CDNPolar

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.

This is all about the settings. You can successfully have your home physical SIM and an eSIM installed and not get connection and roaming charges when away. Each type of phone can be different in settings, but with Airola we install the eSIM at home before travel and turn off the eSIM. On the iPhone, there is "SIMs" section in the Cellular heading of the Settings. After installing the eSIM you to there and name the eSIM and turn it off. On the plane before landing wherever you are going, you turn off your home SIM and turn on the eSIM. This allows you to connect the the European service as soon as you land and if the home SIM is off you will not connect and incur charges. This way also allows you to quickly turn on the home SIM if you are ever in an emergency situation and you need to access your home number. But, as long as it is off before landing you are good. The challenge is that if you do forget to turn your home SIM off, you will connect and have charges.

I think that every cruise line handles this differently. We sail primarily with Viking and we recently booked a very last minute (two weeks before sailing) cruise in Europe. Our booking was a guarantee cabin. We were concerned because we had heard the same - that people arrive at the ship and are bumped or they are told a few days before that they are not going to make it on the ship. Viking gave us their policies around this and we were satisfied and continued forward with the booking and all went well. BUT, I would be concerned with the "unlikely" comment. Personally I would investigate further asking these questions: 1) If I am not going to be assigned a cabin and ultimately bumped from the ship, how much notice will I be given? 2) What compensation will I receive for being bumped? (some cruise lines offer additional compensation for people to willingly relinquish their cabin if they are overbooked) 3) What about my airfare that I have booked and paid for? How will you compensate me for cancelling the air portion of my cruise? Not sure if or how cancellation insurance might handle this. I appreciate your potential anxiety over this. I am sure you want a more definite answer.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! I truly hope that your first cruise becomes a "That was amazing" experience. We fell in love with cruising in early 2017 and have cruised 10 times since that first cruise and have four future cruises booked. Our first cruise was on the Viking Star and it was Empires of the Mediterranean as the Itinerary. We loved this itinerary and every cruise port up the coast from Athens to Venice. We love Viking ships and although some Viking Ocean ships are getting older now we find that they keep the interiors in great shape. A lot will depend on what cruise lines you are looking at and there are pros and cons to large ships vs. smaller ships and what kinds of amenities you are looking for. Do you want a Casino? Do you want 900 guests on board or 3500 guests? Do you want a budget type cruise or more luxury? You would really help us here to know the following because your ask is a bit general and you will get advice and answers all over the place... 1) What cruise lines are you considering? 2) What ships by name? 3) What itineraries are you considering?

Are you are saying that you paid for Viking Air - $100 pp - but did not use it? You just took the flights that were given? Then call Viking reservations and ask for Viking Air Plus to be removed and they should refund you the $100pp that you paid. In my knowledge this is only a fee you pay if you actually use the Viking Air Plus service.

You really have to load before you go. Some settings must be done before leaving Canada, or you cannot make them once away from home. I don't think that it matters what company you use - most are good. There is a lot of discussion about Airalo however and we have had great luck with them.

I may receive some static from my Canadian friends on here, but I would not tip out in CDN funds. We always use USD even as Canadians as it is the most widely accepted currency in the world, in the sense that you can take it to a bank in most any country and they will exchange it. The Viking ships operate in USD as Jim mentioned so crew could also use that on the ship for purchases. Giving someone CDN money would make it hard for them to convert in most countries. I have had banks in some countries look at me trying to exchange CDN money to local currency and they ask "what is that", but you put USD on the counter and they take it. That is why we use USD for all "hand gratuities" that we do.

Deviation is $100 per person and on each side of the trip. So if you are going in early and staying later then you will be $200 per person extra for the deviation. UNLESS you are purchasing the Viking extensions on one or both sides. If you purchase the Viking extension there is no deviation charge. You should see your flights soon for a July cruise. If you go to MyVikingJourney, set up your account and register your booking number and then look at the air tab, it will tell you when your flights will be posted. You can work with the flights they give you on MVJ and look at alternate schedules and select seats yourself, or make a decision to add Air Plus and talk to a Viking Air rep to customize your flights. Adding Viking Air Plus is generally now $150 per person - just a one time charge, not for both ways. With Viking Air Plus you can research and choose flights that you might prefer and if they fall under Viking contract rates, you can get them under the free air. If the flights you prefer fall outside of the Viking contact rates, you may have to pay more for those particular flights. For this to work with your deviations, you must alert them in advance that you are going in early and staying later especially if you are not purchasing your pre and post through Viking. Otherwise you will have flight choices that fly the day before the cruise and the day the cruise disembarks. Hope all this makes sense.

We have flown Lufthansa through Frankfurt many times from Canada and connecting to another European country. You must go through passport control when landing in your first European country and then you will also go through security again before boarding your next flight. This is the same if you fly in on Air Canada, and then connect to Lufthansa, or go Lufthansa all the way. Your bags however will check straight through to your final destination. Make sure if you are going through Frankfurt or Munich that you have sufficient connection time. The line for non-European passports can be long. We have waited more than 30+ minutes to clear passport control then you will potentially have security lines as well. We don't generally fly through Frankfurt or Munich with less than 2 hours to 2.5 hours connection time. We have learned that shorter connections are often stressful and not worth the time saving when you are the one running down the concourse at final call for the flight.

Do renew them... different countries have different rules. Never assume the 6 months. We generally start our passport renewal just inside the one year of expiry so we never have this issue. We also do 10 year renewals and especially since these are kids, get the 10 year option. You could have the cruise line refuse you boarding because it is not just that you can say, we won't disembark in these ports. Cruise lines don't have effective ways to stop you, but also most countries get the passenger manifest in advance so they already know you are non-compliant. This could cause you all sorts of issues.

We had a bartender on an Ocean cruise that because we were on the SSBP offered us a Gin tasting and ran us through the different Gins one at a time. I have heard of others that have had informal tastings at the bar. Not every bartender will do it, but you can ask. Have fun!

Personally I don't know that I would risk this. Some countries are quite strict about this and the airline is not going to stop you from flying, but the cruise ship may deny you boarding, if they don't highlight it before you even depart. If the Canadian government site is telling you that the countries you are visiting require 6 months and you don't have that, then I would be worried. You are laying out a lot of money to have this stop your trip, especially since you have the time now to renew.

I just went back to our excursions for this cruise. We did the Gdansk on foot, but not the Solidarity Center. Looking at the times available, the Solidarity Center through Viking only had one departure time and that was 9:15am. This was a 5.5 hour excursion. The last departure for Gdansk on foot was 2:30pm. There would be no guarantee that you would be back on time to make that departure of the included tour. Technically if time is correct you would not be back on time for the included tour. You could book both, but no guarantee that you could make both. Look carefully in MVJ at the departure times of both, they could be different for your cruise. We have often booked the included and an optional tour in the same day, but you have to be careful that the times match. We have had tours that have one hour between arriving back and leaving again and that has worked. Look at the times and see what is possible. Consider that the time if 5.5 hours for the Solidarity and that is a bus ride. We have been back early, on time, and late from excursions.

Why would they be so deep that you cannot stand with a drink? To prevent the below: All inclusive resorts or hotels in a warm climate that has a swim up bar, you see people there for hours drinking and they never leave their spot for ANY REASON. This is part of the larger pool and in my opinion, you are just swimming in a toilet.

Sit at the bar in the Explorer Lounge or in the Living Room and get to know the bartenders. We have had bartenders make some incredible concoctions for us that were their own recipes. Tell them sweet, sour, or whatever your preference and let them take care of you.

We are trying this for the first time with an October transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to San Juan. We have always booked our air about 270 days out and paid for and used Air+ for this. With now the options to make changes on MVJ that were not there some time back, we will try this. Look at what they give us, and then see from there what we do. Since we now often fly economy to Europe, we will save the Air Plus fee if the flights meet our expectations.

No. Viking neither offered or gave them anything. Nothing. Nada. I was a bit surprised at this because the air was booked through Viking Air. Viking had a welcome party for the 46 that missed the start of the cruise and the partial crossing of the canal on the night they did board. Guest Services gave them a letter telling them that someone from Guest Services would be in touch with them once they returned home. This however carried no promise of any actual credit or action, other than they would get in touch. When Viking did contact them, it was determined that my brother and travel companions had travel interruption insurance. Viking asked them to file with the trip interruption insurance as their compensation. Viking gave them nothing. Not even a small credit/voucher. We saw Viking do a LOT during the beginning and the ending of the pandemic for many people. We were lucky that we were not ones that got Covid and taken off a ship, but we saw and heard many positive experience stories on what Viking did for these folks. I guess that this is Viking taking a stand and saying that this was the airlines fault, and even though we have a contract with them, we are not taking responsibility for their delay. I used to think that with VIKING specifically, if I booked the air through them I would be looked after. Now I don't have that opinion. We now go in at least one day early and budget that hotel, diversion fee if through Viking, and transit to the ship cost as part of the trip.

I get this... the terrify comment. I was born and raised in Toronto. Largest city in Canada. Small by other cities that I have visited like Beijing, Tokyo, New York, etc., but big to me. My niece was raised north of Toronto in a small rural town. The first time as an early teen that she was in Toronto with me to see a stage show, she grabbed my arm walking down a busy Yonge Street downtown Toronto and asked me: "Why does everyone look at you like they want to kill you?" I never looked at it like that. I just saw the looks on people's faces as the persona of the city. Paris is a beautiful city. I actually find the hoards of people around to be a comfort. I am more concerned if I am walking or moving about in a deserted area of a big city. The crowds are comforting to me.