CDNPolar

We have been pricing Gate1 River for some time now. We saw a couple of Gate1 River Ships on our last River cruise and thought that from the outside and what we could see of the dining and lounge areas they were very similar to other more "luxury" lines. This is a possibility for us to try in the future. Now that we have a good understanding of what is important to us, we are confident to jump on another line and try it out. At this point in time Viking manage to fill their ships and we love Viking, but there is absolutely NO incentive for us as a 10+ time cruiser with Viking to continue with them. No upgrades, no discount that anyone else is entitled to after just one cruise... No incentive, so if we can save money and have a similar experience then why not. I have said before, and will say it again, a river cruise is a river cruise is a river cruise. If the cabin is clean and the bed is comfortable and the food is good, then one brand to the other there is no difference. IMO

This will work for North America - don't know about UK and AU. Book your first cruise, and then immediately book another cruise further out - as far out as possible. If you are under the $25 pp deposit, this only costs you $50 bucks. The policy is to have a future cruise booked gives you the 6 month payment window. You can move that $50 bucks to a different date or even to a different itinerary before the 6 months payment date on that one.

I also would hope that Viking guests are above that silly crap. The day people start decorating their doors on Viking will be the day we stop sailing on Viking. We are adults not daycare.

100% agree with you. I like sparkling water - not the Viking kind but Club Soda or Perrier. This is what I want at the start of a meal and not just still water. When we have the same serving team each night in The Restaurant, the good ones know this and it just appears shortly after sitting down. We have other preferences too. We usually start with a glass of the Prosecco and then move to white or red depending on what we are eating. The serving team and the wine steward in that section know this too and it just happens. These are the folks that we end up tipping out by hand 4-5 nights in because they go above and beyond, and we have a good time with them too.

Odd, we are very aware of where we are travelling and proximity to and risk of any danger and we felt absolutely no concern on this cruise.

WOW, thank you. There are so many variables to comparing cost, and I was always only looking at the in-your-face costs. So many of these that you are talking about I would not have factored. I personally really resonate on Viking's retention rate of crew and the crew being happy making for happier guests. This is one of our main reasons for sailing with Viking. The Crew are amazing.

I agree. All you have to be is considerate of others. Again, we learned nothing during Covid. We are definitely going to need a lot of help when the next Pandemic hits and I believe that it will happen in the near future. One of the most ridiculous things I saw as Covid was winding down the worst part was a woman on a bus that was wearing a mask, but would pull the mask down to cough into her hand and then put the mask back.

I have heard what I would call a "snorting" boar which to me was a very suspect sound in the public facilities.

Thanks. Have read through this now. Had not seen these terms before. Again, our bank issuing the card says there is no challenge in having multiple cards linked to the same Aeroplan account. I have called into the credit card as well and they claim to be good with what we are doing. Yes - you can post a blog post here as far as I am aware.

According to our bank no, that is not the case. All they care about is that we spend the required amount of the card to get the points. I will look into this however because our bank has been wrong before. If you can direct us to where this policy is, it would be appreciated.

This is an answer that speaks to Canadian insurance, because we have had annual policies and we have had trip specific policies. It becomes a cost thing for us and hedging our risk of a need to cancel. We started cruising in 2017 and have done 11 cruises now since that start. When we look at the cost for us to cover one trip, the total insurance for both of us comes to about $1,000.00. BUT, this covers to the full paid price of the trip. If we are taking 2 trips in the year, then that is a cost of $2,000.00. Simple math. Again, coverage for the full paid price of the trip. When we buy an annual package that covers us for any number of trips in the 12 months from purchase (up to 17 or 31 days which is selected when purchasing) then we pay about $1,200.00 and have coverage for both or all trips we take that year. BUT, and it can be a BIG but... This annual coverage only gives us a return of up to $5,000.00 per person per trip. In some cases, with air, the cost per person can be $7K to $9K. Note as well that this is not CFAR insurance, but must have a valid cancellation reason as per the policy. I do a cost spreadsheet to look at this. With Viking which is our preferred cruise line, we pay in full 6 months before sailing. The first penalty with Viking is at 120 days from sailing. So, we can cancel with Viking up to 120 days or 2 months after we have paid in full and receive everything back but the deposit. During that 120 days there is a sliding scale of what Viking will refund and what we have to depend on the insurance for. We start to lose money usually between 60 and 90 days out. If we are cancelling in the final 30 days there is no refund from Viking so we can be losing 4-5K per person. You have to hedge your bets on this one. What will you feel more comfortable with.

Same thing.

The one guy that we chatted with throughout the cruise, and once the coughing was all around us said that he sat in front of two people on one of the busses and he felt like he had "lung" all over the back of his head and neck when he got off the bus. Pretty gross.

Assuming you mean with the "included" wines.... YES, this is our experience too.

We also have to remember that Viking ships are SMALLER than many of the other cruise lines. Many of the larger cruise lines have bigger stores areas and can bring more on board. You will notice that when you are in many of the ports, there are skids of all kinds of supplies including wine and spirits being loaded. Viking does not load a the beginning of the cruise with a full supply to last the entire cruise... they restock along the way. This is just part of sailing Viking. I do get that some folks like a particular brand, but sometimes it may run out.

Viking was actively selling cabins on one of their new Nile River ships with full intent to cancel because the ship had not even been launched at 6 months before the sail date. We we full payment at the 6 month point. We called Viking and got nothing from them so we cancelled before payment date and moved to another cruise line for the same dates. This has happened before with Viking. They are hedging their bets to get a sold out ship and then give you a voucher.

Our last cruise was Treasures of the Rhine and that was in December / January. Boarded the full River ship with 1 or 2 that were coughing. By mid way through the 12 day itinerary, 1/3 of the ship was coughing. On the 8th day I had fever and stayed home from the excursions. My fever broke that night. Coughing, but wearing a mask, I participated the next day. More than 1/3 of the ship was coughing. Maybe 10 people, my husband and I included, were wearing masks. Many were coughing openly without covering their mouths with elbow or hand. We apparently learned nothing from Covid. A few couples that we kept in touch with were sick after disembarking. I did not have Covid, at least from Covid test kits that I had. Maybe they did not detect the strain, or I had something else. In any case, this ran through the ship very quickly. Interestingly my husband did not catch it whatever it was. We still travel with masks. Remember that masks are more of a preventative when YOU are sick, meaning you are less likely to transmit whatever you have if you are wearing a mask. Wearing a mask is about respect for your fellow humans.

Look on your Viking Invoice. You should see the OBC there if the TA has applied it to the booking. Typically any TA OBC can be used in advance and will be applied against any excursions booked in advance of the cruise. These are generally not restricted to ship board use only.

Understand not for CDN Passports, but does this allow you to go through the eGates in any European city or just FRA?

One additional thing to consider is that you know very well the sail away time at the end of the day and that any private tour that you are going to book can guarantee you back well before sail away time. Ships don't wait for stragglers. If you are not there at back on board time and the ship sails, it sails.

If you cannot find the cancelation policy and you cannot find reviews of the tour companies that you are considering, I would not send any amount of deposit in advance. Cash on the day? Yes, and we have done that, but there was no deposit, and there was obviously a trust factor that we were going to show up. But, the ones we have done like this we have found through reviews and one of our best ever was talked about here on Cruise Critic. We typically use Viator which is an aggregator, and not a tour company, but we use them because they have good cancelation policies. You can find independents on Viator as well, and they are not all mass tour companies. You can however with Viator have the tour canceled last minute if there are not enough people signed up - especially with the independents. This has happened to us a couple of times and then we were left without a tour that day.

I personally would pick Tokyo over Sydney any day. Have been to both, and there is far more in Tokyo and surrounding metro area that I want to see. I would be adding time in Japan and visiting other cities as well. If you do go to Sydney, don't miss doing the Sydney Bridge Climb. Spectacular and not to be missed. If I only had one day in Sydney in the future again, I would spend it doing the Bridge Climb.

I would suggest that this would be an insurance no-no for a ship. Not that many people that would understand or have experience using an endless pool.

If you don't like one of the included wines - say the red one - ask if there is another option. Tell them you don't like it. We have done this many times and they seem to have a different option available. Also we have found that the included wines can be different day-by-day. They are not advertised, so they can change. I also believe that short stock in past listed wines are used up as included wines. This is where the options come from.

Hard to put into words, but we just like Viking for all the positive statements above. Most of all NO kids. Not a cruise line that is adult focused, but a cruise line with NO kids. I have tried to do analysis of different cruise lines in price and it is difficult. No two are close enough to really make that decision. Personally, we look at the itinerary, then the cost, and ask if the cost fits our budget. If it fits the AVAILABLE budget for travel this year, we do it. There are Viking cruises that we have not done yet because the itinerary is too expensive now. Does not mean that we won't do it later. We are however biased as we have completed 10 Viking cruises and keep booking them.