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Tips for New Viking Ocean Cruisers


roothy123
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40 minutes ago, Tom.in.nc said:

Clay,

 I have always had final payment moved to 6 months when booking onboard.  
I was told it was available to anyone who has one or more existing reservations.

That means if you have a current reservation (may need to be fully paid, not sure), you can move the final payment date for another new reservation out to 6 months before embarkation.

Don’t need to be cruising when doing. AND you have to ask for it to happen!

 

Tom

That 5 was a typo….sorry about that. It is my recollection from these boards that sometimes the onboard cruise consultant is able to offer the six month final payment date even if the only cruise you have is the one they are booking. Perhaps that is incorrect since we have never booked onboard…mostly because the benefit of more shipboard credit was worthwhile. And we tend to take advantage of last minute promos….which we suspect we won’t see again for awhile😢

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22 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

That 5 was a typo….sorry about that. It is my recollection from these boards that sometimes the onboard cruise consultant is able to offer the six month final payment date even if the only cruise you have is the one they are booking. Perhaps that is incorrect since we have never booked onboard…mostly because the benefit of more shipboard credit was worthwhile. And we tend to take advantage of last minute promos….which we suspect we won’t see again for awhile😢

Clay,

That is all correct, but you don’t have to be onboard!  
 

As long as you have one booked cruise, when you book another, with Viking over phone, via TA, or, if you’re currently cruising, with the onboard cruise consultant, you can ask for and receive the 6 month final payment option.

Again, I don’t remember if the “one booking” needs to be fully paid or not. Mine was. If you’re cruising, the current cruise is the “one booking”.

Remember, you must ask for it, the phone reps can not offer it unsolicited.

Tom 

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1 hour ago, Tom.in.nc said:

Clay,

That is all correct, but you don’t have to be onboard!  
 

As long as you have one booked cruise, when you book another, with Viking over phone, via TA, or, if you’re currently cruising, with the onboard cruise consultant, you can ask for and receive the 6 month final payment option.

Again, I don’t remember if the “one booking” needs to be fully paid or not. Mine was. If you’re cruising, the current cruise is the “one booking”.

Remember, you must ask for it, the phone reps can not offer it unsolicited.

Tom 

We are very aware of the 6 month option but you have to ask.  And - we were told by Viking AND our TA that we had to have at least one FULLY PAID cruise on the books.  That might have changed be now, but in these times I would bet not.  It makes sense - they want to make sure you have "some" skin in the game so to speak.  And yes, if you are on a cruise, you have paid for it obviously and that does count as one booking.  We've booked most of our cruises while on a cruise.

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Fully Paid can’t be that strict of a requirement, because we got the six month payment date when we booked our December 2023 river cruise a few months ago, and our final payment date for our Panama Canal ocean cruise in February 2023 isn’t until December 31 2021.  Unless some kind soul snuck in and paid off a cruise for us when we weren’t looking…. 😉

 

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3 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Yes! One reason to not prepay them is in case you end up booking another cruise onboard. The credit you receive from the onboard cruise consultant is not refundable (unlike that from the Travel Agent which gets refunded if not used) so if you have already prepaid, you may end up leaving money on the table…or being like me and having to order a triple amaretto (that you really don’t want) on the last evening just to use it up (well except for 82 cents😂). 

You had to pay for a triple amaretto? My fav bartender showed me the difference between a double and a generous pour. Of course, I always preferred and received the generous pour (which was a lot more than a triple Gran Marnier) and was never charged with the Silver Spirits package. 

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3 hours ago, Tom.in.nc said:

Clay,

That is all correct, but you don’t have to be onboard!  
 

As long as you have one booked cruise, when you book another, with Viking over phone, via TA, or, if you’re currently cruising, with the onboard cruise consultant, you can ask for and receive the 6 month final payment option.

Again, I don’t remember if the “one booking” needs to be fully paid or not. Mine was. If you’re cruising, the current cruise is the “one booking”.

Remember, you must ask for it, the phone reps can not offer it unsolicited.

Tom 

You’re making my point.  If you don’t have a cruise booked, I believe/think that the onboard sales person can give you the sox month final payment. 

3 hours ago, Tom.in.nc said:

Hopefully you’re not expecting another “half-trans-Atlantic” are you? 😱

Nope, but we looked into booking onboard but had no use for the shipboard credit since we had prepaid gratuities.  

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30 minutes ago, KarNog said:

You had to pay for a triple amaretto? My fav bartender showed me the difference between a double and a generous pour. Of course, I always preferred and received the generous pour (which was a lot more than a triple Gran Marnier) and was never charged with the Silver Spirits package. 

When one doesn’t have the Silver Spirits one had to pay. 

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9 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

You’re making my point.  If you don’t have a cruise booked, I believe/think that the onboard sales person can give you the sox month final payment. 

Roger that.  That’s because you do have a fully paid, uncompleted, cruise booking. The one you are currently sailing on! That’s how it was explained to me.

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Question: can I bring a travel steamer for clothes onboard? I read the prohibited list and it says that irons including steam irons are not permitted, but this is not an iron. And if no? Is there a way to steam my clothes in the laundry room?

Thank you so much for answering questions. Viking newbie. 🥳

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Not sure if this is the place for it but I have some questions for Viking regulars. My wife and I have cruised extensively mostly on HAL (we have around 900 days with them) and mostly on long voyages (4 world cruises among others). 

After having to deal with getting ourselves home from Australia after the pandemic hit and our last world cruise was cancelled in Fremantle and now having HAL sell our favorite ships out from under us we have decided to give Viking a try. We recently made a deposit on the 2023-2024 world cruise on the Sky.

Just wondering how some of you with experience would compare the lines. I like the size of the Viking ships although we booked a larger room than we normally would need on HAL for storage. Not crazy about Viking's overly grabby payment policy but I guess they wouldn't do it if they couldn't.

Have heard some folks say that a full Viking ship seems crowded sometimes. One other thing that seems unusual to me is that I don't see a roll call started for this trip. I know on HAL they seem to start even before the trip is available so am I missing something or is this just another difference? Any comments would be greatly appreciated. 

 

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50 minutes ago, Fred321 said:

Not sure if this is the place for it but I have some questions for Viking regulars. My wife and I have cruised extensively mostly on HAL (we have around 900 days with them) and mostly on long voyages (4 world cruises among others). 

After having to deal with getting ourselves home from Australia after the pandemic hit and our last world cruise was cancelled in Fremantle and now having HAL sell our favorite ships out from under us we have decided to give Viking a try. We recently made a deposit on the 2023-2024 world cruise on the Sky.

Just wondering how some of you with experience would compare the lines. I like the size of the Viking ships although we booked a larger room than we normally would need on HAL for storage. Not crazy about Viking's overly grabby payment policy but I guess they wouldn't do it if they couldn't.

Have heard some folks say that a full Viking ship seems crowded sometimes. One other thing that seems unusual to me is that I don't see a roll call started for this trip. I know on HAL they seem to start even before the trip is available so am I missing something or is this just another difference? Any comments would be greatly appreciated. 

 

This is a good place to post, and certainly fine, but if you want more responses, you may want to write a separate post rather than post here.  For some reason this very old post started getting a lot of posts rather than people asking their questions on new posts.  But during the worst of Covid, things were very, very slow.  

 

I've never been on HAL, just a lot of Oceania, and in the past, two Celebrity cruises and 2 Princess cruises on their smaller ships (which they may not still have; not sure).    However, my answers to your questions, best as I can answer them are:

 

The Roll Calls are really quiet now compared to usual, and they're never been really, really robust for Viking cruises anyway.   I just booked a cruise for May on another line and there's no Roll Call. But soon I plan to start my own.  The cruise is totally wait listed, so I know others are going!  And by the way, we came back from our wonderful Bali, Australia and New Zealand cruise late January -- glad to get home before Covid cases started appearing in large numbers in the U.S.  

 

We've been on 5 or 6 Viking ocean cruises, and I've never thought they were crowded.  Our 8 day Iceland cruise last month seemed a bit crowded in the main dining room for dinner at times, but maybe we just hit them at the wrong times (around 7 PM); not sure. We only ate there twice for dinner.  (Normally we eat a lot at the more casual World Cafe as my spouse loves it.) But I certainly didn't think the ship was crowded compared to our cruises on Celebrity and Princess.  The Viking Ocean ships are fairly large for the number of passengers they carry, so that helps. However, if you go on one of their very popular free excursions (one in every port, generally, though I don't know if that includes World Cruises) you'll likely experience some crowds while assembling for the excursion.  But often Viking has groups assemble outside on the pier, which I think is a great idea, and even better now that Covid variants are circulating.  And I suppose if people are used to the river cruise ships (boats?) or small ships like on Seabourn or Windstar, perhaps Viking seems crowded.  But I'm thinking you probably won't think so.  And even if you do, you may find that sometimes it's a bit crowded, and then it's not, as I'm guessing Viking probably sells smaller segments, not just the World Cruise as one cruise. 

 

I've read that sometimes the final payment for Viking can be changed, but I don't know much about that.  Perhaps others can comment.  I think we asked for that once and got it, but can't remember for sure. 

 

It's probably too early for planning excursions, but if not, and you go to Bali, I can recommend a driver/guide.  

 

In the past, some people have complained about storage on Viking in the regular rooms, not suites.  I've never been on a cruise longer than two weeks, but that has never been a problem.  And on some ships, probably including whatever ship they plan to use on the World Cruise, there is a whole 4 drawer cabinet in the closet, so storage should be adequate for just about anybody. 

 

I think you should start our own Roll Call and see what happens.  You may, however, find that Viking passengers don't plan as many independent excursions as those on other lines, or at least compared to Oceania.  They seem a little less adventuresome than what I'm used to on Oceania.  Perhaps that's because Viking offers a lot of no-fee excursions, and/or because the paid excursions they offer are reasonably priced.  Also, they are seldom cancelled for any reason (for example, not enough participants).

 

I think you'll love Viking.  We cruise more Oceania than Viking, but that's mostly because it's a little cheaper and because they go absolutely everywhere, though Viking will likely catch up eventually.  Viking is extremely accommodating.  Of course, if Covid is still around in great numbers 2023-24, you may have to deal with some uncertainty about making every port (because of Covid, not just sea conditions), and may have to be tested daily, wear masks, etc. as Viking is requiring now.   We didn't find any of the requirements the least problematic last month, but some people were fearful and/or a bit unhappy about them. 

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1 hour ago, Fred321 said:

Not sure if this is the place for it but I have some questions for Viking regulars. My wife and I have cruised extensively mostly on HAL (we have around 900 days with them) and mostly on long voyages (4 world cruises among others). 

 

 

We (unfortunately) have only a single Viking Ocean cruise to report on, but our history is somewhat similar to yours - north of 300 days on HAL, mostly longer hauls as well.

 

We tried Viking after a thoroughly dissatisfying experience with HAL on the back 2/3 of the 2019 Grand Voyage (Sydney to Ft. Lauderdale). Our single Viking trip was a short leg of the 2019 Viking World Cruise - Bergen to Montreal.

 

I can only offer that we were incredibly impressed with Viking, and immediately signed up for additional trips (none of which have occurred, of course). I've noted a number of the things we loved below, but for a comprehensive look at Viking, I'd recommend the blog of a strong contributor on these boards, Heidi13 - Andy and Judi's blog does an in-depth review of Viking from that same 2019 World cruise. More importantly, Andy is a retired professional mariner (P&O), and had sailed extensively as a passenger with Princess. I found that many of his observations re Princess paralleled mine with HAL.

 

Heidi13's blog: Viking World Wonders – 2020 | Andy & Judi's Worldwide Travels (andyandjudi.com)

 

Regarding our thoughts:

  • Smaller ships, ala Prinsendam, which we much prefer. Zero evidence of crowding on a full ship - there actually appears to be more common space on Viking, and it's very well planned out.
  • Storage is a bit less in the Viking DV rooms vs the HAL Vista rooms - but still quite manageable with a bit of planning. 
  • New ships, clean, functional, less significant need for repairs obvious during our trip.
  • We love the Scandinavian décor - open and bright.
  • NO casinos or photographers - relatively small issues, but nice.
  • A somewhat younger demographic than HAL, no evidence of lack of adventurousness that we saw.
  • Far less 'nickel and diming' than HAL - for example, you can bring wine onboard without charge after any shore ex, and have it served anywhere on the ship. Extremely reasonable per drink charge outside of the included beer/wine at meals.
  • Internet that actually works, and is not throttled (included)!
  • We found the staff and crew service very similar between the lines - both really excellent. 
  • Food - perhaps a bit more choice on Viking, but generally similar. The exception would be Viking's specialty restaurants - either of them are vastly superior to the HAL equivalents (Canaletto or Pinnacle) in our view. We have no experience with the other specialties on the larger HAL ships.
  • Dining - we had always used the set dining on HAL, so the open seating took a bit of adaptation on our part. Never waited more than 15 minutes at prime times, and that was because we prefer a table for 2.
  • Viking Explorer lounge - wonderful (in essence, the old Crow's Nest on HAL, before it was de-emphasized on the newer ships). Our favourite spot, and the Mamsen's food is very special. How any line can move away from a forward-facing lounge escapes us ...
  • Pricing and terms - we found the costs similar for comparable cabins, once everything was factored in. Viking's payment schedule is onerous, but is what it is - in part, a testament to the demand for their product.

Hope that's a bit of help - do check out Andy's information, it's way more detailed. We are really looking forward to future Viking cruises, hopefully next year. 🍻🥌

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2 hours ago, Fred321 said:

Not sure if this is the place for it but I have some questions for Viking regulars. My wife and I have cruised extensively mostly on HAL (we have around 900 days with them) and mostly on long voyages (4 world cruises among others). 

After having to deal with getting ourselves home from Australia after the pandemic hit and our last world cruise was cancelled in Fremantle and now having HAL sell our favorite ships out from under us we have decided to give Viking a try. We recently made a deposit on the 2023-2024 world cruise on the Sky.

Just wondering how some of you with experience would compare the lines. I like the size of the Viking ships although we booked a larger room than we normally would need on HAL for storage. Not crazy about Viking's overly grabby payment policy but I guess they wouldn't do it if they couldn't.

Have heard some folks say that a full Viking ship seems crowded sometimes. One other thing that seems unusual to me is that I don't see a roll call started for this trip. I know on HAL they seem to start even before the trip is available so am I missing something or is this just another difference? Any comments would be greatly appreciated. 

 

If I were you I'd consider taking a shorter cruise on Viking prior to the world cruise, to try it out.  That way, if you find it doesn't suit you, you can then cancel the world cruise and find one on another line that you like better. 

 

But from my vast experience of 1 Viking cruise just as Covid hit (so yes, I'm not exactly an expert!) I can't imagine you wouldn't like it better than HAL or Celebrity or another of the more mainstream lines.  Unless you are bothered by the more limited entertainment since it's a smaller ship, or you would really miss the casino or having children around.  🙂

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Thank you all for your comments. Very interesting and helpful. We have already thought about trying a shorter cruise first. We'll see if the world and the pandemic allow us to choose one but not too worried about it if it doesn't work. We are both fairly easy when it comes to making due.( Might be a function of living on small sailboats when we were young and stupid.)

 

One thing I see which I do like are scheduled stops with more than on night in port. HAL used to do this on the world cruise but they no longer do. We usually do most of our touring independently and love the extra time to explore and find coffee shops and restaurants we might have missed with only a one night stop.

 

Also like no casino, children or scooters. Entertainment is not really important either. We go on these trips to wander around new ports or revisit ones we have seen before. We're pretty good at keeping ourselves amused during sea days.

 

Will check on the blog you referenced. Thanks again.

 

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