geffric

the one we still talk about is Passage to India - it was the wonders of the world tour starting in Athens and ending at the Taj Mahal Also loved Homelands with St Petersburg was an option, last one was British Isles..

we just did the BIE starting in Tilbury and stayed in London for 5 days before our cruise. we stayed near Victoria Station and it was very convenient. Booked a car through Twelve Transfers from the hotel to Tilbury and the Viking Venus. It was not too expensive although I can't find what I paid.. https://www.twelvetransfers.com/bookings/

we did it on our own as did many from the ship..

we didn't have a blue nose ceremony on the welcome back cruise in August 2021.

we are on a BIE in April and will fly in early and ask and asked and called and asked again but the answer was no we could not buy the viking transfer..

we did this after our Passage to India cruise...very well worth it! Highly recommend it. Hotels, restaurants were fabulous.. any specific questions?

I often book a 3rd party and found that more sites were included, fewer people, etc.. and always back on time..so i'm not sure of your hesitation..

we've stayed at the Sheraton..clean and has elevators. some of the older hotels are beautiful and very nice to stay in but lugging suitcases up 4 flights of stairs is not wonderful..

I too an wondering this..as far as I can tell I won 't need to buy an oyster card as long as I have a no foreign transaction fee tap card or I can use Apple pay

...

3002, 3004, 3006 are very noisy due to theater;;

I'm following ..as we are on the same cruise on April 29th..

i had an interesting experience with Viking Air emergency number..the person was not very knowledgeable and I had to talk to Delta and then back to Viking and needed to set up a conference call with both to resolve my emergency. Luckily I was in the US and not calling from overseas.

Copied from the April 29 2023 British Isles thread.. It is indeed easy to get to Tilbury by train, and cheap too. But if you decide to go by train, get off at Grays (the station before Tilbury). If you look at the map you'll see it looks about a mile further away, but four good reasons to get off at Grays (1) there will be taxis waiting at Grays station (unlike Tilbury) (2) because of the road layout at Tilbury, any taxi would have to backtrack about half the distance towards Grays to get over the railway tracks (3) more trains call at Grays than Tilbury (4) you can use oyster/contactless card/phone to cover the fare so you don't have to bother about buying a traditional paper ticket - which you do need if you go one stop further to Tilbury

sent email..hope it helps

best cruise we have ever taken...pm me directly and i'll give you some helpful hints

we used a wonderful tour from Shalom Isreal for our longer stay. On Passage to India on the Viking Orion, we went with Guided Tour Isreal.

Thanks for sharing.. I am on this cruise next August/September on the Jewel OTS..now I am getting very excited..

what was said...i just booked one because it is a birthday and I wanted 150 Central Park food for my special dinner..

following as I am doing the same thing in April 2023.

I am booked on a British Explorer cruise from London in April 2023. I just did a deviation to arrive in London early as the pre excursion was sold out and they did my air plus flights at the same time. That is always subject to airlines changing flights..

I used Columbia hiking boots in Iceland last year. Also remember water proof pants and jacket and a hat..

Yes..I always read about where I am visiting as it makes it more interesting to me.. although I looked at your book stack first to say "yes I read that and then too look for some other books to read.."

I was wondering that too as I am on the April 2023 tour as well.

Thanks so much..this was very helpful.