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NanciEA

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  1. In reference to what CCWineLover stated, our only complaint on our last Viking Ocean cruise was the shore excursion person who gave the daily talks. Her very thick accent made her talks extremely difficult to understand. Numerous passengers also told us they also stopped attending for this reason. Since most of the passengers on our ship had as their native language English, and shore excursion information would have been very helpful to passengers, I recommended to Viking it would be helpful to have someone whose first language was English give these presentations.
  2. I would book the transfer now with Viking. You can pay extra and they will include you in the transfers if you are leaving the day of disembarkation. Contact them and they will send you a transfer form to fill out and email or fax to them. We are doing this for next year's British Isle cruise. We are flying into Bergen two day early and will find our way on the bus to our hotel. We are not staying on in London but paying Viking to transfer us to Heathrow.
  3. NanciEA

    STEP?

    I have registered us for years. It's on my "to do" list before every international trip. It makes it much harder for the US Government to help you if they don't know you are in a country when something happens there. It's really easy to use once you create an account with the State Department.
  4. Does anyone remember if the train had outlets for charging your phone?
  5. Yes, we were happy with the tour. It is a small group, maybe 12? It leaves from right next to where the tender's dock. It ends at the small aquarium, which is just across the street. They used a small mini bus, but you are not on it for long amounts of time. There are numerous stops and all are near the port. The puffins we saw were on a cliff over looking the town.
  6. We saw numerous puffins on a private tour with Eyjatours while in Heimaey.
  7. We took a bus from in front of the Opera House to Bratislava. It was about an hour non-stop. The tour included an hour long walking tour and then free time. We wandered around, had lunch, and did some shopping for a Christmas ornament. We left around 8:30 and were back by 3:00. Very easy and relaxed. I believe there were also options for taking the boat back. The boat I believe takes longer and does not return to the Opera House.
  8. We are looking at In The Wake of the Vikings for next September - Bergen to Montreal. I am hesitant about this repositioning cruise. I am concerned about the North Atlantic at that time of the year, not only for the possible rough seas, but also the possible missed stops, especially the tender ports. Has anyone done this cruise?
  9. Thank you so much for taking the time to write a detailed review. I noticed you did not mention any lectures. I assume you did not attend (or watch in your cabin) any of them? We have taken two Viking Ocean cruises, one pre and one post Covid and one of the many highlights for us have been the amazing lecturers. I agree with you on the included excursions. For our next Viking cruise we plan to book more independent, private shore excursions.
  10. I agree with almost all of the suggestions in this post. I am surprised no one as mentioned the topic of "final payment date". Paying sometimes over a year in advance is my biggest issue with Viking. For a recent booking with Viking they were asking for final payment 13 months out. I ask for something more reasonable (In my opinion.) and they had to put me on hold for awhile while they "asked a manager". I did get 8 months out, but only after I told them (and they looked it up) that I have two other cruise coming up in 2023 which are completely paid for. The agent acted like he was really doing me a really big favor.
  11. We landed at Chicago T5 on June 22 (a Wednesday, which may make a difference.) and there was no wait for Global Entry, which we have. It don't remember the line for non-Global Entry being awful. This was around 2:30pm. We waited maybe 10 minutes for our luggage. The hardest part is the long trek to your domestic flight, which involved the tram/train. Our connecting flight was on the opposite end of the airport. We had three hours. In total 45/50 minutes gate to gate.
  12. How do you purchase the ticket? In advance online, or on the ground when you arrive? We fly to Munich in less than two weeks. We will be there a few days before a Rhine rive cruise which also includes several stops in Germany.
  13. We have four couples traveling in early September. We still had unused airline credits so I booked our own flights directly with the airline. (I have added the transfers from Viking.) Our six friends paid for Air Plus so they could talk with Viking about their flights. They called Viking in early February and booked the flights and seats they wanted. Yesterday, one couple received a notice from Viking their flights had been changed. They thought it was the usual airline time changes which happen now on a regular basis. No. They were changed to a completely different airline and instead of one stop it is now two. The other two couples were unaffected. They called Viking and were told there is now a "60 day policy". Unless your flight is within 60 days, they are too busy to talk with you! There are still plenty of seats available (per the airline) on their original flights. They are afraid the seats will be gone 60 days out. I think if you paid extra to be able to talk with Viking about your flights, you should be able to do that! I told them to cancel the air with Viking and book their own, but we are all using 125% vouchers and they would lose a lot of money. Our original trip was for June 2020. Lesson learned for all the rest of our group - never use Viking Air Plus, or Viking Air in general unless you are willing to take whatever they give you in terms of connections, seats, changes, etc. The Viking agent offered to give them their $50 each back since no one will talk them, but still it is very poor service. This is not our first time with Viking, but it is for the other couples, and so far they are not impressed. Oh and we all have the risk free guarantee and will cancel and take a voucher once again (This is our third attempt at going!) if Viking doesn't stop the daily testing of healthy travelers by late summer.
  14. I would vote for Ancient Ephesus. You will see all of the "big" sites of the reconstructed city. (Wonders of the Ancient World doesn't sound like it actually goes to the ancient city?) We did this tour a number of years ago with a private guide. The description "gently descending route" is true. The only "uphill" is if you want to climb up at the theater, which is at the end of the tour, right before the craft stalls.
  15. I love reading travel blogs and yours is one of the best, if not the best I have read. I look forward to reading your posts everyday. You have brought me a lot of joy with your daily recaps. I will be sad when your travels have ended.
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