mariners

I thought I'd wait to contact them until tomorrow. In my province, getting an answer on anything on a weekend is almost impossible. I look forward to hearing what response you get.

As the World Cruise itinerary changed, come people chose to leave, and others chose to remain onboard. Thank you to all of you who posted on this thread as it has given a wonderful overview of everything to take into account if one was to book a World Cruise as well as what can happen once the cruise takes place and/or changes while one is on a sailing. It has been fabulous to follow you while you were/are on the sailing, and/or when you left the ship. cruising denise, your analogy of a World Cruise to a "small town" resonates with me, and, for me, it makes a World Cruise more appealing. I'm not an "uptown girl" so it's a much better fit than I previously thought. Clay, thank you so much for your posts and photos. The only thing better than sailing with you vicariously would be to sail with you in person! This has been a great thread!

Beth, it appears that you and your travelling companion had a fabulous World Cruise as well as the post cruise excursion. Love the photos, and your posts! I hope to be in touch with you once you are back home (By the way, if gin and tonic, or gin without tonic, would keep mosquitoes away, I'd be good for life. Unfortunately, they, the mosquitoes, didn't appear to get the same message. 🤣 ) cruisin7, your posts and photos of the World Cruise were much appreciated. Although things did not work out the way you had initially hoped, it appears that all is well now. Hopefully, you will be posting "live" again soon from wherever you cruise.

CDNPolar, we have two types of vouchers for this cruise. The first voucher was a credit that Viking Ocean extended to us due to specific "circumstances" on our last cruise. This was unexpected and was extended to all passengers on the sailing. I had thought the credit would be given as an onboard credit. Instead, I was told they could not be converted to a shipboard credit. Those funds are currently being transferred back to my chequing account as I had already paid our cruise in full. The second voucher is a "SBC Voucher" that was part of a promotion. My invoice has the SBC in CDN $ as we paid for the cruise in CDN $. My invoice states, "Will be applied To Onboard item such As: Shore Excursions, Beverage packages and Pre Paid Gratuities. Shipboard Credits will not be reissued or reactivated in case of cancellation." Because we are undecided about how we want to use those credits, I was hoping to find out if, and how, they could be used once we were onboard the ship. If they all have to be used before we board, we will need to factor that into our decision making on how to best use the credits. It doesn't make sense to me that VO would give us an onboard SBC with the CDN $ at par with the USD once we are onboard the ship. I will contact VO and get a written response from them. Thank you for your response!

A World Cruise, or any cruise on VO, at par would be even better. Once again, thank you for your response to my question!

Thank you, CurlerRob! We have friends who are joining us on this cruise and they have been asking questions that I can't seem to find the answers to online. I could contact VO, as could they, but I thought I'd see what other passengers have experienced first hand. Knowing that they/we can spend the SBC onboard is great! It's unfortunate that CDN $ are not at par with USD (understatement) but, if we make the decision to take a world cruise, perhaps Clay or other players of LCR, will accept CDN loonies instead of USD bills. 🤣

On our next cruise on VO, we have SBC vouchers that can be used for onboard items. The invoice has the vouchers in Canadian dollars. How does that work if we don't use some, or all of them, until when we are onboard the ship given that the ship prices are in USD? We do understand that they "will not be reissued or reactivated in case of cancellation". The SBC vouchers were part of a promotion by Viking Ocean if that makes any difference.

I'm glad that everything worked out for you with the Taj hotel. Congratulations! Thank you for the information for Buenos Aires. It's been a long time since we stayed there, and, as it was pre-cruise, we played everything "safe". We stayed at one of the top hotels, hired a private guide who was fantastic, and went to the recommended restaurants for dinner. Fabulous memories, but not to be repeated on this trip as we are looking at having a different experience and staying in a totally different area. In this rapidly changing world, the more current information that I get from others, the better it is for me.

CDNPolar, we have booked directly with hotels in different countries where we had to pre-pay to get the lowest price, with the most inclusions, and with no cancellation fees if cancelled more than 24 hours before arrival. There are lots of variables that I take into account before making the decision on what makes the most sense for us. Because you have stated that you don't use some of the sites others have recommended, I'm hoping some of this information might be useful to you. If you use a third party site, it has been my experience that they often state that, if you choose not to pay now, that there is a disclaimer that your rate will be at the currency exchange at the time you pay. For example, we have a hotel booked in Buenos Aires that we booked in CDN, that the invoice has in USD, and states the price we will have to pay in USD will be converted to ARS (local currency) at the "exchange rate on day of payment". Because we know the amount that we will be paying in USD, we chose to book the hotel despite knowing that the CDN might be less (hopefully, not much less) when we are there. We also know that we can cancel the booking and stay elsewhere if it becomes necessary for any reason. We have prepaid our accommodations in Barcelona directly, and they are in CDN dollars. We can cancel our booking up until 30 days before arrival without penalty. Because we have been to Barcelona before, we are flexible about where we want to stay, and feel comfortable making any changes necessary given the cancellation policy. As well, anything that makes us cancel (emergency, medical, ...) within the 30 days should be covered by our travel insurance. When we have booked our accommodations in local currency in some countries, we choose to pay the additional cost of booking and paying in full at the time of the booking (most of the time where cancellation is still permitted with no additional fees). So, when you discuss the cost of breakfast, (could be any costs such as transfers, etc.), depending upon what your concerns about pre-payment are, it might make the most sense to book directly with the hotel now.

We did a pre-cruise 4 night stay booked on our own. We stayed at the Taj Mahal Tower in a Deluxe Sea View Room that overlooked the Gateway of India, and loved the hotel, location, the restaurants, and the service. It all depends upon what you want to do, and how you want to do it while you are there as to whether it would be the right location for you. When we travel, I often use GPS My City as a resource. Here is a link to an introduction walking tour in Mumbai that shows you the area and distance to sites from the Taj Hotel: https://www.gpsmycity.com/tours/mumbai-introduction-walking-tour-1096.html We chose a combination of walking, taxis, and pre-booked tours. Post 76 on the Regent Board by Flossie has some excellent insight into what they recently chose to do on their own from the ship: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/3001591-bangkok-beyond/page/4/ We have not stayed at any other hotel in Mumbai.

JTor, I only have only taken one Viking Ocean cruise, and did not use Viking Air for that cruise. However, please don't give up on asking for assistance on the Viking board as the majority of posters are very helpful. I have been reading threads on Viking Air because it is an included "bonus" on some of the cruises we are considering booking. I've now stopped reading what has been written as, for us, I don't think Viking Air works well. Similar to you, we book most of our travel well ahead of time. When using points, we book air as soon as flights open because of the "dynamic pricing", and our desire to follow our own schedule. We have not used cruise air since COVID, and much has changed for airlines (and cruise lines) since then. FYI, we are booked on AC through Toronto on points for our next Viking Ocean cruise. On our previous cruise, we were booked on TAP with a code share with AC. AC is definitely not EVA air, Singapore airlines, etc., but nor did we/do we expect it to be the same. Wishing you a fabulous cruise, and hope that you will post either when you are onboard or once you return home.

It's always a pleasure to read your updates, and see your fabulous photographs, Clay. Thank you!

For those who have not sailed on VO before, spend time the first night figuring out which switch works for turning on and off lights in each area before you need to use them during the night. Great options once one learns how to use them as we learned on our first VO cruise). For anyone who "overpacks", take hangers that allow multiple pants, skirts, etc. on the same hanger (additional regular hangers can be requested but there is only so much room in a closet). As suggested by many others on this board, use your suitcase(s) under the bed as additional drawer space for items that are not regularly needed. If you take "sticky notes" with you, you can leave them in the cabin/suite and let the individual(s) know what you would like. If you want something kept the same, or something changed; this worked well for us. If you are having issues with your cabin onboard, other passengers who have sailed on VO before are are a great source of information. Unless it is an urgent situation, those passengers are often the best resource, and also provide the most relevant assistance. I am giving a shout out to previous cruisers who provided me with information before our cruise who post on this board, and also to those individuals who are providing information on "live" threads. VO is a wonderful CC board (and also an onboard experience)!

We have well over 100 nights on Windstar (the most recent 2022), but all of our sailings have taken place on the ships with sails. We have sailed on the other ships when they were with Seabourn and do not have any recent experiences onboard those ships. We have only had one sailing on Viking Ocean, and that took place in late 2023. Here is a link to my review of our 2017 Transatlantic. I think it continues to give a good overview of what to expect if you are planning an ocean crossing on Windstar, as well as an overview of the typical cabins onboard: https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=599880 Please note, despite how much I wish that it was true, I was not in my 20's. I have no idea how that age demographic was given to me on the review. Here is a link to the thread where I described our cruise in 2022: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2890521-live-from-wind-star-october-29-barcelona-to-bridgetown/ I wrote a live thread when we were on the Neptune crossing in December, but the thread is not showing when I try and find a link for it so that you can read what I wrote about the sailing. It was also a fabulous cruise, and we are happy to be sailing with Viking Oceans again this year. Hopefully you, or someone else, can post a link. We did not book air through the cruise lines so I cannot comment on air. We paid for our Windstar tours and felt they were well worth the money spent. Given the number of passengers, the tours are small and the guides were all excellent. The destinations person onboard was fabulous as were the maps and information provided. One is not allowed to bring unlimited alcohol onboard Windstar, but there is an option to book the cruise to include alcohol, wifi (terrible), and other amenities. We loved having the included laundry. If you have any specific questions, I will try and provide you with answers. We will happily sail with either Viking Oceans or Windstar.

I'm glad that Viking doesn't allow all tables in the reserved restaurants to be booked ahead of time. Other cruise lines, including luxury cruise lines, take the same approach, and allow for passengers to book onboard. IMO, it gives more options, not less options, for passengers, and there is little benefit for Viking Oceans to take the approach (other than, perhaps, to add an enhancement to entice passengers to book higher level cabins/suites). Thanks to reading CC and learning what other passengers have stated works for them, we find this restaurant booking system, and excursion booking system, works well for us. I'm glad that Viking has updated information on their website as not all people follow CC and would think there would be no opportunity to book onboard.