CCWineLover

Sorry to hear. What is and "IT Payment" ?? FYI - this happened to me recently, and I immediately used the chat. The person on chat processed the payment and we were done in 1 minute, so didn't lose much time at all. Interestingly enough, I had used one credit card that caused the issue. The chat person suggest I give her a different card or use ACH checking. I did that and it immediately went through. She said sometimes certain credit cards have issues. FYI. Future reference for everyone.

Probably true.

🙂 OK OK DQ - perhaps "Sloppy" wasn't the best choice of words. But this trip most are going very very very casual, as in pool resort style - which is just fine with me at World Cafe - just not in the 2 specialty restaurants. Again - the main point was simply that Viking is very inconsistent in any enforcement of their dress codes.

We did a TA last December. To tell the truth, these days on Viking it seems to be whatever the passenger wants to try to get away with. Sometimes and some ships they enforce dress code at the Specialty Restaurants and sometimes they don't. On our current Rome to Athens cruise, the standards never seem to be enforce and we have seen quite a bit of sloppy World Cafe style dressing in Manfredi's and Chef's table. Take your chances.

Thx! I did a brief walk through hallways this morning while on Saturn and they were cleaning rooms. It would appear that ALL the DV rooms have pilasters bump outs - at least those between the two sets of elevators. Interesting. Never really noticed it before.

Thank you for the list. Can anyone verify which rooms on the 6th floor have bumpouts? Specifically 6029 and 6035 ?? I wonder if anyone has a complete list at all. One of the things we found with a bumpout is that the sound insulation might not be so good as it is next to the back to back TV's. Our neighbor's TV is so loud in our room we can't even sleep - never had that problem in a non-bumpout room.

Today we were just offered the opportunity to have TWO included tours in Venice. Not normal practice they said. We arrive Tuesday and doing Venice/St Marks Square. Then on turnaround day (Wed) they said we could do the included Chioggia walk tour if we wanted. I sai I thought the rule was only 1 included. Guest services said we are making an exception this time. I could also have done the included Venice on your own.

We’ve seen many multiple included excursions in a port but only this past year. It appears to be a new thing. we have 16 Viking ocean cruises. we’ve also seen multiple included tours on different days as well. As an example. In Venice (Chioggia) there are several different included tours offered on all 3 days we are there this week. But we can only pick one.

You quoted the wrong person. I totally agree with what you've said. Nobody forces people to go walk the plank as you say. My point is - then why do people continue to complain about "having" to walk the plank. Just give it up if it doesn't suit you and stop complaining.

Not only that, their system will not let you book 2 included tours in a port.

Agree with telling the driver, also add what baggage you have checked. We just recently arrived in Rome and from landing to getting our bags was about 90 minutes. Reason - so many flights arriving at same time and baggage took forever.

So why do you keep involved with Viking? Seriously?

Many many people aren’t on that other site. ive found that it’s best just to start collecting names cabins etc and organize it yourself if you want to have one. Quite easy to do and work with Viking. I think Viking doing the initiation was a one off for Orion. Never seen it. my organized M&M (5th one I’ve done) is next week. Sometimes theCD is involved, sometimes the Guest Services. I contact both about a week ahead of time, having already gathered the list of names, cabins, and count and sent as a pdf file. Viking has always said how they so appreciate it! They do the invites from the list. They do not put it in the daily. There are plenty of other parties open to all onboard.

I've organized 4 Meet & Mingles since COVID and have another upcoming. The official Cruise Critic mingles were paused, but if a passenger takes the initiative (like I did) to organize, collect names and cabin numbers, and work with Viking, we can still have these get togethers. Viking has been so helpful in keeping these great sessions going with passenger help. They even every time sent personal invites to our cabins. I always nicely requested having the meetings in the Wintergarden so as not to interfere or disturb others (for example, if we did it in Explorer's Lounge). Viking has always made that happen. They even supplied drinks and apps. Great show!

Sounds good to me - we did a nearly identical itinerary in 2019 - make sure you get/book La Sagrada timed entry inside - well worth it. Did Park Guell on another trip. (It was good enough to take up a decent amount of time and walking).

We'll miss you and Vineyard View on Viking in the future! Yes they've gotten expensive - especially for their most popular itinerary (BIE). On the other hand, many of the transatlantics are going begging . . . 🙂

50 EUROS tip ?? Wow.

OK. I spoke with my TA. YES, they do get special codes to be used by them (not for buying directly with Viking). They can tell you what specials there are (5 of them in February) by the type of itinerary but don't give you the code itself. They will apply them. They also have access to all those codes we see posted in CC and from various Viking emails. This is true not just of Viking but other cruise lines like Regent, etc. If I were to wish to book something, she would immediately look for those codes and apply them. I could also call and ask what are the TA specials on Viking bookable this month, for example, and she could tell me the itineraries. I could then choose one of those specials by itinerary if I wanted. I gather they keep this somewhat close to the vest. Hope that helps.

I'm talking with my agent this afternoon. Will let you know what she says (and how she says it 🙂

Hmmm - I'll have to ask our TA (from a very large Agency) about that. In all our dealings, never heard of that and they do quite a bit of business with Viking.

Perfectly stated! Of course the first sentence applies only to those who arrive with Viking Air on the day of boarding (or a pre-extension). When you do your own airfare you can pretty much board anytime 11 am on.

You may well have been informed that you "embark" at 1 pm. But it may also be that your "Room" is available for you at 1:00 pm. The two are different. Many people have in the past have confused their "Room Available" time to be the embarkation time. Nearly every cruise we take, we've been able to "Get on board - embark" at round 11 AM, even though our room is not available until later that afternoon (like 1 pm for PV rooms).

Yes - it's been pretty obvious this is the case. Just like hotels and airlines and other businesses.

I gather it was a fairly recent change. I doubt Viking would do a complete reprint of all those menus for a bit. At least they told us up front. AND they could have updated the menus shown on the shipboard screens. I wouldn't doubt it is down at the bottom of their overall priority lists.