CDNPolar

I know some mean Canadians... will introduce you one day! Haha. You would think after 140 cruises you would be immune to snobs? I find them everywhere I go. New money, old money, no money, and middle class all have snobs. If someone asked me how I could afford this cruise my response would be: "Oh, you know, I've been surviving on a diet of ramen noodles and dreams for years. Turns out, dreams pay dividends if you wait long enough and eat enough ramen."

Cruise ships that are prohibiting these are likely doing so for privacy concerns that drone operators are not flying them around balcony windows peering in, etc. I would like to know however if they would actually confiscate the drone on boarding or just tell you not to use it on the ship.

The minute we leave the house in the airport car our trip begins. We accept that there will be delays. We accept that we have intentionally booked a 4 hour layover at Heathrow. We start to relax as the car pulls from the curb and we just enjoy the experience. So many we know are stressed by travel, and especially air travel. We are not the most travelled couple, but we have visited all 7 continents, and over 60 countries now. We travel 2-3 times a year personally and I travel at least that to international destinations for work. We just go with the flow. We read. We listen to books. We read news online. We listen to music. We people watch. We complain to ourselves about dirty and not well stocked airport lounges in some airports. But overall we just enjoy the experience because it is part of the trip and we want to enjoy our trip.

Yes, "bandwagons" are a thing for sure!

We have travelled with, and used Drones for our personal cruise movies that we create. We have only travelled with a drone on Viking River and we got permission from Viking in advance, and from the River Ship Captain when we boarded... (He knew in advance from corporate but it was a courtesy to double check). Then is was about permission from the country that you were in or countries that you were visiting. You must obtain that permission in advance - and it can take months. Then you must know the laws and restrictions in public areas. We checked out flying with them, and certainly you are allowed to fly with a drone, and there are no restrictions that I know of. Just things like lithium batteries mean that they need to be in carry on luggage. We were in Lisbon in a square beside the sea, and at that time in Portugal, public squares could not have more than 12 people in attendance for you to fly a drone. We watched police circle around a tourist that started to fly his drone in this square that clearly had more than 12 people and they forced him to bring the drone down and confiscated it from him. (Don't ask me where the 12 people count comes from, it was in the permission letter we received.) As much as we really enjoyed the images that we got from this drone such as arial views when the ship was going through the locks on the Douro River, in the end it was too much advance work for us to bother with again. Oh, and for anyone that is thinking about using a drone, know that most drones return to the launch site based on GPS coordinates, so you must be cautious that you don't use on a moving ship as you may very well not be able to bring the drone back. Not impossible, but if the drone gets too far from you where you cannot control it, then it relies on the GPS coordinates to return by itself and now those coordinates are open river...

We have River Cruised alone - the two of us - and with groups as well. We have never felt alone or with a lack of something to do or people to talk to when we were just travelling alone. One of the bigger differences to us is that on an Ocean cruise we feel that we can be completely anonymous and stay to ourselves, where as on a River cruise you are going to meet and interact because for the most part dining is shared tables and everyone goes to the Lounge after dinner. We find - and Viking is our preferred line - that in the Lounge especially you will meet people because when the lounge fills, there are not really any place for you to sit as a couple and not be part of a larger group. If you come later to the lounge there may only be options to sit with four others that are already in a seating area. You will LOVE the Christmas Markets! Make sure with your celiac disease that you contact the cruise line well in advance, and then my advice is that you meet with the Chef and Dining Manager on embarkation day and ensure that they are aware and that they are ready for you. I know that there are "degrees" of celiac disease and if you cannot have any cross contamination, you will want to ensure that these instructions and preparations have been made for you. Don't wait until you sit down for the first meal. Then until you are familiar with the ordering method for you as a special diet, ensure that your server is also aware at the beginning of each meal.

This is just why some would prepay - in the USA or Canada 1) Because you can? 2) When you prepay, you are paying in your country currency (USD or CAD) and when you are on the ship you are paying in the ship's currency which could be USD or Euros. (For Canadians prepaying in CAD $$ before embarkation saves the conversion to USD and then the foreign currency fee and currency conversion on our Credit Card.) 3) Some Viking guests pay the cruise fare, shore excursions, SSBP, and Gratuities by bank transfer or e-check so they save 3.3% on the total. 4) You will not have any bill to pay at disembarkation - the cruise is fully paid. I have questions and sometimes issues with the gratuities on Viking. That is another story. We don't personally prepay as we want to decide at the end how much we want to pay. Sometimes we pass cash to servers and other crew near the end of the cruise and we may choose to adjust the total we give in the general pool.

Tattoos are a big concern and challenge for people with visible tattoos in Japan. Now, this does not mean that if you have tattoos you cannot visit japan, but you should cover them where you can, and you will expect different treatment. My boss - who is covered in tattoos - was asked by the five star hotel he was staying in to cover his tattoos when going to the gym and in the lobby areas. Tattoos in Japan while not illegal are linked to the Yakuza and gangs basically, and some will be fearful of you. Tattoos can and are banned from bath houses and some gyms.

When we cruised in the past with food restrictions on Ocean, we met with what I will call the "Dietary Manager" the day we boarded the ship. Each night we were left the menus for the next day and we were instructed to circle what we were interested in and they would create for us a dish that would meet our requirements. Others on here have had both good and not so good luck with dietary concerns, but we have never had a problem. Options may be limited, but in our opinion Viking do a great job in dealing with food allergies, intolerances, and restrictions, but we always meet with the Dietary Manager on embarkation day. The one venue that food restrictions are more difficult to deal with is the Chef's Table because this is a specially curated menu that is a "tasting menu" and it changes every three days. Some food restrictions make it very difficult to accommodate. For instance, if you do not want to eat fish/shellfish, then there may be one menu that focuses on fish. Hard to create substitutions for all dishes.

Absolutely this is a planning consideration or we would be expecting a meal or at least a snack as part of the excursion. Notice on River cruises how the dining hours sometimes alter a bit especially over lunch because of excursion return times.

It is quite possible that tipping and gratuity discussions have been inside other topics, and I do read most posts about Viking and have been active since our initial cruise in 2017.

The Aquavit Terrace is serviced - generally - by ONE server only. The dining room is 2 or 3 servers per table. 2 servers + one that does drinks/water/wine. This is when it is only the inside portion. We have never sat in the Aquavit when the outdoor portion is open. If you are in the Aquavit Terrace, our experience is that the service is slower because you are being looked after by only one crew and they are doing the stairs. I would expect that you were experiencing a new crew or a poorly managed serving crew, which has never been our experience now with 10 Viking Cruises. I am not making excuses as I would not accept your perceived service level either. Do you want discussion threads on "Tipping" or "Gratuities" or on service levels?

I had friends that booked a private excursion that literally made it to the ship as they were about to pull the gangway. Personally we are wary of booking private excursions unless the return time is well before all aboard and we know that we might have options to get back to the ship if something goes wrong... such as Uber.

If you start any booking process online you generally see the available cabins?

If I am going to leave my checked bag AND my carry on with the cruise line, I have a back pack that I transfer a few things to: 1) Any type of medication or supplement - you never know where luggage is stored before being loaded to the ship. Especially in hot climates, your luggage could be in direct sun or hot truck beds for who knows how long and this could ruin medication. 2) Anything valuable such as jewelry 3) Laptop if we brought it 4) Any documents or ID that are critical Most often if we are getting on the ship, but don't have immediate access to our cabin, we will keep our carry on with us.

To us the connection whether domestic or international is never safe under 2.5 hours. Flights are notoriously late for so many reasons. Time if year and weather patterns come into play too. We are not adverse to longer connections up to 4, 5, or even 6 hours. As @FlyerTalker asks "what's your peace of mind worth". We are only focused on getting to our destination with the least stress possible and if you are anticipating the missing of a connection or making the ship port on time, that is stress we don't want or need.

I am certainly more careful now because I have in the past posted something that I "believed" to be true, but then was corrected by others. Now when I do post I will often add, if appropriate, "this is my opinion" or "in my opinion" because your personal opinion is not always the same as fact. Although I never intended to post something that was not true, I am grateful to those on CC that have more experience and are also skilled at politely correcting you with the correct information.

I need to ask, is this because you don't like drones? Drones are difficult to travel with because many countries you have to have a letter of permission in advance to use a drone. Then there are significant restrictions in public areas. There is a lot of advance arrangements necessary to use a drone, including the ship if you plan to use it on the deck of the ship you are on.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! I kind of agree with others, and I would opt to fly to Europe and reposition back to North America. Are "attaching" both the repositioning cruise and the river cruise too much? NOT AT ALL in my mind. If I had the vacation time, I would definitely do it. I am Canadian, and our airports are fairly mild at security. I have experienced the "yelling" at US airports, but also have experienced the same at busy airports overseas. Heathrow is one for sure when you are transiting that is a royal pain just because liquids have to be in their bag and you can only have one bag. I brought home with me bags so when flying through Heathrow in the future I will pack this bag in advance. Other European airports are not yelling free either....

No offence, just curious. Are you cruising for the "gay life" or for the destination, culture, and food? Can you expand on "stuffy people"?

When we first started cruising, we hurried back to the ship - Ocean or River - for lunch because we paid for it in our cruise fare. Sometimes we were close enough to the town on a river cruise that we could wander back after lunch and we were content. Now, we like to find an authentic restaurant - off the tourist trail - to experience the country or city cuisine and we have lunch, wander some more, and then return to the ship. For those that know IKEA and the meatballs, gravy, and lingonberry sauce that you get in the store restaurant, well... now I cannot eat them anymore... Why? We found a restaurant in Stockholm that served the meatballs, gravy, mashed potatoes and sauce... and my goodness, this was like elevating the IKEA meatball experience to a 5 star or even a Michelin level. Meatballs at IKEA are more or less dead to me know. The included tours to us give us an orientation to the city. We often find that optional tours are bus rides to an ancient cathedral or castle and don't interest us. I hate to say it because there are beautiful churches and castles, but sometimes the local life to us in the city or town is more interesting. Once we have the orientation we need, then we break off, find lunch, and the story continues.

This has been discussed on CC for ever about tipping on Viking. Some countries that Viking sells to include grats and some don't - like Canada and USA. We (CAN and USA) either pre-pay or are charged when we disembark to which we have full control if we pay what is charged (suggested) or we can increase, decrease, or remove completely. It has also been discussed how these tips/gratuities are distributed to the crew and this is a mystery. I have emailed Viking to get a phone call back and a very vague generic answer with giving me no more knowledge than I had before asking. Never would I assume that paying in advance would get us a "badge" on our profile once boarding the ship so that the crew would give us better service. Viking service, in our eyes, is one of the main reasons that we keep going back. Viking service in our eyes is amazing with or without the gratuity. Now some will come and say that this practice is a "bribe" but from our standpoint it is not. If a serving team in the dining room is exceptional, we ask for them night after night. We will pass a gratuity in cash to each member of the serving team. This is as a thank you, not a bribe. Notice that I say when we find they are exceptional we pass a tip... not before to get exceptional service, but when we experience great service we give something. On our last Viking Rver cruise, the very first night we loved the serving team of 3 where we sat in the dining room. This team on the second night automatically brought me a San Pellegrino water without asking. The second morning for breakfast the server brought decaf coffee without asking because they remembered from the first morning. These are the type of crew servers that we consider passing a gratuity to directly, but usually near the end of the cruise because we are not doing this as a bribe. These are the type of crew members that do go above and beyond because they just turned over a ship of 180 people and they remember my preference the second time they see me. To us this is exceeds expectations service.

We got upgraded during a cruise once because of horrible intolerable noise while sailing - creaking and squeaking - and the cabin was nice with extra floor space, but we just did not appreciate the space any more than what we had. We don't understand the desire to be on a higher deck than deck 3, and we have never suffered in booking shore excursions or dining reservations with the lowest category of cabin. This is also why we tend to book as soon as itineraries come out, often as much as 2 years in advance, to ensure that we can get the lowest category cabin.

I personally would not expect to see live coverage of anything on a cruise ship. We were on the Nansen a year or so ago, and I cannot remember what stations were available, but I am sure you will get recaps from the previous day on some sports channel. Satellite stations are very spotty depending on where you are.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! You might get better response to either post this in the Celebrity forum or search to see if there is a roll call for this cruise.