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Iceland's Natural Beauty General - 2022

TayanaLorna

By TayanaLorna,
in Viking Ocean

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Donaghadee

Donaghadee

Posted
Posted
9 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Yes I understand that there is a shortage of seasonal workers.

 

I am upset with Viking as they oversold their product to us, the consumer. It is a corporation with a number of departments that should have taken all things into consideration. If they had sold the first four cruises and left it at that, chances are this situation would not exist. How could they not think that other cruise lines would not have the same idea? Are they gambling that with 19 departures they could tip availability to their favor?

 

If they had a refund policy like other cruise lines have, I could walk away. But they don't and if we cancel the Iceland cruise we will need to spend MORE money to use what they already have from us.

Iceland lives and thrives on tourist bucks.  Don't be surprised if the Iceland government puts the spurs to their guest worker program and perhaps offers a monetary incentive to show up.

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eldercruser1

eldercruser1

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

I paid for Iceland with a voucher. It was a voucher that I had used to pay for the cruise that was cancelled the very same morning that I booked Iceland. Iceland had to be paid for the very next. By the time my TA got on the phone to make the payment the next day, the voucher had been returned to my account and was available to pay for the new cruise.

 

I don't know what it means for your timing but I would not give up on the plan yet.

Thank you for the info.

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USI

USI

Posted
Posted
59 minutes ago, FoggyEthan said:

 

Just reminding that we're all guessing at what is actually going on, and what will actually happen once we sail. By treating our guesses as facts, we're just increasing the panic that is happening in this thread. i.e. you may be 100% correct.

Exactly…With all the detailed negatives enumerated here by some, I’m beginning to wonder what in their list of pros and cons of going on this trip, what could possibly be listed as pros to outweigh the ever burgeoning list of negatives? 

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FoggyEthan

FoggyEthan

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, USI said:

Exactly…With all the detailed negatives enumerated here by some, I’m beginning to wonder what in their list of pros and cons of going on this trip, what could possibly be listed as pros to outweigh the ever burgeoning list of negatives? 

I just got a call back from Viking after emailing tellus. She said that she looked at my sailing, July 13, and that it only has 195 bookings, give or take. So less than half sold. Yet the July 13th still doesn't have any shore excursions announced.

 

So this knocks down the hypothesis that we don't have tours announced because they went up to full capacity and can't get tour operators.

 

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Clay Clayton "Live from...." Rare

Clay Clayton

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

A question to all about the Travel Requirement document that Viking just sent out.

 

If you are working with a Travel Agent, did you receive the e-mail directly from Viking or through your TA?

 

TIA

We haven’t received it at all even though others on our same cruise who booked through our same agent did receive it directly from Viking.  Since it didn’t really provide any new information, I’m not concerned about it.  Did get an email last night from our TA confirming our new address to send the Viking documents. They are on the way to us now. 

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philw1776

philw1776

Posted
Posted (edited)
27 minutes ago, FoggyEthan said:

I just got a call back from Viking after emailing tellus. She said that she looked at my sailing, July 13, and that it only has 195 bookings, give or take. So less than half sold. Yet the July 13th still doesn't have any shore excursions announced.

 

So this knocks down the hypothesis that we don't have tours announced because they went up to full capacity and can't get tour operators.

 

I don't believe that the Viking person is anywhere near correct with just 195 bookings

Edited by philw1776
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Heartgrove

Heartgrove

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Clay Clayton said:

We have done 3.5 transatlantics on Viking. Happy to answer any questions that I can. 

 

Trying to speculate how booked the Portsmouth-Malta cruise would be.

 

The Viking agent today said that all cabins are available for sale. But all cabins (that I can afford!  :classic_smile:) are available for booking at a discount of $250 x 2 from the posted discount price at this point. My thought that needing open-jaw flights will discourage potential customers. Only three ports plus both Malta islands might not be that attractive for a 12 day cruise. Thoughts?

 

IAD-LHR RT would be booked using points on UAL but cash for Air Malta MLA-LHR.

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gramfrog

gramfrog

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

Has anyone sailed on a repositioning cruise aboard Viking? We are starting to get serious with the "Iberia, the Mediterranean, and Malta" cruise aboard Viking Venus.  Sue is chatting with Viking for the second time right now.  Hearing today that the 4th Viking Sky cruise is close to capacity and with all of the removal of furniture from the public spaces, I would not want to switch if the Viking Venus has a similar situation and a similar configuration. Just found out that the shore excursions are still under review as well!  Leaves in less than a month!  30 Days till it sails.

 

Add in that they are planning on the availability of 930 passengers, full capacity.

 

 

we sailed a 14 day transatlantic with them in 2018.  It was a blast.

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DaveSJ711

DaveSJ711

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

We have done 3.5 transatlantics on Viking. Happy to answer any questions that I can. 

Not too many people can claim they’ve done half an Atlantic (excluding the Titanic passengers of course). You’re in select company!

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Heartgrove

Heartgrove

Posted
Posted
Just now, gramfrog said:

we sailed a 14 day transatlantic with them in 2018.  It was a blast.

 

My first 59 years (less my military years) were spent in Chicago. I still have my accent!

 

Just wondering how crowded they might be. We have sailed RT Hawaii on the Eurodam with six sea days each way and was fully booked. Yet never felt crowded and plenty to keep busy with. I enjoy sea days, takes me back to being in the USCG.  

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id4elizabeth

id4elizabeth

Posted
Posted
44 minutes ago, FoggyEthan said:

I just got a call back from Viking after emailing tellus. She said that she looked at my sailing, July 13, and that it only has 195 bookings, give or take. So less than half sold. Yet the July 13th still doesn't have any shore excursions announced.

 

So this knocks down the hypothesis that we don't have tours announced because they went up to full capacity and can't get tour operators.

 

Then I'd say you lucked out and are sailing with a lot less than full capacity.   Your ship is supposedly Sold Out in all cabin categories, so if there were only 195 bookings, that an absolute max of 390 passengers - less than half full.  I'd gladly change places with you since we have 900  I could just move my flights by a couple days and be all set.  At least then I could enjoy the ship, even without ShoreX.

 

If not lack of busses and guides, I'd be curious then what the problem is?  And why the 1st 3 sailings have had ShoreX for nearly a month?  Something happened between the July 10th sailing and ours on the 17th and yours on the 13th.

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FoggyEthan

FoggyEthan

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, stilltrucking said:

And yet it has shown as SOLD OUT for weeks.  Something doesn't compute.

She was saying that they are holding back cabins to reduce capacity and allow for social distancing. I kinda trust the response from "tell us" more than the standard customer service reps. Perhaps that's just being optimistic.

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FoggyEthan

FoggyEthan

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, id4elizabeth said:

Then I'd say you lucked out and are sailing with a lot less than full capacity.   Your ship is supposedly Sold Out in all cabin categories, so if there were only 195 bookings, that an absolute max of 390 passengers - less than half full.  I'd gladly change places with you since we have 900  I could just move my flights by a couple days and be all set.  At least then I could enjoy the ship, even without ShoreX.

 

If not lack of busses and guides, I'd be curious then what the problem is?  And why the 1st 3 sailings have had ShoreX for nearly a month?  Something happened between the July 10th sailing and ours on the 17th and yours on the 13th.

 

I think you were told that it's sold out by a customer service rep, and I was told 195 bookings by "tell us". Perhaps your rep was wrong. Perhaps my "tell us" was wrong.

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AKexplorer

AKexplorer

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, sleepybobo said:

Thanks for the analysis.  

 

No, I'm not irritated with Viking.  Just have some anxiety planning this trip.  We didn't use Viking Air.  I plan to redeem some of my Chase Sapphire travel rewards.  But I can't book flights until the excursion situation clears up.  So I have to monitor both MVJ and flight prices constantly.  

 

We have West Indies Explorer booked.  Sometimes I think it's just easier to wait until December to cruise again.  If so, I have to cancel by June 15.  

We used my Saphire points to book on Icelandair after Air Canada cancelled our flights. Some weird glitch with flights being booked through Jetblue on Icelandair - result is we cannot prepay for luggage or preselect seats. We're caught in the never-never land between two "partner" airlines whose system can't talk to eachother. Not very happy with that - but at least the cost was half of what we were initially paying for Viking Air (if paying in dollars) so that's a little consolation. Though using points for a budget airline is really a poor way to leverage their value.

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