Sunflower & The Scientist

Just make sure you get the slider door to the balcony on the PV, not the single door that opens. It would not be safe for your husband to use the single door. They are very hard to open and hold open to exit or enter. We are able bodied and found them difficult. 

The Great Lakes isn't oceans, but it was very smooth and quiet. I'm sure it would depend on which one you took, but Thunder Bay to Milwaukee was super calm.

Thank you Longterm....very interesting information. 

Perfect....thanks, that totally makes sense.  We weren't seeing the bigger picture here. I think we will book another one of the Great Lakes and if/when anything opens up we might be able to change. 

We've been keeping a close eye on Canadian Discovery as we'd like to book it for 2024. There is nothing listed for 2024. The other cruises all have 2024 schedules up. We are wondering if this means they are not planning on doing it in 2024. We've called and asked, but no one seems to know anything about it. 

Thanks dd57 .... we very much appreciate leaving everything to Viking.  With work, our time is limited and letting Viking do the planning is the right thing for us to do right now. Yes my husband takes what helps him, but sometimes there's just no way to make seating comfortable. At least now we will have a little warning that he needs to do some preplanning with this. 

We are on this pre July 2023, kind of wish I knew all this before we booked that. My concern is the train seats. We fly first class as my husband has broken his back twice and seating is an issue. I had read before that the seating was comfortable, now I'm getting concerned. 

On 1/13/2023 at 8:17 PM, Coastaljewel said:

Same issue..  I’d rather book our flights for better “control”, but Viking Pre-cruise hotel options in Anchorage are “Sold out”.  If we could get a hotel to ship transfer to Seward, I’d be happy.  Think we can handle Vancouver to airport.  It’s just the Anchorage to Seward (and my husband will shoot me if I make this a challenge!)..  

Anchorage can be very difficult booking hotels, at least at a reasonable price. You can easily pay resort hotel prices for low end hotels, and often there are other issues as well. We either book B&B's or AirBnB's. 

I always call and speak with someone prior to our cruise, and then I follow up onboard. 

The Hide is hidden! You have to look for it as it's tucked away. It's a small intimate area. 

16 hours ago, katlew said:

".......bikini top under a denim overall, half unbuttoned jeans & a crop top, or shorts that were barely a bathing suit bottom...."

On Viking? Are you sure you weren't on Carnival? It's bad enough seeing at 25 year old like that, but a 70 year old.....

Sheetskn, I am so sorry to hear what you are going through. I love Viking, but when they do something wrong they need to own it.  Most people are "emotionally invested" in their upcoming cruises, and you are also financially invested for a chunk of money, so know that the majority of us are feeling your pain. 

I have no advice other than "the squeaky wheel gets the oil."  Not profound, but don't give up. Please come back and update us. 

They are tender ports, Zodiacs are not used for transporting to the ports. I do not recall that Zodiacs were used at all at Mackinac, there were just the usual excursions. 

I stand corrected, I forgot about the lovely tweeting birdies in the restrooms. 

We've spent a fair amount of time on Viking and never heard piped in music. CDNPolar,  we have somehow missed it if it is there. I'd be interested to know if others have experienced that. Somehow I've also missed the discussions on CC, but certainly don't want to get a heated discussion started. 

We too hate piped in music!  Music is such an individual thing and what someone likes, someone else dislikes. I am happy to say Viking does not have piped in music. You will hear live music in the evenings at different places, but you can always find a quiet place if that does not suit your taste. 

1 hour ago, Newleno said:

A little confused here, are you saying the windows in question on the Polaris, a person would be able to open and close them?  If so that would explain a lot.

All rooms have French Verandas. The window is very large and opens from the top down half way. It is done by pushing a button, you don't literally open the window by hand. They are lovely. We did not know if we would like them, but we really enjoyed it. Anywhere it is cold, I would assume people would not open them as the room would immediately become very cold. 

Thanks for all you input on the Great Lakes in July...I had no idea! I spent my life on the beaches of the Pacific, the Great Lakes are a mystery to me. We were on one Great Lakes in July this year, and are planning for another one in July 2024. Now I'm freaking out just a little because I don't want to become one of those that the Gitche Gumee never returns. One thing is for sure, you won't find me out there in November cause I'm not about being out there when the gales of November come slashin.............

3 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

I haven't sailed in the Antarctic region but have sailed in the Great Lakes when in the Coast Guard. The Great Lakes can be as rough if not rougher due to the shallower water causing more frequent but as tall swells. It is estimated that there have been 6,000 to 10,000 ships sunk in the Great Lakes. After this incident, I question sailing with Viking on the Great Lakes.

Would the Great Lakes rough waters occur in the summer months, or only in the winter? 

1 hour ago, Twitchly said:

That resulted in all of our excursion money going onto a voucher rather than a refund on our credit card.

 I am curious and confused about this....we have had to cancel before and did not cancel our excursions. When I called to enquire about the excursions they said they are just dropped, there are no charges. Indeed they did not charge for them as we did not take the excursion. There was no money to be refunded to our card or in a voucher. 

16 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

Passengers interested in these types of cruises should be responsible for knowing the risk, but I am disappointed that Viking do not publish the potential risks of Expedition cruises, which is not just limited to weather, as remoteness is also an issue, as is using the various toys available on the Viking ships - RHIB's, submarine and kayaks.

I think this is a good point. We are devout Viking cruisers and will continue sailing with them, but from being on Octantis, I do not think enough information regarding possible risk was given.  

We aren't booked for this so no concerns for us, but if I was and I was booked in one of those rooms, I think it would be emotionally hard to kick back in the room and enjoy the cruise. I'm not superstitious so that's not the issue. I would just feel such empathy for those who went through such a horrible thing. 

We have done it both ways....and we think using a TA is the best thing for us. The key is finding a good TA. I don't think we are allowed to give specifics who we use, but we use an "insurance company" TA service. We've had the same agent now for years and are very pleased. We are very busy, both still working and fitting in vacations is tight on our schedules. Having someone who does all the leg work for us is super helpful. She reminds us when we need to do things on the timeline and keeps everything straight for us. Everything is printed out, packaged neatly, and handed to us. Also, when problems arise, she pitches in and helps get things resolved. It is clear from our experience that a TA has far more pull than we do when it comes to speaking with people and getting whatever issue resolved. 

Please keep updating us as you hear more information. I am not able to find anything online. 

21 hours ago, gr8-2travel said:

the Viking agent that booked us originally was addressing my concern to not be a noisy area.

We have not found a noisy area on Viking ocean....

Pre Covid we were on Orion NYE in New Zealand. We were in port in Auckland, and kind of expected to see some fireworks or something, but there wasn't anything notable. On board they had some festivities after dinner, but I'd say for that cruise, things were pretty low key, which was fine with us. We danced a bit, then headed to bed.