CDNPolar

We were on a Nile cruise and there was a woman on this cruise that was nicknamed Cleopatra and the reason was that everyone awaited every change she made during the day including the wide brimmed hats that she always had on. Now I would say that we saw one or two hats more than once, but never the outfit twice. On the Egyptian night she arrived at the lounge with the most beautiful "costume" of anyone on the ship - of course. This woman apparently had the cash. Never saw how much luggage she brought, but we were in a carpet store and she wanted to buy the $50K USD carpet but her husband refused her the opportunity.

Thanks... We have worked it all out with the hotel - Taj Mahal Tower - and are now booked directly with them. Thank you for your information... here is something that saved us several hundreds of dollars. Two years ago we were in Buenos Aires and we thought that we would be paying in USD and that is what we budgeted for. This was the Sheraton. We found out during our stay that the bill would be converted to ARS. We were coached by a few friends that had been to Argentina more than once that we should get USD before leaving home and convert there to ARS. We were instructed about the bank rate, the hotel rate and the blue rate. We were uncomfortable with going down the street somewhere for the blue rate, and found that the hotel rate was okay for us. Better than the bank rate. We underestimated the amount of USD that we needed to convert to ARS and ran out of cash. We thought without doing our research that dining would be cheaper in Buenos Aires. We did some investigating how to get more USD cash to buy ARS and this is what we found: The Western Union rate of exchange for CDN money to ARS was better than the hotel rate that we had settled on. AND, for us if we converted to USD then to ARS, we were actually paying much more than we thought in exchange. The only problem is you must go to a Western Union outlet and the amounts of cash we were getting we felt like we were robbing a bank with the stacks of bills we were putting into our backpack. We actually exchanged in the beginning only enough for a couple of days of restaurants, but then figured out that we would save a lot if we paid our hotel bill in ARS cash. So in the end, we paid our hotel bill in ARS CASH, and we calculated that we saved over $300 by the time the credit card would have converted the amount to CDN at the rate that they used.

Just watched the videos on Apple News from the IPO on the floor of the Stock Exchange. Interesting to follow the stock. My FA advises not to purchase yet. Let the stock settle first.

Agree - we generally book 270-300 days out.

Nope... good on any cruise, even the $25 deposits.... Obviously Viking know that people maintain these bookings or they would not offer something like this. I only wish that you could book onboard a River Cruise. Maybe not a full-time Crew Member, but one of the Guest Services that supports onboard bookings.

In my knowledge, Viking do not chase you for the full $100 per person, but you are liable based on the ticket contract. You never have to cancel Viking anyway before the final payment date, you can just move the reservation and deposit to another sailing and you even keep the same booking number.

I have never done it myself, but... these are ones that I searched one time and found... Generali CLHIA ...and I believe that Manulife will also.

Yeah - I created a specific CC gmail address and to date it has been clean, but if trolls take it up I just ignore...

Thanks - never used this site before because I am not a fan of so called discount sites or aggregators. I mention and use Expedia to find where I want to stay and then go direct with the hotel and generally get a better deal with the hotel. I also have had a hard time in the past working through the discount/aggregator sites if we need to cancel or have a problem with the booking. I did go and sigh up with booking.com but there is nothing on offer that gives breakfast included. The cost adding the breakfast takes the price WAY above what Taj is offering on their website direct. WAY above. Thanks for the suggestion as it was worth the try.

The key is to declare. To me an often mis-understood part of bringing beer, wine, or spirits into Canada is "limits". The limits that are imposed - such as One bottle of spirits of whatever size - is what you can bring in duty free. Now perhaps I am completely wrong with this but when I arrive back to Pearson airport and go through the Nexus line, I am only declaring that I have nothing above my limit. So if I only have one bottle of spirits and it's size meets the allowed volume, then I do not need to declare. My understanding is that I only need to make a declaration if for instance duty free have a sale and I decide to bring 3 bottles then I have to say that I am over my limit and declare the additional. In my understanding there is no top limit to what I can bring in as long as I actually declare what is above my personal limit for the length of the trip and be ready to pay the duty. So the question begs to be asked, did your sister have more than her allowance for beer in the car? Please set me straight here if I am not understanding this, otherwise I have defrauded my declaration at the Nexus Kiosk and then face-to-face each time I have returned to Canada when I have been brining in what is in or under my limit.

I know that CC can enable a messaging system and there are a few folks that I would love to be able to message directly, but I do understand the potential problems with messaging on a board like this. The abuse can run wild for sure, and I know because I was a Moderator on a very large community board for many years, and the messaging was our biggest challenge.

With the intent of bringing this back on track.... All Viking Ocean ships are identical with the exception that some now have Planetariums on the upper deck of the Explorer Lounge. We love the vibe of Viking from the decor to the crew, service, and the food. This is true of Jupiter, Star, and Orion which we have already sailed and we will be sailing on Sea, Venus and Neptune soon.

The same outfit??? !!! How dare you.... We typically dress fresh today before dinner in acceptable wear for the dining room - River or Ocean - and wear that on our excursions the next day. We generally take a couple of extra pieces of clothing that are a bit dressier for when we feel the urge, and these can be worn MORE THAN ONCE. There, I admitted it. We dress for our pleasure because it makes us feel good, and we don't care if someone is calling out that we wore that before... I love @Canal archive 's description of the fashion police.

Thank you for all your comments. We are looking at the Oberoi too... The challenge we are having with the Taj Mahal Tower is online their reservations state that you can book and just "tokenize" your credit card and it is not charged until checkin, or no-show. This is not working and they are trying to take full payment now for almost a year out, but suggesting that we can cancel and get the money back. We are back and forth with the reservations department and they cannot seem to work it out. Expedia have the hotel at a comparable cost to booking direct, but we want the breakfast included and WiFi included and Expedia is spotty when they are offering this as an upgrade option. Some rooms have the upgrade options and some don't. Anyway - your comments are great and I believe that Taj Mahal Tower is where we will end up...

We have not flown Toronto to Vienna, so don't know if we would have scored a non-stop or not. This is our experience to date and most of the cruises we have taken have been direct non-stop flights, but there have also been flights that connected through Heathrow or Munich. However, using Air Plus and researching our flights in advance, we do find that Viking always have contract rates with Air Canada, and then of course partner Lufthansa. When we find direct flights with either of these we ask and generally get. I would add that IMO Vienna is a less popular non-stop destination from Toronto and therefore may not have the same inventory of non-stop flights which then makes the connection a cheaper option and a contract option.

This is Viking. No chicken fingers 'cause there are no kids on a Viking cruise. She can get a burger and fries at lunch, but don't know if they will accommodate her with a burger at dinner or not.

Yes, with suite doors, it would be easy to change at your seat.... never really thought of that. Still however not every aircraft has suite doors.

My husband and I keep passports and Nexus cards with the same expiry - or used to. We both applied at the same time. He got approved online and the card arrived promptly in the mail. I was called for interview that then got postponed for over two years because of Covid.

We like the 1000 or less people ships. We are very impressed with Viking ships for a few reasons. 1) What we feel is understated decor that is luxury in design. 2) Always a space on the ship to settle in - never seem to fight for a place to be. 3) Exceptional crew, service, and food.

Really!? Never knew that. CC is the only one I have ever known and spent time on. Guess I picked the WINNER from the start!

We are cruising with a family member for the first time this coming November. I know that this particular individual is very picky eating and just adverse to trying anything that she does not know and has not eaten before. I asked my brother how this would go over at meals, and his response was, as long as they can offer breaded chicken fingers, fries, or a burger, she will be fine. I actually look forward to the experience as we eat and try everything. I will just be experiencing my own amusement in my head as she watches the wonders of food that we will be eating.

There ARE insurance companies that will insure vouchers. They are few and far between and you have to search but they are out there. I know of 2 in Canada, but they don't insure Americans.

Interesting discussion. I have flown Toronto to Sydney, Tokyo, Beijing, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Hawaii, and far too many to mention European destinations. These all on many, many airlines that are Canadian based, American based, European based, and APAC based. I have never been offered PJ's on any flight in Business or First. Never even knew that this was an option or that you might ask for them. My first thought is where do you change? In the lavatory? That is such a tight space and as a self-proclaimed germ-a-phobe I don't know how you would change in there and emerge in sanitary enough condition to actually lay down and sleep. We have found over years of travelling clothing that is what I would call "dressy looking" but so very comfortable for flying and sleeping in, that does not wrinkle and looks as fresh when you get off the aircraft as when you left the house. I only wear what I would call restrictive clothing or something like jeans on a 2-3 hour flight. Anything overseas and 6+ hours is gonna be our travel clothing for sure.

This response may be way off base and irrelevant but... Ships creak and crack and make noises. We prefer older ships - at least a few years on the sea - because they are "broken in" and not as creaky in rough waters. We were on a new ship in some rough water and had maintenance in our cabin day after day until they finally moved us because of a creaking sound at the sliding doors to the balcony. Not a something that was a minor annoyance, this was a noise that you would never sleep through even with ear plugs. On the older ships we have sailed, there are always creaks but none like this one we experienced.

I know that this is an old discussion but it may be of interest as there are many folks doing TA cruises in the coming months. We are going mid-October from Barcelona to San Juan. Similar situation. We know the ports around Spain, Morocco, etc., what the weather will be - or hopefully be. (Remember that typical weather patterns now are not as dependable.) For this TA portion of the cruise we will have a few options in our luggage: 1) We have very light weight down jackets that pack down to a large ziplock bag and take virtually no packing room or add any weight. (You are from Michigan so you may likely have the necessary gear.) 2) We pack a very thin water resistant, wind resistant jacket with a hood (Eddie Bauer) and this again takes no packing space. 3) We pack a couple (each) cashmere sweaters that are very light weight that can go under either jacket above. Again very little space taken in the luggage and lighter than a typical heavy cotton sweater. 4) One neck scarf or neck tube each 5) We can often take one wool under-layer as well, but that is more for the colder destinations. We anticipate that the weather - without storms and wind - may be very warm on the crossing, but we almost always travel with the above gear as we often cruise and travel in off seasons when the weather is changing. There have been times we have been grateful to have this gear and other times we have not used it. Last year my brother and wife went on a European River Cruise in early October expecting very mild temperatures. They did not pack for colder temps or rain resistance and they were caught out and had to buy gear in port to survive.