OneSixtyToOne

Totally forgot about the rolled ice cream. I asked for strawberries and they went into the kitchen and located some. I added them to vanilla ice cream and white chocolate. Heavenly.

I’ll add that the ship doesn’t sell mouthwash.

I believe Greenwich is used in high season but sailings earlier or later in the year use Tilbury.

We have two included tours on our stop in Bergen for our next cruise in August. It should be noted that you can only select one.

I’m speaking strictly of cost. Unless you drink a lot, paying per drink might be more cost effective.

As I said, much discussion. As I’ve stated in other threads, IMO unless you drink liquor the SSP is not worth the cost. All wines are available for purchase so there is nothing exclusive in the package. It’s just a different way to pay for drinks.

Your gratuity is available to view in My Viking Journey (MVJ). If you haven’t set up your account yet, do so now. Go to “Before You Go” and click on Pre-Paid Gratuities to see the amount. BTW most people do not prepay because on board credits may be used for this purpose. Even though you might not have any credits, you might obtain some during the cruise. For example if you book another cruise while onboard you will receive an OBC. Also if a paid excursion is cancelled you may end up with a credit that can be used for gratuities. The beverage package includes additional wines. Whether they are an upgrade or not has been the subject of much discussion on this board.

I have a feeling this is the quid pro quo that the cruise lines have negotiated with the government to allow them to dock. The rug shops that Viking visits are subsidized by the government.

We book just to have a time slot then onboard review the menus and change accordingly. We always get our preferred menu.

The Polaris is an expedition ship and the “entertainment” revolved around science and nature lectures, movies, and some sort of one person show by the cruise director. I throughly enjoyed it as opposed to the typical ocean cruise with less than stellar Broadway productions and C level comics. It’s Torstein’s vision of a thinking man’s cruise and I’m onboard with it.

If traveling in the EU you’ll get an entry stamp and an exit stamp, even then some entry is automated and there are no longer stamps. Also our last time entering the UK it was automated and there were no stamps.

Last summer we took the London Walks tour of the British Museum. We had visited before but the tour guide really did a great job showing us the highlights and telling marvelous stories about the museum itself that I never knew. We’ve taken at least 10 of their tours over many visits and we highly recommend them.

Chile required everyone to go through agricultural inspection when leaving the ship. if you ever drive cross country into California they do the same. It’s to protect the agriculture industry from invasive insects.

Agree. Specially restaurants are overrated. We tend to dine at the World Cafe. With port talks, enrichment lectures, trivia, shows, etc. we prefer to be on our own schedule, not at the mercy of the waitstaff servicing us in a timely manner. On our expedition cruise we cancelled both night’s advanced reservations because the World Cafe was the best food we have had at sea.

For what it’s worth every time we pre-booked dining reservations they have ALWAYS opened early. I think there is something wrong with how they are calculating times (daylight savings vs non-daylight saving, GMT, or something else.) On the other hand, I have found that excursions always open exactly on time. There is a disconnect somewhere, possible because dining is directly hooked into the ship’s reservation system? The ship’s system and the website system don’t always sych up. Once we boarded and they had no record of our reservations. I was told there are issues between them. Always check your reservations when you board.