CDNPolar

I guess that I don't feel this kind of constraint? We have so far only cruised Viking together and of 930 guests on Ocean and 180 on River, we are lucky if there are 2 or 4 others from our camp on the ship. We don't feel any constraint at all, and just go about our time on board as we do at home. Kind of same answer as above. BUT, I get it. I personally have the history of the bars and the parties and the need to gather together to be who we are... but I guess I just don't feel the same need to do that today. Perhaps I will push my husband to try a gay cruise. Who knows, it may be more liberating than I am giving credit.

I am going to give you another response. Do YOU think ti is safe to travel to Egypt right now? It does not matter what I think or anyone else here... it is how you feel. Can you go to Egypt and enjoy your time there without being concerned for your safety? None of us have a crystal ball and therefore cannot see what is still to come or not to come in that region.

Check out private tour companies that would pick you up at the dock and take you there. Viator owned by Trip Advisor is one that we use frequently. Just make sure that you know your docking arrival time and the back on board time and that your tour company can make these times.

On a Viking River Cruise, you can certainly arrive later, but once you watch the service routine you quickly see that they serve the tables in unison. Everyone at the table gets the appetizer/main/dessert at the same time. You can come late, but your service will then never match the rest of the table. Not that this matters, but... I also have a theory... about arriving a bit late. Sometimes there are those you eat with for one or two meals that want to mix it up and sit with a different group. If they come right on time and the folks they sat with at lunch have open seats it is more difficult to walk past and sit with others. I noticed this of a few couples that were on our last river cruise. It seemed to be their strategy to sit with different people each night.

As much as a cabin might be a tight fit and not enough room to really change clothes except in the entrance area - which is the biggest open area - we just don't spend any time in the cabin other than to sleep. We don't use the balcony, and if there is something to see at 4am or 4pm we go up on deck to see it. "Duck View" - Like that one.

We booked onboard and then moved the booking and kept the onboard booking discount. I would say that you should call Viking reservations, "suggest" what. you want to do, and ask if all will remain the same. If they tell you no, thank them, ask them to leave the booking alone and end your call. Call back and talk to another Viking agent and see if you get a different story. We have found that Viking WANT to keep your booking but if you don't ask the right questions, you won't always get the right answers. ONE THING: Suggest that you want to MODIFY the booking you have, not cancel and move to another booking. If you modify the booking you have you keep the same booking number.

Personally I think that this is a confusing mix of insurance that I personally would not approach. I personally would feel more comfortable insuring the entire trip through one insurer.

Oh, I agree with you on the connection. We never do a connection internationally less than 2.5 hours and we don't mind longer as we have had the nightmare of RUNNING and being stressed and almost missing flights. This is why we book a lot of our air ourselves so that we pick the connections.

Just as a note that I have seen on the Visa Infinite terms and conditions, is you can only use this CDW insurance on the Credit Card if you specifically DECLINE the CDW from the car rental agency. The TD Credit Card will not act as a secondary to the car rental agency.

We have the TD Visa Infinite Privilege card and it covers CDW but specifically states that you must decline on your rental contract to be in force. We also have rental CDW coverage on our home car insurance. I question if you have the appropriate CC or Home Car insurance, why you would buy that in Australia? This is one of the ways that rental companies rake in the profits.

I imagine that it is and would be a positive experience... I came out in the late 70's and then to me being in a 100% Gay party, bar, or environment was a big thing. You could be yourself and not worry what anyone thought. My husband is younger than me and has never been part of any gay scene at all. Never been to bars, or gay parties, etc. We have gay friends, but they are a minority of our friend circle. I have talked to him about a gay cruise and his question is always the same: What would be the advantage to us to do that?

We now routinely go one day early for any cruise unless the river or ocean ship is in port overnight and not leaving until the next day in the evening.

I am Canadian, and I can only speak to my insurance. The insurance in Canada that I purchase does have a "called to Jury Duty" cancellation reason. However, it is my experience and that when I was last called for jury duty, I went to the call and filled out the form asking for deferment of my date due to booked and paid for travel, and it was granted by the judge. Not sure how that works in the USA. For me, I would only exercise the cancel option on the insurance if my request for deferment was denied. Additionally, in Canada, this only gets you deferred to a future date to be called again. It does not remove the obligation.

I am Canadian, and I can only speak to my insurance. The insurance in Canada that I purchase does have a "called to Jury Duty" cancellation reason. However, it is my experience and that when I was last called for jury duty, I went to the call and filled out the form asking for deferment of my date due to booked and paid for travel, and it was granted by the judge. Not sure how that works in the USA. For me, I would only exercise the cancel option on the insurance if my request for deferment was denied.

Short and sweet, we often find the Agent one more layer of communication to work through, but we still use an agent. We book directly with the cruise line and then once we have all the details of our booking worked out we transfer the booking to the agent for the perks such as OBC. This is a mixed bag of reasons why you may want to use an agent and everyone has a different experience. We also book some air through the cruise line and some on our own. We book some pre or post extensions with the cruise line and some on our own.

Good that you changed your seats. We do this often, but we prefer to do so on the airline website - if we can. Which ever way we do it, we then check the other to ensure that it has transferred across and is the same on both MVJ and the airline. In our experience NO, you will not get an automatic air itinerary from Viking because of this. If you really want one, you would have to call. I take the original and with a pen cross off the original, and mark the new seat number. Viking's paperwork with seats is not the "final" say anyway. The airline may change your seating at any time because of an equipment change, schedule change, etc. The airline will always be the final say. We watch our seats on the airline and MVJ often - sometimes weekly - because the seats have been dropped all together, or changed on us many times and then we have to go proactively and reinstate our choices. AND we never seem to get any notification of this especially if it is an airline generated change.

We personally know a few people that were concerned about the surrounding conflict, but in reality there is no direct conflict in the country itself that I am aware of, but rather RISK of conflict. There are some other discussions here on CC that are addressing this topic. Not that this makes it ok, but most cruise lines and travel companies are still running their tours and cruises. For me, and being in Canada, I look at the Canadian Government website for travel abroad and what the travel advisory is. There is too much information there to paste here so I will just paste the headline. There are regions of Egypt that the Canadian Government states to AVOID ALL TRAVEL. I look at this carefully because if you have travel insurance, or don't, there are many restrictions to pay outs for Canadians if the government has issued a severe travel warning, especially to avoid travel. Cancelation insurance also can depend on what the Government warning is at the time you book your travel. I think however it is down to YOU and your tolerance. We did our Nile river cruise last year. I personally would still do that today if I had it booked, but that is me. Egypt as a country can appear to be a risk for travel at the best of times when you arrive and have armed guards on your excursion busses and/or police escorts in front of or behind the bus. The dogs and the xrays checking everything everywhere.

Not to say that it should not be discussed here, but there is a similar topic that was posed in the "Ask a Cruise Question" forum. Quite an interesting thread to read. I believe that in the end, the main topics that everyone felt should not be discussed were: 1) Politics 2) Religion 3) Global Warming We personally love to hear others travel stories, especially about cruise itineraries or destinations that we have yet to have experienced. We want to know about the cruise line, the tour company, what they loved and did not love. We especially want to know about the food. We to this point have been very Viking Ocean/River loyal and we are in around 10-12 Viking cruises. We often open with new friends at a table with: "Is this your first Viking cruise?" On our last River cruise this past December, that was my opening like with several couples that we met and dined with and surprisingly to us, they were all on their first Viking cruise. Then our next question is how does Viking compare in your experience to your other cruise experiences? Would you book Viking again? This kind of start to a conversation where we/I ask a few questions really expanding into their experience really gets the conversation going and they eventually become interested in our experiences. We will also ask if our table companions have been to "this part of the world before" or "this city before"? We also ask about the day's excursions as often our table companions have been on different excursions than we took that day. What did they like, what was the best part of the excursion to them, what was the most interesting fact that they learned today? There are so many things that you can talk about, but I will admit, we tend to talk in the beginning about travel. If we are eating with the same folks over a few days, then the conversation moves more personal to career, family, home, etc. We AVOID politics and religion with every breath in our beings. Here is the link to the other discussion:

We have run the range of diets over the years. We have been Vegan, Keto, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, and we currently are full diet and eat everything. Viking has been our home away from home through several of these diet changes that we have had and we have found them nothing but accommodating in every way. I am sorry that your dietary restrictions were not supported and occasionally we hear of this on CC, but I don't understand because again, Viking have been so accommodating. We have a friend that we travel with that has a shellfish allergy but restricted to oysters. Many of the dishes in The Chef's Table (especially Asian inspired) use oyster sauce in the recipe. They happily remake the sauce for her omitting the oyster sauce and replacing with soy or some other ingredient. When we were in our Vegan phase (no offence to Vegans) we were on a Viking River ship. Each night the restaurant manager came to us and offered us remakes of each dish or a chef inspired dish of the night made just for us. We were a table of 8 friends travelling together and more often than not, our friends wished they said they were Vegan because the chef inspired dish they viewed as more appetizing than the regular menu. This kitchen and restaurant team were truly inspired and proud of what they produced and they should have been. The food was delicious. On Viking Ocean there is a "dietary manager" (can't remember the actual title) that is responsible for guests with food allergies and restrictions. We have met that person/position on several Ocean cruises and we have been taken care of royally. Again, sorry to hear of your experience. It should not have been like that.

So agree with the "very active" part. We sleep better on river cruises than we ever do at home and it is because of the activity.

One of the arguments for using the USD for tips in other countries, is that the USD is one of the most widely accepted currencies in the world today. Banks in just about every country will exchange the USD. I am Canadian, and I know that many countries banks would not know what to do with a Canadian legal tender bill. As a Canadian I do travel with $1's $5's, and $10's in US currency for the purpose of tipping drivers and tour guides. I know that there are many on CC that think this inappropriate, but it is what I have done for decades, and I have asked guides and drivers if they are offended or bothered by receiving the USD as a tip and I have never had a negative response. In fact I have always been told that they are happy to receive it.

Thanks - I knew that because I searched his other posts, but aware that others did not - so thanks for clearing this up. I don't understand why people don't get that "immigration" laws and rules come into boarding and disembarking a cruise ship. It is not the cruise line itself that is prohibiting an early departure... as a matter of fact, they should not care.

Now I am intrigued! Perhaps we will cross paths on a future sailing.

If you are only finding matching fares to Viking - and you are going to fly in a day early - then book the ticket on your own would be my advice. Don't wait too long as it is OUR experience that fares for popular routes only go up and rarely if ever go down. We did an Antarctica cruise a year or so ago and flew from Toronto to Buenos Aires via Delta. We did the air on our own, but the fare we got allowed cancellation for a small fee - very small. Also because we booked so early (about 300 days) and we originally booked Premium Economy we got a ridiculous offer to upgrade to lay flat business so we took it. We often book our flights - and pay for them - 300 days out as long as there is a cancellation option that is reasonable. We have found that the extra cost of the fare to have a cancellation option can be cheaper than insuring the flight cost, especially if you are flying business.

I am also going to say - and this might draw some fodder - that many guests would not want to see the crew (other than officers) in the public dining areas.