claranda

It’s a few years since I was in Egypt and Jordan, but I know things are pretty dire in Egypt and tips are much appreciated. To get an idea of the overall picture (and I think this might convince even the most anti-tipping Aussie - which I can see you are not!) read this: https://marahouseluxor.com/tipping-in-egypt/

We’ve not sailed in Alaska but most of our cruises, starting in 2010, have been on Seabourn. We did an experimental Med cruise with Viking in Oct 21 when they were still testing every day for Covid and the ship was half full - not sure to what extent the extra space contributed to our enjoyment - but we are sailing again with Viking in May. We’re early 70s now, enjoy good food and wine and do more independent travel than cruising. To some extent your age, the things that are important to you, and your travel patterns will impact on which cruise line appeals to you. We like the Viking Scandinavian decor more than the more classic Seabourn; the Viking bathroom is better for us, with its large shower rather than the full bath and smaller shower in Seabourn. The verandah suite on Seabourn is slightly smaller than Viking PS, slightly bigger than Viking PV. We always get the drinks package on Viking and find the wines on both lines acceptable - especially now that Viking offers Champagne in its package, but Seabourn a bit better perhaps. Seabourn has the edge with food I think - you can ask for anything you want anytime - an Indian meal, for example; quality of ingredients and standard of cooking is, I feel, one area where Seabourn as a ‘“luxury’ line has the edge; we thought the lunch offerings on Seabourn better than World Cafe on Viking at any time; we had super food, though at Viking Chef’s Table. We generally do our own thing on shore or do a local tour, but the included Viking excursion is a bonus sometimes. Ship tours are a mixed bag on every line, especially at present. As is service level. Enrichment much better on Viking than Seabourn, ditto the spa. Seabourn Square on Seabourn is a very nice place to hang out; neither line feels crowded. Seabourn bars much more comfortable than Viking. We prefer the Seabourn smaller ships. I won’t go on any further, but we will sail with either line if they have the itinerary we want. We find Seabourn more luxurious and special, somehow, but Viking is fine.

Well thank you all, glumness quite gone! Judging by your posts I think we’re ok on the suite - Penthouse with a shower. However, MrLevin, is 17 September boarding late enough to miss most of what I presume is bad weather (ignorant Brit who was unaware of it..)?

I’m feeling a bit apprehensive about our New York to Montreal cruise on Mariner this September. It’s a whole new route for us, which is exciting, but I keep reading so many negative reviews about Mariner – the backed up toilets, the exaggerated movement, the dismal service and food quality, the dreadful wine – that I feel a bit glum about it. Has anyone out there been on Mariner recently and can confirm or refute these criticisms? We usually sail Seabourn, are having a second go at Viking, and were on an Explorer Caribbean cruise a few years ago that we thought was…OK. Should we lower/adjust our expectations to enjoy this old lady?

Personally, I’d book a time in advance for the Sagrada Familia. It is one of the most stunning and astonishing buildings I’ve ever seen. The HoHo bus is good as it’s a short whizz round, and Barcelona is compact and the main sites close to each other. If your hotel is close to Gaudi’s La Pedrera, that’s a great alternative to Sagrada Familia; make sure you go up to the roof!

For me it’s definitely an age thing. I remember getting on a flight to Burma in the 1980s having planned nothing. Revisiting Myanmar in the 2000s I had it all planned to the last detail. Of course, there’s the adage ‘never go back’ (so true), and the rather jaundiced outlook of the older traveller, but it wasn’t as much fun as the first time; I’d organised all the chance and adventure out of it. With cruising, apart from planning (over-planning?) getting to and from the starting/ending point, I leave it to chance…. apart from booking excursions, dining and a few other details…😟!!

Slightly off-topic, but is it possible to ask that there be a ‘sticky thread’ for Viking menus? Particularly since - unlike many other lines - Viking does not publish sample menus on its website? Perhaps it could take the place of ‘Referral Offers’ which is long closed. It would save a lot of trawling through posts…..

Any Brits out there with experience of taking Viking flights from London to Hong King and returning from Tokyo? I doubt that I’ll be able to snag BA reward flights on these routes, and even upgrading with Avios to Club will be impossible if Viking tickets late. So, anyone know if booking Club/Business on these routes via Viking is reasonable, and which airlines do they usually use?

We’ll be a week ahead of you. If we hit any snags I’ll post here!

Further to this earlier post of mine, please note that we are travelling on a Sunday, so timings can be different on weekdays. For example, the nor-way express bus from Gudvangen to Bergen leaves Gudvangen at 15.15 on weekdays.

Yes, lovely. A bit like a month on the trans-Siberian I’d think…. . Don’t shoot me down, you Aussies!

Closed permanently as far as I can see - environmental reasons.

Hi all. We’re doing the NIN independently in May. Just a couple of comments from my experience of booking so far. It seems things may have changed a bit for this year from what has been reported above. Firstly, if you are traveling Independently you have to be careful which ferry you take from Flam to Gudvangen (talking about the electric ‘Best of Norway’ ferry here). There are only TWO buses meeting ferries. The 09.30 ferry from Flam is met by the VY450 bus at Gudvangen (stop E16 about 7 minutes walk from the ferry) at 11.50, arriving Voss at 12.35 in time to catch the 12.56 train to Bergen arriving 14.14 (seems tight, so we’re not booking the train in advance, just in case we have to take the next one at 13.51, arriving Bergen 15.00. May actually book this later one and have a bite at the station cafe). No bus meets the ferry that leaves Flam at 11.30. The one leaving Flam at 15.00 is met by a bus at 17.25 arriving Voss at 18.20. I have double checked this by ‘chatting’ with Best of Norway. I don’t know what the situation is with the conventional ferries. Anyway, I’ve gone ahead and booked the 9.30 ferry. The only bus I can find running between Gudvangen and Bergen is an express that leaves Gudvangen at 19.05, arriving Bergen 21.35. This would match up nicely with the 16.35 ferry that arrives Gudvangen at 18.35. See https://www.nor-way.no/en/ Finally, note that the hairy, vertiginous Stalheim road is closed until further notice, although I think the bus to Voss may possibly stop at the Stalheim Hotel so we can run through to see the view! Just noticed that Viking offers a tour including this road….hmm.

We’re used to having champagne included on other lines, so really pleased to see Viking now adding it to the SSB. Their other fizz was pretty ordinary….

We took our first Viking Ocean cruise last year and were surprised to see that because we were in a Penthouse Junior Suite we had THREE guaranteed slots in EACH speciality restaurant. I therefore booked three time for Manfredis and three for Chefs Table - on a SEVEN night cruise. This is ridiculous. On Seabourn or Regent Seven Seas I can book just ONE reservation at each speciality restaurant on a seven night cruise. I can then try if I wish to get another slot once we’re on board. This is fair. Viking needs to acknowledge that this topic is - judging by the posts here - the one that causes most consternation amongst new and existing customers. Taking something away from customers is never easy, but allowing those in PS/ES, say, three guaranteed slots in total and four in total for the OS, would open things up. V could have one guaranteed, PS/VS two. Or something similar. This would be in line with other cruise lines. Someone on this forum will surely have an algorithm showing how this would work?

I think an alternative method of getting into central London from Greenwich may be the Thames Clipper service, which calls at the pier close to the Cutty Sark. https://booking.thamesclippers.com

We enjoy Alsatian wines and would like to see more Pinot Gris and Auxerrois on cruise ships, but perhaps these are not so well known in the States? MOH likes the more extreme Gewurtz - the Sonnenglanz (Bott Geyl) Furstenstum/Steingrubler (Albert Mann) - but I find the Italian and NZ Gewurtzes more palatable. Interestingly , we went to an Alsace wine tasting in York last night presented by Jean Trimbach, and were disappointed to be served a Pinot Gris and four Rieslings - not a Gewurtz in sight. Even though three of the Rieslings were Grand Cru we were underwhelmed. Perhaps Trimbach can’t get rid of its Rieslings!

The only list I’ve ever been able to access is this one, which I think is from several years ago, although the wines we drank on our first Viking cruise last year were not unadjacent to these…. https://sandinmysuitcase.com/viking-cruise-bar-menu/

Yes, it’s a real bore, this! I’m off to India in March and am hanging on in the hope that the feel-good factor in India about our new PM may result in a return to the e-visa, but it’s probably a forlorn hope. As I understand it, you have to complete the e-visa form on line and submit it to your designated visa centre (Birmingham in my case) and then go to one of the linked offices (Bradford in my case) to queue for a few hours to jump through all the hoops. One piece of advice I do have for people in the same position: triple check that you have everything with you and it’s in the right colour ink, the right size (for photos), otherwise you will be sent away to get it right and queue again. I heard of one person turned away because they put British instead of United Kingdom for their nationality. The last time I needed an India visa I had to do all this and submit it in Bangkok, where I had just half a day between planes. I did it, but what a pfaff! It’s all because we haven’t finalised a trade deal with India apparently….

We’ll be on a Viking cruise visiting Stavanger on 17 March next year. It will be lovely to see the celebrations and we may go and pay our own respects in Stavangers Eiganer cemetery, which has Norwegian war graves and Commonwealth war graves from the ill-fated November 1942 ‘Freshman’ operation to land glider borne British forces to attack the famous Telemark heavy water production site.

When you work it out, I’d be really grateful if someone could tell me the time at which I can book speciality restaurants from the UK for a Penthouse Suite. EDT…. ☹️

This timetable for the Skyss bus service seems to indicate that it is the Voss to Gudvangen direction that doesn’t run till June, but the G to V direction does, apparenly matching up with boat arrivals. https://www.norwaysbest.com/globalassets/pdf/rutetider/rutetider-2022/bus-voss-gudvangen-2022.pdf

I’m looking at https://www.norwaysbest.com/things-to-do/fjords/fjord-cruise-naeroyfjord/ Those who’ve done it may have other options. They seem to offer a bus to Voss, too, but I’ve read elsewhere that the local bus, from a stop five minutes from the harbour, is fine and payable on boarding.

Thanks v much for the bus tip; that’s an interesting option for going on to Bergen. We, too, plan to use the Porter Service, but I have to check whether they pick up from the cheapo option of the Comfort Hotel Xpress in the central station….. .

We’re starting a Viking cruise from Bergen next May and flying in three days before to Oslo. Have booked our hotels in Oslo, Flam and Bergen and will book the train down to Flam through the Vy website - both because it allows you to book your seat and because we can get the ‘oldies’ discount. I’ll be keeping an eye on the website about 70 days before I want to travel as, in confirmation of what 2cruisecats reports, sometimes availability comes up early. I’m hoping that May isn’t too far into the tourist season for us to get what we want. We’ll overnight in Flam, do the fjord cruise in the electric boat to Gudvangen, then bus to Voss and train to Bergen. Having ‘done’ Flam and quite a bit of travelling, we’ll probably just chill and spa when Jupiter gets there on the second day of our cruise!