Just Booked June 24 2016

I have never booked anything so far in advance before. However this looks like a lovely cruise staring in Venice and finishing in Istanbul. Have been to most of the ports before but not Istanbul.

Our cruise a few weeks ago was on Royal Clipper which was lovely. Before that three on Azamara and I am a great fan.

However their prices seem to be very high so I was delighted to receive a brochure from Viking yesterday which seemed to offer a similar experience in a new ship.

Everything looks very appealing but so far away.

Also unusual was the 25% deposit, which we in the UK will lose if we cancel.

I was thinking of booking a June, 2016 Viking cruise and saw that they are requiring 100% payment in December, 2014!!

I checked with my travel agent and she confirmed.

This doesn't seem practical or fair when you could be spending $20,000 per couple.

Linda :eek:

My wife and I booked the Sept. 16, 2016 "Empires of the Mediterranean" $1000 to hold, the remaining amount due Dec. 17, 2014....that's almost 2 years out!!! But we're going to do it!

Just booked this cruise. I agree with other posters, very early. And very early to give them a final payment. They have a fairly liberal cancelation policy but you still are out the insurance if you buy it in the 14 day after deposit time period. And the 2016 trips are booking up fast, I can't believe it!

... They have a fairly liberal cancelation policy but you still are out the insurance if you buy it in the 14 day after deposit time period...

You may not "lose" your insurance if you have to cancel your cruise. Depends on which company you purchase insurance from. I go through insure my trip dot com for price comparisons and policy benefits. They also have great staff who answer the phone and provide advice. Several companies allowed me to keep my insurance "on deposit" with them and apply it to a future cruise. There are time limits however. Check with your company before you buy insurance.

I was thinking of booking a June, 2016 Viking cruise and saw that they are requiring 100% payment in December, 2014!!

 

I checked with my travel agent and she confirmed.

 

This doesn't seem practical or fair when you could be spending $20,000 per couple.

 

Linda :eek:

This would be a great math problem for all you math geeks (including your kids, grands, etc). Figure up how much money Viking is raking in with our 18-month-out final payments. Assume 3 ships, 450 cabins each ship, $1,000 per day average cost of each cabin (or more), 365 days per year, maybe getting 1.5 % interest? How many millions does that equal?

Remember Viking's new motto: No nickel diming!!

Yep! And we are all paying it!! And they are all selling out! Crazy....but there it is.

They are building 3 brand new state-of-the-art ships. I am sure that is a huge expense!