SantaFe1

So, back to food. We are sitting here sweltering tonight, and I asked my husband, “what’s that Ice cream I love on the ship and they only have about once a week?” He said Salty Caramel. I want that all day every day! And good made to order pizza. and, of course, included gratuities.

Me too!

Yes, yes, yes! One of my pet peeves.

Yes, that is the letter we got, too.

Many of these cruises, including ours in February, have deleted Tortola. We have two stops in US Virgin Islands, first in St. Thomas, the day after we leave San Juan, and the second on the day before disembarkation, in St. Croix. Best to double check.

Almost all of ours are being manually checked. Can’t imagine why. We have never transited the Kiel Canal or done an exhibition cruise. Hopefully ready soon.

Wow! Thank you for all of these!

And we just got this same notice yesterday for our Feb. 27 cruise.

Not on Sun for our world cruise. My husband has come to love it too.

We are having the same problem, Jim. The best we can do is a flight getting into SJU at 11:58 pm. We are contemplating booking that flight and staying at the SJU airport hotel, which looks rather spartan. But all we will want to do is sleep for eight hours and then take a taxi to the ship. Does anyone have experience staying at the airport hotel?

Two years ago, Ephesus was the first port I ever saw on an ocean cruise that did leisurely paced walking tour. We tried it, and it was a bit too slow, but it did exist, and people seemed to appreciate it.

We have done both, the Viking transfer and a taxi. About the same time, and I think cost. I can’t remember exactly.. Just leave yourself plenty of time.

When we had a late pickup I called LF and got a new time, A few hours later. Don’t bother calling Viking. Call LF now. And don’t worry. They pad the delivery time to destination substantially.

I know nothing about photography, but my husband does and is a very good amateur photographer. I showed him your question and he replied “take the long lens but you probably don’t need the monopod with the R5,” which is what he has.

I just refuse to do more than one stop on this itinerary, so, out of SAF we can fly through Denver or Dallas. The Denver flight is OK, not great. Out of Abq, we can pick up Delta through Atl. Again, not great flights, and all about $3000 pp business. I think that’s a lot. We will see. I won’t book flights u til we have made final payment in August.

We are on a Feb. 2026 cruise. So the holiday doesn’t account for this. And flying from the east coast is one thing. We have to fly to a gateway city like Denver, or ridiculously, Minneapolis,

We have just had our WI Explorer flights come up, San Juan Tom San Juan. I was planning to do them ourselves, business class. But they are just terrible, and very expensive, almost as much as flying to Europe. I guess I will check with Viking, but can’t imagine they will be able to do better.

We did the 2019 WC, the first one to go to Africa—on purpose. The Suez Canal was open, Viking just wanted to change things up from the inaugural WC. On that cruise there was a 2 or 3 day safari leaving from Mozambique, we chose the 2 day safari and it was wonderful. Viking took care of everything, and our Credits from Viking paid for it. We took a bus from Mozambique to Kruger National park, and when we got there took a late afternoon safari. It was spectacular. Our accommodations were wonderful—at least ours were, some were less well located. Then the next morning, we went on an early morning safari. It was even better. After the two days we had seen the big five! Then Viking flew us to Durban to the ship. It was seamless, spectacular and a lot of fun!!! A few days later we did another half day safari, which, in my opinion, was not worth it at all. But we had been spoiled.

Gratuities are not included for American guests. They are added on at the end of the cruise to your bill. Or you can ask to refuse them. Or you can pre-pay them. But link this seems to say they are indeed included. So perhaps different for UK guests.

We sail this on Nov,, 23. Haven’t heard nothing yet, but Tangiers is fine with us.

There have been several discussions about LF on these boards, but I seem to be the one who always comments, so I’ll do so again. Since we took our WC in 2019 where Viking comped LF we have always used them. They are a bit pricey, but with the Viking 20% off, not too bad. We just budget it into the trip cost. They are reliable. They always pick up exactly when they say they will, and the bags are always on the ship when we arrive. We had one trip shipping home from Barcelona where the bags were later than the predicted time, but within the time frame originally provided. The only problem we ever had was in Alaska, where the bags got wet. Viking kindly cleaned all our damp clothing before they mildewed, and I had one white cashmere sweater that couldn’t be properly cleaned, and because I had bought it for the trip and still had the receipt, I was able to send it to LF and they reimbursed me the full price. So, I’d say, if you are inclined to use this service, do so. We’ve used them eight times now without incident.

Yes, please make any comments you have the time and inclination to do!

We have done ten VO cruises, so obviously they are a product we like. Last fall, we took our first Viking River cruise, and like you just hated it. There were no tables for two, as you mention. The food was so bad that some days there just wasn’t anything I wanted to eat after breakfast, where I have to admit they made a pretty good omelet. There were no quiet places on the ship to sit and read or just enjoy the views. Fortunately we had a two room suite with a balcony, so we had a quiet place of our own. But frequently the ship tied up to another ship in port, which rendered the balcony useless. We will never do another river cruise. We are booked for three more ocean cruises. Go for it! I bet you will enjoy it.

Yep, this was our experience all the way around. Found out when checking in in Greenwich. Our bags delivered to wrong room because we use Luggage Forward and they have no idea what Viking is doing. I loved that cruise but just hated that cabin.

That is exactly what it was! We asked to,have our preferred PV1 room back, and they said they had already assigned it to someone else who was already checked into it. No other options were presented to us.