sharkster77

In the US, almost all the rivers flow E to W, W to E, or N to S. Very few go south to north. There is one in Florida I believe that flows to the north (St. John River??) Another strange one to us is living in New England, we go north to ski. When daughter was attending university in upstate New York, they would go south to the mountains to ski. Guess it just depends on where the hills are.

On its list of things that Viking is NOT, they make a point of mentioning "no formal nights". On our two river cruises with Viking I have worn polos/button-downs and chinos every night, and will do the same when we do Viking Alaska next June.

I guess we'll see you onboard! I do see your point RE: return visits. I guess we lucked out. Prior to our AMS--BAS Rhine cruise, our pre-cruise hotel was in the de Pijp neighborhood, so the walking tour concentrated on that area. The canal cruise we took from that area was nice. When we returned to AMS this past April for our tulip cruise, the walking tour covered a completely different area of Amsterdam, so we didn't feel it was a repeat. And the included canal cruise traveled different areas than the one we took in 2019. All that said, we feel like we've seen enough of Amsterdam such that we don't need to visit there again.

That's exactly what the Rhine does---from the Alps to the North Sea, flowing downhill. You will be sailing uphill, toward the mountains.

We are also sailing Alaska with Viking next June--we leave Vancouver June 6. When do you depart? We are like you, we have done river cruises (two) but this will be our first ocean cruise. On the river, we've found the included excursions perfectly fine, but the optional ones better (smaller group, more focused topics, etc.) So I would expect the same from Viking on the ocean. I wouldn't categorize any of our included river excursions as a 'total waste of time'. Even the much-maligned Black Forest excursion on Rhine cruises, we figured hey, we didn't pay extra for this, so let's just enjoy it for what it is.

OK, but I think the question was, will the prices be available BEFORE the portal for signing up opens? It would be much easier to have a must-get list ready beforehand if the prices are available when deciding what excursions you want to aim for.

I disagree--I wouldn't call Viking's payment schedules 'unethical baiting'---anyone spending 5 minutes researching Viking would find that out. I submit that it's more a case of someone not doing their homework--the policy is well-known and screamed from the rooftops all over the interwebs.

@longterm, can you comment on the "roughness" of the ocean? This itinerary has intrigued us, but we wonder about how rough North Sea waters can be. I have balance issues and the ferry from the tip of Scotland to Orkney had a bit of rocking to it when we visited as part of a land tour two years ago. Agree---Orkney was definitely a highlight of our 2022 Scotand tour.

Viking breakfast is both buffet and/or order off of a menu. Omelets and fried eggs are cooked to order, and one can order an Egg Benedict or french toast, for example off of a menu.

What exactly does this mean? What about Trafalgar Tours, Brendan Vacations, Insight Tours, etc., that don't have the equipment needs of Uniworld, the Carnation Hotels, etc., for examples. The phrase "newer capital-equipment intensive division" has me befuddled. I'm obviously not versed in the world of finance!

Here's a question: our plan has unlimited data use in US Canada and Mexico. We will be on an Alaska cruise next June, Vancouver to Seward. Some has recommended only using data in port, switching to airplane mode and wifi while the ship is sailing. On an Alaska cruise, will we be that far out to sea for this to matter? We sail on the eastern side of Vancouver Island, and will often be between islands. In other words, how far out to sea do you have to be before you're outside the USA/Canada/Mexico zone?

On my desktop I had no trouble at all logging into MVJ--access code came within seconds to email. Next time I'll try using my password instead of the code.

ATT's version of the above is $10 per day for first phone on plan, $5 per phone for any others on plan. You have international data for 24 hours from the time you turn off airplane mode. We use this judiciously---if we are wandering streets, for example, it's useful for using Google Maps, or if in the airport and choose not to use the wifi. On a 12 day tulip cruise and extension this past spring we turned it on maybe just 3 times, so paying $30 was easier than playing with foreign SIM cards, etc. Worked for us. Looking forward to our September trip to Quebec, as our data plan covers us in Canada!

Did anyone see the camera shot of Messi's ankle after he had removed his boot and sock? YIKES............

If I understand correctly, the issue with using calling apps is that you need to be sure whoever you are calling has the app on their phones--both you and the recipient need whatever app you're using. If you don't both have What'sAp or Facebook Messenger, etc., it won't work. This is not the case I believe for wifi calling. Please correct me if my assumptions are not correct.

When on ship wifi, could you just turn on wifi calling on your phone?

Does anyone have Weird Al Yankovic on speed dial???

We have been in cabin 106 and 119 on different cruises, at opposite ends of the hall way. No constant noises that prevented sleep. Will definitely book aquarium class again---we are only in our cabin to change clothing and sleep, that's it--awake time on ship is spent either in the lounge or on the top deck.

EXACTLY! We have done a couple of river cruises with Viking for all the reasons you listed and more (the list of what Viking is not, from their brochures). We have finally booked an ocean cruise to Alaska, and it is with Viking, as all the foolishness found on conventional cruise lines would drive me up a wall (NO, I don't want a photo taken....get away from me! What? Pay extra for internet!!! No I do not want to buy a painting, I thought this was an art lecture! etc.)

We compared Viking's 7 day post-cruise extension in Alaska to 7 day tours offered by other travel companies and Viking's price was comparable, so we booked post-cruise with Viking, for exactly the reasons you stated. We just figured that if we traveled from the east coast to Alaska, we should see and do all we can before heading back home, as we don't expect to get back to Alaska a second time.

We have an Alaska land/sea tour next June and we elected to do the Vancouver-Seward cruise first, followed by the 7-day land tour ending in Fairbanks. Our rationale was that we are coming from the east coast, so there will be jet lag involved. We plan on arriving in Vancouver one day early, day 2 is embarkation, and day 3 is a sea day. We hope that this will allow us to get the fog out of our brains. The other way, we'd be dealing with jet lab during the busy land tour, when relaxing on the ship might be more what we'd need.

Back to the hat discussion, I briefly tuned into the Germany-Denmark game today, and whenever the cameras panned the crowd, there were LOTS of bucket hats in the stands. So I guess they are still popular.

We did a tulip cruise with Viking this past April and there were no lanyards. We each had a credit card size ID card that had a bar code on it that was used to scan out/scan in when leaving or returning to the ship. Let us know if you're sailing with another company and perhaps someone else can chime in.

My comments RE: hats refer to protecting the very top of my bald head from being burned. Made no comments about any other issues.

First customer service rep must have assumed you had an unlimited plan, I would guess.