YWW

I just spent 40 minutes with the Princess Medallion rep on this issue. Unfortunately free shipment of medallion is NO LONGER available except for cruisers with PLUS or PREMIER packages. However, the cruisers without signing up any of the above premium pkgs can still pay $10 to ship to home which allows you to board using the GREEN lane instead of the BLUE lane. The rep also said the GREEN lane will have priority boarding over other colors. Bottom line is Princess is nickel and diming everything now to increase the bottom line.

We just signed up a Princess cruise on Royal Princess this summer and we ordered the medallion on the app but the medallion order didn't give me an option to ship it to home. It told me to pick up the medallion at the terminal using the Blue Lane whereas in 2021 and 2022 when we did the Princess cruises, the medallion was mailed to home. Has Princess quit mailing out the medallion to home? I'm Elite status.

We'll be travelling with family (11 people in 5 rooms) this summer to Alaska. Can I buy three 4-device WIFI packages or does it have to be done by the people in each cabin? I'm ELITE status but rest are newbies.

We are looking at North Bound 7-day Alaska cruise on Royal Princess for this summer from Vancouver to Anchorage (Whittier). It says on the itinerary Whittier arrival time is 12:30am. Can that be right? What time are we supposed to disembark? 1am? Or is that a typo?

We've booked a "Multi Day Adventures: Grand Hanoi" on the upcoming Celebrity Solstice Nov 3 sailing out of Singapore to Thailand and Vietnam. The description of this excursion says it's for two days of sightseeing but no mention of a hotel stay for the night. Can we assume we are staying somewhere in a hotel instead of coming back to the ship for the night? We tried calling Celebrity customer service 3 times and no luck getting through. Hope some of you experienced cruisers who have done this can clarify. Thanks.

We are heading to Vietnam on Celebrity Solstice this November. Since a VISA is required to enter Vietnam, does Celebrity take care of it or do we need to apply for it in advance before we leave US? I called Celebrity customer service and the rep didn't know the answer. Thanks.

Thanks guys for clarifying. It makes sense tickets should be included based on Viking's description. I called my travel agent afterwards to confirm what the Viking rep said. My TA was absolutely shocked to hear what Viking told me. She'll try to get hold of the Viking supervisor after the holiday. Our biggest concern now is the upcoming strikes throughout Europe and UK airports. We are keeping our fingers crossed our flights won't be impacted. 🤞

We are boarding the Viking Sky in a couple of weeks from Barcelona to Athens Greece and we've tagged on a 4-day extension staying at the NJV Athens Plaza Hotel in Athens (it was originally at the Athens Hilton but changed recently due to Hilton doing major renovation). In the Viking 4-day itinerary, it says we'll visit Acropolis' Parthenon as well as the Acropolis Museum on the first day, then day 2 to visit Mycenae and Epidaurus in the Peloponnese peninsula. Day 3 on our own and day 4 to visit Delphi. We asked Viking customer service whether tickets were included to go into these places and the answer was NO. Agent said Viking never provides tickets to any attractions unless it says so in the description. She then provided us with 2 online ticket booking sites to buy tickets in advance to visit these locations or get tickets at the location. For those of you who have done the extension in Athens, what was your experience with booking or buying the tickets? Did Viking provide any tickets at all to enter any of the described sites? Thanks.

You can only see excursions AFTER you have booked. I want to see and review excursions BEFORE I book. Apparently this is how Celebrity does things. NorthStarStateCruiser was able to provide me a "backdoor" entrance to look at the excursions.

Don't lose hope. I was in the same exact boat you were in trying to book the specialty restaurants 60 days out. The first 10 days of our 21-day cruise were totally blacked out (full). I was shocked since I logged in at the exact time when reservations opened up for our DV category cabin. I thought it was a systems problem so I called Viking and rep told me all those 10 days were full with no open time slots because they were all picked by higher category cabins passengers. The remaining 11 days of cruise we could only find dinner time slot at 8 or 8:30pm (way too late for us). Viking rep told us to check the My Viking Journey account frequently or simply ask Viking dining staff once we get on ship. 3 weeks after my initial logged on, a "miracle" happened because all dinner time slots in Manfredi's and Chefs Table opened up for our entire journey. It was a total shock and I took advantage of it and booked the day and time we wanted. The once full excursions also opened up. Some of the seasoned Viking ocean cruisers explained that many specialty restaurants time slots and seats were held back initially but released later. Suggest you check your MVJ account daily for any changes. Good luck.

NorthStarStateCruiser, thanks so much for your back entrance trick. You are in the wrong profession. You should work for NSA or CIA. 😜😁

Yes, yes, yes!!! Thanks so much, mahdnc. That link you've provided is exactly what I am looking for. I called Celebrity earlier enquiring this same issue and the rep said I have to book the cruise first before I can see the excursion list for each port. I'm so glad you've provided a back channel "entrance" to allow me to review the excursions before booking the cruise. I really don't understand why Celebrity is so secretive about their excursions. Thanks again!

I didn't use the app but used our desktop computer as well as a laptop to access the Celebrity website. All showed the same result ... no excursions.

I was looking into cruise excursions for a few cruises on Celebrity Solstice in like early June to Alaska and Vietnam/Thailand in mid November but there were no excursions displayed. I checked several other sailings and the same story ... no excursions. Typically we like to check out the excursions available at each port on an itinerary and if they seem interesting, then we'll book that cruise. I'm at a lost why I cannot view any excursions. For those of you who are experienced Celebrity cruisers, do you know why?

If something opens up on a sold out excursion, it should say how many openings are still left. At least that was what happened to the sold out excursions we wanted. Either Viking added more tours or passengers canceled. Just a guess.

When no dates and times were available for the first 10 days of our cruise for the specialty restaurants, I actually called Viking customer service to enquire why. She said all dates and slots were all taken by the passengers in the higher cabin categories. However, she added that I should check back every so often should things open up or simply wait till after boarding to enquire availability.

Mediterranean & Adriatic Sojourn from Barcelona to Athens June 9-30.

60 days out (a few weeks ago) we immediately logged in the MVJ to secure the excursions and specialty restaurants reservations. We did OK snapping up most of the excursions we wanted with a few sold out. However, no luck selecting specialty restaurant reservations for the first 10 days of the cruise since nothing was available so we did the best we could selecting 8pm or later dinner reservations for the rest of the cruise which was way too late for dinner for us. Our plan was to get on board to secure specialty restaurant reservation and to change to earlier dining time. Fast forward to couple of days ago. I logged in to MVJ just to check on things and I was absolutely stunned to see lots of dinner times and dates available with both Manfredi's and Chef's Table from day 1 on out. Same thing happened in the excursions that sold out excursions previously were now available. Needless to say I took advantage of this and booked the exact dinner time and day we wanted as well as signing up the previously sold out excursions. Question to the seasoned Viking Ocean cruisers ... has anything like this ever happened to you? Why would sold out excursions and specialty restaurants unavailable dates and times suddenly open up again?

Yes, you are right the wine prices are quite reasonable especially the European labels but the California labels seem high especially the Silver Oak Alexander Valley cab at a whopping $210. The normal retail is just $89 but cheaper at some wine shops. Keep in mind the Viking wine list has no vintage listed which to me is important if you are a serious wine drinker.

Thank you for your clarification. I wasn't aware of that. Very useful to know.

Are you saying there's no limit how many times people can book the Chef Table? I thought that was dictated by your cabin category and the length of the cruise. People typically book CT or Manfredi's months in advance to try to secure a spot. How do you expect to book when you get on board when everything is full? I'm confused. Please advise. Thanks.

There are two cruise terminals in Hong Kong ... Ocean Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon which is at the heart of everything and the Kai Tak cruise terminal at the former Kai Tak airport. You should be able to tell from your ship's itinerary which terminal it docks in. The Kai Tak cruise terminal is quite remote so picking up taxi there is very difficult to almost impossible. However it does provide a shuttle service to take passengers to the nearest subway station. Since the area is quite remote from everything, it's impossible to even walk around the area since there's nothing to see. The cruise ship may provide a free shuttle to town. Just keep in mind the HK Airport is quite far from these terminals. So do plan your day carefully especially if you plan to catch a flight later on.

Linda, you are right. My typo. Viking only has contracts with some airlines but not all. We are seasoned cruisers and have sailed Viking river a number of times before the pandemic all without a single scheduling issue with Viking Air. However now with Viking ocean and with the pandemic "over", we seem to have flight scheduling issues which never happened before. We can only blame that on the airline issues and the numerous flight changes unless Viking Air has a change of policy. We use Viking Air primarily for "peace of mind" if there's a problem that arises during the middle or close to the end of the cruise. Yes, we can find cheaper flights on our own but we are willing to pay extra for their assistance should problem develops.

Since we brought our own test kits, we tested ourselves daily. A couple we knew went on a Viking ocean cruise and got infected. Viking ran out of PAXLOVID and test kits but the couple brought their own test kits. Viking medical office on the ship refused to tell them how many passengers were infected. Fortunately in their case, their cruise was ending in a few days so they got treated with PAXLOVID after getting off the ship.

Yes, Viking Air has contracts with almost all airlines but "approval" must come from Viking Air to allow passengers to deviate or change to another carrier's flights. That was how Viking Air supervisor explained to us even with Viking Air Plus. They have contracts with AA but their flights were not "approved" by Viking Air at the time of our booking.