pmfne

We are booked on Venus from Athens to Mumbai and then onto Bangkok, in October this year. We haven’t heard of any changes or cancellations yet. However it, along with all the 2025 and 2026 identical cruises (Voyage of Marco Polo) have recently changed from spare cabins in each category to ‘Sold Out’. Viking Australia seems unable to tell us yet what will happen to our 2024 cruise. We are assuming that there will be major changes or a cancellation, and are intrigued to see what this will involve. It would be nice to know soon.
 

5 hours ago, Twitchly said:

According to Mr Twitchly, it didn’t turn out to be 45 minutes. About half that, he thought. Not sure why we were told it would be 45 minutes, unless one counted the time waiting at either end.

 

We were not close to the bridges, though we could see them in the distance. 

Hi Twitchly and Mr Twitchly, (I am on your cruise too). I think you are both correct. They did say to allow 45 minutes, which must have included possible waiting time. We walked straight on to an early tender and to Newhaven Harbour in under 20 minutes. We didn’t catch the inward shuttle, but walked to the city (and at one point took a taxi to a friend’s apartment) and made it to Charlotte Square in time for the last shuttle back. It took less than 15 minutes. 
On our only other Viking Ocean cruise, we docked at Rosyth - this was a much longer transit to the city.

We also are on the 13th September cruise and were on our Singapore to London flight when the Captain announced the sad passing of Queen Elizabeth. We spent yesterday walking around London (fighting jet lag) and were in awe of the large respectful crowd and the organisational logistics  at both Buckingham Palace and Hyde Park (for the 96 gun salute). We also spoke to many of the police, who were all outstandingly informative and friendly. 

Although sad, we felt extremely lucky to be part of this historic time.

I do notice now that my daily view always shows the port times if I have an excursion or dining reservation on that day - otherwise they are not there.  

4 hours ago, CurlerRob said:

 

@Twitchly, my MVJ calendar does not show port times - on either the "daily" or "summary" pages. It may be because I'm outside the PIF date, but I think this may be a recent change to the system. Hope it comes back! 🍺🥌

Hi CurlerRob and Twitchly. This has been confusing me of late, both in the cruise we just cancelled and in our new British Isles Explorer cruise. But I have worked out that if you swap from daily view to the summary page and back, the port times often appear. I just trialed this for 3 ports at a time and it worked - but the earlier ones disappeared. I know - sounds silly and may be coincidence, but I can always eventually find the times🤔🤪

Hi Gary and Arlona, Thank you for sharing your adventures with us in such an informative and entertaining way. We have really enjoyed following along in Australia. Only yesterday we watched the first cruise ship arrive in our city since 2020. We are hoping to board Orion in Vancouver in September.

Hope your trip home goes well.
 

Thank you jasardeax and sabrefan - it looks easier than I had expected. We are looking forward to our first cruise since Covid - just a few more nerves and steps involved!

1 hour ago, jasardeax said:

The last leg of our flight was from LAX to Vancouver via

United. They announced on board that masks were optional to wear, but just before we landed in Vancouver they reminded everyone that a mask must be worn in the terminal. 
We stayed in Vancouver for a couple of nights on our own 

Pre cruise, and got an

Antigen test in Vancouver the day before boarding. 
Loved Vancouver. 
Best wishes for a great cruise!

Hi Jasardeax. In a couple of months, we will be flying from Australia to Vancouver to board the Orion, also doing a private pre-extension in Vancouver. We have been wondering where we will get a test (we will be too early for the pre-flight test to work).  Where did you get your test? Was it difficult to organise? Thank you.

On 10/25/2019 at 3:30 AM, old biddy said:

Just a thought. Viking got a bit of stick over 'anchor' ports on this cruise this year. Have these ports been dropped because there are lots of ships in on the particular day?  Honestly I don't know, but.......

 

We did this cruise in July. I could probably have missed Sitka and in retrospect not be too upset. However to miss Skagway and the Yukon train would have been awful!

 

You will love this cruise, it was fabulous. If you are doing the Rockies extension, wow, not to be missed.

Hi old biddy - very interested in your last comment. We have booked the North Pacific Passage arriving in Vancouver on June 5th 2020 and have also booked the Rockies extension. We normally organise our own land travel and have not previously done a bus tour, but it sounds interesting. Are you able to give us some more information about what you enjoyed so much about the Rockies extension?

Thank you.

Hi Azbirdmom,

That is great that you are moving through the Rhine Gorge! Hopefully we will soon! We are on the Viking Skadi (was meant to be Viking Bragi) which left Amsterdam on Saturday 6th October heading for Budapest. I think we may be a day behind you on the Rhine. We are now in Cologne, heading to Koblenz tomorrow. We are expecting at least one ship change and hoping that ships are making it through to Budapest by the time we arrive. Nevertheless we are enjoying our trip and looking forward to the remainder with whatever the river levels bring!

Hi Notamermaid,

Thank you for your information and updates on this and other threads. I have been reading them for a while with great interest.