CCWineLover

Totally agree!! Actually our favorite lobster is Lobster Rolls from James Hooke's in Boston. Yum Yum !!

I'd agree, Dee, with one exception we had (the last cruise). We didn't mesh. He wasn't a used car salesman. He was an order taker and didn't volunteer any information. I had to know the questions I wanted to ask and maybe he might answer them. It was like pulling teeth! And he kept looking at his watch - and then finally said - well are you going to buy or not (i.e. please leave it you aren't)... but that was only once!

Nice set of cruises are awaiting you in the future!

Yes - very itinerary driven. We've been on enough Viking cruises to experience pool nights, if any, and all different days. A lot depends on weather, other events already scheduled, and whether there are sea days or not and how many. So many things are scheduled these days with Viking that their schedulers onboard have quite a bit of flexibility. Some events are indeed standard (like the CD solo evening at Star Theatre), but some occur sometimes and not other cruises.

Dee - we've had the same thing happen to us recently. You have to be careful about what you gain/lose when transferring. In our experience, Viking is NOT being more flexible these days as someone had said earlier. And we have an outstanding TA who battles hard for us. Looking at the IPO notes, it would appear Viking has very high occupancy rates in the industry and has a large percentage of 2024 and into 25 booked. So perhaps they are lenient more on the very future bookings rather than 2024.

Kotor is an unbelievable place! Glad you are going. As you've do doubt read in this thread, everyone has a different opinion - either like or dislike the beds. Sort of like everything in life these days. That is why seeking people's opinions on things doesn't mean as much anymore. 🙂

Agree - it was a big disappointment. Can't for the life of me figure out why all the hoopla and fuss about lobster night. People cancel other reservations to attend and line up early even. Good news is that it frees up reservations to Manfredi's or CT on that night - you can walk up with no reservations on Lobster Night 🙂

Thanks Joe, I will take a look. And I had sent Dee the Roll Call link as well.

In our experience (16 Viking cruises), the beds have been the same on every ship we've been on - which is great for us! Never noticed a difference in Ocean versus River mattresses. We look forward to the Viking beds and always sleep well!

Thank you as well. Excellent points. We love all kinds of wine and are definitely not wine snobs. Part of our traveling is trying new wines from different ports we visit, as well as different foods. What's the point of traveling if you just try to replicate what you have at home? Yes, sometimes the wines haven't been the best, or the pricing mechanism isn't the greatest, but those are very minor things. And when it is important to us, we'll bring some bottles onboard at ports. It's been fun to talk with the wine stewards about them as they open them at dinner for us. My guess is that we may hear lots of complaints but social media gives a distorted view of how many people like/dislike things, including cruising, food, and wine. The great silent majority certainly must enjoy it. I believe Viking makes changes or tweaks only if a vast number of passengers are requesting some kind of change. Until then, I would guess the wine situation stays the same, which is OK.

Funny you mention hips. Love the beds ALSO because my hip pains go away on a Viking cruise amazingly enough. And the hip pain comes back on soft beds.

OK Linda - couldn't resist. Your pictures brought back fond memories of our week stay in Sorrento apartment ahead of our Viking Saturn cruise to Athens. The view from our VRBO balcony of Mt Vesuvius. The whole area is breathtaking and so easy to walk miles everywhere!

We absolutely love the beds. We think they are just the way we like them. Like anything else, there are people who say they are too hard, and some that say they are too soft. So it probably is totally a personal thing. Sort of like asking people if the rooms are too hot or too cold. Everyone has a different opinion. My guess is that the majority of the people we've spoken with do like the beds. Viking can't please everyone so they have IMHO tried to go the middle ground. On ocean ships, there is space underneath as well like river, to accommodate luggage.

Just saw this in an email. https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2024/04/windstar-cruises-welcomes-two-new-ships-to-fleet/ Windstar has two new ships coming, with 224 guests each. Maybe one will be in Tahiti.

When do you go? (Note - we also got a better deal with ESE24 than future guest promo)

Exactly! Trying lots of different things became our nightly adventure! And especially for my wife, it was SO much quieter in the World Cafe compared to the din in the restaurants, particularly if you go to the World Cafe at 7:30 or later, after the 6:00 PM "feeding frenzy" 🙂

You're absolutely right! How could I forget about that Manfredi's bread basket. It is so good, with so many different items, that I have to keep my hands away from it at times, so that I have enough room for dinner 🙂

I do agree with your first point - we most often eat at World Cafe as we are usually disappointed with the Manfredi's and The Restaurant. At least at WC, if something isn't that great you can try multiple things without waiting to reorder from the Restaurants. However, I do totally disagree with your 2nd point. Perhaps you've been unlucky. We also like French baguettes and crunchy firm crusts and fluffy white interiors. However, unlike you, every cruise except one we've encountered just that at the World Cafe. Absolutely love their baguettes. Sometimes they are the long 18 inch kind and sometimes the 6 inch short ones. But they are ALWAYS that nice crunchy firm crust and fluffy interior! They are to die for! Not as good as Paris, but still great!! Next time I'll have to take pictures and a video of the crunching and pulling apart of the fresh fluffy interior!! 🙂

Just asked this of our TA and Viking. In our case the $1000 would be $500 pp. It was the same deduction as the listed cross out price on the web site. Not sure what the big deal on the sale was except perhaps $400 past guest discount. Note - that was for the March equivalent sale. Perhaps April is different if they didn't get enough takers.

We did Pompeii with Viking and Herculaneum with an independent local guide. Both well worth it! We were blessed with good weather in late February.

You must have been to Hong Kong before. We've been but still plan to spend a couple days after our Oct 25 cruise, just because we totally enjoy the vibrancy and food of this city! But - best of luck!

Wow - Your trip has sure been a trip full of issues and bad luck! Sometimes they all seem to hit on one vacation, don't they. Hoping you don't give up travel and keep trying.

We've had the same experiences many times in Europe. For some reason it seems to take longer for the "pending" transaction to be reversed, but it always has been. Give it a couple days and then do the blood pressure raise.

Keep checking back again! Up until you leave, people do indeed cancel. Then onboard immediately go to the excursion desk and ask to be put on a list to be contacted if someone cancels. People get sick on board and do cancel excursions.

Very sorry but the list is correct. I personally verified and checked nearly every room. This is the Viking Star Class (Star, Sea, Sky, Orion, Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Neptune, Saturn). The rooms are the same for all these ships. Personally I wouldn't trust anything a rep at Viking tells me - as they've been wrong so many times on information I know to be correct. Best of luck!