CurlerRob

This topic is always incendiary as you'll no doubt see. This is Viking's tipping policy from their FAQ's (applies to NA pax, other geographies have different standards): What is the tipping policy? Our onboard staff is dedicated to providing you with the best cruise experience possible, and it is customary to give gratuities in recognition of their service. How much you choose to tip is a personal matter and completely at your discretion. To save you worry over whom to tip and how much, we automatically add a discretionary hotel and dining charge of $17.00 USD per guest per day to your shipboard account, which appears on your final invoice at the end of your cruise. This charge will be shared among the onboard staff who helped support and provide your cruise experience, including the waitstaff, stateroom stewards, buffet stewards, galley staff, laundry staff and others. Please note this charge excludes bar gratuity; a 15% gratuity is automatically added to bar, beverage, wine and deck service tabs. Should you wish to make changes to the gratuity amounts or pay in cash, stop by Guest Services at any time. You may also wish to tip your local excursion guides and/or drivers; we suggest doing so in cash at the end of each tour. For your convenience, you can pre-purchase gratuities at our standard recommended rate in My Viking Journey. This charge will be shared among the onboard staff who helped support and provide for your cruise experience, including your Program Director, waitstaff, stateroom stewards, galley staff, nautical staff and others. A couple of observations on the above. The discretionary charge can be increased (as did the OP) or removed from your bill should you wish it. In the end, whether you tip at all, how much and to whom is entirely up to you - you will find that looking for 'standards' in this area is fruitless. We now return you to your current program ... 🥌🍺

I don't want to be considered an amateur. I promise to try much harder to demonstrate elitism - honest! 🍺🥌

@Clay Clayton - alert! Normal Svalbard weather is back. Repack the puffy! 😈 🍺🥌

The OP (RavensFan2011) created this Roll Call here, on the main Viking Oceans board. You created a Roll Call for the cruise on the Viking Venus Roll Calls board - which is exactly where it should be. Roll Calls should not be on the main board, always on the appropriate ship roll call board, which is where yours is. That's what @CCWineLover was telling the OP. ... 🍺🥌

You purchase X GB valid for a period of time (7 days, 30 days, etc). If you are about to use up all your data or run out of time, you can usually buy one of a number of top up packages (often the same as the options available originally). I find their offerings so inexpensive that I usually buy more than I need - likely their nefarious plan in the first place! 🍺🥌

I can relate to the "debt" card! 🍺🥌

I think that your satisfaction with a sub dive will depend greatly on your reasons for considering it. If you are hoping for an underwater experience with colours, reefs and lots of marine life, you are likely to be disappointed. The Great Lakes are full of fish, but they are not the vibrant tropical ones featured on tropical diving shows. The bottom tends to be silty, sterile and brown - no corals. If your are diving on a wreck, that is always very interesting and usually means a higher level of marine life present. If you simply want a unique experience diving really deep and don't mind the price, then you will be very happy. If you decide to go, I'd suggest Superior - it has by far the clearest water. Enjoy your encounter with some of the largest bodies of fresh water on the globe! 🥌🍺

Concur. @Frenchberet was kind enough to confirm that the outfits are separate, as it appeared. Like you, I was quite fond of my float coat during my years of racing, but was always very happy that I never had to put it to work for real - especially in early May and 40F waters! The positive side would be that in the Zodiac operations, there are many boats and quick recovery of an overboard pax is likely - as would appear to have been the case in the Polaris accident. Nevertheless, water at that temp is not to be messed with, and it's an item that prospective cruisers should factor in. Polar expedition trips are not Caribbean junkets. 🍺🥌

Yes, the 1-piece Mustangs are what we've always had on RIB usage anywhere. I'm not surprised about the lack of them for the Great Lakes. I don't know the average temps, but summer water temps will hit highs in the mid-70's on Ontario, Erie and southern Huron. (Superior is a whole other world, as documented by Gordy Lightfoot!). Your post triggered my memory that even in Antarctica, there does not appear to be usage of full suits. This pic appears to show pax with the issued Viking jacket, separate pants and boots as well as flotation - but it may mean more to your professional eye than my amateur one. Perhaps one of the experienced pax from Octantis or Polaris down south can advise ... I would not want to be over the side in this attire. Cheers! 🍺🥌

Andy, I may not understand what you mean by survival suit, but many of the pictures I've seen from the Expedition board and FB show pax in their Viking jackets, issued pants, boots and life vests (in Antarctica), rather than what I consider a survival suit (one piece, fully sealable). This is on shore and on the Zodiacs. I have seen one picture from a friend of Octantis in Lake Erie near Point Pelee. Pax on the Zodiac had various jackets on - they had the appearance of simply personal wear (plus the mandatory life vests of course). I'd venture to guess that the requirements are mostly limited to the required life vest in the Great Lakes. To the OP - there may be required wear for the kayaks (or the Zodiacs) so you should ask Viking. If not, on the Great Lakes, I'd recommend outerwear appropriate for the temperature, with a waterproof shell over top. It only takes small waves to get you very damp in a Zodiac ... 🍺🥌

Forego the entertainment value provided by the same incoherent ramblings posted ad infinitum? Never, I say! 🍺🥌

Clearest explanation of this issue ever - you should demand royalties from all of us who shamelessly steal it for future use! (Not that it would help ...). 🍺🥌

I'd be very interested in your sources for your claims regarding contagion levels. Frankly, they fly in the face of both logic and CDC reporting. You state a 1 in 5500 chance of noro contagion if there is an outbreak on board - consider the report below, which illustrates just one of 13 documented outbreaks thus far in 2023. 🍺🥌 Investigation Update on the Nieuw Amsterdam Print Cruise Line: Holland America Cruise Ship: Nieuw Amsterdam Voyage Dates: May 6–May 21, 2023 Voyage number: 539 Number of passengers who reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of passengers onboard: 246 of 1,971 (12.4%) Number of crew who reported being ill during the voyage out of total number of crew onboard: 38 of 826 (4.60%) Predominant symptoms: vomiting and diarrhea Causative agents: norovirus Actions: In response to the outbreak, Holland America and the crew aboard the ship reported the following actions: Increased cleaning and disinfection procedures according to the ship’s outbreak prevention and response plan. Collecting stool specimens from gastrointestinal illness cases to send to the CDC lab for pathogenic identification. VSP is monitoring the situation and the ship’s outbreak response and sanitation procedures. Note: The gastrointestinal illness cases reported are totals for the entire voyage and do not represent the number of active (symptomatic) gastrointestinal cases at any given port of call or at disembarkation.

Unclear. Might be a mandatory number of sequins. Numerous discussions on the Seabourn boards. Everything from "thank God" to "end of the world as we know it". Eerily similar to the same dress code rabbit holes that pop up for every line. 🍺🥌

Oceania's dress code was essentially equivalent to Viking's. Slacks and collared shirts for men in all but the buffet at dinner. A few jackets in the specialty restaurant s (me included, but that's just habit) - I'm not sure I ever saw a tie. Women were dressed almost identically to Viking as far as I could tell. No 'formal' nights at all. Here's their official words ... "Recommended on board clothing is resort or country club casual. For evening dining, elegant casual resort wear is suggested. We request that casual jeans, shorts, t-shirts, baseball caps, sandals, or tennis shoes not be worn in the restaurants after 6 PM. Baseball caps may be worn in the Terrace Café after 6 PM." As mentioned, we have no personal experience with Seabourn, but I had looked at their dress code. They use different terminology (they have 'formal' nights where pax can dress up, but are not mandated to) but the only addition I see is the requirement for a jacket for men in the restaurant. Their boards suggest that the "evening gown or other formal" statement for women is bunk - that would also be reasonable considering the jacket-only requirement for me. Perhaps a Seabourn-savvy person can comment further! Here's their notice ... 🍺🥌 DAYTIME AND IN PORT Casual, resort-style attire, including jeans and shorts, is welcome in all lounges and dining venues until 6pm. Swimsuits, brief shorts, cover-ups and exercise attire should be reserved for poolside, on deck or in the spa and fitness center. Jeans are welcome in all dining venues during the day. EVENING AFTER 6PM WILL BE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING: Elegant Casual • Men: slacks with a collared dress shirt or sweater; Jacket optional • Ladies: slacks / skirt, blouse, pantsuit or dress. • Jeans are not appropriate in The Restaurant after 6pm • Elegant jeans are welcome in all dining venues. Formal Seabourn Odyssey, Seabourn Sojourn, Seabourn Quest, Seabourn Encore, Seabourn Ovation Dining in The Restaurant: • Men: Tuxedo, suit or slacks and jacket required (Tie not required.) • Ladies: evening gown or other formal apparel Dress in other dining venues is Elegant Casual. All in, Oceania was essentially identical to Viking in dress requirement, Seabourn appears a bit dressier but not overbearing to my eye. 🍺🥌

I'm not 100% certain, but I believe that they have never used the self serve approach, including pre-pandemic - that has surfaced a number of times on their boards, as people generally appreciate it.. 🍺🥌

Concur. Choose Pic 1 or Pic 2 ... 🍺🥌

Apologies if you've read this one already as I linked to it some time ago! We have an initial experience on Oceania, have not sailed SB. I deliberately avoided a lot of direct comparisons, but with your Viking experience you will easily be able to do the contrasts. Regarding onboard culture, we really didn't find all that much of a difference. Generally pleasant and well-travelled pax, with the occasional 'outlier'. Oceania actually reminded us of HAL about a dozen years ago - when they had the small ships, pre Carnivalization...🍺🥌

Interesting approach. There's an argument to be made for self insuring regarding cancellation / interruption insurance. As an oversimplified example, if you assume the average cost of that insurance is 7% of the cruise fare, then as long as you take 14 cruises without a 'claim', you've saved enough in premiums to pay for the 100% loss that might happen on cruise 15. Whether you get though 14 trips without a problem is a function of many things - family health, how often you cruise, bad luck, etc. As well, if you self insure, you are at least well aware of the extent of the potential loss ahead of time, and it's fixed in size. It's all really a question of risk tolerance. In my opinion, medical is a whole different issue and you were wise to acquire that coverage. Unless one is extremely wealthy and prepared to shrug off a potentially huge medical bill, I can't see the logic in self insuring at all. Youth and health are not protection against a major accident that could be financially devastating. My commitment to medical insurance was solidified many years ago when my wife contracted pneumonia on a trip to Hawaii. She received exemplary care at a small hospital that had state of the art equipment and superb staff. The bill was $15K for one night. Extrapolate that to 30 days in an ICU due to an accident and the cost of medical insurance is rounding error. 🍺🥌

I see you and raise you Amsterdam Centraal station ... double deckers! 🍺🥌

Well said. Unless you are off the grid, my opinion is that personal privacy has ceased to exist. Pretending otherwise is irrational. C'est la vie. 🍺🥌

Welcome to Cruise Critic, but, if you want any useful responses, you'll need to provide some clarity as to what happened. For example - was your booking covered by the Risk Free Guarantee and if so, why was it not available to you? Whose travel insurance did you buy - did it not have Covid coverage? If not, why did you choose it? There is good advice available on these boards, but it's not possible to provide any with what you've written thus far. Take a deep breath and try to provide detail and specifics of how your situation unfolded. 🍺🥌

I wish I were. We were booked on the June 7 - July 5 NYC - Bergen version but had to cancel a few days before departure. As a result, I have no current access to MVJ for that trip. As of June 4, MVJ had only the single included excursion in the 3 ports, as did the formal send of the full set of excursions. It's possible that it changed for the June 21 leg, but it's the rarity of having multiple included excursions that prompted my question. Enjoy your trip. 🍺🥌

So, a change from the voyage just preceding yours. That was one of my question options (semantics or change) - semantics would have been the same excursion offered at multiple times. No reason for you to take offense - none was intended. 🍺🥌

It's complex. Viking obviously markets the insurance under the TripMate branding. The CFAR portion of the policy is underwritten by Viking itself and, as you observe, they make the rules for that portion of the policy. The rest of the policy (a more traditional set of insurances) are underwritten by Generali. It's not clear to me if the plan administrator is a separate company or a division of Generali. None of which matters other than to say read the policy very carefully, no matter who fronts it! 🍺🥌