CurlerRob

I try to avoid doing direct comparisons, as I find they inevitably include judgements that are based on my personal likes and dislikes - which will not be shared by others. While I'm sure that some of that crept into my posted O review, I tried hard to base the review on observed facts that would let others assign their own level of importance to them. For comparison purposes, @Mariastreby's factual descriptions of Viking attributes in post #48 are quite accurate in my view - but I would not necessarily have the same preferences (example - I prefer the Viking Scandinavian décor - but that's simply my opinion). Hopefully, when coupled with my O observations, their post should help others in reaching conclusions Not to avoid your question completely - both lines are quite acceptable to us and we will sail both again. Each has different strengths and weaknesses, many of which are illustrated in the two posts referenced here. My view is that no-one should care what I prefer, but my hope is that many can make use of what I saw. HTH a little. 🍺🥌

Venus may have been using the high-earth orbit satellites (the "old" system). Their performance degrades at higher latitudes due to the angle caused by ship location, but there will still be some coverage. If you look at the satellite chart I posted earlier, you'll see that the Starlink coverage over Iceland/ / Greenland / Norway is effectively zero - likely the major reason for the almost total lack of service. High volume usage just makes that bad situation worse. Perhaps Tors will message Elon and get some more birds launched for the north! 🍺🥌

This thread may help ... see post #74 on page 3. 🍺🥌

Be sure you get your answers before committing to the booking. I have not tried this with HAL, but on two other lines they required the deposit in 'real money' before applying the credit. If there was leftover credit from the fare, it could be used for shorex, etc. When I challenged this approach, I was informed that it was "industry practice" but was not documented. After much work by my TA, the lines accepted the credit as deposit and partial fare payment as a "special favour". I was unable to segment the credit - it was all or nothing. Hopefully, your experience will be different. 🍺🥌

I have been following the Starlink deployment on the boards of multiple lines. Pax reports are still highly variable regarding improved service - for every report of great speed and bandwidth, there seems to be an opposing one of actually degraded service versus the geostationary satellites. There are at least three major factors that will influence how the internet service on cruise ships improves: First is the deployment of Starlink satellites - this continues to improve but is not yet complete. A look at https://satellitemap.space/?constellation=starlink# will show that the higher latitudes in the northern hemisphere are still lacking in coverage - Alaska, Scandinavia, Iceland and northern UK for example. No birds overhead, poor service. Second is how much capacity the cruise line chooses to buy and provide to its pax - and at what price (included or not). I'm not privy to the Starlink commercial pricing but I'd expect the cruise lines to be carefully evaluating how to contract over the longer term in order to avoid major price increases. Finally, pax behaviour will likely change - the provision of faster, more reliable service will cause more people to use more capacity - which then stresses the availability of the existing resource. The good news is that shipboard internet will get better, but there's no magic answer quite yet. If you are on a cruise with great internet service (Starlink or otherwise) - enjoy it! 🍺🥌

Travel insurance is generally a very competitive market. A price difference that large would have me reading the two policies very carefully to see if they were actually equivalent in coverages and provisions. If they are the same, you've found a good deal. The advice to buy a small amount of coverage early, then upgrade it near PIF time is sound, well worth doing. 🍺🥌

Thanks for posting this Kent! People need to be aware that Starlink is not a magic answer to internet capability on board ships. One issue is that the Starlink satellite grid is not complete - coverage at higher lattitudes is still sparse to zero. See https://satellitemap.space/?constellation=starlink The other major factor is how much bandwidth any given cruise line chooses to buy and how the usage by pax changes when they realized that more is available. There are reports on various boards of great service and of poor service - it will certainly get better over time, but will be a mixed experience for some time to come yet. Enjoy the trip! 🍺🥌

Thank you - it was the Sea ahead of us. My notes had us something like 13 hours delayed out of Bergen (ok, 1/2 day 😈) for the same reason. Sea wanted to get in front of the first storm, we let it pass partially by. 🍺🥌

We were aboard Sun for the September 2019 crossing - it was leg 2 of the WC as I recall. There was another ship (Star? Sky?) that was a day or two ahead of us. Sea conditions were not significant on Sun, but both we and our "lead dog" had major itinerary changes and waits while we tried to dodge a couple of the late season hurricane remnants and other depressions. We were a day late leaving Bergen and missed the Shetlands as well. The weather was largely rainy. Sun's crossing was fairly smooth, but I understood the preceding ship was bumped around somewhat. All in all, the re-routing was well done by the bridge and completely necessary. Life ain't perfect in September, either! 🍺🥌

Your writing style reminds me of a now-retired columnist in one of our national papers - you have the same wry, clever humour. @basor's suggestions are excellent, but FWIW, a butler who responded to two basic requests by telling me to "do it yourself" would find himself on the sharp end of a direct complaint - I get testy when I don't get what I pay for - even if I don't want it. 🍺🥌

Disappointing for you, but I'm pleased to hear of the open level of communication that you've had from Viking, both before the adjustment and now. We've all had schedule changes for many reasons - it's when they come as unpleasant surprises that the hackles raise. It'll be interesting to see if Viking decides to make some wholesale changes to the timing of these early crossings for the coming years. Late May / early June is always going to be at increased risk for weather in the higher lats, and especially for ice. Enjoy the trip! 🍺🥌

Oceania permits a single pax in a cabin to upgrade as well. It is uncommon across lines. 🍺🥌

Significant rain coming Monday - although it may dampen your time in Niagara Falls 😠. The forecast below is for Toronto, but will be close for your first few days. If you have not experienced the Great Lakes before, you are in for a great experience! Enjoy your trip 🍺🥌.

Today (Thursday) was supposed to have been the worst day in Toronto, however, it was not as bad as anticipated due to increased cloud cover in Ontario and Quebec - which restricted the smoke dispersion. Air quality is projected to improve markedly by the weekend (June 10th). FWIW, the air in Toronto did not look nearly as bad as what I saw on TV from NYC and other US cities. 🍺🥌

I completely agree about St. John's - great town and a special harbour entrance! Not sure there's much to choose re ice - going to or from Greenland at this time of year will put the ship into the "Alley" from either port. Hoping for those onboard that there are no route disruptions! 🍺🥌

And a great view of the Intrepid to boot! 🍺🥌

Agreed - unfortunately, lack of sat bandwidth on cruise ships is endemic and likely the cause of the audio hit experienced by @bob brown. Cheers! 🍺🥌

Not a promo code, but the June special offers have landed. Many 2024 and 2025 cruises have noticeably reduced fares (one example being $600 (CAD) off of a previous $8400 price), as well as quite good OBC ($650 or $1300 per couple, depending on voyage timing and length). Some also still carry the $25 deposit, so a cancel and rebook would be painless if you had the original $25 deposit deal. It caused me to wonder whether this was saying something about the 2024/25 booking levels. 🍺🥌

There can be other delays besides the transfer time to a satellite - digital processing at multiple points in the chain, latencies, router stacking, etc. Anyone who has ever done a video conference call has experienced lags of this sort and the accompanying 'talk overs'. They don't always surface on every call, but @bob brown's caution is reasonable. 🍺🥌

ArriveCan is not required, but it does allow you to pre-fill some of the information needed for customs clearance - so it can save some time. You will still need to use the kiosks - for passport scan, etc., but your data input will be less with ArriveCan. It's likely not worth worrying about. 🍺🥌

A nuance to be aware of ... I deliberately cancelled a large number of excursions a week before I had to cancel the cruise itself, so that the excursions would refund to my credit card. The cruise actually carried the RFG (booking was old), so I knew the cruise fare would be back as a voucher. Surprise - the excursions were swept up in the voucher as well, despite being assured that this would not happen. The explanation was that "the excursions had not finished processing, so were combined with the fare voucher". I was not amused. 🍺🥌

We've flown Icelandair's Saga class several times - never had a problem with our carry-ons, which are actually 7.8" deep (if you ignore the trolley handles). We have never been asked to measure them. Re the cabin and seats - these two websites may help: https://www.businessclass.com/airlines/reviews/icelandair-business-class We find them perfectly comfortable for the relatively short flights that a stop in Reykjavik demands. The lounge in Reykjavik is excellent, especially if you're partial to smoked salmon and beer! 🍺🥌

Having to clear Canada customs in July was because you were effectively visiting Canada (Thunder Bay). Your flight from Toronto to Thunder Bay was a domestic one, so boarding it was no different than if you had flown to Toronto and left the airport to visit friends. When you connect through to Europe, you're in transit, and don't leave the transfer area in the airport. You should have lots of time. 🍺🥌

Wise. You may have the odd pleasant surprise, but I have yet to find the cruise line that can offer reliable and consistent internet capability for onboard work. Starlink is not necessarily a magic solution - everything depends on the capacity that the cruise line chooses to purchase - and high capacity is expensive for them.🍺🥌

For a November/22 cruise, we found that Oceania suffered from extremely poor communications prior to embarkation. Mixed messages, outright errors and extremely slow to keep up with unfolding events (this was when a number of countries were relaxing their Covid protocols and being current mattered). Once on board, ops were quite good. 🍺🥌