Canberra601

Quick question - when you refer to "upgrading", does this mean from the Premium Package to the Ultimate Package?  If you do this onboard, do you only pay the difference between the price of the two packages?

Our offer is also very clear that it applies to our upcoming cruise:

19 hours ago, Squawkman said:

We had this menu on the Mars earlier this month.
 

So did we on the Saturn earlier this month.

Does the premium package include cocktails, or do you need to upgrade to the ultimate package?

On 10/20/2023 at 12:41 AM, Strangford said:

UK version

https://cms-assets.viking.com/mar_content/global-brand-identity/Onboard_GuestFacing/UK_CORP_SilverSpirits-AllProduct-2023-A4-R02.pdf

And link to the AUS/NZ; AU_CORP_SilverSpirits-AllProduct-2023-A4-R02.pdf (viking.com)

11 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Good point!

 

Can you post a link to the UK version of the same document? And can someone in the AUS/NZ market do the same? That way can serve all readers no matter where they are. 

Here it is for Australia and NZ:

We went to Cape Sounion in February this year.  We originally booked an excursion to Delphi, but it was cancelled at the last moment due to heavy snowfall in the mountains.  The Cape Sounion excursion was the only one available that really interested us.  Despite a snowy and blustery day, I really enjoyed the trip.   A really lovely bus ride to the site, and the site itself was well worth seeing.

We planned to go to Delphi in February this year on a Viking excursion, but it was cancelled due to heavy snow in the area, limiting access to the site. It has been on our bucket list for some time, and after seeing these photos even more so now!

8 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Well, perhaps that is country specific, because we have move $1000 deposit to other cruises and modified dates more than once.

 

In Canada, they certainly will move that deposit because they don't want to lose your business by allowing you to just cancel and walk away.

The key is you don't "Cancel" the booking you amend the booking that you have.  When you do that you even keep the same booking number.

I think that is the key - Viking has different rules for each country in which they make sales and we all have to be conscious of the rules as they apply to where we have made the purchase. I know that the rules vary significantly between the USA and Australia.

Also depends on which country you purchased your tickets.  In Australia you lose your entire deposit if you cancel 121 days or more prior to departure.  The following is the cancellation schedule for a 7 night cruise which required a deposit of AUD1,000 per person.

We face a similar problem living here in the Philippines.  We have to use either the US, UK or Australian offices.   Only the US office appears to not require an address in that country.  As Berlin Bear states, this can be quite complex due to the different pricing structures and associated conditions, not even mentioning the need to take into account foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations.   

Slightly off topic, but we had some issues with refunds associated with two paid excursions that were cancelled whilst on board earlier this year.   The issue related to being refunded in USD to our on-board account, when we had in fact paid in AUD.  When converted to AUD the exchange rate used for the refund was significantly lower then the rate that was current at that time (and had no relation to the exchange rate at the time that we paid for the excursions).  When I queried this at the client service desk, the person could not explain why the exchange rate used was so different to the current rates.  He tried to explain that Viking takse a forex fee/commission out, but this made no sense.  I asked that either Viking refund me the actual AUD I paid, or the USD based on the exchange rate that the USD was credited to my onboard account.  It was not a huge amount of money, but was a matter of principle to me.   The matter was resolved and I was credited with additional USD that night, but then the same thing happened two days later when a second excursion was cancelled.   So do be aware of this potential issue if any of your excursions are cancelled when you are on board.

We did this trip in January/February this year, and the weather was mostly ok.  We had to leave the port at Haifa on the night of the first day due port authorities requesting the ship to leave due to an expected storm and associated winds.  The result was that our final day in Israel was cancelled and replaced with a sea day.   We also hit a snow storm in Athens which meant that our scheduled trip to Delphi was cancelled.  Despite these two incidents, the trip was great and worthwhile.  

14 hours ago, Iloveketo said:

If you are doing an Ocean cruise.

Grabbing something before going to bed sounds like a good idea. All rooms, but the Veranda category have coffee makes. 

 I think you might be able to get a muffin/danish and a hot beverage at the living room bar on deck one before 6:00. Hopefully, someone else can offer more help. 

We recently did an ocean cruise that included Haifa.  The World Cafe opened early on days when there were early tours.  If I recall correctly, they opened at 5.30am on one day.

4 hours ago, Vineyard View said:

Really glad to see this post. We are looking at 2024. Azamara has a Italy intensive that is attractive. 

We have just booked the Azamara Italy Intensive cruise for October 2024 for the same reasoning.  It goes to ports that we have not been to, and are not included in Viking's med itineraries.  

This is great information, thank you.  Do you book the transfers through MVJ or through your agent?

8 hours ago, Stephentpgoh said:

Anyone from the LGBT community on the eastern Mediterranean cruise on board the Silver Spirit from 1-10 November 2022?  First time on Silversea so don’t know what to expect 

We will not be on this cruise, but have cruised with Silversea previously.  It was very LGBT friendly, and pre-covid they organised LGBT get togethers early in the cruise.  Not sure if they are still doing these but they were a good way to meet people.   I am sure you will have an enjoyable time.

On 8/13/2022 at 10:58 PM, Berlin Bear said:

Aha - you and Mrs Miggins have touched upon my pet peeve! We live in Berlin and have done 2 wonderful trips with Viking Ocean, but had to book them in the UK as there is no marketing on mainland Europe and no way of booking a Viking cruise of any sort over here. That was pre-Brexit. Since 2021, we are no longer allowed to book with the UK office - not resident in the UK, so not covered by ATOL and ABTA. Instead, we will have to book any future cruises in the US.

Therefore you will normally only encounter citizens from the US, Canada, UK and Australia on a Viking cruise. It’s called streamlining 😬, i.e. catering for fairly homogeneous groups on identical ships.

Same issue here in the Philippines, we have to book our cruise either through an Australian agent or a  US based agent.   The big issue for us is that we are unable to get travel insurance through Viking or other Australian/US insurance companies as we are not resident in either of those countries, and the travel insurance available here in the Philippines is really inadequate.

We have also done one Viking Ocean cruise, and scheduled to do our next one in January 2023.  The vibe on Viking suits us well.  

I tried to deposit my paper GBP notes in my bank account here in Manila, and they rejected more than half due to small stains, ink marks etc.  They also rejected my Scottish notes because they are not legal tender???  Money changers here are also no longer exchanging paper GBP notes.   Unfortunately our next trip to Scotland is in mid October, so we will probably need to post them to the Bank of England when we get there. Does anyone know if I can simply deposit them in my Scottish bank account after 1 October when we get there?

We have stayed at the Electra Palace several times and will be returning in January next year.  You just can not beat the location.

We are sailing January 2023 and final payment due September (four months before sail date).   I suspect that this is probably due to where we live......  Nevertheless grateful that we do not have to pay a full year in advance.

We are so disappointed that our intensive Croatia cruise scheduled for 31 March has been cancelled.  Due to our personal circumstances I have requested a refund rather than a voucher. My TA has advised that it will be up to 90 days before we get the refund.   Is this normal Azamara policy? 

@Scots Caz  My travel agent never heard back from Azamara regarding the reduction to my cruise, which may have been because they were considering cancelling the cruise anyway.  As the cruise has been now been cancelled I now need to wait for my full refund which I have been told by my TA could take up to 90 days.

Further to my previous message, my TA was told to fill in a form to get a refund.  Not sure whether it will be OBC or refund to the credit card.  As we already have USD1,600 OBC, we would prefer not to get another USD1,300 in OBC.   We travel at the end of March so still time to resolve this.