Peregrina651

It is the guest interface used to interact with your bookings. You can only access it once you have made your first booking and have registered for the site (which requires a booking number). MVJ is full of pre-departure information. There are forms to fill out before you first sailing and kept up to date thereafter. This is also where guest go to reserve seats on the included tour and to purchase optional excursions. And, if you have bought flights through Viking, this is where you your flight information.

Technically correct but a very boring name. 🙃

OP, this is what it looks like on my computer. The red arrow points to the 3 bars (aka "hamburger menu") and this is what I see when I click on "Booking Summary" in that menu. I did not copy the personal information on the right-hand side but I left enough to show you that the information has been filled in. I would suggest that if you can't see this information, that you try a different browser or a different device to see if that makes a difference. If that doesn't help, I pass the baton; I'm out of suggests.

Travel before the knees give out! The cruise is so port intensive that the time will fly by.

It was clear to me but I also thought that it was the crucial detail in making it work, so I grabbed my yellow highlighter, just to make sure that it didn’t get glossed over.

BUT keep in mind the kicker in czrunner's plan: they arrived in Iceland before embarkation day. You don't really want to go from the airport directly to do the Golden Circle. Not only will you be exhausted from the lack of sleep but the logistics are a lot more complicated.

It is only used against cruise fare. It will stay on their account and be deducted from the next cruise they book. Thing of the airfare you are saving by doing it all in one trip. 😉

Hmm. Sounds exactly like the man I married. I have wasted so many hours of my life arriving way too early for soooo many events. The good news is that I have managed to convince him that it is okay to take private tours, that companies don't stay in business by missing sailaway times.

YES!!! We used to have guest numbers that we could give at time of booking. Hopefully it is sufficient to give a name and address. BUT it must be added at the time of booking. Just tell the agent that you want to use your parents as a referral and ask them what information they need. If they say guest number, ask them where your parents should go to find out what their guest number is. I just looked at a current invoice and didn't see it on there.

GrayLine stuck with their time schedule. By the stated ending time the bus had already started dropping folks off. You do have to allow time for drop offs at the end of the day, maybe up to half an hour.

We did The Golden Circle with GrayLine Tours for half the price. We saw the same sights and lunch didn't cost us $100pp. They pick at the ship. We happened to do it on disembarkation day. We took all of our luggage with us and we were dropped at our hotel at the end of the day.

The insight is that we have is no insight.🤔 There is no discernible pattern, there is no rhyme or reason and there is no announcement. They release items when they are ready and they don't release everything all at once.

I think you will find that you have learned more by talking to folks who have actually sailed with Viking than from the folks answering the phone. They will have their areas of expertise but not necessarily the hands on experience. If after you talk with Viking, you still have questions or you are confused, come back and ask. We are always happy to talk ship.

That and "Hope for the best but plan for the worst." 😉

One person described what he went through on one of the early calls at Venice over 8 months ago. It was an exception not the rule and much has changed/improved(?) over the succeeding 8 months. What things will be like in another 8 months cannot be predicted. The safest bet at this point in time is to assume that everything is subject change. The industry continues to reel in the post pandemic and the road ahead continues to be a rough one -- not just where we dock but every aspect of pleasure cruising. It is going to be a while until things return to what was considered normal three years ago. Depends on what you mean by original. Prior to the pandemic and before Venice decided to ban cruise ships from its canals, Viking docked at Stazione Marittima, not far from the Venice train station if you look on a map. Now cruise ships must dock at Fusina, Marghera or Choggia. Docking is determined by the local harbor master and is subject to change. No, this was dropped ages ago along with most of the other Covid motivated restrictions on travel in the EU countries you will be visiting. For more information see: https://docs.vikingcruises.com/pdf/14-PreCruiseRequirement-All-US_CAN_UK_AU_NZ.pdf

If you are doing the Med/Adriatic Itinerary, then your changeover days will be at Rome (which is an hour inland from the cruise port at Civitavecchia) and Venice (where Viking is expecting to dock in Chiaggo). There are multiple named itineraries that will all be on board at the same time you are -- including ones that will be continuing on to Istanbul. Each named itinerary will probably have a separate roll call and since you will be on the ship at that time, you should at least follow all of the roll calls (because you never know where you will find helpful information and because those folks will also be on the ship with you). If Cruise Critic starts sponsoring "Meet & Mingles" again, there will be one for each segment and you are eligible to attend them all, if that is something you are interested in doing. It seems a bit crazy with folks coming and going every week but in the end, everyone benefits, guests and cruise line.

Twice now, maybe three times, we have booked cabins over The Restaurant. Not one of the suites. We heard absolutely no noise coming from the restaurants. Most people head to the buffet for breakfast and lunch and seating is usually limited to the "front" seating areas, closer to midship. Dinner is served from 6-9pm and most people are out of their cabins at that point.

Not quite true. Shipboard credits come in flavors and some of them are limited in what they can be used for and if they can be refunded at the end of the cruise or not. No sense in guessing. My suggestion is to ask Viking exactly what your credits can be used for and if they are refundable. Give them your booking number and they can tell you exactly what you are holding and how they can be used. Combine that with what Tanaya and Clay have explained to decide how and when to use your credits.

Ah, yes! Another one of Viking's well kept secrets. Why can't they just explain it on the invoice since this is how it works most of the time??? I thought no excursions as well, until we actually did one of these butterfly itineraries. We had our plans all made for changeover day -- DIY on local public transit to see the Etruscan necropolis (we were in Civitavecchia) -- and we were ready to go. Once we boarded, we were handed a list of tours that were being offered only for continuing passengers so that we could make plans and book an excursion. They don't put them on MVJ for booking because they are available only to continuing pax. There is no need to keep watching MVJ as these excursions will never appear there and no need to contact "TellUs" because the shorex department is already working on it. Definitely take a few minutes to contact Viking on this one, if nothing else, than to let off a bit of steam. While I am pretty sure that capacity will be added and available to book on board when you arrive, since the OYOs are very popular, I am not not going to tell you not to worry. Contact Viking and get answers from them directly. It might even make you feel better. 🥴

The article that I cited was posted long before the word "fungus" came into the conversation. The original explanation that OP gave as source of the problem was sea snails and since that wording came directly from Viking when they announced the reason for the changes to the itinerary, I am more inclined to believe the word "fungus" is the result of a grand game of "whispering down the lane" and sloppy journalism.

Char -- Have you been following the conversation on the live thread? The OP of the thread commented about the Australian news broadcast that the UK article is based on. OP said that it seemed that the report was based on information from a passenger. No wonder there is a lot wrong information in the news reports. There is more accurate information on the thread. It is an Aukland to Sydney sailing, so ignore everything the article said about route. I don't know all of the calls they did make in NZ but I do know that calls to ports on the South Island were cancelled. Their last call in NZ was Wellington and from there they headed directly to Adelaide (which was not on their itinerary). Currently, the ship is in the process of having the hull scrubbed before they enter Australian waters. Nice pictures on the live thread.

That's right, they do refer to Princess, not Viking, but the article describes the issues faced by any ship with the problem of sea snails on the hull, as was stated by OP when she first explained what was going on. At that point in the conversation, there were no articles about Viking. I took what I could get that would shed some light on the issues facing the Viking ship. I never said it was about Viking; I only said that it explained some of the issues.

Raised, lowered or deleted. Just stop by Guest Service and ask. They should do whatever you request, no questions asked. Guests in the UK, Australia and NZ have gratuities included on their cruise fare.

Now they are at sea☹️. Water, water everywhere...

It's a bit of a ride from the port to Athens. Have you looked into transportation costs for the ride?