CCWineLover

NEVER had to "fight" but ALWAYS had to ask , or have our TA ask. Never did Viking reluctantly do it. When asked, it was done with a smile. Not automatic, but never a fight.

I think you have me confused. I don’t recall mentioning any wine and can’t find any reference in your thread. No worries though. Thx for the great food pics though!

The Skalenes excursion was one of our best ever! You will thoroughly enjoy!

Sounds like our driver in the past 🙂 Things really changed in Caribbean after COVID.

Spelling of what that I am supposed to correct? Seriously though, sorry for your experience. This included tour for us in the past was also easily at the bottom of the heap for Viking. Likely one of the worst. Sounds like things have not changed. Better luck on the trip across the Atlantic! Glad you got your cheese fix!!

Maybe things have changed, but I've never been able to book a wait list on a Viking Ocean cruise. (Note this is different than a GTY cabin - which is guaranteed room) Let us know if you were able to do so.

You all are making this way more complicated than it needs to be. We found it easy to do it ourselves (open and brace open the door) for whenever we wanted to take something out to the balcony - and not tied to Viking staff either. Certainly if you use them they will gladly help out however.

I don't really believe what Viking told you. I would contact others at Viking to see. You are right to cancel it. Do you know how long a bus would take from Seydisfjordur to Akureyri? Nearly 4 hours !!! We did this cruise and S. is on the East coast and A. is on the North side of Iceland. This makes no sense. If you are looking at the included port walk in S., then you could easily do it yourself. The included tour we took was not one of the best includeds we had on this trip.

So sorry to hear.. they didn’t get very far but better now than mid Atlantic. Our last TA last December one of the Viking managers said they often have 4-5 passengers taken off on the trips in/out of Florida. Let’s hope it wasn’t serious.

Excellent hotel and itinerary. We were in Hong Kong before Covid and plan to stay several days again after Oct 2025 cruise. Love that city! So vibrant and a fantastic walking place. Easy to put on 15K steps without even realizing it. Star ferry is still the best ride deal ever! We called it “the poor man’s cruise”! And Stanley market was fun - easy to get to by bus.

If you have a moderately recent credit card with USA zip, you likely won’t need pin. We just returned from Italy. Bought several train tickets from machines with no pin needed. (Rome, Naples)

Thx Deb. Will hopefully learn from you as we go Oct 2025

If you are DIY (not room service), keep door open by blocking it with chair or carryon.

Andy - so concisely stated! You have a great way of netting it out. Makes sense

Clay - 1. Yes they showed up sometimes in the onboard account before boarding. Sometimes they were refunded before the cruise to us on our credit card strangely. 2. We never had any "switch" done, but I do understand what you are saying. For us, when we have bought excursions they've always automatically taken it from the non-refundable credits first. Sorry if this didn't happen with you. I do believe Viking Accounting is not very good at accounting or explaining to customers or TA's. We've always had trouble getting things rectified on other financial situations.

Off to a favulous start, Dobie! Enjoy - Carpe Diem !!

No you didn't. It was there, but sadly, they closed it - rolled down the metal door. I asked and they said it had to be repaired and parts were waiting in Ft Lauder ahead of the World Cruise. Bummer! They did compensate a little bit by serving up shumai occasionally at the regular World Cafe buffet stations on either side - often at breakfast, and having some Kung Pao dish there as well, but it wasn't the same!

Isn't that the truth! It appears to be a new disease and has spread to all cruise ships we are on. I can only think it is part of the "It's all about me" culture that pervades these days.

Clay - we had Verity Brown as CD a few months ago. We thought she was fabulous! and easy to work with as well. She's out of Tahiti or somewhere in French Polynesia I believe.

Same advice for anything on Viking food-wise. If you have food conditions please check out with Viking ahead of time. Ask!

Excellent strategy! Glad it all worked out! Enjoy the trip and the excursions.

Way to go Dobie! You know the drill! Enjoy Enjoy!!!

All good points. My only thought is - it would be more valuable for that set of excursions that doesn't seem to change (like Alhambra out of Malaga). Lots of excursions are in a state of flux and new ones being added, including included tours - so currency (recency) would be very important if there were reviews posted.

Probably due to all the midwest and East coast passengers who had flown in early that morning! And got transferred to the ship - just to wait. Doesn't seem to happen like that at FLL. We boarded between 10 and 10:30 at FLL all 3 times embarking there.