ropomo

As long as the hair care appliances don't wear jeans, ball caps or tennis shoes in the restaurant, Manfredi's or chef's table for dinner, I'm down with it. Oh, I forgot robes. 😜

I did it a few weeks ago. Was told by the rep on the phone that they have no problem doing it as long as final payment has not been made.

I suspect that you won't have issues with booking the sub excursions now that Viking is charging $499 pp for those that booked their cruise after 4/1/23. At that price point, I would think demand may drop a bit. That said, sub outings were available on a same day basis on our recent Great Lakes cruise. At boarding they were all booked but freed up as the cruise went on. It may however be related to reports from participants that they didn't see anything. For the Great Lakes it sounds like it's only a check the box for having been in a submarine. I do not have firsthand experience and report what fellow pax told me.

hook baited, waiting for a strike, sorry, feeding frenzy... blood in the water

A warning about the charging position on the nightstand on expedition ships. My wife has a Citizen ecodrive watch. On our recent Polaris cruise, we discovered that if she placed her watch on the charging spot on the nightstand, it interfered with its operation and it gained or lost time (we didn't bother to figure out which). Regardless of watch brand or model, probably a good idea to not put it on the charging area of the nightstand.

The Nordic balcony is necessitated by the constraints of the locks in the Welland Canal connecting Lake Ontario to Lake Erie. The ship has 6" of clearance on each side as it passes through the 8 locks. The expedition ships also have no bridge wings. The alternative would have been to take the space from the interior of the cabin. After our passage of the canal and locks, the crew was busy touching up the paint on Polaris (there were several scraps that could be heard). The ships were purpose built with the ability to transit these locks a primary consideration. We were in a window seat in Manfredi's when we transited one of them and it was a bit disconcerting how close we were. While we couldn't sit out on a veranda, we thoroughly enjoyed the Nordic balcony. There is a wide interior ledge capable of holding a drink, binoculars, or whatever and at a height that was quite comfortable for me (6+ ft) and my wife (5' 4") to comfortably lean on and peer out and wave when appropriate.

The subs operate in the Great Lakes, just not in US waters. US requires the equipment and operators to be US citizens and equipment (this is according to what an expedition staff member told us). Viking had to replace all of their non-US sourced kayaks with US manufactured ones on Polaris just before its inaugural Great Lakes cruise this summer. While on this cruise, we saw Viking donating the foreign built ones to a local nonprofit (again told by staff member)

We were just on Polaris in the Great Lakes. The only thing mandatory is the life jacket in your stateroom. Our experience on 4 zodiac outings was that it all depends on the weather. There were some sunny very warm days where shorts and a t-shirt were sufficient. Other days when it was a little cooler, a light jacket was fine (I was fine on those days with a long sleeve shirt). The top speed of the zodiac is about 17 knots when fully loaded, but most of the time was spent putting around near the shoreline observing things. It really depends on whether you are cold or warm natured. In any case, the outings only last about an hour, so regardless you won't be uncomfortable too long.

This may be unique to Expedition ships, but on our recent Great Lakes cruise, when seeking additional information, Guest Services was only able to read back to us the information that we already had from the website/printed description. Our concern was an excursion that we got cancelled that was rated as Moderate, Viking unilaterally moved us to one was rated as Demanding. We opted to go and find out the reality. Turned out to be just Moderate. All's well, but you never know.

Not to belabor this issue but, as potential advice to others to avoid this situation in the future. Last year we were booked on Viking Mississippi (one of the first scheduled cruises). Unfortunately, we were informed a few weeks before embarkation that the cruise was cancelled because the ship was not yet ready (we already had our luggage tags). We were offered cash or vouchers with bonus. I sent an email to Steve at tripinsurancestore.com and outlined all information that I felt was relavent. About 30 minutes later he called me and educated me on all the ins and outs of the vouchers. He indicated that with the proper documentation, the base value of the vouchers could be insured with a third party. Documentation included proof of original payment, documents from Viking showing cancellation and rolling to voucher and new booking information. The important thing after this is to identify the initial payment date as the deposit date of the cancelled cruise. He then recommended several policies for our review. Steve is very helpful and knowledgeable and frequently has "town forums" here on CC. I suggest anyone making decisions about vouchers and unsure of exactly what they are doing to reach out to an expert.

Just off Polaris. Talking to our server, there are three Manfredi's menus that change approximately every 90 days. The sequence may vary by ship. It is what it is.

The included Frazer Bay Okeechobee trail hike was very enjoyable (not to be confused with the peak hike). It was about 2 miles round trip along the shoreline that included scrambling/climbing over some boulders (some climbs were 20-30 ft elevation change). It might not be practical for someone with mobility challenges, although there were some in our group on a cane and managed with support/help from significant other. Viking classifies this excursion as demanding, but I would put it at moderate if you don't have an issue with the scrambling. It is a round trip hike so if you don't feel you can continue, you can either return to the dock (the trail is extremely well marked and no chance of getting lost) or wait for the group to return. The views from the top of some of the rock outcrops were very good with the hike turn around point providing a very nice view of the ship and surrounding coastline. Shoes with good traction on rocks are highly recommended. Upon returning to the dock/lodge Viking had an outdoor lunch set up with music, burgers and lobster rolls along with beer, wine and soft drinks that was very nice. If interested in the lunch, it was open to anyone on board by taking a zodiac to the lodge. Frazer Bay is not really a tender stop. You can only go ashore by zodiac.

I would also NOT recommend the Wine, Cheese and Beer excursion in Algoma. It's an optional excursion that we paid $59 pp. It is a walking tour. The winery is about 150 yards from the security checkpoint at the pier. The beer is about 2 blocks from there. The wines were all very sweet and not to our palate. The winery tour consisted of walking past some fermentation tanks and an in-depth discussion of their custom-built bottling machine followed by a look at the tunnels where they age their wine. There were about four stops along the way to get a taste of a different wine. The beer/cheese was in a converted service station where you sit with the group and are served a tray with 4 different beers (about 2 oz each) and 4 cheeses that are paired with the beer. Two of the beers were extremely sweet (cherry and chocolate flavored) and I couldn't drink more than a sip of each. The other two were ok. I don't think they produce the beer there. If you wanted to do this you could probably just merge in with the group at the pier and tag along for free.

See post #131 and beyond on this thread

Keep in mind that it stays light late in the summer in Alaska. You could arrange to do all sorts of things. The Exit Glacier is nearby, Kenai Fiords also accessible.

On Polaris now for Toronto to Duluth. World Cafe is very large, I'd guess half of deck 5. No problem finding seats and not be on top of each other. The Grill is part of the World Cafe.

It's not done with the phone app. You take a photo with your phone or camera. The My Viking Journey website has the check in there and will prompt you to load and resize the photo. If you access the MVJ website from your phone, you will be able to do the check in there and grab the photo from your phone. Otherwise, you will have to transfer the photo to your computer to complete the process.

You should get an email with them about 14 days out, that's what we experienced a couple of weeks ago

I would like to see a circumnavigation of Ireland with several overnights. Viking seems to only hit two stops in Ireland in their current line up.

Agree with poster above. At most you will go through Passport Control. We flew through Toronto enroute to Bergen via Copenhagen in 2019 and that's all we did. Painless and less than 5 minutes. Electronic scan of Passport and no human interaction. Security personnel let you pass once you got a green light on the kiosk you use to scan Passport.

It seems to be intermittent for me. If I do a refresh and wait a bit it usually loads. If not I refresh again and it eventually loads

Another possibility if you are not in a V category stateroom is that since your cruise is in 2024, reservations aren't available for anyone yet.

For those booking after April 1, 2023, the sub excursions are no longer included. They are currently listed at $499 on our June 10, 2023 Great Lakes Collection cruise for those reserving after the cut off date. To clarify, it's for those booking the cruise after the cut off date, not the excursion.

your link appears to be to your personal gmail account. Unless you plan to provide your login credentials, I don't think we can see it.

This may be common knowledge, but for those that don't take the time to read the details of the trip insurance they buy, "Medical Evacuation" doesn't necessarily mean what you think it means. Many policies state in the coverages, that Medical Evacuation is transport to the nearest hospital or qualified medical facility, not necessarily home. Again, reading the policy before purchasing is critical to ensure that you are getting what you think you are.