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Senior Gators

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  • Posts

    697
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About Me

  • Location
    Tallahassee, Florida
  • Interests
    Travel, gardening, old movies, college sports, Boston Red Sox
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Viking Cruises
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    New England and Eastern Canada

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Senior Gators's Achievements

Cool Cruiser

Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. Photopro2 and Azulann, good to see you two again in the the Virtual Explorers Lounge. It’s amazes me how you both seem to fondly remember our shared Trans Atlantic cruise a number of years afterward. We too think back on that particular cruise as one of the best, if not the best one we have experienced. We attribute it to the number of relaxing sea days, great fellow cruisers, the wonderfully attentive Viking Sea crew and officers, and not the least, the most successful Meet and Mingles (the 1st one at the beginning and the 2nd on our last night at the suggestion of the ship’s hotel manager). It all made for great memories. Patti, we are hoping to be flying into MSP on the 17th of next month for our Viking Mississippi River cruise, but it is looking somewhat “ify”. Viking has had to cancel at least 2 months of the ships initial cruises, so it has not gone into service yet. The 1st cruise that has not been cancelled yet is the August 27th short cruise from St. Louis to MSP with 2 more similar ones before our 15 day MSP to New Orleans. We are checking what our alternatives will be if it is cancelled. photopro2, we are booked for the same cruise as you are (Buenos Aires to Barcelona)aboard the Viking Jupiter but one year earlier beginning March 13, 2023. This will be our 3rd attempt at this 22day adventure. Both previous bookings have been cancelled for one reason or another. Just time enough to get a Jack Daniels on the rock before heading back to our cabin and a good night’s sleep rocked gently by the ship’s motion through the seas. I bid one and all bon chance and adieu! Senior Gators (Richard and Margie)
  2. For what it’s worth, we highly recommend the “Ceremony of the Keys” at the Tower of London. The tour is conducted after dark by a Beefeater, Yeoman of the Guard, in full regalia. Our guide was very knowledgeable of the history and of the centuries old traditions that were part of the ceremony not to mention that of the Tower and its surrounding grounds. Since all the Yeoman are long term (retired) military men they are carefully selected for this honor. We felt that we were privileged to experience this and had a wonderful opportunity to experience an important part of English history. Another excursion we would recommend is the “London Eye” at twilight. We got the best view of London as the sun set and were at the top of the wheel as it got dark and lights came on all over the city. Spectacular! Senior Gators (Richard and Margie)
  3. ropomo, not being a smoker, we can’t say for certain. But by looking at the deck plans for the Octantis, it appears that the logical place for those that do want to light up would be on Deck 6 in the open air space aft of the Owner’s and Explorers’ suites. Someone else needs to confirm this. SeniorGators
  4. TOCruiser, Though to Octantis is smaller than Viking’s Star class ocean ships, in many ways it doesn’t seem that much smaller at over 600 feet in length. It is narrower at 77 feet in order to fit though the Great Lakes locks. Despite the high winds and white capped waves, it is a very stable ship and rides well. Senior Gators
  5. MeRose, for the ports of Milwaukee, Detroit and Toronto the Octantis was tied up at commercial docks. None of them had any facilities for passenger ships. Mackinac Island was a tender landing at their tiny docks and with the high winds and waves was very precarious. Several passengers came back from the island excursion as walking wounded due the difficulty of boarding or disembarking. The only landing at Point Pelee was by zodiac on the beach. Again by virtue of the weather, it was so rough, many passengers who had booked the excursions backed out at the last minute. Also any excursions that involved kayaks were cancelled for this cruise. The only water excursions on the lakes that were unaffected were those that involved the Special Operations Boats (fondly referred to by the crew as SOBs). They are a hoot and highly recommended by those of us who were able to book one. There is nothing like taking high speed (40 to 50 mph) S curves, tight donuts and crossing your own wakes without getting wet and felling very comfortable on your shock absorber mounted captain’s chairs. The Helmsman gave us a preliminary taste of what the boat could do and asked the 12 of us if we wanted to slowly go along the shore to view any wildlife there or make so more high speed rerun. It was unanimous and with great glee that we enthusiastically said we wanted to experience more of what the craft could do at high speed. And this was not coming coming from a bunch of young people. I would guess the average age of the passengers on board was somewhere between 65 an 75!
  6. We just completed the Octantis cruise from Milwaukee to Toronto (May 7 through May 14). Don't expect any nice cruise terminals at any of the port stops. Those that the ship could dock at were commercial dock with no passenger amenities. The only one that had a nice view, once you got past the immediate industrial docking area, was the skyline view of Toronto. Though the weather was partly cloudy to mostly sunshine, the high winds and rough waves at several locations made us miss a stop or two and almost miss a third at Mackinac Island which was a tender port. Temperatures were in the high 40's to upper 50's. A number of excursions depended on transportation to and from the shore on one of the ship's many Zodiacs. Several were cancelled at different locations due to the heavy sea (lake?) states. The ship and crew were fantastic and it has the familiar Viking touch, but it has different "vibe" than the Viking Ocean ships. Viking has a few rough spots to work out as this new entry into their many cruising offerings settles in with some additional time in service. Senior Gators
  7. Just checked again this morning and still have one upcoming cruise that can’t be added. When I try, I get the canned response that the cruise has been ‘cancelled’. The other two bookings we have for this year now show up in MVJ using the add a cruise process. Have talked a couple of times to Viking representatives and they said that there is some sort of computer problem. The second one confirmed that they can see the problem booking on their end and it looks OK and has not been cancelled. I will get my TA to see if she can get it straightened out Monday.
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