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SM77

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. American Airlines had canceled part of our flight home back to Dulles telling me to figure it out with my travel agent. Luckily I had Viking Air and was able to email them (while I was in Bali) and I was re-booked on a much better flight, flying nonstop on Cathay Pacific from Hong Kong to Dulles. We flew Garuda Air from Bali to Hong Kong (about 5 hours). We loved flying Cathay Pacific - I would imagine that Emirates would be stellar.
  2. We just came back from Viking's Panama Canal Cruise and missed Cozumel due to winds. Got an email offering $250 future cruise voucher pp. Was very surprised, have missed ports on other Viking/non-Viking cruises with no compensation.
  3. I know you are limiting your time frame to 15 days - others have mentioned the Buenos Aires to Santiago Southern American cruise that I thought was simply wonderful, especially going around Cape Horn, the Falkland Islands and seeing penguins. If you have time, we did a B2B from Auckland to Tasmania, Australia to Bali Indonesia. It is lengthy, about 35 days and expensive. New Zealand was a real surprise for me, it is such a beautiful country, wonderful climate and great towns to visit. Australia was a bucket list for me, just loved Sydney, but it does get very hot as you head up the coast. And visiting Komodo Island, Indonesia is incredible - definitely prehistoric.
  4. We usually prefer the slider but on our last cruise on Viking Sky, 5035, Panama Cruise that ended right before its world cruise departure, the slider was hard to open. I think next time we will try the regular door configuration.
  5. In general, Viking food has been very good but this time, my experiences have been less than stellar @ the specialty restaurants. The chefs working the Chef’s Table may not be as experienced with the Asian Panorama menu as the ones on Neptune. I am also Chinese so I’m very experienced with how certain items should taste. I’ve had a lot of dim sum & Peking duck over my lifetime and in many parts of the world.
  6. We are on Sky right now returning to Fort Lauderdale after doing the full Panamá Canal transit( loved going through the original canal!) Was very disappointed with the Chef’s Table this time - Asian Panoramic w/ the lobster & chicken shui mai(not as good as before), Peking duck crepe - sliver of duck skin & the duck meat was over cooked. We canceled our second reservation since it was the other Asian menu - figured that it would not be great either. Our first meal @ Manfredi’s was just OK, the caprese salad - great buffalo mozzarella, cherry tomatoes were too green, I tried the seafood ‘stew’ - octopus was good, mussels & clams were tiny. I wouldn’t get it again. Last night’s meal was better, had the calamari & prawns, linguine w/ prawns, & the new Viking ribeye, cooked perfectly & thick. World Cafe is as good as before. Headed to tea for scones! I have noticed some minor cost-cutting changes. This is our first VO since Dec 2019 on the South America cruise.
  7. Yes, definitely write to Tellus. We had a similar situation coming home from Santiago Chile when we did the South American and Chilean Fjords in December 2019. The hotel area reserved for those of us who had evening flights was just not big or comfortable enough for the numbers. It was way too crowded and cramped. I suspected that this was an issue since it was close to Christmas and they just couldn't find or reserve a space large enough to handle the crowds and it was a new market for Viking at the time. Viking gave us a very generous OBC to be used on our next cruise for providing detailed information on all the things that went wrong on disembarkment that day.
  8. We did sail on the Riviera in 2018, loved the food especially Toscana & the Terrace Cafe, but it was showing wear at that point and the decor was dark & heavy. I know that Riviera has been refurbished since then but I was hoping that Vista being brand new would be the Oceania ship to try. I just don't remember whether the sea views were lacking, a detail that I hadn't focused on at the time. We just love the sea views on Viking and Scandinavian design & interior of the ships. And your fair and detailed review clarified for me what I enjoy so much on Viking. Thanks again!
  9. Thanks for your great review of Vista & your comparison between Viking & Oceania. We love cruising w/ Viking & will depart in a week for their Panama full transit cruise. However we did the Mediterranean on Oceania Riviera, had a great experience & loved the food. And I wanted to try Vista if an itinerary appealed to us. Pointing out the lack of ocean views on Vista has me pause now because we love the ability to see the ocean when sailing on Viking. Thanks for making that observation.
  10. When you say “paid for Viking Air”, do you mean paying the up charge for Viking Air Plus? I was under the impression that the only way to speak to someone directly was to pay additional for this? Yes, I always pay for Air Plus - I like to be able to talk with someone when finalizing our flights.
  11. If you paid for Viking Air, you can call the number and ask about upgrades to PE or business class and they will tell you the price. What I did this time for our Panama Canal cruise is that we are flying free through Viking and American Airlines offered upgrades in the main cabin(it's a short flight between Miami and Panama City ) so I looked on the AA website and upgraded using miles to the front of the main cabins, easy to do. We plan to do the Viking Elbe river cruise in late March 2024. I worked with Viking Air to book the flights from Dulles to Prague, Berlin to Dulles, switching to an earlier flight from Dulles to Frankfurt to give us plenty of time for the connecting flight to Prague. I went ahead and ticketed the flights since I was satisfied with them. Then I contacted United and asked about upgrades to business &/or PE. The upgrade to business is 20K & $550 but there is no guarantee that you will get a business class seat; this is how United does it now. However the United agent suggested if I upgrade to PE(only costing 20K & no $$) she could already assign the outbound seats. It was a little more challenging doing the return flight from Frankfurt to Dulles, I had to request the upgrade to PE myself on the United website since it was a Lufthansa ticket (but it is a United flight) and right now it is still a request but she thought by mid-December the upgrade will be granted. We have sat in PE this past Spring for our Cities of Lights river cruise. It's not business but fine for a European flight from Dulles.
  12. We absolutely love traveling with Viking - doing the full Panama transit in December will be our fifth Ocean cruise and we have done four river cruises with a fifth one going on the Elbe next March/April. However we did Athens to Barcelona in 2018 on Oceania's Riviera(1200 passengers) and also had a great experience. Personally, I thought the Oceania food was much better in the World Cafe equivalent and with the speciality restaurants. We traveled in the Fall so minimal number of children. Still prefer Viking but would consider traveling on Oceania as well, especially on the newest ship, Vista. We did Crystal - Asian cruise that covered China, South Korea & Japan in early 2017 and had a incredible experience but found it too formal and encountered a lot of obnoxious, entitled 'ugly American' behavior displayed by some passengers. It was very unpleasant being around these individuals and we couldn't avoid them since we were all traveling together on an optional excursion flying to Xian to see the terracotta soldiers and then flying to Shanghai to meet up w/ the ship.
  13. I asked this question about the Yellow Fever vaccination being required in September and Viking called me back and said that it was not required for Roatan even if we are traveling from Panama, going north on the cruise. We are both over 60 and have heard the Yellow Fever vaccination was not recommended for those over 60. To be sure I contacted a local specialty pharmacy that does administer the Yellow Fever vaccination and they said that they give it to a number of travelers who are over 60. However, most of those travelers were headed to Africa, not Central America. I decided not to stress over it anymore and made sure I'm bringing heavy duty insect repellent.
  14. When we sailed with Oceania from Athens to Barcelona in 2018, I arranged for a car to pick us up and take us to a hotel, and used the same company for a private tour of Athens the next day and then on the third day, had a car take us to the port. Athens is less expensive than other cities to arrange for a private car - it was very nice that our driver spoke perfect English. My understanding is that many Greek cab drivers do not speak English well.
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