highland cruiser

Our first Viking Ocean was this past Feb./March on the Orion from Sydney AU to Bangkok. We booked the pre-excursion called the Best of Australia. It was expensive but in retrospect, not something we could have done on our own without a lot of plane/hotel and tour arrangements. We had 2 days in Melbourne, flew to Alice Springs with 2 days there, then flew to Uluru for 2 days and last flew to Sydney to board the Orion. Awesome time. Great tours, enough free time to do a few things on our own, 2 very good outback dinners which were included in the cost, nice hotels with decent breakfasts and most of all 2 amazing tour guides that guided us daily and entertained with stories and legends. Very much worth the price and peace of mind that we were being taken care of. (One lady even left her passport on one of the plane flights and the guides found where it was and the passport was waiting for her when she boarded the ship in Sydney!) We are avid cruisers and usually do all our own planning for tours and arrive early at the embarkation port to spend a few days exploring on our own. We were a bit concerned with the price of this Australian pre-extension. But afterward, decided it was money well spent for what we did. That said, going into any European or Asian cities, we would look closely at what Viking offered as a pre or post excursion and see if we could do it easily and for a better price. We enjoy all the planning that goes into a trip but we also want to still be talking to each other when we embark! LOL!! This is a great thread on CC and I have enjoyed reading all the comments. I am still learning a lot about Viking. Also have booked an expedition and river cruise . Mary Mary

Thank you for all your posts. Really enjoying reading all about the cruise. Someday we may try a world cruise...or at least part of one!

Well said Marty and Gail. We couldn't agree more.

Got it. When I reread your question I realized I hadn't answered correctly. I hope you got the answer you wanted.

Our TA is on our file when we do onboard bookings. We are always asked if we want the booking to go to our TA. It is done per our request automatically. We only had to fill that form out the first time we used our TA.

Our OBC was used first also. We used the ACH process to pay for tours and received the 3.3% discount right away. This was recommended to us on our roll call and it worked very well. We were able to book the tours we wanted immediately.

Relieved for you all.

We also go a day early even if we fly from Portland to San Diego. When we go internationally, we try to go at least 3 days early. Gives us time to reschedule flights if we miss a connection and get over jet lag. Plus do a bit of exploring in the port city. Worth the extra cost of a hotel. Better than missing the cruise altogether. We have had enough close calls and airport issues to make going early a priority now.

We are on the same cruise. The roll call is very active and there is a meet and greet planned. It looks like this will be a wonderful cruise. I think we are the first cruise after Oosterdam comes out of drydock in October.

Thank you . We were on the Oosterdam from Santiago back to Fort Lauderdale in March also. Really enjoyed the ship also. We will be back on in October after the drydock from Athens to FFL. It will be our first trans-Atlantic and are looking forward to that. Thank you for your post.

Thank you so much. I knew that AARP had a 10% savings. Wondered if HAL did the same thing. Appreciate you taking the time to answer. Mary

As a novice as to possibly purchasing gift cards, what is the advantage of using them? Either the AARP or HAL cards. Thanks so much for answering a question I probably should already understand.

Good morning or afternoon to all wherever you live! Love the pictures . We enjoyed that same view when we were there. All Iceland's waterfalls and landscape are awesome. Enjoy your visit. We are packing the trailer for our road trip to Yellowstone Park. We leave Thursday. I have been multiple times but still enjoy visiting. Although the traffic and huge amounts of people can be a nuisance, we will enjoy every minute. We have a RV campsite reserved at Fishing Bridge. Will be our base for traveling around the park. Taking our almost 13 year old grandson with us. He is very excited. Have books ready to listen to as we make the drive. Thanks for all the information. It is a lot of work and I appreciate it. Read it almost daily. Enjoy catching up with everything when I can. Prayer to all. A lot going on in everyone's lives. Cheers to those celebrating. I am celebrating my pink eye infection is almost cleared up. Not sure where I got that. Escaped pink eye during all the years I taught school. Stay well and safe. Mary

And we enjoyed sitting with you both!

Happy 4th to everyone celebrating. The fireworks over our bay last night were great. Plus several people at bonfires on the beach had good shows. Our sleepy town will be back to normal today as folks head north or south to nearby towns. But good for our economy yesterday. Went to one BBQ yesterday and another this afternoon. Not bad celebrating the 4th on two days. LOL Condolences and prayers to all on the prayer list. Appreciate all the news and pictures from everyone. It is a lot of work keeping all the lists and news. I am still checking in sporadically! Grandkids and family are camping this week so I feel like I am on vacation here. However, one of my projects today is to get our trailer ready for when we take the grands camping in a couple of weeks. Our weather is beautiful still this morning. But the Willamette valley cities may have record heat today. Hight 90"s so I know we will get the marine layer coming in today sometime. That heat is too much for us so we are happy to be here on the coast. Enjoy all your celebrations. Stay well and safe.