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Viking Homelands 2022 Season

NeilP57

By NeilP57,
in Viking Ocean

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TeamBAlways

TeamBAlways

Posted
Posted
51 minutes ago, jrkear said:

We are off to the first Homelands sailing. Thank you everyone for your advice. We will try to give updates on how it is going.

 

Woo Hoo I am so excited for you.  We leave in 14 days so cannot wait to hear your reports!

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duquephart

duquephart

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, jrkear said:

We are off to the first Homelands sailing. Thank you everyone for your advice. We will try to give updates on how it is going.

71F91F4B-4D47-4B57-B41F-BCFEAD2A5F3D.jpeg

 

Does your itinerary include Mariehamn? Were you/are you able to book excursions there?

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lkear

lkear

Posted
Posted
59 minutes ago, duquephart said:

 

Does your itinerary include Mariehamn? Were you/are you able to book excursions there?

Yes it does but we booked them about 3-4 weeks ago.  We only had 3 choices though.

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Floater67

Floater67

Posted
Posted
18 hours ago, TeamBAlways said:

Woo Hoo I am so excited for you.  We leave in 14 days so cannot wait to hear your reports!

 We're there with you. Weather has been largely good lately. Really looking forward to being at sea.

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lkear

lkear

Posted
Posted

Ok day one on our first cruise!  Boarded ship less than 10 minutes (ok bus waiting for everyone to get luggage was a little frustrating but once at port Viking did a great job).  Board tip make sure you have spit … lol .. I know seems strange but my wife and I longest part of boarding process was filling up spit tube.

 

We had reservation at the Restaurant but wanted to move up since we had been up over 24 hours.  FYI I was told 3 times Restaurant is show up and they will sit you even if you make a reservation. So if like me on the 3rd time I accepted, but not happily I liked knowing  … lol … We lost a SE for lack of interest, disappointed but understood.   Also learned that the Port talks are amazing we have a PH D on board teaching us! 

 

So newbie observation … we pulled up I thought wow … this is a big ship and what did I get myself into … after exploring ship it felt like I wasn’t on a floating city.

As for the debate on wine on board!!! We bought the SSP but the first night we bought a bottle of wine … why not because the wine by the glass wasn’t a great value as even though it said $6 a glass I can tell you in Las Vegas, New York, San Fran, etc those glasses would be $20, we saw a Sancerre that we want to try. Not only did they give us a discount they brought us dessert wine on the house, because the sommelier apologized, they didn’t have by the glass. Win Viking in my mind!!!

 

We will try and give an update tomorrow … If you have questions please let us know and we will give you our opinion.  If you don’t like sorry but you will get my thoughts if you don't like don't read!

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oldgeez

oldgeez

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, jrkear said:

Ok day one on our first cruise!  Boarded ship less than 10 minutes (ok bus waiting for everyone to get luggage was a little frustrating but once at port Viking did a great job).  Board tip make sure you have spit … lol .. I know seems strange but my wife and I longest part of boarding process was filling up spit tube.........

 

 

Are they doing daily covid testing or just for boarding? On last year's Iceland cruise we did it daily. It took my wife forever to get enough in the tube!

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lkear

lkear

Posted
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7 hours ago, oldgeez said:

Are they doing daily covid testing or just for boarding? On last year's Iceland cruise we did it daily. It took my wife forever to get enough in the tube!

Day 1 and we have to do a morning COVID testing. Good news we are still on ship so we must have tested Neg from First Day.  They are recommending people stil wear there mask when doing SE

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lkear

lkear

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I will post the "Viking Daily" on my Instagram Story each day!!

 

FYI ... Internet is pretty slow.  I was planning a couple of work calls not sure that was a good idea!

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lkear

lkear

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Eidfjord Update – Ok Flam Railway SE .. It started off why do people thinks this is so good … 2 hours on a bus with 2 stops and since snow has roads closed they were a rest stop and pull over on the side of road.. at this point I wasn’t happy (only think that kept it together was tour guy .. he was an 84 year-old retire Norwegian that as he said if he didn’t know it he would make it up way better😊 , then lunch our tour guide found 2 families to show local dress .. all I can say is wow at first when we should up for lunch he left talking to friends (I wasn’t thinking anything nice, but then he made me eat my mind words), then a normal train ride .. grr … then we hit the top of the Mountain and all I can say is wow!!!! Only day 3 but I know why this forum wasn’t happy when the Fram Rail wasn’t include … it is a very long day but worth it… Viking and our tour guide killed it!!

Ok now for my disappointment. Manfred’s!!! We had our 3rd dinner. First was the Restaurants very nice, then the Chief’s table who killed it. Then on the 3rd night we went to Manfred’s thinking it was the high-end restraint on board (I put on a sports coat and my wife a dress).  I may be in the minority, but the service was nothing near the other 2 and food was the lowest of the 3.  So I can say for a first time Viking Cruiser I thought Manfred’s was top restaurant on board. My vote is NO .. DON"T GO (ok go once a you decide)!!  We are canceling our 3 remaining reservations.  I hate to complain and if someone wants exact details, please DM me and I will give more. But disappointed … that being said both the Restaurant and Chiefs Table which we now have 5 reservations killed!!  So even though one disappointed the other 2 made up for it.

Please ask me what you want to know as I am not a blogger and have no idea what I am doing (ie our first cruise ever) just trying to give feedback!!!! As I think this forum both stressed me out and answer my questions.

And if you want me to stop the let me know 😊

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lkear

lkear

Posted
Posted
On 5/7/2022 at 9:34 PM, CDNPolar said:

Masks and daily testing is why we sail Viking.  Covid is still a problem and if you don't agree then perhaps you should not be travelling yet.

Day 3 … less than 5% in mask on board … 90% in SE … all crew in … I am in mask but my decision!!!! Glad it is personal decision, that being said had to upgrade to N95 … I like no judgment on if in mask or not … so glad people on this cruise follow personal rights … not what I feel like in the states were I thought we had rights …

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duquephart

duquephart

Posted
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6 hours ago, Findingmywings said:

We are taking this cruise in September, so please keep blogging!  You are helping us make our plans.  

 

I'd be curious to know what they are doing for money ----- what currencies they brought and/or intend to buy for the various ports.

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lkear

lkear

Posted
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1 hour ago, duquephart said:

 

I'd be curious to know what they are doing for money ----- what currencies they brought and/or intend to buy for the various ports.

We order from our local bank –

 

Norwegian Krone - 500 Krone / denominations 50

 

Danish Krone - 250 Krone / denominations 50

 

Polish Zioty - 40 Zioty / denominations 10

 

50 Euro / denominations 5

 

Swedish Krona – 60 Krone / denominations 20

 

So far we have only been in Norway, but on SE we have tipped guides 50 Krone total for both us (about $5 USD) for 2-3 hours trips and 100 Krone on the 7 hour trip.  I hope we are doing it correct.  I will say 75 to 90% tip of those it ranges from USD, Euros and Krone. We took the time to get local currency as we figured would you like to be tip in the US in Krone or Euros? (But that being said the guides looked happy to be tipped in any currency) Additionally, they pay a higher exchange fee on small bills.  Even at a US Bank we paid a penalty if we did convert more than a total of $250 USD (we took the extra in Euros), luckily our bank allowed us to do it over mult currencies. If you go to local bank make sure you order in smallest denominations (see above which are min paper denominations that we ordered) so you don’t get big bills.

 

We have not bought anything from the ports we have been at, that being said it looks like you can use plastic at every place I have seen.

 

If we have currency left over we will either give to crew as they go to these ports mult times or give to charty in the airport.

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lkear

lkear

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Posted

Update for all those planners, OCD, etc (like me).  I was stressed out because I didn’t know the schedule to plan meals, SE, etc, but each day we have been able to adjust dinner reservations for the next day after the Viking Daily came out around 5PM (pro tip look for it on your TV or phone as it shows up there first) to Port talks, events on ship, etc.  I have been told the many people have been able to change or adjust SE, we have not tried but after having one canceled in Copenhagen in the middle of the day, so we may get to see if we have any luck.

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TeamBAlways

TeamBAlways

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, jrkear said:

Update for all those planners, OCD, etc (like me).  I was stressed out because I didn’t know the schedule to plan meals, SE, etc, but each day we have been able to adjust dinner reservations for the next day after the Viking Daily came out around 5PM (pro tip look for it on your TV or phone as it shows up there first) to Port talks, events on ship, etc.  I have been told the many people have been able to change or adjust SE, we have not tried but after having one canceled in Copenhagen in the middle of the day, so we may get to see if we have any luck.

Thank you very much for all of your info, it is greatly appreciated by this OCD planner

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