Mich3554

We booked this last Feb while on the WC. I did NOT go through the cruise consultant, but my Viking rep. The price for the PV1 I booked has gone up $2300 according to list price today.

When you get on board, after watching the safety films, go to Dining on the TV. You can easily book dining here, and the last time I looked, I could get a reservation before 7 pm for every single day of the 3 consecutive cruises I tried in the back to back to back. We had no dining reservations on any of the 3 and easily booked at Manfredi’s. It is important to do this ASAP, as others are doing this too and if you wait a day or 2, they’ll be booked.

We had a wedding to get to in the Caribbean and even from the west coast in the US, it’s painful. I finally booked flights such that we flew in the day before, got a hotel and the next morning flew into Turks. I hated the idea of spending the first day at an expensive resort both jet lagged and recovering from a red eye. Emirates has the right idea. Last year, we went to the Maldives and on our return we had a 10 hour layover in Dubai. We got picked up, taken to a hotel, provided meals and returned to the airport for the long, butt numbing flight from Dubai to Seattle. That was probably the easiest long haul flight I have ever had.

It will be credited to your account as a refundable credit. If you do not use it, it will get refunded to you. Viking will use non refundable credits first.

It depends on how you paid for it. If you paid via voucher, or OBC received from a TA or as a perk from Viking, it is use it or lose it. If you paid for your optional excursion prior to your cruise via cc, then you get refunded. I had 3 cruises worth of missed excursions and learned about refundable and non refundable credits very well. We got a chunk of $$ back from Viking from our lost refundable excursions. Viking keeps track of which exact excursion is paid via OBC or cc.

We missed Lofoten, Norway as the weather was too rough to get into the narrow harbor (or something like that). The captain said that there were reports of several pods of whales nearby, so we went whale watching instead. We saw whales.

Yep, that was the room service menu I used during my Covid arrest on the Neptune. I also ordered from Manfredi’s and The Restaurant. I was told I could order from these 3 menus, so did.

Use a dummy key card. We have an old cruise card we always keep in the slot. Any old, used up gift card will work too.

They worked well when we were in Indonesia this year. I used to crank it as low as it would go before leaving because it was so freaking hot.

I had my Sonicare plugged in by the sink in the bathroom for nearly 6 months we were on the Neptune. The shaver plug does work for that.

Ditto. I messaged my rep and reminded him we had 3 cruises on the books. He immediately changed the final payment date to 6 months before sailing.

The Neptune has replaced one of its USB plugs for a USC at the bedside table. Since I needed both and I had not brought my USC/USC cord, I wound up using my European electrical adapter with my USB/lightening and USB/USC cords. The Mars probably has a USB and USC plug too.

The only time I ever saw a line more than a few people, it was a night with a 6:30 show and everyone who went to the show went directly to the restaurant…..so the line was 7:15-7:30ish.

A screen shot leaves the QR code in photos, easily accessible (usually). It’s how I went to the Maldives 5 months earlier, without a problem. But for some reason, it didn’t work the time I needed it to work for Greece.

I normally take a screen shot of the code and leave it up in my photos, so it is easy access. It wasn’t an online connection issue, I knew I wouldn't be able to pull the code without Wi-Fi. I don’t know why my phone was being stupid. I was in a quickly moving line of people flashing codes. When restarting my phone didn’t help, my paper copy was Plan B. Afterwards, I restarted my phone again and it worked.

Sometimes my backpack feels like this! But seriously, I carry a folder with a hard copy of everything I could need. A few years ago, my phone would not bring up a full picture of the QR code I needed to get into Greece (despite all the things I tried to get it right). I used my paper copy. I ditch things as we use them, until all we are left with is the flight reservations home. You’d think my pack would be a little lighter, but I do acquire stuff too.

I have been in countries recently where they wanted to actually see the physical drivers license. Digital copies not accepted.

Another thing we discovered on our most recent cruise…….if we found the beef or lamb overcooked for us on one side, try the other.

Different strokes. I like it. It’s you.

We do this too. I just finished arrangements paying for our Northern Lights cruise in Jan. I was able to get business class air for about $700 pp less than Viking quoted (not counting the add on for Air + and deviation charges). Next up is Bangkok to Vancouver next spring. Some preliminary looking as shown we will be ditching airfare for this too.

DH tends to order beers at lunch, and he has gone through the beer list and has never been charged for the his beers. We never take the SS package.

We did Magdalena Penguin reserve. There is about a mile walk around the small island where there are tons of penguins and gulls nesting (this was in Dec). DH was ff taking pics with his Nikon (and much better lenses) in another direction when I tried to get his attention. A skua was attacking a gull nest and gulls AND penguins together fought off the skua. The skua hobbled away to his buddy skua on the side of the path to figure things out. By the time DH saw what was going on, he missed almost the interaction…..so no pics. We didn’t stay near enough t8me there. I could have gone around again.

There was a motorized scooter on the Iceland to NYC cruise I was on a few weeks ago, I know as he backed into me. It was like a miniaturized cart you can ride at the grocery store.

However, a medical policy is fairly reasonable to pick up compared to 10-15% of the cost of a trip. We bought medical insurance for a month in Fiji, it was a few hundred $$ (required for travel to Fiji). Medical insurance for the WC was 1/10 of what TripMate was.

Nope. DH prefers to self insure. I did some tooth gnashing about the World Cruise we recently completed, but we did wind up picking up medical insurance for the cruise from another source. Both of us are fairly young and healthy, but I suspect there will be a time where it becomes a more serious consideration.