Viking sea west indies explorer october 13 cruise

My husband and I are booked on the West Indies Explorer cruise Dec. 6 -16, 2017. Due to the recent hurricane, the itinerary has been changed for this cruise adding two at sea days. A cruise with the same itinerary sailed on Oct.13. We could appreciate hearing about your experiences and comments if you sailed on this cruise.

We are undecided if we should cancel our reservation.

Post from Oct 27 Viking West Indies Explorer Cruise. New info is filtering in.

Vineyard View:

---I just discovered that The hotel information is NOT accurate. Please do notrely on it of you have hotel reservations. I did a live chat with them todayabout Sheraton Old San Juan - where we have our reservations in December . Thissite shows it open, but they are only open to FEMA and assistant agencies. WhenI shared this with them, their response was that I should call the propertydirectly is probably a good idea, but based on various threads on CC, hotelsare canceling reservations because responders are still occupying many of therooms. Just an FYI

Thanks for sharing.

-bc

All the pre and post day offerings on the Dec 16th Amazon cruise were cancelled by Viking last week. We got an e mail about it. It was because no rooms were available. When I called Viking they said we would be going directly from the airport to the ship when we arrive. It will be interesting to see how much things have changed since I was there on a Disney cruise last Jan.

my wife and due to be on the West Indies explorer cruise late Jan 2018 and we are 3 weeks away from paying the balance that we owe Viking. looking at the internet I am struggling to see how the published excursions can possibly be available given the destruction caused by this years hurricane season. Viking are obviously trying to juggle the needs of the Caribbean communities, their customers and the need to still make a profit. If anyone going on this cruise between now and January has any information from Viking we would love to hear what they are currently saying.We have spoken to Viking directly but they were unable to update us.

my wife and due to be on the West Indies explorer cruise late Jan 2018 and we are 3 weeks away from paying the balance that we owe Viking. looking at the internet I am struggling to see how the published excursions can possibly be available given the destruction caused by this years hurricane season. Viking are obviously trying to juggle the needs of the Caribbean communities, their customers and the need to still make a profit. If anyone going on this cruise between now and January has any information from Viking we would love to hear what they are currently saying.We have spoken to Viking directly but they were unable to update us.

Today's excursions out of the Viking Sea are happening as I write this. It's a beautiful day out there in San Juan today.

We have been on Viking Sea for the Oct 13-27th cruise, which has been absolutely wonderful. All included excursions have been delightful and we have not witnessed much damage at all, except for some blue tarps on roofs here & there! Our ship has brought a large load of water, juices, sodas, snacks etc. to San Juan.

Tomorrow we will find out exactly how things are at the San Juan airport, but Old San Juan appears to be in tact. I will be happy to post something tomorrow concerning airport conditions.

Our ship had an unplanned overnight stay at Barbados awaiting delivery of a container of food & supplies from France to our ship...which actually arrived during our overnight stay there & we sailed away about 7 AM.

Then during the day "at sea" from Barbados to St. Kitts, our ship spent about 3-4 hours aiding in the rescue of a small fishing boat that had lost engine power & was adrift at sea near St. Lucia. There were 2 men in the little boat that had already spent an overnight at sea, along with 2 black motorcycles!! (strange things to take fishing!) Our ship sent water & food (including 2 baked chickens) out to the men in the little boat & our ship waited near the little boat until (after dark) when the St. Lucian Coast Guard could come pick them up.

There have been some very helpful posts on the thread Viking team in San Juan Puerto Rico as well.

Kay D,

Thanks for sharing your experience on your way to San Juan

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My husband and I are booked on the West Indies Explorer cruise Dec. 6 -16, 2017. Due to the recent hurricane, the itinerary has been changed for this cruise adding two at sea days. A cruise with the same itinerary sailed on Oct.13. We could appreciate hearing about your experiences and comments if you sailed on this cruise.

We are undecided if we should cancel our reservation.

Thanks for the information we look forward to any information you can post as your cruise continues

If anyone needs a hotel in San Juan for a pre or post stay, I suggest checking with some of the smaller boutique hotels. They are more likely to be able to accommodate. FEMA needs large blocks of rooms at low prices - something they aren’t likely to find at small boutique hotels.

We have had reservations at El Convento and I’ve been following their Facebook page. They seem to be doing well and will be taking new reservations next week. Looking forward to tapas and sangria in their lovely bar!

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can anyone currently on Viking Sea give me an update on how Viking are handling the post Hurricane situation in regard to ships itinerary and changes to excursions.

thanks

We are sailing on Nov 6 -16 West Indies and also would love some feedback from those who are on the Oct. 27 sailing....conditions at airport, etc...why are we staying the night in San Juan where there are no excursions to be had?

Hi Kath, I booked the El Convento in San Juan for our pre-cruise hotel next March. They charged me a prepayment ... but for two nights, and not for the customary first-night only. It’s rather annoying and I don’t know whether their oversight was deliberate. Still waiting for the credit to show up on my credit card ...

Is there anyone going on the West Indies Explorer Cruise between now and January who has had information from Viking regarding changes to itineraries and excursions who can update me on what to expect when I talk to Viking Just before I pay my balance payment in 2 weeks. We are traveling from the UK for the 26th Jan sailing and won't arrive at San Juan until 2300hrs on the first day after a very long trip via mainland USA.

Thanks

Hi Kath, I booked the El Convento in San Juan for our pre-cruise hotel next March. They charged me a prepayment ... but for two nights, and not for the customary first-night only. It’s rather annoying and I don’t know whether their oversight was deliberate. Still waiting for the credit to show up on my credit card ...

They charge you for the room in advance. I know it's not the way most hotels operate, but it is a small one. We only booked for 1 night (usually they have a 2 night minimum, but I asked :cool:) They did tell me this.

This is the email I got ...

In order to confirm the reservation a valid credit card number is necessary. One night plus tax and tariff deposit is charged at the moment the reservation is made. If you like you may call the hotel & provide the number to our reservations agents, or you may send an e-mail with the credit card information. The reservations office is open from Monday to Thursday from 9am to 8pm Friday & Saturday from 9am to 6pm local time.

Hi Kath, just saw that the hotel El Convento finally credited me for the second night (we’re planning to stay two nights), but this was after booking.com intervened and talked to the hotel for me. I wish it was more apparent on the website that a prepayment for the first night would be charged. Thanks for your help.

Hi Kath, just saw that the hotel El Convento finally credited me for the second night (we’re planning to stay two nights), but this was after booking.com intervened and talked to the hotel for me. I wish it was more apparent on the website that a prepayment for the first night would be charged. Thanks for your help.

We booked directly with the hotel because they generally don’t do less than 2 night booking and we just wanted to come in the night before I emailed them to ask if we could do the one night. Actually I’m hoping the fact that we are paid in advance will sort of guarantee our booking under the circumstances.

I did read somewhere when I was first looking into booking there that the first night needed to be paid in advance but I don’t remember where. I think it may have been on the booking engine that they use on their site. One of those small print things indicated by an asterisk [emoji12]

The hotel is really lovely and the tapas bar is great. All of the people we have dealt with have been friendly and helpful.

I hope everyone who books there has a wonderful experience!

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Hi Kath, just saw that the hotel El Convento finally credited me for the second night (we’re planning to stay two nights), but this was after booking.com intervened and talked to the hotel for me. I wish it was more apparent on the website that a prepayment for the first night would be charged. Thanks for your help.

We are also booked at El Convento for two nights before our ETA cruise . We booked through their web site. It did have Prepayment statement at the bottom of the invoice

See you at the managers reception on March 25

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We departed Viking Sea on 10/27 at SJ and used Viking transfer (large coach) to airport. On the drive between Old San Juan to the airport, we observed (1) no stop lights in some areas, (2) power lines hanging down to the street, (3) bent-over power poles & street lights, (4) some damage to business & residential buildings, (5) lots of laundry hanging from balconies, (6) all TV satellite dishes intact, (6) piles of debris like tree branches & limbs & other materials. Heard that electricity is still very sporadic in that city.

The GOOD NEWS is that the airport is fully operational and comfortable temperatures. A sign at American Air check-in said airport operating on generators. Duty free, shops & restaurants all open.

However, airport was very very crowded. Many residents of Puerto Rico are leaving, mostly mothers & children & elderly. Seating at the gate areas very limited & there were people sitting all over the floor, and we heard some dogs barking incessantly.

We were so thankful we had booked 1st class (using our AA miles) for the flight out of SJ, which was more peaceful than coach section with lots of crying children!!

I am guessing that these "evacuation" conditions should be much less crazy come January or February.

Great report KD. We'll be there in Mar 2018.

Hope you're safely back in Tenn. :)

Thank you, Cruisin Kay D, for your observations on San Juan. We all hope that conditions will get progressively better.

We just returned from the 10/27-11/6 WI Explorer and there was very little compromise in the itinerary. I think some of the paid excursions in PR were cancelled but the OSJ walking tours were done and were very informative. We did not see much devastation in this area. A few weeks ago we were told that two islands would be replaced with Grenada and St. Vincent (wonderful!) and that we would have an At Sea day. However, on Day 2 we were told that we would go to St. Thomas after all. As we approached the island, I was surprised at how green it was. Up close you could see many broken trees, blue tarps and downed lines but it is beginning to heal. There we only had one option for an excursion but that was fine with us. There are no hotels and only a few restaurants open but the drive to the Mountain Top (get a banana daiquiri) and other overlooks was uneventful. The Caribbean is recovering quicker than I ever thought possible. A silver lining to the hurricanes...some of the views have improved because trees blocking sightlines are gone.

Thank you for the information on your cruise. We decided to go ahead with our January 16 departure and your report eased my mind. I'll be looking forward to reading more reports from November and December cruisers.