Little Monty

3 hours ago, Pushka said:

 

Not to mention Techie and Sparkie. 

 

We just had Groundhog Day too as we arrived from Australia into San Francisco for trip up to Vancouver. 

 

 Yes, too many to mention. Safe travels. LM

1 hour ago, Paulchili said:

 

Learned a new Aussie word in trivia today - chalkie (a teacher)

Sorry, I missed this earlier. Yes it’s a good one.

We have many unusual / interesting variations of otherwise ordinary words 😀

Ask them what a chippie is ? (It’s a tradesman 🤔)

1 minute ago, Paulchili said:

They are - in their own way 😀

They are a fun loving bunch that don’t hold back their “joie de vivre” and in the process pull you in.

Sounds good 👍

13 minutes ago, Paulchili said:

We just entered Twilight Zone aka crossing of the International Date Line going East.

We are finishing Tuesday, May 14th (it’s 8:30 PM local time) and by setting our clocks back 23 hours we went back to Monday, May 13th 9:30 PM. All of this means is that tomorrow we will have a second Tuesday, May 14th alll over again 😀

I just got a day younger (if I don’t count the day I lost on the flight to Tokyo 😀).

All of the Aussie people - who seem to be a majority on this cruise - are getting truly 1 day younger (but will lose it on their flight home).

That is a great story - enjoy tomorrow ... er today 😏.

I hope your Australian co-passengers are behaving themselves. Safe travels. LM

1 minute ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

 

Little Monty can't even tell us the words that are missing because that is in breach of CC guidelines. Too many breaches of the guidelines and you can be kicked out.

 

Woops .. thank you for the warning Peregrina651

Just saw this posted elsewhere by Viking media (Australia);

We've launched six new ocean cruise itineraries that cover all the highlights of the Mediterranean, including a brand-new port of call for Viking: Istanbul, Turkey.

Departing in 2021, these newly released cruises are combinations of two or more of Viking’s most popular existing Mediterranean itineraries.

Check them out at: http://*****/VikingNEWMedCombo

2 hours ago, Aussie Cruise Nuts said:

  

 

Guess we may be Glass half  full people.      

 

 

G'day Rod .. I hope you are enjoying the cruise.

I also hope your 'half full' attitude is shared by the great majority.

Cheers from me, LM

1 minute ago, Pushka said:

 

Should we warn people about Drop Bears or not?

Very good .. the thought of it actually made me laugh. 

Best wishes for your upcoming adventure.

11 minutes ago, roothy123 said:

Oh, I should have figured that out, but thanks.  

 

Going to Australia in December; I hope I can understand the language! 😀  

Sometimes not knowing makes it more fun .. don't stress you will be fine.

We were on a river cruise a few years ago (90% Australians) and the CD was amazed by some of the phrases. The one which he loved the most .. someone said they had to 'chuck a u-ee'

CD had no idea what it meant .. 'chucking a u-ee' is doing a u-turn in a motor vehicle. I must admit, it's not something you hear every day. If you want a laugh, google 'Aussie slang' (slang being unqiue Aussie expressions).

Enjoy the trip - I look forward to your comments during / after. LM

10 minutes ago, roothy123 said:

 

 

Just curious - what are "sunnies"? 

Aussies have an abbreviation or nick-name for everything 😀 .. 'sunnies' are sun-glasses.

32 minutes ago, Phillygirl3 said:

Has anyone taken any of the not included Viking excursions for this itinerary?  I am able to see what extra excursions are offered through some travel website but it doesn't show any prices.  I wanted to see if anyone that has taken these excursions could recommend them or not so that I can save myself the problem of paying a lot of money for a not so worthwhile excursion.  Thanks for any feedback.  It will be greatly appreciated.

We are booked on this cruise in 2020. However it is a new cruise itinerary for Viking - the first cruise is scheduled for Dec 2019 - so you probably won't any response to your question about included excursions.

The World Cruises may have visited some of the ports so you may pick up some information from the World Cruise threads, but their excursions may have been different to what Viking are planning for you / us. LM

48 minutes ago, MBP&O2/O said:

We are looking at a cruise staring in Bergen but the issue I have is that our local regional airport has a limited selection of flights so we will have to fly via LHR or AMS ... either way it will be a very late afternoon arrival at Bergen. The absolute earliest arrival would be 1630 ...  Is the transfer process reasonably quick. I can see nothing on the website showing departure times from the port?  

How would Viking deal with such a problem

Thanks

Mike

Bergen is a beautiful location ..  I suggest you consider arriving a day early so you can enjoy a night in Bergen prior to boarding.

4 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

 

I agree - all the Viking ships are great (and even the Star is relatively new).  Interesting note - our Captain told us about the various ship schedules in general.  He mentioned that the Star will be going to drydock in 2020 for the mandatory 5 year inspection and possible updates.  We also heard that the Venus is planned to sale in the the Mediterranean in 2021 with some new itineraries involving Turkey, the Holy Land, and Eastern Mediterranean.

You will enjoy the Sky as well.  Let us know if they have retrofitted the drawers in the closets (which were not there when we were on the Sky in Bergen-Stockholm last May)

Thanks for the update CCWL

We would love to visit Turkey despite the issues which the country has endured. We do look forward to new the itinerary releases you mention.

I will try to post whilst we are on-board - but can I check ...  which staterooms / cabins are the retro-fitted draws likely to be in ? LM

Apologies .. I just realised Jim might be Phoenix rather than Tucson - so I probably haven't been any help 😏

On 5/3/2019 at 9:35 AM, DesertCruiser2000 said:

 

 

Also I noted that there was someone from Tucson, AZ.  Can't remember CC username, but peaked my interest as we are in Tucson, too.  It seems I can't find these posts any more so I don't know where I came upon your posts.

Would the Tucson CC member you refer to be Mr Jim Avery ? I'm not sure which posts you refer to - but Jim was on the 2018 World Cruise which spent time in the area in question. Jim is a regular on these boards so he might see this reference and chip in. LM

6 minutes ago, moatenote said:

LOL We've been on 3 Viking Ocean cruises and all were on the Star.  Our next one in July is on the Jupiter--can't wait to compare ships. Will definitely post a review of our cruise--British Isles.

9 minutes ago, zitsky said:

Thanks to both of you.  Just my luck I get the oldest one.  I guess they are mostly the same.....

We have been on Star in 2017 and Orion in Dec 2018 / Jan 2019.

We board Sky in Bergen May and Star in Venice in June and will do the comparisons as well and will report back. Star is still a 'new' ship in our eyes so we hope there won't be any signs of wear and tear.

I don't think we will notice much change - we will just be happy to be on-board 😀

5 minutes ago, zitsky said:

 

When you say from the Sky on... obviously you are talking about the newer ships.  Is there a list of Viking Ocean ships in order of their sailing date?  I'm on the Star which I believe is one of the older ships, relatively speaking.

In order - Star, Sea, Sky, Sun, Orion, Jupiter. Star started carrying passengers in 2015 and the others followed.

On Orion and Jupiter there is also the addition of a pasta bar - I have cut / pasted my message from January below which includes a photo (I hope it works - if not I will come back and add separately).

2 hours ago, Monty's Dad said:

Ho well stocked are they and how often are they replenished?

I can't actually answer the specific question .. but simply based on your very interesting screen name I had to respond 😀

I provide a link below to a discussion re Silver Spirits Package which I was involved in. Inside that discussion are comments about the contents of mini bars - what is in them and what can be substituted. There are a couple of photos as well.

We were in Penthouse Junior Suite and the Explorer Suite is a step up from that. I think there will be enough information in the discussion to be helpful to you. 

Our experience from 2 cruises is the staff who look after the mini bar are very flexible and accommodating.

Click on the photo below and it should take you to the beginning of the discussion.

Enjoy. LM

1 hour ago, lonagarr said:

We are staying for a few days on our own in Barcelona post cruise, and I know Viking usually assigns disembarking times for guests depending on what their further plans are. Has anyone else done this, and if so, what time did Viking assign for you to disembark?

hello lonagarr

We were on Orion in January. I wrote this in an earlier CC Forum post ...

We disembarked a few days ago in Sydney. We packed our bags early on disembarkation morning then went to Explorers Lounge for waffles / breakfast. We took our bags with us to the Lounge and just left them in the corner out of the way. Several others did the same.

When we were ready, we simply walked off the ship with our bags. We had to be out of the room by 8am and off the ship by 9.30am - both easy to achieve if you are reasonable early risers. 

19 minutes ago, Parsley Cruises said:

Hi LM, 

 

As we book from the UK, our pre-paid grats are there too.  However, as we don't get the cards we always take 'proof'.  

 

Whilst we've never had a poor experience where pre-paid grats are concerned, we've seen plenty of other folks on other cruise lines having problems.  It's a bit 'belt and braces' - better than getting upset.  

 

Regarads,  PC

Good plan PC, yes we take our payment confirmation as well, as that shows the grats and SS Package inclusions (just in case!).

Best wishes for your next trip. LM

25 minutes ago, Miataphile said:

 

Sounds like the best approach is to transfer photos from the camera to a tablet via wi-fi, then connect the tablet to the ship's wi-fi and send the photos to facebook, etc.

Good plan, yes that will work. 

Thanks Pushka .. yep understood. Good advice.  

Miataphile .. please feel free to ask a follow up question, but if your only question is 'will my camera connect to the ships wi-fi' ..  does your camera connect to wi-fi at home or any public wi-fi ??

If so, yes it will connect on-board using the same connecting process.

If you are actually asking can I use wi-fi to download photos on-board, hopefully the info above is helpful. 

That doesn't make sense does it ?

What I have described is how to download photos from the camera to the app whilst not using the ship based wi-fi. The process described does work, but it does not answer your question about linking your camera to the ship's wi-fi.

Apologies for my confusion.

So I guess my question is, if your camera has a wi-fi function and if you carry an I-Pad, do you need to connect the camera to the ship's wi-fi ?

Hopefully someone who knows what they are taking about will chip in. LM

8 hours ago, Miataphile said:

Next Fall we will be on the Viking Sea in the Caribbean.  We have a wifi-enabled camera.  Will it be possible to connect it to the ship's wifi,since it doesn't have a keypad and screen?

Not sure if this answers your question .. but I think yes. Whilst on-board we download our photos from our camera to the Cloud using our I-pad. On our camera we select the wi-fi option and it then displays 'TZ90-2366DC' for wi-fi.

We go into settings on the I-Pad, select wi-fi and choose 'TZ90-2366DC' from the various options. The camera then asks if we wish to commence transfer and we select yes, and the photos then transfer from our camera to the Cloud by way of the wi-fi connection.

If you don't want to use a Cloud storage option there is likely an app for the camera which you can download onto an I-pad (or similar).

If you don't carry an I-pad (or similar), then sorry, I probably haven't answered the question 😀. 

9 minutes ago, Silver Spectre said:

And here she is, parked just behind the Silver Whisper

 

Thank you SS .. many of us have been hoping some WC'ers (or Segmenters !) would let us know where you are and how you enjoying the experience. Please feel free to send more updates.

Safe travels, LM