QueenofEverything

Oops, I meant our October cruise, not August

3 hours ago, Morgsmom said:

But how did you get this applied if technically it's no longer listed as an option?

2 hours ago, CampNCruise74 said:

What was date that you called if you don't mind please?

I didn't realize they were no longer available.  When I booked on 2/4/2022, they had some 15% + 5% cruises listed under "cruise deals".  My particular cruise was not among them.  I noticed on 2/17 that it was listed as included.  I called and they said they would add it, which they did.  I don't see the obc anywhere on the reservation, but I am not sure where to look so I'll worry about that later.  They did give me the additional 15% off.

We have it on our August Mereviglia cruise.  It wasn't on there when we booked, but was added later.  I called and they added it to our booking.

We did the movie tour on Kauai several years ago.  It was just ok.  However,  if your goal is to see lots of nice scenery, you  will probably like it.  It covered quite a few places.  We have also rented cars in all of the Hawaii ports and enjoyed that.  Waimea Canyon on Kauai is very pretty but a ways off.  You can get a peek of the Napali Coast close by.

28 minutes ago, justcrusn said:

Can you drive?

maybe rent a car one way?

beats missing a vacation 

She was flying in day of cruise, yesterday.  I am curious to know the outcome.  Hope she has somehow made it work

1 hour ago, OurDogCisco said:

That is weird.  Why didn't the rep say that we weren't stopping in Kinderdijk and that is why it is showing sold out?  I'm not even sure why they put an excursion list if they are gonna stress people out.  Seems counterproductive.   I wasn't even planning on booking excursions until I happened to login and look around.  I thought all excursions were included and that you did not need to reserve.  The website is saying otherwise.

  

When we booked ours, it was still "Rhine Getaway".  The itinerary only changed a little bit and the shore excursions were already up.  They just haven't updated everything yet.  Probably be better if they just took them all of and then put back up the correct ones.  I agree that it is very confusing right now.  I don't think you need to make advance reservations for the included excursions, we did not on our prior Viking Danube cruise.  The optional excursions have limited capacity so that is probably why they want advanced reservations.  As far as the rep, sometimes you get a good one, sometimes not.  The change was made not that long ago, so perhaps they were unaware.  

Also, since this is your first river cruise, you may not realize how very different they are from ocean cruises.  The schedule is much more fluid because of the locks.  You will pass thru many of them and the ship is at the mercy of the lock operator.  They have reservations for specific times, but lots of things can happen that cause delays.  I am really surprised they gave you exact times.  I would treat those as targets and not set in stone.  River cruises are much more relaxed and much less structured than ocean cruises.  An included excursion will be included for every port and some will have optional additional excursions.  Few people schedule private tours because of the schedules.  Most days, the ship will sail around dinnertime, so nigh time activities can be limited onshore.

We will be headed from Basil to Amsterdam on Nov. 29th and really looking forward to it.

I think I might be able to help you clear up a little confusion.  Viking recently changed all of their Christmas market cruises.  Instead of the "Rhine Getaway" in December, it is now "Christmas on the Rhine" in December.  The ports changed a bit, but they claim there will be more of an emphasis on the markets, less confusion about Christmas versus non-Christmas cruises with the same title.  I would not be concerned about the supposedly sold out shore excursions.  They haven't updated all the shore excursions yet and I think the ones no longer applicable are just listed as sold out.  For instance, in My Viking Journey it shows shore excursions at Kinderdijk as sold out.  The new itinerary does not have us going to Kinderdijk.  We have been on a Christmas Markets cruise with Viking on the Danube and it was wonderful.  Happy to answer any questions if I can.

We were in Cozumel once with 8 ships in port. It was totally insane. 4 ships at the downtown pier. It was during spring break so you can imagine what Carlos and Charlie’s was like!

We have been on 2 one week Christmas Market cruises, one on Viking and one on Avalon.  Both were wonderful.  We were supposed to do the Rhine in December, but it was cancelled, so we rescheduled to next year.  One year it was terribly cold and one year it was very mild.  Notamermaid has given you great advice.  My advice would also be to do a one week cruise and add extra days on each end.  That will also give you much more time to visit the markets as you will be on your own schedule.  Some of the markets are very close to the ship (Budapest, Passau, Cologne), while others are not.  On the ones close to the ship, you can walk yourself to the market in lieu of the ship planned activity as long as you know when to be back.   Salzburg was snowy and beautiful, but that was about the only snow we saw.  The days are short as it gets dark around 4:00.  The markets are really wonderful and the people are very friendly.  Happy to answer any questions you may have.

We have really noticed a difference with Princess in recent years.  They have really cut back on staffing (always seem to be short handed) and food (not that great).  We have sailed on Princess many times, but decided we like Holland America better. The staff seems better trained and there are more of them.  Princess' ships look a little tired, and I really miss not having a love seat in the cabin.  No place to sit in Princess cabins.  If you upgrade to a mini suite, you have a sofa, but most of them don't have any shade.

So sorry!  I was looking at the Nieuw Amsterdam!  🙃

You are under the pool deck.  You will hear chairs scraping overhead very early in the morning.  I would change if you can.  We made that mistake once.

Juneau requires about an hour of travel to the boats (30 min or so each way).  In ISP it is about a 5 minute ride.  Another advantage of a small port!

We have stayed in both.  On our second Avalon cruise, they upgraded us to a Panorama, which we were very excited about.  Turns out, we really didn't notice that much difference, because we were never in the cabin.  You mostly cruise at night and during the day you will most likely be at a stop, possibly rafted to another ship.  You will be going in the summer and our upgraded one was a Christmas cruise, so quite a difference in usefulness of windows that open.  If memory serves, the rooms are actually the same size, but the panorama feels bigger because of the windows.  Is the panorama better?  Of course.  Is it worth the price difference?  Your call.  For us, we would rather save that money for the next cruise because it is such a big difference.  If this will be the only river cruise you will ever go on, you may want to splurge.

They should have a slow walkers group.  Sometimes it doesn't make any difference, it all depends on the local guide leading the group.  In Vienna, our guide walked so fast I thought we were in a race.  

36 minutes ago, Crazy For Cats said:

I was able to successfully “purchase” our free dinner with the promotion.  Encouraged by that success I cancelled one of the excursions we had booked, there were still seats available.  I couldn’t get the credit.  I called the excursion number and after a ten minute hold was pushed to reservations who promptly told me that he couldn’t help.  He did tell me that there is a bug and IT was working on it.  My options were to get in line again or try later.  Since dinner was ready we will try later.

I cancelled one excursion we had booked before the credit was available.  Then rebooked and the credit was automatically applied.  You do have to wait a few minutes between.  I may have actually left the website and gone back in.  It takes a few minutes for the cancellation to filter through.

4 minutes ago, cabinluvn said:

All I can tell you is for my October Caribbean cruise, I am unable to book a specialty dining online. This is what I was told when I called to try and book it through HAL

It may be too early for your cruise.  If you the "Have it all" promotion, the specialty dining and $100 off shore excursion will show up on your planner.  Ours just became active today.  If you don't have the promotion, the rules may be different.

36 minutes ago, cabinluvn said:

I called because I could not book a specialty restaurant and was told that it has to be done once you are boarded

Not true.  I was able to book mine this morning online for our Aug 21st cruise.

The whale watching here is phenomenal, much better than Juneau.  The whales were bubble net feeding and it was fascinating.  Don't dismiss ISP just because it is small.  It is a nice change from the tourist heavy atmospheres of most of the other ports.  It is quiet and peaceful and quaint.

No reason it shouldn't be.  It is actually part of the hotel and it looks like they are open.  You can check with them to verify:  capefoxlodge.com  

Yes there will be.  If they are really cancelling all of these cruises and taking their sweet time notifying the passengers, we may be done with Viking.  How much of a nightmare will it be trying to rebook our Christmas Markets cruise when they have cancelled (presumably) 10 out of 24 December cruises?  I know our sailing was almost sold out, so I really don't understand this.  If this is how they treat their customers, I think we will take a pass on sailing with them again.

1 hour ago, notamermaid said:

Are you booked on an itinerary?

Yes, we are booked on the Mani, Basel to Amsterdam December 3rd.  It is one of the sailings that is affected.  

Viking's website shows a concerning pattern of "sold out" cruises that were not there a few days ago.  Certain days, ships going both directions on several itineraries are showing sold out.  For instance, on the Rhine Getaway in December, all Friday and Saturday sailings in both directions are suddenly sold out.  In earlier months, the dates change, but always the same day of the week, i.e. the same ship.  This looks to me like a lot of cruises that they have been taking reservations for and collecting payment for may be cancelled.  Thoughts?