CDNPolar

Both times to Budapest now we have arrived during the day. We booked a night cruise of the city scape and it was unbelievable. Budapest lit up is amazing! If you sail in at night, be on deck. If you do not sail in at night find a local city based cruise and go on that.

Hope your Partner is doing well, and thank goodness that it happened before you boarded the ship!

I think too early in the season to see any Christmas treats.... but let's see what they post.

We have never had an issue getting through on the phone. And for a modification to your booking you want to talk to someone - IMO - as the modification may not carry the same booking discounts. Viking bookings and discounts and payment terms are difficult to navigate until you have done it a few times... but all can be done generally with a good outcome.

Excellent advice. You must be flexible and accept that your main reason for the cruise may be missed. We booked a Baltic Sea cruise for the specific reason to visit St. Petersburg and then the war broke out and that was dropped along with Finland and Estonia. We decided to go anyway, but Russia at the time of booking was our main draw.

Forgot to save the link, but in Apple News yesterday I saw a brief article that Canadians can once again get their Visa online. This from Travel.gc.ca

Wow... Gonna get my Medallions ahead of the cruise! WooHoo!

Not of interest to me so we don't want this either. Would I sail on a ship with a Casino? Would not be my first choice. This means that valuable real estate of the ship is being taken up by something that we don't use. I would rather there be more specialty restaurants or other amenities.

This is exactly what I would expect from any cancellation with excursions. With Viking that we sail, you can cancel the excursion (fully paid) up to 48 hours in advance, so provided you are cancelling at least that far in advance you would be guaranteed that money back from Viking. This is another reason that you should always be looking at insuring the non-refundable costs only. You could have hundreds of dollars tied up in shore excursions and if you insure these then the cost of your insurance goes up. This is where we "hedge" always on insurance. We insure only the cost of the non-refundable.

I am all about the points. Insurance on credit cards does not cover what I want and need in insurance and is only the secondary to my full insurance policy if it does not cover something completely. (Canadian here and all insurance is different than in the USA - credit cards or direct to the insurance company.)

...if you know more than one crew member when you board the next cruise...

Some promotion codes require payment further in advance, BUT if you are booking through a TA or even direct with Viking you sometimes have to ask for this 6 month payment date. Not all agents give it freely.

Haha! You had a following and did not even know it! Love it. Our worst one was two women that followed us around - especially at dinner time. They would find us in the lounge and then say they wanted to eat with us. In this situation it was hard to avoid them. The thing was that for the first couple of days they were fairly quiet and "normal" but over time their personalities came out and they were actually not that "normal". There was also a rift happening between these two friends sharing a cabin and that became more noticeable as the days went on. This is river cruising. You just do your best.

Extra pair of sunglasses. I just had a pair break, and I actually have two more pairs that I travel with.

Oh, yes, love this. Taking off topic, but this happens on the busses too! We boarded a bus with our friends after a short stop and most people were in different seats. The four of us selected seats across the isle from each other and a woman approached and stood in the isle and said - "You are in my seat" and just stood there... We moved. Life is too short to have preferred seats and not get your way.