Senior Gators

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)

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)

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

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

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!

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

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.

molymoo,

We have been having the same problem with our May 2022 cruise on the Viking Octantis. We are now 4 days past the stated date when excursions can be booked. Even with checking for them a number of times each day, we still are getting nothing except the canned statement that,  “.... there are no excursions available for that day...”! The 2 times we have chatted with the online Viking rep, we get conflicting information about when they will become available. The gist of which is, “....we don’t know when Viking will make them available. Please keep checking back in a couple of days.”

Senior Gators

4 hours ago, Azulann said:

On our TA , we are in a friends Explorer's suite at the bow. It was after dinner. We sago a tour of their cabin ., the balcony and then came in and sat down for a drink . Suddenly  the cabin got a call, they needed to close their black out curtains. in the living room. The bridge could see their lights. 

Hey Azulann, 

Thanks for the memories of that TA cruise.  I was much chagrinned  when the call came down from the bridge to close the blackout curtains.  No one told us before hand to keep them closed at night.  But we quickly and happily complied. We loved the accommodations and have booked them for an upcoming November cruise on the Star this time.  Based on FCC's from a prior cancelled cruise and the 125% voucher, we could upgrade our cabin with no additional out-of-pocket payment.

Senior Gators

On 10/10/2021 at 5:44 PM, Azulann said:

They are the same size at all DV balconies. The cool Explorer suite next door wraps around the edge ship and is narrow in that area. But their aft balcony is awesome ! I peeked 😂

Azulann, 

If I didn't know better, I would have thought you were the one peeking in our Suite on our first cruise with Viking. It was on the Viking Star in 2015 and we stayed in the Starboard Explorer Suite on Deck 3. Great views from the stern.  The only problem we had was some soot from the stack on the balcony furniture.  The deck crew cleaned them daily, but then we had wet cushions for a good part of the day.

Senior Gators

Thanks Patti, good luck and fun times in your future cruises.  You certainly have become a Viking devotee.  As I remember it, that TA cruise from San Juan to Barcelona was your 1st cruise on Viking, but you were (are) a very experienced cruiser.

Richard

Funny you should ask... Yesterday, we cancelled our Southern Atlantic Crossing on the Viking Jupiter. It's November 14th sailing from Barcelona to Buenos Aires was booked well over a year ago (originally booked the BA to Barcelona for March 2021) but was changed to the one we cancelled.  Too many concerns had cropped for us to feel safe.

We took the future cruise credits and booked a new Viking cruise on the Orion for February 2022 - Los Angeles to Ft Lauderdale via the Panama Canal. Got our confirmation and flights today. Hoping for better conditions by then.  

In addition to the Viking Mississippi cruise next September which you know about, we have booked a Great Lakes cruise on the Viking Octantis for May 2022> that one is Milwaukee to Toronto.

2022 will be a busy year for us with a smorgasbord of cruise types.  I see that you are staying busy on the CC boards.  What cruises are in your future?

Richard

10 hours ago, Azulann said:

 

Another suggestion: ask  if you  can  reserve the private dining room  next to Manfredi or Chef table   for the six of you  while on board.  We did that with some on our roll call  and it was a very special evening. That was preCOIVD though.

 In deed that was a special evening, Azulann. We remember it well; it was one of our favorite memories of that cruise. We had a very active roll call and a big Meet and Mingle. Such a good group that the Hotel Manager put together a second M and M for our last night at sea.

Senior Gators

CretaMed88 , thank you so much for posting this video of the Viking Venus arriving at Piraeus, Greece yesterday.  Viking's ocean ship are understatedly elegant and so pleasing to the eye compared with the mega hotel/resort ships that most cruise lines gravitate to.  We (DW and I) have sailed 6 times on Viking Ocean cruises ( would have been 8 if not for the dratted COVID 19 pandemic). Love the product that Viking presents to its customers.  With luck, come the middle of November and after not having cruised for 2 years, we will be boarding the Viking Jupiter in Barcelona for a 22 day South Atlantic Crossing to Buenos Aires.  Love sea days (and there will be a lot of them) to allow more time to enjoy the relaxed atmosphere and ambiance of a beautiful Viking ship. The crew members we have met onboard are exceptional. 

Senior Gators

Moatenote, we have stayed in both 6023 (once) and 6019 (twice).  We loved them both.  No problem with noise or (for us) problems with motion as it isn't as high as the PS cabins on decks 7 and 8. Being a little less expensive the the PS 2's and 1's and having the exact same benefits and accommodations is also something to be considered.  The handicapped accommodations in 6020 and 6022 provide a different cabin and bathroom arrangement which are better suited to those really needing them. 

The location near the 2 forward elevators and stairs is no problem since they are not used as much as the ones further aft in the ship.  And the sound levels are well modulated when your cabin door is closed.

Hope this helps.

Senior Gators 

On 3/26/2021 at 5:06 PM, Azulann said:

Senior Gator,  will you be starting the  Miss River Cruise in St. Paul or ending in St. Paul MN?

 Either way, let me know and I will take you both out for lunch  while you are tied up on the Lower Landing in my home town!😍

Hi Azulann,  sorry to be so slow in responding. I just caught your posting this afternoon when scrolling back to see an earlier response.  We will be flying into MSP sometime after noon or mid afternoon on the day of departure, September 17.

Along with the included Viking transfer to the ship, I must regretfully decline your friendly and generous invitation to join you for lunch. It would be good to enjoy your fellowship and catch up on what we have been up to since we traveled together on our wonderful Transatlantic cruise on the Viking Sea. Hard to believe that was almost 3 years ago to the day.  It was in late March to early April of 2018. It was our 1st TA but hopefully not our last. 

Best wishes,

Senior Gators (Richard and Margie)

Clay, don't feel bad. I wasn't sure about the identification of the ship by the view from the low angle of the photo of the bow.  But after studying it for a bit, I could see that it had the hull number and the ship's name "Viking  Octantis" high on the bow. Just sowing off her ice "breaking" features.

On 3/28/2021 at 12:25 PM, Clay Clayton said:

Duh! I’m so stupid. I knew they were different and had the vertical bow.  
 

Nevermind

As a professional watcher and occasional poster on Viking's Cruise Critic boards, I want to add my thanks to Andy and Jim for being so kind and generous for their professional insights and comments on cruising and shipping issues in general! Many other regulars contribute so much to make these boards a regular "must read" habit.

We, DW and I as cruising novices, signed up for Cruise Critic shortly before our 1st cruise aboard the Viking Sea in 2015. We have benefited greatly from the questions and comments asked and answered on this forum.

Now, 8 cruises later (6 on Viking oceans' ships, 2 on Viking River ships) we have gained a lot of experiences and wonderful memories. Despite having 2 Viking cruises cancelled in 2020 we have booked 3 more: a South Atlantic Crossing in the late fall of this year, a Great Lakes cruise aboard the new Viking Explorer ship, the Octantis, in May 2022, and a 15 day cruise on new Viking Mississippi. God willing the COVID 19 virus will not be a factor and the cruises won't be cancelled.

Thank you all for sharing your wisdom and views. A deserved thank you to Photo Pro, the OP, for coming up with the idea for the "Virtual Explorer's Lounge". We had the privilege of meeting him at the Meet and Mingle gathering on board a shared Viking Ocean cruise.

My wife and I are booked for the May 2022 cruise on the Octantis sailing from Milwaukee to Toronto. Looking forward to trying something different from Viking.  We have sailed on six ocean (hopefully seven by the time this cruise happens) and two river cruises on Viking ships.  A third river cruise is already booked on the Viking Mississippi for September 2022. It will be interesting to see and experience Viking's ventures into diferent markets with new ship types and adventures. 

Andy,  

Thanks for posting your review of your thoughts and observations of staying in an Explorer Suite aboard one of Viking's wonderful ocean cruise ships. It brought back wonderful memories of our accommodations and Transatlantic Crossing several years ago on the Viking Sea. We were fortunate enough to stay one deck below your suite in ES 3000 and find that our accommodations were exactly like the ones you showed in your review of ES 4000. We normally book Penthouse Jr Suites on deck 6, but splurged a couple of times for Explorer Suites. The other one was all the way aft in Suite 3095 (different layout but all of the same features) on our 1st Viking Cruise. That was in 2015 on board the Star and was a 22 day cruise across the Mediterranean from Istanbul to Barcelona.  

With FCC from cancelled cruises this year, we have been able to book a South Atlantic Crossing for November 2021and have once again booked an Explorer Suite (3001 this time) on the Jupiter. It was at no additional cost to us above the PS-3 fare we had on our cancelled Alaskan cruise on the Orion and extension on the Rocky Mountaineer.

 Hopefully the world will be moving towards normality by then or we will be once again rescheduling or cancelling a much anticipated sailing with Viking.

Andy, your postings are greatly appreciated along with Jim Avery's.  The Inside knowledge and perspectives that you both bring to the table are what helps these boards educational and interesting. 

Thanks again,

Senior Gators (Richard & Margie)

Captain Knutson(sp?), he of the first world cruise aboard the Sun and various other Viking cruises,  was the host of the presentation you are describing.  At the end, he was answering questions that were sent in and was asked if he would be the master on another Viking world cruise in the near future.  He responded with, "none currently planned", but that he would be leaving in a couple of weeks (just before Christmas) to join the Venus for her sea trials. It would seem that the Venus will be ready to start cruising with fare-paying passengers by the hoped for April 2021 date.

Senior Gators

14 minutes ago, deec said:

I know I should call on the phone and ask but I will start here...

 

Voucher questions:  I think I may NOT change/cancel my mind to another cruise once I use my voucher .  Is that correct?

 

Insurance:  Does anyone know if vouchers are insurable like cash paid for a cruise.

deec,

Not sure, as we can only speak from our personal experience, but it seems that you can change to a different cruise after using your future cruise voucher. In our case we used the FCV from our cancelled March 14th TA cruise to pay for our previously booked March 2021 South Atlantic Crossing.  

Upon further consideration about the pandemic outlook, we decided to to change our booking to the November 2021 South Atlantic Crossing.  It was done with the hope that the world will have this COVID-19 virus under control and cruising will resume with a high degree of safety. Viking complied with our request and we even retained our same cabin. This was done on Thursday, April 30th, so it appears that you can do a subsequent change. That being said, check directly with Viking or have your travel agent do so for you, before taking our experience as gospel.

Sorry, can't provide any information on your insurance question.

Richard and Margie (Senior Gators)

1 hour ago, photopro2 said:

When someone who has taken as many cruises as have you says it was one of the best we know that we enjoyed a really special trip.  Thanks for the reminder that we had two M&M's, for some reason I had forgotten that! We have been very fortunate in that we chose Viking as our first cruise line and I cannot see us travelling with anyone else.

 

Did you know that our Explorers' lounge bartender, Jasna, is now an officer? She was beverage manager (head of "Hydration" as she put it) when we sailed on the Sun last summer and I believe that she still had that post on the first leg of the world cruise. Of course you will see that she is now back behind the bar in this perfect Virtual Explorers' lounge.

 

Two glasses of Prosecco for us please Jasna and a couple more of whatever these two are having........   

photopro -- "We have been very fortunate in that we chose Viking as our first cruise line and Icannot see us travelling with anyone else." 

photopro,  you and Azulann were both Viking novices. Though unlike you, she was a long time traveler on other cruise lines.  She said she was trying Viking partially for comparison purposes. By the time the cruise was over she was thoroughly convinced that Viking offered a superior product much appreciated by their clients.

Azulann was one of the shakers and movers that made the Roll Call, Meet & Mingles, and overall shipboard passenger experience so enjoyable.  Subsequently, she has sailed again with Viking and shows up on Cruise Critic threads, sharing her enthusiasm with others here online. 

Senior Gators

6 minutes ago, Ruthieofthesea said:

Senior Gators, I simply love Alaska. I lived in Anchorage for four years. We were blessed to sail the inside passage from Anchorage, wait! maybe it was the outside passage, it was over twenty years ago and my memory has faded. I do remember calving glaciers and stark beauty surrounding us as we sailed. There is a glacier in  Alaska with my name. Ruth's glacier, that made me smile.

 

Ruth, what a small world.  Compliments of Uncle Sam, I spent 2 years in Anchorage between Thanksgiving day 1968 and the day before Thanksgiving 1970 at Fort Richardson. In July 1969, I flew to Miami, married my waiting bride, and drove 6,000 miles in 10 days (including 3 days driving the Alcan highway from Dawson Creek, BC to Tok, AK). We  spent 16 months as a newly married couple in Anchorage while I finished my tour of duty there.  Our return was part driving and included sailing on the Alaskan Marine Highway from Haines, AK to Prince Rupert, BC, stopping at many of the same ports as Viking's Alaskan itinerary. 

We booked the August 14th Alaska and the Inside Passage cruise to visit places we haven't been in almost 50 years and to add the Rocky Mountaineer train through the Canadian Rockies to Banff.  Now we have our doubts about being able to that with the continued deterioration of the country's (and the world's) pandemic due to the COVID19 virus. Such is life in these strange times.

I think DW and I will have another glass of Chardonnay and enjoy the warm comradery of our fellow cruisers in the Virtual Explorer's Lounge. Cheers!

Richard and Margie

Senior Gators