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junglejane

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    AZ
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    Princess, Celebrity, Cunard

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  1. We've only been on Viking once so far, but we were able to get complimentary wine in Mamsens at lunch time
  2. This is us except we were recent first timers on Deck 5 forward. We booked our 2nd cruise onboard, basically the same room we had on Deck 5 forward but on the port side this time instead of starboard. We liked the easy access to the theatre, spa, fitness etc. Although coming from Princess everything seemed to be within easy access!
  3. We started cruising on Princess in 2005 on the Caribbean Princess and as mentioned our most recent one was in 2022 on the Emerald. I agree with everything @Heidi13 said about comparative ship size and public space availability. That's one of the biggest things that struck us on our cruise on the Star. It becomes especially evident of course the more time you're at sea versus in port. On our Panama Canal full transit on Viking Star, we only had 4 ports in 17 days (2 of the original 6 ports were cancelled) so we spent a LOT of time onboard. We had plenty of time to appreciate all the benefits of the much less crowded ship. But it also brought into focus the fewer options for dining and entertainment. I think our two competing Norway bookings for 2025 bring the issue into clear focus for us: how much more are we willing to pay for much more desirable ship size and all the other benefits I outlined in my post above? Both are 14 day cruises. The Viking one has 4 sea days and the Princess one has 5 sea days. The Princess itinerary is RT from Southampton and goes to Iceland and Norway. The Viking itinerary goes from Greenwich to Bergen and stops at Shetland & Orkney Islands, which we haven't been to before and doesn't go to Iceland. Even though the Viking cruise is almost twice as expensive, we're still leaning Viking for the better ship experience plus the stops in Shetland/Orkney..(OTOH I've learned the hard way that ports are never guaranteed.) My comments are based on the Princess buffet, which I have the most experience with, and my one experience with Viking. I wouldn't say that the greater variety on Princess is attributable to more junk food. On Viking Star the buffet tended to have a lot of the same food that they were serving in the Restaurant plus a few other things. On Princess there is less duplication of the MDR and more options including more ethnic (usually Asian) options, a bigger salad bar, etc. But the downside is you feel like you're competing to grab a precious seat and once you do grab one it takes a lot longer for a staff member to come and ask you about drinks, etc. Also Princess ships don't have the "shopping mall/theme park" feel you find on Royal Caribbean, but they definitely do feel crowded. I wouldn't say that we are ready to totally write off Princess as an option for the right situation, but now we're very aware of the differences between Princess and Viking.
  4. We have Elite status on Princess and our most recent Princess cruise was July 2022 (British Isles on Emerald Princess). We recently completed our first Viking Ocean cruise, the Panama Canal full transit on Viking Star. We really like Viking and have booked another onboard: Into the Midnight Sun in 2025. I wouldn't go so far as @Heidi13 in saying the difference is like Motel 6 vs a 4-star resort. But we definitely feel that the loyalty program on Princess isn't worth as much as it used to be. For one thing, we've been on Princess cruises where it seems like half the ship has Elite status. Also, the "bundles" they market (drinks, wifi, gratuities, etc) tend to water down the value of the Elite perks. And we agree that there has been a general downward trend regarding food, especially in the MDR. Things that impressed us about Viking: Ship size: the Viking ships are so much more manageable to get around. We hardly needed to use the elevators. Stateroom layout is well thought out and everything was in excellent condition even though the Star is the oldest Ocean ship. Passenger load: public spaces are so much less crowded; no fighting to set a lounger by the pool, no struggle to get a seat in the theatre or atrium; the World Cafe buffet seating is very manageable; so many places to sit and visit, people watch, etc. We thought the quality of the food on Viking was superior to Princess, both in the Restaurant (MDR) and the World Cafe (buffet). Not a night and day difference, but a noticeable step up. Viking Spa: free for all pasengers, includes a warm water thalassotherapy pool, plush loungers, heated stone lounger, therapy showers, steam room, sauna, and snow grotto! Free self service laundry. Beer & wine included with lunch and dinner. Upcharge for premium drink package is just $25 pp per day. You can bring your own booze onboard if you want and even take it to dinner without a corkage fee. Excellent enrichment speakers. We had a wide variety of speakers on our Panama Canal cruise. I also liked the fact that if you missed a lecture you could replay it on your stateroom TV.. No kids. We cruised on Princess with our kids for many years and I hope someday to have grandkids we can take on cruises, but obviously not on Viking. Little to no upselling onboard. No tacky tables spread out in the atrium selling T-shirts, gold by the inch, etc. No art auction. No noisy MUTS or pool games. When they show a movie out by the pool they give people headphones! Staff were VERY responsive. I filled out a feedback form (general form asking about lots of onboard experiences) and mentioned something about a shore excursion that I thought should be changed in the future, and to my surprise the shore excursion manager called me the next day to follow up. Things we missed from Princess: More variety in dining options; also more variety in selections at the buffet. More variety in entertainment options. Price and itinerary are still important drivers in our choices. For example, before going on the Star, we had put a deposit down on a Princess cruise to the Norweigian Fjords in summer 2025 (Emerald Princess again). We booked a Club Class Mini-Suite so that we could take advantage of Club Class dining. Then when we were on the Star, we put a deposit down on a Penthouse Veranda on the Into the Midnight Sun itinerary in summer 2025 (Viking Jupiter). The Viking cruise comes out to almost twice the cost of the Princess cruise. We won't go on both, and I think we'll probably cancel the Princess one and stick with the Viking one. We're leaning Viking for some differences in the ports but mostly due to the value we place on all the items we listed above as pluses for Viking.
  5. We were recently in Cartagena on a Viking Panama Canal cruise. We signed up for an excursion billed as a walking tour of the Old City. The first stop was at Las Bovedas. I complained afterwards to the Viking shore excursion manager about the stop. Immediately upon getting off the bus we were swarmed by aggressive vendors selling T-shirts, maracas, etc, who didn't want to take no for an answer. The merchandise in each of the arches was all very typical cheap tourist stuff. I felt pressured and guilty that there was nothing there I wanted to buy, so I ended up buying a bag of coffee. We were also told that this was our "restroom" stop and directed to use a toilet in one of the Arches. The toilet was in a room that looked like the mop closet, full of cleaning supplies, very tiny and not impressively clean. Later as we walked through the old city, I saw more upscale stores that looked much more like somewhere I would've wanted to shop, but we didn't stop there. On the plus side for Viking, I will say that when I filled out the feedback form the shore excursion manager followed up with me and seemed to take my feedback seriously.
  6. (1) Our TA contacted NCL about our question and was told absolutely no, you can't leave in Himeji and re-board in Osaka. (2) We only figured out about the Kyoto issue (shortened time in port) after booking our independent airfare. We are arriving 6 days early and leaving on disembarkation day. At this point we're looking at turning this whole trip into a land trip because we're also disappointed that they dropped Hiroshima from the schedule. We're weighing various pros and cons to a "land only" trip or a combination. Thanks everyone for the feedback!
  7. We're booked on a 12 day Japan cruise, RT from Tokyo: https://www.ncl.com/cruises/12-day-round-trip-tokyo-osaka-sapporo-busan-and-mt-fuji?itineraryCode=SPIRIT12TOKSAPHKDAKIKZWPUSBE9HMJOSASMZTOK. When we originally booked this cruise it was on the Sun, but later the ship was changed to the Spirit. Also, when we originally booked the schedule called for the ship to arrive in Osaka/Kyoto at 7:00 AM on Nov. 1 and stay overnight, leaving at 5 pm on Nov. 2. Later the itinerary was changed so that the ship now arrives in Osaka/Kyoto at 7:00 PM, cutting 12 (daytime) hours off of our stop in Osaka. This was pointed out by someone on our Roll Call who noted that it's odd because the distance between the preceding port of Himeji and Osaka is only about 55 miles but the ship takes 24 hours to get there. This caused me to wonder if it is permissible/feasible to leave the ship in Himeji and stay in a hotel on 10/31, so we call spend more time in Kyoto, and then re-board the ship on Nov. 2 in Osaka?
  8. Naw is American slang. I've been reading the Ann Cleeve books in the Vera series and I regularly have to google numerous types of British slang or idioms, e.g. punters and tossers.
  9. Give your bags to the porters and walk over to the USS Iowa museum. It's a very short walk from the world cruise center (same parking lot). The battleship has food/facilities and should be interesting to everyone, not just naval history types. By far the best way to spend 2-3 hours before boarding the cruise ship. US Navy Museum & Tours in Los Angeles - Battleship USS Iowa (pacificbattleship.com)
  10. I believe the OP is posing a sincere question about how best to handle such a situation in the future, not rehashing the past. The consensus seems to be that one can't expect the staff to proactively deal with the situation. It's so hard to predict how people will react to either the staff or a fellow passenger admonishing them. If it were me, I'd be mortified and immediately lower my voice. As someone suggested, they may have just gotten carried away and not realized how loud they were. On the other hand, one can imagine a situation where they respond with hostility.
  11. We're doing the Viking Star full transit on Oct. 24. About 4 weeks ago they cancelled our stop in Leon (Corinto), Nicaragua and didn't replace it. There's been some grumbling on the Viking board that Viking seems to always cancel that port, and that it's sort of misleading to keep putting it in the published itineraries.
  12. That's what my husband was told too when he got rebound Covid despite no treatment.
  13. We're booked on an Oct. 24 full transit on the Star, Ft Lauderdale to Los Angeles. We haven't heard anything from Viking to suggest there's a problem. 🤞
  14. We just got that same email for our 10/24/2023 cruise.
  15. I just posted about this on our roll call for the Oct. 24 full transit. I booked my shore excursions on August 8, and booked one of the included tours in Leon. I just logged on to book dining reservations and saw that Leon had disappeared from Day 11. Weirdly, it still shows my confirmed tour on my calendar. A while back Cartagena had disappeared and then reappeared. This is a bit annoying because this cruise is already very heavy on sea days and few ports (6 ports in 18 days -- 5 if Leon is dropped).
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