SuSuTrav

In Greece, toilet paper is not flushed down the toilet due to it’s sewer/ plumbing systems. This is country wide. 

Glad to hear the ships are under a hundred passengers which is what we experienced on the Mekong with AMA. 

We always get Euros or other local currencies at airport ATM upon arrival.

We have a 350 passenger limit on ships. But, I doubt we will ever cruise again after this virus and all that ensued. 

We have never contacted nor sailed with Oceania and we get two to three brochures every week. They go right into our ruching container.

Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Hawaii, all in the USA. 

I am very surprised by the number of posters who have future reservations for a cruise. Will you sail before a vaccine is available? Or wait? 
 

What are the hours that dinner is served?

Two days post cruise is no where’s near enough time to see Istanbul! Stay longer in a hotel of your choice and hire private guides if you don’t want to explore on your own which is what we did.

We always book our own air and the cruise too. 

Probably back to England, driving in a rental car to places we haven’t visited before. Or a land trip by rental car to Iceland. Our Viking cruise there inJune was canceled.
Norhing too exotic next trip. My favorite destination is Asia.

We were surprised to see how large these river ships are, 386 passengers. 

Our credit card company always notifies us by email of deposits made to our card account which they did this time as well. It arrived on the exact day Viking said it would.

We received a letter giving us the choice of a voucher or a refund, mentioned  at the bottom of the email with a special phone number to call if we preferred a refund. We called and it took about a month for a full refund to arrive in our credit card account. 

I am so glad we took the 100% refund for our canceled cruise in June after reading all of this. The woman who helped us with the refund was excellent, much much better than the Viking sales agent with whom we had booked the cruise. Refund was in our credit card account in about a month.

We would not even consider going on a cruise until there is a vaccine.

100% of our canceled cruise to Iceland was credited to our credit card account . 
We told Viking on April 4 that we preferred a refund and received it a month later. We could have received a voucher for 125% toward another cruise but preferred a refund. 

I would expect there to be a huge reduction in people booking cruises after these debacles at sea. 

At a friend’s suggestion, we booked a Deluxe Veranda but now realize we have more limited chances for excursion and specialty dining reservations.

Sailing in June, immune comprised, with multiple lung issues. Thinking seriously of canceling what would have been our first large ship cruise. But, not rushing to cancel as the Viking offer allows us to wait. Luckily, we took out insurance on our flights which was offered by the airline. 

Thanks for warning! I just took photos of our Wish List choices.

Road Scholar will not include the two night hotel stays in departure and arrival cities at beginning and end of cruises. No perks for Odysseys Club members either. 

I too am thinking cruising around New Zealand and will be following this report! We loved Sydney over twenty years ago and would like to return there too. 

This is do very upsetting to hear. I wonder if Road Scholar is having second thoughts about leasing the Aegean Odyssey for three years. 

I have talked to RS recently and they said Odyssey Club benefits will not be offered “at this time.” No hotel stays rather stay on ship in port. So instead of the Grand Bretagne in Athens you will be stuck in scenic Piraeus for two nights! I was told some of their cruises are almost full in certain categories. 

I will miss this ship but would fear sailing on her again especially with Road Scholar’s cut backs. Where we should turn for a similar experience?

There is an all passenger Captain's Reception at the beginning of the cruise in the Ambassador Lounge and a different pool deck cocktail party for returning passengers, Odyssey Club,Captain's Cocktail Party. Both are very very crowded and I think we will skip them on our next cruise.

We have been on three V to A cruises. There are no formal nights. Clothing for Captain’s Welcome Party in the Ambassador Lounge and the one the Captain throws for Odyssey Club(returning guests) poolside, you will see arange of choices from ladies in slacks with dressy tops to dresses. I have never taken a dress. I do not remember if my husband wore a jacket, some men did, others did not not. Both events were very crowded and I am not sure if we would attend them again. We have enjoyed dining at the Captain’s Table and did not dress differently from what we wore to dinner most nights. It was on the Terrace Cafe deck. We were happy to learn that we could have waiter service for dinner on the Terrace Cafe, a modified choice of what Marco Polo was serving.

We prefer to eat dinner at Terrace Cafe, outside if we can get a table there. We also like to dine later,7:30-8:00 and are happy that meal times are flexible. We have eaten in Marco Polo too and like that we can choose to eat by ourselves or be seated with other guests.

WiFi is free for returning passengers plus one bag of laundry as well plus some welcome gifts, free bottled water, a bottle of wine or champagne.

We have always stayed on the Belvedere level, Class D with balcony which we love for early morning and evenings, relaxing, watching the world pass by.

We have found the land tours well done and enjoy the high quality of lectures offered aboard.The included hotel nights pre and post cruise are also a plus. We have made friends on our V to A cruises and stay in touch with them.

V to A has reinstated the Asia, India, Egypt and Jordan cruise ports which are very appealing to us. The only other ships we have been on carried 60-70 passengers. I would not want to be on a ship any larger than the Aegean Odyssey. Looking forward to booking another cruise soon!