kctwinmommy

Some great bits of info in here, wonderful post!! We'll be in some of these ports next year, so good pictures and info to go along.

We're still stuck on deciding between Pompeii and Herculaneum! I've always wanted to see Pompeii, but I hear that Herculaneum is actually better in many ways. I was thinking of looking for a private company that might be able to take us to both. We'll see though...

On 1/13/2023 at 6:56 AM, OneSixtyToOne said:

Munich is a great airport. No crowds and we cleared passport control in less than 3 minutes. Much easier than connecting thru Frankfort.
 

Good to know! As I look at flights, I'm checking where the connections are. Having never flown through any of these cities as connecting flights (nor into any of them in about 30 years), not sure which is our best option. I'm actually trying to do a connection through NYC if I can.

Glad the search feature gave me a post that actually helped! We just booked this today, as a pre-extension, and it sounds like we made a good choice! Not 100% sure on which hotel we'll be in, as someone mentioned, the website says NJV, but our itinerary paperwork says Hilton. And like the poster said, the Hilton is closed until 2024. Of course, it's possible it opens in early 2024, and then we are there. We'll see!

We opted for this extension since this is our first Viking cruise, and we already planned on coming in at least a day or two early anyway. Having the Viking rep and help if needed will be a great way to get our feet grounded, if you know what I mean, before we jump on the ship. And like someone else commented, can be a great way to meet other passengers for our cruise.

1 minute ago, iamtrustworthy said:

Whta date did you pay your deposit?

I don't know, a few months ago...

5 minutes ago, iamtrustworthy said:

Hi Cindy,

 

When are you paying your deposit?

 

Steve Dasseos

We've already paid about 20% of it, we have to pay the rest of it by the end of the month.

1 minute ago, pmjnh said:

Hi Cindy,

yes, you have to call  them direct for the quote if the trip was not booked through Costco. They have 2 insurance programs, one for trips booked thoughnCostco and another for trips that you have booked elsewhere. Slight price difference slight difference inbenefit amount but still a better deal than any others I have found. 
the phone number is listed in the Costco travel website unter "travel insurance".

 

good luck

 

Thanks! We have a Viking cruise for next year, so looking at insurance for the first time.

We have our final payment due on our Viking cruise at the end of this month. And if you know Viking, it's not cheap. I know we want to buy travel insurance for it as well. But do we need to do it now? Our trip is still about 10 months away. I'd love to wait until this is paid off, then pay for that in like July if possible (college tuition is due in September, so need to space things out). But I want to make sure we're not making a mistake by waiting later. We've never bought trip insurance before, but obviously, this is a big trip.

Plus, we're still shopping around for policies, looking for ones that cover what we want and to get a good deal. Trying to find out more about the Costco one too, since we didn't book our trip through them.

Thanks!

On 5/31/2023 at 12:48 PM, pmjnh said:

I am very happy to have found this thread. I just spoke to Covermore as well a they do have a policy just for Costco members who have booked through another agency (not Costco). The price is a little higher and some of the parameters change slightly ...they also do ask the age of the travelers...only if the cruise was booked elsewhere. if the cruise was booked through Costco, no age needed to report.

 

Still a much better deal than some other company policies.

 

 

How did you book it if you don't have your trip booked through Costco? Is it only over the phone? I'd love to know their quote for our trip.

For me, yes. And I always made sure to get my money's worth. So that meant that when I was sitting poolside, if my drink got watered down, or warm, I went and got a fresh one. I would always have one waiting at the table for dinner (or shortly after I got there) every night. I know it's not good, but I tend to drink 2-3 sodas in a day anyway, so it is pretty much worth it for me. Now, the last cruise we took, we did a 5 day, where we'd be off the ship for 2 of those days. This was the first time I didn't get the soda package, we brought a 12 pack on the ship instead. It's just that for us, it's a pain to always get a 12 pack when we get to the hotel the night before.

I'll have to keep an eye on this thread, some good posts to come back and read. Thanks to all the people replying with good information!

28 minutes ago, CDR2001 said:

I’ve always received a former cruise PDF of excursions by using the Chat button. They email the PDF to me, with a note that prices and excursions are subject to change.

You were able to do that far in advance? Our cruise is a year away, so we certainly have time. But in the fall I'd like to be able to start price comparing to have some idea of what we're going to spend.

I agree with others here, I miss the roll calls here. I felt it was easier to follow and very specific. I did have one on the main social media site last year for our spring break cruise. We met a few people from it on an excursion actually, just by chance though. I'm also not a fan of sharing too much on there, as it's a more personal site. So while nobody really "knows" me here, I feel people are more civil here. We had a great one for our European cruise in 2017 and it's how we booked an independent tour for Omaha Beach which was amazing!

Nice to hear it went fairly well for you. I'm trying not to get too worried or stressed about booking ours next year. We have like 18 days worth of excursions to book, so I'll need to read up beforehand and plan which ones we really want to do and just make sure I try for the top of the list things first. I'm sure you're getting excited now!

3 hours ago, Philob said:

I think C only use one insurance company. If you go to an insurance broker like the ones mention on this forum you'll get comparisons between multiple companies and an actual IRL broker to ask questions and get answers.

I'm sure they do only use one. I'm trying to make sure I know what we would need for a secondary policy, as in, what's NOT covered by the Citi card, and can we get a policy to cover just those things. And I want to make sure dealing with two separate companies won't be a problem. Which is why we may end up just getting 1 policy.

I think a lot of people are just wanting to travel more than ever before. With the past few years of cancelled and delayed plans, people aren't waiting anymore. We pulled the trigger on a big one for us next year, Med. cruise on Viking! And as expensive as this one is, there are plenty of those cruises already sold out as well. We booked it a few months ago, so 16 months before we sail, and several cabin options were sold out. I know it doesn't help your situation, just what I'm noticing. Hope you can find something that works for you guys!

I was just coming to post this same question! We have the Costco Citicard and are putting our Viking cruise on it. I know they cover several things, but not sure if that's all we want to rely on!? It's a little confusing to me, so I'm just trying to figure out what we need. I want to make sure we're covered in case something serious happens, but also don't want to overspend on it either.

I have to keep researching and finding out more information it seems. I also had thought about getting an independent policy just to keep things simple and easy.

5 minutes ago, nh22 said:

Did the excursion include a city tour?  I cannot find an excursion that just has the beach.  We have small kids and I don't think they would appreciate the city tour!  

Ours was a snorkeling excursion. So we got of the ship and tendered over to the city docks. Then the excursion company had 2 boats we took out to Caye Caulker. On the way out there, they gave us a menu, each family/group wrote down their order. Then we stopped at the Lazy Lizard, they dropped off our orders, then we went to our 2 snorkeling spots. The first one was the more intense snorkeling. The second one was feeding the sharks. After we were done, we went back to the Lazy Lizard, people changed, and then our lunch was ready. We had about 30 minutes to wander around before heading back. So it had no beach time at all. The picture is what it looks like where we stopped at the Lazy Lizard.

Like the others said, take them to the first night of Circle C and get to meet others. Mine always went, then found people he wanted to hang with, and they did things the rest of the week. He would sometimes hang out with them in Circle C, or just walk around, eat lunch together, hang at the pool, etc... We always had ground rules for him (he had to be with us for dinner - the club is closed during those hours anyway, no going in other's cabins, nobody in our cabin, no going into places he wasn't supposed to, etc...). We let him stay at the club if there was a late night activity as well, as long as we weren't getting up super early for something important (this wasn't a problem on our Caribbean ones, more an issue in Alaska). I just would stay up and wait for him, that's just me.

As far as eating, let them try things, encourage them gently. It's a good time to try something since the portions are smaller for most things, and you're not exactly paying extra for it. I don't mean wasting it completely, but if someone else will eat it, then get it so they can try it too. Ours surprised me on the many things he would eat.

Hope they have a great time!

We had a great time on our Carnival Alaska cruise. We even had a very large school group (this amazing long summer trip they were doing through a school), and with those probably 100 kids, on top of the normal families with kids, we still had no problems. It's typically more expensive than Caribbean ones, along with the higher prices excursions, it limits the things you might see on those.

@Guest 2000- I think you quoted me by mistake. 😉 We all knew what we were doing on our snorkel, even for my first time. I was a little nervous, as I had never done it before. But I believe the OP is the one who "didn't know what they were doing."

Our 18 year old loved Mr. Sanchos when we went. Had some cocktails, several orders of guacamole, which he said was awesome. It was nice to just relax for the day. We didn't use any of the water toy things, that wasn't what we wanted to do. LOL!

We did an excursion to Caye Caulker through Carnival, just to be sure on things, and loved it!! It's a bit of a ride out there. We were off the ship pretty early in the morning and we were still some of the last tenders to get back on board. But it was an excursion, so no worries for us.

We did one through Carnival that was with Jolly Roger catamaran tours. It was a lot of fun and I was comfortable snorkeling for my first time. They kept the ship nearby, plus a guy in a kayak following along in case anyone got tired and needed a tow back. We weren't that far from the land, but it was perfect! I even got to see a sea turtle swimming, so much fun!

I'll have to follow along on this post. These are ports we're going to next year. Long time away, but want to have some ideas in mind as we plan along.

Yep, on our November cruise it was a charge. Not only that, they stopped selling it when the movie was "almost over." But apparently "almost over" meant with an hour left to go! And it was Top Gun Maverick, the deck was packed!