longterm

I listened to the podcast; the first 5 minutes were highly inaccurate, but the rest of his podcast was somewhat better. My wife and I just returned from a cruise in March from Rome to Athens; the speaker mentioned a stop in Dubrovnik, which is one of the ports we visited and one of our favorites. He said, "Everyone went on the same excursion." That was definitely not the case on our cruise, and given the strenuous nature of the excursion we took, I doubt it is the case for any of the Viking stops in Dubrovnik. We were part of a group of about 12 who did the Dubrovnik wall walk; we were the ONLY people from the ship who did the 2-1/2 mile walk on the wall around Old Town. We spent more time in Old Town having an incredible lunch--we didn't see any others from our ship in Old Town until we were heading back, so it certainly wasn't the case that everyone had the same experience in that port. The only port where most guests seemed to be in the same area at the same time was Sibenik, where the excursions were below average and it looked like half the ship were in the downtown area at the same time. Having been on other Viking cruises, both river and ocean, I know from experience that not all cruisers have done the same excursions. On this last cruise, for example, we talked with people who visited the Krka waterfalls--which we didn't; we spoke with a couple who had one of the meal experiences, which we did not; we spoke with people who did a tour of Messina, Sicily, which we didn't, we instead chose to visit towns where "The Godfather" movies were filmed--a great tour, and there were perhaps 12-15 of us out of the 500+ on the ship. There were enough excursion choices that those who wanted to go off the ship could go in different directions. He didn't care much for the decor on the Viking ship. OK, fine; we happen to love it, and would rather NOT be on a ship that's festooned with neon and bright colors. To each his own on this one. He called it more of a "serious cruise;" perhaps for some, definitely not for us. If by "serious" he meant that there aren't casinos and it's not a drunkfest, I'd agree on that. We did enjoy the videos that were available--some Ted talks (not enough of them in my opinion, though), some good videos on various sites. Everyone's experience on a cruise will always differ; as a professional musician and someone who's toured all over the world with big-name artists, I'm pickier than most and have never been impressed with the on-board musicians on cruises--but that's just me, and I realize that most other guests enjoy the musicians on board. I've heard some fine musicians on board--okay, one guitarist--but what I've seen is that most other guests seem to really enjoy them.

As a friend of mine used to say, when he was nightly consuming 8-packs of Zima and blindly stumbling to bed, "Alcohol is sold in the quantities it's meant to be consumed." He's better now though. 🙂

I've never seen one; there are wine openers though.

That's for sure! I had an issue with a move-over offer they made back in 2020, then canceled us because of Covid, then didn't want to give us the same upgrade deal for which we'd postponed our trip. I spoke to 3 different reps over almost an hour, with no luck, until the 3rd one suggested I contact their "move-over" division (which makes upgrade offers when they oversell a cruise); that rep immediately honored our upgrade, which we did get and enjoyed. I've made a note of the guy I spoke to a few minutes ago and will always reach out to him in the future.

Well, as it turns out, it didn’t matter. I spoke to another Viking rep, who I will use for everything in the future; he told me that the special was only for 2022 sailings. Being the skeptic that I am, I went online and tried to book a 2023 sailing, and was prompted that the special didn’t apply to the sailing I chose. This is not the first time I have gotten better response from a different Viking rep on the phone; from now on, I will always use this same guy, who said he could have given me the drink package if it were applicable for a 2023 sailing.

So, I decided to call Viking and see, since we just booked our cruise 2 days ago, if we could be given the promotional deal and get the Silver Seas package. I was told we'd have to cancel our existing bookings and then re-book, with a $100 rebooking charge EACH. Which means we'd get the drink package at a little better than half price. No thanks. Not worth the hassle. I wasn't pleased with Viking's customer service on this.

Thanks for the link. I looked at it, and just 2 days later, all the Veranda staterooms are booked--glad that my wife and I, and my brother and his wife, grabbed our Veranda A staterooms. The prices from this link match what's on the website, except for the drink package, which isn't something we would even use. Your OBC of $700 is really nice though; is it because you've used this TA previously? We have 2 Viking cruises coming up (one is 29 days), so I'm wondering if I should transfer these to the TA you use. Mind sharing their name? 🙂

I did a Google search for highest-rated travel insurance carriers, and it came up with Nationwide as the highest-rated; does anyone have experience with them? Any recommendations for others?

We brought magnet clips, and put the daily schedule up near the door each day. Being a longtime Nespresso user, I brought my own favorite coffee pods; the machines in the staterooms use the original pods, not the Vertuo. I also travel with one of my favorite espresso cups--don't like drinking espresso from large cups. I also found some lanyards (on Amazon) with clear plastic sleeves, into which we slipped our room key cards; since we had to wear contact tracers, we also put those on the same lanyards. The key cards work from within the plastic sleeves.

Well... maybe I got a lousy TA. I called a local travel agent, told her we were interested in booking the Grand European for October 2023; she sent me a quote a few minutes later. It included travel insurance, so it was a bit more than what we paid, but even when I removed that, it was still higher than what Viking charges on the website. I wrote back and politely thanked her, said the price wasn't any better than the website. She wrote back, telling me that she was local, could keep me informed about flight changes, etc., which has no value to me since Viking always keeps me informed of any schedule changes, as do the airlines. She never mentioned an OBC, but when I had spoken to her, I got the distinct impression that she didn't know much about Viking, because she mentioned discounts based on groups--something we all know doesn't happen. Perhaps a more Viking-savvy TA would have been able to do better...

I thought I'd heard that OBCs weren't offered for river; I think that's the case when you book a cruise on board a Viking ship. We booked a trip for 2024 on-board when we were in Italy in March, and got on-board credits, but we just yesterday decided to add a river cruise for next spring, so we didn't try to do that when we were on board. I may call a TA here and see what they say about an OBC for a river cruise; will report back what they tell us.

I didn't know that there were OBCs to be had for river cruises; has anyone on here actually received OBCs from a TA for a river cruise?

Any advantage to using TA to book Viking River? I know this is an ocean forum, but there is no Viking river forum for this question. I don’t normally use travel agents, except when we do Safari trips to South Africa. We just booked another river cruise, but I would be open to transferring it to a TA if there is any financial advantage.

Mary and I will be headed to Rome on Monday to start our trip to Italy and points beyond. We'll spend 4 nights in Rome, then board the Viking Sky on the 5th; we'll sail to Greece, where we're doing the 4-night extension there as well. Today I started looking at Covid testing that will be required; here's what we're going to have to do: 1. Take PCR tests on Saturday, 2 days before flying to Rome; 2. Take rapid tests in the Rome airport (this is according to Viking's info); 3. Take PCR tests on March 3rd so that we can board the ship on the 5th; 4. Take tests on board on the 5th. This, of course, doesn't include the 14 subsequent tests we'll take each day while on board, or the final test we'll take before we leave Athens. Lots of tests, but no big deal, and our trip will be well worth it. Thanks to CCWineLover, I was able to schedule our PCR tests in Rome for March 3rd. The clinic is about 15 minutes from our hotel, and the cost is 55 euros each (ouch). The site says results will arrive from 24-48 hours--I'm hoping less than 24, but we'll just have to see. Results here in Texas arrived in about 10 hours when we took our December cruise to the Caribbean. A Viking rep had a great suggestion for finding a clinic; he recommended calling the Rome Marriott, where Viking pre-extensions stay, and asking the Viking rep there for help with booking tests. Because we had the link (below), we didn't need to do that, but it was a good suggestion. The rep also confirmed that we needed PCR tests if we're doing it 48 hours out. We used this link to book our tests: http://www.altamedica.it/ https://www.covidtestfinder.net/test_centers/italy/rome/altamedica-artemisia-rome-708

Having been a Nespresso user for almost 20 years, I was really happy to see that the machines in the staterooms are the very same mini Nespresso machines that I own and take on trips when I travel in the US. They're set to dispense full cups of coffee as opposed to espresso-sized pours, but it's really simple to reset that: Once the machine is heated and ready to use, simply push AND HOLD DOWN one of the two buttons; when your cup is at the level you prefer, let go of the button. That sets the machine to pour that amount of coffee each time. Very useful! Also, if you prefer a weaker or stronger coffee blend, head to Nespresso's site (www.nespresso.com) and order some boxes of original coffee pods; I always bring my favorites with me (Roma) when I get on a Viking ship.