Jay Bee

I have seen conflicting information on the various gratuities so here are my questions:

1. Is it true that gratuities are automatically added to your account once on board? Or is it merely a suggestion that you must confirm somehow?

2. Are the above gratuities for on board staff only? Or do they include the local guides and drivers for Viking sponsored excursions?

3. For excursions Viking recommends tipping $2 pp for guide and $1 pp for driver. I'm not sure what to do with these guidelines since excursion costs vary from free to many hundreds of dollars and also vary considerably in duration. Any way you slice it, these numbers are way less than we are accustomed to giving (10 to 20% of tour cost), but perhaps it is customary for the region (Baltics). Suggestions?

Thank you,

Jan

When I expressed concern to Viking on the phone about possible changed excursions, I was told about the internal error and also that they didn't think excursions not yet booked at that time would be impacted. I would be interested in knowing the dates of cruises for which people have had (or NOT had) problems.

Jan

On our cruise this time last year we tipped in Euros and the local guides seemed quite happy with them. Others on our cruise used USD and that was OK too. The only thing I would not do is tip in Krona where the local currency was Rubles for example. As a matter of fact, in St Petersburg, USD seem to be preferred - more stable than the Ruble.

 

In some ports you won't have time to get to an ATM before you have to give the guide a tip. And most ATMS won't give you small enough denominations of currency to tip with. You'd also be left with a bunch of misc bits and pieces by the end of the trip that you'd have a hard time converting back. Stick with Euros - much easier!

Thank you, that is very helpful. We have not cruised out of Eurozone countries in Europe so I was concerned. Once or twice in the Caribbean local guides have objected to USD tips, saying that it was a big hassle and cost for them to convert.

I actually should have waited to receive my cruise documents, as this question was answered by Viking in those documents. It said that local guide tips are usually given in Euros at the rate of 2 euros for a guide and 1 euro for the bus driver (of course these are guidelines - you can tip more for exceptional service or less or nothing if you want).

Do your doc indicate that the tipping of local guides in Euros is customary even in the countries that have a different currency? We had been planning on getting a small amount of local cash from ATMs at each port but would rather avoid the hassle if using Euros everywhere in the Baltics is ok.

LOL. I went online and looked at the flights plans that were available between Boston and Bergen. I looked at them all but concentrated on the worst of them (24hours airport to airport, 2+ layovers, looong layovers, going east to go west, pre-dawn departures for the airport, late departures from Bergen). I knew every single possible worst-case scenario and I prepared for the absolute worst of them, so that anything I got would look great beside what I imagined. I think it is just easier when I know in advance what the possibilities are so if they do come to fruition, they are not a surprise (because I know I don't deal well with surprises).

We were very worried about what our flights would be, and I did the same thing as you. Almost all of the options available were awful (36 hours to get home, more legs and a LOT more money). We bit the bullet and decided to wait it out rather than cancel Viking Air and buy the best of what was left, hoping that Viking would have something that worked better.

We got our itinerary a week or so ago. It wasn't ideal but pretty close to it. I would have preferred to get into Stockholm early morning rather than noon. Other than that, great, and for a really decent price.

I also called the number we were given to inquire about the seat assignments (none to crappy), and the rep was extremely helpful. The problem was that until the itinerary is actually ticketed which isn't for 2 weeks or so, you can't make changes on the airline websites.

Good luck to all,

Jan

My understanding (from talking to the chef) is that the CT menus change regularly on a three-day rotation. I think there are five in total, though I could be wrong. I don't know of any way to determine the schedule in advance (i.e. through MVJ). Once you're on board, go to the Booking Desk (on the Star, it's at the right-hand entrance to World Cafe) and ask. Or enquire at the CT entrance on Deck 1. There's a big touch-sensitive display that shows the current menu. I don't remember if it displayed the upcoming menus as well.

Thank you!

If someone could post the different CT menu themes with opinions, that would be great!

Thank you both for the information.

I looked at the linked page. There was an asterisk behind each restaurant name, yet I saw no explanatory note. I was thinking that the numbers allotted might be dependent on the cruise length. Are they the same no matter what the duration? That doesn't make much sense.

Also, the point about the Chef's Table menu is well taken. At what point do the menus for the entire cruise become available? Only upon boarding? Only a day or two in advance of the dining?

I suppose it makes sense to book blindly and then try to change the date later to fit our preferences.

Jan

Is there a limit to how many specialty restaurant reservations can be made in MVJ? If so, at a later date or once on board is it possible to book more?

Thanks,

Jan

You can add them to your account now. Payment is due at final payment.

 

Best to call Royal to add them.

Thank you, all, for the responses. I reserved the cruise months ago without adding gratuities. Now I want to prepay them before the increase, but there is no place to do so on the reservation. It's only a few bucks difference and no big deal in my opinion and I know I can take care of it later, but if they made such an issue about prepaying before April 14, there should be an option to do so even for MTD cruisers.

As much as I deplore having to call them, I will do it, I guess. It may be worth the extra seven odd dollars NOT to call.

(I tried to find the answers to these in the very long and ridiculous thread on the gratuity increase, but I gave up.)

1. Is it necessary to actually pay the gratuity or can I just add it to my account as usual?

2. Where oh where can I do this??? I have sifted through that reservation 3 times and nowhere do I see the option for adding prepaid gratuities.

Thank you.

Jan

screen-gem,

This is a really good point (and I love your Seinfeld link :)). We are about to book excursions on a very port-intensive cruise, and I would be irate if the schedules were changed without notification. I do understand that cruise lines contract with local guides and changes will occur, but the communication has to be better. It certainly is with other cruise lines we have used; email is sent not only when a time is changed but also when, for some reason, the content of the excursion varies.

I have sent an email to Viking at TellUs@vikingcruises.com to voice my objection to the way they (don't) handle this. I urge everyone else to do likewise.

Jan

I have used Viking Air custom for all my Viking trips. What I do is look at the airlines website (Delta) first and select the flights I want and then call Viking and give them the flights. Usually they can book these right away. This way i get the flights that best fit my time schedule.

We are on one of these cruises as well, and would be willing to pay for Custom Air. However, it simply is not offerred for some itineraries. True, once you have your tickets you can change seats through the airline, but changing flights is not an option unless you pay $250pp to get out of the Viking Air deal and then purchase your own tickets (which at that point will be limited and much more pricey).

I understand that Viking uses berth 160 Stadsgården in Stockholm and that many cruise lines operate a shuttle bus from the dock up to the Opera House. Does Viking offer a shuttle?

Thanks,

Jan

Thanks for the responses, everyone. It sounds like we could take the paid excursion then still enjoy extra time walking around town on our own.

Hi. I haven't found much information on the port of Ålborg. Could someone comment on Viking's included excursion which is a 2 hour walking tour of the town? Has anyone taken Viking's paid outing called Historic Ålborg and the Vikings which goes over to Lindholm Hoje? From what others have said about scheduling, it doesn't seem like doing both is an option--the ship is only in port from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. (even though they have a 7 hour excursion offered--go figure.)

Thanks,

Jan

I believe they have to leave Stockholm at 2 in order to clear the archipelago before dusk. The others I wondered about as well.

Jan

Thanks, Eaglewatchers! That is great information and advice. I'm glad to know that so many of the cities are good for just walking and exploring. Regarding the trip to Berlin: what you say makes sense. When we docked in Alexandria, we didn't hesitate to take the very long trip to Cairo (I think it was 4 hours each way), but that was a different situation entirely. Berlin is easy enough to get to on a land trip with much more time to devote to it.

Jan

JayBee-

It does seem that all the ones I've looked at so far (the Norway fjords part) are overlapping, even when a whole day is spent in port.

Disappointing. And it's hard to know how this makes good business sense for Viking since anyone with a little energy and effort can book privately for extra excursions.

Thanks, Granny. I am registered in MyVikingJourney but our excursions won't be posted for a few more months. Seeing as how the port times are long for many of the days, it's too bad that the included tour schedule conflicts with additional tours. I would be most interested to hear your reviews of the excursions when you return. Have a great cruise!

Aha! Thank you very much! Had I only scrolled down far enough, I would have seen that on the invoice. I will email the address you provided to ask about the included tour schedules.

We are doing the Viking Homelands cruise this summer (Stockholm to Bergen). I found an old post from 2013 with port times and wondered if anyone had something more current. Also, what about the scheduling of the included tours? Is it possible or recommended to take and additional tour if the port times allow?

At what point will Viking let us know about this? It would be nice if they put such information right on the web site.

Thanks,

Jan

Thank you all for the suggestions!:)

I read on another thread that the library on the Brilliance is gone. The library on all the ships is where I go to find a quiet place to read and have a cup of coffee. We'll be on the Brilliance next month. Can anyone suggest a substitute comfortable location, preferably where the noise is minimal or shut out entirely?

Thanks.

Can you please define a "hump" cabin, I want to make sure I am not booked in one of those? Thank you!

Take a look at the deck plans, and you will see an area around the elevators near midship where the outline bulges outward. That's the hump.

Thanks for all the input. Since we've enjoyed the hump in the past, we're going to risk the noise.

Incidentally, we booked this relatively late so there weren't a lot of choices. I booked a forward cabin and checked frequently to see what might open up on the hump, but nothing better did. Yesterday, I ventured to check the uk site, and there were lots of rooms not listed on the u.s. site, including a few nice hump rooms. Plugging the cabin number into the booking page on the u.s. site worked quite well.

Jan