Viking Questions

Hello All,

DW and I will be taking our 1st RC on the Viking Odin - Cities of Light from Prague to Paris beginning on March 26th. Several questions as we continue or planning process.

Tipping -

Suggested is 12 euros pp per day for onboard staff - cruise is 4 nights at hotels and 7 nights aboard the Odin. Do we tip for only the 7 nights aboard?

Program Director - tip for 7 days or 11 days (2 euros pp per day)? Daily or at end of cruise (ship part) or at end of total trip.

Guides and Coach Drivers - do we tip them each day (2 e pp pd and 1 e pp pd)?

On Board Credit -

We will be receiving $200 in OBC from our TA. I know that this cannot be applied to tips. Other than extra bar service, optional tours (unlikely), misc. purchases aboard ship, and laundry, are there any other items that we could spend OBC on? I am assuming that we cannot use OBC for any expenses on the 2 hotel nights prior and the 2 hotel nights after the onboard portion.

We will be staying an extra week in Paris on our own after the 2 nights provided at the end of our cruise.

Thanks,

Bruce

Admin - Please move to main RC Board - thanks - Bruce

Let me address an answer to something you wrote-

My TA gave me $300 OBC and since I charged the tips at the end of the cruise, I was reimbursed.

After the cruise I realized the suggested tip to the cruise director was much too high. I will not make that mistake again.

Thanks for the above response. I did a search on “tipping” after I did the original post (shame on me) which answered some of my questions. Glad to see this was moved to the proper forum.

Not clear – is the Program Director tipped for “all nights (11)” or for just the “on board nights (7)”? I do not have an issue with the suggested amount as I understand that they are not paid (or very minimum) by the cruise line.

We both have an AX “Chip and Sign” card (2.7% ex fee) – we will use this card as backup as AX in not always accepted. We also now have a new VISA Travel Awards “Chip and Sign” card with no ex fee that will be our primary card. We are used to charging almost all of our daily needs to the AX (Costco) card at home and pay in full each month.

We have never had or used ATM cards (2 of the only 4 people left on earth with that claim). As we are staying an extra week in Paris after the cruise, I am sure we will have “cash needs” to handle things that neither card will handle. We are both used to carrying several hundred $$ in cash at all times at home. Given the daily tipping needs on the cruise, plus needs for the extra week, I would expect we could go thru $600 to $1000 cash for the trip.

We would plan to ex a small amt ($50??) for koruna and maybe $300 for euros when we arrive at the Prague airport. As we would probably never use or carry an ATM card at home, is it worth getting one from my bank?

We arranged our air thru Viking, so we have a pickup at the Prague airport. I am assuming that a Viking person will meet us. Do we wait for others who may arrive on a later flight to fill a bus or van, or are we taken to the hotel as soon as ready? Our flight is due in around 11:30 am.

We are trying to learn a little French for our stay in Paris. For all of you experienced Paris visitors, is language much of an issue there?

Any comments, hints, or suggestions are welcome.

Bruce

Re ATM / debit card, set up a completely separate account to tie your Debit card to and fill that account with $1000 - $2000 (or what you feel is reasonable). Do not get a Debit card to use in Europe that is tied to your regular checking account that you use for personal business at home.

The separate account will protect your funds in the event of trouble/fraud while still giving you easy access to emergency cash while traveling. You never know when or what form an emergency can take and having access to cash may be important. DH & I actually have two separate accounts at different banks with debit cards that we fund for our travels. DH has one card in his wallet and I have one. If some clever thief gets his wallet we still have access to a completely different set of credit cards and a debit card.

And no we don't think we will spent most of those funds, but they are available should something unplanned happen!

Happy planning:)

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you only need to tip the program manager for the days on the ship, ours was very good so we gave the suggested amount. When we flew in Viking was right there our daughter had flown in a few minutes before and was waiting for us, it semmed like no one waited more than 1/2 an hour.

Tipping is not as expected in Europe like the USA. I would put everything on the credit card, they are taken everyplace.

Bruce,

I have been to Paris twice - I speak some French - enough to hold a slow conversation - and this was very helpful. English is pretty widely spoken there as a second language but efforts to speak French, at least a few words and phrases, goes a long way - as will a smile and a polite, friendly attitude!

Enjoy your trip - Viking is fabulous! :D

Regarding your OBC, they do have a tiny gift shop on board. You can buy maps, shirts, caps, jackets, etc. I think they also had several books and I think there was a DVD taken during the trip.

I second the recommendation on getting a debit card "in case of emergency."

We only use one credit card and we took it, along with a debit card, on a B2B last Fall. Somewhere in the middle of the South Pacific, I received a fraud alert text about my credit card. Yep, compromised, cancelled, kaput. We were cruising and planning to spend five days in Sydney. It would have been very difficult without the debit card.

You will definitely need small amounts of cash for purchases in places that don't take credit cards.

I second the recommendation on getting a debit card "in case of emergency."

 

 

 

We only use one credit card and we took it, along with a debit card, on a B2B last Fall. Somewhere in the middle of the South Pacific, I received a fraud alert text about my credit card. Yep, compromised, cancelled, kaput. We were cruising and planning to spend five days in Sydney. It would have been very difficult without the debit card.

 

 

 

You will definitely need small amounts of cash for purchases in places that don't take credit cards.

This is exactly why DH and I have two sets of CC and Debit cards from completely different banks. If something goes wrong with one set as happened to me in China, we still had a different set of cards from a completely different bank.

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Bruce,

I have been to Paris twice - I speak some French - enough to hold a slow conversation - and this was very helpful. English is pretty widely spoken there as a second language but efforts to speak French, at least a few words and phrases, goes a long way - as will a smile and a polite, friendly attitude!

Enjoy your trip - Viking is fabulous! :D

French is canada's second " official" language and as such we take it in school from grade 7 onward. I admit i still struggle after 60 + years.

But a safe rule for travelling in any country..and particularly in france.... is basically, be polite.

The French store keepers always greet you with "Bonjour " ( good day) so please respond with 'bonjour'. And even if you are only window shopping and buy nothing, it is good form to smile when leaving the store and say " Merci" ( thank you)

In a restaurant, if you have to point to an item on a menu..and most places have english translations underneath the french description....say " s'il vous plait" ( please) and "merci" ( thank you) and smile.

A good attempt and a smile will go a long way.:)

Thanks to all who have replied so far. We are very excited about the trip. Will do some checking about the ATM (Debit) card.

Bruce

I second and third the ATM/debit card suggestions. We were on a Christmas market cruise last month and this is how we managed money. We transferred $2000 into a separate account for the ATM cards. We put a limit of $200 euros a day on each card. As suggested DW and I had separate cards. We actually spent very little (almost nothing) onboard for a 7 day cruise. I think our shipboard account was less than $200 actually. We paid the tips in cash and used the credit card as little as possible. Having had a card compromised on an Italian trip several years ago we don't expose the cards anymore than we absolutely have to. Pretty much any purchase under $100 was done in cash. When we returned home we transferred the money out of the ATM accounts so if anyone tried to use it there was no money to withdraw.

Just so you know....The suggested tip goes into a "pool" and is shared throughout the crew. We tipped the suggested amount but I also pulled our room steward and dining room waiter aside and tipped them extra as I thought they deserved it. As far as tipping bus drivers. I never saw anybody tipping them. Tour guides yes but not the drivers. When we got home I mentioned this to DW. I kind of felt bad about it but on some days we would have one driver take us and a different driver bring us back to the boat. Not saying don't tip the drivers but I think it was more oversight than anything. Several times when we tipped the tour guides the other people in our group looked surprised that we were doing it and some seemed upset that it was happening.

Have a great trip! We certainly did and can't wait to take another one.

Bruce, we spend the month of April in Paris every year (last 2 just after a viking river cruise….the info shared by the folks above is spot on... and great advice.

contrary to what you may hear (from people who haven't been there in 20 years )…we have ALWAYS found the folks in Paris to be great people….as mentioned ,learning a few of the simple phrases goes a long way….

it may be worth your time to check out the Paris forum on trip advisor for great things to do and info on the metro (which is outstanding and inexpensive transport), etc.

we too always travel with 2 different ATM cards in addition to no transaction fee credit cards.

i hope you enjoy Viking…and Paris…as much as we do. have a safe journey

bon journée

Thanks again for all of the advice. For those of you who had 2 ATM cards, did you set up 2 special accounts with limited cash? Did you close the accounts when you were done?

Bruce

Thanks again for all of the advice. For those of you who had 2 ATM cards, did you set up 2 special accounts with limited cash? Did you close the accounts when you were done?

 

 

 

Bruce

We did set up 2 accts, one at our local credit union and one a local bank in town. Neither of these banks are our primary bank that we do our normal business at. Have had both of these little accts for a long time now and use then for travel more than anything.... So no once I got those accts open I left them open, what a pain to reopen when we travel.

This method works for us and we have had times when one card would not work due to suspected fraud (mostly the banks computers did not like that we were in China). The other issue was that we found one of our cards closed last year when in Europe due to the Target hack.... The bank just closed many thousands of cards down and we were out of the country! Thank god we had a second card and I gave those people a piece of my mind when I got home!

Have fun with your planning!

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As far as tipping bus drivers. I never saw anybody tipping them. Tour guides yes, but not the drivers. When we got home I mentioned this to DW. I kind of felt bad about it but on some days we would have one driver take us and a different driver bring us back to the boat. Not saying don't tip the drivers but I think it was more oversight than anything. Several times when we tipped the tour guides the other people in our group looked surprised that we were doing it and some seemed upset that it was happening.

I was a Step-On Guide in L.A. and it is common for the Guide to give a percentage to her Driver when the Driver is not tipped.

Would a prepaid debit card be okay to take or would it be better to have a separate account set up at the bank with debit cards?

Would a prepaid debit card be okay to take or would it be better to have a separate account set up at the bank with debit cards?

Are you talking about the Visa gift cards that you pre-load from the grocery store ??? Fine print on back of most those cards say "Valid in the US only".

My understanding is that the pre paid cards won't be accepted in Europe.

Your profile does not indicate if you are from??? US, Canada or UK or???? Consumer protection laws and the laws and rules that cruise lines are required to operate under are vastly different.

Please complete your profile to at the very least indicate your country of origin.

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Open an acct at a local bank and load that acct with cash... Or just open a separate at your bank!

Just not one tied directly to your day to day acct that you pay your bills from.

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Thank you JVilleGal. I will just open a separate account. I did at least fill in my location on my profile. TBH, I've never even thought about my profile on here. I'm fairly new to CC. :o

Good morning Marchmom!!!! I hope the weather in Oklahoma is better than it is here in Oregon!

I think the seperate account is the best idea. When is your trip?

We're not going until the end of May, Viking's Cities of Light. This will be my first river cruise and only second cruise ever. None of us have been on a river cruise before so we're all green where it's concerned.

The weather today is cold! It is supposed to warm up nicely into the 70's for the weekend though.

I have another CC question....my cc that I use all the time here is not a chipped card. Will I have a hard time using that card in Germany and France....I know most of Europe has gone to chipped cards.

I have another CC question....my cc that I use all the time here is not a chipped card. Will I have a hard time using that card in Germany and France....I know most of Europe has gone to chipped cards.

A lot of banks will re-issue your card with a chip if you call and ask.

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