TravelingT

I am a pescatarian.  I have often traveled with a vegetarian.  Filling out the forms every day will help but it felt like a part-time job while on vacation.  Honestly, it was hit-and-miss.  Some days dinner went off without a hitch and some days we couldn't get the meal we had arranged.  When I cruise Viking again, and I will, I will not expect fabulous food.  If I do get something really good, then it will be a bonus! 

3 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

There are far more social activities on a world cruise, but TBH it doesn’t sound like you like sea days.  There are a lot of sea days, I think the longest chunk of sea days we had was 6 sea days.  
Viking doesn’t have many social activities set up for the cruise we were on the last 2 weeks because I believe that there was only one scheduled sea day in that cruise.  So it makes no sense to bring on a bridge instructor and the ilk for one sea day.  

I get that.  They were not prepared for that many sea days.  However, I have done four Transatlantic cruises on other cruise lines, and I was much more entertained by the activities onboard.  Different strokes for different folks.  That being said, Viking is a fantastic cruise line.

3 hours ago, Mich3554 said:

This being said, NY officials did not release the ship to disembark for nearly 75 minutes after we were scheduled to disembark, and once the ship was released, there were only 3 agents to process people in NYC, and 4 other agents just hanging around not processing passengers.  This also happened at the beginning of the WC, when the port agents in FL would not allow boarding to start until long after boarding.  I think that the ship was not released until 2 pm, when boarding was supposed to start at 11 am.  
Not only that, when we landed in LA to pick up passengers, EVERYONE had to disembark and we got to wait to talk to immigrations.  

 

Facial recognition software is minor when it takes US officials much longer than normal to release the ship.  
 

So this wasn’t Viking, but US immigration who mucked up your schedule.  The 178 days we were on the Neptune for the World Cruise, going through face to face immigration in the US was the worst….even worse than Saudi. 

The lady in the port terminal said it was Viking's fault.  But your explanation makes perfect sense.

14 minutes ago, uktog said:

Interesting, when norovirus hits on Azamara, they put extra staff on to serve in the buffet requiring entertainers, guest relations, spa staff etc to do extra shifts to achieve this.  The catering staff very much focus on their no one priority - getting the food out to the servers.  Sounds like Viking does not do this

Oh, I think they did this too.  I saw entertainers from the nightly shows at the buffet, shore excursions staff, and others helping.  But it was just too much even with all of them.  As I said, they tried their very best, all with a smile on their face.  It wasn't slammed every minute that the world cafe was open.  But enough.  Once again, they did the best they could it was just a poor situation for both the staff and guests.

50 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Can I ask why you have come to this decision?  This Norovirus could happen on Azamara or Oceania as well?

 

You said several times it was not Viking's fault or that of the crew, so why would you move cruise lines?

 

Were you dissatisfied with Viking in other ways?

 Oh, it has nothing to do with the norovirus.  I felt there wasn't enough to do during the days at sea.  A world cruise would involve several days at sea.  They had lectures on history; some were pretty good.  But, as a college professor, I am steeped in lectures every day.  There was trivia once a day, which was fun for me as I like social activities.  I think a different cruise line might have more social activities that I enjoy.  I might be wrong but I want to shop around.

I was on this cruise.  It WAS crazy on steroids on several levels!!  We had to chase down the staff for silverware, coffee, creamer, sugar, salt packets, pepper packets, water, etc. for every meal in the world cafe.  The poor buffet line staff had to cook and replace the food and serve it too!!  They did not have enough staff, of course, and so long lines at each station in the world cafe were very common, (depending on when you went),  as well as empty trays of food they could not keep full.  Don't get me wrong; this was not their fault.   They did the best they could with a smile on their face.  I applaud the staff for all the effort they put in.  The pools were closed, the thermal spa was closed, and the laundry was closed.  And we missed both the Greenland ports and the Newfoundland port due to icebergs.  Again, not their fault.  Then when we disembarked, the lines in NYC were so long that our arranged car waited from 9:30 to 11:00 AM to pick us up and then had to leave due to another commitment.  Of course, we had already paid and lost that money.  According to the NYC representative at the port, Viking is the only cruise they deal with that doesn't use face recognition which would have increased the time to disembark extraordinarily. However, NYC port only sent four agents to process the whole ship.  So, a series of unfortunate events.  

All of this being said, we had several days at sea, and because I usually like to spend time in the thermal suite on sea days, which was closed, I was a little bored.  I am not a big reader, so we spent a good bit of time watching movies on TV.  They had a great selection.  However, it did convince me that the future world cruise that I thought I would take on Viking may be on another cruise line.  I am currently researching Oceania and Azamara.

LUCKILY,  neither my partner nor I got sick.  We are thankful for that.  Viking is issuing a 50% future cruise voucher, which we are very thankful for!

17 hours ago, MikeyB said:

Try EAN23

Thanks!  It does work, but not for the date I am looking at.  In case anyone is interested, it works for 2023 Antartica and South Georgia but not for 2024.  I didn't check any other cruises.  

On 4/4/2023 at 7:58 AM, deec said:

Free Air again on the Expedition Antarctica and a bit of a reduction in fare.

 

 

I am interested in one particular sailing in Dec. 2024.  Is there a promo code?

We are staying at the RIU manhattan Times Square. It has a great location and good value for the price, by NYC standards.  We stayed in Riu plaza in Barcelona and thought it was a nice hotel.  I don't know anything about the M Social. 

21 hours ago, slewis7 said:

I just booked “Iconic Iceland, Greenland & Canada” for June 2024 using the FDA23 code for some nice savings.  Thanks to @UWDawg for posting that code and everyone else posting here.

I am on that same sailing for May 2023!  Can't wait!

The vegetarian options in the restaurant are very limited.  The World Cafe was the best option for vegetarians on our cruise.  My cruise partner is a very picky eater and after struggling to find something for him to eat, we spoke with the restaurant manager, and he, also a vegetarian, made sure my partner had a good dinner every night.  Talking with the restaurant manager is the key.

On 1/19/2022 at 9:49 PM, GKTV32162 said:

World Cruise Day 27/152 - Sea Day - Born on the Bayeux

 

https://kolbsontheroad.blogspot.com/2022/01/world-cruise-day-27152-sea-day-born-on.html

Hey!  I live in the Villages too!  I hope you get the Daily Sun to do a piece on your trip when you get back!

On 4/25/2021 at 1:04 PM, Heidi13 said:

 

Haha!!. Now your showing your age. Most will probably never have heard of BOAC, BEA, BMI, Caledonian, etc.

 

Still remember my first flight from Sydney to LHR that required 4 stops for fuel😒

I flew on Caledonian my first trip to Europe in the smoking section.  HA!

Do they offer any options for vegetarians?

Can anyone tell me how to find ocean cruises with three days in St. Petersburg?  I am looking at summer 2023.

Thanks!!

I cancelled my russia cruise on Monday the 21st and my refund showed up in my credit card account on Thursday morning the 25th..Great job Viking!!

Well I thought it was a sale.  I usually don't see business class from Nashville to Europe for less than 4K any time of the year.  I am thrilled.

I just snagged a business class flight RT on American Airlines for next July for 2,608 per person.  I am going from Nashville to Athens and then Madrid to Nashville since I am doing a back to back with Viking.  I just wanted to give you guys a heads up who like to fly business class.  I dropped the viking air since this was only 600 more than Viking was charging me for premium economy.  FYI.  I saw similar fares on British Airways.

On 5/27/2016 at 11:41 AM, webfoot said:

I also use the laundry frequently. Everything comes back looking great! The prices are a little bit lower than hotels but you get much faster service.

 

I take nothing but old underpanties with me and discard at the end of the day. More room for shopping that way!

 

 

Pat

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I do the same thing with underwear.  Take the old and then just discard.  The price to wash them is often more than I paid for them in the first place.  LOL.  I guess I am a bit cheap!

I didn't know about this but it explains the big jump in my points.  I booked a few days ago.

1 minute ago, alfaeric said:

No bikes.  In theory, you can run the road- it's not very long, though.  None of the other paths, I would judge as runable- just too rough.  Post renovations, I do hope that the middle road that accesses the real end of the island is open- with that, you may get a mile.

 

While we almost always go for a run in Nassau, we never have on Coco Cay.

Thanks for the info on the bikes!  It seems like a great place to bike if there was a path!

Can you rent bicycles on CoCo Cay?  Is there any type of running path on the island?

I was wondering if there are running paths and rental bikes available at Coco Key?

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I am scoping out two cruises and saw a good price on a guaranteed stateroom "ocean view with balcony" on Harmony of the Seas.  Is there any chance they would assign a central park or other inside balcony?  I would hate it.