milling73

North Pacific Passage - has anyone seen a good sale promo code for this cruise in September? Free air, reduced price, etc? Thank you!

That is going to be difficult on any river cruise. River boats are not geared for limited mobility or wheelchairs. There are not elevators to every level of the boat - Viking is mostly stairs. Besides, There may be steps from road or sidewalk to water level to get on boat, or most assuredly ramps that may be steep inclines. Europe is simply not ADA friendly in general with cobblestone streets, and concrete stairs to buildings. The cruise companies do not do a good job of warning people with limited mobility of the obstacles they will face..we have seen people with walkers, medical boots, canes that simply can’t cope with even getting on buses or walking tours. Better to look at ocean tours.

Farmecologist / what promo code did u use for that sale??

I have to add to this journal a special note regarding Viking Air. They had arranged our flights. on return Wed our flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Orlando sat a gate for 3 hours and then abruptly cancelled. There was no agent at gate to assist us, nor did we receive any communication from Latam Air. No other flights were on the board. The airport is huge but it also had almost no personnel that spoke English. there were 10 of us from the ship all trying get to Orlando. None of us wanted to leave airport for hour drive to city. Nor did we have hotel information or knowledge of when next flight was. I called Viking Air for help and they answered immediately and went to work getting us all on flight out that night - to Miami and onto Orlando. All 10 of us. One agent worked seamlessly and handled all of us. She gave us clear instructions on where to go at airport (back out and to checkin) and assured us our names, reservation info, and flights were in the system. Just recheck luggage and get boarding passes. She was correct. Without her amazing and patient help-we would have never gotten out that night. Or possibly even next day. A huge THANK YOU and Compliment for job well done. For any of you hesitant to book Viking Air - use them. They simply saved us.

Our lovely cruise on Viking Jupiter is fast coming to an end… all too soon. A sea day today, Montevido, Uraguay tomorrow, Buenos Aires Tuesday, and Wed morning flight to orlando. Entertainment on ship has been superb. Talented, young and personable singers / dancers. Stage quality production sets. Couple of nice bars with music/dancing. informative or historical lectures. Games of corn toss passengers vs crew. Trivia contests etc. All rooms ocean side with balcony. For us perfection. But this not a cruise ship of 5,000 with casino, numerous restaurants, kids (adults only), rock walls etc. 900 is max passengers and with a crew of about 400. (Our cruise has about 650 passengers.) Service is superb. Just look up and someone is there. Now to watch for sales on cruises on our wish list and book our next cruise - hopefully in april. And again next fall. Wifi on ship unbelievable. From Barcelona across ocean to S america - miles from shore or anywhere - we never lost connection. We barely have cell signal at our house half mile from town. Verizon — can u hear me now??? what the???? as a final note on excursions: in Rio we took the Highlights of Rio at I think $199 each. An 8 hour all day tour. Again rather disappointing (imo) for the price. We thought there would be in depth drive through city/beaches and onto the highlights of Christ statue, and Mountain. In reality the only city tour was to The mountain where we took the sky trams (wonderful views). Then drive to the Statue where we took tram up (fun) but then well over hour at statue. Which was hour too long. Seriously after taking snapshot of statue and scenery there is nothing else to do. Not much seating or shops. We wasted so much time there. Then onto Brazilian steakhouse for 2 hours plus lunch. If not into eating that much food or meat (which we thought very tough) - more wasted hours. So basically for $400 we saw 2 things, and a lunch that was wasted on us, and then straight back to ship. Very little sightseeing and limited shopping. our next cruise - we will look at independent excursions. There were tons of taxis offering city tours, including the statue starting at $25. In my opinion Viking either needs lower the price of optional excursions or give far better descriptions of exactly what we will receive and be accurate. Because our excursions have fallen short or been outright misleading.

We are cruising today. Tomorrow Rio. we have mixed reviews on Recife, Brazil. Our excursion was river catamaran cruise. River is more brackish backwater than river…parts smelty and dirty to be honest. It did have city / building views and we saw local fisherman gathering mussels and then washing off mud off in a similar manner as panning for gold - shaking basket alongside boat with feet. Seeing them was fascinating. We had no idea Recife as large of city as it is..many skyscrapers. On the bus tour probably through older section - we saw so many old buildings that could be truly lovely with a coat of paint and some TLC. Poverty is apparent. The city tour highlight was visit to absndoned prison left pretty much as it was, but cells turned into individual vender stalls selling crafts. What a cool idea and Wish we had been given more time there. I kept thinking how much Alcatraz would benefit from that idea.

Weather is a variable every year - but for this cruise I packed way too many, too warm items. And not nearly enough summer cotton clothing. Barcelona was only cool port we had - 60-73. (Novemer). Following that each day has been warmer, mid to upper 80’s, humid, with bright and intense sun. I never dreamed crossing the Atlantic in November that it would be this warm. Even at night it is short sleeve, sleeveless dress warm. I am in sweat by 3rd lap of jogging track. And soaked by 2 miles. We live in Florida, and it is warmer here on ocean than there.

Viking Jupiter entertainment: we have found most of the lectures to be very interesting. The Viking singers are simply wonderful-extremely talented in a wide range of songs, young, and personable. Each performance is packed. The on-board games are fun to play or observe. Corn toss contest between passengers and crew is a particular favorite. So far crew is ahead - but then they have a local game play advantage! The tour listed learn maj-jong or bridge. Another slight misrepresentation. Both are offered, but unhosted. There are no lessons - only a few who know how to play are there. There is also craft time - but u have to have brought a craft. None are supplied. Video game tables are popular and used, as is scrabble boards, and I think passengers are working on 4th jigsaw puzzle now. Dancing Under The Stars night by main pool was huge hit with Viking band and singers. Enjoyed immensely by all. As you can interpret- we are loving this cruise - food, staff, ship all superb. Only thing we miss is salty snacks - cookies, ice cream, cakes galore. But No Salt. The pringle can in gift shop surprisingly tasteless. Note to self - next time pack salt shaker, and some chips and popcorn!!!

At Cape Verde we opted for the 4x4 excursion. We had a bit of misconception on that tour. We thought it would be open top jeeps going off road. Tour does go off- road, is by 4x4,- but via fairly new 4 seater trucks - plush interior, comfy seats that absorbed much of the bounce. So not sure why tour listed as “demanding”...the scenery is both desolate and gorgeous, sand, broken lava rock, mountains with almost no vegetation. A Mars landscape to an astonishingly beautiful turquoise sea. If looking for an island with deserted beaches - this is it. We have mixed feelings on the tour. We were disappointed that it was not by “open top jeep” as the excursion description implies. It does go through gulleys, dry creek beds, but again via enclosed truck with driver. 2 passengers per truck sitting in back seat (us). Had we known this, we would not have booked. But again that is preference- others might jump at it. There was no shopping stop on tour. We heard from others thst the included free tour is excellent. It is by open window local shuttle bus. The island is windy with cool breeze that helps tremendously. Viking does offer a shuttle into town, but again this island is too new to tourism to offer souvenirs. Shops are what locals may need. Actually we found the island refreshing in its poor but pure island life, so far unspoiled by t-shirt shops.

The Village of Mijas excursion at Malaga is wonderful! Pretty white village with great shopping and views. The highlight was tapas at a local outdoor cafe in absolutely gorgeous setting. The tapas were best we had in Spain.

Currently sailing off coast of Morocco. It is November 21 2023 - but temps outside are mid 70’s at 8:19 am. We have had gorgeous sunny days at Barcelona, Malaga, and Casablanca. Light sweater in morning, short sleeves later. Notes: If want shop Casablanca - the included tour goes basically to 1 store. Extremely Crowded and goods were not great selection. Leather jackets - black or navy - limited sizes. Souvenirs lot of dime store quality. Tangier shopping much much better. Tour does not go to Medina - It may have been because Viking was trying protect passengers from either getting lost, or in safer area from pickpockets, etc. On board - ship is gorgeous. We were given complimentary upgrade to penthouse balcony. While room is super nice and larger, I would not have paid $3k more to have extra drawer space and full size couch which we have yet to use. Balcony size is simlar. We have a weird configuration - glass window, wall, then fairly narrow glass door onto balcony. I think some are all glass with window / sliding doors, but nearly half our wall is solid. unless positive our room have full glass wall with sliding doors I certainly would not pay more for this category selection. Meals - we mostly eat world cafe for convenience and selection, plus we are not gourmet diners. So that a matter of choice. Also love all windows sea views, and seating choice. Inside or out. Note - if a salt lover as we are. Pack couple those picnic salt packs from grocery. The shakers here are self grind sea salt. And with humidity or use- Most either do not work to grind fine or you get salt chunks. We have tried numerous and Mostly we get nothing at all. So far that been our only complaint on dining. The buffet often follows main dining room on choices. we are loving this cruise. And highly recommend

Is it still printed and placed in room night before? Someone said on tv or phones now. thank you

We are also booked on the November Southern Atlantic Crossing..Also noticed the changes / exclusions in excursions that were there when we booked cruise, and now mysteriously either disappeared as options, or went from "included" to $199 pp. The odd thing is if looking on the cruise description website, many of the excursions are still listed as when we booked. For Example: Sao Vicente Island went from 5 offered excursions to just 1 for our sailing - the included tour. At Recife the mangrove catamaran cruises went from "included free" to over $100 pp. (still listed as included on cruise description website) Same for the all day Rio tour - from "included" to $199 pp. We have booked many Viking cruises, but like many of you, we find these no notice, no apology, no explanation changes disappointing to say the least, if not an outright deceptive practice of "bait and switch". We can understand last minute port changes due to weather, etc. But pretty hard to understand why excursions suddenly go from included or disappear 2 months out once locked into cruise and trying to book excursions, and yet remain on cruise description for future bookings. Explain that Viking.

Other countries get final payment 90 days out, instead of our "usual full payment within 30 days of booking". I think this has less to do with Viking's generosity or lack of, than laws within that country as to how far in advance a company may collect payment for a future trip. (this has been confirmed by some UK travelers I met). So for those of us who would like to stop paying the full amount of our trip - a year or more in advance..we need to contact our Congress Representatives to amend our laws as well.

arranging own shore shore excursions kinda depends how long in port. Throughout our travels, We have primarily traveled on our own..but we also enjoy cruise or bus tours. The only risk of arranging own excursion during cruise ports with limited time allowed for stay - if you are caught up in traffic, difficulty in directions, or any number of possible scenarios -- if not back in time -- your ships sails without you. If you are on a ship arranged excursion, they wait. That factor alone is worth due consideration.