CDNPolar

What @CruiserBruce said, but for your peace of mind, when you check your bags for the Rouge flight just ask if they are checked right through. Also take note of the luggage tag that it has both Montreal and Athens listed. Even when you expect this to be the case - which it most certainly will be - asking just rids you of any doubts.

If they are telling you to keep them then they are not reused, IMO.

I didn't think that you knew it was me!

This meets my personal care and travel essential needs.

They sell product. I have seen many people buying.

You are so lucky... We are coming out of the "haze" of a couple of pre-existing conditions where all meds have now been stopped because the threat is over... but that stoppage of medication makes the condition pre-existing and of more concern - unstable for the next 90 days and 180 days. Well, for the next 90 days for cancellation, but for medical claim while travelling it is 180 days.

My understanding is, yes, in limited supply and type, but there would be a cost associated with this. The Ship's Doctor is not a free visit for an antihistamine. I may be way off base with this, but I don't think that Viking Medical Centre operates by dispensing free medications, OTC or prescription.

Did not know that... I am not yet 65 but it is not far down the road... What about pre-existing conditions?

We have a TD Infinite Privilege card and it gives AC lounge access. This one is $599 per year, but if you look at all the additional benefits of this card on top of the lounge access such as the companion ticket once annually, the fee is paid for pretty quickly. We have been playing with cards over the last year and because we have more or less exhausted our AC benefits from new cards and first year bonuses we are looking for new strategies.

IMO and my experience the river cruises are always slightly more casual. Also depends on the time of year and the destinations involved. Our Egypt Nile cruise was so very casual. Many people coming back from a 35C day in the desert would go to dinner in what they were wearing during the day. Egypt is extreme, but we did Eastern Europe in late August and the same thing. 35C and higher and the vibe was very casual. Also, for me, the Viking River ships all under air condition the lounge and the dining room. We were "baking" almost every night to which end, we did not often go to the lounge after dinner because we were exhausted from the heat in the dining room and could not bear the thought of extending that discomfort after dinner.

I made this statement (some time back) - that Viking's demographic is aging and with that Viking is losing them.... and many people came back and said that NO, as the next generation down is aging, they are replacing them. Below is a chart of age ranges in the USA - source Google. What my philosophy is, is that yes there are people behind the Silent Generation and Boomers that are replacing "us", BUT they grew up in a different era and want different things. I personally believe that IPO or not, Viking does need to grow with the times because the up and coming retirees that can afford Viking in cost and time will want different things than Viking's current demographic. This is not just about age in my opinion. For those of us still working today, look at the gaps in the office environment between the different age groups and their wants and needs. The younger workers have very different wants and needs from the Silents and the Boomers. Heck, even the current demographic of Viking is evolving. In 2017 when we first went on a Viking cruise, we would see so many iPads for picture taking and fewer (not none, but fewer) smartphones. Today, smartphones everywhere. Technology is reshaping the Silents and the Boomers now and what the generations behind us want is not what we wanted. IMO.

Agree here.... there are some people that are just so oblivious to their surroundings and they are LOUD everywhere they go. Nothing to do with drinking. Very true. Occasionally you see a few people travelling together or newly acquainted in the Explorer Lounge later in the evening "having a lot of fun together" but they are not over the top... just feeling good. It is the low ceilings IMO and the tables are too close together. Thank goodness they don't play loud music like the neighbourhood restaurants at home play.

I have a small kit of OTC meds that I bring on every cruise. You can never count on the shop having what you need, nor can you count on it being open when you need something. I bring: Antihistamine tablets Advil Tylenol Extra Strength Tylenol Back Imodium Tylenol Cold and Flu Heartburn Relief Charcoal caps Probiotic Antibiotic Ointment Gravol Some think that this is overkill, but I have a type of pill organizer that is specifically made for carrying these types of meds in small quantities. I probably bring 8 or so of each pill depending on how many fit in each compartment. This has saved us many times from having to find a pharmacy. I also travel with large size bandaids for your heels if you get a blister. These are large (2.5" X 3") so they are above the heel of your shoe when applied and then they are not rubbed off from walking. The typical finger style bandaid never stays put on a heel blister. This type on Amazon even comes with cut out labels for all sorts of brands and pills. The one I have does not have the cutouts, but I just applied labels to each compartment.

We went on multiple on River with Viking. When we booked in advance we chose one or two per day depending on what times were available, but when we boarded we were on more... more meaning that they just put us on additional excursions without advance notice. We just received the tickets. Not sure if they were additional included, or what they were. We did not investigate, we just went.

The day before at the Port Talk, speak with the Shore Excursions manager right after the talk - don't wait until the day of. If there is room, the port talks generally foster some interest and you may lose a spot if you wait. They will sign you up immediately and charge your stateroom account.

Yes, somewhere there is a discussion about this but we have never seen this happen yet.

I appreciate your concerns about this model, but I think most people would be amazed at how much of our world is outsourced today in this kind of model. This does not mean - if executed well - that the individual crew member that you meet on the ship is not trained and held to the exacting standards that the client company demands. That is all part of the outsourcing. Believe me, every nurse we present to the UK either at least meets, if not exceeds the UK's standard in knowledge, ability, and care. It does come down to can the company do the recruitment, onboarding, training, contract management, scheduling, etc., as well as the specialist that this is all they do? This is not the same contracting model that I believe you are referring to with 50-100% salary increases... in this model no one is being paid more than the cruise company would pay if they did it all themselves. In this kind of model the cruise company or client company is paying a service fee for the services but likely pay rolling the crew themselves.

Yep... many folks have an impression that it is US/Canada but we have only flown to or through the USA perhaps 3 times in the last 10 years. It is expedited security at Toronto Pearson - with TSA Approved so you don't pull your liquids or laptop...etc., and all that BS. When coming back to Canada from anywhere you skip that 300 person line and breeze through immigration only to wait at luggage claim for the next 45 minutes. When you transit through the US - such as Chicago - on the way back to Canada, you go quickly through their Global Entry system. It is a no brainer to us.

Born and raised in the greater Toronto area and Pearson has been my primary airport. I will admit that there are many better airports in Europe and especially in Asia, perhaps I am numb to what Pearson really is. Yes, it is over crowded, and the food outlets suck, but we know that and are prepared for that so I guess we enter with low or no expectations. We pay for the credit cards that give us Maple Leaf Lounge access and this makes the experience a bit better.

I have just read several forums where some say don't worry, but others have been denied boarding. This has been a hotly debated issue on CC - not necessarily around Suffix, but around middle names. My passport has my middle name, and I was finally allowed to board, but many years ago was almost denied boarding because my middle name was not on the ticket. Many have said this does not matter, but since my experience I have always ensured that my middle name is ON the ticket. We cannot assume that because a domestic flight or an American airline may not want or need this, that it is not something that a Chinese or other national airline may deny boarding if it is not there. Did you try in a mock booking to add after the surname? For me on many airlines, I have to put in the first name field if there is not a middle name field. On a couple of Chinese airlines this was recommended because Chinese don't typically have middle names, and they don't have that field, but they still wanted my name on the ticket to match my passport.

We love Ocean and River cruising. On Ocean cruises if we are not travelling with others, then we eat exclusively at 2 tops. On River, we do like the variety of people that we sit with and that is mostly at dinner. We find that breakfast and lunch the people come in and out at different times and tables are not necessarily full. What we have become is the couple that will walk in and scan the dining room and find a different group of people, or an empty table, so that we can sit with new people and not the same as yesterday. Easier to make a variety of friends this way and the conversation is never boring.

I will object to your comment that they offer a pretty lame free tour as a fall back. This has been discussed here many times too. We are very well travelled and we are looking for excursions that are informative and enriching and we probably on any Viking cruise book 30% optional and 70% included and we have very little - if any - negative to say about the included tours. For the most part we find them to meet or exceed our needs. I will say that it would be nice if Viking did offer more than one included choice, but they offer what they offer and we have not found them "lame". And, I would add that we have paid for optional tours that we have not enjoyed and would never do again.

This would be a great enhancement for most people for sure. I understand why folks would want this. Many years ago now in our neck of the woods when "tasting menus" were becoming popular, we were huge fans and the tasting menus that we engaged with were anywhere from 7-11 courses with a paired wine for each course. The FUN of this for us is there was no menu. You basically did not eat the tasting menu unless you had no food restrictions, and some restaurants would make NO substitutions under any circumstances, and you had no idea what was coming next until it was put in front of you. The FUN for us was the wine steward would come just before the next course and pour a wine and tell us the story of the wine. Based on whether the wine was white, rose, or red, and based on the whether the wine was a light, medium, or full bodied we would try to guess what the next course was... sometimes we were right and sometimes not. Then occasionally they would come with a Craft Beer and throw us off all together. We just had a tasting menu where they tell you at the point of reservation, that they make no substitutions and if you have restrictions, then the tasting menu if not for you. I know this would never happen, but we would be fine without a menu, and this is also why we blindly book the CT for each menu change and are not concerned with what the menu is.

Like most things, the shows and the entertainers are subjective. We take them for what they are, and we find all the entertainers on Viking to be a brief diversion and a bit of fun and enjoyment.

The following is my conjecture and my experience, but I am not saying that this is what is happening, but it may well be... I have worked in the "Staffing Industry" and in this industry Globally for over 25 years and this makes perfect sense to me. You might be surprised at how many industries are literally staffed through agencies which allows companies like Viking to do what they do best. Viking have very complex contract and staffing requirements for all their "hotel" roles from the dishwasher to the bartenders, cabin stewards to servers. Contracts start and end mid cruise and individuals are swapped out. We have often gotten to know a crew member that tell us mid-cruise that he or she or they are getting off the ship tomorrow and going home until their next contract. This can be a very complex scheduling game, and when the replacement of a contract backs out at the last minute to meet a ship mid-itinerary, then this agency has a raft of replacement people ready to deploy. In contract operations like this the turnover, no-show, resignations, and terminations are frequent and this agency is ready to fill the gap wherever it occurs. If Viking are doing this all themselves, they would have to have recruiting arms in many countries and be in the "staffing" business and would have a LOT of recruitment offices. My company moves people around the world - not with cruise lines - because we have the experience and expertise in certain industries to certify, and procure the immigration requirements to move these people around. This is what we do and we do it for a lot of companies. My company has moved over 20,000 nurses from the Philippines to the UK alone and we manage everything that they need to do to get to the UK. For this we are "employed" by hospitals in the UK to supply where there is not current supply of nurses in the UK. Most large companies that use staffing agencies of some kind are doing so because these staffing agencies are better equipped to advertise, attract, select, deploy, and manage the whole process on behalf of their client company. This is what they do. I would be surprised if Viking did not have this kind of sourcing and supply model in place. This also does not mean that the crew member does not "appear" to be a Viking employee. They are trained and held to Viking standards and to every outside eye, they look and feel like Viking.