was guessing....will make note to self......bring food! 

There are lots of food options in the Oslo S train station (for Oslo->Bergen).

There is a Narvesen in the Bergen train station (for Bergen->Oslo).

I think an extra day in Stockholm beats a day in Mariehamm. I wonder what the reason was? Port overbooked with other ships perhaps (Mariehamm is a stop also for the Stockholm-Helsinki ferry lines)? Maybe they could not get excursions put together.

I always travel with a first aid kit and a supply of Ziplock bags.

Thank you all for the input. For those that went on the Viking extension booked train ride, how did you find out what train departure schedule you were on? Was it in your documentation beforehand? Some other way? I'm trying to co-ordinate an activity at the destination, so actually knowing would be a big help. Thank you.

I asked this question in another forum, but it was suggested that this forum might be the best place for it, so ....

Question: Does anybody know what time train Viking uses for their Oslo/Bergen extension (Direction: Oslo --> Bergen). I am hoping (assuming) it is the one that is early around 8 AM ish!?

Thanks.

1 hour ago, cmaasfamily said:

Surely it's a temporary glitch - hopefully cleared up soon. On the first of my twice daily login to MVJ this morning to so see if excursions are posted for Mariehamn, I found that they were! Two of them. In Stockholm. Vasa and Old Town. Theoretically possible with loooong bus rides or sailing back, but who would do that?

 

Time will tell, I guess.

Or if it involves kayaks - it will be classified as demanding, and waterproof clothing recommended.

14 minutes ago, duquephart said:

All those people clamboring for excursion listings several weeks late.

Unfortunately no - still no shore excursions available: 4 weeks late already for my itinerary/cabin category.

14 minutes ago, janetcbl said:

There are two ADA cabins in the PS3 category that have a slightly different set up to accommodate a wheelchair.

Hmmm. can you decline those cabins? We don't need those amenities and I wouldn't want to be taking it from someone who might!?

1 hour 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.

Enjoy! Safe travels to you!

7 minutes ago, dd57 said:

One obvious pro is getting on a sailing that you really, really want that is nearly sold out.  One obvious con is ending up with a cabin that you don't want.  We too did not get our cabin assignment until we boarded.  When we decided to go with a  GTY (the ship was almost sold out), we made sure to pick a category where we were OK with all of the locations, passing up a slightly cheaper GTY in the same cabin type.  We ended up with a cabin in the same category that we booked and were completely happy.

This is probably what happened to us. When the 2021 sailing was canceled and we contacted Viking, we were able to get onto the equivalent sailing for 2022, but at that time it was nearly sold out. Not sure what the current situation is as I am hearing of cancellations by customers are happening. This is our first VOC so we hope PS3 works for us - I have not read anything negative about them. 37 months wait done! --- two months to go!

For an upcoming VOC we have a PS3 'GTY' cabin. I understand that means we will have a PS3 cabin, but when do we know which cabin we will be assigned? Are there are any pros and cons to having a 'GTY' cabin? (This came about when our 2021 cruise was canceled and rescheduled to 2022). Thanks for insights.

15 minutes ago, Twitchly said:

What a refreshingly sane document. Yet another reason to look forward to visiting Bergen in the fall.

And which cruise line sails under the flag of Norway?

19 minutes ago, uktog said:

I would like to see a clear link to evidence that governments in countries in Europe are requiring daily testing given that no other cruise line is doing it

Norway and Iceland have moved on ...

https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/the-infection-control-measures-are-being-removed-on-saturday-12-february/id2900873/

https://www.covid.is/english

as have most other countries in Europe.

2 minutes ago, KBs mum said:

A thought occurs, given covid is often asymptomatic, are the tests picking up unknown prior 'recovered' infections?

I believe this is a possibility. I am taking a home test every week during the 90 day window in case I need to get an official positive test and recovery proof. This after a neighbor of mine, who is required to test weekly, tested positive and never had or developed symptoms.

If you get the blue screen, try hitting refresh.

20 hours ago, MW4AU said:

We just returned from a cruise, and had the same issues with getting ticketed. I was anxious to upgrade our seats. After much delay, they did finally ticket us about 60 days out. Never was able to upgrade our seats.

Thanks all for your input and help - I decided to call VA Plus. I asked for flights to be ticketed and they did it - they even apologized for things running a little late on ticketing. Set ourselves up with seating, so I think they did a good job overall. Again, just a little pre-emptive transparency would save Viking a lot of customer service calls. 

5 minutes ago, MW4AU said:

A sure fire way to know if you are ticketed, is to sign in to your airline account... ie.Delta. If you are ticketed,  you will be able to change your seats and upgrade seats if available. We are on the June 11th cruise and just got ticketed 5 days ago. Still no excursions. TA checked and said they are having issues with new tour operators???

I checked the airline - Icelandair in this case, and conclude I am not ticketed yet. Should I push VA Plus on this, or just be patient. I do recall being ticketed earlier than this in the past by VA Plus for some VRC bookings.

I would like to be able to try the Chef's Table restaurant on our upcoming first VOC, but I have a shellfish allergy. Do they have course substitutions on the Chef's Table menu for people who have allergies?

5 hours ago, TravlingGato said:

SailorPaulH, you are probably right that notifications are cruise specific. My apology for not thinking of that. As a cruise traveler with changing cruise line and airline requirements on this voyage, I think that I'm feeling what it is to be a kernel of corn in a microwave popcorn bag set for 2 minutes and we have 45 seconds left. May you have good and safe travels.

Nothing to apologize for - Viking changes these updates, I believe based on factors such as initial country of entry, time until embarkation and port requirements. It's a lot to juggle for them, I get that. 

Indeed, the only way they have of eventually providing a uniform, consistent message across all their itineraries is to get rid of all the testing requirements, etc.

Safe travels to you - we may not be on the same ship, but we are all in the same boat!

31 minutes ago, Azulann said:

The ticket number will be a 16 digit number. The other one is the confirmation # which is all letters. 

Be sure to scroll down  to bottom of page. My ticket number was way down at end of page, I got it from my TA .

when is your sailing? 

I don't have the 16 digit number as yet. Sailing is on July 6th (but outbound flight is June 30th because of pre-cruise extensions).

1 hour ago, TravlingGato said:

 

And.... without notification at your log-in to MyVikingJourney, Viking has updated its pre-travel info. effective 2022-04-25. Notice that the subject  "Pre-Cruise Embarkation Requirements" is the last subject header on the topic "Before You Go."  Client orientation??? I think not!!!

 

I think these updates must be itinerary specific. My pre-travel info is still dated 4/1/2022. But you are right, there never seems to be notification of changes.

It will be interesting to see Viking's next update for Pre-Departure and Travel Requirements for ocean cruising in Europe. If Viking was justifying their daily testing, contact tracing and pre-departure requirements on various government's requirements, those justifications have disappeared completely - most countries have removed any remaining requirements.
 

On 4/23/2022 at 7:51 PM, PBodek said:

We have received nothing!  I did notice that our flights have been ticketed.

Question: is there a way of determining on MVJ if your flights have been ticketed?

When I go MVJ -> Air -> Air Booking: I see information for our flight schedule with an Airline Booking #, but I don't think that means it has been ticketed yet, am I right?

34 minutes ago, BigBee51 said:

Until the US drops the mandatory PCR test within 24 hours of boarding a flight into the the country, I'd rather test positive (yikes) while on board and on Vikings dime than get off the ship and be unable to board a flight home and stuck in some hotel on my dime. Just saying.... 

Taking it one step further - it's best to test positive 10-90 days before you leave, based on Viking's travel instructions.

One question I have not seen asked is about various reports of people being quarantined or removed from VOC and VRC cruises: are these passengers testing positive for their first time ever or have they tested positive sometime in the past (prior to the 90 day limit)? IF so. it would suggest that anyone who has had COVID in the past should not worry to much about testing positive during the trip as re-infection has been shown to be a rare event (albeit it possible).