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lackcreativity

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  1. We've been traveling by economy class from Baltimore/Washington/Philidelphia airports to various airports in Europe for the last ten years. It is miserable, but we have never been willing to pay what amounts to another whole cruise cost just to fly to our destination. We could have managed it financially, but it would have cut back on the number of trips we have taken. Now, for the first (and only) time, I am looking at a cruise from Bangkok to Mumbai. I know I cannot manage flights of 13 plus hours at a time in coach, so I am considering business class. Sadly, our credit card of choice is a cash back card, so there is no big stash of points somewhere just waiting to be used. We could even include New York and Boston as starting points, if that would help. We don't need to have the most luxurious experience, but there must be a flat surface on which to sleep. My early research leaves me with the impression that this will cost five to six thousand dollars for each of us. If that is the case, then we have a decision to make. Are there any clues that you more experienced business class travelers can share as I continue to investigate options for this potential trip in late 2024? I would appreciate any hints about finding the best fare.
  2. Our experience on the included excursion a few years ago was that we were escorted with a guide and were provided with tickets for entry into the museum. The current description of the included excursion does not mention the museum, so perhaps someone who has been more recently will have more information.
  3. Not accurate. I have only cruised with Viking, and really like their product, but I am browsing here for some variety of itineraries. Viking has a variety of live music. There is a small night club called Torshavn with a small band and singers, at least so I have heard. We tend to linger over dinner and then perhaps go to the Explorer's Lounge. There is a piano there, and there is usually a guitarist on board who rotates locations. In addition, there is a classical duo who perform in The Living Room most evenings. Since that area is open to the Atrium, you can find a spot on several levels to listen. There is live music most nights in the Star Theater as well, with a small band and a quartet of singers. The shows performed there could do with some updating, as a few have been around since Viking Ocean first started sailing. If you are new to Viking, that won't be a problem! The Cruise Director and others will sometimes perform in this venue too. I am not sure where you learned that Viking did not have live music. I would not compare them to the mega ships offerings (or to be fair, not to any other lines, since I have only sailed with Viking). We have enjoyed much of what we have heard on our four Viking cruises.
  4. I have done it as well, changing to a new cruise with the same booking number. Since the new cruise was longer and more expensive, we did have to pay the increase in insurance premium, as I would have expected.
  5. I really would love one day to do some extended stays in a few of our favorite places in Europe on our own. For the present, I am just two weeks shy of my 70th birthday (YIKES!) and still working. I have a great job, part-time and pretty flexible, but extended time away is still difficult. That's why I continue to let Viking take care of us and all the details. Our trips right now still have that "see as much as we can in a bit of a rush" feeling. Being able to take our time and settle in to a place remains a travel dream.
  6. Flyer Talker, Thanks for your reply. On the flight to Paris, both arrival and departure are in Terminal 5, so that should (probably) be fine with our two hour layover. On our return from Marseilles to Baltimore, we will need to change terminals but we have a four hour layover. Since you have confirmed the luggage transfers and we don't have to go through customs or immigration, I can reduce the anxiety level a notch or two!
  7. Sorry, I suspect this has been addressed here somewhere, but I have little patience for the search feature on Cruise Critic. We are traveling with British Airways from Baltimore (BWI) to Paris, with a connection in Heathrow. Flights are booked on the same ticket, both legs with British Airways. Will I have to retrieve luggage in London, or does it just transfer through? I have done this before, and I don't remember having to do that, but someone recently told me otherwise.
  8. We have been to most of the ports of Mediterranean Odyssey with Viking. We usually do mostly include excursions with a few optional ones on each cruise. Often, we will take advantage of the free Viking shuttle service and tell the guide we will not be returning with the group so that we can have extra time on our own in a port. Here is my input on a few of the ports. On our stop in Barcelona, we had a really exceptional guide who made the included excursion a great experience. Take note, that tour does not go inside the Sagrada Familia, and many would call that the highpoint of a tour of Barcelona. We had seen it before, so we didn't mind missing an inside visit that time. From Monte Carlo, we did the optional excursion to Nice, Eze, and Monte Carlo. It's a very long day, with not enough time in any of the stops, but I think it was my favorite excursion of the trip we took. Eze is a very small hilltop town, and it is a demanding climb but the stone houses and shops are so charming and the Exotic Garden at the top is breathtaking. We did the included excursion in Dubrovnik and it was very good. We walked with the guide from one end of the town to the other, and entered a small museum to honor the people (mostly young men) who lost their lives in the War of Croatian Independence in the 1990's. We also visited a monastery. We remained behind after the tour to have lunch and then walk the walls of the city. Take note that the included excursion for the port identified as Florence/Pisa does not actually go to Florence. Also, the included 6 hour excursion in Rome actually only spends about four hours in Rome since the port is an hour away. Most of your time in Rome will be spent on the bus, with perhaps a few stops just to take photos. Enjoy your cruise!
  9. I know it is tedious to keep hearing excuses about the side effects of the pandemic, but that doesn't keep them from being true. Within my non-travel related industry, we are still experiencing supply related shortages two plus years later. Greatly increased prices in many areas are very evident. This is especially obvious in the grocery store right now. Cruise lines, along with all travel sectors, have taken a huge financial hit during the extended shutdown. Trying to claw their way back to profitability will likely result in both an increase in prices and some degree of decline in services for some time. I certainly hope this does not become a permanent change, but I am willing to accept the reality for now. As we are getting older, I cannot afford to sit back and wait!
  10. As mentioned previously, definitely skip Flanders included tour to go to Bruges. We enjoyed the On Your Own tour there, it is very easy to navigate. I imagine a good guide could add a lot to that visit as well. (To be honest, we have never been to Knokke-Heist or even Flanders, but Bruges is such a great place to be that I cannot imagine the included excursion would be a worthy substitute!) The Naval Dockyards in Portsmouth was a really good tour, unlke any other place we have toured. In particular, we found the walk on board tour of Admiral Nelson's ship HMS Victory fascinating. To see the living conditions for the sailors and then those of the officers was quite interesting. Then, to go back to our Viking ship was another wow moment. We also went to Honfleur instead of Paris, but we had been to Paris previously. We enjoyed Honfleur very much. If I had never been to Paris, I might have made a different decision. To be within driving distance of that iconic city would be a great temptation. You might plan to see Paris on another trip, but sometimes things get in the way of those future intentions.
  11. I would imagine that any new/ish itineraries will take longer to put in place. I am not giving up hope!
  12. I am happy to see that two existing cruises we may be interested in booking are listed for 2024 and 2025. However, so far I have not seen any new or significantly different itineraries in the Mediterranean. I will continue to hope....
  13. I know that the type of behavior under discussion has been around forever. Generally, it was the rare exception on most of our Viking cruises. I did feel that it was more common on our one post covid cruise so far. We were just so thrilled to back on a vacation that we tried to be very understanding of the things that still were not back to pre-pandemic standards. For others, there just seemed to be so much pent-up frustration that their reactions were all out of proportion to a given situation. Hoping that those folks have gotten it out of their system before we cruise again in June!
  14. Meeting new people is one of the things I really enjoy about traveling. I figure my husband and I have had dinner together almost every night for the past 45 years. Some new dinner table conversation is usually most welcome!😉
  15. I am sorry, I have no helpful suggestions. I am a loyal Viking traveler and usually cut them quite a bit of slack for pandemic related issues or other circumstances out of their control. This time, I really don't know what to say. From what you have described, there is simply no excuse. Wishing you the best of luck in securing a reasonable resolution.
  16. Technically it was two legs of a 29 day cruise called Mediterranean's Iconic Shores. It can also be viewed as four consecutive one week cruises between Barcelona and Istanbul. We are doing it in two halves. There is some changing of passengers along the way, but we made friends with one lucky couple who were doing the entire itinerary at once! I imagine there were others too. The second portion of our trip (from Rome to Venice) was a more lively crowd than the first group, but to some degree each cruise we have taken has had a slightly different personality. For us, I would not say the changeover impacted our experience in any negative way.
  17. I did come back to report that Viking accepted the vouchers as part of the final payment on a river cruise that was already booked at the time the vouchers were issued. They did so without any problems. If the vouchers that were awarded for a trip alteration that was outside of Viking's control was a tactic to get new money out of us for a whole new cruise, then it worked! That gesture, which we did not expect, will keep us cruising with them in the future. But we would have done that anyway.
  18. We did the two back to backs from Barcelona to Venice back in April of this year. Rome was the turn around port ( well, actually Civitevecchia) and there were no excursions offered on MVJ. While on board, those of us continuing on were offered a panoramic tour of Rome, with a photo stop midway and an hour plus on our own at the Vatican. It was Easter Saturday, and that was an interesting time to wander around there. Since we had been to Rome before and it was a rather relaxing excursion between two tiring days, we were fine with that. If I had never been to Rome before I would have been disappointed. I cannot remember if they offered other choices for that day. On that same cruise, our intended port for Venice was Fusina, but Viking was notified midcruise that Fusina was closing for an environmental study. We were diverted to Ravenna, some distance further. Viking scrambled to arrange an excursion in Ravenna as well as revamping the ones to Venice. Having visited Venice several times before, we took the Ravenna option and were very happy to do so. First time visitors to Venice may have been disappointed by the shortened time there.
  19. Interesting. As I said, I was speaking on my assumptions, which may have been wrong!
  20. I can't speak for others, but we use Viking Air for convenience. That way the transfers to and from the ship are included and baggage is transferred for us. We use Viking Air Plus to be able to have input with our selected flights. Most of the time the price we pay Viking ends up being very close to the price shown online if we booked directly. If we experienced a flight delay or a missed flight under normal circumstances, I would expect Viking Air to assist in finding an alternate flight, perhaps to the next port of the itinerary if that was the best that could be done. The events of this holiday week were extreme circumstances. There were no flight options available for days for much of the country. Thousands (maybe tens of thousands?) of people were stranded. Even if the poster's parents had booked to arrive a few days before their cruise, they still may not have made it. That's where the travel insurance comes in. That won't help with the disappointment, but it should prevent the financial loss.
  21. Just speaking based on my assumptions, not on my experience. I can image that for an individual guest who had a missed flight booked through Viking Air, then Viking may be able to assist in rebooking a flight. During the circumstance under discussion, with thousands of cancelled flights over many days, I can't think of how Viking could have solved that problem. As far as Viking having to "make this right", that is purely the function of travel insurance. Viking did not cancel the cruise, which would certainly entail some obligation for a refund or voucher. Even if travel insurance is purchased through Viking, it is insurance through a third party, and that is the path to financial restitution. If the parents of the original poster did indeed have travel insurance, I can't imagine a situation where they will not be reimbursed. It may take a while, and it may require some effort, but (again, my assumption here) I would expect almost any travel insurance would cover this event. Best of luck to them.
  22. We are doing our second river cruise after many years of just ocean cruises. Even the river cruises have a reservation system on My Viking Journey now, for both the included and the optional excursions. We have been doing these for so long, I can't even remember how we first learned about it. We have completed five Viking cruises, and always book the least expensive cabin. We have never felt like a second class citizen. In our experience, the Viking staff treats everyone as a valued guest on their ships. Sometimes we don't get our first choice of a time slot for an included excursion or a restaurant reservation, but we are flexible and have always been satisfied. Only a few times have we been unable to book an optional excursion that we wanted. Of those few, some had spots open up later and we got to go anyway! I really hope you can put your frustrations aside and go with an open mind. Wishing you the same wonderful on board experience that has kept us coming back again and again.
  23. I understand your frustration, and I won't even begin to try to talk you out of it. Having placed a claim through TripMate ten years ago from a land based tour, I have a reasonable degree of confidence you will get your reimbursement. I will, however, offer one bit of advice. EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE, takes longer than it used to take. Somehow, it is a side effect of the pandemic. I hope it is not permanent. Best of luck.
  24. If they run that excursion the same way it was when we took it five years ago, they will be running shuttles regularly during the day back to the ship. After we completed the Walking Tour, we told the guide we would return on our own later by shuttle. Then we went and bought tickets to walk the wall (exhausting but truly stunning) and followed that up with a nice relaxing lunch in a local restaurant.
  25. Taormina, an optional excursion from Messina, was worth every penny we spent for it. We took the guided tour, but even the On Your Own excursion should be good. The town is very easy to navigate. We were in early April, so it was not peek crowds. I even think I would have faced the crowds of summer if it was my only choice. Now the summer heat, that might be a different story.
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