NanciEA

I got an email today saying our itinerary for Sirena, (Jan. 13 departure) has been changed. There will no longer be an overnight in Havana (or a second day) because of a "berthing conflict". They have added a second day in Cienfuegos. I hope they don't drop Havana altogether as that is the main reason for our selecting this cruise. :(

We are not on the Oct. 7 voyage. I checked and our cruise next spring is out of the Ocean Terminal, so very close to the hotel Viking uses in Hong Kong. We will plan to give them our luggage to transfer and then tour on our own.

For our upcoming Viking cruise we have booked the two night pre-cruise hotel and tour package. All the itinerary lists on embarkation day is "After breakfast check out of your hotel and we will transfer you to your ship". We are wondering about possible transfer times and if we can do any touring on our own that day. Do all cabin categories transfer together? Does Viking ever transfer your luggage and you can arrive later on your own? It seems like somewhat of a "lost" day if all you do is transfer and check in. The port is Hong Kong. We still have time to cancel the pre-cruise package.

I will mention something here which other posters have not. We have done two Viking River cruises and one AMA. The big difference to us was AMA had a small fitness room, which we used. They also offered two biking excursions on a seven night cruise. Viking had neither of these options, thus we feel AMA is more directed towards "active" cruisers. This is NOT a criticism, it is just our preference. I emailed Viking after they came out with their new "longboats" and asked why they did not add a small fitness room and active (biking and hiking) excursions and their reply was "that is not the demographic we are aiming for".

I posted in this thread last spring. My husband and I ending up choosing Abercrombie and Kent. We went on their ten day trip this past January (2018) and had a wonderful experience. We spent two nights at the Mena House to see the sites in Giza, then four nights on a river cruise from Luxor to Aswan, with a day trip (plane flights) to Abu Simbel. The last three nights were at the Four Seasons in Cairo. We never felt unsafe. Both A&K and the Egyptian government required our tour to have an armed guard with us at all times, except on the ship, which had it's own guards. Even on our optional half day tour of Coptic Cairo, we felt safe. As has been said, now is the time to go as the crowds are low. The only crowded place was the Cairo Museum, but our wonderful guide maneuvered us around them.

Thank you so much for listing the step by step instructions. I have printed it out and will use it in the future to book my excursions. This is why I love Cruise Critic. Folks helping other folks with their travel plans!

We took a private guided walking tour with "Tours by Locals" in Helsinki. I'm sure Porvoo would be interesting, but I'd hate to miss seeing Helsinki. We really enjoyed it.

We just returned this week from Egypt. No umbrella needed. Sweaters and a jacket are definitely needed. I rarely did not have on a sweater, even in the southern most part of our trip. Our guide requested the women put their scarves over their heads in the two mosques we visited. We gave up on the small Egyptian pounds and my husband and I would enter the restrooms together and give them a dollar and say it was for both of us. We didn't mind as the toilets were flush, usually clean and western style. The only place we were annoyed was at the airports. (We were in numerous ones because we flew to Luxor and back to Cairo and also to Abu Simbel.) Seriously, asking for money to use the restrooms at the airports where EVERYONE has to use them seemed excessive to us. We took $200 in $1 and that was plenty for all cash payments.

I was the poster who wrote about the electronic visas. They worked great. Our transfer person said we were his first clients who had used them. I started to hand the immigration man my printed visas and he smiled and said it wasn't necessary as our visas were already in their system! I would highly recommend the governments electronic visa process.

Thanks so much for sharing! We're leaving this weekend for our Nile cruise.

We are booked on a 15 day segment, which is part of a much longer voyage. Are the passengers who booked the longer voyage able to book excursions for their entire trip all at one time? I guess I am wondering if the excursions I want to book will already be taken by those who are also on the previous 15 segment. I hope this questions make sense to someone. :)

One additional note which I did not realize is do not apply for your visa too far in advance. The three month time period starts from when they approve your visa application. Ours expire in mid-March. We are traveling in January.

We were on the Silver Galapagos last January and we did book the pre-cruise two night stay in Quito with Silverseas. We (by choice) arrived at 11:23pm on the Delta flight from Atlanta. By the time we got out of the airport, took the bus ride (with numerous other guests), got checked into the Marriott and fell into bed, it was around 1:30am. I knew the included Silverseas tour was from 5:00 to 7:00 pm, so I booked a tour to the equator with Metropolitan Tours. The JW Marriott has a link through their website. I could pick the time, so chose 11:00am. After our wonderful included buffet breakfast, we meet our guide and driver. The vehicle was new and clean. The woman who guided us was great and we had wonderful conversations with her on the way there and back (45 minutes each way). We told her we wanted to go to both equator sites, which was fine with her. We enjoyed both stops and our time with her. The rate was $128 total for the two of us. We tipped her and the driver. We also took the evening tour, but by then it was raining, colder, and during the second half of the tour, dark. We had made a reservation at the hotel for dinner and were glad we did. It was nice not to have to go back out after the included tour. The next morning was an early start as our flight to Guayaquil departed at 9:30am and the airport is quite a distance from the hotel. We were glad we booked the pre-tour with Silverseas because they got us to and from the airport on time, and the hotel was lovely. We are also glad we took the private, daytime tour.

I wanted to post an update on the online visas. (I posted earlier in this thread about the new availability to get Egypt visas online.) My husband and I are going in January so this week I went to http://www.visa2egypt.gov.eg to check out the website. DO NOT use any other site you might find doing a Google search. They are third parties and will charge you more. The official government site I listed charges $25 each for a single entry visa, the same as on arrival at the airport. I registered with a login and password, then created a new visa request for myself. It's a little confusing if you're traveling with a family member as under FAQ is says you should apply for a family visa if you are traveling with family members, but elsewhere it says every adult need their own visa. I just applied for my husband under a separate request, using my same login account. It only took a few minutes to fill out the info, which is mostly from your passport, plus the company you are traveling with. I uploaded and attached a copy of my passport photo page. (I have this stored on my computer as a pdf, so that was easy.) It was a little tricky when I went to pay with my credit card as they immediately denied the charge, so I had to call the card company to tell them it was okay to process the charge.

In less then 24 hours, I heard back from the website that the credit card charges were approved, and less then 12 hours later the visa was sent via email. I printed out the visa and also downloaded it to my phone in ibooks as a backup. I can also easily access it through my email. My husband's visa was equally as easy to obtain. It probably took me a little longer than just doing it at the Cairo airport, but now we have them and I feel good about that. Plus, I know I paid the "correct" price and won't have to have that cash on hand, plus the hassle when we're tired and jetlagged. :)

I wanted to post an update on the online visas. (I posted earlier in this thread about the new availability to get Egypt visas online.) My husband and I are going in January so this week I went to http://www.visa2egypt.gov.eg to check out the website. DO NOT use any other site you might find doing a Google search. They are third parties and will charge you more. The official government site I listed charges $25 each for a single entry visa, the same as on arrival at the airport. I registered with a login and password, then created a new visa request for myself. It's a little confusing if you're traveling with a family member as under FAQ is says you should apply for a family visa if you are traveling with family members, but elsewhere it says every adult need their own visa. I just applied for my husband under a separate request, using my same login account. It only took a few minutes to fill out the info, which is mostly from your passport, plus the company you are traveling with. I uploaded and attached a copy of my passport photo page. (I have this stored on my computer as a pdf, so that was easy.) It was a little tricky when I went to pay with my credit card as they immediately denied the charge, so I had to call the card company to tell them it was okay to process the charge.

In less then 24 hours, I heard back from the website that the credit card charges were approved, and less then 12 hours later the visa was sent via email. I printed out the visa and also downloaded it to my phone in ibooks as a backup. I can also easily access it through my email. My husband's visa was equally as easy to obtain. It probably took me a little longer than just doing it at the Cairo airport, but now we have them and I feel good about that. Plus, I know I paid the "correct" price and won't have to have that cash on hand, plus the hassle when we're tired and jetlagged. :)

I would suggest perhaps pre or post in Quito as there are numerous day trips from there which would be interesting. We stayed two nights pre-trip in Quito with Silverseas.

We found a cruise this past summer which we wanted to book. It was a 7 day cruise to Cuba in January, 2019 which worked great for us. All cabins were waitlisted a year and half out. We paid a deposit put our names on the waitlist and about three weeks later we had a cabin. I have assumed all along that since this was a short (Sunday to Sunday) cruise out of Miami that the cabins were being held for incentive/alumni groups. But then, I don't know why they would have released them so early?

Another option for the visa is now available online at: visa2egypt.gov.eg. This just became available within the last week. There is a long discussion on the Egypt forum on TripAdvisor. Most of those folks are reporting success and the cost is the same as on arrival - $25USD. The process after application apparently takes 12 to 48 hours. You print out the visa from an email and keep it with your passport. We're going in January and I plan to apply soon.

We did this cruise last January. (We loved it and I hope you do to.) Evenings were definitely casual. My husband did not take a tie. He wore a polo or dress shirt to dinners. I wore very simple dresses or black pants with low healed or flat sandals. We always like to change for dinner just to freshen up. This is a very active cruise where we spent our days hiking, kayaking and snorkeling.

After our cruise I wrote an honest review of our Viking River Cruise in Russia - both positive and negative. I believe this is what readers of Cruise "CRITIC" want to read. I did not expect any compensation from Viking. They reached out to me to ask some specific questions regarding the negatives I had writing about. It was all very cordial. At the end of our conversation they offer me $1000 ($500 per person) off of a future cruise, to be taken within 12 months. This was not possible for us for a variety of reasons. Remember, this was not our first Viking River Cruise and I had written a very positive review of our first cruise, so I think Viking wanted me to know they valued my opinion since we were repeat customers.

We did the Waterways of the Czars four years ago. This was about five months prior to Putin invading Ukraine. We had previously taken a river cruise in China with Viking, which we really enjoyed. Since then we have taken three trips with Tauck, although none of them river cruises. Tauck is top of the line and I would recommend them for any trip anywhere. I wrote a review (Viking Helgi) after our trip to Russia and listed the negatives and positives. Viking contacted me and offered us $1000 off a river cruise, but it had to be in the twelve months following, and we could not take them up on it.

As one other person mentioned, we actually really enjoyed the stops on the river outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg. We also enjoyed much of our time in the cities. We knew going in the ship would dock outside of town and that traffic would be an issue. There were several negatives which were unforeseeable. One of the cruise leaders was awful. She often fell asleep on the bus trips and someone had to wake her if there was a question! The cruise director was absent a great deal and the front desk kept saying he was "sick". Some of the bus trips had horrible planning concerning traffic. I even mentioned it once to the tour leader when we were once again sitting in traffic and her response was "this happens every cruise"! The food was fine, although we are not picky. The wine never changed the entire twelve days - same red and white at each meal. The audio video equipment never worked and the excuse was "it's the end of the season" (September). The ship was newly renovated, but the lounge where the briefings were done could only hold 2/3 or the passengers and some people just gave up coming.

I know it sounds like we didn't enjoy the trip, which is not true. Then again we have not taken another Viking River cruise and do not plan too. (The main reason is their lack of exercise rooms or active/biking excursions on the long ships.) We have booked a Viking Ocean cruise. Hope this helps.

New ships, but will they add a small exercise room, bicycles and bike tours? We switched to AMA and Avalon and won't return to Viking until they offer some "active" options on their river cruises.

We are booked on the Spirit/Orion for 2019. We've twice sailed on a different ship named Orion. The first was with an Australian company named "Orion Expedition Cruises" and later that same ship after it was purchased by National Geographic. Our first two Orion experiences were fantastic, so I assume the 2019 one will be as well! It's just confusing when telling people what ship we're sailing on as they will think we are back with National Geographic! I think I'll just say we are sailing with Viking Ocean cruises. I did receive an updated reservation form yesterday.

I don't particularly care what the folks in the brochure look like, but I sure do miss the maps of each cruise. I know I could look each port up on a map, or go online if a particular cruise caught my interest, but I enjoyed the visual of seeing ports and saying "Oh, that port would be an interesting stop".

Glenndale, You might want to check on the availability of the Viking Spirit cruises in May 2019. When we booked the Hong Kong to Tokyo segment in May it was filling up fast. As of today it is listed on the website as completely sold out. There are a few cabins left for the Tokyo to Vancouver segment, but mostly suites. Just a tip.

We did the pre-stay in Quito. Our flight (Delta from Atlanta) arrived late at night. I went to the JW Marriott website several weeks in advance and found a link to a tour company. I booked a tour to the equator for 11:00am with Metropolitan Tours (3 hrs.) Our guide was great and we visited both equator sites. We took the included city tour at 5:00. It stopped at the highlights of old Quito, including the statue on the hill. It was dark when we returned (7:30?). We had made a reservation to dine at the Marriott, which was a good decision, as we were still somewhat tired and it is an early start to the airport for the flight to Baltra.

I took my collapsible walking stick and I was glad I did. We always opted for the longer, more strenuous hikes, and I definitely was glad I had it, especially for the "rocky" one described above. I hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did. We cruised in January and the seas were like glass the entire week.