Squawkman

Interesting as that is the same itinerary we just booked October 10 on the Star (see post #346 above). No vouchers involved, small deposit with PIF 6 months before embarkation. Let us know how you make out.

I tried to do that last month with my Viking agent. Problem was most of the cruise was paid for with a voucher, so that stopped the process as I would lose the voucher value. If you paid cash, you might have a shot.

I booked it by phone with code EHT22 so I guess both codes work.

It sure does. Just booked Canada and New England Shores. I called my Viking agent and had a bigger choice of cabins than booking directly through the link. Thanks, Selion!

Regarding $200 for $100 certificates: they are only available on Viking river cruises, but can be redeemed on any new Viking cruise (1 redeemed certificate per person). The purchase limit on our Rhine cruise last month was 10 certificates per person. BTW, these certificates are transferable and never expire- they can be combined with other discounts. The only possible way I can think of to use certificates would be to cancel and rebook your September cruise. Not sure if this can be done with the on board Viking agent. Also, any perks other than Explorer society discount would be lost if you rebook. Similarly, I believe you would have to cancel and rebook within 14 days to get the welcome back SBC. I also assume you’re paying cash (not using a future cruise voucher from a cancellation). I’m under the impression that only a Viking agent can do the welcome back credit.

The criteria cited by our resident experts are industry standards, regulations and laws - not necessarily their own criteria.

And also alluded that Viking then hired a demoted captain.

You still get a guaranteed included excursion to Venice. Your comparison to the Titanic is beyond bizarre.

I forgot to add that the Welcome Back discount is available after disembarking any Viking cruise. So if you’re on a river cruise, you can purchase $200 for $100 certificates and use them with the Welcome Back discount. For those not familiar, these certificates can be used one per person on newly booked cruises with no effect on any other discounts.

We usually take advantage of the “welcome back” discount which is $200pp SBC on the newly booked cruise regardless of length. Some here said they were denied this discount, but we’ve been using the same Viking age for years and always got it. Must book within 14 days of disembarkation.

Not true. I’ve run into only one space available a few times. We’ve booked one of us, and usually we’re able to get the other before MVJ closed.

Viking SBC can be used before embarkation. Other OBC (from TAs I assume) may have different restrictions.

I’m 99% sure that’s what happened - we did this over a year ago.

Same holds true for those who have a great Viking rep.

My experience is that it can be used before embarkation for excursions, drink package and tips - things used on board. It can’t be used for extensions.

We’ve done this. When you book optional excursions on MVJ, your SBC will be reduced

CDN - I read somewhere the person counts for Key West include cruisers and staff, hence Viking ships are way over 1,000.

Civitavecchia is over an hour from Rome and that’s not mentioned in excursion descriptions either. I always check dock locations with Apple Maps and make decisions accordingly. And maybe the Venice port will change before you embark.

I can’t speak to Amalfi, but I was in Venice this past October. We wound up docking in Fusina and were informed less than 2 weeks before embarkation in Barcelona for our Mediterranean Odyssey cruise. We knew it wouldn’t be Venice, but thought it would be Chioggia which as you know is much further than Fusina. We also missed one port (Monaco) due to weather. So I disagree with you that Viking knew and waited to tell you after you paid your deposit.

Any cruise booked now will have no protection regardless of when the voucher was issued as there has not been CFAR since last December.

My understanding is their voucher was cancelled. But they should have been told that prior to finalizing the cancellation.

Your 2024 world cruise was probably booked at least 1 year ago, correct? That’s why you were able to do that as Viking was still offering CFAR vouchers. We did the same thing too with our Viking agent.

See post 288 in this thread

They must be a new cruise. Once booked, they cannot be reused should you want to cancel that cruise - so book carefully. There are many 2024 cruises available now and I would guess more will become available before 4/27/23.

We did the Douro with Viking the second week of November, 2021. All Viking buses have a bathroom, but there was a rest stop too. Our weather was perfect - every day sunny with high temperatures either side of 70F - but we were told that was unusual as the cruise the week before ours had rain a few days.