Live from the Viking Sky (Ft Lauderdale to London) December 20, 2023 - May 6, 2024

[Clay Clayton]

the tree with the baby in the trunk is entitled, “The Last Tree”

[Twitchly]

19 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Oh, the caftan is Verr-Sache

Speechless.

[Clay Clayton]

Great included excursion in Phuket today.  The south point was beautiful and the 1000 Elephant Buddha amazing.  The big temple complex was incredible albeit crowded and of course hot.  The cashew stop was interesting-now I know why they are so expensive. Upon our return to Patong Beach we had a great (and too big) lunch of Coconut and Chicken Soup (Tom Kai Gai), Pad Thai, Tom Yum Fried Rice, morning glory greens (my epiphany from this trip-I LOVE them), complimentary fruit, mango & sticky rice, and a Thai milk tea.  All was yummy and only $18US.  I’m sure it would have been half of that or less if we had of walked away from the beach but it was hot so….  
 

Love the beautiful colors and sights here-if they could just get the air conditioning to work I’d be ready to move 😂
 

Looking forward to two and a half sea days to recover before we get to Sri Lanka. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 18 by Clay Clayton

[Clay Clayton]

Forgot to mention the great (and final until we get to Greenwich) tendering system here in Phuket.  The larger local comfortable tender boats being a floating platform out to the ship which makes getting aboard a breeze!  Sorry I failed to take any photos from the shell door or on the tenders but here are a couple of the tender taking the platform back to shore. 

[TayanaLorna]

3 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Forgot to mention the great (and final until we get to Greenwich) tendering system here in Phuket.  The larger local comfortable tender boats being a floating platform out to the ship which makes getting aboard a breeze!  Sorry I failed to take any photos from the shell door or on the tenders but here are a couple of the tender taking the platform back to shore. 

They did this on our Amazon trip.  Both the shuttles to shore and the tour boats picked up folks on the platform.  It was great.

[OneSixtyToOne]

That’s all folks!

[Clay Clayton]

Reminder time-if you’re able to have a FaceTime/Speaker phone call in a public area, it is also possible to have it in the privacy of your stateroom. 

[Pappri]

17 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Forgot to mention the great (and final until we get to Greenwich) tendering system here in Phuket.  The larger local comfortable tender boats being a floating platform out to the ship which makes getting aboard a breeze!  Sorry I failed to take any photos from the shell door or on the tenders but here are a couple of the tender taking the platform back to shore. 

Here’s the platform attached to the ship

[Clay Clayton]

So it’s official, Bruce isn’t coming back🥲. Verity Brown was just introduced as our new Cruise Director. She said she had a message from Bruce earlier today and he is hopeful to get out of the hospital in Singapore on Friday. 
 

Wonder why they didn’t just make Roseanna the new CD? 

[Fellini]

Hi Clay, did Viking gave any compensation for those who stay aboard ? i read for those who left its "we will see after disembarking" , i did 2 WC that also never did the original itinerary the 2020 teh covid year disembark in Bali and 2022 which also just turned to be a European meddley, Asia stiil have closed ports.. i made reservation for 2025 and afrais will happen the same of this one ... 2023

[CCWineLover]

4 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

So it’s official, Bruce isn’t coming back🥲. Verity Brown was just introduced as our new Cruise Director. She said she had a message from Bruce earlier today and he is hopeful to get out of the hospital in Singapore on Friday. 
 

Wonder why they didn’t just make Roseanna the new CD? 

Clay - we had Verity Brown as CD a few months ago.  We thought she was fabulous!  and easy to work with as well.  She's out of Tahiti or somewhere in French Polynesia I believe.

[CCWineLover]

17 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Reminder time-if you’re able to have a FaceTime/Speaker phone call in a public area, it is also possible to have it in the privacy of your stateroom. 

Isn't that the truth!  It appears to be a new disease and has spread to all cruise ships we are on.  I can only think it is part of the "It's all about me" culture that pervades these days.

[Hockeyump]

If I see this on our upcoming cruise I may well stand behind them, in view, and have an imaginary phone conversation. If/when questioned I would say I thought this was the area for public conversations. Bit like the area dedicated for smokers.

[cruising denise]

13 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

So it’s official, Bruce isn’t coming back🥲. Verity Brown was just introduced as our new Cruise Director. She said she had a message from Bruce earlier today and he is hopeful to get out of the hospital in Singapore on Friday. 
 

Wonder why they didn’t just make Roseanna the new CD? 

Oh so happy to hear good news on the Bruce front.  It's so sad not to have had a chance to say goodbye or wish him well.

[BobCatter]

17 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

So it’s official, Bruce isn’t coming back🥲. Verity Brown was just introduced as our new Cruise Director. She said she had a message from Bruce earlier today and he is hopeful to get out of the hospital in Singapore on Friday. 
 

Wonder why they didn’t just make Roseanna the new CD? 

What happened to Bruce? He was our CD on a previous cruise. 

[Clay Clayton]

14 hours ago, Fellini said:

Hi Clay, did Viking gave any compensation for those who stay aboard ? i read for those who left its "we will see after disembarking" , i did 2 WC that also never did the original itinerary the 2020 teh covid year disembark in Bali and 2022 which also just turned to be a European meddley, Asia stiil have closed ports.. i made reservation for 2025 and afrais will happen the same of this one ... 2023

None that I’ve been offered…but not sure I expect any since I’m staying aboard and getting world cruise just to different parts than I expected.  Biggest difference is that rather than being about 50/50 old and new ports for us, it’s now about 80/20 new ports to old!😀

[Clay Clayton]

Just now, BobCatter said:

What happened to Bruce? He was our CD on a previous cruise. 

He was MIA for about a week before Singapore and we were told a bad cold. He was taken ashore there for consultation and it was our understanding he expected to return to the ship. That didn’t happen and we were told he was he was in the hospital for treatment. Today at Verity’s first coffee chat, she said he was hoping for clearance to fly home to Florida on Friday.  

[Clay Clayton]

Questions for fellow cruisers who used a Travel Agent who provided REFUNDABLE credits as a perk:

 

1. Did those refundable credits show up as refundable on your onboard account upon boarding?

2. Did Viking “switch” any excursions purchased with Viking provided non-refundable credits prior to embarkation and use the refundable credits instead?

3. If like us, this happened to you, have you had any luck in getting them to “switch” them back?

 

TIA!

[Penspack]

4 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Questions for fellow cruisers who used a Travel Agent who provided REFUNDABLE credits as a perk:

 

1. Did those refundable credits show up as refundable on your onboard account upon boarding?

2. Did Viking “switch” any excursions purchased with Viking provided non-refundable credits prior to embarkation and use the refundable credits instead?

3. If like us, this happened to you, have you had any luck in getting them to “switch” them back?

 

TIA!

Yes to #1, but no to #2 …

[Heidi13]

11 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Questions for fellow cruisers who used a Travel Agent who provided REFUNDABLE credits as a perk:

 

1. Did those refundable credits show up as refundable on your onboard account upon boarding?

2. Did Viking “switch” any excursions purchased with Viking provided non-refundable credits prior to embarkation and use the refundable credits instead?

3. If like us, this happened to you, have you had any luck in getting them to “switch” them back?

 

TIA!

 

Clay,

 

1. Affirmative, the TA's refundable credits only showed once we boarded the ship

 

2. Negative, existing optional shore-ex paid pre-cruise with credits or cash were not refunded, so the TA credits could be used.

 

3. When shore-ex are cancelled for missed ports, or change of plans, the shore-ex cost was returned as a refundable credit (paid pre-cruise by Visa) or non-refundable credit (paid pre-cruise with credits). New onboard optional shore-ex bookings were always charged to refundable credits, if available.

[CCWineLover]

40 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Clay,

 

1. Affirmative, the TA's refundable credits only showed once we boarded the ship

 

2. Negative, existing optional shore-ex paid pre-cruise with credits or cash were not refunded, so the TA credits could be used.

 

3. When shore-ex are cancelled for missed ports, or change of plans, the shore-ex cost was returned as a refundable credit (paid pre-cruise by Visa) or non-refundable credit (paid pre-cruise with credits). New onboard optional shore-ex bookings were always charged to refundable credits, if available.

Andy - so concisely stated!  You have a great way of netting it out.  Makes sense

[Clay Clayton]

6 hours ago, Penspack said:

Yes to #1, but no to #2 …

 

Just now, Heidi13 said:

 

Clay,

 

1. Affirmative, the TA's refundable credits only showed once we boarded the ship

 

2. Negative, existing optional shore-ex paid pre-cruise with credits or cash were not refunded, so the TA credits could be used.

 

3. When shore-ex are cancelled for missed ports, or change of plans, the shore-ex cost was returned as a refundable credit (paid pre-cruise by Visa) or non-refundable credit (paid pre-cruise with credits). New onboard optional shore-ex bookings were always charged to refundable credits, if available.

 

Just now, CCWineLover said:

Andy - so concisely stated!  You have a great way of netting it out.  Makes sense

Thanks- so I have not gone crazy and should continue to push for the refundable credits that we haven’t used to be available to us rather than the non-refundable ones they say we have after they “switched”’(their words per our TA) the excursions we booked last September using the WC excursion credits to have them paid for from the refundable credits our TA provided in December. 
 

Thanks for confirming I wasn’t loosing my mind. 

[Clay Clayton]

We did the optional tea excursion yesterday afternoon and evening after we arrived in Columbo about 2. It was interesting but the four hours sitting sideways in an uncomfortable van going and coming was a bit tiring.  
 

videos available on Instagram 
 

 

[Pappri]

12 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Clay,

 

1. Affirmative, the TA's refundable credits only showed once we boarded the ship

 

2. Negative, existing optional shore-ex paid pre-cruise with credits or cash were not refunded, so the TA credits could be used.

 

3. When shore-ex are cancelled for missed ports, or change of plans, the shore-ex cost was returned as a refundable credit (paid pre-cruise by Visa) or non-refundable credit (paid pre-cruise with credits). New onboard optional shore-ex bookings were always charged to refundable credits, if available.

I sure wish #3 was how you state Andy - not on board the Viking Sky right now.  DW and I are SOOO frustrated and upset with Viking LA that we are now talking about getting off the ship.  ANY SUGGESTIONS on how or who we should talk to will be greatly appreciated.  We got the $3K pp pre-cruise credits and used those up when excursions were open for booking, even went over $700pp which we put on the CC.  Then the India overland became available a week later, which @Jim Avery recommended, so we purchased that for $2.5K pp on the CC.  When we diverted to Africa, we decided to cancel the India Overland and get a refund.  There were multiple pages of people on the waiting list, so it was easy to fill our slot and they paid Viking $5K cash to take our place.  Then our refund showed up on the TV as $5K non-refundable credit.  We paid the full amount via CC pre cruise.  We went down stairs to customer service, and they agreed that should’ve been refunded to the credit card or as refundable credit to the account.  After a week of constantly checking with them on the status (and having to re-explain the entire situation every time) they finally said they were unable to change it onboard and that they referred it back to LA.  We called LA last night at 9pm (8:30am pacific time) and the condescending lady could not explain how refunds are handled.  She changed the rules several times during the conversation when her arguments contradicted what Viking had already done.  We did receive some refundable credits onboard for excursions that were canceled that were purchased pre cruise with non-refundable credits.  We also received a direct payment to the CC a couple of weeks ago after Viking canceled the Europe excursions.  Those payments were $1Kpp so it didn’t account for the $6K total we put on the CC.  We even said that we would accept partial payment to the CC (to cover our actual CC expenditures and taking into account the refunds they sent) and the rest non-refundable - which is the most fair for each party.  NOT A CHANCE was their answer.  So we now have $7100 in non-refundable credit and 2 months left with nothing left for us to spend it on.  Viking not only keeps our $5K (actually effectively half that with the other refunds) but also got an extra $5K from the folks who took our place.  Anyone else on board getting ripped off?  Andy, I can see why you went hardline against the LA folks and every minute we think about this grow the same way.  We have 4 other cruises scheduled with Viking (including the longitudinal WC) totaling over $150K that we are now about cancel and go with another cruise line because of this and especially the condescending way we were talked to by the LA office.  Is the WC help desk still open and could they help or are we stuck working with LA?  Oh, and when I asked who do we escalate this to, like her supervisor, she said that they were all equal and didn’t have anyone higher to escalate to.  PLEASE HELP!  Poor Chris, our Explorers lounge bar keep, for having to listen to this and having to restock the Makers Mark.

[Clay Clayton]

6 hours ago, Pappri said:

I sure wish #3 was how you state Andy - not on board the Viking Sky right now.  DW and I are SOOO frustrated and upset with Viking LA that we are now talking about getting off the ship.  ANY SUGGESTIONS on how or who we should talk to will be greatly appreciated.  We got the $3K pp pre-cruise credits and used those up when excursions were open for booking, even went over $700pp which we put on the CC.  Then the India overland became available a week later, which @Jim Avery recommended, so we purchased that for $2.5K pp on the CC.  When we diverted to Africa, we decided to cancel the India Overland and get a refund.  There were multiple pages of people on the waiting list, so it was easy to fill our slot and they paid Viking $5K cash to take our place.  Then our refund showed up on the TV as $5K non-refundable credit.  We paid the full amount via CC pre cruise.  We went down stairs to customer service, and they agreed that should’ve been refunded to the credit card or as refundable credit to the account.  After a week of constantly checking with them on the status (and having to re-explain the entire situation every time) they finally said they were unable to change it onboard and that they referred it back to LA.  We called LA last night at 9pm (8:30am pacific time) and the condescending lady could not explain how refunds are handled.  She changed the rules several times during the conversation when her arguments contradicted what Viking had already done.  We did receive some refundable credits onboard for excursions that were canceled that were purchased pre cruise with non-refundable credits.  We also received a direct payment to the CC a couple of weeks ago after Viking canceled the Europe excursions.  Those payments were $1Kpp so it didn’t account for the $6K total we put on the CC.  We even said that we would accept partial payment to the CC (to cover our actual CC expenditures and taking into account the refunds they sent) and the rest non-refundable - which is the most fair for each party.  NOT A CHANCE was their answer.  So we now have $7100 in non-refundable credit and 2 months left with nothing left for us to spend it on.  Viking not only keeps our $5K (actually effectively half that with the other refunds) but also got an extra $5K from the folks who took our place.  Anyone else on board getting ripped off?  Andy, I can see why you went hardline against the LA folks and every minute we think about this grow the same way.  We have 4 other cruises scheduled with Viking (including the longitudinal WC) totaling over $150K that we are now about cancel and go with another cruise line because of this and especially the condescending way we were talked to by the LA office.  Is the WC help desk still open and could they help or are we stuck working with LA?  Oh, and when I asked who do we escalate this to, like her supervisor, she said that they were all equal and didn’t have anyone higher to escalate to.  PLEASE HELP!  Poor Chris, our Explorers lounge bar keep, for having to listen to this and having to restock the Makers Mark.

I presume you have spoken to Makesh?