SempreMare

Wow, didn’t know that @OneSixtyToOne

Added to the London Must-See list! 

I believe I added this to the favorite  “British Isles Souvenirs” topic but

(related to alcohol and British Isles Explorer itinerary…)

—> the Warner Castle gift shop has an amazing small-size gin selection.  

I bought 4 and wished I had bought multiples.

@deec a White Lady was my sail away drink on both Viking Ocean cruises I’ve taken! 

On 6/16/2023 at 3:37 PM, Azulann said:

Day 5  Gdansk Poland

Recap :

Our excursion was : Gdansk and Organ concert.

 We were 18 on a the bus. Our guide Ola  has a PHD and is 40 yrs old , Polish  who is married to a German.

The organ concert was magnificent. It was in one of two Gothic  churches  we visited  in the old city.  They have this organ concert every day  during the summer. Then we walked through old town to another Church St. Mary's. We had one hr of free time. I bought my granbdaughesr  amber jewelry . My sister and I had  periogies  snack and I had a local beer in a sidewalk cafe.

Ola was rich inn information about  the Hanseatic league and the  grain warehouses  we saw.

MOst importantly she  explained the history of Gdansk under German, Soviet rules  and finally independence  and now part of the EU.

It was a mindful overload of  facts, her personal history of three generations under the various governments.  

My first takeaway was , as an American, I have no experience of what it means to be living in an  occupied country, the center of wars   for centuries,

Ola stories of the German occupation, then being part of the Soviet Union after the 2nd World war, and then freedom as an independent state being three generations behind the  rest of the EU were sobering.

But good things are happening but always there is the lingering  threat for Poland being between Russia and Germany. 

Pool deck barbecue was very tasty, The Band  then played and  had people dancing,  high energy evening. Fun night on the Jupiter.

 

I am having a difficult  down load why pictures  and posting them. CC seems to get stuck and I will do it when I have better wifi than the ship. 

But it might not be till Copenhagen and at our hotel there. 

I am loving this cruise b beyond my  heritage  for its ports  full of surprise and variety of historical and current places in the global  economy , politics and culture. 

Another  5 days to go.,,,

 

 

  

 

.   

@loriva thought you might be interested.

( @Azulann our cruise had to skip Gdańsk and this amazing excursion because of weather / too much wind to make pulling up to the port safe.  Thanks for your posts and photos!) 

On 5/23/2023 at 9:05 AM, CCWineLover said:

Many (many!) years ago I did a ship fire fighting school in Bayonne.  Haven't been back.  🙂

Nothing as intense as that, but the guided tour I took of the NYFD Museum  by a retired NYC fire fighter was life changing.  I will never forget the stories he told.  

One random tip: 

When in a burning building, use the BACK of your hand to touch-test door knobs for heat.  

Because… If the door knob is flaming hot, you won’t burn your palm which you might need to use to hang on to a tool or a fire fighter if you need help.

One Room Service tip I found true for both Viking and HAL:    

--> Order double the protein. 

Ex:  HAL room service: 

the chicken salad sandwich + fries had excellent everything, but only maybe 1 teaspoon of a truly delicious chicken salad inside a very fresh bun, lettuce, tomato.  It was a cruel joke when to someone really hungry!   (BTW The fries really were excellent. Clearly they knew the chef trick to double-fry the fries at low-then-high temps to make crispy exterior-moist interior french fries.) 

Ex: Viking room service:

served a scant amount of turkey on an otherwise very good club salad.  Definitely  <  1 oz / 27 grams.    However, since Viking room service doesn't "close", I could simply call for another serving of turkey.

The problem with HAL room service was - I was so taken in by the Alaska coastal scenery and picture taking that I'd frequently skipped MDR dinner and ordered "late" in the dinner room service window.  So if there were problems, it was too late to fix it.

Oh!  ALSO, heads up:  If their advertised closure time was 9:00 pm,  HAL room service would sometimes say it was too late to order if I called at 8:40 pm.   Multiple nights on that Alaska cruise I recall trying to sleep with my tummy growling.  

@Heidi13, you might be interested in Captain Albert’s blog

CaptainAlbert.com

7 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

HAL has three different sizes of ships. Too bad they sold off their smallest, but there are two still with just under 1500 pax. 

@Vineyard View
When you say there are two ships, do you mean two classes of ships or two ships?

Andy, I'm sorry you've had to deal with this predicament with Viking.

On the good, it's exciting to hear you exploring new cruise lines, given how you think through things   I hope you'll update your blog with all the interesting detail.   

My only other cruise line was my first cruise with HAL on the Westerdam, Seward to Vancouver, and I loved it.  It struck me as a "handsome" ship.  I feel the Neptune Suite provides a better room layout and much better value than a Penthouse Junior Suite, especially if it's in close proximity to the Neptune Lounge.  Most of all, I LOVED the Neptune layout where the desk directly looked out on the BIG window and the changing scenery. I could write, eat breakfast, whatever, and watch the beautiful changing coast go buy directly through that window.  The "magic shelves" in the closet were genius. (Shelves that pivot down or up depending on whether you need shelves or clothes hanging space.) 

The main downside for me is they allow kids, and I really enjoyed the all-adult experience. 

Hey there and Thank you @daleybread 

Your posting happened to help me remember the name of the castle I couldn't remember when posting the above.

For the port of Dover, I chose the  AM Walmer Castle excursion and PM Sandwich town walkabout.

Totally enjoyed both.  The Walmer Castle was interesting and historic, with a great cafe and place to enjoy tea.  Most importantly ;-),  it has an unmissable gift shop !! 

I particularly enjoyed the fact that the gift shop stocked SMALL portions of interesting gin available for purchase.   I especially like Elderflower.  I purchased the Elderflower & Rose,  St. Clements, and the sampler  shown below. 

I did not purchase but was intrigued by these 

Damsons?  What the heck are Damsons !?! 

So yes, I can google and found this.

I wish they had stocked a small version of that gin.

Is anyone here a Damson gin fan?   Just curious to hear more about it.

I regretted not purchasing that Raspbery preserve.  I was thinking about room in my suitcase, but it would have been fun to try and share with people I met on the cruise.  

On 4/16/2023 at 5:43 PM, Heidi13 said:

Fortunately, while promotion through the junior ranks is fairly rapid, I am pleased to see that Viking have only highly experienced Masters and Staff Captains. Having first sailed as Master at only 28 yrs old, on our local Ro/Pax, I can now look back and wonder how I survived those first few years. I had all the necessary training and certification, but certainly didn't have the same experience as some of the older Masters.

@Heidi13 what is the scope of responsibilities for the master of the ship versus other officers’ roles near it in responsibility?  

FYI @loriva

that color means “30” knots?

note where Aalborg is - middle - vs 

Oslo - top - 

thats a lot of time in orange

:: sniff ::

on the good, a 16 hour fast ( now - 7 am)

begins to induce autophagy 🧐

Viking Jupiter is currently in Aalborg, Denmark, our Plan B to Skagen Denmark, which we could not sail into because of the high winds. 

Had a fabulous excursion to a lighthouse that they predict will disappear within 20 years due to the strong  winds in Denmark in general. We took a bus, then we’re pulled by a tractor across the sand and then hiked to the lighthouse. I have sand everywhere, but had a great time.

Oslo next. 

Captain just made an announcement: 

Definitely 

The hard thing is remembering, in the moment, why Search isn’t finding the All Excursions doc even though I thought for sure that I had

1) saved it 

2) made it available offline 

maybe the answer is: 

make a 1-sentence google Doc where it simply links to the PDF

Then goog Doc search will inherently remind me it’s there. 

:: sniff :: 😢

that worked @CDR2001 

thanks so much!

I thought I had saved it to my Google Drive direct before the strip just in case I needed it

I did, but search did not find it it because it was only searching in the Google DOCS context 

A PDF file is not a Google doc so search did not catch it

Thanks again. 

In port, not on ship wifi

need to see list of all Oslo excursions 

how to do this?

no access to my Viking journey.com for current cruise 

ship app only shows me what I have booked 

not what other options were 
 

3 hours ago, LibertyBella said:

When I take a cruise (or a land tour) that has a certain itinerary I really like, I try to travel when weather conditions for those places are at their ideal.  My favorite mantra from a cruise is, "the sea is calm, the sky is clear."

To that point

On day 2 of our current Viking Homelands Cruise, I had a chance to ask the second officer in command about the extreme turbulence “corkscrew effect”, the Viking Mars experienced between Stavanger and Bergen during British Isles Explorer. I asked what is the likelihood of experiencing same on this cruise.

He knew exactly of what I described, and immediately said that the Bering sea in August and September tends to be very rough. He made this motion with his hands that was reminiscent of what I felt. [ gah ]…

But he said in May the Bering Sea is unlikely to experience the same conditions.  RAH 😁

So our timing is at least good for that.

fyi to my roll call buddies now in Viking Jupiter:

@loriva @lisiamc @AnneinCO @Azulann. @Lewis & Clark @ColoradoCruiselover

fyi that side to side rolling that we experienced going into Gdansk was nothing like the ships motion in the Bering Sea. That didn’t bother me in the least.

For me and others on BIE that created a full day and night of feeling sick during the vacation.

I am beginning to realize that when thinking about a cruise cost and itinerary, 

And the value I expect to receive for the amount I spend,

I need to feel the value I anticipate I’ll receive is worth the cost  if I ONLY see the departure and arrival city. 

Because with cruising, seeing any other port besides those 2 is really a roll of the dice.

Much more risk of value destruction than a DIY land-based fly-in-via-airplane method. 

When I think about the last 25 vacations or so, when change was needed in land vacations, I received a full refund / all value returned.

That doesn’t happen with cruising.   When Tallin, Helsinki, and St. Petersburg were deleted from this itinerary, we received a $250 credit.  Now Gdańsk and Bornholm gone.   None if those removals is Viking’s fault. 

I just wonder if I had known the actual end result itinerary if I would have opted to purchase at that price vs do a DIY to specific locations.

On 5/5/2023 at 2:23 PM, duquephart said:

"We are now proceeding on to Copenhagen." Skipping Bornholm & Berlin?

Your correction was accurate when you posted it.

And then…

@Krazy4Kruisin'

Ping me at

TravelinsuranceCompared@gmail.com

10 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

I don’t think they have sweet and low, but they do have something similar—it’s in yellow packets.

this is true for viking Jupiter right now as well

I am budgeting 15 minutes to allow myself to be devastated.  The captain just announced the Viking Homelands / Viking Jupiter can’t safely proceed into the Gdansk Poland port due to weather conditions. 
 

We are now proceeding on to Copenhagen. 
 

I was surprised because I feel so little turbulence on the ship. Some yes, but nothing major at all.  
nothing that compares to the massive ship jostling felt between Stavanger and Bergen last September on British Isles Explorer. 
 

we had a full sea day yesterday.
I felt very ready for a CityWalk fitness walk.
 

plan b

hit the weight  room.   I’m definitely eating at a calorie surplus so good time to try to use that excess nutrition to add muscle.

what did you do on your unexpected sea days?

14 hours ago, Krazy4Kruisin&#x27; said:

I see you live in Austin. So do we. Would you be willing to talk to me about your British Isles cruise. We're doing it in August this year. Is there a place I can privately give you my email or phone number?

of course! 
 

my public email is in my signature, it gets automatically forwarded to my private email. Send me a ping and I will reply.

Wish you were on board Viking Homelands today. We just found out that we have to skip Gdansk Poland because of weather and I am so sad. 😢

I could see if I still have some of the dailies from the British Isles explore cruise when I get back home

Viking Homelands day 1 question 

Received an email eons ago indicating a $250 ** onboard credit due to

- St. Petersburg Russia

- Tallin Estonia

- Helsinki Finland

port removals. 
 

Day 1 yesterday received a card indicating a $500 onboard credit but no reason why. 

Should  I now have a $750 total on board credit? 
 

where on Viking TV can I see the credit? 
account summary is blank

** $250 is not enough IMO given the value of those ports to me vs the ones swapped in

Random comment:

Embarkation experience was flawless. Great to see an org that understands operational efficiency.