Pushka

It was in the 100's when we returned from two long Viking excursions in May in Egypt and there were no crew at all on the dock. They were all hiding in the cover of airconditioining. 🤣. I'd like the welcome home. Bring a smile to my face. I'm back.

For the first 2.5 weeks of our 3 week cruise in May, there was a crew member at the entrance to the buffet ensuring people washed their hands. Couldn't avoid them, which was good. In the last few days - no one there. Port Intensive segment with long days. We figured if people got sick by then it wouldn't be a Viking problem.

There are scenic cruising days on Rhine cruises. We were rafted in Croatia which was an ocean cruise but on a smaller boat.

We just completed a 20 day, quite arduous Middle East cruise on Viking Mars. Neither of us developed a respiratory illness. Others did. As far as onboard experiences we didn't notice much difference from our pre Covid Viking cruise. We on Mars too.

If it's any consolation, it wasn't offered for those disembarking Mumbai from Bangkok. It was only offered for those embarking in Mumbai to travel to Athens. So those passengers sorted their private excursions. I've found that excursion provision and the way reservations are allocated is probably the most disappointing and frustrating experiences associated with Viking. So many of ours were sold out before DV could book so I gave up and sought private providers. A much better and cheaper option. The Covid excuse. It's getting very tiresome these days. Convenient even.

Details of tours booked last month to Agra. Read through the thread for further info.

Not true. Just last month in fact. It was offered for last months cruise as a pre extension for Passage to India which was 20 days and not part of the World Cruise. The cruise started in Mumbai and went through Suez Canal and into Athens as a south north repositioning cruise. It was a fabulous itinerary. We had a blast. This pre extension sold out almost immediately it was offered. The whole cruise was sold out a year in advance. FB reports for Viking Ocean people who did the Viking pre extension (May 2023) raved about it. Those who booked privately also loved it. Bucket list. We stayed at Taj Mahal Towers overlooking The Gateway. Spectacular.

Taj Mahal. DIY.

Im really sorry to hear you were greatly unwell. I met with an elderly lady in the lift as we berthed in Saudi Arabia and as she was going to Level 1 (disembarkation level) I asked what she was doing in Port. She said her husband was extremely unwell and she was going to the hospital deck (also deck 1) where he'd been and he was being taken to a Saudi Hospital. I thought how terifiying for her, being worried about her husband and being elderly and all alone in a port like Saudi Arabia. The hand washing call is interesting. It was policed early in the day then about the last week they stopped manning the stations. Many times they weren't even functioning and so many just walked straight by. I suggested to hubby they clearly weren't concerned as we were nearing the end. I did notice our cabin attendant started wearing a mask about a week into the cruise and wondered then if it was on the rise. Deck 8?

I think all of us need to simply isolate when unwell and not spread our bugs to others, regardless of which virus it is. We had many people coughing and taking cough medicine on one of our excursion buses last month. May not have been Covid but it was clearly a virus. Thankfully we didn't catch anything. Actually given where we went on this cruise, I'm amazed at how few people were seemingly unwell. We went through crowded markets in India, Bethlehem and Jerusalem and Cairo was packed with tourists from around the world but we stayed well.

That lamb looks divine. The lamb was dreadful on our Mars cruise last month. As an Aussie we are used to great lamb but we all commented how indelible it was. We were supposed to be cooking Barramundi from Aus but the ship didn't have any. They substituted Mahi steak and it ended up being over cooked. So not a great meal for us. Would have loved a soup. The wines were excellent though. As was the class.

We had one last month on Mars. I think there were four offered on a 21 day cruise. As Mich suggested check on Excursions on your TV. There's no mention of them otherwise. And you keep your apron and good wine flowed freely.

We both developed Covid 6 weeks after our 4th Vaccination. Vaccination never prevented spread, in which case whether or not others are vaccinated is really of no one else's concern now. We both had our fifth vaccination a month before we undertook a gruelling cruise through India (great opportunity for exposure), Egypt (more exposure) and Israel (huge crowds of people from around the world). Neither of us contracted Covid, we never wore masks. But we did pick up a tummy bug Sigh. This was a Viking Cruise last month.

We just returned from Passage to India 21 days cruise covering these countries plus others. While the first week of the cruise had three nice sea days, the rest of the cruise was full on with multiple 5am wake-up calls and return to ship around 8pm. Not all cruises are relaxing. This one was exhausting but fabulous.

I was trying to convince others who have cruised on Cunard, Princess and Celebrity on a Viking cruise. When they heard about the policy of booking excursions based on the price of the stateroom you booked they refused to move to Viking. So we will be booking our joint cruises on a different cruise line.

Left over supplies I guess.

Leather tags and likely in a felt pouch. Tags for your luggage drop off. That's what we received in mid April.

Only in DV1 but on deck 8 and just about to leave Mars. Smoke never an issue. We were starboard and did get a bit annoyed with the banging from the shuffleboard above us but only between about 2-4pm. It’s a great location. Viking ships are so small anyway that everywhere is close by.

Also Deck 6 laundrette has been always busy on the current cruise, as deck 7 and 8 don't have laundrettes. I've given up wasting my time waiting and rinse out every couple of days.

Ah yes. Otherwise I wouldn't have posted. We have different banking systems. Also if I use tellus@ the US Viking simply sends my email straight to the Aus office.

Only for USA folk.

I have followed your blogs of the WC relentlessly as we cruise on a Passage to India. Viking is a curious mix of superb customer service, then shows significant service failure and lack of communication. This was experienced last night and was ship wide. Even some comments by some who would not usually comment. We have a couple of cruise lines we enjoy and ensure we look for itinerary within those two. We have two Viking cruises in the future as they are unique to Viking but likely they will be the last. Thankyou for your contribution since my time.

Yes, I had ready the email that showed our dinner reservation that was cancelled, so when the immediate response was that I'd never booked it I was able to show I did have one. Also, because one of our excursions clashed, it's not possible to book like that online but they could see the two bookings that had changed. So quite clearly a snaffu. So we had to cancel one of them but we've worked out we can do that by taxi now. We actually had a Cruise Critic meet up last night hosted by Viking and several officers and the Cruise Director attended. Seems just like normal now. And several have had their bookings changed. Not because of port changes either. They just changed.

We embarked in Mumbai on Wednesday on Mars. We were pretty pleased with what we were able to book online and booked private excursions for those that were sold out. Our timings were all lined up and we were also able to book Manfredis and Chefs Table for a night, in the weeks prior to the cruise. I checked our TV on embarkation day and saw several changes to what we booked. The excursion for the next day had been shifted 90 minutes later meaning we could no longer attend the spa booking we'd made online. The next change was for the next port where the included excursion had been moved back 2 hours meaning we would not be able to do the next excursion that was an optional one. I tried to get that shifted back to the time we had booked but was unable to do so. So we had to cancel the included excursion and will do the same by taxi, as we wanted to continue with the optional excursion. The next port we did not book with Viking but privately so all good 😂. The port after that - we were on separate excursions and both times had been changed by 45 minutes and mine by over an hour. Nothing else planned that day so no problems. We only had one other excursion with Viking for the rest of the cruise and that is fine. For now. Then I decided to check our Restaurant bookings. The Chefs Table booking has disappeared completely and when I tried to rebook it said it was booked out! Finally managed to retrieve the booking by attending guest services. We were able to book a Cook with the Chef session - I'm an Aussie and the menus that morning is Australian. Oh well. We are loving the cruise and the crew are fab so despite these snaffus all is good.

It is a case of attending the medical center with symptoms and asking to be tested.