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Peregrina651

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  1. If you are celiac, keep in mind that the noodles are dunked in a pot of boiling water prior to final preparation. Don't assume that they use different pots for the different types of noodles. Ask.
  2. This is not the roll call and the roll calls are the only place we may advertise for tour shares. Rolls calls have their own section here, organized by cruiseline and then by ship.
  3. It was disabled by Cruise Critic when it moved to this platform a few years. Or do you mean on MVJ? In which case, it may be a browser problem or it may not be a 24/7 feature.
  4. ROLL CALLS FOR 2024 (as of this date) April 5, 2024 - British Isle Explorer - Viking Venus British aisles April 17,2024 (Saturn) Viking Venus British Isles Explorer- April 19th 2024 (Venus) May 1, 2024 British Isle Explorer (Saturn) Viking Sky May 06, 2024 British Isles Explorer London to Bergen May 29, 2024 British Isles explorer (Saturn) June 13, 2026, Saturn, British Isles Explorer (Saturn) Viking Sky British Isles Explorer / June 17 - July 1, 2024 British Isle Explorer Neptune Bergen to London June 20, 2024 Viking Sky British Isles Explorer /July 1, 2024-July 14, 2024 (Sky) British Isles Explorer July 4, 2024 - July 18, 2024 (Neptune) July 10-24, 2024 - British Isles (Saturn) Viking Sky- British Isles, July 15-29, 2024 Viking Saturn - July 24, 2024 - British Isles Explorer Viking Sky - British Isles Explorer July 29 - August 12, 2024 (Sky) 2024 September 02 - Viking Venus - British Isles Cruise (Venus) Viking Venus - British Isles Explorer - Sept 2-16, 2024 (Venus)
  5. Best advice: you need some time off from one another each day. You can't be joined at the hip all day long. State it clearly early on in the planning process.
  6. Which do you want to do more? The included or the optional? Are you willing to give up taking the included so that you can do the optional tour? Those are your first decisions.
  7. This is the second relevant post, written by @Lilyskittymom. I've edited to highlight the ports and "tour names". The author has promised to hang around to answer questions: A little back story on our cruise. We were originally booked for Hong Kong to Vancouver but had to shorten it to Tokyo when my husband started having medical problems and couldn't be gone that long. We had quite a bit of money to spend on a cabin upgrade and excursions. Since we could book our excursions earlier with the upgrade, we had no problem getting what we wanted and there was no need to look for outside tours. But there were local guides meeting people who booked private tours at every port. Clay's suggestion of goodwill guides is something we would have done if it had been necessary. We did a combination of included and paid excursions and generally liked everything, with the exception of the included tour in Kagoshima, the "Kagoshima Scenic Ride". It was a rainy day so the stop at the scenic overlook was soggy and the trip to the local museum was ok, but literally something you could find in any city, anywhere in the world. A private tour would have been a better choice. I'm not going to get into a lot of detail on the excursions because the descriptions were accurate. Here's what we did. Hong Kong - we flew into HK a day early, took the ferry across the harbor, and the tram to Victoria Peak, on our own. We enjoyed the views and the walk down one of the hiking trails. The next day we took the Hong Kong Walking Tour, which was a nice representation of the city. Afterwards, we wandered the area near the port, which is home to the largest shopping mall in HK. In Taipei, we did the "Highlights of Taipei". Since we didn't have a lot of time in port, this was a good tour for us. In Nagasaki we went on the "Atomic Bomb Museum and Park". The museums in Nagasaki and Hiroshima are very different, and I'd recommend going to both of them if that's where your interest lies. It was a very good tour. The Glover Gardens are a short uphill walk from the ship and was definitely worth the visit. In addition to the main house, and the gardens, there was a museum that had costumes and floats used for local festivals - very interesting. In Beppu, we did the Steaming Sites of Beppu, which was very interesting. If you'd like to go to an onsen, look for one close to the port - they're everywhere. The Viking onsen tour is robbery. I wanted to go to an onsen, but would have had to go to one a bit further away because I have large visible tattoos. Yes, there are tattoo friendly onsens in Beppu especially. A Google search will find them. Instead, we took the Viking shuttle bus (most ports had one) to the area near the train station. From there, we wandered through shopping areas and stopped at some small neighborhood shrines and temples (Google maps is your friend). "Ultimate Hiroshima" was wonderful, with its visit to their Atomic Bomb Museum and Park, and the trip to Miyajima Island. The island was really worth going to - very quaint and lovely. Again, the Atomic Bomb Museum is very different from Nagasaki's. We were in port until noon the next day and went on a walk along the water the morning we left. In Osaka, we were on "Sights of Kyoto", another wonderful all day tour. Food on the all day tours was always very good and at local Japanese restaurants. Shimizu took us to "Highlights of Mt Fuji", another all day tour that took us to the 5th station of Mt Fuji, the furthest you can go by vehicle up the mountain. Fuji-san wasn't visible when we pulled into port the evening prior, but we were treated to unobstructed views of the mountain the next day - a rare occurrence in April. Tokyo had us docked at the port of Yokohama, and while the port area is very nice, it was a 1+ hour drive to Tokyo, so the "Tokyo Panorama tour" wasn't as good as it could have been because we spent 2.5 hours driving. We did go back for "An Evening in Tokyo," which was very nice. The views from the Skytree and the way the streets are lit up at night was amazing. Viking guides were available to help people navigate the subway system, for anyone who wanted to head out on their own. Hopefully you'll be docked in Tokyo itself, which would put you so much closer to the city. Overall, this was a wonderful cruise and makes me want to go back to Japan. We were warmly welcomed, and sent off, from the all the ports. The port areas themselves are surrounded by parks and are well taken care of. International ATMs can be found at 7-11 and Lawson. Perfectly safe; I got Yen there a couple of times. And the stores are everywhere especially near the ports. If you don't know about the wonders of 7-11, Lawson and Family Mart, look it up before you go. They're not the sad version of 7-11 we have in the US.
  8. Nice to know that it is no longer an Audible exclusive and thus available from other sources. Libraries may also have the video versions available (not on Libby but from from another service whose name I can't remember).
  9. With permission of the author, @Clay Clayton, here is one of the posts (#2382): I highly recommend trying to arrange “goodwill” guides in the Japanese ports. These are guides who in exchange for practicing their English tour you for free. You are expected to pay for their meal if you share one and for any admissions to museums or the like. When we did it in the before times, the maximum group size was 6. We had a great guide in Tokyo and at the end of the day, it cost us each $8 but the best part was having someone with whom we had a real conversation about their life. While the two of us were in Kyoto, we booked one for our day trip to Hiroshima. The cost there was higher as we didn’t have anyone to split it with and we requested to go to a specific restaurant. Still was such a great day. Here is a link to where we requested ours: https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/list-of-volunteer-guides/
  10. Look for "Sagrada Familia" in the Play Store if you use an Android phone or in the Apple Store for iPhones. When I tried it came right up.
  11. No charge on our Verizon phones when the calls come from the US. Therefore, no charge for the kids to call us. However, if we make a call to any other country code, it is an international call and is charged as such. (Whether that triggers our Verizon Day Pass, I don't know because I haven't done a call to an international number using calling over wi-fi.)
  12. Glad you found it and here is hoping that your family doesn't need it. Here is a tip for keeping in touch. It works on my phone but for some reason not on my husband's (even though we both have "calling over wi-fi"). We both use Samsung Android phones. Someone who uses Apple will have to tell us if it works for Apple and how to do it. Instructions for Android. In Setting/Connections enable "Wi-Fi Calling." Put your phone in Airplane Mode. Anytime your phone connects to wi-fi (in a hotel, on the ship), you should be able to receive text messages and phone calls. I say should because it worked for both of us in our hotel in Cairo but it did not work for DH on the ship. Enjoy your first Viking Adventure!
  13. And here I thought it was to save money on lights and help the conservation effort. I guess helping the monkeys helps the environment as well. I would love to sail through during day light hours so that I can actually distinguish between the landmasses and the sea. Sailing through at night was eerie, especially after they turned off the lights.
  14. @Lilyskittymom and @Clay Clayton, with your permission, I would like to copy your responses to Cattom into the thread that Maria mentions at the end of her comments, Everything "Far Eastern Horizons": Hong Kong to Tokyo It is actually because of some off-line conversation with Cattom, that I remember some old notes that I had started in 2020 and found the link to the thread that I had started way back when.
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