Sleep7

👋Hi uktog! I really enjoyed reading your day by day review on the Viking Board and also your summary and comparisons at the end. I feel just the same way as your quote.. "Will we sail again on Viking? - absolutely (bookings now in place) Will we sail again on Azamara – absolutely (bookings now in place)" I don't know if it's the same in the UK but for us Viking Ocean costs at least twice or sometimes three times as much as Azamara. That is going by cruises we have booked recently. I think Azamara has an amazing product and I'm so glad that it's much more reasonable for us than a Viking cruise. We will continue to sail on both lines though as they are both wonderful! Thanks for your review and happy sailing to you always.

👋Good morning! Thanks for letting me know about the dinner situations at each end. We have never taken a cruise where you arrive 2 days before and leave a day after.. always have buzzed in the day of sailing and buzz out when it's over. I think we will try one or two of the kosher restaurants in Budapest for those 2 dinners. We don't keep kosher but we always like to try a kosher restaurant when we are away. Interesting that you stayed at the Corenthia in Budapest. I thought the hotel was The Intercontinental. I'm sure the Cornethia will be just as lovely.😃 If we meet Hana, Alan and Vladimir on the cruise we shall tell them how wonderful you thought they were. When we get home I'm going to post a day by day blog with lots of pix.. you can relive the fun! Anyways.. your post made me extra excited about our upcoming cruise! Thanks.😊

👋Hi CDNPolar! We are going on this cruise next month and I'm super excited!! I am so happy you had a great time. All new ports for us except Budapest which we have been to a few times in the past. Welcome back!!😊 Question.. is dinner included the first two nights in Budapest and/or the last night in Bucharest? Thanks for letting me know.

👋Hi Nancy!! Thanks so much for taking the time to post about your cruise. I will follow along on your blog link. Looking forward to it.. will catch up on your past week first thing. Have a wonderful rest of your cruise!😊

👋Good morning - Good afternoon uktog! Just saw your wonderful thread now and read thru it with a smile on my face. Thank you for your lovely commentary and your fantastic pictures! Just the perfect amount of both. I look forward to reading along and sharing your adventure with you. Happy sailing!! Claudia (sleep7 an old pal from the Azamara board)😃 P.S. read with great interest that Andrew Carnegie funded educations in Scotland. Two of our daughters went to school in Pittsburgh and so many public buildings and spaces there were built with his donations. I didn't realize he did that in Scotland too. Also.. that's awesome that you went to the UN while you were in New York. I haven't been there since a class trip in 3rd grade. Your post really made me want to visit again.😊

Smart move! It is a totally disturbing movie!😥

Hello again! Your pix of the penal colony on French Guiana gave me chills. It reminded me of the original movie "Papillon" which I saw when I was a kid and still haunts me!😳

👋Hello! How did I miss your fantastic travelogue from way back in May?? I just happened upon it now because another poster mentioned it on the Viking board. Wow.. just stellar! Great narration and pictures worthy of National Geographic. I feel like I have just traveled the Caribbean and Amazon without the humidity or the bug bites so I thank you.😍 Bravo!👏

👋Hi Lew! Thanks so much for your very sweet compliment.. it was truly fun to write as it brought back all the memories of the trip. Wow wow wow!! 55 days on the Sky?? Lucky you! Means you will have 8 times as much fun as we did on our 7 days.. cruise math for you. 😁 That's just amazing.. and coming up so soon! One day would love to have the time to go away for more than a week or a smidge more at a time but for now will have to be satisfied with zipping in and out of Europe 8 days at a time. Have the best time ever! We did 7 days (in reverse from Barcelona to Rome) of the cruise you are taking and I wrote a similar blog to this with all the Viking Daily planners in it if you are interested. Enjoy every moment of your momentous trip.. wishing you safe and happy travels!

👋 Hi auntieS! So glad that my review was helpful to you.😊 It's been more than a year since we sailed and I still think about that cruise often. We just booked another 7 day Viking Ocean next year sailing the "Italian Sojourn" and I'm super excited. As far as your Istanbul questions I hope somebody who has been more recently can answer them. Enjoy it all!😊

I know this is very low brow but I did get a great fish pedicure in Corfu!

Oh no worries at all skindeep! I am somebody who has to have the room be FREEZING when I sleep and I was very happy with the AC on the Sky in July in the Med. DH was bundled up like he was in Antarctica though.

👋 Hi Woggie65! I loved reading your review. We took this cruise a year ago and it brought back all the sights and sounds of that week. How wonderful that your parents came with you as you will always have those sweet memories to look back on. I also agree 1000% about photos! I take a zillion of them and of everything in sight. Thanks for sharing your happy tale.😊

👏Great review MayB! Loved reading all the happy details.. sounds like you had a fantastic time.👏

Oh you’re so welcome! I hope it works out for you.😃

Iconic Western Med - Dec '23, Jan '24, February '24. Ancient Med Treasures - Oct '23, Jan '24. Cities of Antiquity and The Holy Land - Nov '23, Dec '24. Journey to Antiquities - Dec '23, Jan '24. Greek Odyssey - Dec '23. Western Med Explorer - Nov '23.

Just got a brochure with free air on some November/December/January/February Med cruises. Code is MCS23

The 7 day Mississippi (round trip NOLA) ones I was looking at in December were slightly less than the 7 day Med ones in the winter and the airfare was much cheaper than Europe. We are taking the "Passage to Eastern Europe" in October/November and I thought a shorter flight would be a nice change since we can only go away for a week-ish at a time. Reading the reviews made me think twice about it though.. With a great promo I might be tempted.🙃 I can usually make a silk purse out of a sow's ear and I'm up for the challenge.🤗

👏This is such a great thread! Thank you all so much for posting the codes you are getting.. I seem to not be receiving most of them by email or snailmail.👏 I have been looking into a Mississippi cruise in December and the code just posted does bring it down a little. However.. I looked at the reviews.. yikes.🫣

Oh thanks for the info Squawkman!! I totally forgot about those half price certs. So glad that the Welcome Back discount crosses over between river and ocean.🤗

🙋‍♀️Question.. if you take a Viking River cruise does the "Welcome Back" discount work for booking an Viking Ocean cruise within 2 weeks?

🥰Welcome home!!! What a fantastic cruise and a fantastic report to go with it. Thanks for taking us along!🙋‍♀️

Wow! That's a HUGE savings!!! Amazing!👏

👋Hi SJD117! Of course you are totally right that I could go on a land tour of Sicily.. I have looked into it a few times. It's now a little harder for us to get there now as Delta is ending their partnership with ITA and since we only fly Delta it was nice to have the Rome to Sicily flights rolled into our transatlantic ones. We could book the short hop flights independently (ITA from Rome or Easyjet from Paris) but I like to book them as one ticket. That shouldn't stop me though.. yet somehow it does! 🤷‍♀️ I just figured that since all the main cities of Sicily were on the coast it would make a great cruise itinerary. How awesome that you are going there in October.. the weather will be just perfect in the fall.👏 And as I said upthread.. do watch White Lotus season 2. It's wonderful! We were glued to the TV on the finale night.🤗

👋Good morning lackcreativity! Oh how I would love to take a longer cruise than a week but alas it's not that easy for DH to take 2 weeks off back to back.. for now 7 days will have to do. I totally agree the transatlantic flights are grueling for only a week but thankfully we are flying from JFK which is probably the easiest place to fly to Europe from. And do watch White Lotus season 2 as it's AWESOME! Such great entertainment and a fantastic travelogue as well.🤗