Viking Daily papers for Empires of the Mediterranean, Sept. 27, 2015

I've scanned some of the Viking Daily papers from our Venice to Istanbul cruise and placed them here:

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/viking_star_

The papers are at the very end of the gallery - hit "All" at the bottom of screen on pbase and then scroll to the end. You'll see Venice through Kotor. I'll post the sea day through Istanbul this weekend. Sorry, I had to cut some pages off a bit, as they were a bit large for my scanner. Also, I don't know if you can print copies. You can, however, double click on each paper to see a full-sized version.

Keep in mind, of course, that anything can change. Also, if you're on the reverse itinerary, you'll definitely see changes from what's reflected here.

Thanks for posting those Ruth, very informative.

I've scanned some of the Viking Daily papers from our Venice to Istanbul cruise and placed them here:

 

http://www.pbase.com/roothy123/viking_star_

 

The papers are at the very end of the gallery - hit "All" at the bottom of screen on pbase and then scroll to the end. You'll see Venice through Kotor. I'll post the sea day through Istanbul this weekend. Sorry, I had to cut some pages off a bit, as they were a bit large for my scanner. Also, I don't know if you can print copies. You can, however, double click on each paper to see a full-sized version.

 

Keep in mind, of course, that anything can change. Also, if you're on the reverse itinerary, you'll definitely see changes from what's reflected here.

Thanks Roothy, Very interesting to be able to compare the tours with those I wish to do next year on "Viking Empire". However, I have a question regarding the tour to Mostar from Dubrovnik which is shown as taking 11.5 hours. Given the time in port, how was this managed? Although you may not have undertaken this tour, I'm wondering if you got any feed back from other cruisers. Thanks

Thanks Roothy, Very interesting to be able to compare the tours with those I wish to do next year on "Viking Empire". However, I have a question regarding the tour to Mostar from Dubrovnik which is shown as taking 11.5 hours. Given the time in port, how was this managed? Although you may not have undertaken this tour, I'm wondering if you got any feed back from other cruisers. Thanks

I think someone on our Roll Call signed up for that tour, but I didn't talk to her after the Meet and Mingle, so I don't know how she liked it. As to the timing, our itinerary called for us to be in Dubrovnik from 8 AM to 11 PM (and back on board 10:30) so there was plenty of time for a long tour. I don't remember for sure, but I don't think the people who went from Istanbul to Venice had a long day in Dubrovnik. If that was the case, they may not have found the Mostar tour offered on their particular cruise. I think the initial tour listings are generic to the "Empires" itinerary, and a few can't be offered if there's not enough time on a cruise going one direction versus the other.

I see the excursion on our itinerary met at 8:20, which probably means they left by 8:30. That means they probably got back close to 8:30 at night, and I guess had a late dinner! (Restaurant and World Cafe were both open until 9, and Mamsen's 10 to midnight.

I considered the Mostar tour, as I've seen beautiful pictures of the bridge. I guess it was also a little intriguing to be able to go to Serbia, although I'm sure it's probably a lot like Croatia. In the end, though, I didn't know if I wanted to spend such a long day, with a long bus ride, so I decided to just stay in Dubrovnik. It was a good choice for us, as we hadn't been there before - and I found the Old Town lots of fun and full of great photo ops.

Thanks Roothy. Looks as though the excursion to Mostar might be dropped when we go to Dubrovnik x 2 as we will only be in port from 7.00am to 5.00pm & 8.00am to 6.00pm respectively (bummer, it's on my bucket list!). Fingers crossed & with any luck, port times might be amended to accommodate the length of time to see the Old Bridge. Hope so anyway. If Viking is reading this, I hope they take note & change the port times, please!:D

Thanks Roothy. Looks as though the excursion to Mostar might be dropped when we go to Dubrovnik x 2 as we will only be in port from 7.00am to 5.00pm & 8.00am to 6.00pm respectively (bummer, it's on my bucket list!). Fingers crossed & with any luck, port times might be amended to accommodate the length of time to see the Old Bridge. Hope so anyway. If Viking is reading this, I hope they take note & change the port times, please!:D

I'm not entirely sure how much flexibility they have in port times, as a lot of things impact that. However, who knows? Maybe it will change by next year. If not, you'll just have to book another cruise (or land trip) that goes there!!!

I've posted the other Viking Daily papers for the sea day through the end of the cruise (Istanbul).

In scanning these, I noticed that the breakfast hours on disembarkation day reflect the normal (or at least seldom-changing) breakfast hours. However, many people had very early departures to go to the airport and I overheard some saying that Viking was making breakfast available quite early that day. I don't know if that was at the World Cafe or by breakfast hang tag or what, but never fear - you'll get breakfast that day! Unfortunately, flying from Istanbul to North America isn't fun - lots of very early flights, busy airport with multiple passport and other checks, etc. Our flight 2 days later (arranged by us) left at 5:50 AM, but at least when we got to the airport a little before 4, it was still quiet and not overcrowded. It's a little confusing when you get there, as there isn't a specific entry door for each airline like many airports have. Our cab driver just dropped us off near an entrance that had an x-ray that was being used. (That's your first stop - be prepared to hoist everything onto it.) Then we had to look up the area to go to for our airline and flight on an electronic board - a little confusing at 4 in the morning, but of course, we managed!

Anyway, there was breakfast available in the airport at 4, although I don't remember the specifics. We just checked in, went to the gate, and then I got a couple pastries and coffee from a little place nearby. Lufthansa fed us something on the way to Frankfurt, so we were fine.

Enjoy the Dailies.

I had to be on the bus at 4:20 a.m. for a 6:55 a.m. flight from Venice to Rome. There was nothing available on the ship as breakfast started at 6 a.m. I did call room service and got coffee delivered to my room promptly at 3:30 a.m. This is something Viking needs to work on if they are getting people to the airport so early. They need at least a continental breakfast set up somewhere on the ship.

I had to be on the bus at 4:20 a.m. for a 6:55 a.m. flight from Venice to Rome. There was nothing available on the ship as breakfast started at 6 a.m. I did call room service and got coffee delivered to my room promptly at 3:30 a.m. This is something Viking needs to work on if they are getting people to the airport so early. They need at least a continental breakfast set up somewhere on the ship.

Thanks for clarifying that. Maybe I misunderstood what the person said, or possibly he misunderstood something. In any case, future cruisers might want to order a cheese plate or sandwich from room service the night before and put it in the mini-fridge in they want to (or need to) eat before they get to the airport. (Was anything available from room service at 3:30 besides coffee, do you know?) I suppose I might have grabbed the bag of chips that sat by the coffee maker for 10 days, just in case of an emergency - but the hot croissant at the airport made a better breakfast when my stomach finally woke up!

Thanks Roothy, Very interesting to be able to compare the tours with those I wish to do next year on "Viking Empire". However, I have a question regarding the tour to Mostar from Dubrovnik which is shown as taking 11.5 hours. Given the time in port, how was this managed? Although you may not have undertaken this tour, I'm wondering if you got any feed back from other cruisers. Thanks

My wife did the Mostar tour. It took all of the time quoted. They were the first tour to depart the ship in the morning, not sure if they were the last back onboard.

I had to be on the bus at 4:20 a.m. for a 6:55 a.m. flight from Venice to Rome. There was nothing available on the ship as breakfast started at 6 a.m. I did call room service and got coffee delivered to my room promptly at 3:30 a.m. This is something Viking needs to work on if they are getting people to the airport so early. They need at least a continental breakfast set up somewhere on the ship.

I thought there was 24 hours room service? I know we had an early excursion time one morning and ordered breakfast from the card we hung on the door. Even though the earliest printed delivery time was 7:00 am, we called and were told just to hand write in the time we wanted delivery. It worked for us. Hope it works again, we are joining the Star in Rome in December.