CDNPolar

We have aways preferred booking directly with Viking because when you have a small question or change to make, then you call and it is dealt with immediately - or faster than going through a TA. Our experience with TA's is that often you cannot get a quick turn around of a question because they are now the in-between entity. We have worked with a TA that we cannot reach by phone and then we email and then it takes days for a response. We happen to be very experienced in booking all our vacations from cruise to air to hotel, and excursions. We just feel more "control" in all of our bookings. We have recently booked a cruise however through a "major retailer" travel department because of the rebate, the shop card, and a discount that we got for paying at the time of booking. We calculated our savings to be $3,000.00 give or take. For these savings we will "deal with" a TA, but in general we find them to be more challenging and not offering - to us - much value. (You cannot book Viking through this major retailer, so this is not a Viking booking.) We only use a TA now if there is significant enough financial value to us to do so. And... yes, I agree to the above comment - book through Viking and then transfer to a TA if you get some sort of value. We have done that too.

I agree with Mrbp1 - call the cruise line and ask the questions directly from them. I have done this as a gay man in the past, and although I feel that I got a DEI type of rehearsed and trained response, it showed me that the cruise line at least had a robust DEI policy and the customer service team was well equipped to answer my questions. You really want to hear the cruise line's policy and responses directly from them. Our experience online is great to get, but always go to the source as well.

We have the kind of really light down winter jackets that scrunch up to a small sleeve that is about 5X5 inches, but will also compress into your bag easily if we feel the need to wear that coat to the airport. I tend to "risk it" in that we are only 15 minutes from the airport and we always order a car to take us and bring us back. In this case, we only wear what we want on the aircraft, and that tends to be long pants and long sleeve shirt as we find it cold on the aircraft, especially overnight.

The caution that I add, is that I was under the impression that in some cases, electronics that are purchased in the USA are not warranty covered for repair in Canada. You may have to return to the USA to have any warranty repairs? Check with AppleCare. I may be totally off base with this....

Hello Markham from Mississauga. Cozumel - We did the Ruins of San Gervasio - Informative and OK Belize - We did the Cave Tubing - LOVED IT - Great experience Roatan - We were supposed to do Kayaking and Snorkeling but was cancelled due to weather Costa Rica - We did the Nature Walk and Ariel Tram - Good and informative Colon - We did Panama City By Foot - Good and informative Jamaica - We did Rose Hall and Shopping - Rose Hall was good but the shopping was just a tourist trap I cannot get too excited about any of these EXCEPT the Cave Tubing. I have been to many of these islands before and to me the excursions are all the same. What I will say is the HIGHLIGHT of the trip is the partial crossing of the Panama Canal. Absolutely worth getting up at 5am and being on the deck outside the Explorer Lounge to witness the approach. Approaching in the dark is spectacular. Get there 30-45 minutes before the expected arrival or you may not get a good railing spot. Again - for me the highlight of this trip.

Might be the difference of calling in and asking/complaining. We did not ask or complain on one port missed on our recent Homelands cruise, but apparently some did and they got some compensation.

The elimination of Key West is not new. I was on a Panama cruise in December of 2021 and it was listed on the itinerary on MVJ with all excursions showing sold out. I believe that this is because Key West have limited the guest count on cruise ships and Viking is too big. Not sure why Viking keep this port on the itinerary as it only causes grief like we are seeing here... Oh, and by the way, we fully expected to stop at Key West even though excursions were sold out. We only found out on embarkation day that we would not be stopping.

Same as above... we will often do an early excursion, stay in the city/town or wherever we are, and sample a local restaurant for lunch, then wander. Saves going back to the ship and leaving again.

In looking at your signature, you have been on cruise ships that are 2500'ish guests... I have been on that size of ship in a previous life, before I found small ship sailings. The larger ship has a more diverse night life because of the size of the ship, but also because of the age demographics of the ship. (we are in the 40-60 age range) Viking at capacity is only 930 guests and the average age is much higher than the ships you have sailed. Viking has designed an experience that meets the needs of the older crowd that wants more luxury and is not looking for disco dancing at night. It is true that most of the streets roll up after the second show in the Star Theatre, but depending on what you are looking for, there are some options, but they are all fairly sedate. As I mentioned earlier, we choose not to go to Torshaven as we find it rather enclosed and loud and we are not interested in dancing. We have always gravitated to the Explorer Lounge after the show in the evening and we have generally always found that to be a relaxing end to our day. There will be either the guitar player or the piano player or a string duo there for a set or two. As Clay Clayton said above, it also depends on the cruise itinerary as if it is shorter and really packed, folks are off to bed early. (We tend to book our excursions as early as we can) When I think back to my time on larger ships, I fondly remember why I love Viking so much. It is because it does not have all the choices, noise, and confusion that I feel the larger ships have. On Viking the food is excellent, the service even "excellent-er", the ship is tastefully laid out in a Scandinavian calm colour pallet, and it just fits the level of luxury that we are looking for. I hope you love Viking as much as we do.

The only thing to be aware of is if you move to another date, you may retain all the savings but if the price has gone up on future sailings, you will have to pay the difference.

We did our Mediterranean cruise in May. We are not heat lovers. I know of people that do Europe in the summer and most have come back saying that it is too hot. If you are just sitting on deck, great. Most of the best excursions have a lot of time outside and walking, hiking, etc., and when it is hot it may be unbearable. I have spent time in Florida in the summer, and if just sitting under cover, the heat is fine. I would not want to be on a walking tour without cover.

We have had high powered cameras and now rely 100% on the iPhone. We just got the iPhone 14 specifically for the upgrades to the camera both in still and video. We produce very high quality movies from every trip that we are on and they are a combination of still and video and they all come from the iPhone. Our friends are amazed when they find out that we only used the iPhone. Travelling with a camera is a preference for some, and we used to do it, but that is added concern and often adds issues as it is one more thing around your neck that you are carrying and protecting from damage or theft. The question do you need cell service to use the phone camera - no - but we do have our data roaming on (under Rogers Roam Like Home) as then the camera establishes the meta data - location, time, date, etc, for when we are downloading and preserving our photos later we can sort by location and time. Also, because we both take pictures, when we merge the pictures at home (last trip there were 8000 pics) they all sort again to location and date/time because of the meta data. This however DOES require you to have data roaming and that costs more. Rogers Roam Like Home is up to $15 per day depending on the location.

We have sailed Viking in warm and cold temps. We find that the onboard experience - dining, theatre, etc. - are all adequately kept at a good temperature. Now, that is not to say that you would not need a light sweater or long sleeves. I run hot and my partner runs cold. I can do with short sleeves or a light long sleeve shirt, but he will likely wear a long sleeve sweater at dinner or in the Star Theatre as sometimes you are under an AC draft. In general the temps are what I would say you should expect.

Hey - no worries... I did not know they were there in the beginning either. You will always get some great information here as there are many loyal Viking guests in this forum. Hope you enjoy your first Viking Cruise.

The port times are on page 3 or 4 of your Viking Invoice. This is the page with the itinerary and the estimated arrival and departure times are there. We do some of the optional excursions but have always been satisfied with the included excursions too. I have read that some say that the included excursions are only walking tours, but that is not true. There are many included excursions that are quite exceptional. We also look at outside tour operators if the port times match. Most is quite quiet after the 9:15pm Start Theatre show. Torshaven is where you would go then if you want music and dancing. We typically then move to the Explorer Lounge where many people will gather for a night cap, but Viking is not a nightlife ship.

Met my husband 9 years ago and we have been married for 7 years now. When I met my husband, he had never been on a cruise before. I had been on large ships and was not crazy about my experience on a large ship. We watched a lot of PBS shows and especially during Downton Abbey we would see Viking advertisements. The ads were appealing to us and our tastes - or so we thought. We were excited to do our first cruise and it was an Ocean cruise. Our second was River. We have now done 5 Viking cruises, which would have been 7 or 8 by now if the pandemic did not get in our way. Viking does attract an older demographic, and Viking does not have the nightclubs and casinos, but this is more our style anyway. Quiet enjoyment of the culture and the food where you are travelling. If you are looking for a great vacation, with great food, great service, great crew, then you should consider Viking. Ocean ships are 930 guests and River ships depend on the river, but range from 60'ish to 180'ish guests.

We are in the process of booking our first experience on Hurtigruten and it is an Antarctica cruise. Does anyone recommend the optional liquor package? Does anyone have pictures of the beverage menu and prices if we opt not to take the liquor package? Thank you.