Love2Sew

12 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Oh, that is interesting....  I had never tried Fevertree before Viking and it is my winner.  I cannot find it at home anywhere in a grocery store.  I would drink G&T's with Fevertree but not with Schweppes.

We order Fevertree tonic from Amazon - 24 bottles at a time for my G&Ts.

Hi Roy. Thoroughly enjoyed your description of our trip (we were on the ship with you)! Also appreciated the pictures. Happy sailing!

My husband and I traveled with our daughter and two grandsons (ages 10 and 13) on Uniworld's Christmas Market cruise from Frankfurt to Nuremberg in 2013. Everyone in the family had a great time. There was something for all ages - and very special activities for the young people. Some of the included excursions were geared to families as well - slightly different than the regular itinerary. Ages of "children" ranged from 2 to 18 years. My older grandson made friends with teens from New Zealand and continues to communicate with them. Highly recommend one of the multigenerational cruises.

Here is the order I did:

Spoke to our Travel agent. She was aware as I had emailed details to her. Not sure what her role is in all this but I believe she should be an advocate for us.

 

Then wrote "my epistle" similar to yours and emailed it to Viking Guest Relations.

I got a call from a rep, Valerie, the next morning and I could tell she had read my epistle. We dialogued amicably about expectations. "Everything is being reviewed" is the message.

I contacted Travel Guard which is the Viking Travel Protection we have. I have spoken to them twice. I have a claim # and have downloaded the forms she emailed. Both reps had no knowledge of the Star's mechanical issue and the impact it has made on the July 25 and Aug. 8 sailing. I was not impressed. Of course they will not proceed until it is clear how Viking will reimburse passengers, so I have not completed the forms.

 

Plan on speaking to the TAgent on Monday morning as she left a message that she has spoken to Viking. She works for CAA ( equivalent to your AAA) and they must send a lot of business Viking's way but I am no expert on the ins and out of the travel business.

I wanted to share our experience with Travel Guard, although our situation was different. We were scheduled on Viking Star's maiden voyage - all 50 days. On Viking's pre trip in Troy, I fell and had to be flown back to US for immediate surgery. We contacted Travel Guard, received a Claim # and worked with the same agent for multiple calls. Unfortunately, the TG agent would give us misinformation - basically we were told "the check's in the mail" 3 different times. Each time, when the check did not arrive as scheduled, we contacted our AAA travel agent. She seemed to have a lot of clout and we received better feedback from her as to the delays than from the TG agent. We eventually got our refund for an amount very close to what we expected. My suggestion is to use your CAA TA if there seems to be a delay or little contact from Travel Guard to you personally.

Hi Ron & Carol,

Margie & I will be doing the Viking Post: Istanbul, Gallipoli & Troy and would appreciate a brief review once you return to the "Star"

Bon Voyage !

Bob & Margie

Hi Bob and Margie,

I'll be happy to summarize the trip for you after we are settled on the Star.:)

Carol

Viking Star is in port at Dubrovnik.

http://photos.marinetraffic.com/ais/showphoto.aspx?photoid=1922559

We bring a Swiss Army knife - includes a screwdriver and corkscrew.

Ukalady,

You reminded me of the amazing fruit topped yogurt on our Viking Cultural Delights tour.

Other breakfast delights are pastries (including croissants) and eggs cooked to order. Also looking forward to tea time.

PopsA - When I check about the "Private Dining Room" I could also see if this suite was available. If the Hagen family in only going to occupy it for the Christening in Bergen, it might be available for May 8? Wouldn't that be a hot?

Elizabeth, sounds like you might be on your way to a new career as a party planner;)

Thanks Brian for your wonderful message. You also stepped in as a leader when arranging our D-Day tour - for that we are very grateful.

Hi Bill,

We're booked on Viking's Pathways of the Pharaohs in November 2015. We were in Israel in January 30, 2011 when the revolution broke out in Egypt, so we're trying again.

There's a thread on River Roll Calls that gives extensive info regarding the trips taken in Oct and Nov 2014. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2094693 Much of what is discussed there I believe would be helpful to you.

We've used Uniworld for two Christmas Market cruises.

Our pre and post trips are not displayed in My Viking Journey. However we did receive our travel documents from Viking, and the hotel and transfer information is there.

Also, in our travel documents I was happy to see they had all our booked excursions listed.

Hi Renee,

We talked to our TA about using the voucher toward the Viking River cruise BEFORE we booked it. He checked with Viking and they assured him that the voucher amount will be applied before full payment is due in April.

Carol

Hi Brian,

This was an easy choice for us. We took the voucher - quite a sizable sum as we are on the 50-day maiden cruise. Much better than shipboard credit. Our TA has booked us on Viking Rivers Egypt trip in November. A few years ago, our Egypt trip was canceled when the revolution took place in Cairo. We're glad to be going to see the ancient wonders.

We received an updated excursions list (pdf) from our TA after he had received the original info regarding dining, excursions, etc. I'd post here but dealing with limited capabilities in Mexico. Suggest calling Viking. I think it may have been released on the 23rd - after we made our initial reservations.

When you get the file, read through every excursion you booked with Viking.Although we're not doing many included tours, there are some subtle changes in some of them. We had to select an optional tour to get the same Ephesus tour as in the original included tour.

The included tour of St. Petersburg has been reinstated for the maiden voyage.

Leo, thanks for the info. Very helpful for us.

Bear_Music and Elizabeth

My husband and I appreciate all your efforts and posted info. I'm the planner, he's more laid back and ready to enjoy the ship. Although we're on Deck 6, hoping we can get together at some point.

My husband and I leave for Mexico January 15 and won't return until February 26, so we gave our TA a list of dining reservation preferences and also tentative list of excursion preferences - based on Viking's website. Hoping Viking provides more info - should be before January 11 if we count 90 days from the start of the cruise, right? We are also on the 50-day cruise.

We also have had a good experience in preparing for our Viking Empires cruise - beginning in April, 2015. We go through our TA - and have received good information. Paid the extra $100/person fee to Viking for flight preferences. We have had our non-stop flights booked for several months - including seat assignments. This includes JFK to Istanbul, Stockholm to Iceland (post trip), and Iceland to JFK Also we were advised several months ago of booking dates for dining reservations and excursions based on our room. Meeting with TA today to give him our choices as we will be in Mexico for most of January and February. Our TA seems to have an excellent relationship with a Viking contact person. It would be nice to know port times and excursion costs, but since it's the maiden voyage, we're willing to be flexible.

The site http://www.turkeyembassy.org gives information for all countries regarding visas.

We watched the video - and I thought the same thing. Maybe I'll Google him and send an email ;)

My husband and I are also extremely excited for our April 11 voyage; we're doing the entire 50-day trip.

I believe that itinerary for 4/11/15 will be the same as when we booked. If you look at the Passages Through Western Europe cruise, there is a pdf file for the 2015 Barcelona to Bergen itinerary that matches the original Viking Empire itinerary for these ports.