longterm

Congratulations! Such a great trip, you'll have a blast. If you like walking, you might contact Marisa at toursbylocals.com; not only was she extremely nice, but she's an expert on Rome--she pointed out areas in the Roman Forum where she'd been part of a dig as an archaeology student. She likes to walk though! There were a few things we didn't get to; I wish we'd seen the Appian Way, the aqueduct there, the Spanish Steps (although I understand it's usually crowded); we walked around Trastavere, but by the time we got there I was totally exhausted, so we probably missed a lot. If you don't mind walking or heights, be sure to go on the wall walk in Dubrovnik; I'm really scared of heights but did it anyway somehow, and it's one of my favorite memories. Also, be sure to find time for lunch in Dubrovnik and Split; in Dubovnik, after walking the wall, we were wandering down the main street inside the walled city, and looked down an alley to the right, and saw a cafe called Proto, where I had the best fish I've ever had. As we were leaving, having asked about a place to buy local olive oil, the waiter handed me a new jar of their own bottled olive oil, which we still have. In Split, there are cafes along the promenade facing the water; we wandered into one for lunch and had an excellent meal there. If you stay at the Intercontinental in Athens, ask about the little Greek restaurant about a block away; unfortunately, the restaurant in the hotel is overly expensive and not so hot; we only had dinner there once and were disappointed. I think it was in Bari Italy that we wandered into a shop called Silk and Silky, ended up buying a really exquisite silk rug--they're good salesmen, that's for sure. Saw us coming a mile away. But the rugs are beautiful, and we don't regret our purchase. We didn't see the waterfalls near Split, but were told they were magnificent; our time in the town was really nice though. Trying to think of other highlights... there were so many. You'll have an incredible trip!

My suggestion as well! We took that cruise in December 2021, after 2 postponements (one when they oversold our original cruise, the second due to Covid). The temperature at that time of year is perfect; we were in shorts and shirtsleeves the entire time, and had a great trip.

Found the link: https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/caribbean-americas/atlantic-crossing/index.html Thanks!

I'd be concerned about being able to get off the ship by that time though; I was thinking we may have to plan to do an 11:45am train, which, since daylight is so long, wouldn't be a problem. Right now we're still planning to duplicate the post extension that Viking offers, but with our own train reservations. If someone has a compelling argument in favor of doing the Norway in a Nutshell trip instead, I'd definitely be interested in hearing. We're not going until July 4, 2024, so we have plenty of time to get things booked.

How long is the Norway in a Nutshell trip? This might be a nice alternative for us to just taking the train to Oslo. What site did you use to book? How was your booking experience?

Interesting; when I spoke to them, I was told that if we were NOT on a post extension, Viking didn't allow for a deviation in departure city. So what this meant was that we'd have to a) pay $200 for us to get Air Plus, and then b) book a separate flight from Oslo to Bergen to catch our flight home, and c) when we got to Bergen, we'd have to retrieve our bags and check in AGAIN for the flight home. So, I researched doing flights ourselves, and saw that we can fly nonstop from DFW to London on AA, and then we can do a 1-stop flight home from Oslo through Toronto, all for about $100 per person less than Viking would charge us.

Back in 2002, we were on a 2-week tour with a fairly well-known guitarist named Nonie Edwards, who was in the Ventures back in the 60s; for some reason, the Ventures are still hugely popular in Japan, even after 60+ years, and Nokie played all the famous guitar parts on those songs, and other ones like "Hawaii 5-0." He was a great friend, and died in March 2018, and was a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I played keyboards on about 15 of his albums and did this one tour with him. Anyway, the Japanese people at all the concerts were really friendly and tried their best to speak English with us, since none of us, including Nokie, spoke Japanese, but when we went in businesses, like the bank in Kumamoto, we often found no one who knew any English at all. I was definitely surprised; fortunately, we had a tour manager who helped us when we got on a train to go to Kyoto.

Once I did the math, it was clear that the train trip would be better if we booked ourselves--guaranteed reserved seats that are nicer and have charging ports; also, once I priced the same hotel and everything else, I saw that the difference in price is around $500. Plus, we may decide to get a private tour guide in Oslo, which would be excellent; we've always enjoyed private tours. I also found out that Viking doesn't allow flight deviations from Bergen, which meant that, if we decided to let Viking do our flights (we're doing our own), we would have had to get a flight from Oslo to Bergen, retrieve our bags, then check in AGAIN for the flight home. I see that I can get a nonstop outbound, and a 1-stop return through Toronto, which Viking certainly wouldn't get us on. The difference in flight time is more than 12 hours.

We went on the Rome, Adriatic and Greece cruise this past March, and loved it. We arrived in Rome 5 days early and booked a guide for walking tours on 2 days, then a guide for a food tour the first night, as well as a 3rd guide for the Vatican Museum on the last day. The hotel arranged a driver to get us to the ship at the port in Civitavecchia, and it was excellent having a private driver to get us there. We *could have* booked the train for much cheaper but would have had to shlep our bags from the train into the port, which is quite substantial. We also did the post extension in Athens and and really enjoyed it, felt like the tours were good and it was worth the money. If I were to do it again I don't think I'd change a thing; I found a great hotel called Argentina Residenza in the Argentina district, which put us about a 5 minute walk from the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon; I highly recommend it--there are lots of excellent restaurants just 1 or 2 minutes away, and literally across the street from us was the square where Julius Caesar was assassinated. We used www.thetourguy.com to book the Vatican tour guide and the nighttime food tour (both were very good); we used www.toursbylocals.com for the 2 walking tour days. Our guide Marisa has a degree in archaeology, had worked in the Roman Forum, and was excellent. She walked us all over--probably 6-7 miles each day.

Lots of moving parts. I decided to schedule the train trip on our own rather than using Viking, since it'll be cheaper and we can get reserved 1st-class train seats. After looking at flight arrangements, I was told by Viking that on this particular cruise, they don't allow deviations in departure cities in Norway; this would mean getting an additional flight on our own to get back to Bergen, then taking the return flight. After pricing the same day in 2023 (our trip's in 2024), I determined that we'd get better flights on our own, and not have to hop from Oslo to Bergen, then back to the US, if I booked it myself; plus, I can select a nonstop from DFW to London, which I'm sure Viking wouldn't do if left to their air department. Plus, I'd have to pay $200 for us to be able to fly into London earlier, bringing flights for one of us to $1900, versus about $1700 each for us if I book it myself--which I'm going to do. The only downside is not getting transfers from Viking, but with carryon bags and a short distance to the ship and to the train station in Bergen, it won't be a problem; we've done our own transfers in Amsterdam and Rome in the past, without any trouble at all. Thanks for all the input; with our payment due date a little over a month away, I wanted to get all this squared away beforehand.

You're absolutely right; I just created an account on vy.no and came up with $288.50, so that's good to see. Yes, the "plus" seating is their 1st-class seating. I looked at daylight hours, and found that the average day in Oslo during July has 18.0 hours of daylight, with sunrise at 4:21 AM and sunset at 10:21 PM, so we'd be good to take that train.

Here's what I came up with; these are just rough approximations, although I did look up train travel, and it looks like it will be approx. $250/person for 1st-class. I hope that's high, but when I looked at a random date in the next couple of months, it came back with $247 each (I forget what site it was). $500 - 2 1st-class train tickets $50 - transfer from ship to train station $50 - food on the train $300 - food in Oslo (2 nights, 1 morning) $600 - hotel (2 nights - high, but I estimate high) $1500 - TOTAL ESTIMATE I know that the hotel's a little high, but there are always extra expenses that come up, like a souvenir or a museum entry fee, or perhaps an Uber.

Not surprising these days, unfortunately. I'm constantly appalled at the bad grammar I see online, the butchered English spoken by talking heads on TV, the tortured headlines on news sites. When I went to Japan years ago, everyone told me, "Not to worry! Most Japanese people speak English!" The very first day, in Kumamoto, we went to a bank to exchange money, and nobody spoke English. We did all our transactions with hand signals; I was surprised that more Japanese people didn't speak English, but of course, in our arrogant American way, most Americans speak English only, while expecting other countries to just fall in line and understand us. Before I return to Japan, I'll learn at least some rudimentary phrases; it shows respect and I've always enjoyed trying to converse in foreign languages.

Sounds like booking this myself may be the way to go. My rudimentary budget for booking it ourselves came out to about $1500 with 1st-class train, versus $1938 from Viking. The only difference would be 1 guided tour in Oslo, which I could probably arrange for less than $200. Viking's arranging flights for us; we're already paying $100/person for Air Plus, but if we fly home from Oslo instead of Bergen, is Viking going to uncharge for that? We've never flown out of a city other than the termination city of a cruise. Good to hear about the lack of a language barrier; I speak French and Italian, but certainly no Norwegian.

I’ve reached out to my TA to see what he thinks, but there are lots of things to consider here. I’m a seasoned traveler, and not afraid of being on my own, but Norway is a place where I would not know a single word of the language. Also, if we go on our own, we would have to fly home from Oslo instead of Bergen; I know that I have to pay $100 per person to make alternate flight arrangements (which we will do anyway because we are flying into London a few days early), but how does Viking charge when you fly home from a different city? Also, it occurs to me that if there is any issue with the train, Viking would be there to help us. Doing the math, the difference in cost is about six or $700; we would pay for first class train if we did it ourselves, and probably stay in a similar hotel in Oslo. We would also have to pay for transfers in Bergen and Oslo, and would not get a tour in Oslo, but I can certainly arrange a private one. The more I think about it, the more I am leaning towards doing this ourselves, and not taking the post extension. Even though the trip is a year and a half away, we have to pay the balance by the end of next month, so I have a decision to make very soon. Thanks for all insights. Bob

Hmm... not encouraging. Thanks for the input. I'm wondering if a) it's really such a wonderful trip as I've heard, and b) whether we should just book the train and hotel in Oslo ourselves, so that we can go 1st class on the train. We're leaning towards booking it ourselves, which would be cheaper in the long run anyway. Again, I appreciate any insights from those who have done the extension.

We're on a British Isles cruise that is not until mid 2024; I'm looking ahead at the post extension, which would be 2 nights in Oslo, and which includes the train trip between Bergen and Oslo, which we've been wanting to take. Has anyone done this extension, and if so, do you know what travel class Viking provides--Economy or 1st Class? If it's Economy, can we pay extra and get 1st-class instead? Thanks for any info. Bob

Hop on the Alaska RR; it's a great trip, follows the water; I took it with my son, and we stopped halfway to get on a short excursion to Spencer Glacier, where we were able to float within 30 feet of it. On the return trip, my 10-year-old son and I were the only passengers, so they let Steven stand in the doorway (we were traveling backwards so the back door was at the "head" of the train as it went backwards); it was fantastic to stand and look down the track as we went into the tunnel. The conductor even stopped to show Steven a bird's nest that was resting next to the rail at one point. Great memories.

Yes, we thought it was definitely worth it; the 3 excursions were all excellent--particularly Delphi, which I loved. The Acropolis and Parthenon were of course a must-see, and the museum there is perhaps the finest I've ever visited. Mycenae is also a great place to see, and on that day we also crossed the Corinth canal. We had previously booked a local tour guide for 2 days; since we were already seeing most of what she usually showed, she had to be creative to come up with other places to visit. She took us out to the temple of Poseidon at Sounion, which was well worth the drive; on the way back we had a nice dinner at a Greek restaurant. We also visited the Plaka area, wandered through a lot of shops there; the highlight was the meat and fish market, which was fascinating. We didn't get to the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, but others raved about it.

Ah... 🙂 I think we left the ship around 8 or 8:30 am, went straight from there to the Acropolis, then to the nearby museum. Our luggage was waiting for us at the hotel, IIRC.

We didn't disembark in Vienna; we went on to Athens, where we did the post extension.

In the Med, Viking has 4 or 5 week-long cruises, and then they combine those in several combinations to make longer ones. For example, you can do Barcelona->Rome, or Barcelona->Rome->Venice, or Barcelona->Rome->Venice->Athens, or Barcelona->Rome->Venice->Athens->Istanbul, for 6 different journeys. In addition, there are other combos that start in Rome, so you can do just Rome->Venice, or Rome->Venice->Athens, for example. It gives Viking the ability to offer about a dozen different cruises, all using about 5 or 6 separate legs. We started in Rome, so there were passengers who were already onboard from Barcelona; I seem to recall that excursions were available for them, but not for us since we were just getting on board. We both loved our cruise--so much that we'd probably do it again, maybe adding either more on the front or back end.

I don't think so; in our case, there was another ship that had to dock at Fusina, so they moved us, and then when the ship left, they put us back there. Fusina is a chemical plant; we were given handouts telling us what to do in the case of an alarm that signaled a chemical leak (yikes); the views were... less than stellar... My understanding is that vaporettos aren't allowed to pick up passengers from Fusina, so we had to take a bus to the cruise terminal, from which we then went on our excursions. Lastly, the restriction on passengers going out on their own was lifted sometime after March (May perhaps), so you can go out on your own into the cities. It was really only restricting in Venice; we were in Rome on our own for 5 days, so we did what we wanted there, and then in other cities we really didn't have that much time left after excursions anyway--except for Venice, where we wish we'd had more time.

We did that same Italy, Adriatic & Greece in March 2022; Italy at that time had a rule in place that dictated that cruise passengers couldn't venture out in Italian cities without tour guides, so while we were on the Viking cruise, we only did excursions with Viking guides. However, we arrived in Rome 5 days early and hired local guides, walked on our own wherever we wanted, and that was great... In Venice, we docked at Fusina the 1st night, and had an excursion that day. The next day was a Sunday, and we had booked an excursion that included St. Mark's Square and the cathedral. Without letting us know, out excursion just disappeared, and when I asked about it, I was told that the church didn't allow tours on Sundays. Why then, I asked, did they offer it in the first place? This wasn't a new rule--apparently they've NEVER allowed cruise tours on Sundays. On the 1st night there, they moved the ship to another dock, whose name I forget now (but it wasn't Choggia); it was a little closer to the cruise terminal and outside the chemical plant at Fusina. On the 2nd night, they moved us BACK to Fusina again. Apparently, and I may be wrong, we were the 1st Viking ship back into Venice after the pandemic. So after I complained, as did the dozen others who were on the same tour, they DID add another tour for us, a private tour of the Doge's Palace. We were picked up at the cruise terminal in private water taxis and taken to St. Mark's, where we did our private tour; afterwards, our guide took us on a walking tour of the city for a couple of hours, even granting us about 45 minutes on our own to walk around a bit. After that, we were returned to the cruise terminal in private water taxis again--it was a really nice way to fix a big mistake on someone's part. A major mistake was fixed by Viking, and we ended up with a wonderful day. On the 3rd day, which was departure day, we didn't have an excursion, since I think we departed around 2pm or so (but I forget now). I had no problems with the trip essentially being 2 separate smaller tours combined into one; in fact, had we known, we might have added the previous leg, which left from Barcelona and went to Rome (but that wouldn't have allowed us 5 days in Rome, which was really great).

There seems to be some confusion here: 1. Viking didn't cause the weather; the responsibility for getting the passengers to their destination was with the airlines, not with Viking. 2. If these travelers had done some preemptive planning, they might have been able to make their cruise. For example, they could have left a few days early, which is what we often do on cruises where we meet the ship overseas. 3. Coming onto this site and calling Viking "scammers" is totally uncalled for. Apparently the OP had no previous experience with Viking, so they based their criticism on one awful situation where thousands of travelers were (and still are) stranded all over the world.