photopro2

6 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

Saturn is the current #9, but when considering the Sun, she is the 10th ship built for Viking.

Thanks for that @Heidi13 I should have thought to list the ships myself before posting. 

Looking back at the reports from 2018 I now see that they were predicting that Tellus was to follow The Venus as "ship 8". With the help of yourself, and @LindaS272 I think I can now definitively say that it was the Viking Mars, which was provisionally called Tellus.......... Probably 😁

Excellent answer @Island2Dweller

For independent travellers leaving the ship and making their own way directly to the airport it might be worth noting that there are Elizabeth line trains from Canary Wharf that continue beyond Paddington to Heathrow. Of course, the journey can also be reversed to travel from Heathrow to Greenwich Pier.

There is a small surcharge included in the price when using the Elizabeth line to/from Heathrow, rather than the Piccadilly line. However that is usually good value as the journey is faster and the connections can be more convenient, depending on exactly where in London you're heading.

Given that it is quicker and less costly than taxis and limo services, the Elizabeth line is IMO the best way between Heathrow and London. The one proviso is that you are able to wheel your bags up to 200 yards at a time over fairly level walkways and pavements......sidewalks? 🙂

57 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

Isn’t Saturn #9?

Sorry - that would be right. In that case it was Neptune that would have been Tellus. 

Back in 2018 it was widely reported that ship number eight (which has just gone into service as the Viking Saturn) would be called the Viking Tellus. This name is not (as some might expect 😉) a nod towards towards Viking customer services. In fact it is another name for the planet Earth 🌍

Tellus was the Roman counterpart of the Greek earth goddess Gaia. It is suggested that the word Tellus became used in Latin as a personification for the Earth as a whole rather than "terra" which related more to physical properties of earth, in the same way that "aqua" related to water.

Hence the phrase "Tellus Mater" (literally Mother Earth) or simply "Tellus" became the name which was used for our planet by Latin speaking scholars into the renaissance and beyond. 

So, while the name was not applied to ship number eight as expected, it may come up again further down the line.

50 minutes ago, MikeyB said:

In the write-up for this excursion it describes "demanding" as being three hours or more. 

Viking's definition of "demanding"  is not based only on the walking distance of the tour. Other factors are taken into account including that activities by foot may contain difficult unpaved surfaces and/or multiple stairs and steep inclines.

It is unusual for the included tour to be described as demanding and so I checked the description of a similar Art Nouveau Walking Tour on the Seabourn website. They are much more specific in their description, noting that "this walking tour covers approximately 3 km and involves steps, uneven ground, cobblestone paths, gradual slopes and is therefore not suitable for guests with any walking difficulties"

I think this suggests that Viking have correctly given a "demanding" rating (due to what may well be less than ideal walking surfaces in this historic town) rather than making a typo in the description.

In fact, there are three types of included wine available - red white and sparkling.

The house sparkling wine is usually a dry German variety, normally the same one you might be offered on embarkation day or at the captain's reception etc. However, you can ask for it whenever the included wines are being served at any point on the voyage,

For us it has become our standard sail-away drink and we sometimes take a glass to compliment a plate of sushi as an "opener" for our evening dining.

🙂🍾

3 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Hopefully someone with an independent transfer who has docked in Greenwich will speak up.

We did this in 2019 and, according to the daily, we could depart at "at leisure" between 03.00 and 9:15 am. Viking did not operate its own tenders but used larger boats from the Thames clipper fleet that usually run from Greenwich into central London for the short trip from the pontoon mooring to shore.

Getting your bags off, might be another thing though. As I recall, the walk out onto the floating pontoon and on to the tender may have included some small steps. You would probably be okay with small carry-ons but full-size cases would certainly be better put out the night before. They are loaded onto a barge during the night and then placed in a disembarkation marquee, gathered together by tag colour, for you to collect when you get ashore.

4 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

I think "priority" means ES has priority over PS, PS over PV, PV over DV and DV over V.  V has no priority.

That is certainly correct as far as the hierarchy goes, but it still remains to be seen what "priority" means in real terms. 

Having "priority" is rather academic if 100% of the available booking slots have already been taken by those in your cabin category and above, as seem to be the case with the OP. It will be interesting to see if Viking make available sufficient timeslots to fulfil the number of priority bookings theoretically offered to those in DV cabins and above. Fortunately, this may be the case as the post by @YWW suggests.

8 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Alas, the word "guaranteed" currently does not appear in the description. I noticed when I went looking for something the other day.

Thanks for the heads up @Peregrina651 You spotted that before I did! The word "guaranteed" in that context was just advertising hype and was being ignored from a practical point of view - I am happy to see it go. Exactly what "priority" means remains to be seen.

I very much agree with your advice to the OP that there is no need to panic. Recent posts do suggest that reservation slots are added to MVJ from time to time and so it is a good idea to recheck the platform regularly. Also, in the vast majority of cases, this becomes a non-issue once on board and we have almost always been able to dine in speciality restaurants on our preferred dates, although perhaps not at exactly our preferred times. 

6 hours ago, Jim Avery said:

Do you really know what you want to eat months in advance?

No Jim, but we do sometimes know far in advance that we wish to celebrate an anniversary in a specialist restaurant on a particular date. Or maybe we want to eat in one of those restaurants on an evening we know we can have a later start (and chance to recover) the next day 😁

On 7/24/2022 at 1:06 PM, photopro2 said:

However, I will be contacting Viking again to suggest they should immediately remove that valueless “guarantee” from their promotional material so as not to mislead customers who book in future.   

It has taken rather longer than I would have hoped but Viking have finally taken up my suggestion and removed the word "guaranteed" from their cabin descriptions.

From a practical point of view this will make no difference as the so-called guarantee was already meaningless, as detailed in my original post back in July 2022. Those in DV cabins will still be able to make "priority" reservations in advance and I am sure that the excellent restaurant staff will continue to assist with reservations on-board as they always have.

However, I am pleased to see that Viking have recognised that it is wrong to guarantee something that is not always delivered and have made changes to their promotional material accordingly.

Hi @Azulann I have posted a reply in the virtual explorers lounge to avoid threat drift here 🙂 

Hello @Azulann I thought we could find a corner in here for a chat rather than go too far off topic on another thread.

In answer to your question, no I've not visited that photographic museum in Stockholm. In fact I have only briefly travelled through Stockholm once and never spent any time in the city. We do have Viking Homelands in our sights for 2025 though and, like you, plan to start with a pre-stay in Stockholm so we are looking forward to your trip reports. Which itinerary is it that you are on?

You will notice that I changed my profile picture and see that the camera is included for myself and the travel books to represent DW's librarianship. If you look carefully, there is a model of the Viking Sea tucked in there, too.

We have a big trip planned starting in February 2024 to mark DW joining me in retirement. We are doing the Chilean fjords, and then back to back across the Atlantic to Barcelona. We are hoping that the TA will live up to the one we did together on Viking Sea, but that is a big ask!

On 4/25/2023 at 12:00 AM, Gropo said:

But wasn’t Harald himself descended from Vikings

Thanks for your comments, One of the great things about Viking is that their customers are often the sort of people that enjoy this sort of discussion as much as I do. 

Of course, you're perfectly correct. In fact my son, who is a history graduate, pointed out exactly the same thing when I spoke to him after making my original post.

However, I can't resist defending my position by saying that the invaders did indeed do all they could to impose their specifically Norman culture (which was only partially Viking derived) in the areas over which they ruled.

Regarding making quotes, you should find that if you highlight a section of text within a post, a "Quote selection" box will appear on screen. Clicking that box will open the reply to topic box with the quoted text at the top so you can add comments underneath.

If you already have the reply box open when you select the text, then it will insert the quote like this: 

On 4/25/2023 at 12:00 AM, Gropo said:

( sorry, don’t know how to properly do quotes):

Hope that helps 🙂

Another option is to buy tickets at the station the previous evening after the crowds subside, The station is open quite late into the evening, at least during the summer months. As I recall, the tickets were valid for 24 hours and we used them late the following afternoon to get straight in line for a short wait for the train.

Of course, you don't have to walk back down immediately. The area on top of the hill has many forest paths and it was good to get away from the crowds around the top station. We took about an hours easy walk along well made paths to the Sandvikspilen viewpoint, passing a beautiful lake along the way. We returned into Bergen via the Skredderdalen trail. However, I would only recommend this route back for experienced and well equipped (booted) hikers as it is a steep descent over rough terrain.

Hi @Azulann

As others have said, I am only seeing Online Registration has been PAUSED on the meet & mingle page. Hopefully the system will reopen over coming months. If not, we might need to start a "Bring back Meet & Mingles" campaign aimed at Viking and cruise critic 😁

On 4/28/2023 at 12:46 AM, Peregrina651 said:

Anyone can join Cruise Critic. Anyone can read any roll call here. Not every one comes here with the best of intentions.

Thanks for the timely reminder about online security. As a result, you might have noticed that I've changed my profile picture. Facial recognition software has become much more sophisticated and some unscrupulous person might be able to use it to track down my real name and address. That is a particular problem on roll calls where I would not want to advertise the fact that we will be away from home over specific dates! 

7 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

I personally have a problem with posting that information publicly (it's just not safe) and therefore would choose not to participate in a meet and greet so organized.

I would agree with that and wonder if there's any way of encouraging Cruisecritic and Viking to get together so they can reintroduce the system that was used pre-Covid?

Perhaps the moderator of this board could put forward the suggestion to the relevant person at Cruisecritic?

We really enjoyed this excursion. As you say, it was the chance to get some fresh air and made a nice break.

As I recall the drive was about an hour each way. The walk itself was just over 2 hours so if you add in toilet stops etc. then it probably comes to about five hours overall.

It was a circular walk from the pretty village of The Lizard and passed the lighthouse with huge foghorns, the hut from which Marconi made the first transatlantic radio broadcast and the Lloyd's signal station. There are fabulous views of the rocky coastline along the way.  

We found the hike fairly easy, but we do quite a lot of walking. I think for most Viking passengers it is correctly classed as strenuous. I have added a red arrow to the last of the images below to show the way the path goes up the hillside. There are a fews ups and downs along the way, but I think this one was the steepest.

9 hours ago, Carolfay said:

The reproductions certainly have an important place in the ship decor.  Is it because the Normans (as in Norman Conquest) were "Norse Men" - and that's the Scandinavian tie-in?

I think you are right but it goes a little deeper than that.

"Norman" is indeed derived from “Northmen” and refers to the ethnic group living in the northern part of what is now France around 1000 years ago. These people were descended from Vikings, who settled in the area during the ninth century.

As I’m sure you already know, Duke William of Normandy landed near Hastings in 1066 and took the throne of England by killing King Harold and defeating his army. The tapestry depicts this invasion.

King William’s Norman associates quickly established themselves as the ruling class across much of England, laying the foundations for many great castles, churches and cathedrals. They physically dominated the countryside and, in the same way, they also imposed Norman culture. 

The Normans were the last to successfully invade the British Isles. As a result, it is their culture (with its Viking roots) that can be seen as underlaying British society to this day. In more recent centuries this underlaying culture has, to some extent, permeated out into the diverse English-speaking countries of the world. 

Viking customers, being predominantly English speaking, can claim to share a degree of cultural heritage that flows back (via colonial Britain and ninth century Normandy) to the Vikings.

It is also worth noting that the word Viking originally meant a traveller. To quote from “The Conversation” website: 

“A víkingr was someone who went on expeditions, usually abroad, usually by sea, and usually in a group with other víkingar (the plural). Víkingr did not imply any particular ethnicity and it was a fairly neutral term, which could be used of one’s own group or another group.”

Whether our home is in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK or the USA, the Bayeux tapestry is a reminder that we share a common Viking cultural ancestry.

Whenever we are on a Viking ship, we are all Vikings!

The new Elizabeth Line is real game changer for the transport options to and from Heathrow. So it should be after taking 13 years to build at a cost of well over $20 billion.

By following the excellent route description by @Island2Dweller I don't think you would have to walk much further with your bags on the way to Greenwich than you do when you go through many of the large international airports.

Another change is that the old Oyster card is now redundant as far as visitors are concerned. It is much easier to use contactless bank/credit cards or phone payment at the barriers. The system is also clever enough to calculate and charge the minimum rate that is appropriate for any journeys on a particular day. 

Addison Lee is certainly the company that the VIPs use and, if you are lucky, might get you to the ship in about the same time. But do be aware that London traffic can cause considerable delays in that road journey from one side of the city to the other. It may sometimes be faster to take the 69 mile trip round the M25 Orbital Road rather than going 23 miles straight through central London!

A search on Google Maps shows Heathrow to Cutty Sark as taking anywhere between 1 hour 15min, and 2 hours 30 minutes by car. On the other hand travelling on the Elizabeth line is shown as a reliable 1 hour 11 minutes. 

14 hours ago, wynnsr said:

Sorry to miss you.  This is a general "progress" board for Saturn. Would've liked to talk a bit. 

You might both like to visit the virtual explorers lounge thread.

You are welcome to chat as much as you like in there with free virtual bar and lovely views out over the location of your choice 😁

22 hours ago, MWKnight said:

Is anyone familiar with the availability of mocktails or NA beer selection

Alcohol free beer is certainly available, Heineken Zero, if I remember correctly. It is free of charge during lunch and dinner meal hours.

6 minutes ago, SJD117 said:

I took the funicular up and down in a raging storm with close to zero visibility on top. I would not want to hike the trail in those conditions.

My point exactly 😁

Another option might be the private room at each of the specialty restaurants, which are available free of charge. I believe these seat up to 12 or 14. Your party might be slightly on the small side, but there is no harm in asking in case no one else has them booked. 

I would agree with others that this is an extremely easy excursion to arrange for yourself, as we did.

The funicular station is a short walk from the ship and one-way tickets can be purchased online to avoid queues.

As well as the cost saving, a big advantage of doing this on your own is that you can judge the weather on the day. As well as the frequent rain the top could be in fog or cloud. If so you can easily change your schedule depending on the forecast for the day, or even decide to do something else instead.