Phoenix cruiser

Glad our travel insurance covers suspension due to finances with or without bankruptcy.

4 minutes ago, tgloersen said:

The new form is not available until May 7

OK I did not look far enough into the form. I saw sail date but I do see they won’t let you pick a date after May 14. So I will have to wait until May 7 to submit. Got it, thanks.

20 minutes ago, bsw620 said:

The worst part is after waiting all this time for them to officially cancel my Alaska cruise I still can’t apply for a refund. Maybe not the worst part but pretty ridiculous.




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Why is that? They are accepting refund requests right now.

8 minutes ago, furgoon said:

Absolutely ridiculous.  My cruise is May 23rd and I cannot even request a refund after they have cancelled the cruise.  The form is not updated.  This is why the call center will be overloaded today.

I think you all are reading this wrong. It says the DEADLINE to apply is as follows:

Refund requests must be submitted by:

• April 27, 2020 for suspended sailings scheduled to embark by May 14, 2020
• May 7 - May 13, 2020 for suspended sailings scheduled to embark beginning May 15, 2020

So if your cruise is scheduled to sail between May 15 and July 1 you can apply now but no later than May 7-13. At least that is how I read it. It does not say submit between May 7 and May 13.

1 minute ago, bsw620 said:

The worst part is after waiting all this time for them to officially cancel my Alaska cruise I still can’t apply for a refund. Maybe not the worst part but pretty ridiculous.




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Why is that? They are accepting refund requests right now.

The other thing of interest to me is why NCL took so long to cancel our Alaska cruise. Canada announced ages ago they were closed to cruise ships until July 1 and all the other major cruise lines immediately canceled their Alaska cruises since they cannot sail without a stop in a foreign port. I can only assume NCL was waiting for folks to pull out first so there was no obligation to refund our money.

3 minutes ago, shof515 said:

unfortunately that is normal for all cruise lines..if you search this forum this 90 day time frame is very common complaint people have and that is why they are doing a chargeback with a credit card

This is the third cruise we have had cancelled over many decades of cruising, not a bad percentage, but the first time we have seen 90 days. I don’t doubt that has become standard practice yet the onlly justification is to have an interest free loan from the consumer. As I said, Viking was able to provide us our money back in a week.

The refund form (as opposed to future cruise credits) is there and it says refunds will be received inn90 days. This is absurd that they will hold over $6000 for 3 months when typical refunds are processed in 10 business days. Viking refunded our money in less than a week. I seriously doubt I will rebook with NCL, HORRIBLE SERVICE.

I can’t disagree with one key message of your post, no matter what you do it is a matter of luck. Like you we were in Iceland and never saw anything. In search of the ideal star viewing we took a transatlantic cruise with a noted astronomer and were socked in fog the entire way. On the plus side we had clear skies at the GrandCanyon and the Australian Outback for magnificent sky watching. We also were among the 10% of Alaska visitors who saw Denali on miraculously cloudless days for three days straight. Bottom line is you can take shore excursions on multiple nights into the interior and get lucky and you can be on land for a week and see nothing but rain, or Vice versa. So to all, best of luck! 

I can answer most of your questions.

1. Viking is a small ship all inclusive experience. The ships are 1/4 to 1/5 the size of Royal Caribbean and thus a much more personalized experience. Of course there isn’t all the fancy add ons of the Royal Caribbean ships but in exchange you get included WiFi, Adult beverages at meals, all cabins with balconies, and more.

2. While there is no guarantee, the most recent voyages where folks have reported their experiences all saw the Northern lights multiple times, both from the ship and on excursions. You can sign up to be notified when there is a sighting and I understand the captain has reduced the ship’s exterior lighting to provide a better view.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the feedback and tips. 

Thanks bearsfolks. Ever since a slowdown by union aircraft cleaners in Philly caused us to miss our connections in Paris and a snowstorm caused a missed vacation in Florida due to flight cancellations years ago, we are always conservative flying in early. Especially since missing the boarding in Tilsbury means making our way to Stavanger. I have heard other folks do the train to Oslo, but it still means an overnight there. Not sure if there is an Oslo to Philly nonstop.

By the way, I see you are headed to Iceland. If you haven’t been, you are in for an amazing journey!

Thanks but for a winter cruise to Norway where the wind chill may be sub-zero we will have lots of parkas, long johns plus our clothes for almost 2 weeks so no chance for traveling light. Our thought is to take the Heathrow Express to Paddington and get a hotel there. The next day use our trusted car service to the Tilbury port. The alternative would be to get direct transfer to Tilbury but it appears there isn’t anything to do in the area. We never travel internationally where we arrive the same day the cruise departs, much too risky.

Sorry you missed Bergen but now you have a reason to go back in the summer. 
 

In a few months we will start looking at travel arrangements since we are doing our own flights. A few questions:

Did you fly Heathrow and stay near there, in London or in Tilbury? Or did you arrive the day of embarkation? If you stayed in Tilbury where did you stay?

Getting home efficiently from Bergen to the US is not the easiest. We are considering a flight to Amsterdam then staying overnight near Schipol to catch a nonstop to Philly the next day. Any suggestions on what your research determined?

Thanks again for your posts, they have been enjoyable and informative.

1 hour ago, Mibele said:

We had another ship sighting of the lights tonight at midnight.  You can sign up to get a phone call if someone from the bridge spots the lights.  The bad thing is it doesn’t tell you where they are.  Thankfully, it was off our starboard side balcony.  So I could peek at them without going too far 🙂.  Pics tomorrow.   

Great that you are getting so many opportunities. On our Antarctica cruise we were always running from our cabin down the hall fore or aft as the naturalist called out whale sightings, penguins, seals, icebergs, etc. Got lots of exercise. Sometimes we were fortunate to have the action right off our balcony, when I got some phenomenal video of penguins racing through the water.

36 minutes ago, Mibele said:

Catching up on the dailies.  

Jan 16.pdf 3.11 MB · 4 downloads Jan 17.pdf 3.07 MB · 8 downloads Jan 18.pdf 0 B · 9 downloads

Continuing  to appreciate all this great information and photos. Downside is I have to wait a whole year to enjoy it in person. For some reason the January 18th daily doesn’t load and the icon shows 0 Mb so maybe there was an upload problem on your end?

Idle question, have you or anyone you run across booked any excursions independent of Viking? For those using Viking have you heard of anyone who couldn’t get their first choice?

keep having an amazing journey!

That is fantastic. Did you have to do anything special to capture them or just point and shoot? Also how was your Sami excursion?

On 1/14/2020 at 3:15 PM, Mibele said:

Day 6 - Tromso - Jan 15.  We are doing the Lifestyle of the Sami optional excursion.  Our included excursion is the next day.  

Daily Viking Jan 15.pdf 2.89 MB · 20 downloads

Any Aurora sightings yet? How was your Sami excursion? It sounded very interesting.

I don't find having to wear pants other than jeans and a shirt with a collar rather than a t-shirt particularly limiting, assuming that by "no jeans" they don't exclude all casual slacks such as "day to evening" pants. I will say on our Holland America cruise to Antarctica and Patagonia, HAL was more forgiving on dress code as they recognized we were already hauling layers of thermal underwear, parkas, gloves, scarves and more and so I never saw anyone turned away from the MDR. On the other hand on our Queen Elizabeth cruise to the Canaries if you were not wearing a coat jacket you couldn't get near the MDR.

On our transatlantic cruise on Cunard the captain turned out most of the exterior lights for a bit but the skies were so cloudy it was not worth it. On our South America/Antarctica cruise on Holland America the captain did the same and it was amazing. Many of the folks were thrilled just to be able to see the Southern Cross. Neither of those experiences matched a night in the Outback where it was like seeing the skies from 200 years ago before light pollution covered the globe.

6 minutes ago, Mibele said:

Day 6 - Tromso - Jan 15.  We are doing the Lifestyle of the Sami optional excursion.  Our included excursion is the next day.  

Daily Viking Jan 15.pdf 2.89 MB · 1 download

We are a year away from doing this cruise in reverse but this gives us a great preview of what to expect. Since sunset is so early, what do the night skies look like? Easy to see the Milky Way and thousands of stars or too much ambient light from shore and the ship?

Thanks, sounds very promising. On other cruises all we usually met was the server. Our impression of Viking from the River Cruises was first class.

This will be our first Viking Ocean Cruise after several Viking River cruises. Our experience on all the lines that participate in an organized Meet and Greet or whatever they call it is pretty lame- coffee, tea, soft drinks and cookies. Get together see organized ourselves through discussion on CC have been more satisfying, plus we can hold it when convenient for the group and not the cruise line. 

Thanks! You are right. I was using Find My Roll Call and of course that does not work until you start one for a specific cruise. Will do that tonight.

I am pleased to report that CC was very responsive and Venus is now listed. NOT! Still waiting, still waiting, still waiting.........