OneSixtyToOne

We're probably your parents age or older and agree 100%. Watching lame cover bands and cheesy shows is a circle of hell we avoid. My phone is full of music and movies and I bring a Bluetooth speaker. I just wish there way a way to stream my movies to the TV.

I would choose 4042 for three reasons. It’s closer to the laundry but not right on top of it. It’s closer to the front elevators which tend to be less busy and they take you to the area in front of the theater where you assemble for most of the excursions. It’s a lot less walking. Midship has less motion so it’s better if you encounter rough seas.

If not listed in MVJ, it’s not happening.

What date are you in Skagway? I just looked at the train’s website and it doesn’t run or is fully booked on July 4, 12, 18, 23, and 26. BTW the website has a disclaimer that some tours are not available for all sailings. For example we docked in Rome on Easter and there were no tours of the Vatican.

My former employer held an annual employee meeting where part of the presentation was customer survey results. They explained that their methodology was anything under a 7 was grouped together. I questioned this as completely skewing the results since some people will never give a 10 and many consider a 5 as normal. I pointed out that if they were doing this they should use a scale of 1 to 4. That fell on deft ears because the survey was outsourced and was told that is how everyone does it. Since then I refuse to give numerical ratings on any survey.

Look at the day by day itinerary on the Viking website for the cruise and click on the port, you will see a list of excursions offered. Not all are available on all sailings and is subject to change, but it does allow you to do some planning. Once you are booked at about 120 days out, the actual excursions will be available in MVJ for viewing. Viking will also send you a PDF of excursions after your cabin class opens to book but IMO it is of no use since you need to book excursions as soon as your class opens. You need to prioritize what you want to see and book immediately as many popular optional excursions sell out quickly.

It seems that some Explorers’ Lounge performers think they are headliners instead of background music.

All wine, beer, liquor, mixed drinks, and cocktails under $18 per serving. It also gives a discount on full bottles of wine. Almost everything is covered per glass except for a few champagne offerings. It does not offer anything exclusive. All wines are available for purchase so you can think of it as a different way of paying. IMO unless you have more than 3 drinks per person per day, you are better off putting the drinks on your tab. Also you will find various opinions on this board about the quality of the premium wines are worth it. You may also find pictures of the drinks menu and prices in other threads.

BBC just posted a video report about the world cruise and its diversion to Africa https://bbc.com/news/world-africa-69008529

There are definitely separate systems at play. We once had our pre-cruise reservations not appear when we boarded. We were told that the software used by the ships is independent of the website. This is one reason they tell you to check the Viking daily as there may be a delay with what is on the web. The integration between the two systems must be a periodic data update, or even worse, a manual process. My career is in IT and I’ve worked on plenty of places that have a hodgepodge of off the shelf, custom software, and multiple 3rd party systems. Integration is always a challenge. I suspect they have an integrated off the shelf solution that runs their fleet and everything offshore is totally different. Ironically when we had our extension in Athens, our hotel was hosting a European computer conference for a company that sold ship fleet management software.

Totally forgot about the rolled ice cream. I asked for strawberries and they went into the kitchen and located some. I added them to vanilla ice cream and white chocolate. Heavenly.

I’ll add that the ship doesn’t sell mouthwash.

I believe Greenwich is used in high season but sailings earlier or later in the year use Tilbury.

We have two included tours on our stop in Bergen for our next cruise in August. It should be noted that you can only select one.

I’m speaking strictly of cost. Unless you drink a lot, paying per drink might be more cost effective.

As I said, much discussion. As I’ve stated in other threads, IMO unless you drink liquor the SSP is not worth the cost. All wines are available for purchase so there is nothing exclusive in the package. It’s just a different way to pay for drinks.

Your gratuity is available to view in My Viking Journey (MVJ). If you haven’t set up your account yet, do so now. Go to “Before You Go” and click on Pre-Paid Gratuities to see the amount. BTW most people do not prepay because on board credits may be used for this purpose. Even though you might not have any credits, you might obtain some during the cruise. For example if you book another cruise while onboard you will receive an OBC. Also if a paid excursion is cancelled you may end up with a credit that can be used for gratuities. The beverage package includes additional wines. Whether they are an upgrade or not has been the subject of much discussion on this board.

I have a feeling this is the quid pro quo that the cruise lines have negotiated with the government to allow them to dock. The rug shops that Viking visits are subsidized by the government.

We book just to have a time slot then onboard review the menus and change accordingly. We always get our preferred menu.

The Polaris is an expedition ship and the “entertainment” revolved around science and nature lectures, movies, and some sort of one person show by the cruise director. I throughly enjoyed it as opposed to the typical ocean cruise with less than stellar Broadway productions and C level comics. It’s Torstein’s vision of a thinking man’s cruise and I’m onboard with it.

If traveling in the EU you’ll get an entry stamp and an exit stamp, even then some entry is automated and there are no longer stamps. Also our last time entering the UK it was automated and there were no stamps.

Last summer we took the London Walks tour of the British Museum. We had visited before but the tour guide really did a great job showing us the highlights and telling marvelous stories about the museum itself that I never knew. We’ve taken at least 10 of their tours over many visits and we highly recommend them.

Chile required everyone to go through agricultural inspection when leaving the ship. if you ever drive cross country into California they do the same. It’s to protect the agriculture industry from invasive insects.

Agree. Specially restaurants are overrated. We tend to dine at the World Cafe. With port talks, enrichment lectures, trivia, shows, etc. we prefer to be on our own schedule, not at the mercy of the waitstaff servicing us in a timely manner. On our expedition cruise we cancelled both night’s advanced reservations because the World Cafe was the best food we have had at sea.

For what it’s worth every time we pre-booked dining reservations they have ALWAYS opened early. I think there is something wrong with how they are calculating times (daylight savings vs non-daylight saving, GMT, or something else.) On the other hand, I have found that excursions always open exactly on time. There is a disconnect somewhere, possible because dining is directly hooked into the ship’s reservation system? The ship’s system and the website system don’t always sych up. Once we boarded and they had no record of our reservations. I was told there are issues between them. Always check your reservations when you board.