If your cruise is canceled …

[Twitchly]

6 hours ago, slewis7 said:

My wife and I are booked on Jupiter for late next February.  Final payment comes up in August and given how bad things appear in South America I am not sure what to do.  Best case is that Viking cancels all those SA cruises, but likely well after final payment.

We’re in a similar situation with Israel. The cruise is next January, but of course full payment is next month. And we’ve already bought the plane tickets, thus my question at the beginning of this thread. 

[slewis7]

52 minutes ago, Twitchly said:

We’re in a similar situation with Israel. The cruise is next January, but of course full payment is next month. And we’ve already bought the plane tickets, thus my question at the beginning of this thread. 

We are going to book our flights with Viking to avoid that particular issue.

[shadowlover]

1 hour ago, Twitchly said:

We’re in a similar situation with Israel. The cruise is next January, but of course full payment is next month. And we’ve already bought the plane tickets, thus my question at the beginning of this thread. 

We did that cruise several years ago and it is an amazing cruise.  There was some unrest in Israel and the cruise behind us had to skip one of the ports.   Regardless, even IF you didn't get to see everything in Israel- the rest of the cruise is amazing.  Do the extension in Greece.  It is well worth the extra and was a highlight for me.  We extended in Italy on our own which was an adventure but loved that as well.  

[Twitchly]

1 hour ago, shadowlover said:

We did that cruise several years ago and it is an amazing cruise.  There was some unrest in Israel and the cruise behind us had to skip one of the ports.   Regardless, even IF you didn't get to see everything in Israel- the rest of the cruise is amazing.  Do the extension in Greece.  It is well worth the extra and was a highlight for me.  We extended in Italy on our own which was an adventure but loved that as well.  

Good to know! Anything you’d like to share about ports and such will be most welcome. 
 

What did the Greece extension include? Right now we’re hoping to get up into the north and see Meteora. 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Twitchly

[shadowlover]

2 hours ago, Twitchly said:

Good to know! Anything you’d like to share about ports and such will be most welcome. 
 

What did the Greece extension include? Right now we’re hoping to get up into the north and see Meteora. 

We did the greece extension through viking and it is wonderful.  We took the train to meteora on our free day during that extension and booked. a private tour of the monasteries.  That was a true highlight!  The train was. a breeze and actually a lot of fun.  It was a long day but well worth it.  We did all private tours in Israel through a company I found here on cruise critic.  I will have to dig up my information.  The rest of the ports we mainly did the included tours and they were quite good.  We booked a private tour to see the amalfie coast.  I have the names of the tour guides if you would like them.  I honestly should have written a review- I love reading them!  It is truly a trip of a lifetime and viking provided transportation at every port to and from city center.  We were welcomed back with warm or cool wash cloths and drinks.  I can not wait to travel again!

[shadowlover]

1 minute ago, shadowlover said:

We did the greece extension through viking and it is wonderful.  We took the train to meteora on our free day during that extension and booked. a private tour of the monasteries.  That was a true highlight!  The train was. a breeze and actually a lot of fun.  It was a long day but well worth it.  We did all private tours in Israel through a company I found here on cruise critic.  I will have to dig up my information.  The rest of the ports we mainly did the included tours and they were quite good.  We booked a private tour to see the amalfie coast.  I have the names of the tour guides if you would like them.  I honestly should have written a review- I love reading them!  It is truly a trip of a lifetime and viking provided transportation at every port to and from city center.  We were welcomed back with warm or cool wash cloths and drinks.  I can not wait to travel again!

It is called the 4 night classic Greece extension:   

ALL THIS IS INCLUDED IN YOUR FULLY ESCORTED PROGRAM:

• 4 hotel nights in Athens (as shown or similar)
• 6 meals: 4 breakfasts & 2 lunches
• 3 guided tours: Mycenae & Epidaurus; Delphi; Acropolis & Plaka District
• Fully escorted by your Viking Tour Director

[Twitchly]

 

2 hours ago, shadowlover said:

We did the greece extension through viking and it is wonderful.  We took the train to meteora on our free day during that extension and booked. a private tour of the monasteries.  That was a true highlight!  The train was. a breeze and actually a lot of fun.  It was a long day but well worth it.  We did all private tours in Israel through a company I found here on cruise critic.  I will have to dig up my information.  The rest of the ports we mainly did the included tours and they were quite good.  We booked a private tour to see the amalfie coast.  I have the names of the tour guides if you would like them.  I honestly should have written a review- I love reading them!  It is truly a trip of a lifetime and viking provided transportation at every port to and from city center.  We were welcomed back with warm or cool wash cloths and drinks.  I can not wait to travel again!

 

Wonderful!

I would love to know:

- how you booked those private monastery tours in Meteora

 

- the name of the company you used in Israel and any details you care to provide (if you stayed in a hotel or on the ship, how you set things up if you traveled with a group, where you went each day, etc.)

 

- the name of the company that provided the Amalfi Coast tour, since that’s what we want to do when in Naples

 

What time of year did you go? We’re wondering what to expect in January/February …

Edited May 13, 2021 by Twitchly

[MSEm]

We lived in Greece near Athens for 14 months.  Had snow on the ground for 3 days in February.

Dressed in layers with a good wind breaker jacket.

 

[shadowlover]

22 hours ago, Twitchly said:

 

 

Wonderful!

I would love to know:

- how you booked those private monastery tours in Meteora

 

- the name of the company you used in Israel and any details you care to provide (if you stayed in a hotel or on the ship, how you set things up if you traveled with a group, where you went each day, etc.)

 

- the name of the company that provided the Amalfi Coast tour, since that’s what we want to do when in Naples

 

What time of year did you go? We’re wondering what to expect in January/February …

https://www.guidedtoursisrael.com/     is the company we used in Israel and come very highly recommended.  We did a two day private tour with our friends and then did a group tour with other members of the viking cruise.  Try to post on your roll call to get others to join but you will find out that there is another group you can join.  they are the most popular and also most reasonable.  We did masada and the dead sea one day, stayed in an air bnb in Jerusalem and then did Bethlehem and Jerusalem the next day.  We went back to the ship and the third day we did Nazareth with a larger group but same company.

In meteora we used a lovely lady who's name is Konstantina Konsta and found her through https://beguidedingreece.com/en/home-page/

We did the amalfie coast through the fabulous Peppe Castiglione https://amalficoastdrivingdreams.it/everything-about-us/?fbclid=IwAR2vRgwDWu07ra-RmXXNf5S_noLQH136a-Xa4LaUMosZY29wdl3WJqxN6gE

 

I can private message Konstantina or Peppe on facebook if you have any other questions.  If you are on facebook you can also find them there.  We did our trip in November and had the most beautiful weather.

[Twitchly]

Very helpful! Thanks so much! 

[SM77]

On 5/9/2021 at 1:41 PM, Jim Avery said:

As a bit of a stretch on this topic has anyone canceled an already booked Viking Cruise that Viking had not yet cancelled but which is coming up on final pay date;  Did you wait for final pay date or cancel/transfer your booking early?

We canceled our 2021 April Southeast Asia cruise way before final payment was due; we got our deposit less $200 back very quickly and was issued a FCV, $100 each, to be used within 2 years of issuance.  The big expense was our travel insurance(issued through a different provider than Viking) since the 2021 SE Asia cruise was very expensive; we were very lucky, the travel insurance approved a full refund which was about $2800.

[FlyerTalker]

On the topic of air cancellations:  The one applicable rule is that there is no one applicable rule.  Each airline has their own set of policies for changes or cancellation of flight tickets.

 

Some will allow a no-charge change or credit.  Some will allow that for all fares except for basic economy (different than regular).  Some will give a credit with a change fee deducted.  And for some, it also depends on both when the ticket was purchased and when the flight is to happen.

 

As for it being simpler through a cruiseline, remember that adds one more layer to the process.  Read the fine print for cruiseline air -- does it provide for a cash refund if the cruise doesn't happen or is the cruiseline merely acting as a purchasing agent and you are at the mercy of the airline's own rules?

 

FWIW, over the past 18 months, I've had a number of flights changed/cancelled.  Every time, the credits went into my FF account quickly, and I had little trouble using them for other flights.