DrKoob

Thanks for the compliments. You can see even more pics over on my blog at www.jimbellomo.com. Yes, the trip to Venice is by boat. Are you only there for one day? We were there for three. It does take about 90 minutes to get in. Your itinerary should tell you when you will arrive in Chioggia. We were off the ship and on the boat in minutes after the ship was cleared. Of course, if you read my review, we took our luggage and stayed in the city for two nights. I would think you could do the Guggenheim fairly quickly. It's not that big a museum. Just know that when you get off the boat coming from Chioggia you will either have to walk to the Guggenheim or take the #2 vaporretto and get off at the Accademia bridge stop. Depending on the lines to get tickets, this will be faster. Feel free to ask any other questions. Jim

Not sure what can't be taken care of by a TA. Mine takes care of everything for us from adding a mattress pad to water for CPAP machines to dining reservations. If you are talking about an online agency, those are not real travel agents.

Identifying yourself as a TA on Cruise Critic can get you banned. Better be careful. I only mentioned this because my TA says she makes more booking Viking on one cruise than she does on multiple cruises on most other lines. And she finds Viking very easy to deal with. They always answer their phones. No waiting on hold for hours and hours...or so she says.

It's not a "markup" because you can't get a lower price from the cruise line. They pay the commission to the TA and then they don't have to deal with a customer who may or may not have a clue as to what questions to ask.

Something to keep in mind about booking with other cruise lines: not a single other cruise line pays commission as Viking does. I can't think of one other that pays commission on everything, even at a different rate. Most only pay on the cruise itself. So don't think your TA has made that much on other bookings. TAs love Viking because they pay on everything. Many of the other lines have a bunch of charges called NCF (Non-commissionable fees), and they can really be high numbers. Booking a Viking cruise, your TA can make some decent money, but (for instance) a TA can book a Carnival cruise and make $50. It depends on the cruise line's policies.

Excuse me? Do we know each other? Have I done something to offend you in the past? Do I need to report this as an insult? Not sure what you mean by this.

And it didn't cost you a cent. If you had booked this directly, your fare would have been exactly the same. Not a penny, more or less. If it was, your TA was adding the money in on their own. But it would not have shown up on that Agent copy you got. And don't think your TA got that entire amount. If they don't own their agency, the franchisee or owner got a huge part of that. Usually the majority of it.

On our Viking Sky last year there were mostly 2, 4 and 6 tops but at the back of the ship there is a couple of 10s that could be 12s.

Our travel agent often gets invitations to tour the ship and have a nice lunch on the cruise line. We have done a bunch of them. We usually have to sit through a sales presentation, but that often comes with a nice discount. Find a local TA and give them your business.

I agree, but I got so excited because I thought the answers we got came from the ship designers or the person who orders the furniture. That would have been cool 😂.

Our local travel agent (a good friend) handled that all for us. They checked with Viking who sent us a detailed list of things to know and warnings about a lot of things, like the ship won't wait for us, not to expect any kind of refund for not eating on board for two days, etc. We asked about six months ahead before we booked the B&B,

First, you can change companies without changing phones. Second, T-Mobile is owned by Deutch Telecom. They are everywhere in Europe. The coverage in those parts you mentioned is better than I can get in downtown Seattle.

Why not just get T-Mobile and be able to use your phone for data for free in all but about ten countries in the entire world? And only make calls for 25¢ a minute (who calls anyone anymore anyway).

Venice seems to be a BIG topic on the Viking Boards. We were in Venice for those three days on a Viking Sky cruise in September 22. We asked Viking in advance if we could leave the ship on day 1 (on their shuttle) with a carry-on and spend two nights in a B&B in Venice. Then the last day, we went to the Venice train station and took a cab back to the ship in Chioggia. The B&B was $225 a night and the taxi was $90. We look back on it now and it was worth every penny. When you do the Venice on your own and you are in the city for just a few hours it is a few CROWDED hours. When you spend the night, the city empties out around 5:00 pm and doesn't get busy again until 10:00 am the next day. That's when you see things like this photo. You can read all about how we did it on my blog here: https://jktravelredmond.com/2022/09/13/venice-day-1-we-get-there/ It has the entire story including where we stayed.

We did 21 nights on Sky last September/October. This is probably what you are considering. When we docked in Chioggia we took the shuttle boat into the city with a single carry-on type bag and spend the next two nights at a small B&B. Then we took a taxi back from the train station in Venice to Chioggia. I blogged the entire thing with all our arrangements here: https://jktravelredmond.com/2022/09/13/venice-day-1-we-get-there/ if you decide to do this and have any other questions, feel free to ask.Yes, it was more expensive, yes it was a bit of a pain but YES, we would do it again. We love Venice and the photography I got at the blue and golden hour our two days in Venice was astounding (you will see it in my blog).

WOW! You get the prize. That is exactly what this is. They are hurting badly. If you think Oceania is doing badly here, you should hear the complaints from long-time NCL cruisers.

We have paid T-Mobile $60 a month for two lines, everything included for the last seven years. Not a penny more. Never changes. Taxes and fees go up but we still pay $60. Guaranteed price for life. Covers all but about 10 countries in the entire world. They are the traveler's cell phone company.

Or you could switch your cell phone provider to T-Mobile who has FREE texting, e-mail, web and pretty much all things data in all but about ten countries in the entire world. Calls are 25¢ a minute. Did three weeks in the Med on Sky in September and the total bill was under $5. They are the cell phone company for travelers. I should add that in certain parts of the world, their coverage is better and faster than here in the US (because they are part of Deutch Telecom).

I am with you on almost everything, although we found The Restaurant loud and the food just OK. We did three weeks on Sky (which was too long), and it was a fine cruise. It just did not meet our expectations and the price tag. We are booked for another (shorter) cruise, and we are doing a COVID-delayed river cruise, but we thought we were finding our new cruise line (we left Celebrity after 30+ cruises, but that's another story), and we didn't. Going to try Oceania next. One thing that looks better with them is that instead of the free excursion, they give you OBC, and you choose what to spend it on. Out of 21 days (18 ports), we did Viking excursions (some included, some extra charge) on 14 of them. They were mostly terrible. You would have thought the guides were paid by the word. They never stopped talking. We also did three days on our own with private guides, which were the BEST days of the cruise. We also loved the ship. Thanks for the honest and thoughtful review.

Having flown every. class there is from SEA to all over the world, the best example of what Premium Economy is on a long haul is that your seat will/should (on most carriers) look like a First Class seat on a domestic flight. You know, the ones you walk by when you are headed to the back of the plane. The biggest ripoff in flying is buying Business class within Europe. In so many cases, European airlines will fly you in a wonderful lie-flat seat for your transatlantic flight and then when you fly a short flight beyond your crossing, you are in a regular economy three-in-a-row economy seat with the middle seat blocked off. It's not at all like US First Class. It's a pretty big shock when you are expecting something great and wind up with the same legroom as you get in the back of the plane in the USA with a blocked off middle seat that has a table over the seat so it can't be used...even by you to lie down (if no one was in the third seat).

WOW! What a great review! And what an amazing website. There must be close to 50 or 60 cruise reviews on here with amazing photos. Can't wait to check them all out. Thanks for this. Sorry about your weather problems.

You and KoolforKatz sound like us. After 30+ cruises with X we are done. Trying Visa in the fall, did Viking Ocean last September. Celebrity is just not the same anymore. Can't wait to try O.

You will be in Chioggia. In September our Viking Sky itinerary said Marghera for about three months. Then it switched. As far as knowing who else will be in port, the answer is no other ships. Chioggia is not that big and Viking seems to have cornered the market on docking there. The big ships are going to two other ports (All the Carnival Brands seem to use Trieste and the Royal, NCL and MSC folks go to Ravenna).

My brother did a Viking Sky cruise with us last summer and he is 6'9" and had no problems.

I just do not understand why they are going back to in-person muster drills. They are one of the worst parts of cruising. Great place to catch any virus. No room to sit for people like my wife who have had hip replacement and can't stand for that long. Someone please explain why they have gone back to it. BTW: if your answer is that people aren't watching the video, do you think they pay any more attention while standing in the hot sun? Or crammed in a bar someplace? Have them watch the video and don't let the television in their room be changed to another channel until it has played all the way through. Then have them go and check in at the.muster station. Insure they do this by not allowing the use of their sea pass card to buy anything until they have checked in. This includes all beverages.