rjp50

Thanks. I was a bit surprised how many of the reservations were already taken. We have a PV so have priority over most of the ship and on the first day that the reservation window opened and within the first half hour, there were some nights that nothing was available in either specialty restaurant until 8 or 8:30. With that being the case I wonder if there will be any options available if we wait until we are onboard and just a few days away from the night that we want. Is it possible that they hold a batch of tables each night for reservations made while onboard?

We will be on the Into The Midnight Sun itinerary this summer. I recently made dinner reservations for the specialty restaurants that include a 6 PM time for the Chef's Table on the evening that we are scheduled to sail away from the Lofoten Islands at the same time. After making the reservations it occurred to me that perhaps we would be missing some great scenery as we leave port. Can anyone comment on what we will be missing? Would we be better off changing the reservation to 7 or 7:30 or perhaps a different night? Secondly, if a change is recommended, how do I go about doing it? I know I can go into the reservation system and cancel my existing reservation, but, until I do so I can't see what my options are. I'm afraid of canceling the reservation and then find no suitable replacement time and then not being able to go back and reestablish the original reservation. Is this something that customer service would be able to do for me?

We will be on the Saturn for the "Into the Midnight Sun" itinerary this summer. On most of our non-Viking cruises there is usually one night toward the end of the cruise that they "up" the menu with things like lobster tails. Does Viking do something similar and if so would it likely be on the last sea day before disembarkation? We are trying to determine which nights to reserve for specialty dining and don't want to miss the special night in the MDR if Viking has one.

It will be interesting to see if they maintain a primarily Western clientele for the Chinese market. If not, it will then be interesting to see if they are able to maintain a smoke-free environment. We were on a cruise up the Yangtze on a ship that was primarily Chinese tourists. While there was an official no smoking policy, it was totally ignored and the hallways were always filled with smoke.

We rely on our Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card for our basic cancellation/interruption coverage. They cover up to $10,000 per person. The price of the card seems expensive at $550 per year. However, they rebate $300 each year for travel-related expenses so the net cost is only $250. This saves us thousands each year in travel insurance costs. On top of that it comes with Priority Pass lounge access which makes airport waits much more comfortable and with free food and drinks saves even more money. Add that to the free air travel that comes with the points that accumulate quite fast, it makes the $250 charge a no-brainer. Their medical and evacuation coverage is not overly generous, but we buy a supplemental policy usually from Insuremytrip.com that has zero trip cancellation/interruption coverage but offers plenty of medical and evacuation coverage. This supplemental policy is dirt cheap since most of the cost of a full coverage policy is in the cancellation and interruption component.

I was surprised that our "Into the Midnight Sun" cruise for late June that some of the included tours are completely "sold out". Viking makes a big deal about having included tours in each port, yet anyone booking now will apparently not have included tours available in several ports. Or, do they routinely add tours so that they can make good on their advertised claims?

I should have been more explicit in my question. We have sailed much of the Mediterranean on the larger ships and visited many ports more than once - to the point that we are somewhat "done" with the Mediterranean - at least those ports that can deal with the larger ships. What I am wondering now that we are opening up to sailing with Viking, what specific ports does Viking either visit that can't be visited by the larger ships or where Viking has a distinct advantage of either being being docked in the center of town versus a commercial port or can be docked versus tendered? In other words, what specific itineraries of Viking are there that would give us a new perspective of Mediterranean or European, in general, travel?

I saw a video yesterday talking about an Azamara cruise that was able to get into a port right in the center of town versus the industrial port that the larger cruise ships had to go to. That got me wondering if the Viking ships are small enough to allow better port access than what lines like Celebrity or Princess can get into. Have any of you had experiences where your mooring was considerably better because of the modest size of the Viking Ocean ships?

Thanks. We are looking forward to both. We chose Windstar for their Tahiti itinerary which Viking doesn't really match. We chose Viking for their Scandinavian expertise. We'll see what the future holds after experiencing both cruises. One decided advantage of Viking that Windstar can't match at a like price point is the availability of balcony cabins.

Am I reading your response correctly that your two most recent cruises were on Windstar and your Viking cruises were prior to that? If so, what were the reasons for leaving Viking in favor of Windstar? Secondly, is it possible that the Viking experiences were pre-Covid versus post-Covid for Windstar? There seems to be a general consensus among most cruisers that the entire cruise industry was taken a downturn in overall quality after Covid. Is it possible that this could this be a reason for your observations?

There are a lot of factors besides size of ship that warrants comparison, e.g., variety and quality of food, quality and friendliness of service, size and quality of cabins at similar price points, decor, variety and quality of excursions, variation in ports of call and itinerary. Having first-time reservations on both of lines for our next two cruises, it would be interesting to hear firsthand observations on all of these things.

I'm curious if H2O BB is changing their operation in order to deal with Windstar. I thought that they only had 2 small boats. I would think that to deal with Windstar that they would need larger boats.

Petoonya, thanks for your comment and endorsement of H2O Bora Bora. I have read other endorsements of this company as well. However, in looking at their web site, the only time that they are still available for excursions is the first morning that we will be in Bora Bora. According to the Windstar published agenda, we don't arrive until 9:00. Between that arrival time as well as time waiting to tender and actually getting ashore I assume that a morning excursion on the first day will not be possible. I have contacted H2O Bora Bora to see if they have any suggestions around this but have not heard back from them.

We will be doing our first Windstar cruise on the Star Breeze this September on the 7-night cruise around the Society Islands. I am trying to figure out what shore excursions to book, both in terms of doing ship excursions versus third-party as well as which excursions in particular were most memorable. We are looking forward to snorkeling (although we are somewhat novice snorkelers). We also enjoy drives with exceptional scenery. One thing I am wondering about for using third party operators is whether there are logistical issues (e.g. transportation to/from docks or tender ports to tour meeting point, language problems or timing issues).

We bid more than the minimum but were not successful. It didn't surprise me since it appeared that all of the suites were sold put a few weeks before the cruise.