cocopico

I'm reluctant to ask the "tellus" folks this question, thinking it might be better to ask forgiveness than permission, but does anyone know if there is any Viking policy that would prohibit passengers from spending a night on shore, particularly if that night falls during a port change?  We are on one of the cruises that spend three days in Israel, but because the three days fall on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, many things we want to see are not going to be open because of the Sabbath closings from noonish on Friday to Sunday morning.  (I think Viking made a mistake on the timing of this cruise -- the cruise also starts in Rome on a Saturday and the day in Rome falls on a Sunday, when many of the Vatican sights are closed.)  We are wanting to spend the night in Jerusalem when the ship moves from Haifa to Ashdod, which is only an hour or so south.  I guess after reading all the horror stories about "cancellations" for not showing up, I wanted to be sure our spending a night ashore while the ship moves would not create a problem.   (I note that one of the Viking shore excursions in Israel actually involves an overnight in a hotel, but the overnight occurs while the ship remains in port.)  Anyone out there have actual experience with this?  Thanks!

4 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Second, there has been a name change for the department. It is now called "Viking Social" and there is no personal touch. Names are not signed on the e-mails and they come from a generic e-mail address. Ice cold. TellUs@vikingcruises.com still gets through but Viking Social responds.

 

I had the same experience today with the new, impersonal reply from Viking Social.  It was a prompt and helpful response, though, and they did wish me a no-doubt canned "lovely week ahead!" 🙂  

I think what you're seeing is pretty standard in terms of port times on Viking Ocean cruises. Unless there is an overnight stay in port, you generally get a full day in port to participate in excursions or explore on your own. On the four cruises I've done, the arrival and departure times on our cruise documents rarely changed unless there was an unexpected issue, such as bad weather or a late refueling, that required a last-minute alteration to the times listed. I must say, though, that we've always felt we had adequate time in the ports we visited, knowing that they had to leave sufficient time to get to the next port on time. (Of course, there were many places we would love to have stayed longer, but we knew going in how much time we would have.)

There are definite advantages to booking onboard and apparently the "deals" can change from cruise to cruise. We have booked onboard twice and the "deals" on the most recent were better than they were the previous time we met with the onboard cruise consultant. They "upped" the discount for the cruise and virtually doubled the OBC.

 

Cocopico is right, however, as the spaces on the cruise you hope to book can become very limited or even sell out. We had been hoping to book the Italy, Adriatic & Greece cruise for next summer but it was sold out. We booked Into the Midnight Sun instead and in retrospect I'm pleased things worked out that way ... not a fan of the heat and I imagine the weather will be much more to my liking in Norway than it would be in Athens!

Molymoo, we did the "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise this past summer and it was great. We had a bit of a heat wave in London, but the temps were great everywhere else. We've also done the Empires of the Mediterranean cruise in the "quiet season" and the weather couldn't have been better. We are doing another quiet season Mediterranean cruise next March/April and hoping for similar good weather. Plus, going during the quiet season cruises is cheaper. You might want to check out those offerings if you consider another cruise in the future.

That's the way to do it.

Usually works for me, but just yesterday Viking Air quoted me an upgrade fare hundreds of $ more for reasons nobody can explain, so I booked on my own direct with the airline. Getting a refund of the Air I bought with the cruise from Viking no problem but paid for the Viking transfers.

It is very important to shop around before using the service or committing to their offer.

I'll second that. I paid for the Air Plus, called with my desired reservations and was pretty quickly told the return flight out of Athens was not available on their contract. I was trying to avoid a 6:00 a.m. departure time on what I was sure would be the standard Viking Air flight -- a departure time that presumably would mean a disembarkation time of 3:00 a.m. at the latest. I was told that the flight over (a non-stop to Rome from Atlanta) was fine, and that the half of the return flight from Paris to Atlanta was also fine, but that the originating return flight from Athens to Paris that departed at 11:50 a.m. was "not available." When I asked if I could do anything (meaning "pay extra") to get that flight, I was told they would have to book the entire flight package outside the contract, which would result in an increase in fare of $1,800 (plus the added transfer fees for an additional $200). I guess for that kind of money I'll bite the bullet and get up in the middle of the night for our departure! In any event, I am watching prices on my own because I was told I can get a full refund of both the money I paid for the "included" air AND the Air Plus fee ($50/pp) if I cancel before the tickets are purchased, which is 75 to 90 days out from the cruise. In the meantime, I've kept my Air Plus reservations as a backup and will use those if I can't get reasonable tickets on my own by the cutoff time to cancel. One other lesson learned, you can't do anything about upgrading seats until the tickets are actually purchased, at least with Delta if you want Comfort Plus seats. Viking Air says they can't hold those seats at the time of reservation. That seemed strange but I called twice and got the same answer. And, to make it even more difficult, they won't purchase the airline tickets until the cruise has been paid in full. In my case, my payment is not due until December so they cannot/will not purchase the tickets until that payment is made. (I booked this cruise on our last cruise, so the payment is not due until 6 months before departure.) The bottom line: Viking Air Plus has many limitations so you can't assume they will get you your desired flights. In my case, when I go to the Delta website, the first itinerary that comes up when I plug in my travel plans, and the one that is the same price as the one Viking wants to put me on, isn't available. The desired flight is wide open as far as seats are concerned. Given those two factors (price and availability) I was sure it would be available but apparently not. Still, I think it is well worth it to use Air Plus if your flights are in fact available.

See this thread for some of the latest benefits to booking on board:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2655709&highlight=Booking+on+board+benefits

Scroll down that thread to see copies of some of the specific offers. The only real downside to waiting until your May cruise to book the 2020 cruise is that your cabin options may be limited or even sold out by then. You can periodically check availability of cabins as your next cruise date approaches, though, and decide whether you want to wait. We did this on our last cruise (waited to book until we were on board) and were fortunate to get one of the cabin locations we wanted. We also booked a cruise for 2020 where cabin choice was already severely limited. So, whether you gamble and wait to book until you are on board may depend on the popularity of the cruise you are interested in.

Thank you so much for giving your comments. I so appreciate the advice. My husband spoke with Viking this afternoon and the helpful agent did recommend Deck 6 forward, specifically 6000. But happy to hear that 5082 was recommended as well. Sounds like either option would be fine.

As mentioned above, we are big fans of the PV1’s on deck 6 forward, but we’ve never been in the very front cabins (6000/6001). I know some folks have been a little concerned about the proximity of 6000/6001 to the “wings” that protrude from either side of the bridge. For a discussion of all those issues and photos, see this thread:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2642110&highlight=Cabins+to+avoid

(Note also that 6000/6001 are not really the most-forward cabins as there is a cabin between the front passenger cabin and the bridge for the captain.

We’re big fans of the PV1 cabins on deck 6 forward, having sailed on three cruises up there. They seem to be very quiet and there is less traffic in the hallway. The forward elevators don’t seem to be used as much, so that’s another plus. You are at the opposite end of the ship from the restaurants, but the walk helps burn some of the calories! We’ve never experienced any significant motion issues. As for doors and windows, there are two different configurations in the PV cabins: one with a fixed door and picture window combination and the other with a sliding door. We prefer the sliders. On deck 6 forward, the cabins with slider doors are 6000, 6001, 6006, 6007, 6008, 6009, 6014 and 6015. Not sure about the configurations on deck 5, but you can ask a Viking rep and they can tell you.

We were on a 6:30 a.m. flight out of Bergen at the end of the Midnight Sun cruise this summer. We used Viking Air and were afraid we would end up with a 3:00 a.m. disembarkation time. We were pleasantly surprised that we got to sleep in -- until 4:30 a.m.! Viking is quite used to early disembarkation times and ungodly early shuttles to the airport, particularly when using their chosen flights. I'm sure part of the calculation on disembarkation time is the time it takes to get to the airport and the size of the airport (time it takes to get through security). They basically got us to Bergen airport at 5:00 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. flight out and we had plenty of time to spare. This is our second experience with the Viking-provided free air that resulted in a very early departure and a very long wait at the connecting airport (this time it was almost 5 hours in Amsterdam, connecting to Atlanta). I think Viking Air Plus (custom flights) is definitely in our future . . .

No worries -- the only entertainment at meals is if someone inadvertently spills their wine! :)

I had a similar experience, albeit for a lot less money, with an onboard credit of a couple hundred dollars that was supposed to be refunded to me. Instead of just crediting it back to my credit card (which the folks on the ship said would happen) the "home office" mailed a paper check. It took three weeks to get the refund. I always find this amazing considering Amazon issues refunds typically when the package containing the returned item is dropped at the shipper -- they don't even wait until they receive it before putting it back on your card or crediting your Amazon account. Given that Viking is happy to take your credit card or even an electronic payment directly from your bank account, they don't seem all that interested in taking advantage of the same means to provide a refund. (Although I will say that shore excursions booked and cancelled before a cruise typically do result in credits on the credit card rather than the issuance of a check.) I guess with all those new ships in the pipeline they need the "float" of delayed refunds!

I haven’t been on the Sun, but I suspect the entertainment/satellite package is the same on all ships. It was the same on Star, Sea and Sky.

How can you determine prior to the cruise if your cabin has a sliding door or fixed with window? We are on the Orion in PV 6007 for the Nov. 4 sailing. Thanks!

When we enquired about this prior to booking a future cruise, we were told that of the forward Deck 6 PV cabins, the following have slider doors: 6000, 6001, 6006, 6007, 6008, 6009, 6014 and 60015. We’ve been in both slider and fixed door cabins on deck 6 and prefer the ones with sliders for reasons I mentioned in an earlier post in this thread. That’s not to say, though, that there is anything wrong with the fixed-door option — we are back in one of those on our next cruise because there were no sliders available and we wanted to be on deck 6 forward.

Where is the planetarium located?

Upper level of the Explorers Lounge on deck 8, I believe.

All of the floor plans on the Viking website reflect identical floorplans, but that doesn't mean there won't be some changes on Jupiter. Hopefully it will have the planetarium that was first featured on Orion (and Orion's floorplan on the website doesn't reflect the planetarium either). I'm sure the basic floorplan will remain the same as the other ships in the Ocean fleet, but I suspect there will be some changes that do not require a revision of the basic floorplan. (We'll be on board for the March 2019 Cities of Antiquity/Holy Land cruise so I guess we'll know soon!)

Are you in a Penthouse Suite (PS) or Penthouse Veranda (PV)? If PS, I wouldn't worry about getting up in the middle of the night to book your shore excursions. Even in a PV cabin I can't imagine you would have a problem getting your desired excursions if you book on opening day. We have been in a PS cabin once and PV cabins twice and never got up in the middle of the night to book excursions. We typically book around 9:00 a.m. Eastern time and have never been closed out of any optional tours (or failed to get our preferred time for included tours). Maybe we've just been lucky, but I tend to go back and look at the status of various excursions after I've booked and I don't think I've ever seen one sold out until the DV cabins starting booking. Again, that's just my experience, so your results may vary. And, if you put all your desired excursions in your Wish List, you can buy them all at once when your booking date arrives.

We had better luck with our “luggage tendering” experience in Greenwich, but it did take a couple hours for our luggage to arrive in our room. I’m sure they hold the luggage barge until they have a significant load of luggage — presumably to lessen the number of barge trips they have to pay for. I was a little surprised that smaller batches of bags couldn’t go on the tenders taking passengers to the ship, but I’m sure that’s a contractual issue. Below is a picture of the barge with our luggage aboard. They could have used a few more folks to help with the unloading! [emoji846]

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I’m not really sure I understand how the “last sailing” of a particular ocean itinerary would impact supplies on an Ocean cruise. Your Mediterranean Odysey cruise may be the last (or only) cruise of that itinerary on a particular ship, but that ship will immediately set sail on another itinerary somewhere else and the supplies on board should not be affected. Maybe some river ships end a season and I could see that affecting supply levels, but that shouldn’t be the situation with ocean cruises — they are always going somewhere. I’ve never personally experienced any kind of shortage on any of the Ocean cruises I’ve been on, but I guess the location of a particular ship could affect the types of supplies on board, particularly with food items, but then I think local sourcing of some food or drink items might be considered a “feature” not a problem. In any event, and just based on my experience, I don’t think you should have any problems with inadequate supplies on your cruise.

There doesn’t seem to be a lot of consistency here. When we previously cancelled optional excursions BEFORE the cruise (and the closing of the pre-boarding booking period) we got credits back on our credit card, rather than credits to our account. When we cancelled on board, we got credits added to our onboard account. We had a credit balance at the end of our most recent cruise, which we were initially told would go back to our credit card, but that didn’t happen. I called after a couple of weeks to inquire as to status and was told the refund would come in the form of a check from Viking. It took about three weeks for the check to arrive.

I think the only way you can do that is if you actually cancel the excursion and then re-book using your onboard credit. Of course, that may also result in your getting closed out of a sold-out shorex. On the other hand, the credit can be used for the gratuities (assuming they are not pre-paid or otherwise included in your tour).

Yes, thanks for that posting of cabins to avoid. I had noticed the ones with overhang. We are looking specifically at 5009, a few cabins behind the bridge overhang. Just wondering about the motion of the ship in high seas and the clanging of the anchor chain. BTW, I have noticed that some PV cabins have a slider door and others have a hinged door and fixed window with a wall between, breaking up the view. Also, in our opinion, the slider is better as it can be opened to different amounts and not have to be "propped" open. 5009 is slider, 5011 is hinged, at least it looks that way!

We have been on deck six in PV cabins between the front elevator bank and the bridge on three cruises. We have never experienced any noise related to the handling of the ship. During rough seas we would occasionally feel a minor rhythmic “bumping” but it was almost imperceptible and was by no means an issue. We like being in the front of the ship because there seems to be less foot traffic and the elevators are generally less busy, even on a full cruise. Plus, it provides some needed exercise when walking to and from the World Cafe or restaurants downstairs!:) As for sliders vs fixed doors, we’ve been in both and greatly prefer the slider. It provides easier access to the veranda, especially if you’re carrying anything out there (like food on a room service tray). (You mentioned propping the door open but keep in mind that the heating and air conditioning system will not work if the door is not completely closed and latched.) The fixed door and window option also puts a blank wall right in the middle of your view. Hope this helps. I think you’ll be happy with 5009.

We used it on our recent “Midnight Sun” Cruise (same one you were on, apparently 🙂) and it worked pretty well. Very similar to what’s available on the cabin TV, but even more info. One interesting thing is that you can pull up all the menus in the Dining Room and World Cafe days in advance (and perhaps for the entire cruise). I don’t think that was available on the TV except for the day you view it, but I could be wrong.

FYI...This excursion is also offered as a round-trip, same-day visit from Haifa to Jerusalem:

Eternal Jerusalem & the Yad Vashem Museum 7:15am-7:45pm $149/pp

Great - thanks!

This is really good to know. Since our Nov. 4th cruise is already sold out (not surprising), hopefully we will be able to book the excursion we want. Thank you for the recommendations, too....will take a closer look.

Hi, can you tell me whether any of the shore excursions from Haifa on your cruise include a round-trip, same-day visit to Jerusalem, either on your own or as part of a guided tour? I know there will likely be one from Ashdod, but was curious about Haifa. Thanks!

You would think that they would have timed things better. This is not the first time they are calling in Israel.

 

In Israel, the weekend is Friday and Saturday, so the car rental places will be closing early on Friday if they are open at all and they will be closed completely on Saturday. Even if you could find a place open on Friday, there would be no way to return the car on Saturday.

That was my point exactly. On the online itinerary it shows the first day in Ashdod and the following two days in Haifa, but the actual itinerary with the invoice has that reversed for some reason. Really poor planning, I think, to be in Israel on Friday and Saturday given the many closures on Friday afternoon and Saturday. That's why I am hoping Viking will at least "sponsor" transportation to Jerusalem from both ports, or at least offer an "on your own" excursion like they do from the port to Rome in Italy -- you basically just pay for the bus but no tour. Worse comes to worst, we'll rent a car in Haifa Friday morning and return it Saturday afternoon at Ben Gurion Airport (the only place the rental car offices are open on Saturday) and then take a sherut from the airport back to Haifa.