CurlerRob

Glad it worked out for you. Below is the shore ex for our trip - no shuttle to the Memorial available on that one. 🍺🥌 USHNL09 Honolulu Highlights & Pearl Harbor Date: December 19, 2023 08:30 AM Sold Out, 09:00 AM Limited Availability, 09:30 AM Limited Availability, 10:15 AM Sold Out, 10:30 AM Sold Out, 10:45 AM Available, 11:15 AM Available Panoramic sights and delve into World War II history -- Meet your guide at the pier and embark on a scenic drive through Honolulu’s Downtown area and Chinatown district. Witness the magnificent City Hall and the Iolani Palace, the only royal palace on American soil, and pass by Kawaiahao Church, the Hawaii State Capitol, the governor’s mansion and the homes of early missionaries. After your drive, you will stop at Pearl Harbor, where you will learn about the fateful attack that took almost 2,500 lives. At the Visitor Center, stroll the exhibits that document the events before the surprise attack and its aftermath, including displays of personal memorabilia, dramatic photographs and artifacts.

You may find this previous thread of interest as to the rationale offered by O ... 🍺🥌

Agree, it's puzzling. We were on the Dec 12th Hawaii Sojourn, and while we made all 4 ports, the dearth of quality ShoreEx was very noticeable - especially as we had been to the same ports on multiple other occasions (albeit with other lines). I quite understand the Maui problem described by @FetaCheese - we took the same tour and it was not impressive, but the island infrastructure is still reeling as one might expect. A number of pax were unhappy that Viking had no excursion to the Arizona Memorial / Missouri - just to the visitor centre. Only one helicopter offering, on Kauai - Hilo is rife with companies offering them, but nothing offered. It will be interesting to see how the Hawaiian stops evolve. "Condensing" the stops on the Sojourn cruise will not be well received over time. 🍺🥌

Dee, if this is the case for your underwriter, that's great - but if you have not done so, you may want to have a slog through the policy. Most insurers will cover pre-existing conditions, but the issue is how far in advance of the trip they must be stable. The word "stable" will be in the definition section of the policy - and as you will see in my previous post, there's many ways to trip over the definition. A recent policy I had included pre-existing coverage, but what it really did was shrink the stability period to 7 days prior to the trip. That's much better than 6 or 3 months, but not bulletproof - especially if outstanding test results will trigger the stability clause. Hope that helps. 🍺🥌

I've had this exact thing happen to me a few years ago. My reduction in medication dosage was shortly before my trip, and caused the insurer to view my situation as an "unstable" pre-existing condition that would have voided my policy. I wound up buying from Manulife - a policy called TravelEase that is specifically oriented at people who have situations that would fit the "instability" rules. It was more money (but not massively) and could only be purchased over the phone due to a lengthy set of medical questions, but it saved my trip. I think it's ok to post the link for this: https://www.coverme.com/travel-insurance/travelling-canadians/travel-ease-for-medical-conditions.html?province=ON&agecode=1 For your future use, if your original purchase did not cover pre-existing conditions, it is normally possible to buy additional coverage for them - but in my experience there will always be a time period during which ANY changes will cause you to be seen as "unstable" by the insurer - even if it's only a week. My other observation is to be sure to read your policy very carefully - it is astonishing how little it takes to be seen as failing the stability test - med changes of any sort is just one example - others are if you are referred to a specialist, or there have been any tests, investigation or treatment recommended, but not yet complete, or any outstanding test results. Any of these things will also render you "unstable" and can result in a loss of coverage. Hope it works out for you both! 🍺🥌

🍺🥌

🍺🥌

I couldn't find the "surprise-single-supplement" reference, but may have missed it. In the circumstance you mention, I would not expect an issue from Viking - they would have PIF from a travelling companion prior to their last-minute cancellation or trip delay, so there should be no reason for them to levy additional charges on top of that. However, I'm happy to be educated otherwise! I think Peregrina's reference was to trying to kite the system once one person cancelled at a point when PIF or penalties were not 100%. 🍺🥌

Fortunately, I have not had to experience this myself, as we book our own air and always plan arrival at our embarkation port early. However, I have some direct experience with pax who have been in the situation, on several cruise lines. The overall answer is that if you book air with the cruise line, most lines will TRY to help you reach the ship in time, or will assist you in catching up if that's not possible. The problem is that the cruise line may or may not be able to help. In the cases I've seen directly, pax catch up with their ship, but the timing, routings and accommodations may be very painful. One recent example happened on the Dec.12th Hawaiian Sojourn (Star). Several pax were flying in same day on Viking Air. A Delta flight had a sick pilot and was delayed to the point that they could not reach the ship (in LA) in time. According to posts on the Roll Call, Viking and Delta were helpful, but the only thing that could be done was to fly to Hilo and join the cruise there - unfortunately a loss of about 1/3 of the trip. The affected pax were satisfied with Viking's actions and had insurance that would assist with the missed days - still no fun. There are folks who felt they were wonderfully treated by the cruise line when problems happen - as well as others who felt totally abandoned. @SusanDK, as you are experienced with airline bookings, I suspect you would almost always be ahead of the game to do it yourself - and you are certainly in a better position than the cruise lines to do crisis management directly with the airlines if something hits the fan. (And one more exhortation - NEVER plan arrival on embarkation day. If using the cruise line, always use their process to adjust your arrival). Happy sailing! 🍺🥌

Somehow, Viking's advanced PIF dates seem to generate much more angst than is warranted IMO. Here's an easy way to consider the effect. Many other cruise lines will require PIF 3 or 4 months before sailing. So, Viking wants your money ~8 months sooner than others. Pick an interest rate you feel appropriate and do the math. For example, if 3% / year makes sense and the cruise is $15K, the effect is a 'price increase' of 2% - or $300. So just pretend the Viking price is + $300 and factor that into your decision. I suspect it won't be a major issue for most pax. 🍺🥌

The lack of requirement for celestial nav training is surprising - as recently as 2019, I used to watch the bridge crew on HAL taking a noon sight each day. The electronics are indeed extraordinary, but I did really like the see-through decking on each bridge wing used when docking - that was still basically retro! 🍺🥌

Just in case you were not aware - while your PIF date is +10 months from the cruise, cancellation penalties likely don't kick in until +4 months - reasonably similar to other lines. The advanced PIF is irritating to many pax, but it doesn't create a financial exposure in itself. Best wishes for your trip! 🍺🥌

Viking has quite onerous policies regarding PIF dates, compared to most other cruise lines. For a first cruise, your PIF date will likely be 12 - 15 months in advance. If you book another cruise prior to taking the first one, or book when on the cruise, you can usually request and receive a 6 month PIF date. It sounds like you either received a promotional deal for your 6 months, or had the benefit of leveraging your first booking in order to receive your 6 months PIF date on your second cruise. If you daughter was booking her first trip, the 15 months is fairly normal. Note that the early PIF date is not the same as when cancellation penalties kick in - those are much later. They do it because it's advantageous to have the money earlier and because it does not appear to inhibit pax bookings - just business. 🍺🥌

Precisely - and it extends to the overall structure of the plans. Most companies consider the structure of their compensation plans to be proprietary - and sometimes view them as a significant competitive advantage, so guard the details zealously. The details of the programs are not our business. The cruise lines' job is to provide a comp plan that allows them to attract and retain personnel that will deliver a high level of service. The client's job is to decide if the total price for a cruise meets their standard for value. 🍺🥌

In deference to the current North American weather ... 🍺🥌

Information is always worthwhile, but I believe you are in error to suggest that the price trend is always down (i.e. "wait"), or that the expedition variances are larger than those of VO. Our next VO trip is in April 2024. It was booked July 2022 - the same cabin price is now $4000 pp more, with very little inventory. Unlikely there will be any last minute sales on that one. In watching VO and Expeditions over several years, my personal tally suggests a fairly equal number of sales and increases - all driven by ship occupancy. As always, caveat emptor! 🍺🥌

The Churchill tours are generally quite good for polar bear spotting. Just FYI, Churchill is well south of the Arctic Circle - it's at Latitude 58.8° N, about 480 miles south of the Circle. Agree with comments that Norway is likely the easiest for the Circle itself. Svalbard is unique, but bear observations when cruising are not common. And, you don't want to see them there on a shore excursion - this from Ny Alesund: 🍺🥌

🍺🥌

Hurricane season starts. Lee did a number on the east coast in Sept/23 if you recall. That said, there's always a storm somewhere! 🍺🥌

Thank you. Did your policy allow you to do the "stepping" and still provide the CFAR coverage for the final, larger amount? Others I've contacted do not permit the "stepping" approach to be applied to the CFAR clause, only allowing the "covered reasons" portion to be augmented. I can buy a minimal cancel/interrupt policy (say for $2K) and upgrade it any time by paying the additional premium, but the underwriters I've queried all limit the CFAR to the original $2K - no upgrade allowed. If you were able to do this, I'd be curious as to the underwriter that allowed it - as Tugo is essentially a broker as far as I can see. Gracias! 🍺🥌

Thank you. Unfortunately, I appear to fall into the "geography" bucket - they don't appear to underwrite in Canada (similar to most US underwriters I have checked). I have yet to find a Canadian underwriter that will permit the "stepped" approach - on the flip side, if we buy the full policy amount within 72 hours of booking from a Canadian company, CFAR at 50% is included without extra charge with most underwriters here. With overall coverage costs at about 7% of trip value, that's a big savings compared to most US CFAR policies (mostly seem to be around 20%). 🍺🥌

And one add-on: Be sure to verify that you can actually use this approach before you buy. Not all underwriters will allow the "stepped" buy-in while still maintaining CFAR or pre-existing coverage. As well, this approach is not available in all geographies around the world. If you can access it, this is THE way to buy trip insurance. Regretfully, not all of us can. 🍺🥌

1. Yes 2. Your cabin number. 3. Yes - red leather tags sent shortly before embarkation. Enjoy! 🍺🥌

The previous Dec. 12 sailing was missing the live TV channels as well - also explained as due to "location" issues. Strangely enough, the news channels reappeared to 2 days just short of Hawaii. My cynical view is that it had nothing to do with location and everything to do with cost of provision or contractual issues between Viking, Starlink and/or the various providers. No big deal - lots of ways to get news, especially when the internet is very good without having to share bandwidth with the TV streams. I saw a 25% decrease in speed for the 2 days the live TV was available. Enjoy your trip! 🍺🥌

🍺🥌