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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.

We did a 3 day pre-cruise in Paris with Viking River and it was fantastic especially the hotel location which is in the heart of everything. Yes, Paris is about art and food. The French really know their cooking. With the hotel's recommendation, we were able to dine at two top Michelin star restaurants which totally blew us away. We visited all the main attractions except Notre Dame Cathedral because it was burned down. The one place we thoroughly enjoyed was the Eiffel Tower going up in elevator and coming down by stairs. A word of caution based on our experience ... not all French people speak English even in the heart of Paris. Same with Air France in the Charles de Gaulle Paris airport. We were absolutely shocked some of the staff at the Air France gate counter didn't speak a word of English or maybe they refused to speak English. Good luck.

To switch to what we wanted which was AA that included just one stop instead of UA which included 2 stops, Viking Air said we would have to pay $1250 extra per person. Or another $1600 extra per person if we wanted to change the gateway cities. We spent over 2 hours with them on the phone but no luck. They did say when flight schedules change which is happening frequently now especially with United and several European airlines, Viking Air may decide to approve our flights in the future. Viking Air gave us an option ... forget the Viking Air promotional airfare and book our own flights.

Not true. Just because airlines release the flight schedule 300 days out doesn't mean you can select them. Only the ones approved by Viking Air can be selected. We paid for Viking Air Plus and just went through the flight selection process with them. We found couple of flights that gave us the best departure and arrival time with decent layover. Viking Air said no because they were not approved. In our case, Viking had a promotional airfare of $999 pp for the cruise. Maybe if you don't have promotional airfare with Viking that's tied into the cruise, it may work.

We had similar experience like yours last summer. We wore 3M N95 masks everywhere on the ship including at night while sleeping and we skipped all entertainment events. Naturally we had to remove our masks to eat in main dining room. We caught COVID a few days later on the cruise and guessing we caught it in the dining room from other diners near our table for 2 since staff all had masks on. We lucked out because symptoms were extremely mild with just occasional cough and slight sore throat. We brought our own test kits and 5 days supply of PAXLOVID. So glad we did because ship ran out of PAXLOVID and test kits. Ship was charging $1600 for 5 days supply of PAXLOVID. Our symptoms disappeared after just 24 hours on PAXLOVID. Based on this experience we'll never travel abroad without test kits and with at least one week supply of PAXLOVID. Yes, PAXLOVID leaves a metallic taste in the mouth so we take some ginger candy to overcome that which works perfectly.

Yes, totally agreed. We've used our T-Mobile phones worldwide utilizing T-Mobile's free international roaming plus free unlimited texting too. On the ship we use the ship's free WiFi but once on land, we use T-Mobile's free international roaming for data. And we use WhatsApp to msg, call home or video chat all free. We love T-Mobile and WhatsApp.

Yes, Rome is about 1.5 hrs away from the dock but why 2 nights/3 days in Venice? To me it makes more sense to have 1 overnight than 2 overnights in Venice to allow extra time in Rome. Yes, ship dock in Venice is 1.25 hrs by water taxi to the heart of Venice.

Do let us know how you compare Viking ocean to Oceania and the former Crystal because we loved Oceania and Crystal. We'll be taking the Viking Sky (our first Viking ocean cruise) this June from Barcelona to Athens. We picked Viking ocean because of all the raved reviews.

Very glad you asked the question because we were wondering the same on our upcoming June cruise on the 21-night Viking Sky from Barcelona to Rome to Venice to Athens. Disappointed our ship only stops in Rome for just a short day whereas it stops in Venice for 3 days. They should've moved one day from Venice to Rome since there's so much to see in Rome not to mention the ship no longer docks in Venice.

Can you tell us what Princess charged you for the 5 days supply of PAXLOVID pills? And can you get full reimbursement from your insurance?

Did you have to pay for the PAXLOVID antiviral medication the ship's medical gave you for your COVID? Hope you two are doing well with no rebound issue.

Does Princess send you a different Medallion for each cruise or do you reuse the old Medallion? We have a Medallion for our upcoming August cruise and 4 weeks later we have a September cruise also on Princess on the same ship. Please advise. Thanks.

After I clicked to buy the MedallionNet on the Medallion app, it didn't give me anything to confirm my purchase. Nothing showed up on the App of what I bought. Yes, I checked the Travel Summary and nothing there either. But I did check with the credit card and the $199.90 purchase did go through. I'm totally puzzled why the Medallion app specialist I talked to said my purchase didn't go through. He said if I made any purchase with the Medallion app I would get a confirmation of the purchase. FYI we are travelling with 5 other couples and they all made the MedallionNet purchase using the Medallion app. 3 of them experienced the same of what I went through. 2 of them were fine. In effect those 3 also found out all the reservations they made with the app all vanished. I was lucky that my reservations remain intact. Our cruise leaves tomorrow out of San Francisco.

You are absolutely right that everyone should check their MedallionNet purchase because I made a purchase for $199.90 for multiple devices Monday from the Medallion app for our upcoming Alaska cruise on Ruby Princess tomorrow. It took the credit card charge but never gave me a confirmation number nor an invoice by email. So I called the Princess and spoke to the Medallion app specialist and he said my purchase of the MedallionNet never went through. In fact he said the Medallion app had a number of issues the past 4 to 5 days affecting purchases and reservations. I told him my Visa card showed the purchase went through and he couldn't explain why it showed on his end nothing was purchased. He advised me to go to the front desk customer service counter on the ship to have them check it for sure. This Medallion app is absolutely terrible.

We are booked on the upcoming Aug 18 cruise on Ruby Princess to Alaska with booked excursion in Skagway. We called Princess customer service to enquire status of Skagway excursions due to closed dock for rest of 2022 from news this morning. Princess has no new information and in fact they weren't even aware of the latest rock slide.

Ptroxx, just to let you know I followed your advice and chatted with an agent for 75 minutes and he was able to get the department in charge of processing Stockholder credit request to work our request immediately. He said that department is running very behind and currently about 4 weeks late. The other couples travelling with us never got theirs either so they used the Chat service and got theirs this morning. Before I used the Chat service, I called Princess customer service by phone to enquire status and the rep wasn't able to help. Another confusion is Princess tends to "hide" this shipboard credit. It's very difficult to find since it is not listed under "Future Cruise Credit" nor under "Shipboard Credit" headings. It's tucked away under the "Payment" tab for each cruise booking and all the way to the bottom. Chat agent can't understand why the shipboard credit is listed under "Payment". Regardless the credit is now in our account. What a process! Thanks for your help again.

Wow, you must be extremely lucky. We are going with 5 other couples. They all submitted by fax or email same day as we did and NONE have received the shareholders credit. They also called Princess customers service and received similar responses that the shareholders credit processing department is totally backed up. I also used the chat feature before calling Princess and the rep didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

I submitted my Shareholder request 3 weeks ago by FAX and nothing. I called Princess customer service this morning and she came back after checking with that department that there's no record of my FAX so she advised me to re-send my request by e-mail instead. She said that department has been totally swamped with Shareholder requests and due to severe lack of personnel the processing time is now MINIMUM 3 to 4 weeks. She also said in the future it's best to submit such request by e-mail so we get an instant confirmation of receiving our e-mail. Customer rep apologized for the delay and shortage of personnel is apparently happening in all Princess departments. I guess this is the new norm.

You are right my cousin's aunt is a slow walker who requires a walking cane due to an injury she sustained while she was serving this country as a nurse in the Iraq conflict.

Tom, we are so fed up with the Medallion Class app numerous issues that after our next two Princess cruises in August and September, we'll say goodbye to Princess despite the fact that we are Elite members. We take cruises to relax and to be away from stress and this Medallion Class app definitely is not what we want on a cruise. We first encountered problems with the Dine My Way feature in the MC app when we made dinner reservations at the desired time with private table at one of the main dining rooms. It asked "Reserve for the same time each day?" and we naively said yes. We thought that was easy and hassle free since it gave us a confirmation. Unfortunately that confirmation was a lie and we found out a week later no dinner reservations were made each day of our voyage except just the second day of the cruise. We called Princess customer service and talked to an expert on Dine My Way and he admitted there were issues with this app and one of them was the lack of warning to let the customers know only certain days were available. To make a long story short, the rep had to do it manually to reserve each day for us. If you have used the app to book your dinner reservation, double check it on your daily calendar to make sure your reservation is there. Another "convenience" feature of this Medallion is to unlock your cabin door when you are 6 or 7 cabins away. My cousin and her aunt just came back from a Princess cruise and they were totally freaked out with this feature. Their cabin door was unlocked when they were walking towards to their cabin still a bit of distance away and one guest who apparently had a bit too much to drink was walking towards them in the hallway. When he heard my cousin's cabin door unlocked, he thought he had reached his own cabin and went right in. When they finally went in to their cabin, this guest had vomited over the floor and bed and passed out on the bed. My cousin had to call security to have him removed. She asked security whether there was a way to make the Medallion less sensitive and security said no. In their case they were so disgusted with this incident and it was very fortunate that it was not deliberate that Princess upgraded them to a mini suite plus they got room key card instead. Bottom line is this type of technology is too new and we are the guinea pigs. Another feature of this app that's not working is the "Arrival Group" where you get to choose your preferred arrival time. It works on and off but more frequently off. We don't need this type of technology to add complications to our lives.

The official answer from Princess dress code is no shorts for dinners. We have seen diners being turned away several times at the door because of the shorts. However, there are always exception. If you are in the Club class, you can just about wear anything from shorts to T-shirts to get into your exclusive dining area. We have seen diners in shorts, tank tops and sandals get seated immediately in the Club class dining area but not regular diners in the main dining room.

Your experience with the Dine My Way feature on the Medallion Class app was exactly like mine. I was naïve enough to believe and trust the app when it asked "Reserve for the same time each day?" and I said yes. It confirmed and we thought that was it. Unfortunately we found out a week later nothing was reserved for the entire 10-day journey except the second night. Called Princess and spoke to a Dine My Way expert about this issue and was told the app had a lot of technical issues and one issue was the inability to provide an error message or warning about your reservation. So if it detected one night that was available at your specific time, it would confirm the whole journey. The rep had to manually go in every day to reserve the time and place for us. Bottom line is to be very very careful when you use the Medallion Class app to make reservations. DON'T trust everything it tells you. Double check everything afterwards. As far as I am concerned, Princess should just scrap this app because it creates more problems and issues for everyone.

No guarantee the Medallion app works since there are currently lots of issues with the app. If you use your Medallion app to make reservation for the time and dining room, and if it asks "Reserve for the same time each day?" and if you answer yes. Be careful even if it comes back with a confirmation because this particular feature of this app doesn't work. We recently used this feature to reserve a private table in the main dining room in our upcoming 10-day Alaska cruise. We picked out a time that was available and said "yes" to reserving the same time each day for our journey. To our shock a week later when we checked the daily calendar to confirm our dinner reservation, nothing was reserved except for the second day. So we called Princess and spoke to an expert in the Dine My Way about this problem. He said the app doesn't provide an error message or warning when it can't find availability for the entire journey. If it detects availability on one day only, it'll confirm instead of telling you no such time or place available for rest of the journey. So the rep had to manually reserve the dining time and place for us. Bottom line is DON'T trust this app. Double check your confirmation.