CDNPolar

Thanks for your words of wisdom. These are just AC points, but what we have found is the great deals in point redemption come this far out. As we look at closer dates, the point requirements go up and the partner airlines that offer better points deals disappear because they are sold out. It is what we thought about Air India and the schedule and that we would never be able to count on the upgrades in time. We are now looking at a potential Air Canada to Delhi and then Air India from Delhi to Bangkok, and then on the way home LOT from Mumbai to Warsaw to Toronto. On this we can get business class all but the Air India Delhi to Bangkok.

Thank you for your reply and the tips on the stability.

@FlyerTalker and others, would love your input. We have never flown Air India before and read horrible reviews often especially about the value of Business Class. We have read of seats and tv's in poor repair and other negative reviews. In March of next year we are flying YYZ to BKK and then BOM to YYZ. We want to book these flights in Business Class on Aeroplan points and it is actually a great deal on Air India. We have read that Air India are upgrading their business class but don't know how to tell if the aircraft we may be booking would be one of these. Below are our proposed flights, any comments, thoughts, or advice? OUTBOUND RETURN

I have used the word "Mandatory" as others have for dinner, but don't take the word as literally as the dictionary definition from my perspective. All that is meant by that is you do what you want to do during the day and we will meet at dinner to catch up. There have been many times that we have booked a specialty restaurant for TWO only and let them know just before we would meet that we would not be seeing them at dinner. We have also decided just before dinner that we would prefer the buffet and they still wanted the menu in the restaurant. In these cases we see them in the lounge after dinner.

Also be aware of any excursions that you may go on that are organized by the ship if they have a meal or a snack attached. I have seen many times that the excursion meals could not accommodate dietary needs. They ship may cater to your needs, but these are independent restaurants and tour providers that may not get it or have the ability to prepare the proper food. I get that you don't want to travel with a suitcase full of food and you should not have to, but our preferred line did not cater well to dietary needs a few years back, but now does a pretty good job.

We find River Cruising to be more casual than Ocean. Also it depends on the river and line you are cruising. Who are you cruising with? Certainly most River Cruise lines are casual in the dining room. Take casual how you will but that generally means no flip flops in the dining room. We have seen everything from jeans to people in dressy evening attire.

We generally find the servers on Viking to be very accommodating and generous.

What @GeezerCouple said, but for certain start to contact the cruise line WELL in advance of either booking or sailing to ensure that your needs can be looked after. Ensure that you have the assurance of the cruise line that they can in fact deal with your situation and that you are talking to someone that is in the know - then get the name of the dietary manager or chef on the ship that you should speak to on DAY ONE embarkation day. Don't leave anything to chance. As much as the cruise lines are very good with this now, I have also heard stories where the reservations agent assured someone that a diet was possible but when they arrived on the ship no one knew about what was promised her.

Absolutely - we have done free air arriving the day of the cruise and paid for air arriving the day of the cruise. To this point we have never encountered a problem. Even with Free Air, you can opt to do one or two nights on your own (not Viking's package) in advance if you are fearful of arriving the same day as the cruise embarks. You will pay a deviation fee of $100 pp and then buy Air Plus at $150 pp so you will spend $500 to arrive a day or two early - if you don't buy Viking's pre package. Plus of course your hotel, meals, and transportation to the hotel from the airport and then to the ship. Sometimes when you add up all these things the Viking package is not that much more. Sometimes... Since you have an overnight stay in Budapest - if I understood correctly - then I would just opt to arrive the day of. If for any reason you are delayed, you have the extra day so you won't miss much.

Agree completely. The ONLY time that you might have a bit of a delay is when half or three quarters of the ship were all on excursion and all return back at the same time. Otherwise for a "normal" service in the World Cafe, you should not have any issue with first glass or refils.

I have been on MVJ also many times this week and all has worked well for me. In fact, I have never personally had issues with MVJ and its functionality.

I thought so but had a brief brain fart and decided not to give their name. Formally, Collette Tours uses TuGo insurance for their Canadian customers.

We will never know the 100% full story of actual events for this situation. It was unfortunate for the passenger involved and unfortunate for all the other passengers on the aircraft. These things happen when we travel and we have seen our share of events including a 90 minute circle over Europe dumping fuel to return to the closest airport to offload an intoxicated passenger. Cool and scary to watch at the same time. If you have never seen a fuel dump before, check this out.... Both wings were dumping at the same time.

This is a discussion that my Husband and I have often because we read on the Insurance forum here on CC some nightmares of claims and collecting. Now we don't know the circumstances and like most stories, there are three sides... The insurance company, the claimant, and then the actual story and events somewhere in the middle. We did have a very clean and simple claim with Arch Insurance in the USA as Canadians when we cancelled a land based trip that was to take place this past January. We followed Arch's process to the "T" and had all the doctor statements, reports, and forms as requested. We actually never spoke to a person at Arch as it was all done online and the ONLY thing that delayed our claim was waiting on the completion of one physician statement where the doctor was delaying us... (not intentional on the doctor's part). We completed the online submission and had a cheque in the full amount in less than 30 days. It was quite simple, and we had been preparing for a long battle... Yes, we want to know the history of claims to know if the insurance company is easy to work with. We do attempt to know their policy language inside and out, and we are generally under no illusion of what they do and do not cover, so we just want to know that if it is an actual covered reason that they are going to pay out and hopefully quickly. We can talk about tour companies on here right? I know that we cannot name TA's... We are looking at a land based tour with a long standing tour company in the USA that starts with the letter "C" and their Canadian travellers insurance is done through TuGo.

Yeah - thanks.... I was, as the title of this thread suggested calling it "ToGo" not TuGo and I searched "ToGo" and found nothing. I just remembered the name phonetically. Now I do see that there are lots of posts about this company. Actually from my research to date, I am quite interested in their annual plan for two reasons: 1) You can choose on the annual plan the trip cost where as with Blue Cross annual they limit you at $5K pp unless you add an additional top up contract. 2) TuGo only has a standard 60 day pre-existing condition requirement with an option to buy a shorter (7 day I think) period. Blue Cross is 90 days.

Yes avoid spring break, and Thanksgiving, and Christmas and New Year. These are all party times on Caribbean cruises with sometimes huge family / friend groups. This is my experience anyway. Longer definitely count out many families especially if they are during school times. Although I can understand your "stuck on the ship" concern, I don't think that would be the case unless you are doing a trans-atlantic type cruise where you have 5 or 6 sea days in a row. There are always things to do on the ship, and believe me you spend your time moving between meals a lot of the time!

I cannot say with certainty that this can be done, but you are not changing the names of the travellers, just the cabin pairing of the names. I would think that this is your best and easiest solution. The fact that you don't keep that arrangement once onboard no one will know or care.

The pre and post add ons are a very interesting one to me. We are NOT necessarily price conscious, but we do our diligence on pricing. We were looking recently at a pre in London before the British Isles Explorer. We were only interested in the 2 night because we have been to London before and don't need that much more time there. This is all in CAD $$. Two nights are $1,899.00 pp. There are NO tours included, it is all self discovery. There is a Viking Host, but we can decide what we want to see on our own. Essentially, for transfers and two nights hotel and 2 breakfasts we are paying $3,798.00. Believe me, we can stay in the same hotel they put you in and pay for our own breakfast and transfers much cheaper than that. I personally don't see what value this brings ME booking through Viking other than some convenience for us and profit for Viking. Double this price pp and get three nights, one dinner, and 5 guided tours of various landmarks. Basically 8K for 3 nights in London.

There is generally one person on each side that is the "Wine Steward" although the other servers will serve you the included wines. We get to know the Wine Steward on the first and second day to know who we will chat with especially if we have the SSBP. Also know that if if you are just drinking the included wines and the included white today is a Chardonnay and you don't like Chardonnay, don't be afraid to ask if they have a different included white as they always have for us when we ask.

Could be Canadian, but I know Americans that have the same language in their policies and they are not buying from Canadian insurance companies.

You are so right! Thanks for the correction.

Hey fellow Canadians, Some time back someone in the Canadian forum mentioned ToGo Insurance as a good option for Canadians. I have done a search here on CC for "ToGo" and nothing has come up. I find that their rates are reasonable and their stability period for pre-existing conditions is only 60 days. Question is, has anyone actually made a claim with ToGo? Were they good to work with? Did they pay out quickly and efficiently? Rates are one thing, but the ease of working with the insurance company is more of my concern.

We use a camera backpack that has one of the openings that is against your back, if wearing on your back, or against your chest if you are wearing in front of you. Most people have things to carry other than the wallet and passport, so the backpack comes in handy, and if you put your valuables in the "backdoor" pocket where the camera gear is intended to go, it is safe unless they lift your entire backpack from you.

We have travelling as a couple, and I have for business used Viator many, many times and have been very happy with them. As mentioned they are a consolidator and reseller and they are owned by TripAdvisor. Often the tour end location is not where the tour starts. This is just how it is sometime, especially with walking tours as the tour may start close to the cruise terminal for that convenience, but will end a distance away. I have always known that the end point could be different and so we have arranged our tours with that in mind. It is all there in black and white for you to see, and if you are not looking closely then the assumption that it will end where it starts will catch you off guard for sure.

Viking Ocean ships all have free self service laundry.