Wisconsin Travelers

We're taking our first Viking ocean cruise in 3 weeks, so last night I was browsing the posts on this board.  A post commented about included excursions being SOLD OUT and how you needed to RESERVE an included excursion.  I assumed the included excursions worked the same way they did on the river cruises:  you're told what time to disembark and there are several buses waiting to take you on your included excursion.  I had no idea I actually needed to reserve an included excursion.  Nowhere on the Viking website nor in their email announcements do they tell you this!  

I immediately went to the website and clicked on the "Learn More" tab for the included excursions.  And once again I read the details of the excursion, but this time I notice an indication for making a reservation, just because I was looking for it.  Guess what . . . one excursion is indeed "sold out" and the others have several time options, most of them already showing as "sold out" for the times we would have preferred.  At this late date, we are now stuck taking afternoon excursions instead of the morning ones we would have chosen.  And I suppose these excursions don't include the excellent "Whispers" provided to everyone on a river cruise either.

Yesterday I was worked up that I couldn't make specialty restaurant reservations until I was on board - makes me feel like a second class citizen, just because I didn't book a suite.  Now this snafu.

I have to say that Viking is NOT impressing me much at this point in time.  We have taken over 40 cruises, and nowhere have I encountered a situation where I pay a premium for an "upscale" experience which doesn't feel very upscale at all.  If I hadn't been browsing this message board last night, we would have boarded the ship without knowing about these advance reservations for Included Excursions and probably would have found that several of them would be entirely sold out.  Viking is going to really have to provide us with a spectacular cruise for me to even consider booking them again.

As first time Viking ocean cruisers, I must say that I'm very annoyed about this specialty restaurant booking business.  When we booked our cruise (South America departing January 21), the only things still available was a guarantee cabin - and that affords us NO options to book specialty dining rooms until we are on board.  Makes me feel like a real second class citizen, but they sure were quick to take our money way earlier than other cruise lines require!  Excursions were another issue.  Our TA is gifting us with a large amount of OBC - but it won't be reflected on our account until we are on board.  So booking shore excursions with OBC funds can't happen now either.  And nearly all of the excursions are sold out.  Right now I'm feeling like I've paid a substantial amount of money to take this "higher end" cruise compared to the more standard cruise lines (Celebrity, Holland America, Princess), but I certainly don't feel like I'm getting any kind of extra value for the price.  On Oceania we can book specialty dining rooms ahead of time no matter what cabin category we have booked.  I guess we'll find out in a few weeks if Viking Ocean is really worth the extra expense.  All of this talk about difficulty booking desired dining times and table size has me doubting that whatever else they do will make up for the nasty taste I've got in my mouth right now!

So 3 votes for Paul, but not a peep of how to contact him?!!  Private tour?  Or tour company?

Thanks, Mauibabes.  Clarifies this point for me completely.  From everything we've read on this board, I have a feeling Oceania will become our new cruiseline of choice so we'll be at the 10 Cruise Credit level in no time!

First time O cruisers, and I'm surprised to see that gratuities are automatically included in our OLife cruise fare!  In all my reading and perusal of O's website, I couldn't find the answer to this question so I called them and was told that gratuities are NOT included in the fare!  The representative I spoke to said that $16 per person per day would appear as a debit on our account.  Those charges would indicate that gratuities are not included.  Which answer is correct?!!

Jody Miles is scheduled to be the CD on the Crown in Alaska.  We've sailed with her twice and she is absolutely dynamic and delightful.  Almost makes us want to go to Alaska for a 3rd time!

According to her Instagram posting today, Jody Miles will be the CD on the Emerald, effecting 06 September.  We're excited - She was our CD in Oct-Nov 2019 in Australia on the Sun and we enjoyed her high energy and sassy personality.

On 7/25/2021 at 11:40 AM, karatemom2 said:

For those of you here who choose to comment or speculate about Matt I would say emphatically that unless you know him personally or have some magical inside knowledge about his departure, perhaps it would be best to just remain silent on the matter. All I know is that in our more than fifteen years cruising with Princess, Matt was by far the most gifted, entertaining, kind and wonderful member of the entertainment staff and ultimately Cruise Director that we have ever enjoyed on ANY line. We had the great good fortune to sail with him even before he was promoted and I remember our very first cruise with him thinking to myself that this young man is going places and I was right. His decision is Princess' loss and ours as passengers and I only wish him the very best. This pandemic has been a long hard slog for all of us. We have all gone through something traumatic and changed in the process. Many people are reevaluating what is important to them in life after this experience and quite rightly he should pursue what fulfills him and makes him happy. Clearly that is not to be found with Princess at this point. No doubt he will land where he belongs and continue to spread his unique brand of fun and joy wherever that may be. I am so thankful that my family had the pleasure of getting to know him. He made our cruise vacations with Princess ten thousand times more fun and memorable and I will always be grateful. 

You've certainly found a way to convey what an exceptional person and CD Matt O'' was, and to express what we also experienced with him to a "T".  Thank you for your insightful writing.  I know Matt's supporters all wish him well in whatever road he chooses to follow, and I think the respectful thing to do now is to savor our memories and move forward with new cruise experiences.  After cancelling our transatlantic on the Regal we booked another Panama Canal cruise.

Since this is a "cruise director" forum, another stellar Princess CD we've enjoyed tremendously was Jody Miles on our Australian cruise at the end of 2019.  Keeping our eyes open on where she might end up after this terribly long dry spell for these special folks who make their living on the sea!

22 hours ago, voljeep said:

 

wonder if any will cancel their cruise(s) on the Regal now ? - ** deleted ** ( 

Yup!  We were booked on the Regal transatlantic (11/3) and cancelled the moment we learned Matt was no longer on board.

10 hours ago, bubbapuck said:

Do you remember your cabin number? Deck name and location. Just curios to see where you are in compared to my cabin. We will be on the inside passage of Alaska for the most part so I am not too concerned about the rough seas. 

Nope - don't remember the cabin number.  One thing I remember about the inside cabins was that some of them ran "perpendicular" to the balconies.  Most were just on the other side of the hallway which is how we've always seen them.  But then there were several that were situated across the ship, from port side to starboard.  Our room steward had some of those in his assignmnent.  You'll see them if you pull up the deck plans for the Sun Princess.  I hope you enjoy your Alaska cruise!

We were on the Sun in Australia in November 2019.  The ship is old and showing her age and our balcony room was TINY - by far the smallest cabin we've ever had in 25 cruises!  In fact, on our last night sailing into Perth the seas were very rough and we needed to pack.  We were literally being tossed against the walls because the space was so tight!  And the potential for motion sickness was becoming very real, even though we both wore Scopalomine patches.  We took a break from packing to go to the Vista Lounge where at least the space was larger so we didn't feel the motion as much.  We actually spent the night sleeping in our clothes on top of the bed in case we needed to go sleep in the Vista so we wouldn't get sick - YIKES!

Personally I'd never sail on this ship again because of the obvious wear and small size.  The temperatures on the ship were never constant - I'd bring a fleece outdoor jacket to the theater every night.  Sometimes I'd have to wear my jacket to the dining room!  On the other hand, the International Cafe (which is a very small and cramped area next to the piazza and seemed like an afterthought) was usually really warm and stuffy.  Go figure!

Barbara

Thanks for your recommendation, Payd.  Talk about coincidence . . . I started looking around on booking.com last week and saw  the Duque Hotel.  Looked very good to me so I booked it, thinking if someone made a recommendation that looked better I could always cancel.  So thank you for confirming my decision!  Did you try any local restaurants that you liked?

You said it's walking distance to the HOHO bus - what did you think of that?  The reviews of a couple of HOHO type bus companies aren't very good.

What else did you do in BA that you enjoyed?

We have never been to South America, so we'd like a neighborhood convenient to local non-touristy restaurants, maybe museums, and one where we'd feel safe walking around the area at night.  I know that pickpocket risk is higher in some places than others - we take normal precautions when traveling, and of course, awareness of your surroundings is always important.

We would like to do a tango lesson/show - I'm not sure about the dinner these places offer.  Our experience in other countries with dinner shows has not been particularly good . . . show might be good, but food is really mediocre, so we'd probably rather eat somewhere else.  I know there are several places offering these shows - do you know of one or two in particular that you would recommend?  Walking tours in various areas in BA would be of interest, or a Hop On Hop Off to get familiar with the city and then start exploring on our own is something we tend to do when visiting a new city.

I've read many of your posts and I'm confident you probably know more about South America than most U.S. travelers!  Why do you think we should bring our cell phone?  We're kind of dinosaurs when it comes to technology and the only times we've ever used a cell phone while traveling in another country is to call Uber.  Most of the time we take subways and public transportation, or local cabs.  Is Uber a better (and safer) option in BA?

Another thing we've seen advertised that pique our interest are estancia day trips from BA to see gauchos at work, watch a mini rodeo, maybe some horseback riding, etc.  Do you have any thoughts on that?

Thanks so much for your input.  I'm looking forward to your guidance.

We plan to spend a couple of days pre-cruise in mid February in Buenos Aires.  Does anyone have recommendations for a reasonably priced and well-located hotel?  Also, any suggestions for activities for those days?  Thanks!

Many of you seem to have used this switch for late 2020 cruises.  We just recently booked a Caribbean cruise on Reflection for December 4, 2020.  Do you really think this cruise might not go or we might have problems getting back?  Should we consider rebooking it for December 2021?  You folks are making me nervous!!

Thanks everyone for the explanation.  Since I didn't have any cruises booked for 2020 which were cancelled, this didn't apply to me but if it had I might have gambled on taking the same cruise next year. 

I have seen this phrase over and over again on Celebrity message boards and I have no idea what it means!  Does it refer to changing your existing booking to a new date for a better price?  Or re-pricing a booking when there's been a price reduction?  Can someone give me a simple explanation?  Thanks.

Thanks for all of your comments.  Some of these choices sound spectacular - I'm checking into one of the packages!

4 hours ago, TeeRick said:

If you are truly a shareholder of RCCL then you can no longer afford a cruise.

I know what you mean!  The only reason I think we can afford to cruise is because of all the money we saved from not being able to take all of the scheduled trips for 2020!

We haven't sailed with Celebrity for several years, but recently booked two cruises on Reflection.  Can anyone tell me what the benefits are for RCCL shareholders?  Also, how do you go about notifying them of your shareholder status to get credited?  Is there a form online or what?

Thanks.

We just booked two cruises (December 2020 and June 2021) on X Reflection.  Can anyone give me information on the specialty restaurants?  The X website shows a sample menu but no pricing information.   In addition to current prices, please share what your favorite specialty restaurant is and what menu items do you recommend?  

We haven't sailed Celebrity in several years so we're excited to give them a try again!  Thanks.

Very different ships, indeed!  We always choose by itinerary and date first, then ship second, and that always seems to work out for us.  We like different classes of ships for different reasons.  I think if you go on a cruise with an open mind you'll find things you LOVE and other things maybe not so much.  But after many, many cruises there was truly only one that we really didn't enjoy much at all for a variety of reasons . . . and they had the absolute best food of any of our cruises!  

As far as I can tell, all ships in the Princess fleet offer the same MDR menus, although a regional specialty might be added on various itineraries.  Having taken different ships in "back to back to back" cruises, I've seen menus repeat often.  And sometimes my favorites on one ship don't taste nearly as good on another, even though they look the same.  

I'm pretty sure the food is from the same suppliers.  But the kitchen staff on each ship is different, and I think some are better than others.  You would think that the food would taste the same - kind of like visiting Olive Garden anywhere in the U.S. and finding menu items that taste exactly the same no matter where you are in the country.  My guess is that the executive chef on each ship tries to put their own "touches" on the identical menu so some food tastes "better" to you than others.  Don't forget that taste is very subjective!

And yes, I've had the exact same items taste differently on the very same ship from one month to the next, so saying that the food on the Regal is better than the food on the Caribbean might be true today and might be totally false a few weeks from now.  You need to remember that crews change on ships all the time, and that includes their bosses.  Some might tell their cooks to use less salt and seasonings because they believe that's what is preferred by the guests on a particular itinerary.  Others might tell their cooks to ramp the seasonings up for the same reasons!

Here's my philosophy:  if I'm not crazy about the food I'll probably lose a few pounds on a cruise, and that's always a good thing!  One thing is for sure - I don't have to go to the grocery store, prepare the meal and clean up afterwards!  Focus on the great things about cruising and enjoy them to the fullest - if one of them happens to be the food, savor every bite and plan to diet when you get back home.

What a shock - and what a disappointment for those of you who are still healthy.  How is Princess compensating you?

Topspot - Did you have any favorite snorkel places?  I presume you had a car since you were on a land trip.  Are these spots easy to get to by taxi from the cruise port?  Do any of them also have lounge chairs, umbrellas, beverage service?  Thanks for posting here after your trip!