sharkster77

We are Viking fans. We do NOT vigorously defend their final payment policy--we hate it as much as you do. For us it's a case of begrudgingly accepting it because we like their product. We've had to pay 5 months out and 10 months out. Believe me, we have travel insurance not purchased from Viking!

Amen to what has been said---I would prefer to lose a morning to a ship swap than have my cruise become an expensive bus trip! Small inconvenience vs. huge annoyance.

I have noticed on the Viking website that when you click on "prices and dates" the default setting on the next webpage is "selected sailings", showing SOME of the departures. Once you click on "all sailings" then, you see ALL of the departure dates. Just wondering if the OP did not see all the possible dates because of this quirk, resulting in the misconception that 2024 was completely sold out, except for suites. Just spitballin' here.........

At this point if you cancel, aren't you just out the $25 pp deposit? All things considered, that's not a huge amount to forfeit.

Why sign up so early for the cruise? 2025? Was that necessary? Just asking. Do Christmas cruises fill up THAT fast? We signed up for a tulip cruise, as they fill up quickly due to the short season, and we did so just a year out.

We have a nephew who has 4 kids 11 and under. They are not well supervised by their parents. I have had to bite my tongue at so many family events ruined for me because those kids are out of control.....I shudder at the thought of a cruise ruined because I am trapped on a ship with unruly small children--thank you Viking!!

I like Viking's age limit--having kids on a ship with tight quarters would annoy the heck out of me. Especially when the parents are oblivious to the bad behavior of their kids. But that's another story for another day.

I realize that, and just added my two cents--no worries.

Viking has an 18-and-over age rule.

We always buy our airfare from Viking or other tour operators as soon as flights are posted. Perhaps that is why we've had good luck getting nonstops w/o surcharge--by buying early we get in on the limited number of nonstops at no extra cost. I see we are both from MA, so we may both benefit from the number of nonstops to Europe available from Logan. The ease of getting to Europe from Boston has contributed to our preference of Europe to the Western US/Alaska. Getting to Alaska or Hawaii from the east coast could be a chore, yet I can be in Ireland in 5 hrs.

We fly out of Boston, and we've never been able to get flights for less money than Viking. Same is true for our land tours---tour company has always gotten us the better deal. Just works out differently for different folks, I guess.

Who knows, maybe Delta has a better deal with Virgin Atlantic than it does with KLM........ Through Viking, we've had nonstops with Swiss Air, and with Delta (in 2 months).

I think the urban legend/misconception is that ALL nonstops with Viking have surcharges, when, as you say, CERTAIN nonstops have an added fee. In our case the Delta--provided by Delta had no fee, but the Delta--serviced by another airline via codeshare did have an extra cost.

We weren't told ALL nonstops required paying a surcharge, just certain ones. AMS--BOS departing at 5 PM (would give us one last free morning in the Hague) would have a surcharge, but the nonstop leaving at 11:30 AM would be OK without the surcharge. We are getting to AMS on a Delta flight, and the 5 PM flight is actually a KLM flight with a Delta codeshare. That might be the rub---the 11:30 AM flight is on Delta. So we're on the 11:30 AM flight, within the $799 round trip airfare.

I will add this--since we fly out of Boston, there are many nonstops to Europe. Since the OP appears to be from the midwest (MN?), perhaps flights with connections are more likely, say thru Boston, New York, etc.?

By working with Viking we were able to get nonstops for just the $799 pp, without the surcharge. You do have to do your homework, with choice #1, #2, etc. We have never been able to get flights as cheaply as the tour companies can, for some reason. Also, by buying air from Viking, transfers are included as well. And as @CastleCritic mentioned, if there are problems you have someone between you and the airline.

We used Air Plus for both of our cruises. In 2019 when we sailed AMS-BSL, we flew Boston--Zurich--Amsterdam, then flew home on a nonstop from Zurich to Boston (we did a DIY extension to Lucerne). For our tulip cruise next April, we booked non stops both ways, BOS--AMS and AMS-BOS. For the return flight, they wanted to charge us a surcharge to fly home on a late afternoon flight, but we are avoiding the surcharge by choosing an early afternoon flight instead. We use a travel agent. We gave her a list of flights we'd be OK with (in order of preference), and sat by when she spoke to Viking on the phone. That way we could know immediately what Viking would allow and what they would want a surcharge for. BTW, for the tulip cruise we had the $799 flights promotion.

Also, OP, if you are concerned about overly-long or overly-short layovers, if you pay for Air Plus you get to pick your own flights. We have done this twice and they've accepted out choices 3 out of 4 times (2 flights TO Europe, and 1 flight back home). For next year's tulip cruise, we tried to take a late afternoon flight home (to squeeze another couple of hours in Netherlands) but they are making us take a late morning flight instead, which is OK.

News on a Boston TV station just mentioned that 10,000 customers are owed a total of $80 million in refunds. Getting a 20% discount on a cruise with the new owners? I would RUN, run away from that offer---there are many other tour companies out there.

We came to this same conclusion, but the price difference between standard and french balcony (over $1K pp) could not let us justify the french balcony, even though the larger windows would have been nice.

When we look at bus tours an important factor is 'how many one-night stays are there?' If a tour has many of them, we look at other itineraries. It's nice to be able to settle into a hotel room for 2 or more nights---one night stays seem like you just checked in and in no time at all you're getting your bags ready to be put out in the hall before breakfast!

The last year for Pontiacs was 2010. My father had a 1946 Pontiac that was his pride and joy---wish we had found a way to keep it in the family after he passed away.

There is no "balcony" beyond the window in a French balcony room, that' the end of the space. As I posted earlier the amount of floor space on the side of the bed is the same due to the lack of the bump out (some called it a bulkhead) in a standard room that is not present in a french balcony room.

In a standard cabin, there is a bump-out just below the windows that is not present in the french balcony cabin--we used it as a shelf to stow some things. It's visible in the diagrams.

As an OPTIONAL excursion, yes, but the INCLUDED excursion is Koblenz. When we did the Rhine Getaway in 2019, Marksburg Castle was the INCLUDED excursion, but no more--it is optional, for additional $$. In 2019 we sailed right past Koblenz.