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That’s great to hear about the nice buffet and menu choices for breakfast at the H10 Catalunya Plaza. When we booked quite awhile ago, we joined the Loyalty club and were able to have the free breakfast included. I think we also get a welcome drink at the bar included. It sounds like a nice place to stay and great location. We will be there a week from today!

Bigsky, that’s good to hear your opinion of the H10 Catalunya Plaza where we are staying. We also plan to take the bus from the airport to Catalunya Plaza and the hotel. We’ve even found a YouTube video of how to find the Aerobus location at the airport and how to buy tickets at a kiosk by the bus entrance. However, we will probably by our tickets online beforehand for less hassle. It’s amazing what kinds of information you can find on YouTube now!

We are staying at the H10 Catalunya Plaza when we fly to Barcelona. In asking about options for getting from the airport to the Catalunya Plaza (where our hotel is), several people recommended the Aerobus. It looks pretty simple to do but I have another question about luggage storage in the bus. DH and I will both have a large rolling suitcase plus a backpack as we are going on a 2 week cruise from Barcelona. Does the Aerobus have a place to store luggage in a compartment under the bus? I’ve been told there is a space for luggage inside the bus in sort of a “luggage corral” (for lack of a better description) but I am a little concerned with having to carry our big suitcases up the steps into the bus and then down an aisle to the storage place. Any tips or advice from those who have used the Aerobus? Thanks in advance for your help.

 We will be in Nassau next week on a cruise and I am looking for recommendations on a restaurant within walking distance of Nassau's cruise port that has really good conch chowder. I was in Nassau many many years ago and remember having some delicious conch chowder there and it was also served with Bimini bread. This was quite a novelty for a Texas girl!  Thanks for any suggestions. 

Check out the FB group Travel Fashion Girls - I've found lots of great luggage suggestions on there along with all kinds of tips for traveling lighter.

As it's getting closer to time to book excursions for our Viking Homelands cruise in late August, we have a question about getting a refund on an excursion that is booked as soon as booking opens up. If you book and pay for the excursion (by credit card or e check) before boarding and decide once you get on the ship to cancel, do you get a credit to your shipboard account or do you get a refund to your credit card or your bank account depending on the payment method you used? If we had to get a credit I'm sure that can be used at the end of the cruise to pay for your onboard tips. However, a complete refund would be nicer. I'm sure all you experienced Viking Ocean cruisers can quickly answer this. Thanks for your advice!

Thanks for the advice. I did notice that the only credit cards I could enter into our MVJ account are Visa and AmEx. I wonder if you can use Mastercard once you're onboard?

We are booked on the Viking Homelands in late August. In a few weeks we'll be able to book our excursions and I am wondering if we can pay for those with an e check instead of a credit card. All of our banking info is saved in our MVJ account as that's how we paid for our cruise (instead of by credit card). I know we need to pay for the excursions we really want to do as soon as we put them in our cart rather than just saving them in our cart. If we can pay by e check, does that slow down the checkout process in any way? Thanks for any advice!

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duquephart, on the Viking river cruises we've been on in the past, it was recommended that we tip the bus drivers and tour guides on the included tours that we took. The tipping amount was relatively small and the guides and drivers did such an excellent job that we were more than happy to tip them. I believe in European restaurants, tipping is not as common and is a smaller percentage than what we generally tip in the US.

Beaudy, sugarside, and Heidi 13, many thanks for the advice on foreign currencies and tipping. I'll check out Knightsbridge FX and as a last resort we will just tip in USD. Beaudy, I enjoyed your impressions of the ports you've visited so far!

We are booked on the Viking Homelands in late August and need some advice on getting foreign currency for tipping our tour guides and bus drivers. On this cruise we'll be in countries with 5 different currencies (Norwegian Krone, Danish Krone, Swedish Krona, Polish Zioty, and Euro). In the past we've ordered foreign currency from our local bank but unfortunately none of the banks in our town will do this anymore. We don't have any credit cards that will sell foreign currencies and ship to your home. We plan to use the ATM's in Norway as we will be there several days. However, in the other countries we are visiting we'll mostly be there one day so we'll only need a relatively small amount of local currency cash for tipping. Does anyone have any suggestions of reputable sites online to order foreign currency with a decent exchange rate? As a last resort we could tip in USD in the countries we're only visiting for a day but I would like to give our guides and drivers tips that they could easily use without having to exchange them. Any advice or tips are appreciated!!

Desdichadoe62, thanks so much for the info on the Radisson Blu and the Scandic hotel. It's good to know that any of these hotels will store our luggage.

We will be in downtown Stockholm for one night in September after getting off the Viking Jupiter at the end of a Viking Homelands cruise. We need a hotel that will hold our luggage while we sightsee the day we get off the ship and we'll return to the hotel that evening. We plan to sightsee the next day (with the hotel holding our luggage again while we sightsee after we've checked out) and then take the Arlanda Express to the airport late afternoon where we will stay at the Radisson Blu Airport Terminal Hotel before our early flight the next morning. We are looking at hotel near the Central Train Station - there are a couple of Radissons and a Scandic. Does this seem like a good plan to those of you who are Stockholm experts? Any advice on hotels is very welcome too. Thanks in advance. 

Arkie111, one of the couples in our group is doing the Oslo pre-cruise extension and taking the train to Bergen. My husband and I will be in Oslo on our own for 2 nights and then taking the train on our own to Flam, spending the night there, and doing a short fjord cruise before boarding the train again to Bergen. We will be there independently for 2 nights before we board the Jupiter. The other 2 couples in our group are also getting to Bergen on their own a couple of days before the cruise departs. Have you signed up for the roll call for the Jupiter? Some of our group are on there. We look forward to meeting y'all too!

Arkie111, we are with a group of 3 other couples (all from northeast Texas) and we will be on the Jupiter with you on August 27. Looking forward to sailing again!

Well, I'll have to try the green juice in the Deck 1 Bar also - maybe while I'm waiting on my latte to be brewed! And maybe a pastry too..... Perhaps the healthy green drink will offset the not so healthy pastry! Oh well, it's vacation and time to indulge 🙂

That's good to know I can get my early morning latte at the Viking Bar then. It sounds like the machines in the World Cafe are like the self serve coffee/espresso machines on the Viking River cruise boats. They are good but it's such a treat to have a real latte with freshly ground beans. 

Thanks for all the advice we are receiving so far. Now that I know specialty coffees such as lattes are free (I thought just plain brewed coffee was free) we need to decide if we will consume enough cocktails (or maybe an occasional special glass of wine) to make the SSBP reasonable for us. Concerning the lattes and cappaccinos that are complimentary in the World Cafe, are they all from the self serve machines like the ones on the river cruise boats? Is there any place on the ship to get one that is actually brewed by a barista or bar person in an espresso machine (ala Starbucks type coffees)? Thanks in advance for more advice. 

We are on the Viking Jupiter in late August for our first Viking ocean cruise (have taken several Viking river cruises) and we are trying to decide whether to purchase the Silver Spirits beverage package. At about $20 per person per day it seems like a pretty good value.

In previous posts I've read the cocktails on Viking ocean ships are priced around $8. Is this correct? DH and I like to enjoy one and maybe 2 cocktails a day on a cruise but we are not big wine or beer drinkers. However, we also enjoy cappuccinos and lattes which I understand are included in the SS package. Can anyone tell us the approximate cost of these specialty coffee drinks? On our past Viking river cruises we used the self service coffee machines that could also make these specialty coffees although they were a little different than ones brewed by a barista.

If we do decide to purchase this package in our "My Viking Journey" and pay for it with an echeck, I think we would receive the echeck discount making it even more of a bargain. We welcome anyone's thoughts, opiniions, advice on this - we've gotten so much good info from the Cruise Critic message boards. Thanks in advance!

CDN Polar, you make a good point about making sure anything we book can be cancelled with a refund. In these uncertain travel times, that seems to always be the best policy.

Following as we are booked on the Viking Homelands cruise in late August. We had heard really good recommendations for Alla Tours in St P but this was pre-covid. Their small buses sound so much better than a huge Viking tour bus.

We are booked on a Viking Ocean cruise (Viking Homelands itinerary) this August departing from Bergen. I was concerned that we (US citizens and fully vaccinated and boosted) couldn't get a UK or EU Digital Covid Vaccination certificate which is required to enter Norway and apparently there are no exceptions. We recently received a document from Viking in our account that Viking will secure an EU Digital Certificate on our behalf and instructions will follow as it gets closer to August. One less thing to worry about doing correctly 🙂

DH and I are booked on a Viking ocean cruise leaving Bergen in late August, 2022. I know there will be many changes in covid protocols between now and then (hopefully in more of a return to normalcy) and I am trying not to stress out about it at this point.  We will be traveling independently in Norway for 5 days prior to boarding the ship in Bergen. Currently, as I understand, Viking requires a negative PCR covid test taken within 48 hours of boarding the ship. We will be in Bergen in that 48 hour period prior to boarding the ship. Does anyone have information on what the current PCR covid testing situation is like in Bergen? I wonder if it's possible to get tested and receive the test results within 48 hours (and I am assuming a negative test as we are both vaccinated and boosted)?

I appreciate any insights you may have on this and again, I know there will be many many changes between now and August. 

lovrccl, thanks for the info on the show times and length. I've heard they are good. We are so excited about our first cruise on the Edge

We sail on November 28 for our first ever cruise on the Edge. What time are the nightly shows? Are there two shows every night or just one? Someone told me the shows are about 45 minutes long which is a nice length. Thanks for any info on your favorite shows!