puppymama1

Trying to decide whether to do the Viking excursion to the Maritime and western approaches museums after the Beatles experience excursion or do those museums on our own... Since it looks like both are reasonably close to where the ship docks, the only advantage to using Viking might be to avoid a long line to get tickets and get inside.... Were there long lines to get in when you were there? Would you recommend doing the Viking tour instead of just visiting the museums on your own? Thanks!

Mick's tour in Belfast sounds wonderful... I cannot find his cancellation policy on his website. The problem I am encountering when I look at independent tours for our August 2024 cruise is that most of the ones I have seen do not offer a refund if the ship doesn't dock... which unfortunately seems to happen frequently on this cruise, so we are very hesitant to book anything without a cancellation refund policy..

I am a big Beatles fan so I definitely want to do a Beatles tour in Liverpool...

I was looking at an independent tour for Liverpool for our cruise in august… but the one I found does not provide a refund in the event the ship doesn’t dock. While I fully understand that from her point of view, from what I have read of past cruises, unfortunately missing ports because of weather seems to be a common problem. We don’t want to pay for her very pricy tour if we don’t actually do it. What have others done in regard to independent tours? We have this same issue with independent tours in other ports on this cruise also. Does Viking’s insurance cover that? Thanks!

We have booked the Nuremberg excursion for our Romantic Danube cruise in May.. I could not find another tour (not through Viking) that would get us from Regensburg to Nuremberg. I am also more hesitant to book private tours on river cruises because you never know when the departure time or dock location will be changed due to river conditions. If anyone has done this excursion with Viking, do you know if it is possible to see the War Memorial on your "free time in the afternoon"?

Any recommendations for a Belfast tour that would include a stop at the Bushmills distillery? I know my husband would like to see that if possible... thanks!

Finally! The refund was posted to our credit card today! For those still waiting for your refunds, keep asking about them… there is hope!

My email to Guest Services manager did bounce back too... I re-sent the email to the others, including Carol Cabezas.. I didn't hear back but my travel agent, who was also moving up the food chain on his contacts, did hear back and gave them the credit card number. I haven't seen the credit yet, but hopefully it will come through in the next few days.

Good for you! I emailed her on Monday… no response. I will resend the emails tomorrow….

For those of us trying to get refunds and dealing with Azamara's unresponsiveness, I don't think we feel too much energy has been wasted on this post.... In the US, according to Azamara's terms & conditions, you are entitled to cancel your cruise at any point up to 120 days prior to embarkation, and only pay $75/person cancellation fee. At least those were the terms on my booking when I booked this cruise in 2022. Any reputable company would stand behind their own policies and not just refuse to answer phone calls, nor tell someone there was nothing to be done to expedite a refund.. call back in 4 weeks.. That screams of a complete lack of customer service, not caring about your customers and is, to me at least, a very big red flag. I have worked as a Controller of several manufacturing companies during my 46 year working career and I am very familiar with the fact that thankfully there are consumer protections in place for customers to dispute credit card charges when a merchant is unresponsive. Once you dispute the charge, the credit card company will contact the merchant regarding the chargeback, and it is up to the merchant to show why the chargeback should be reversed...and the merchant has a limited amount of time in which to respond before the chargeback is finalized. I don't think any credit card company would look favorably on being told "check back with us in 4 weeks".

I sent a message on their Facebook page yesterday but haven’t received any reply yet. Can you let me know where you found the email addresses for the Guest Services Manager and the Chief Administrative and Information Officer? I think I will send everyone I can find an email…probably not that it will do any good but at least I can try. Thanks!

We cancelled our October 17 cruise back on April 27... despite my continued harassment of our travel agent, they have still been unable to get anything other than a "we are working on it" and most recently the TA's sales rep is "trying to get an answer". Our TA is a friend of ours, so I know they are doing the best they can... This is absolutely ridiculous...

We have done two Viking ocean cruises and are going on our first river cruise next week - Paris to Normandy. We want to book a Danube cruise for 2024 - either May or June, hoping water levels and weather will be good at that time of year. There are 8 different ships to choose from on various dates during those 2 months... Just wondering if one might be better than the others? I know they are all very similar, if not identical... just trying to narrow down our choices.... The ships we can choose from are Gullveig, Atla, Var, Egil, Jarl, Tor, Idi and Alsvin. If anyone has recently sailed on one of those, please share your opinions and experience.... thanks!

Would May or June have a better chance of “good” water levels on the Danube than October? We are planning way ahead for our 2025 river cruise on the Danube. Thanks!

We will be arriving the day before we embark on our Viking Paris to Normandy cruise in May.. Our flight is scheduled to land at 7:25 am on a Wednesday morning... Looking for a recommendation for a reliable transfer company to pick us up at the airport and bring us to our hotel in Paris. I assume the traffic will be bad at that hour so we would rather be booked with a flat rate than try to get a taxi at the airport... Thanks!

I think so too... it might end up more expensive, but at least I won't be looking at prices after coming back from a long day of touring... It is a 10 night cruise... thanks!

We do both need it at the same time... or we would be fighting over it.. LOL! We both like to relax in the evening by doing email, etc...

Thank you! Since my Diet Coke and my husband's cappuccinos will be included, we are trying to decide whether to get one of the upgraded beverage packages, or either the enjoyment package or indulgence package... We definitely need the internet package for both of us, so it might be worth getting one of the combination packages. We will usually have a couple of cocktails during the evening but that's all the alcohol we would drink... Any idea how much a Bailey's would cost? I know that is only included in the Ultimate beverage package....

Would Diet Coke be included all day long or only at lunch and dinner? I don't drink coffee so I usually have Diet Coke with breakfast and another one in the afternoon before dinner... thanks!

About to book our tours for our October, 2023 Azamara Israel Intensive cruise... We want to do the Glorious Jerusalem tour one day and the Dead Sea/Masada tour the next day... We will be there on Sunday and Monday... and were planning to do the Jerusalem tour on Sunday, but were wondering if the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Church of All Nations might be closed to visitors on those days because of church services... would it be better to do the Dead Sea/Masada tour on Sunday and the Jerusalem tour on Monday, or does it not matter? Thanks!

We decided instead to just take a taxi to the hotel, and then we are going to do a guided tour of the Army Museum. My husband is a history buff and is looking forward to that... Thanks!

We will be arriving in Paris the day before we embark on our Seine river cruise. Wondering if anyone has a recommendation for a tour guide that would pick us up at the airport, show us around for the day and then drop us off at our hotel? Or is that not something that is doable in Paris? We have been to Paris for the day once before, so don’t need to go back to the Louvre or the Eiffel Tower… just want to see some of the things we haven’t seen yet…. Thanks!

That is beautiful! I know what you mean about not being able to change his picture… my profile picture (and the background on my computer) are still the 2 pups we had before Katie… they’ve been gone 5 and 6 years now, but I can’t change their picture either. ❤️

Thank you erby2283! Love your profile picture… looks just like our baby Katie!

Where did you get the thing for a man to carry things instead of in a wallet?