LindaS272

We were shaking for days because water just started exploding out of the downstairs toilet. We had had a big rainstorm the night before so that may have contributed to the drain field inundation. Dave was washing dishes from hot water off the stove and then rinsing them with a hose in the garden. You got off lucky with only a dishwasher on the fritz and the ability to wash in a sink. But I think we both deserve a cruise in a PV after this! 😂😂😂😂

Correct. Viking uses a pier at the site—but the report is that it was damaged in a storm. They do not dock at St. Anthony. We made it to this site with Viking on In the Wake of the Vikings in Sept. 2019. Seems to be lots of bad luck this year making that stop—earlier in the year I would have said it was because of the season (spring/ice bergs/wind)—but Aug/Sept is now seeing its share of inclement conditions.

Gotcha, @SantaFe1! Our septic flooded this week when the dishwasher & clothes washer were going—water all over the kitchen floor (tile), dining room (wood)—couldn’t use any drains in the house—septic pumpers had two other emergencies & couldn't get to us for 24 hours. Set up a large bucket in the garage, used our neighbor’s vacant apartment, & the cleanest restrooms on the island at the Chevron in town. CC provided our entertainment & fantasies til the septic truck arrived next day to tear up our yard. 🫣😝🫠

I sincerely doubt it. Just ask your steward for one when you board.

Uh—this is a Viking Ocean board. 😎

Thanks for the recommendation. We might book this! We stayed at the H10 Madison last year after the TA from SJ to BCN. Next scheduled for the TA from BCN to BA.

Never for us. We’re assigned a particular tour & the Daily shows when & where to meet, but then the group/bus number is assigned when you check in with the rep at disembarkation. Many tours have more than one bus/group—especially included tours. If somehow there is an actual bus assigned on your ticket (again, never happened to us in six cruises), have all your people traveling with you meet at Guest Services early in the cruise and get it sorted out.

Not in our experience.

We are transiting through Frankfurt in early October. Sea-Tac to Naples. We have a 6 1/2 hour layover and have booked four hours at MyCloud Hotel in the airport because the lounges are closed to us (no ability to pay to use right now) due to worker shortages/slow downs/strikes. 🤞

If the tour you want is sold out at time of booking, e-mail tellus@vikingcruises.com with your name & cruise booking number and tell them how disappointed you are that you couldn’t get a slot. Ask if they will add extra capacity. Then research independent tours for your port stops—these are nearly always cheaper than Viking for the same tours and often with smaller buses.

😋Yum, I always get the escargot.

Sounds like Viking “Customer Service” 😂🫣🫠

You can also look back at specific roll calls for cruises out of Barcelona to see what others have recommended. The roll call for the TA on the Viking Sea from BCN to SJ was VERY active for Nov. 2021 (98 pages was it?). We picked up a lot of ideas there for a cruise we ultimately had to cancel. We did the return of that trip instead from SJ to BCN in March/April 2022 & stayed a few nights at Hotel Madison near a couple of the Gaudi houses. If it’s the usual port (have heard noises that BCN is also kicking out cruise ships & Viking may have to dock an hour south)—there aren’t really places “close” to the port. You’ll pretty much always need a taxi from downtown—but it’s not too far, depending on traffic conditions & events that block off streets.

I suggest you ask Viking because they do sometimes use two different hotels pre & post cruise, as well as on different cruise dates. You can email tellus@vikingcruises.com, do a chat on the website, or call.

Dishoom was going strong when we were in London in early April 2022–so they seemed to have come out of Covid successfully. You’ll want to book in advance since they are very popular!

If you like Indian food check out Dishoom—several locations in London: https://www.dishoom.com.

It might be, but I thought Clay was asking about going to the Taj Mahal since many folks on previous cruises have reported they flew there and back. Many people likely aren’t going to make another trip to India so it’s what I would do too. I’ve been to India and know some of the difficulties of travel there. If he just wanted to overnight at the hotel in Mumbai, that’s another story.

Clay—So you didn’t watch Xuan’s videos on his website? I’m not sure what your “similar reservations” are except as to cost. We did not do his Mekong Delta tour but I doubt that it is “touristy”. Xuan & his well-regarded tour guides get only 5-star reviews on trip advisor. All of the people on our tour with Xuan in Hoi An & HCMC thought he was great. As did @mstadleraz here. Xuan was friendly, personable, responsive, funny, trustworthy, kind. The reviews I’ve seen on TripAdvisor of his other guides rated them just as highly. Not much more I can say, except you’ve got personal reviews of other Viking cruisers.

I was just teasing of course. But I also didn’t want to take the baskets back to the room and risk not having them available for others to sort their stuff.

What’s the point of using it? (Inquiring minds want to know.) 🤷‍♀️

I thought the baskets were there to have a better place to put someone else’s completed wash when you needed to put yours in! I never used the baskets to take back to my room. 😲

We had a similar experience trying to get back to the ship on our first day in HCMC. We did Xuan’s excellent tour and then a few of us stayed on for a different food street tour. I had the Daily with the ship’s address but it was %*#@& poor. We left the city at maybe 9:30 pm in a taxi with a young Vietnamese driver who spoke no English, and wandered the vast port area for an hour (after an hour to reach it). I even called the ship at one point and asked if they could get someone who spoke Vietnamese to direct our driver. But GS said no—even though I later learned there were local guards/port people at the base of the gangway who could have helped (!) The Daily just gave generic info on the name of the port but no specifics on pier/berth.

Oh well, I just googled ziplines and whitewater rafting in Iceland and a couple spots for each came up! But not extensive, & you’d have to coordinate with your time in port.

What are the excursions Viking is offering? When are you going? Is there a roll call on CC or have you started one? TripAdvisor is also your friend—as well as Dr. Google. I don’t think Iceland is into ziplines, and while there’s lots of “white water” waterfalls, I don’t think there are many (any?) rivers for whitewater rafting. There will be horseback riding, and perhaps a few options for glacier hiking. Viking offers the former, but don’t know about the latter (liability issues).

You’ll see this has been covered in several threads here. Several folks booked private tours and had no trouble making it back to the ship.