kctwinmommy

Yes!! I'm not an IT person, but our friend was. Very knowledgeable on these things. And that's what she was saying, it wasn't that the systems themselves are bad, but the communication between them was difficult. We saw it with Guest Services and at the reservation desk for the dinning. Again, these weren't huge issues, but I do think it's good for people to be aware, as they might need to follow up on things.

Yes, there's a few things I want to share with them, so I plan on it this week. Just need to get better. And yes, linking them together was really weird. The first reservation never showed up on their account, but the second one did. And yes, I got the feeling that some of them were newer. And again, it wasn't anything major, but it was enough for us to notice.

Thanks! Got some steroids, some cough medicine (pills, which I've never taken for a cough!), and an inhaler. So far, unless any tests come back positive tomorrow, she said it's just a viral thing. Which of course, wipes out my energy. But I would like to share some of the highlights at least. 😃

It seemed that the things we needed help with, took them longer to figure out. When our friends and I went to link our Manfredi's reservation together, they really had a hard time with. She was confused on what we were asking, she kept thinking we were trying to make our table for 4 a table for 6, then she said she couldn't keep their other reservation and add them to ours, she said she had to cancel that night in order to them to ours, which didn't make sense. As far as I know, there's no limit on how many nights you go to Manfredi's. And then, the time we needed to change an excursion, they struggled to get us on the right one. And in fact, they actually cancelled us from the wrong one. Luckily, we had decided to skip it anyway. It was our last day in Venice, an on your own thing. We both were feeling under the weather that day, and the Pope was doing mass in Venice, so a lot of it was closed off. But, they cancelled it on us, by mistake. It just seemed that as we would try to figure things out, they had to get info from different places, like there's multiple systems to use.

Yeah, there were a lot of people coughing at the airport. The pollen there was awful too, it was all over the sidewalks, they had to hose it down. Not saying that's my issue... And it didn't ruin my trip in any way, grateful it was at the end, and I get sick being at home, so it can happen anywhere. 😉

I will write more when I'm feeling better. I unfortunately, I got sick on our last day in Barcelona, after we left the ship, and it was a long flight home yesterday. Just got home from urgent care an hour ago. I have an awful cough, slight fever, etc... All my tests were negative so far, so potentially just something viral. There were quite a few people coughing on the ship and the plane. It's something that's hard to control when traveling, I get it. I'm just glad we were able to make it the whole time and it happened at the end. Well, we did have one other day where were felt yucky, so we spent the whole day in our room. Anyway, we really loved a lot about our cruise, we did the Mediterranean and Adriatic Sojourn, which was 3 weeks of a 28 day cruise. It started in Istanbul, but we got on in Athens. We did the 4-day pre-extension in Athens and it was amazing, worth every penny! We did several options excursions, a few things on our own, and of course, several included ones. We must have liked something as we did book the West Indies cruise while on board for Oct. 2025! Got all the savings, plus they gave us each the $100 onboard ship credit for the cruise we were one. I will certainly add more info later, included all the excursions we took, but if anyone has general questions, I'd be more than happy to answer.

So having returned from our first Viking cruise, both ourselves and another couple we met on board felt that their IT system is a bit lacking. And the wife of this couple worked in IT. We just felt that when we went to guest services for things, the system they use wasn't very user friendly for them. It seems to always be a struggle for them to figure something out. Now, were they major issues, no, but we did mention it to each other a few times. It took a lot to link Manfredi's bookings together to our rooms, and when we made a change with an excursion, it always took them multiple attempts to figure it out. Again, it just seems like the system they use doesn't talk to each other well, if that makes sense.

I would definitely recommend it. We found that almost all excursions were booked up by the time we started our cruise. That includes all of the included ones as well.

Yes, we're doing the 4-day Athens pre-extension, and it was $2000 for the 2 of us, but the 2 day one was like $1300 for the 2 of us and seemed to offer so little. I know many can, and do, end up booking all their own things, but like someone else said, we're doing it for the ease. This is our first Viking cruise, so we just want to get there and have things taken care of from the get go. And, I think we'd only save a couple hundred on our own. Our 4 day one has 3 tours with it (2 of them are outside of Athens), plus the hotel for 4 nights, so not too bad. Although the price did increase since we booked.

Yep! I figured if we're going to be there, we owe it to ourselves to see both of them!

That is the one port we are using an outside vendor. We booked a tour through Viator because we wanted to go to both Pompeii & Herculaneum.

Like others said, keep checking, and check again once on board. And as far as booking outside companies, there are definitely reputable ones to use and I would also say, in certain areas, it's not as big of a problem. Those people opted for that in a part of the world that is much more difficult to travel on your own I feel. If you truly can't get it through Viking, I would look through Viator.

Got it! I don't see a way to make it a concise calendar though. Like you can see the daily activities, or the full calendar, but it's got all the pictures and such. I have the PDF they sent us already saved, so I should be good then. Thanks!

I'm trying to figure out if there's anything I need to save from MVJ even? I mean, everything in it has been emailed to us, as far as I can tell. Am I missing something that I might want to screenshot from it? We have our final documents, all our excursions are listed, and our dining reservations too. I'm just wondering if there's anything in it that I might want to save?

You're welcome! I thought it would be helpful for new people, like us. And I get it, we've done a lot of planning to get to this stage. I can't believe we leave in a week. Once we get there, then I'll be all better. LOL!