Clay Clayton

I also hadn’t realized that the new ships were going to have azipods unlike their older smaller sisters.

This was the case on the World Cruise on Sky this past winter/spring.

https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/shipbuilding-equipment/fincantieris-ancona-yard-floats-out-viking-vesta?utm_campaign=SC_News_Seatrade Cruise News Weekly Update_NL_07052024&utm_emailname=SC_News_Seatrade Cruise News Weekly Update_NL_07052024&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eloqua&utm_MDMContactID=db60c4e4-0afe-4832-ad88-83806cef368f&utm_campaigntype=Newsletter&eM=fe6114d63ee1af637c116a68ad60731963dbb02f790981a727f86217fc60c39d&eventSeriesCode=ES_SEATRDCRSCTNT&eventEditionCode=MTM00SCC&sessionCode=S_STRDCRSNEWS&sp_eh=fe6114d63ee1af637c116a68ad60731963dbb02f790981a727f86217fc60c39d

In our experience (which does not include Rome), the departure time is when they expect to leave the ship. Typically, if asked to meet onboard, the meeting time is 15 minutes prior to the excursion time, if meeting on the pier it will be the listed excursion time. Information on when and where to meet will be on page three of the Viking daily which will be in your stateroom after dinner the night prior to the excursion. Again, based on our experience (though not in Rome) they expect to have you back to the ship at 4:15. But on daylong tours like this, we have often gotten back later than this posted time due to traffic, crowds, or other factors. Additionally on at least two occasions I remember, due to traffic being not as bad as expected, we were taken to an unplanned sightseeing location so that the trip took the full amount of time promised. If you wish to leave any excursion, it is allowed just be sure to tell the guide (and we always tell others on the tour in case the guide forgets) that you’re leaving and will make your own way back to the ship.

So sorry to hear of the incident in Bergen. Hope you won’t let one wayward teen ruin your view of the whole city….we encountered nothing but great folks when we were there last summer. Safe travels tomorrow!

Thanks!

It does. Thanks! I recall similar comments from the post I now can’t find. It seems others posted about an issue with noise depending on location along the hallway.

I know I read a post about which of the rooms on this deck were noisy and which weren’t, but I sure can’t find it now😡. Would love thoughts on the pro/con of particular rooms in this category. TIA

The barbershop, convenience store and restaurants were all in Bejing prior to us joining the Viking pre-extension. I suspect you’re right about the souvenir shops as those were with Viking.

This info is from 2019 so perhaps it’s changed but we used ApplePay on our phones and never changed any currency. My Visa card is the default credit card loaded into ApplePay and we used it at restaurants, convenience stores, food stalls, souvenir shops, and a barber shop. Admittedly, our number of uses was small as we had prepaid a Chinese travel agency for an individual tour before we joined the Viking pre extension so most of the time we didn’t have to pay directly.

Luckily the orange power is supposed to wash off when it rains (according to the vandals).

I was told those were not heaters just decorative and they certainly didn’t have them on when we were in Norway.

Heaters? What heaters? I’ve been suggesting that they add them to make the outdoor space more useable in the northern climes

Sky has drawers in the closet. Was onboard for the World Journey and made good use of them. 😂

Second everyone’s recommendation for Geiranger, especially being up on deck for the sail in. The sail out is also beautiful, we enjoyed it from the Aquavit. Below are pictures from last summer. in Bergen, after Viking canceled the expensive excursion to Greig’s House and the 1pm concert, we walked through town to the Kode Museum where we took their shuttle to the house. It was a great day! https://www.kodebergen.no/en/whats-happening/concerts/summer-concerts-at-troldhaugen Have a great cruise!

My thoughts (hopes) exactly.

Looks like Hagen was telling the truth about his ownership😁 https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/finance-legal-regulatory/how-vikings-post-ipo-ownership-shakes-out?utm_campaign=SC_News_Seatrade Cruise News Weekly Update_NL_06112024&utm_emailname=SC_News_Seatrade Cruise News Weekly Update_NL_06112024&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eloqua&utm_MDMContactID=db60c4e4-0afe-4832-ad88-83806cef368f&utm_campaigntype=Newsletter&eM=fe6114d63ee1af637c116a68ad60731963dbb02f790981a727f86217fc60c39d&eventSeriesCode=ES_SEATRDCRSCTNT&eventEditionCode=MTM00SCC&sessionCode=S_STRDCRSNEWS&sp_eh=fe6114d63ee1af637c116a68ad60731963dbb02f790981a727f86217fc60c39d

See my responses after your questions.

We have always gone on a day early and the easiest and cheapest for us was to rent a car at LAX and drop it off in San Pedro. This let us do some sightseeing the day before boarding and then the morning of the cruise, we dropped off the luggage at the ship before returning the car. We then had a nice stroll to the pier-Uber was our backup if it had of been raining.

As mentioned previously, both of this year’s World Cruises docked at Phu My. Viking provide a shuttle to the Opera House in HCM City. The port provides a shuttle from the dock to the port gates which is where any independent tours will pick up and drop you off. If you’re there overnight, highly recommend booking a hotel in the city, relatively cheap and saves anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half each way. Traffic can be awful and hence the wide range of times you are seeing. Just for fun, here is a video of us on Sky waving to Neptune as we passed each other as we left and she arrived at Phu My. IMG_2976.mov

Never say never. We have decided we will wait and see if there are any promos later this fall. If we went one cruise earlier the cost is $1000pp less and while it has a great deal more staterooms available, there are still a lot empty on the 12th so 🤞

We have some friends from the World Cruise who are going on Octantis on Jan 12 and we are considering changing our currently booked March Buenos Aires to Barcelona to join them. But had hoped to get our other friends to come along but at least one of them is pretty set on flying to Antarctica.

We have friends who we are trying to convince to take Viking to Antartica with us but they are worried about not actually landing. They are looking at the NatGeo cruises that start with an expensive flight to Antartica which is beyond our budget. Other than diversions due to medical evacuations, I don’t recall any cruises that didn’t make a landing on Antartica-can others confirm? TIA!

No problem. Just paying it forward!