Peregrina651

Janet, my sister is on your cruise all the way to NYC (which is why I am following this roll call) and in the same situation. The day after Viking announced the change, my sister tried first to make head way with Viking via email to no avail (it was a lost effort when the Viking person didn't even know that Mars was doing a butterfly), then she was on the phone with the travel agent (my agent now her agent and brother's agent as well) who was then on the phone with the owner of the agency, who called Viking, directly via his channels, going to bat for their client. Last I heard, they were making progress but I haven't heard a follow up yet. In other words, Viking was made aware of the problem very early on, not just hearing from a guest but from a cruise travel agency owner as well. BTW, fair is that in each category, BGN to NYC gets to book in advance of REYK to NYC.

Actually, depending on where you are starting your journey and where you are headed, using Viking Air for business class can be cheaper. Here's a case in point: We have a cruise in May, London to Bergen. One woman on our roll call, flying from New Mexico, and I, flying from Boston, both booked our flights around the same time (July, 2023). We both booked business class. She saved 25% booking Viking Air, because her flight plan is so complicated while I saved 40% booking my own flights because I'm closer to London and my flight plan is simple, nonstop going and one connection returning. For both of us the savings was quadruple digits. As far as I am concerned, you have to do the math for each trip no matter where you are headed and at the time you are making the purchase -- and forget about trying to time the purchase to get the best price, that takes more information and more practice than most casual flyers have. I know a lot of people are "only book your own," but that doesn't work for me. While there are times I will book the entire trip through Viking, there are times I'm just looking for the cheapest flight no matter how I get.

Susan, darned good question -- and honestly more input is needed from folks who have actually experienced such a delay with Viking. Exactly what did Viking do for them in the circumstances. Hopefully, more will join the conversation and share their experiences. This is not a topic that has come up very often in this forum. Now that you have explained your question, it is a bit easier to answer -- or, at least, to talk about the issues to be faced when your arrival is delayed. Still, the advice you will hear most often is to avoid the situation by arriving early -- either by adding a Viking pre-cruise extension to your itinerary or by making your own plans including getting to the ship on your own. But it still doesn't answer the question. Arriving early is not always an option, and clearly some help and guidance in setting expectations would be appreciated. . You lucked out. Our mileage did vary, horribly. In 2019, it took us close to two hours to connect to our flight to Marseilles. Our bottleneck was one person manning a passport checkpoint that was being feed by 3 or 4 different lines. People kept pushing through saying they had a flight in half an hour. It was a nightmare. Even without the bottleneck, we would not have made it in half an hour because it took us more than half an hour to get to the lines feeding the bottleneck. Fortunately, we had a long connection time and did not face the same panic as many in the line -- the ones who kept checking the time every minutes or so.

Your arguments are based on mainstream cruise line behavior and not necessarily facts. Please show us the deep discounts on upcoming cruises. Yes, they may happen but I don't think they exist in numbers worth worrying about. I'm sailing in May on BIE (the only thing I have "then" and "now" price points to compare) and on the few cabins still available on 4 sailings, at today's prices and available discounts, there is not a single DV6 cabin sold today that will beat the price I paid in 2022. I'm glad I booked when I did. If the argument is loss of interest, banks don't pay much interest, less than a percent where we live or less than $150 for a year on a $15000 cruise fare compared to the $900 I saved and the $1100 price rise since I booked. I'm even happier I booked when I did.

IMHO, use Viking only if you will be paying less for the flight than you can get elsewhere. (Or if you have a specific rationale for doing so). Include Viking Air when you book to lock in the airfare. If you add Air after the fact you pay brochure rate. The Air can be removed from you booking but there is a deadline to do so. Sometimes Viking is the cheaper and sometimes booking your own is the winner -- and you don't know which it will be until the airlines open booking for your travel dates, about 10 months in advance, and you have researched prices for your travel dates. Even if you book your Air with Viking, transfers are only available if you land at the airport on Day 1 of your itinerary and depart the airport on Day Last. If you want to arrive a few days early or stay on after the cruise, no transfer even with Viking Air. If you buy your own flights, you may buy transfers from Viking, with the same caveat as above -- and you can buy just for arrival or just for departure. Personally, flying into Barcelona is a breeze. Walk out of the terminal and head straight to the taxi rank. Fare from the airport to downtown hotel or the port is a flat fare plus baggage fee. Latest details are easy to find online. Last time I did it in 2019, it was 40 euros for the cab ride. Airport transfers are per person. If I were dealing with Venice at this point my feeling is, what a mess, let Viking handle it, and I would fly home on Day Last of the trip, regardless of how I booked the flights. BTW, if you book air with Viking, take their minimum connection times for with a grain of salt and then add at least another hour to the number, two if anyone in your party uses a walking aid. Then don't accept a connection any shorter than that number. Flying through Paris, add 3. For me, the advice is: listen to all the advice and information that is coming at you and then decide what is right for YOU.

Viking is not a member of CLIA and does not follow its guidelines. When dealing with Viking you have to put aside the idea that Viking is anything like the mainstream companies operating in the US. Final payment is not the same as when cancellation penalties kick in. While final payment may be a year or more out, cancellation penalties on cruises (other than grand voyages, spelled out in the contract) don't kick in until 120 prior to the start of the journey. Prior to 120 days, the cancellation fee is $100pp. Booking Terms & Conditions Passenger Ticket Contract What for? They aren't responsible for guests' misconceptions. As for the warning not too book early, my 2024 cruise, brochure price before all discounts (which are no longer available) is up by $1000pp for a DV cabin and is all but sold out while my 2025 cruise is up by $1300pp (DV cabin) and is just a few cabins from sold out. Prices are going up on many sailings right now. Even with a crystal ball, you can't predict where prices are going on which cruises. If you see something you like at a price you like, book it and forget about second guessing the market. To be fair, it took me a while to figure out how things work with Viking and how to work within their stringent business policies. However, it took me less than one day on board to know that Viking Ocean was everything I wanted in a cruise ship and that I would be sailing with them as often as I could afford. The good news is that it is still not too late to cancel your cruise and get back all that you paid less the $100pp cancellation fee and whatever you paid for insurance. You still have plenty of time to book on another cruise line for 2025 -- one whose policies and procedures you are familiar with and more comfortable. And if you bought your travel insurance from other than Viking, you might even be able to roll the policy to the new cruise. Why spend the money if you are already determined to be unhappy and dissatisfied?

Not everything on my list is post-booking. Some of it is website stuff -- like where to find the description of the drinks package. Besides, "best kept secrets" makes it sound like "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." -- or what was in Geraldo Rivera's infamous safe.

I agree with you wholeheartedly on this one. I think Viking can't figure out how to put it on MVJ and still keep arriving and departing guests from booking those excursions. In other words, it is a software problem. I think that they have decided that it is just easier/cheaper to do it the way they are doing it than to figure out the coding. Still, imagine how much easier this all would be if Viking explained on the Guest Statement or sent an e-mail to all guests booked on a named B2B itinerary. We have done a B2B only once and we had our plans all set -- Tarquinia on our own on turnover day and the Viking tour to Ancient Ostia the next. No idea at that point that Viking would have tours for us that day. When we got on board and saw that Viking had tours for us on turnover day, we changed our plans. We moved Ostia to turnover day, because Tarquina wasn't offered on that day, and did Tarquinia with Viking the next. And let me tell you, Tarquinia on a tour bus was a lot easier than our plan to take the local bus to Taquinia and then try to figure out how to get to the Etruscan Necropolises. You're welcome. I keep thinking about starting a thread entitled "Viking's best kept secrets" and this would be near the top of the list.

Two thoughts Checkout the combined schedule put together by one of our members. Follow the links in the OP's signature to download the spreadsheet. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2651194-viking-ocean-combined-cruise-schedule/?do=getNewComment Check to see if your cruise is a segment of Expedition's Longitudinal World Cruise. If they are doing the LWC in 2026, they may be holding off on selling the segments while they see how many whole cruise cabins they can fill.

Also note that for some, 9000ft, with its oxygen thin air is hard on the lungs and circulatory system.

If there is a turnaround day as part of your itinerary (that is, when some guests are disembarking and others are embarking), there will be no excursions listed on MVJ for that day. You cannot book ship excursions in advance for a turnaround day. Once you board, you will be given a list of excursions that you can book for turnaround day. These excursions are not open to arriving or departing guests. They will be chosen from the list you see on the website for tours offered in that port. My suggestion is to narrow choice down to 2 or 3 and book one of them for Day2. Once you get the list for turnaround day, you can finalize your plans, even to the point of changing your Day 2 tour. @shmabbies while it is fun to see in advance. it doesn't really matter what was offered on past turnaround days, as the list can change from sailing to sailing based on the number of continuing pax and the time of year. Whatever the list, it generally comes from the list of what you see on the website for that port.

It would be nice if they would say as much on their website. All it says is that they are open to visitors May-September. However, visit West Tours to see the dates when they offer tours to the island; there is nothing offered the first two weeks of June, 2024. I also noticed when I read the website, that contrary to when I was researching the island for our planned but cancelled 2020 cruise, the island is no longer open for casual visits, wandering the whole island is no longer permitted (except for overnight guests) and there is no regular ferry service.

Especially if it is between the bed and the closet. BTW, Viking Vesta has been added to the Roll Call forum. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2704-viking-vesta-roll-calls/

First, the difference in the beams is 7ft and lengths 39 feet. According to info on the website, ignoring OS and ES, Star Class ships vs Vela Class DV&V -- 270sf vs 288sf PV -- 338sf vs 360sf PS -- 405sf vs 432sf In terms we can wrap our heads around, it will add, very roughly, 2.5 ft to the door to balcony measurement.

Thank you for the smile.

Mine, too: Book cruise. Find/start roll call. Mark calendar. Open folders in my e-mail, my computer, Fences and Evernote That is why this one on Vesta feels so weird -- no place to even start a roll call and my 2026 calendar calendar is not in print yet. I booked while on the road and the preliminaries had to wait until we got home 5 days later.

I will reciprocate.

My husband would be nuts. Only 30 minutes leeway for the what-ifs??? Back-on-board time is 4:30 and the walk was 10 minutes at my pace. You now have 20 minutes leeway for what-ifs -- breakdowns, stragglers, bad weather. How many times have you been held up on a bus tour because of some straggler? A lot to consider.

It shouldn't. Viking is in charge of all the customer-related operations from start to finish. Just like the river cruises that Viking ran in China for 15+ years (till shut down by Covid), a Chinese company owns the ship which it then leases to Viking to run the hotel operation. By Chinese law, the ship must be owned and operated by a Chinese company (same thing as in Russia, Ukraine, Egypt and the US) and most of the crew must be Chinese. The river cruises were marketed by Viking to people in the US, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand -- just as they are doing now for the new Ocean cruises. On the river cruises, senior staff of the hotel operation were Viking veterans, mostly Europeans and completely versed in the ways of Viking. Housekeeping and dining room crew were all Chinese. The kitchen followed menus and recipes set down by headquarters and was run by European-trained Viking chef. The hotel operation was as Viking as any river cruise I've been on since -- and I would expect the same on Yi Dun. In the Chinese tourism sector, Viking has a very good reputation. Pre-Covid, they had a ground operation in China and a team of full-time tourguides/escorts/Cruise Directors (similar to the operation in Egypt). Viking knows its customer base and what they expect. As on the river cruises, I expect that onboard the ship it will be 100% straight from headquarters menus and recipes that we have come to know and enjoy. However, for the land portion, I expect that they will be duplicating what the did on the river cruises (why re-invent the wheel when they already have a well-tuned team in place): Chinese 5* hotels, Chinese restaurants and caterers with 100% Chinese menus.

Maybe you can suss out more information on the owners' website: https://www.vigurisland.com/

I gave them a nudge and the Viking Vesta has been added to the Viking Oceans Roll Call forum. Viking Vesta Roll Calls

IMHO. Plenty of birds and the awesome beauty of the rugged landscape. Isafjordur: Vigur Island Seydisfjordur: Skalanes Nature Center Djupivogur: Fjallaron Glacier boat ride Heimaey: don't do a boat trip in the rain Akureyri: either of the full day tours that cover a selection of natural wonders Sailing in and out of Akureyri, you cross the Arctic Circle. You will receive a certificate in your cabin. However, no seadays on this itinerary hence no ceremony.

A no-show at embarkation will not work. We already have reports in this forum where that has been tried. What happened was that the person who showed up was charged a single supplement before they could board the ship, while Viking kept the $$ from the last minute cancellation of the no show. The guest them had to claim against the insurance to try to get the $$. As already pointed out, removing a name from the booking runs into similar problems as Viking considers any change of passenger to be a cancellation.

Considering that trains aren't running due to the cold, I wonder if there were also issues with computers and servers.

Fjord tours just responded.They only sell standard tickets and seats are randomly assigned. But, we can try to upgrade on the train from Myrdal.