CDNPolar

We now consider our air to be approaching the cost of the cruise in some cruise itineraries that we are booking. We do a lot of long haul flights and these are just expensive now for sure. Especially Asia.

We just had a friend return from a land based tour in Italy. 20 people. One coughing at the beginning of the trip and most sick by the end of the trip. We STILL travel with Masks and I don't care what anyone thinks or has to say, but when I hear coughing and sneezing on a bus then the mask goes on and hyper vigilance starts with the hand hygiene. She got Covid and was high fever and sick for almost 2 weeks on returning home.

We embark in Barcelona in October. We have been to Barcelona before and just intend to go directly to the ship. If we came across protesters we would just move on and let them do their thing.

I wondered about posting Princess in the Hurtigruten forum. In any case, we were on the Nansen, but sister ship and I think identical. We had the absolute best time on this cruise and this is the best cruise of our lives to date and probably always will be. You cannot express exactly why it is so great, you have to experience it. In my signature you will find a link to our. personal videos - one of the Antarctica. This is a non monetized site, so I am not trying to drive traffic... @Catlover54 comment about being banned to tourists, this is a distinct possibility as the traffic heading there is incredibly on the rise. However, the region is governed by very strict rules, and all tour companies sailing there must abide, but I can see that in the future if over tourism starts to harm the environment, that it will be stopped or at least have strict limits.

Also, where are you sailing from? I cannot find any Princess sailings to Antarctica in March of 2025.

I don't want to point out something that you may already know, but you know that this cruise does not "stop" anywhere in Antarctica and let you go ashore on the Antarctic Continent - right? The size of this ship and the number of passengers does not allow for shore landings. You are listening to someone speaking and pointing out areas of interest as you sail by. You may know this, so please forgive me if you do, it is just that most people want to set foot on the Continent.

Thanks...

I would return to Madrid over Barcelona any day. I would also consider Sitges outside of Barcelona - beautiful seaside town.

All great responses, but I think that many will find that the trend to charge fees is an emerging trend. The trend is emerging because there are many things - air especially - that is either not commissioned, or a very low commission. If there are problems then the TA can be on hold with airlines for hours to work this out. I am ok with the TA that charges a fee for research but will rebate when you decide to book. I have been in sales my entire career and it does not matter the industry, there are a lot of tire kickers out there that will waste your time and never follow through. To answer the OP's question however here is my finding... Most cruise lines have a education program for their Travel Advisors and the TA's can become "Certified" in the cruise line product. These TA's are often then listed on the cruise line web site as experts in the cruise line product. We wanted to go to Antarctica and this was a big deal to us (we book our own cruises) and so we decided that we wanted someone that knew the cruise line and the destination. We found this TA on the cruise website, and were extremely pleased with her knowledge and what she did for us.

I think that some of us have better immune systems that others for sure. We have friends that have been sick over and over and over and ourselves and others have faired extremely well and we were of the first to start travelling again after Covid.

This is how we feel about Viking and why we are at 10 cruises with Viking with 4 more booked. Regarding your comment about River - on Viking we love River as well, but very different from Ocean. We love both, but if I had to make a decision to only sail one in the future it would be a difficult decision, but I would likely pick Ocean. This is for many reasons...

We are the same... for us cruising is about the destinations, the ship, and the overall experience and we just love to meet and interact with different people. All the friends we have made cruising are straight. We met one gay couple once and had lunch with them but with them it was all about being gay and we spent the rest of the cruise trying to avoid them.

I miss the Douro and will return. You just gave me some great memories! How do you compare the experience of Scenic over Viking?

If you are referring to the Port Talks, yes, I would almost feel that I had missed something spectacular if I was not in attendance. What might they say or inform us about that is not on the daily activity sheet? We like the hard copy as I will take a highlighter with me and highlight things that I want to ensure we look at again or attend. But, with that said, we are also ok with an electronic copy or in the cruise line App. But, I would still wonder what passing comment the CD might make that was not included in the daily.

Yelling at tourists and spraying them with water guns is not the answer. This reminds me of cities some decades ago where protesters were spraying women (and men) with spray paint that were wearing fur coats. These are the innocents in my mind, like the tourists. If I can buy a fur coat, I might buy one. If I can buy a cruise to Barcelona I might buy one. In the spray paint situation we should have gone after the farming of fur bearing animals and the industry putting them in stores - not the individuals wearing them. The damage was already done if I am already wearing a fur. Stop the future, don't attack someone for buying something or going somewhere that is "acceptable" in society today, or was in the past. Don't go after the tourists, go after your government and find a longer term solution to over tourism. "Harming" tourists is not the answer. This type of protest does not stop the next ship that is scheduled to dock in port.

This is a clear cut example of the need to understand fully what you are booking. This may also be a great reason why this person should have used a Travel Agent that knows cruises and the ins and outs of these bookings.

YES, YES, YES! I never thought of it this way, but it is so true. One "class" of passenger.

I get what you are saying, however we are city and love Viking and he and family are truly rural and love the big... so opposite from your example....

Yes, for us and the cruise length that we are booking penalties don't come until 120 days from sailing. We pay at 180 days so we have 2 full months of open cancelation only risking the $50 deposit.

Please don't take offence to my questions.... but your description is brief and I want to understand more. Sorry - I don't understand why you bought insurance for the cruise portion but did not include all the others? I think that this is why you are seeing a bigger ticket price than you wanted. You are paying two insurance companies for what you could have covered with one? Why would you not insure the entire trip - all costs - with one insurance company? Just as a note, if the flights cancelable for a fee or you retain the value of the flight for a year (which is the case with many flights) then you are wasting money to insure the flights because the insurance will only pay out on non-refundable or anything that does not result in a credit.

This is what I don't like about Viking River - they are cramming too many people on the ship. I have yet to experience the ships with fewer people but I think this will help my feeling of overcrowding.

Haha... yes, VIA Rail in Canada. My experience is that if it is actually moving and not sitting on a siding waiting for a freight train to pass, that it is incredibly motion heavy to the point that it is difficult to walk down the isle. I do hope @1of4 that you find your way with this. I have a friend that suffers in a similar way to you and when she is in an attack it is horrible for her, although she has no idea of what sets them off.

Looking forward to more posts so that I can live my Douro experience again. In order of amazing, our favourite cruises are: 1) Antarctica 2) The Nile 3) The Douro River on Viking The first two are top of the list because of their uniqueness but if you took those away from me, the favourite cruise (ocean or river) thus far would be the Douro.

We are firmly Viking lovers, but my nephew and family only want the biggest cruise ships and the most outrageous numbers of people on a ship. This is their happy spot. Not mine.

It is so interesting.... In the UK you get much better full payment terms, but in the US and Canada we can book for only a deposit of $25pp currently (also non-refundable) but have much earlier full-payment dates. I do remember when we first started travelling with Viking that our deposit was $500 pp and we had no issue with that at the time. We are so used to $25pp now that we have four future cruises booked. Not sure we would have four future cruises booked if we were paying deposits of $500pp or 25% of the cruise cost.