Goosebear Mum

I was going to ask if Amazon had those, or equivalent, in America. Then thought, of course they will! I use those a lot when going on holiday. But I would be cautious if you won’t be in LA for long, in case Amazon cannot deliver to the locker. In the UK the lockers can be notoriously full and the delivery can be 1-2 days late. May not be such an issue in America.

Agree, I saw read their blog, and was surprised, as I couldn’t see them listed on banned items for luggage forward, or flights. I would question LF, if that had been me 😞 I rely on my magnets when I go on a cruise! If you can reorder, to be safe, I would!

Thanks for your (and everyone’s) blogs. I loved Friday’s, and the Viking Daily suggested ’seaworthy’ books, I have found most of them (free) on Project Gutenberg, which is brilliant. Downloaded to my kindle. Thanks. I love following the WC along with everyone. One day (when I can finally retire) I will pay the kindness of everyone back 🙂 I hope Wintergarden gradually calms down, and you can get a seat. As you say, the ‘novelty of afternoon tea’ may wear as the unlimited food creeps onto stomachs! p.s., yes different colour highlighters are essential cruise items! I now take highlighter pencils ✏️ (rather than pens) with me. Enjoy Cozumel 🙂

Oh my , disappointing, esp as Orion had already done the same route in the ‘other direction’, so I wonder when the snails arrived, if it passed a previous inspection? Adelaide and area are lovely too.

Thanks for running this thread. Enjoy your holiday, and thanks for including us virtually 🙂

I am sorry to read this MegaBear; flights were out of P&O hands, but life on board does seem to be changing for the worse too 😞 We have one more P&O cruise booked (Aurora) but are already looking at alternatives. I hope your cruise improves considerably. Thanks for posting updates xx.

South Georgia is the best for wildlife. I went in 2008 on an icebreaker, and if I’m lucky enough to be able to go back to Antarctica again, South Georgia would be on my ‘must list’. It really does have the wow moments. Many Antarctic cruises do the Falklands, but few do SG, so I can understand passenger ‘disappointment’. I’d not have got off, but would have accepted the ‘compensation’.

Agree, having been down in that area many years ago, and on zodiacs; to me it sounded like something hitting the bottom of the zodiac hard, it could also explain the ‘buckling’ which was described, that everyone was sent ‘upwards’ and the fact the zodiac remained watertight. A predator chasing the penguins could hit a boat hard, if it came up underneath.

Thanks for all the posts. I really appreciated them all. Safe travels home.

Me too, Aurora is our favourite ship 🙂 We’ve already started investigating alternative cruise lines for when P&O (finally) get rid of her and go over only to the big ships 😞

Interesting, as everything online points at Aurora’s dry dock being earlier this year. E.g. her dry dock was in June 22 https://www.cruiseandferry.net/articles/harland-wolff-to-drydock-for-po-cruises-and-cunard-1 and her refit was earlier in March 22

I wonder what will happen re: our Aurora R307 in May? For Aurora, there are a lot of empty cabins, which is highly unusual. I think the lack of Russia/St P on the agenda has put off a lot of the foreign bookings

Hi. There is a very active friendly roll call for this world cruise (308 pages long so far!) and a small one for the first leg https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2887245-viking-neptune-12222022-01082023-panama-canal-coastal-holiday-fort-lauderdale-to-los-angeles/?do=getNewComment I think many on the first leg join in with the full roll call info. I believe there are only two ‘legs’ of the WC - The FL to LA and then LA to London

I think they’ve given themselves that as their username, then for some reason used that for the thread name too. Maybe by accident?

Flights from Ushuaia are not ‘normal’ schedule. Even in 2008 when I went to Antarctica I realised this was an ‘expedition’ not a package holiday for the masses. They are small planes and flight times change frequently.

Only had a day there as a stop over, but the cemetery where Eva Peron is buried is fascinating, well it was to us as Brits, where we have no cemeteries like it. It’s amazing, a mini city of the most impressive tombs. We walked around BA and I loved it.

It’s so sad to read this post. We’re not on our first Viking cruise yet, but hoped after many years of P&O, when we move to Viking, we’d see the end of hogs 🐖 reserving sun beds, etc. The sun bed is not for your sole use, it’s to share. If you’re not on it, it should be available for anyone.

Not on Viking (yet!) but did a TA in Dec/Jan and the weather for us from cold Winter UK was warm enough to be outside on sun beds from the Azores to the Caribbean, both directions. The closer we got to the Caribbean the higher in the 20s (centigrade) it got, to the point of being very hot (for us) for a couple of days either side of the Caribbean. The weather can be anything; we had calm and a storm and everything in between! We’d happily do one again when work holidays or retirement allows… As you’re from FL you may find it quite chilly from Barcelona to about 1-2 days beyond the Azores (depending on your route) Pack sun weather and jumpers. Pack cold weather in case it’s cold in the Med/Barcelona.

Thanks, great to read a review with a uk person perspective. (Wardrobe space on Viking does look small compared to P&O Aurora, etc!) We’ve always been with P&O, and have one booked for May… but with all the cost cutting, selling of small ships, etc, I’ve subsequently been reading multiple Viking reviews / forums over the last 6+ months, I think we may be transferring our loyalty… P&O have the ‘cruise with no flight’ factor, but not that much else now. Viking ships look amazing on videos, photos, etc.

Hi, in addition to the great advice above, I’ve noticed the longer the cruise, the more activity there usually is on a roll call. I realise this a generalisation. Short cruises tend to have few if any people on a roll call, unless it’s an unusual or maiden cruise. Longer cruises, more people make an effort to get to know others. Longer cruises have more ports, so more opportunities to discuss option. Longer cruises tend to have sea days/more sea days, where people may organise a meet up. Some cruises you just fall unlucky in that there are few computer interested people onboard. And there is now a competitor ‘marmite’ website which will take away traffic from here, as that is their first place they’ll think of for a forum… Some only find CC as it’s referred to on those forums…

Thank you for these. Really enjoying reading them

I have to admit, we wouldn’t do one over Christmas Day again, in a hurry. I’ll never say never, but we prefer to be at home. We did 4, on Aurora (when Aurora was a family ship). Loved the ports (usually did the Oslo, etc, ports which we love. But also did a long round trip to Caribbean and back). BUT, although all the ‘ingredients’ were there for Christmas Day (meal, decorations, crackers, music, etc) it didn’t feel extra special. We find it hard to really say why. Maybe because the main meal is late in the evening, whereas we like it at lunchtime, in order to ‘walk off a fraction of it’ afterwards. They are great cruises, but if you love being at home, cooking a big lunch, going out afterwards, chilling out in an evening - it’s not the same on a cruise. Day time can be very quiet around ship. Maybe a big family ship will have more activity on that day. Just before covid hit, we did an early/mid December cruise. We said it was our best ever. Ports had the Christmas feel, there was more activity in ports and on ship, and there wasn’t the slow sea day on Christmas Day. (And we normally love sea days!) Remember Christmas Eve in the Scandinavian ports is their Christmas Day. So it’s a quiet day in port too.