Suggestions that could make Viking even better!

[vnb2003]

Have a choice to use onboard card saved in MVJ or add new card while booking excursions.

Pre-populate all the fields or skip this process altogether if saved card chosen.

It will be much more efficient than enter your name, card info, address, etc. for each excursion you buy.

[dln929]

Another suggestion: Laundry For Dummies. For the life of me I don't understand the hieroglyphics that pass for laundry directions. My husband has a doctorate in engineering and he's not much better! We're shooting blind when it comes to doing the wash. We would love some laundry symbol translations.....please Viking take pity on the laundry challenged.

 

 

 

 

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[dln929]

Can anyone figure out #6?

 

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[mariavii]

Can anyone figure out #6

 

My guess:

Extra dirty casual -- regular casual -- perm press

delicate/handwash -- ??? -- ???

 

I cant see what those last 2 images are.

[dln929]

We're sitting in the deck 3 launderette and the middle washing machine is out of order. Another lady in here said it's been that way off and on. They'll fix it and then it's broken again. My guess is that we're the ones who are all breaking it because everyone is just pressing buttons willy-nilly hoping that one will wash and dry our clothes. [emoji6]

 

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[vnb2003]

I would say color, whites, shirts, delicate, mixed, lingerie.

[CharTrav]

I would say color, whites, shirts, delicate, mixed, lingerie.

 

One of my survey comments last January on the Sky was to quit with the cute pictures. Use text. The guessing game trying to divine the meanings of these icon/symbols/pictograms is too much. I suspect tho that they're documented in some EU manual somewhere. Similar to how the symbols on road signs across Europe are per a standard.

 

 

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[CharTrav]

I'll look them up tonight. In my professional life I'm involved in standards, development of. Not symbol standards. IT standards. [emoji6]

 

 

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[Dr Millmoss]

We are having a very unhappy time with excursion bookings on our first Viking ocean cruise. We booked several excursions only to find that they were removed because someone else apparently got to them before we paid. This is done without any warning or explanation, and of course those excursions are now fully booked and unavailable. The root of this problem is Viking does not allow the creation of a online credit card account (as other cruise lines do) so you have to pay a la carte for each excursion, inputting your credit card information in full each time, which is a tremendous nuisance. It also led to us thinking we'd pay for all of our excursions once we'd made all of our decisions so that we wouldn't have to do this over and over, only to find that we lost out on pretty much everything we wanted to do. This system needs to be fixed by Viking generally, and our situation needs to be addressed specifically.

[Elizabetho55]

This is a suggestion we’ve made on every cruise we’ve been on. Clocks in the room. I hate waking up at night and not knowing what time it is!

 

 

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[CharTrav]

Can anyone figure out #6?[ATTACH]419946[/ATTACH]

 

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Did you happen to notice the brand name of the washers and dryers? It may be on the inside of the doors. Looking at them again - they look manufacturer specific. And I looked things up on the web and came up dry.

 

 

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[vnb2003]

Did you happen to notice the brand name of the washers and dryers? It may be on the inside of the doors. Looking at them again - they look manufacturer specific. And I looked things up on the web and came up dry.

 

 

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The Norwegian ship built in Italy? What brand of appliances they could have? We like German :)

[Cyber Kat]

I’d like to see regional (i.e. New England, Southeast, etc) informal, cash bar gatherings on the first sea day, so that folks can find others who live near them early in the cruise. How often have you heard “Oh, I met someone from your state earlier in the cruise. You should look them up!” Roll call gatherings can be difficult to navigate the entire room.

 

 

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Why? When I travel, I want to meet people from different places, not people from home that I could meet at a local gathering. Travel is for widening your circle and expanding your horizons.

 

 

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[Cyber Kat]

This is a suggestion we’ve made on every cruise we’ve been on. Clocks in the room. I hate waking up at night and not knowing what time it is!

 

 

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Why don’t you bring a small travel clock? I never travel without one. It’s small battery operated and folds flat.

 

 

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[broker1217]

I figured that they didn’t have clocks by design—like Vegas.

We had 6 time changes on the TA and I’m sure they don’t want to be dealing with changing clocks all the time.

They probably figure that most people rely on their phone/tablet/laptop if they don’t wear a watch.

[Clay Clayton]

I figured that they didn’t have clocks by design—like Vegas.

We had 6 time changes on the TA and I’m sure they don’t want to be dealing with changing clocks all the time.

They probably figure that most people rely on their phone/tablet/laptop if they don’t wear a watch.

 

 

 

Wasn’t an issue except by/in the pool. I suggested that they add a digital clock on the big screen to energize their logo. Lol

 

 

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[Riversanddale]

Did you know that if you go to the list of excursions on the web page for a particular cruise (see CharTrav's description above), and you click on each excursion, you do get a pretty detailed description of the tour? They do not specify a numerical breakdown of how much is bus time vs. walking time, but if you read carefully, you can get a pretty good idea. I know the actual port talks contain more information, but I found the full descriptions on the website (not just the little blurb on the main excursion page) to be quite helpful.

 

We, too, find the descriptions lacking in their detail and not always accurate. One thing we really miss from our many river cruises is a slow walking option. Our last ocean cruise only included one port (out of ten or so) with that option and it was totally mislabeled. Our next ocean cruise offers none with this option. We find that "moderate" is pretty worthless as a catchall phrase. We enjoy being able to see what we're rushing past in places we may not visit again and it gives time to snap a photo or two. For us that's a big plus on the river cruises.

 

Fully agree with giving shuttle times and locations (even if not cast in stone) ahead of time. We often found ourselves catching taxis because this info wasn't available until too late for planning to coordinate with ship tours and/or private ones and making options like staying in town for lunch more doable. Yes, I realize this is harder with docking changes but that's why I pay Viking the big bucks for their expertise and experience.

 

Also, I wholeheartedly encourage an online option for the surveys (with the ability to save a copy for my own reference). Last minute packing and travel chores make it hard to give the surveys due attention. By all means collect as many as you can onboard for better response rates but leave the online option open for 48 hours if you really want comments.

 

We're excited and looking forward to our upcoming cruise but waiting to decide whether ocean or river gives us the best experience. So far they are two totally different experiences. We do really appreciate Viking's destination emphasis. A nice hotel is a nice hotel in any city in the world so it's destination that makes the experience for us.

[GigemAggies]

I would like to see them make some changes to the way that excursions are managed and booked.

1. I would like to see the cruise specific availability posted earlier and opened earlier for booking for the established routes at a minimum

2. I, personally, do not agree with the concept that the ability to book excursions should be based on cabin category. I have no problem with those that pay more getting better rooms, earlier access to specialty dining or any other on board amenity.

3. If the current system continues, I think that there needs to be more availability so that everyone has a chance to book by at least 60 days out. I do not agree with the current model that puts any passenger in a situation that they cannot book an included tour at a reasonable hour or have a reasonable selection of optional tours at 60 days out.

4. I do not agree with the concept that people feel the need to get up at 3AM (or other hours in the middle of the night)to try to get the tours that they want.

5. If the size of the ships are too large to manage the included tours, I would prefer to see the cruise fare reduced and reasonably priced optional tours that are readily available to all passengers.

 

Today I received my cruise documents. The booklet consists mostly of lists of excursions for our cruise. At least 1/3 of those are not available and at the moment 2 of the included tours are not available for booking. I would hope that Viking can figure out a better way to manage this as they seem to have an otherwise excellent product.

 

I am not putting this out for debate. It should just stand as one person's thoughts.

 

Have you seen the huge difference in the prices of some of the "upper suites"? (5 to 10 times higher!) They NEED to offer additional perks for those suites to justify the price.

[Richard2]

Have you seen the huge difference in the prices of some of the "upper suites"? (5 to 10 times higher!) They NEED to offer additional perks for those suites to justify the price.

 

Agreed. I greatly appreciate that there is no class system on board the ship. The more expensive cabins get some reasonable perks in booking specialty restaurants and excursions in advance of the cruise, but unlike most cruise lines today, there are no restricted facilities, no preferred seating, etc. once on board.

[orchestrapal]

Have you seen the huge difference in the prices of some of the "upper suites"? (5 to 10 times higher!) They NEED to offer additional perks for those suites to justify the price.

 

They surely do have to think about those that pay the top prices for the top suites. Firstly would be butlers which even the mass market lines have in their top suites.

If they want to attract folks from Crystal and Regent and the other top lines this would be important.

[Twitchly]

They surely do have to think about those that pay the top prices for the top suites. Firstly would be butlers which even the mass market lines have in their top suites.

 

If they want to attract folks from Crystal and Regent and the other top lines this would be important.

 

 

I think that loud crackling sound you hear is hell freezing over.

[Hockeyump]

For various reasons we've booked one of those top suites but wouldn't have done so if there had been a butler service. Not interested in that as a perk - each to their own!

[Richard2]

They surely do have to think about those that pay the top prices for the top suites. Firstly would be butlers which even the mass market lines have in their top suites.

If they want to attract folks from Crystal and Regent and the other top lines this would be important.

 

We all accept (and expect) our bathrooms to be cleaned and beds to be made by cabin staff. If someone is comfortable with butler service, well, to each their own. It is in the cabin and therefore not something that would bother me if included for those who pay for it. The important thing for maintaining the ambiance of the Viking ships is that a class system does not make an appearance in the public areas - no preferred seating in the theatre or restaurants, no special treatment on excursions (or options for excursions not at least theoretically available to anyone), and no limited-access venues on the ship. If Viking started to do those things, it would be very bothersome to me. I don't think there is any chance. As I understand it, it's not consistent with the wonderful Norwegian culture.

[jiminyC_fan]

We all accept (and expect) our bathrooms to be cleaned and beds to be made by cabin staff. If someone is comfortable with butler service, well, to each their own. It is in the cabin and therefore not something that would bother me if included for those who pay for it. The important thing for maintaining the ambiance of the Viking ships is that a class system does not make an appearance in the public areas - no preferred seating in the theatre or restaurants, no special treatment on excursions (or options for excursions not at least theoretically available to anyone), and no limited-access venues on the ship. If Viking started to do those things, it would be very bothersome to me. I don't think there is any chance. As I understand it, it's not consistent with the wonderful Norwegian culture.

 

(y)

[Azulann]

They surely do have to think about those that pay the top prices for the top suites. Firstly would be butlers which even the mass market lines have in their top suites.

If they want to attract folks from Crystal and Regent and the other top lines this would be important.

Folks from Regent and Crystal are already sailin on Viking.. I met some of them on my cruise last month. They were staying in a higher end suites. They loved their first Viking cruise and booked another while on board.

Butlers never came up in conversation.

They did mention that Regent has lots of different china, plates that cost $300. a piece, which they said were way over the top.

The owner has a particular vision of the cruise line.

For instance, Manfredi and Chef Table are not called specialty resttarunts but alternative restaurants. Meaning that all venues are high quality, alternatives & variety ,not one more special than another.

I llike that philosophy.

Other cruisers might not. There are many line to choose from for everyone.

Viking is making their own mark in a singular way.

Always room for improvement but not by being a copy cat of others.