CCWineLover

Couldn't agree more! (Actually the cruiseline air often becomes the most complicated!!). But I do understand there is a decent size group of passengers and prospective passengers who have expressed to Viking the desire to have everything take care of for them. The irony is that a Travel Agent could do all that as well. One stop shopping may sound good, but definitely has its pitfalls. We always separate out cruise, air, and insurance - use different vendors.

Our good friends are currently on this itinerary in Japan on the Orion. So far so good! Hope to get lots of information and tips from them - with the idea of booking in 2025.

We did the same! Homelands on Viking Sky in May 2018.

Bergen is a tough airport for people to get in/out of. Not many choices for those who want to leave immediately following the cruise. We always try to spend a couple days and/or go to Oslo and enjoy that wonderful city. Of course - we only do our own Air for issues just such as this. Much cheaper and more flexible.

Thank you - I think you will find quite a lot of useful information given out with Cruise Critic people - it has a very different flavor than the FB groups.

Do a HUCA ! Seriously, if Viking is eliminating Air Plus, probably a step in the right direction. Personally I think they should eliminate the Air service period. It has caused so much confusion, misunderstandings, anger, angst, stress, and more amongst passengers that it truly detracts from the actual cruise for some people. I've actually heard people say they were never going to cruise on Viking again because of Viking Air (they obviously didn't realize Viking Air is optional).

Too funny! No there was something wrong with our faces - we must have broken the camera when they tried to take a picture. Seriously - they couldn't get that working right!!

We have found doing Comfort Checkin gets us on the ship quite a bit faster than not doing it. Kind of like having a preprinted boarding pass on an airline. Just breeze on through after showing passport and getting our keys and excursion. Usually takes about 1 minute. One time we didn't do it, and it was quite the hassle and took almost a half hour at the counter.

Brings to mind our absolute favorite "lecturer" - Russell Lee ! He has to be the absolute best at delivery and entertainment, often making what might seem like a dry subject, come completely to life! He also puts quite a bit of effort into his preparation. Kudos!

Hard to follow your words, but get the gist. Sadly, this seems to be the case for SO many people (Viking Air experiences). Happened to us, and that is why we DON'T use Viking Air anymore. Not worth the hassle, stress, and giving up control!! But I know that for some people it gives them comfort - but you sure do pay a lot in $$'s and headaches!.

Viking says they don't allow scooters . . . But we saw 3 on our last cruise and at least 2 on several of the other ones. I assume they had been cleared with Viking ahead of time. Again - the median (not average) age is quite a bit higher for certain itineraries as i've described. Those who were surprised at having a younger crowd than expected must not have been on those itineraries (many out of or into Florida). On our recent cruise (to FLL) we estimated that perhaps 150-200 passengers had a mobility ailment of some kind (many had no physical assist like canes, wheelchairs, walkers, etc. but clearly had difficulty getting out of a chair or even walking down the corridors). However, I just have to admire though, the number of folks that are out there cruising who do have a mobility impairment. I hope that we'll still have that attitude to go forth and explore when we are not so mobile!

Again - it depends on the itinerary. After 14 Viking cruises, we’ve had some that had mostly non-fit immobile elderly (bless them for getting out there!) and some (like Norway and I eland, we saw younger and fitter people. so I don’t think anyone can generalize. Your results will vary.

Varies totally by itinerary! ones out of or to Florida tend to be older age. We just are finishing Mars - estimate median age of 82. Same with our Panama Canal cruise. Iceland was a bit younger - maybe median of 76. European port intensive were younger still - maybe mid 60s to early 70’s. we have some 14 Viking cruise so we have a lot of data points.

Guest services said they would relay this info to Engineering.

We often start looking at Biz class 11 months out. I set up alerts as well. Once we book we don’t look back. And always do it ourselves. Issue with Viking Air is them not ticketing soon enough like if you do on your own, and you are at their mercy. We’d had biz class disappear on us by the time they ticketed. Won’t chance that anymore.

6 am on our current cruise (Mars)

You have learned some valuable lessons. We too have learned …. We don’t want to give up control and so do our own air now all the time. I’ve had too many cases where a Viking rep says something that proves not true, so I don’t trust anything g the say anymore regarding air. we really like Viking as a cruise line. However we buy our insurance separately and our air and/or hotels/transfers separately. it has always been easy for us to do this as we are travel savvy and often like to upgrade. Perhaps Viking air works best for those not comfortable with doing their own thing, or simply not knowledgeable enough on the crazy world of airlines these days or those who fly coach and fly in/fly out. something for everyone!

Only book the popular cruises early and wait til the last minute on the unpopular ones. And keep your crystal ball carefully guarded! seriously, it is like seeing plane fares or hotels fall after you buy. Or even stock prices. You make your best guess and go with it.

Your experience is again another example of why although we love Biking Cruises, we NEVER use Viking Air. Too many hassles just like yours. We learned our lesson.

Don’t worry. Bergen and Oslo are easy to get from airport to hotel. Bergen easier - simple Flybussen airport bus. Or even Uber. Oslo the nice express train to town. Norway is not a 3rd world country.

Yes on all ocean ships not just STAR. 2 hooks on bathroom door.

Michelle- as we go out of SFO, we approach things exactly like you do! And wind up doing our own. No back of the plane 6 hours to NYC or DC or ATL like Viking Air seems to always want to put us.

So will you mwike, move on then? Or accept what’s happening? Plenty of option do exist. Curious what you choose. Everyy company imho has pluses and minuses. Nothing is perfect. You have to weigh what’s important to you and this obviously is. To us it is not that important relative to other things, so we stay.

Precisely!

The key is: as long as seats are available under the contract the airlines current have with Viking, and that can change constantly. Your ability to get Biz via Viking air depends solely on how many of Biz seats the airlines want to release to Viking. They could release 2, 4, even zero even though there are plenty to buy die t thru airlines. when you understand this you wil know why it is often not worth it to use Viking Aor. Don’t be penny wise pound foolish. Saving $49 transfer fees is not logical if you can do better air on your own. We always do our own slso the Biz only applies to the overseas flight, not the USA-USA portions. That is in coach. So paying Biz you could still have a 6 hour flight cross country in back of the plane, not worth it.