zalusky

Maybe its 2026 but I thought I read they were switching to a larger ship for Australia at some point and using Regatta for something else.

Viking gave us a move over offer on a 14 day Italian cruise this last May. Complete refund of all monies paid including business air. Allowed us to pick another sailing equivalent up to 24 months in the future with business class air for free. Upgraded room one level in our cases to Junior Suite. They threw in the drink package. They also reduced the trip insurance increasing our refund since our cost is essentially zero except for Medical. We could not turn that down.

I would like to hear direct food comparisons on both lines when you can. We did a 21 day O cruise this last January and I was not wowed. As somebody who has sailed VO a lot I would like to hear more specifics.

No up charge restaurants No up charge entrees No up charge lounges Substantially cheaper booze pkgs and drinks relative to the mainstream lines I exclude excursions for comparisons as they are so individual in nature.

I am a little surprised that a relatively brand new ship has "waste water" certification issues. Does this mean they just did not get inspected and do some regular cleaning or does it mean technologically they don't have what it needs to meet the certification? I remember our round Australia cruise on Regatta earlier this year when many of the ships were getting bounced from various AUS/NZ ports for not cleaning their hulls which surprised me as well since they knew the rule was coming and got lazy.

Any guesses when the 2026 sailings are released? I know there are some new ships coming and places like Flam will require them? The Grand Fjords & Iconic Viking Shores Itinerary interests me but we are already booked in that time frame for 2025. It would also be nice to book it while we already have a booking to get the 6 month final payment schedule.

We had done a Bali to Sydney cruise starting last December, Bali flights are more complicated than Sydney flights so we decided to go through Oceania because we felt they would guarantee us making the ship and deal with it if we did not. The return flights were less of an issue and we stayed extra days in Sydney. We also used points that I had acquired. We flew back on United Polaris that we had booked. Flying there we via Oceania. They booked us on Air Canada from SFO to LAX and then as I mentioned it was Singapore Air LAX to Bali with a connection change in Singapore. The Restricted Business one way air arrangement was $3699 per person but I also see a $850 air allowance discount above probably from the Oceania oLive pricing. The United Polaris Business class Sydney to SFO pricing was 200K points +$79.87 fees / person The points I assume would translate to $2000. Of course that stuff varies constantly. Now with hindsight if I could talk to myself in the past I would have said do the full roundtrip and add the extra 2 weeks to the 3 week Bali to Sydney. It would not be that large of an increment and the RT to Sydney would have been easier and cheaper than trying to fly into Bali.

While it worked out I would definitely do things different in the future. We had Oceania book the embarking flight for our cruise last year. It was SFO to Bali. We did not fly in a day early. They first had a domestic connection from SFO to LAX domestic terminal which could not check us all the way in. We had to walk from the domestic terminal in LAX to the international terminal which was a long way with a lot of carry on stuff. The Singapore business lounge at LAX was helpful in that they checked us in to the international segment. We then flew from LAX to Singapore. We had a tight connection and could not enjoy the Singapore airport which is suppose to be fabulous. We then had a to take an airport train to another terminal to make the flight to Bali. We had to go through luggage screening again at that gate. We did make all the connections but it was awkward and nervous. Also I was less than impressed with the quality of the long haul aircraft relative to other Singapore aircraft’s. The business class lay flat seats were pretty hard and we had a baby crying the whole way. My wife finally got permission to move to another section. So the answer is yes figure your flights, aircrafts, layovers, hotels and don’t trust Oceania to figure it out. As a side note the initial flight Oceania had picked before they changed it was a Qatar flight from SFO east to Jakarta, and then to Bali. I was sort of interested in that only to try out business class on Qatar airways but they yanked. I could have said it was effectively an around the world experience when adding the cruise and return flight to SFO.

Unless of course you want to go to the bathroom from Horizon or the theater lounge where you are forced to either go outside to the back of the ship or down a floor. With the theater there is only a one stall bathroom. If you want to do your own laundry there is only laundry room on floor 7 vs the O ships where there are many floors with laundry.

I found the theater difficult since it is not sloped people's heads were always in the way so in many cases it's difficult to see the entertainers.

Waiting for an elevator when you have to go and you can’t take the stairs is not really acceptable. I cannot for the life of me understand how this design passed any sort of approval.

FYI, R class ships do not have bathrooms outside of the Horizoin lounge. The main theater lounge only has a single person bathroom. IE The two largest people places on the ship. You have to walk to the rear of the ship either on an outside deck or go down flights. Not fun if you have any ADA issues. The second nuisance factor for R class ships is there is only one room with self service laundry facilities. The O class ships have self service laundry on all passenger floors.

We sailed round Australia on Regatta this last January. We were in a PH1 cabin. Our butler introduced himself and my wife asked about Low Carb options in the bread arena. The butler got us in contact with the head chef. The head chef suggested almond flour bread for us to try. As soon as we hung with him the butler was at the door with a covered tray of a hot steaming slice. We tried it and it was to heavy. My wife then suggested a recipe she had but they did not have the ingredient's. She then educated them on something called a Chaffle which is basically eggs and cheese. The head chef made some and the butler chased around the ship looking for us. He found us in the theater and wanted us to know they were available to try. On another example we did the late night Penguin Parade tour on Philip Island and when we returned to our cabin at around 11PM there many plates of food ready for us including sugar free desserts and Chaffles. We did not ask for these but he assumed we might be hungry with the evening tour and no real time for the ship restaurant meals.

What people don't get is this is where the profit is. If people don't buy the packages and they don't make their profit quotas they will look for something else to either cut or entice that is unreasonably priced.

Yes please Midnight Sun was a cruise we had to cancel last year because of catching Covid the week before. My wife is mildly mobility impaired with torn hip ligaments. She can walk but climbing and rough terrain can be a problem so I will interested to see how you make the most of this sailing for when we rebook.

Yep! Our TA fixed it though but then we got a move over off and none of it matters till 2025.

We had a flight that landed about 12AM cruise day. Which meant we would either sleep at the airport or find a hotel, get to it, check in somehow, sleep for a few hours, and then go to the cruise terminal.

So just asking because I don't know but does Viking make the non complimentary excursions cheaper than other cruise lines. They certainly make the drinks and drink packages cheaper than the other cruise lines. Has anybody done an excursion comparison on pricing (on your own aside)?

After my first experience on Oceania on Regatta I was somewhat disappointed in the ship and it’s features. IE lack of lounge bathrooms, Only one laundry room, poor viewing ability in the theater as examples. I would really like to see O class ships if not the V class ships doing pacific stops from Alaska to to Japan to Oz. Anybody know if and when that might happen?

It's not about beer and wine, it's about raising rates. We have had massive inflation and they are in debt. If you want the cheaper rates you are going to have to go down to the mainstream lines.

Is ordering a drink in the Terrace Cafe at noon/7PM considered lunch or dinner or does it have to be in the main/specialty dining rooms?

I am trying to understand the drink enhancements if you want to call them that. It says "with lunch and dinner". Does that mean you pay for basic cocktails in a lounge outside of the lunch/dinner venues?

I don’t know if it’s good or bad but the head chefs really don’t have much flexibility. We discussed with the head chef on our regatta sailing about trying come up with more keto options AKA low carb breads as an example. He was able to create something called chaffles which has ingredients available on the ship but even though we found some other recipes we would have to go into town to procure the ingredients he was not allowed to use anything not procured by corporate.

We were on the Regatta for a 3 week cruise this last January. It was ok but I found the food somewhat repetitive. Toscana was good. Pollo was a big disappointment. We ate at Waves a lot and got variations of surf and turf simply because I felt the proteins in the other venues were a let down. Now that being said the service was great and everybody was friendly but "Best food at sea" no way at least for this sailing. I have lots of other stories of good and bad but I prefer to be a forward thinker. I do realize each sailing can be completely different. Will I sail O again sure but not on the R class vessels. Looking forward to trying out all the other guys just to compare.

Just to refresh the story. We received a move over email offer about a week before our sailing date although it was actually less in that we were to fly a couple of days earlier than the sailing date and booked a hotel. We then looked at the offer and asked our TA who was not helpful. We then decided it was too good to pass up and responded to the email saying we were interested about 2 hours after we received it. The following morning west coast time about 11AM we received a phone call from the agent. She worked in a group call Stateroom Upgrades and this what they do all days. I assume they also deal with guarantee cabins but that is just a guess. She looked at the various sailings and what extensions were available and whether the Junior Suite upgrade was available. We decided on a 2025 sailing. Once we gave the verbal agreement she said it would take about a half hour to send us the new documents. We got multiple emails one discussing the amount of refunds and one showing the new sailing contract with the previously mentioned discounts and another with pre purchase options. IE the Silver Spirits package. We also told her we wanted an extension and she worked that into the contract deducting from the refund. So to answer your question I don’t know but I figured that other move over people were getting called so we did not want to wait as rooms and extensions were selling out fast.