CDNPolar

Exactly - if you don't ask you won't get. If you don't like what is on offer say this and they try to accommodate. The "house wines" are not cheap bottom of the barrel wines. They are and can be some decent wines.

Yes, I did not want to bring that up, but I have walked past these chairs many times and only 50% are occupied and the rest are waiting for someone to lounge... I have heard people say that I was in the chair early and went to lunch and wanted the chair after lunch... I don't personally thing that is fair. If you are gone longer than to go to the bathroom, then relinquish the chair. We are doing our first TA cruise this October and I hope that this is not the case with these chairs but if it is, I will quietly go to the open deck and find a wind resistant place, or go back to my cabin and sit in my window there.

We often book our air 270-300 days out using Viking Air Plus. We research the flights we want on GoogleFlights and then have a couple of options when we call. Most of the time the flights we want are included in Viking contract rates as we fly from Toronto and most often we fly Star Alliance airlines which are typically in Viking contract rates. Occasionally we have to make an adjustment like an upcoming flight where we fly Air Canada to the cruise but British Air home. Both were acceptable to us. If we wanted Air Canada on the return too, we could have had it for about $150 more pp. Sometimes, but not always are upgrades available. It depends on the contract rates. If the contract rate is rock bottom then upgrades are not available. Many airlines don't allow upgrades on the lowest fare paid. We have successfully upgraded to Premium and Business with Viking but also had times when economy was the only choice. Sometimes when it is not an option at booking it is available at the airport from the airline. Viking Air Plus will tell you all this. Typically now upgrade to Premium is about $1,200.00 pp which is about what it is for most online. Some think that Viking are phasing out the Air Plus, but what has happened is now you can wait for your flights to be populated in MVJ, and then make your own changes inside the site, OR you can then add Air Plus. The beauty of paying for Air Plus further in advance is schedules are more open. Waiting until July to add Air Plus may not give you so many options. You can also ask for flights to be ticketed as early as when you do full payment, but note that once flights are ticketed then any change incurs a change fee, but we do this because we are good with the flights and we just want to secure them.

If you don't opt for Viking Air Plus when you are booking your cruise then you must wait until they book your flights. (July expected date) When your flights are populated in MVJ, then you have time before they are ticketed to look at alternate flights and even upgrades. If you don't like what you see and you cannot alter to what you want, then you can add Air Plus and call and ask for the flights you want. If you want to not deal with all this waiting, pay for Air Plus now and call and ask for the flights you want to be booked. Note that the fights you want may not be inside Viking contract rates. Also CDG - 1 hour 15 is NOT enough time. If this is your first entry to Schengen then you will have passport control and security again. If your flight into CDG is on time, you may make it but if you are 20 minutes late leaving your home airport than you could be in trouble. We personally do not book any connections in Europe less than 2.5 hours. Our experience has proven that less time than this is dangerous.

I am with you!

We were told on a river cruise in September last year that these vouchers were being phased out for sale sometime in 2024, but that they don't have expiry dates and will be honoured by Viking for use at anytime in the future. On a subsequent river cruise we did this past December, we asked and they did not indicate that they were being phased out and that they were still available. So if you want them and have the opportunity to buy them on your Douro cruise, go ahead and buy them as you will be able to use them in the future on Ocean and River.

Welcome to Cruise Critic @bcmurray Re the water levels, what @Nippy Sweetie said. To me river cruising can be impacted by water levels at any time of the year. I personally believe that you have to be mentally prepared that water levels can impact your cruise any month of the year. What is the best time of the year for the Grand European Tour with Viking? We like to go off season or shoulder season for two reasons - temperature and crowds. If you look at Viking's sailing schedule, you will notice that Viking does not sail this itinerary in December, January, and February. Our thinking is that a lot, not everyone, but a lot of people want to sail in Europe during the warmer months and you will also see prices be higher in the summer months. For this reason we choose to go in October/November or March/April for a cruise like this. Viking will fill the ship, but you may not have as many tourists on the ground in general. HOWEVER, we are going on this cruise this year departing November 24th. We chose this because the Christmas Markets will (should) be open especially as we sail through Germany. We booked this specifically to see the Christmas Markets. So - going late November - I think the last cruise date that does not interfere with Christmas, we will see great crowds at the Christmas markets for sure, but this could also be as much local residents as tourists. In short - if you are not looking for the Christmas Markets, and you don't mind the cooler temps, then October or March. This however does not free you from water level challenges. Whatever is happening with the climate globally, the weather patterns now are more unpredictable than ever. Your guess on water levels is as good as anyone elses.

Yeah... many people don't like sharing tables on River ships, but you are right about the tables for two in The Restaurant and even the row of tables for 2 or 4 in the World Cafe - you are so close, that you might as well be sitting with the other people.

Love this reason. We have never experienced a time on Viking personally where we could not get a chair at the pool, or on deck. Now we may not get a chair looking out the side windows at the pool, but there is always a chair. The only time on Viking that can be a challenge getting a chair is in the Winter Garden for Tea at 4:00pm if you are not early enough.

Not disagreeing with you, but travel insurance is so personal to everyone. We don't have pre-existing conditions to worry about, so this strategy works for us. There is also a forum here on CC for insurance and these kinds of topics get discussed in depth. CFAR, pre-existing conditions, single trip, annual plans, etc., etc.

In Canada it is very common to see 2S and it is generally at the beginning: 2SLGBTQQIPA This may not be a good comment to make, and I mean no disrespect to anyone, but I don't see why we group all these different identities together. We don't even necessarily have anything in common other than we are not "straight". Even the straight community has a lot of diverse and deviant groups, why don't they have their list of letters? I just don't see why we have to label everyone. Just be you and go about your life.

This is how Norovirus spreads. Folks think that hand sanitizer is good enough, but if you do your research you will find that hand sanitizer does not kill the Norovirus, only hand washing does.

I have morning and an evening 7 day pill boxes. I populate these with all my RX and OTC pills once a month. I carry one extra week of meds on every trip in case of any kind of delay coming home. I get the pharmacy to print out a separate set of stickers that go on the pill bottles and keep them on their backing and just pack these with my documents in my carryon. My concern is not TSA or Security screening. IMO they could care less. My concern is that some countries have restrictions on some medications even if they are prescribed. @GeezerCouple referred to this. You never know when you are going to get pulled aside entering a country and searched. You don't even have to be suspicious. If you cannot identify the pills you have with you - whether in the original bottle or not - then you could be in trouble. As long as you can give them a name they can verify the pill from pictures online.

Thank you all... this is very helpful. The Airports are: SHE / ICN / YYZ T3 I was expecting that it might be easier to just grab a wheelchair after security. You often see them randomly around the departure gates, but had never looked to see if they are available just through security. The reason we did not want to list her as "needing assistance" is my husband does not want the "pusher", he wants to take care of this himself. I do suppose however that there are likely some liability issues for the airport if you are doing this on your own. Will do this too. Thanks again.

With our favoured cruise line it is always vacate the cabin by 8am, but as Izzywiz says we then have the run of the ship for a while anyway. I think we can go as far as lunch and then we are transported. Again, with our favoured cruise line we have generally booked the air through them, especially if we know it is going to be a late flight departure, because we know that there will be a lot of others in the same situation. In this case we have been transported to a hotel conference / ballroom and accommodated there until departure to the airport. If your cruise line is not going to do something then you will have to take care of yourself because most airlines in most countries don't want you or your luggage checking in much more than 4 hours before the flight.

Like your way of looking at it. I really don't like any of the labels that we have had over the years but because I am very active in Corporate Learning and Development globally, I have to keep up with what the accepted norm is when talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion. The rough part for me is that I have a hard time keeping up with the alphabet soup: LGBTQQIP2SA: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Pansexual, Two-Spirited, and Asexual. I guess (kidding) that I don't understand why we don't add "straight" to this list because it may be the only thing missing.

Not many want to hear this, but in close quarters like on these ships, this is going to continue to happen. Covid is not gone and is not going to be gone soon. We all think that it is mild now, but there are still people being admitted to hospitals and dying in ICU's from this. It is less of a threat, but it is still a threat. No one wants to wear a mask, but you should wear a mask if you are sick to limit who you are spreading to. We still wear masks in close quarters and always have masks in our pocket or in the car, or close at hand. Hand hygiene is still a big thing for us and will likely always be. We sit down in a restaurant and read the menu, touch what we need to touch, order, and then go and wash our hands before the food arrives.

We have found some of the wine staff are very knowledgable. We were on Treasures of the Rhine for New Years and we bought a bottle of bubbly from one of our wine tours and had that on New Years Eve. It seemed more celebratory since we bought the bottle for some reason. Also, tasting a wine right from the region from a small producer.

We have bookings in 2025 and 2026 and our TA OBC is on our invoice immediately on booking. The OBC from our TA will apply if we go to MVJ and purchase optional excursions, SSBP, or pre-paid gratuities. The things we look at on the invoice after booking are the final payment date, the cabin number, the dates if we are coming in early or staying after, and then that the OBC is there. I also did not know that some don't see this until just before boarding. We have received OBC or rather SBC from Viking for various reasons and that is not available until we board the ship, but it is still stated on the invoice. Is this a difference between US and Canada invoicing? Perhaps?

Yeah, I guess that I knew that but we are still working and not able to sail for longer that a 12-15'ish night cruise so I guess that I was talking only from what we know and do. In actuality that would change the whole landscape of us looking at annual cancellation plans because it likely would be a much bigger loss if the annual plan has a cap at $5K

Haha... never faced that on an ocean ship but certainly have on river ships.

I am not the person that posted this, so lets see their reply, BUT, I have travel medical through my company that covers both me and my husband for emergency medical and medical evacuation up to 5 million. This package includes both business and leisure travel and unlimited number of trips annually.

We specifically found and used a TA for our Antarctica Expedition cruise. We decided ourselves on Hurtigruten as the line we wanted to sail and we found this TA listed on their website and she was supposedly "certified" for their sailings. Just as a bit of background, we typically book what we want and then transfer to a TA for the OBC or whatever they offer. We went to this TA because she was "certified" and because this was our first expedition and we thought that we did not know what we did not know. In the end, she knew as much as we did. Yes, she got all our questions answered, but she could not answer them on the spot. She had to take them to her Hurtigruten rep and get them answered for us. What kept us with her for this booking is in our opinion she got us a price that was a big discount from the cruise line website. The advantage of using a TA here was price or OBC and that is what has kept us using TAs. We don't expect the TAs that we use to have any better knowledge than we do.

This is the first time we need a wheelchair for transit within an airport. We are flying to China and "picking up" my Mother-In-Law to bring her to Canada. Then doing the reverse and accompanying her back to China. We don't want to list her as disabled or needing assistance from the airline from checkin to boarding, we just want a wheelchair once we clear security and are on the air side of the airport. She can well manage into the airport and through security. It is the miles of walking once you get through security or when you land. Questions: 1) Are wheelchairs readily available when you clear security for the taking? 2) When landing are wheelchairs readily available as soon as. you are off the plane? Silly question, but probably relevant - this is likely different airport to airport? We have just never paid attention to this before. We will be using YYZ / ICN / SHE airports.

This must be a challenge for the marketing departments of the cruise lines? With most products or services the marketing department knows their demographic and how to reach them and how to entice them. We know that Viking have a loyal following because they fill their ships, but will they continue to? I have suggested before that the loyal Viking following is aging and the question is do they need to change their approach to their marketing to bring in a new group? I don't think that we can assume that the younger demographic will just turn to Viking when they pass 60. Anyway - back to the question. Try Gate1 and let us know how it is. I know that I am anxiously awaiting your review.