OnTheJourney

Wow! I would think that, especially for those who paid the full fare, should be above and beyond.

Assuming you're referring specifically to Viking, what recent cruises have you found this to be the case?

...which you referred to recently. Interesting. We thought the food and service was up to usual Viking standards on the Mississippi. Have not been with them since that.

Worth exploring anyway.

I ran it by my advisor. He's going to send the prospectus and look into getting shares as they become available. Can't see how it'd be a bad investment. Definitely on the aggressive growth side of the spectrum. Probably a good idea to give it some time and see where the price range winds up, as you already referred to. It would be good to see some appreciation from the share price. Doubt it'll be a dividend paying stock, at least not initially.

Worth grabbing some shares? If even available. Might only be for the larger institutional investors. Certain mutual funds already have holdings in Viking, I think anyway. I'll have to discuss with my advisor.

I'd think so too, especially with constantly building new ships. Given that they already offer pre and post extensions, which has them engaging at least partially in the land tour side of the travel industry, is there really a need to delve further into all that? There are enough land tour companies around that they likely wouldn't compete with anyway. But that's a purely uneducated observation on the matter. Perhaps concentrate on doing what they do best, with a goal of constantly try to improve on it. Spreading too thin could maybe start to dilute the quality of current offerings.

That's what I sort of assumed. Yep...great idea! My list, I know now, will only be partially realized at best. Waited too long for certain farther away destinations. DW and I are retired as well, and have been enjoying traveling until some health issues intervened for her last year. Not sure yet how it's all going to play out, but I don't anticipate much, if any, foreign travel anymore. I would, but doubt she'll want to at this point.

Sandebeach: I'm curious about your upcoming cruise list. If you're sailing every month, how long would you say you're actually at home relative to days at sea !?! Unless some of them are shorter 1-2 week cruises, I don't see that you're home all that much. Incredibly busy travel schedule! I couldn't do it.

CK info aside, I simply can't imagine being on a ship of that size, although several people have told me that since the ship is so big, it actually doesn't feel as crowded as I might anticipate. There is a certain logic to the size of the ship and number of pax as being relative in terms of it feeling more or less congested; however, I do know that having been on Viking with only 930 guests, I've been spoiled. It just feels so quiet all around the ship. The music is always very low-key, even in the dining areas, and lots of neat places to just sit and read. Largest ship I've ever been on is the RCL Adventure, so I guess at some point should at least try something bigger - if it comes into Baltimore or Bayonne. No interest in flying anywhere to do it.

I haven't either since we've never been on a class of ships that has it, but my sister-in-law has always said it's their favorite restaurant on any cruise. She said the food is consistently very good.

I don't think it was anything you did or didn't do. Based on this it seems 11:30 is pretty much the earliest embarkation time - probably for RCL also. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2819754-is-1130-the-earliest-check-in-time/

Yeah we probably won't do the GL until '26 also. There is an early October date I like that is offered. 3042 looks to be a good choice.

Totally different reaction here. Despite our cruise being the northbound that resulted in only being able to stop at a few ports (the rest of the cruise all sea days), we found everything to be typical Viking high quality, including the food and service. The dining room was fine, but we decided for several reasons to spend the latter part of the cruise in the cafe and found it most enjoyable. Sorry that you had a less than good experience overall. That simply didn't happen on our cruise. Service was prompt and friendly, as I would have expected. Which was our last excursion of the entire northbound journey. About half the pax got off for a 4-night shore stay - two nights in Memphis and two in St. Louis, and then rejoined the ship in Alton after that, although once we were told that from that point we'd have to sail straight through to St. Paul with no stops, some people bagged out and flew home. We had opted to stay on the ship the entire voyage. I paid to see the river, and despite not having our planned excursions, we greatly enjoyed the very relaxing sea days - about 9 of them if I recall correctly. Never got to read so much on a cruise before!

No they don't. As was mentioned, our experience was also one of often being tied up to a tree along a shoreline. Crew worked hard to tie and untie those long ropes.