H2Otstr

Including the question whether they booked it on one ticket or two separate tickets.

 

Hopefully the TA will also be able to confirm whether the second flight is to KEF or KFE.

;) It is one ticket and it IS KEF. I think we are OK.

Thank you both for replying. One reason I did not ask my TA, but asked here was because it was 10 pm and I knew the TA was closed. Thought I might get a quicker answer here.

Our TA put us on a flight from Bergen to Stockholm on SAS and then Stockholm to KFE on Icelandair. This is on July 28.

Will we have to collect our luggage in Stockholm and recheck it or can we get it checked through to KFE?

We are on the July 14th sailing on the Star and our departure time is 3 pm.

Does anyone have experience with transfers through AMA? We arrive in Munich very early in the morning. I assume there is some waiting for other guests before the AMA transfer leaves. Could we be waiting until the afternoon to depart for Vilshofen?

There will be someone at the airport to pick you up and transport you to your hotel or ship, even if you are the only one(s) arriving. The most I have ever waited for others to arrive from other flights, on any cruise line, has been about 45 minutes.

(y)

Appreciate your great postings and detailed follow-ups. For mid November, 2018, we are doing an Athens to Dubai, 20-day cruise with Oceania, including our first visits to the Holy Lands, Egypt, Middle East, etc. This will include an overnight stop to see Luxor.

 

Have you been to Luxor, yet? What did or do you expect to enjoy most there? Keep up the great sharing and postings.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

Enjoyed a 14-day, Jan. 20-Feb. 3, 2014, Sydney to Auckland adventure, getting a big sampling for the wonders of "down under” before and after this cruise. Go to:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1974139

for more info and many pictures of these amazing sights in this great part of the world. Now at 198,721 views for this posting.

Terry, I will try to answer your questions in the next couple days. We are flying home tomorrow morning at 1:15 am . I need to look at my photos to see what we did in Luxor since we have been to so many places and seen so much in the last 17 days.

Hi Sharon, is there an ATM in the hotel, or did you stop at the airport?

We are in Aswan and today is the first day we have had any WiFi since we left Cairo.

There are two ATM machines at the Ritz and also a bank. You can bring US money and change it into Egyptian pounds. Our guide recommended that we get about $100 worth (around 2000 LE). Most vendors will take dollars.

It is 99 to 100 degrees here. Be sure to bring light colored clothing and light weight such as linen if you have any. Also bring any OTC meds, etc since there is no shopping available.

Heavy duty walking shoes are not needed. Most places have good sidewalks or very small gravel sidewalks. There are no large cobblestones like the streets in Europe.

We’re looking to book for Jan 2020 but weighting all the options. Viking has a new ship that debuts next week. I hope someone does a review. Looking forward to your review H2O!

The new ship, the Ra, is not finished yet. Viking has leased another ship called the Sonesta Star Goddess for us. We will embark on Monday.

Sharon, what company are you with? I booked the OAT Egypt and Nile trip for 2020.

 

Reread your post and now realize you’re with Uniworld. I loved the two cruises I took with Uniworld.

We are traveling with Viking for this trip.

What was your itinerary and how big was your group? Which ship did you sail? I’m looking at Egypt right now and so far the options are Viking and Uniworld.

We just arrived on Friday late afternoon, and today was our first full day of touring. We started in Cairo and will be here one more day before we fly to Luxor early in the morning. There are 47 people and we are split in two groups. The buses are full size so we have plenty of room to spread out. I'm not sure how many people are on the Uniworld tour, but there were several Uniworld people on our flight coming over. 😊

The boat we will be traveling on is called the Sonesta Star Goddess. We will be embarking on Monday.

I did not pay a fee when leaving Egypt either for Jordan or back to the States

Thank you. Didn't want any unexpected surprises :D.

My husband is fancying booking the chefs table on our upcoming cruise but I’m not sure. I’ve read it’s multiple courses but I have a very small appetite. Also I’ve read that it’s a ‘eat what you’re given’ menu and I don’t like fish very much and shellfish not at all.

Is there any leeway should there be something that is not to someone’s liking on the menu?

I don't eat seafood and they substituted a wonderful steak for the main course. No problems at all.

Nippy, if you do want to occasionally dine with others just ask to be sat at a sharing table. You don’t have to do this every night, but once in a while is fun.

Thanks, but I think those are the same one-paragraph descriptions that appear in the MyVikingJourney. The descriptions provided in the port talks provide more details, such as how long you are going to have to spend on a bus to get to a particular location. I thought I saw a document posted online somewhere that included the details, but I haven't been able to find it again.

I have never seen anything that detailed. That would be great information to have. What are your dates for your cruise? And what ship?

We did Machu Picchu and the Amazon with Vantage. It was a great trip. We were on the river for a week, going off on skiffs every day.

Did you have to pay a departure fee when you left Egypt?

Does anyone who has done this cruise before have the data on which towns are near the port where the ship docks so that one can walk off and enjoy the town, or a list of the ports where Viking offers shuttle service?

Trying to decide which tours we want to sign up for when that time comes.

All of the current excursions for the June 30, 2018 Into the Midnight Sun were posted today on MVJ. We've been on several Viking River cruises and I must admit there was some shell shock with the prices. Much higher than on the rivers. Perhaps it's the higher cost of all things in Norway. Alas, we will still book the ones we have our hearts set on. Thank you all for your very informative posts. Please feel free to continue posting any and all advice for this cruise.

They are posted for our July 14th trip, too, but we can't reserve anything until much later. Hope there are still spots available when our reservations open.

I'm going the Iceland extension in June before my Midnight Sun trip (I did the Homelands in 2016). So, I can let you know then! Based on my reading of the description, we'll get a full day Golden Circle trip and a half day at the Blue Lagoon included. I'm working out what else I want to do on arrival day and the other half of the Blue Lagoon day.

We are going to Iceland post trip in July. This information is good to know.

H2Otstr - I think the photo of the Amsterdam Tourist Office you posted is the office in front of the Amsterdam Centraal railway station and not Schiphol Airport. Might be confusing for travelers.

That's what I copied from their website. Sorry, I can't remove it.

You might be able to get one at the Tourist Office at the airport:

Open

Official Tourist Information Office at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport

Holland Tourist Information at Arrivals Hall 2.

daily, 7 am - 10 pm

Sounds like you had a wonderful trip. How was the weather? Did you find a big difference in temps between Cairo and Aswan?

Did you have any problems getting your visa in Jordan? Did you get it ahead of time or at the airport? We plan on just getting ours upon arrival at the airport.

Thank you for all that information. It is very helpful.

 

Unfortunately today I applied for my e-visa and used the wrong website. It looked so official (even though you did warn us about those look alike sites) and I ended up with a service who charged me $74 each. I thought I had saved the official visa website in "my favorites" but I must have saved the wrong one. :eek: Hopefully someone else will not make the same costly mistake that I did.

 

Did you need adaptors for the hotels?

Update on my visa situation:

I applied to the wrong visa site (my own fault) on Jan 26 and their website said visas would be available after 7 days. Nine days went by and I still had nothing, I sent two emails and two phone calls over a two week period and I still have no return correspondence to date. I contacted AMEX and explained the situation and they opened a file to investigate this company.

In the mean time I applied to the official Egyptian Government site for visas and I received them this morning. Whew !!!

Now this indicates to me that the other service has not even attempted to apply for the visas. I can't imagine that the government would allow two applications to be in their system. What also worries me is that they have all my personal information since I had to download a copy of my passport for the application, and they have $148 of my money.

I hope by posting this that I can help others not make the same mistake that I made.

Viking included tour was not to be missed. If you don't like the tour, use the fact that you're now ticketed inside the park & tell the guide you're going off on your own.

We were docked so close that when my wife wanted to buy something at the gift shop, I ran back to the ship for my credit card. Easy.

That is a cute gift shop. I bought a couple of items there, too, as did several others on our tour.

Does anyone know if OBC gifted by Viking be appled toward gratuities?

Last year on the Sky ours was not. We had $200 and were unable to apply it towards gratuity fees.