Frisky070802

Answer the call, but with some skepticism. For instance, if they can’t tell you your booking number, it’s not them. Even if they can, don’t go handing them CC info and such. 

20 hours ago, deec said:

Which hotel did you use in Bergen.  We will come in early next summer and will be on our own...Viking's cost seems high. 

If you're asking me, we were in the Hotel Norge by Scandic.  It was walking distance from the waterfront, and pretty decent.  It was part of the extension.  (The one with the fabulous buffet in Oslo was Clarion Hotel The Hub.)

We did that last August.  Unfortunately the train was canceled due to mudslides and we had to fly a low-budget airline over instead.  It's possible that if we'd taken the train we'd have thought it wonderful and that it would justify doing the extension.  Without it, we thought the extension was waaay too expensive for what we got, and that we should have just done it on our own.   The tour of Oslo was very disappointing (unlike cruise excursions, they didn't use audiovoxes and were typically very hard to hear).  The tour of Bergen was OK but nothing special.  In both cases, we were sitting around in hotel lobbies way too long waiting to get into our rooms.  

One bright side, the hotel in Oslo had the best breakfast buffet I've ever seen, and the one in Bergen was a close second.  

38 minutes ago, SantaFe1 said:

Viking is redeploying the Sea to other areas of the world.  All its cruises in N America are canceled through 2026.

That really stinks. 

16 hours ago, haydn12 said:

Balboa Park is great!  We hit the San Diego Model Railroad Museum every time we go.  

I saw that in May. It was quite a treat! Love the way the volunteers really love what they do. 

15 hours ago, dd57 said:

If you ever watched the movie Some Like It Hot, it was filmed at that hotel.

 

And then for military buffs, there is the USS Midway also nearby.  So much to do in San Diego.

My wife and I are not especially military buffs, but we do enjoy a good military museum.  We were shocked to find out how riveting the New Orleans WWII museum was, and the Midway in San Diego was almost as good. 

The San Diego Zoo is quite nice as well.  I've never been to the safari park.  The only attraction we regretted seeing in San Diego was Sea World.  

1 hour ago, PRH said:

“Craft corner” in Wintergarten on sea days seems to have become “a thing.”  Once upon a time, watercolor classes among others were offered with instruction, materials and guidance.  Now it is an opportunity for anyone with any kind of handicraft to bring your project and work in the company of others.  Newbies to Viking Ocean have been surprised to discover this and wished they had known.  This is a heads up for crafters with sea days ahead to bring your project (my husband brings his watercolors,paints, brushes, etc.) and meet others on board.  Knitting, needlepoint, crochet, painting, and embroidery seem to be the most common.  Viking does not provide any materials or guidance.

I love this! I wish Viking would embrace this and for instance sell craft kits. 

20 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

Also no loudspeaker announcements in your stateroom unless it is an emergency.  No standing in line for tender tickets.  

Just sitting in the theater and waiting to be called to move on to the tender, in some ports….

14 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Unless you organize a card game with fellow passengers, none, although they do have electronic game tables that include poker, blackjack. Backgammon, chess and checkers.

 

It seems you haven’t really researched Viking’s product. It’s not like other cruise lines.

My reaction as well. The poster looks to be in for quite a disappointment. 

2 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

....

 

Finally, welcome to Cruise Critic, welcome to Viking and welcome to the world of cruising. If you have more questions, ASK!

 

I just want to give a shout out to @Peregrina651 for this response.  It was really above and beyond the call of duty (given the original post) and had a lot of useful info.  

On 5/28/2024 at 9:19 PM, CurlerRob said:

 

This was a CC host asking that you use the reporting function to request the thread be pinned.

 

While many of the reporting reasons are negative, there are two that are not - "this post is OK, but I want to let a moderator know" or "this thread needs attention". In either case you can spell out your request for the thread to be pinned.

 

It's not clear why you conclude that the advice given by a host is not applicable, but certainly up to you. 🍺🥌

FWIW I read it the same way.  I saw it as a moderator asking for it to be reported, and thinking "why on earth would someone do that?"    I wondered if some bot had posted an auto-reply!  

3 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

You should not lose visibility of payment deadlines because you are working with a TA.

 

Your TA should be sending you any revision to the Viking invoice as changes or additions are made, and on the top of page one of the invoice is the final payment date.  This is always visible regardless of whether you are working with Viking directly or through a TA.

Actually, you are quite right!  I looked back at my email and the first thing I got from my TA after transferring was a copy of the invoice but with a later due date that I simply didn't notice.   

Thanks.

We booked something on board last August, then changed the cruise in October.  I thought we lost the 6-month payment deadline, as the invoice they sent us showed payment due maybe 10 months in advance.  But we also transferred it to a TA, and so we lost all visibility into such deadlines.  Much to my surprise, the TA told us it was due later -- corresponding I think to 6 months. So ... who knows!   You definitely can change the cruise.  As for the rest, YMMV.  

36 minutes ago, longterm said:

No, that's not what I was trying to say, but perhaps I wasn't clear.

The pipe's size is essentially fixed, so if each passenger on a cruise were to circumvent the rules and use multiple devices, using up more bandwidth than Viking intended, it would adversely affect all the other passengers. 
 

On the other hand, if it's just a question of convenience, and someone wants to have all their devices connected to wifi, even though they only use one at a time, then that wouldn't cause any problems... but Viking has its rules.

The real question is, do they rely on the 2 devices per person as a way of capping traffic, or do they serve each device some max bandwidth? And of course they say never to stream over wifi. 
 

so yes, the pipe to the satellite is fixed, but that is separate from the question of sharing an access point…. It doesn’t mean necessarily that multiple devices on a router will get more data. Maybe? 

2 hours ago, longterm said:

It's doable, but not with the hotspot feature--I haven't tried it, but I've read articles about how to go about it. Not something I would want to fool with though. It has to do with spoofing a MAC address, and more involved than I'll go into here.

Considering the ease of turning wifi on and off on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone, it's simple enough to move a connection around as needed, and that's how I've done it on cruises for years.

Also, a ship has a finite pipe through which all passengers' Internet travels; for someone to cheat the system and use more devices than are allowed is simply bad form. 

As to travel routers--they're convenient, I suppose, but I already carry enough electronics as it is, and wifi management these days is a simple one-click process.

I assume that the fixed pipe per connection applies to what talks to the ship. Just because you have 3 clients going through a router doesn’t mean the router gets served a higher bandwidth than you would see on your laptop or tablet.

2 hours ago, longterm said:

It's a simple matter to enable VNC if one is concerned about security in places like hotels, airports, and elsewhere; I have Nord VNC on my iPhone & laptop, and enable it when I feel the need.

 

Perhaps I'm being overly trusting, but I don't consider Viking passengers the types who might be looking to hack into one of my devices. 🙂

 

I think you mean VPN? 

4 minutes ago, bookbabe said:

This one doesn’t come with an app, although DH says some do.  It creates its own network, and the first time you connect to it, it bridges between your device and the ship and then you log in to the ship network that first use.  Afterwards, any device that connects to the router just logs into the router network, which is already connected to the ship.  
 

I hope I’m explaining that even semi-clearly, I’m going by my memory of what DH told me as he was setting it up.

That makes sense.  A number of devices these days (such as Ring doorbells and such) work the same way, having you connect to them and share.  The reason I thought it would be hard here is because usually you're just connecting long enough to provide the credentials for the router (a WEP key or whatever) and after that the network you connect to doesn't care whether you're the phone or an extra wireless router.  Whereas on the ship, while I connected when I first arrived and provided my name and cabin, I was occasionally prompted for that info again.  I wouldn't expect the router to be able to do that unless it essentially says "I'm connecting to the ship, and it's asking me X and Y.  I'm giving you the form with that request, and whatever you respond, I'll respond to the ship with the same info".  Doable --- but I didn't expect it to be a feature.  

1 hour ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Typically there is an app to interface with the router to log in and configure.

 

Also, most new phones have a hot spot feature which allows you to connect another device so you may not need a router.

OK, good to know, regarding the router connecting.  Not worth the space in my luggage (we did OK with a phone and tablet apiece) but if I ever also bring a laptop I may want to do that.

As far as the hotspot goes, I thought phones let you provide a hotspot if you are connecting to the external network, but turn it off if the phone itself is on Wifi.  That is certainly what I've experienced; maybe the newest phones recognize situations like this and support wifi bridging.  

4 hours ago, bookbabe said:

Yup.  Connected to one as I type this.

Interesting. I was going to say almost certainly not since the router still needs to access the ship's network and authenticate to it with a room number. How do you do that? 

I was thinking the same to some extent, that even if the eclipse didn't work out, it should be a great cruise.  But then I thought, if we can do something with a much better chance of seeing the full eclipse, we should.  That might just mean staying on land 🙂.  

Just now, OnTheJourney said:

Hate to be a party-pooper, but I don't think I'd hedge too many bets on good visibility in Iceland. All the other cruises I came across - that are especially eclipse oriented - are banking on Spain.

I wasn't really finding much in the way of cruises that-a-way.  What were you finding?   But yes, Iceland was a brief thought, nothing more.  

4 hours ago, babs711 said:

Viking’s ocean cruise starting in New York on August 3, 2026 going to Canada, Greenland, 

and Iceland is in Isafjordur on August 12. In the path of totality…

We actually put a hold on this on Monday as we were thinking what we'd missed this time around.  However, a friend pointed out that the cloud cover in Iceland that time of year is especially high, so it seems like it could detract.  Plus, there's the chance they aren't actually in the right place at the right time.  So we're thinking Spain (even if it's not a cruise).  

(I see that as I was composing this, @OnTheJourney pointed at the info about the cloud issue, even better.)  

12 hours ago, Tom N said:

Yes, my 87yr old mother was just pillaged by Viking.  Now, I understand she is 87 and made a bad decision to accept a voucher because she had to cancel due to health reasons, and yes, trip insurance did nothing for her.  However, Viking's Voucher terms and conditions make it so she will never be able to use the Voucher.  No flexibility with a woman who now needs to have an assistant to accompany her.  When she asked to use some of the monies towards this caretaker, there was no desire or flexibility on Viking's part to work with the needs of the elderly.  A woman who ran out of Viking cruise destinations and was making this one her last.  

 

My wife and I, plus my two adult children have traveled Viking.  NEVER AGAIN!  Oceania has been the go to now.  Nice job Viking, you win the battle with my Mom, but lost the war for the business of 6 others (my wife and I, adult children/spouses) with high incomes.   

That’s very sad. Good luck to her. 

11 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

Absolutely.

 

We have been with friends on a cruise and both did the same excursion but on a different bus and guide and our reviews of the excursion have been very different.

 

Again - all subjective which makes the whole exercise difficult to have real value.

 

Once discussion threads get too long - 25 plus responses - I tend to stop reading them unless the subject is really compelling to me.  I feel like these would be pages and pages of responses very quickly and then who is going to read from page one to page 25?

All true. But I still think if you think about Tripadvisor, Google, Yelp, etc, even if there are hundreds or even more comments on a restaurant, hotel, or what have you, you do get a high-level view from the overall ratings.  Yes, someone might give it 1 star because they were unlucky enough to have a hung-over guide.  But if 99% of the ratings are 4 and 5 stars, you have to figure the odds of having such a guide are low, and most people liked it.  So maybe you go for it.  

It’s true that long comments might be a lot to wade through, but a yelp-like rating system could help. If something gets 95% too ratings, it’s probably better than the one with many low ratings.