Clay Clayton

That’s because it has a separate noodle bar near the aquavit liquor bar. My comment was for the older ships that didn’t have this station included when they were built. But based on a report from Sea, using the pool grill ans a noodle bar in the evening isn’t Fleet wide.

Mamsen’s was open until 11 on our last cruise was that not the case on yours?

Maybe it was just a World Cruise thing🤔 Not everything, just somethings 😂

I don’t remember if there was more than one included excursion or not in Ísafjördur. The excursion took us to Bolungarvik where we had a snack of smoked reindeer on tasty bread and heard an Icelandic singer, the Ósvör Maritime Museum which I showed pictures of previously and a stop at a beautiful creek flowing down a steep hillside whose water was supposed to extend your life or maybe improve your sex life. I can’t remember which but I know we all had a big drink!

In Ísafjördur, we were able to get on Viking’s excursion to Vigur Island-it was great- puffins, Arctic terns, and eiderdown ducks! We also were able to take the included excursion here which was enjoyable. It visited an example of ancient fishing houses and had an interpreter who told us about it.

Welcome to Viking! some thoughts: -unless Viking recently reduced the daily gratuities, it’s $18 pp/day not $17. We book with a travel agent who kicks back the maximum Viking allows as a refundable onboard credit ($150pp on cruises up to 7 nights; $300pp on 8-14 night cruises: and $500pp on cruises 15 nights or more) so those amounts typically cover our gratuities and leave a little left over for the bar tab if we don’t get the Silver Spirits package ($25pp/day which means each guest needs to drink between 2.5-3 cocktails each day to break even) -the mini bottles are not premium and are limited. As I recall, gin, vodka, rum. I know when we upgraded on a promo to a PV once, we didn’t use the mini bottles as we preferred a higher quality liquor and enjoyed it better with friends at a lounge. -having not sailed Regent I can’t compare (but hope to change that someday) but we have found some of the food very memorable. Grilled lamb chops for breakfast, Chilean Sea Bass, Exotic Wave dessert (all in the Restaurant) and the Lotus Menu at the Chef’s Table being some that come immediately to mind. If you want to see some of the other Chef’s table menus:this thread has attempted to list them all: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2861105-21-chef’s-table-menus/ -if you haven’t already, recommend checking out this thread which has lots of advice and tips for Viking newbies: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2416372-tips-for-new-viking-ocean-cruisers/page/62/#comment-62141739

They also will make it at The Living Room bar.

Welcome to Viking and you’ve picked a great cruise to start with. We did it last summer and had a great time. If you haven’t been to Iceland before and can make it work with your time and budget, I highly recommend flying in early as you will only get a tiny taste of Iceland from your one port stop. I’ve included a picture of Gullfoss (Golden Falls) which is one stop on the Golden Circle tour-easily doable at various price points as a day trip from Reykjavik. And I wouldn’t get your hopes too high regarding Northern Lights-we were gone from the third week in July until the first week in August and never saw the sunset …which means it’s usually too light to see the northern ones. The other phot below was taken on night at midnight. This was as low as we ever saw the sun.

That’s how it was on Sky for the WC which was new to us. I assume (and I recognize what that may be making me) that it’s the new normal but would need someone on Star to confirm.

On the older ships, the pool grill becomes the noodle bar at dinner.

Hope you’re recovered from the shock of not having twice daily room cleaning (we aren’t!). Our asian cruise with Viking was one they aren’t doing anymore (I don’t believe). We sailed from Bejing (Tianjin), had a couple of stops in China, Okinawa and another stop in southern Japan and then Shanghai before ending in Hong Kong. So not sure our experience will give you much insight. Additionally, as this was our first trip to the region, we did most (all?) included excursions. Drop me a line at BigNCBear at aol dot com and let me know which ports your cruise is going to stop and we can see if there is any overlap.

Perhaps we just got lucky, but we never asked about cancelations, we would just pop by the Maitre’d stand and ask if they could find us a table. Sometimes they said if we came back in 30 minutes they would have a table or occasionally they asked for a minute to set up a table and ushered us in.

If you aren’t up to walking around but would like to get a taste of Iceland, I highly recommend spending the morning at Sky Lagoon. After the overnight flight with little to no sleep, it is great to be outside and enjoying the warm water soothing those muscles that weren’t used much during the flight.

If our experience on the World Cruise from LA to London was that the quality of Starlink service ranged from “meh” to awful. Had lots of trouble posting photos to our “live from” thread and sending emails with photos…can’t imagine trying to stream

Thanks!

Sorry. Should have said not a promo that cuts the price almost 50%

It does and I think I read your CC review last night. Interesting that using the special ops boat has to be licensed but tenders don’t? Oh well, rules is rules.

Thanks but have done that and there isn’t a promo on Antarctica.

We booked on August 23rd and as I recall, GenVisa’s deadline was in October for those of us boarding in Los Angeles. So no issue there. We also were ahead of excursions opening though we did have to hurry to figure out what we wanted to book when it became time (late September?). If you hear of a deal on the longitudinal, let me know! We are currently looking at either the Toronto-Fort Lauderdale or the Lauderdale to Santiago segments as at around $5000 for $15 to 18 days, they seem like a deal.

Almost always, a server or the manager will jump in and ask if you need assistance if they see you struggling. I am sure if you found your table and then asked the server that is responsible for your table to assist you they will do so with a smile. And if my experience is any indication, once they help you once, it’s unlikely you will have to ask again. They will see you and immediately come to your aid.

How easy and expensive did you find the self driving tour. Would love to do that but when I’ve looked at the price of accommodations, we have been scared away.

Welcome to the last minute club!

Was that forecast for the northern latitudes? Was that forecast for those latitudes? Based on our visit last July, even though the sunset at 10 or 11 pm and rose about 4am, it never really got dark so would think it would be difficult to see them.

We are thinking about booking Polaris for either Toronto to Fort Lauderdale or Lauderdale to Santiago. If anyone has any been on either of these itineraries, I’d appreciate hearing your thoughts. We think it would be a great way to try out the expedition ships at a great price. But after reading the few reviews of these, it seems that is the only real pro for doing so, most reviewers say there isn’t much use of the special equipment nor many interesting ports. Lastly, if anyone has done Viking’s overland excursion to Monte Pichu, would love to know its cost and whether you found it a good value. TIA!

Following along to keep up with our friends, VaGirl and her boytoy. Hope y’all have a great cruise!