Mich3554

We are on the Orion right now, and will be docking in Vancouver in May. We try to tip out (only Viking staff, not guides) in USD in all but European cruises, where we tip in Eiros. We will be doing it on this cruise.

There is a certain something that keeps us at Viking. The no children, no casinos, no hard sell is a big chunk of it, but the other part is when we got onto the ship yesterday, the second Viking employee on the ship said ‘I know you!’. Dinner last night, at least 3 waitstaff welcomed us aboard, they had been staff on previous cruises we have been on. We could cruise cheaper, inevitably. But we are happy for what we receive and are comfortable with the familiarity. If stuff happens where we feel we aren’t receiving what we want, we may look elsewhere. Right now, not really interested.

Anyone going to Thailand, be aware that Thailand is NOT moving towards cashless. We switched SIM cards at the airport….cash only. Same with taxis. Even the car and driver we had that took us from Bangkok to Laem Chabang wanted cash only.

We pretty much exclusively use ATMs to get local currency. Since we have been traveling, I have kept track of what we receive vs what the bank charges us and it is very close to what the actual exchange rate is (provided you don’t do the idiot move I did the first time and accept the ATM’s conversion rate……lesson learned!). Towards the end of the trip, we try to use up remaining cash. We probably have about 2,000,000 rupiahs left (little over $100). We will probably use a good chunk to help pay the hotel charges we made when we check out tomorrow. As to what we take out, in Europe we usually take out 200€ for a couple weeks. We split it between us, as we don’t always go in the same direction.

Yes, DH and I made liberal use of the Asian station…..both on the Neptune and the Venus. Morning, there is usually some sort of dim sum. Evenings, usually a stir fry and noodle soup.

3 of my favorite excursions were on this cruise. We did Stonehenge and the Magna Carta (it poured this day), Giverny and Monet’s home. We had a fabulous day, even in October and I’d do this ne again….if only to see it in the spring. Finalky, Monserrat in Barcelona. The trip up to the monestary is spectacular, and well worth it. My only disappointment is Alhambra. The last time we finally managed to get tickets, the excursion got canceled as the ship was only provisioning and leaving ports due to storms coming in. We will try again.

Thank you so much for doing this! I am still impressed by the considerable number of really helpful people here on the Viking thread. I have been considering trying another line, predominantly related to more varied Mediterranean itineraries, but my ties here remain strong! I heard back from my friend. Galataport does have a wheelchair available to use, but no runner. When we were there last year, her daughter used to work next door, so this would be an easy find. Her daughter got another job, so asked a friend to check it out for her. Hope this helps.

We did this last year. The elephants were hysterical. Feeding them, they wanted the good stuff at the bottom of your basket, and threw away the grasses. They were like little kids eating dessert before dinner. I also got a matching picture of an elephant scratching his butt on a tree. I have a matching one of a rhino doing the same thing taken in South Africa. Guess when you’ve gotta itch, it’s any port in a storm! Agree about the pad Thai…..it was quite good.

We did Iguazu Falls on our own and it was far cheaper than Viking. Unfortunately, I don’t remember what tour company we went with, but I seem to remember that it was about $600pp for flights, hotel, tour guide, ground transport…..both Brazil and Argentina sides. Hotels were ok, nothing special. That was ok, it was only 2 nights. I just found the old email. The tour site was Ecouruguay.com. As I remember, they were fairly responsive to my emails with info. However, this was in 2019 so can’t be sure they are not a Covid casualty. We went to Iguazu the evening we got off the ship. Next morning Argentina side. Next day Brazil side. We had an evening flight into BA, caught a taxi to our hotel and spent the next few days seeing BA (highly suggest seeing the Opera Hall, it’s spectacular, and was incredibly disappointed that there were no shows while we were there).

If you have not been to Iguazu Falls, I highly suggest you take the time and go. It’s a short flight from BA through their domestic airport. This really was a side trip of a lifetime. When we did this trip (we have gone in both directions), Viking set up a hospitality center at one of the hotels in BA. Those who had earlier flights went there, those with later flights got a tour. We flew AeroMexico to Seattle to Santiago through Mexico City the first time, Delta the second. The Delta flight through ATL was a much longer day. For getting from Santiago to Valparaiso, we spent a few days in Santiago, then hired a private driver who took us to vineyards and wine tastings, we got a tour of Valparaiso, then dropped off at the ship. In BA, we used the hospitality room to catch our domestic flight out of the airport (not EZE, it was a short cab ride) to Iguazu.

As I remember from last year, roads exiting the port were……rustic. It was a good haul into the city.

We just booked the 2025-26 world cruise on Viking. This cruise dropped mid Jan, I got a call about it before it was made public.

I contacted my Turkish friend, heard from her yesterday and she’s looking into it for me.

Just be aware that these prices are in euros, but the prices look about where they should be in $$ from our trip last month. I could see the menu on my iPad.

We were told that they tend not to enforce dress codes in restaurants on the day you embark, the day before you disembark, and if your luggage has not arrived. I know of several people on one of our cruises who boarded without luggage and due to her size could find nothing in the stores before boarding our Barcelona to BA TA. Unfortunately, none of m6 stuff fit her either as I offered.

I have a friend in Istanbul. Let me ping her and see if there is anything she can find out. Her daughter works next door. Hopefully, she’s in town right now.

Galataport is a huge terminal and there will be quite a bit of walking just to get to the exit, both from the ship to the outside and the entrance to the ship. You go up multiple levels via escalator, and before you get to the ramp to th3 ship, you get directed though the store (even though they could open an exit so you don’t have to walk an extra 100 yards. I do not remember seeing anything about wheelchair services when I as there last year. I see that there are concierge services there. Yo7 might want to check here.

There was a carafe of hot chocolate, along with marshmallows at the bar on deck 7 by the pool on the Venus. We didn’t see it until the last day.

We have kept a running total of our drink tab over every single cruise we have taken….both river and ocean (courtesy of my engineer husband who adores spreadsheets). This includes one river, 9 stand alone cruises and a world cruise (where they did keep track of what we drank, despite the cruise fare paying for the SS package). Our results…..we ordered what we wanted, when we wanted. No restraints. We wound up paying 1/4-1/2 of what the SS package cost in alcohol and other drinks. On a back to back to back (Athens to Santiago) there were a lot of sea days. The cruise was around 55 days. I think we only drank 50% of what the package cost. There were only 10 days out of 55 where our bar tab met or exceeded what the daily package cost. This is the way WE drink. On our first cruise, DH suggested that we go a la carte and see where we wind up. A lot of cruises later, the answer is still the same.

When I booked our first Viking cruise, the Viking rep DID inform me what the gratuities were at the very beginning, and that they’d be charged to our account automatically but were optional. I booked directly with Viking.

We did this last year, got on in FL and off in NYC. However, for us the London to NYC legs were marketed as 3 separate legs for an additional 6 weeks. Originally, we were going to get off in Reykjavik, but added Reykjavik to NYC while on the cruise. There were about 12 of us that got off in NYC from the world cruise. We are considering the 25-26 cruise. If we can work things out, get on in Barcelona before the WC and get off in London.

There are 2 versions. One is an excursion on a port day where you go shopping with the chef and prepare a meal. The other is an excursion only on sea days. It starts at 10 am in the morning, where 12 people get together and help the chef cook a set meal. At the end, you sit down and eat a late lunch around 1. This pops up on the excursion section of the interactive TVs in your room as an offering on sea days, and it’s $69 pp. At the end, you get to keep your Viking apron and receive a printout of the recipes you cooked. I left the world cruise with 4 aprons. I didn’t do all of them that were offered, but only the ones that interested me. I signed up for the one on our Northern Lights cruise we just returned from, but rather than a sea day, we were flown to London.

The last few cruises we have been on there has also been an evening session of trivia at 8 pm too.

This is easy to do. On the world cruise, we had to make a decision as to whether to commit to bridge, or to take advantage of the other things going on on the ship. Bridge takes a huge chunk of time, so we decided not to play that trip.

Interesting. On the cruise we were just on, both DH and I both ordered sodas in the Explorer’s Lounge during lunch, but not eating. We were not charged for any of them.