TayanaLorna

Great. Looks like that very deep low pressure will be well to the North by Saturday with a nice slot of 10-15 knot winds and 3-4 meter seas south of the system by then. The low is still disrupting the normal E or NE trade winds. Hope you have pleasant crossing. Happy you are going to Casablanca as Morroco was closed to us last year.

Hopefully next Sea refit will include more DV drawers. The masked percentage follows what people are saying on other V cruises. Any Covid testing?

When does your crossing begin?

Too bad you are missing Maderia but the Canaries should be nice. Looking at windy.com I can see the 2 deep low pressure systems causing some weather issues. The predicted movement for both shows to the NE with the 2nd one taking all week to move well to the north. My guess is your crossing will take a more southerly route then ours did in 2021 and might be a tad rougher. One of the low pressure systems has been north-northeast of us since the weekend bringing wind and rain from the north which is unusual. Our NNE facing beaches are getting a big swell and we are having 55 degree F night time temps in the mountains. Last night I asked my DH to put on the heat (we don't have heat in PR).

We have traveled where friends were in different cabin categories. Yes PV gets to choose excursions, restaurant reservations and spa treatments before DV. But we all got on excursions we wanted (have more then one choice) and we were able to arrange dining together once on board. Viking does not give tender times or tickets to any cabin class and embarkation or disembarkation is not determined by cabin level either. So no big deal. They will get free pressing service and shoe shines, a bottle of champagne in their fridge and little bottles of alcohol that are replenished daily in the PV whereas the DV only has soda replenished daily.

Abandoned property in Puerto Rico is for the exact same reason. Interesting.

Kayak excursions are offered in Patagonia, Iceland, Norway, the Arctic by many cruise lines. There may not be ice floes but the water still is darn cold. It's the responsibility of the passenger to assess their skill and ability to undertake such an excursion. Having been a canoe camper, we never swamped our canoe filled with gear. However at my age I will not canoe or kayak unless the waters are tropical and I can swim in them comfortably.

We always carried a healthy supply of duct tape on our cruising sailboat as well as spare parts for everything we could think of or afford.

Good to hear about the ship condition. TA last year our PV sofa had an arm peeling. Other then that perfect.

We enjoyed that menu.

Good to know Chef's Table Menus. Chances are the Sea will continue same throughout all their Caribbean & Amazon cruises this season. Like them all.

It is almost impossible to learn what a country requires for cruise ships. Looking on the Internet is futile. As many of the retired Mariners have stated, requirements for entry by sea especially cruise ships are often much more strict then any other conveyance and most often stricter then national standard. Yesterday I saw a post in the South America forum where passengers boarding a MSC cruise in Rio ship found out that they had to have a negative Covid test (and not a rapid antigen) taken within a 24 hours of boarding the ship NOT before their flight. They were wondering where the heck they were going to get the testing done in Rio for their family of 4. We should thank our lucky stars that Viking will provide the Covid testing at no cost to us if required. Why are they doing DAILY testing on their way to these countries? My guess is they don't want to arrive in these ports with a plague ship. Who knows what percent of positive cases are allowed by these countries and when they may change their rules.

No the credit voucher specifically said it can be used before embarking.

So it just automatically gets reduced? One does not have to tell V to use it? I don't want to miss getting an excursion because I did not pay for it on time.

We received on board credit as a perk for booking our cruise. It can be used beforehand or on board. How does one use it to pay for optional excursions? Is there a payment choice on MVJ for credit cards as well as on board credit? I figure someone here has done this before.

Its a day on which friends and family gather to be thankful for whatever they appreciate in their lives - that would be the activity. Growing up in my family, the women would cook, the kids would play with their cousins and the men would watch US football games. Traditional food would be roasted stuffed turkey. The stuffing could be many things and based on regional traditions. Its accompanied by cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and different vegetables. Desserts could be pumpkin pie or pecan pie. Often times recipes and meal plans are continued for generations. The "first" thanksgiving meal was supposedly between settlers in North America and the native americans to give thanks for the years harvest. Canada also celebrates a thanksgiving but earlier in the Fall.

It's been in national news for months and months. The Venice issue has also been in the news in case you are thinking of that cruise.

Exactly, why would it be different. I have not read about any very recent quarantine stories but earlier in the Fall cruisers were reporting the isolation period to be 5 days with Day 1 beginning the day after testing positive.

I think they are fully booked or nearly so.

Did you ask Viking if the vouchers could be used in payment of one of the cruises already booked. I ask because you received them for a Viking trip interruption (whether or not it was Vikings fault) and not because you cancelled your cruise. It's a little different...just saying it might be worth the question.

We are doing Vikings Amazon (and Caribbean) cruise beginning February 19, 2023. After we disembark in Manaus we are boarding a much smaller cruise ship to go further up the Amazon for 4 days. It sails up the Rio Solimoes, a much more narrow river, and excursions are done in smaller launches from it. I did my research after we booked Viking and realized we did want to get more into the thick of it.

Sorry the charts are not in the order of sailing North to South but you will get an idea of what kind of passages the ship sails.

We did not go on the cruise lines you mentioned. We went on an 18 day Santiago (Valparaiso) to Buenas Aires cruise on Viking Ocean. It was fabulous! These photos here are of the route the ship took through Patagonia. When we sailed from Valparaiso to Puerto Montt it was overnight offshore and we did not see much. From Puerto Montt we sailed inside for part of the day and then offshore. But when offshore we saw land. The next day we woke up sailing the inside passage weaving through narrow channels and around islands to the Amalia Glacier and continued inside to Punta Arenas and then Ushuaia. I wrote our story for family and friends and included photos from the ship and on excursions. If you are interested, you can find all the chapters at www.tomko2travel.blogspot.com. We were 68 and 69 years of age when we did the cruise.

Countries often give different rules for cruise ships from those that other arrivals have. Last year every site on line i could find giving rules for entry to Morocco allowed visitors via air and ferry entry if they were vaccinnated. Except cruise ships were not allowed no matter what. So we missed Casablanca. Their country, their rules. Viking's ship, their rules.

We did a TA leaving Barcelona November 29 last year and began noticing decorations appearing after a few days. You may be boarding an already decorated ship.