The Virtual Explorers' Lounge

[Peregrina651]

Because enough people complained. 

[CharTrav]

FYI -- husband read an article yesterday about Viking going public.  An IPO planned for I don't remember when.  Much as investing in Viking sounds interesting -- we established a policy many years ago that we only invest in mutual funds.  We got stung pretty badly when we invested in a single stock many years ago.  It was Exxon -- which had been going great guns just before we bought it.  And then -- a few months afterwards -- the Valdez incident happened.  We got out at a loss and said never again!🤪

[PasadenaDave]

1 hour ago, CharTrav said:

FYI -- husband read an article yesterday about Viking going public.  An IPO planned for I don't remember when.  Much as investing in Viking sounds interesting -- we established a policy many years ago that we only invest in mutual funds.  We got stung pretty badly when we invested in a single stock many years ago.  It was Exxon -- which had been going great guns just before we bought it.  And then -- a few months afterwards -- the Valdez incident happened.  We got out at a loss and said never again!🤪

I came really close to buying some Exxon in January 2021, but my broker who is not a proponent of fossil fuels advised against.  I actually would have bought close to its bottom at that period.  I won’t buy any shares in Viking, but I like the revenue increase 2019-2023, you can’t look at 20-22 due to pandemic and all of the 125% future credits issued.

[Clay Clayton]

Was anyone else surprised to learn that they had more river passengers in 2023 than ocean guests?   I know they have a lot more river boats but I had no idea. 
https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2024/04/viking-700-plus-per-passenger-day/

[Jim Avery]

Good article.  I guess with 70 river boats it is to be expected.  What got me are the occupancy rates.   Any resort or hotel or cruise line anywhere would take those numbers.  Rolling lots of dough through there.  Good for Viking.  Just hope they don't do the Carnival cost shaving thing.

[Azulann]

I  wonder how many  passengers a river boat holds?  Nice statistics. Viking  has hit the sweet spot, 93 % or more  are full ships in my view.

[SantaFe1]

2 minutes ago, Azulann said:

I  wonder how many  passengers a river boat holds?  Nice statistics. Viking  has hit the sweet spot, 93 % or more  are full ships in my view.

We are taking our first River cruise this fall on one of the typical Longships.  190 pax 53 crew.  

[OneSixtyToOne]

11 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

We are taking our first River cruise this fall on one of the typical Longships.  190 pax 53 crew.  

I really enjoy river cruising and actually prefer it to ocean. You dock right in town, the scenery is gorgeous, and unlike some on this forum, I really enjoy the communal meals. I’ve met so many fascinating people during dinner. The pace is also different. It’s go, go, go, eat, sleep, repeat. 
 

We’ve never spent more than a couple of minutes on an ocean veranda but have spent hours on a river one, just watching the world pass by.

Edited April 13 by OneSixtyToOne

[island lady]

On 4/13/2024 at 10:41 AM, OneSixtyToOne said:

I really enjoy river cruising and actually prefer it to ocean. You dock right in town, the scenery is gorgeous, and unlike some on this forum, I really enjoy the communal meals. I’ve met so many fascinating people during dinner. The pace is also different. It’s go, go, go, eat, sleep, repeat. 
 

We’ve never spent more than a couple of minutes on an ocean veranda but have spent hours on a river one, just watching the world pass by.

 

Totally agree there....our 3 week European Sojourn last year was fantastic.  One (if not the) best cruises I have ever done...for exactly the reasons you stated.  

 

But...that being said...our next Viking cruises are on ocean, and Exp. ships and really looking forward to the itineraries.   Mixing it up, but will always have fond memories of our time on the river.  🙂 

[FetaCheese]

@Heidi13

@chengkp75

Oceania Vista experienced a power outage 1 or 2 days ago, restored to 90% soon after.

 

OP @Hlitner would like you to comment, if possible.

 

Ship is only about 1 year old.

 

Look for the topic:

 

"Live from the Vista - March 27 (Miami) to May 1 (Trieste)" over on main Oceania Board.

 

Topic is very active, so probably on Oceania Board page 1.

 

Thank you.

Edited April 28 by FetaCheese

[Jim Avery]

For the never ending drinks threads. Hope it’s readable.

[Azulann]

Good evening ,  fellow Viking cruisers!

Got the  cutest birthday greeting from Viking. I message form marine and a bird hat song form the crews with nautical flags spelling out Happy Birthday. 

 It's the little things that I Iove about Viking.

 Cheers ! 🥂

Patti

 P.S. At my new  age, it does not take much to entertain me. 😁

[FetaCheese]

Happy to say that my daughter and son-in-law are now on their 1st cruise together, (his 1st ever cruise) on X in Alaska.

 

She has elite status, based on our many, many X cruises, starting in 1993. Last X was 2018.

 

She has been on many cruises with us, so I'm confident that she will really enjoy the cruise life, especially now with husband.

 

Proud to say she made all travel arrangements, air, hotel cruise, shorex, herself.  I did share some advice, learned from some 50 cruises.  And of course much that I learned from fellow CC pax.

[Clay Clayton]

I can’t seem to find the thread I started with Primos, can anyone else see it. I wonder if CC deleted it?  Anyway, here is a promo I received today:

[OneSixtyToOne]

4 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

I can’t seem to find the thread I started with Primos, can anyone else see it. I wonder if CC deleted it?  Anyway, here is a promo I received today:

It’s still there. btw I can’t read your pictures, too small and blurry 

 

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

It’s still there. btw I can’t read your pictures, too small and blurry 

 

Thanks. Wonder why it wouldn’t show for me.  Now posted on it. 

[aungrl]

10 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

I can’t seem to find the thread I started with Primos, can anyone else see it. I wonder if CC deleted it?  Anyway, here is a promo I received today:

It's still up, Clay, although I've been having trouble accessing it these past few days.  When I click onto it, it starts to open, and then I get the swirl of death while it keeps "thinking about it."  So there may be a glitch with it, given the number of embedded marketing materials, idk!

[millybess]

We have a PIF date that is after our shore excursion booking date.

 

Has anybody experienced this before?  We haven't, and I dread having any issues on the excursion booking day.

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, millybess said:

We have a PIF date that is after our shore excursion booking date.

 

Has anybody experienced this before?  We haven't, and I dread having any issues on the excursion booking day.

Interesting . . .

Wondering what that scenario might be - perhaps you can be more specific.

 

Do you mean your payment in full date comes closer to sailing date than your excursion booking date?  So you would be picking excursions before paying anything more than a deposit?  I personally have never heard of this and and wondering how that can occur.

 

2 possibilities that I can think of but there is likely more:

1-you have a 6 month PIF date and your excursions come available 180+ days out  (didn't know that excursions are that far ahead of sailing)

2-you are sailing soon and PIF date is immediate (less than 6 months) but excursion dates have already passed.  Not sure how this would be possible though.

[millybess]

7 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

Interesting . . .

Wondering what that scenario might be - perhaps you can be more specific.

 

Do you mean your payment in full date comes closer to sailing date than your excursion booking date?  So you would be picking excursions before paying anything more than a deposit?  I personally have never heard of this and and wondering how that can occur.

 

2 possibilities that I can think of but there is likely more:

1-you have a 6 month PIF date and your excursions come available 180+ days out  (didn't know that excursions are that far ahead of sailing)

2-you are sailing soon and PIF date is immediate (less than 6 months) but excursion dates have already passed.  Not sure how this would be possible though.

Yes, the PIF date is closer to sailing date than the excursion booking date.  And, yes, we would be choosing our excursions before paying anything more than the deposit.

 

Our sailing date is January and our PIF is September.  The 4 month PIF isn't unusual, but because they have changed the normal excursion booking dates, our excursion booking date is before the PIF.

 

We are just wondering if this has happened to anyone because we will be travelling on excursion booking day and don't want any hiccups.

[OneSixtyToOne]

17 minutes ago, millybess said:

We are just wondering if this has happened to anyone because we will be travelling on excursion booking day and don't want any hiccups.

 

Never seen this before. You need to provide payment information when you book the excursions and the MVJ shopping cart is separate from the cruise fare balance, so I would hope there is no issue.

[formernuke]

Yes we are experiencing this now. Booked on an Egypt (Nile) cruise this coming March with PIF date in Sept ember.  But all excursions for CY25 were made available a couple of months ago, so we’ve already booked our excursions. Not an issue. 

[SantaFe1]

Yes, on the River cruises we had this too.  The excursions open before the PIF.  But most of the River excursions are included, so no problem.  I waited to book the optional excursions until we made PIF.  

[millybess]

33 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

 

Never seen this before. You need to provide payment information when you book the excursions and the MVJ shopping cart is separate from the cruise fare balance, so I would hope there is no issue.

Thanks, that's right, they are separate.

[formernuke]

I paid for optional excursions as well. Not sure what issue one could be anticipating. If you cancel an excursion it promptly gets refunded to the acct you paid from.