CDNPolar

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.

I get you and I can often swallow the wrong way and have a bit of a coughing spell and getting "outside" when you are deep into the dining room is not always an option. I get the cloth napkin folded and cover my face and do my best... But regarding your suggesting that someone catch your eye and mime coughing into your elbow? Nope. I ain't gonna do that. I have seen some pretty awful responses where folks have been "corrected" in the past by the person coughing. Thank you however for being the person that would accept that subtle suggestion.

I guess that this discussion about PIN's is making me raise my eyebrows with a question? PIN and Tap technology in Canada is common and expected. There are limits to tap and every store or restaurant has a different limit. Everyone in Canada uses PINs for both their bank or ATM cards, and their credit cards. We routinely expect to need a PIN when shopping or paying in Europe.

Don't forget that you can bring any wine on board and they will chill it, open it, serve it for you. On River cruises we do this. We go to a winery as one of the excursions and if we like what we tasted we bring a bottle or two back to the ship. If we had paid for the SSBP we would feel more obligation to drink Viking's wine, but if we don't do the SSBP (which we don't anymore) we bring wine back. Sometimes we will share with the table at dinner and sometimes not.

We are same boat (no pun intended) now. We are not cocktail drinkers - just wine. We buy as we go if the included wine does not work for us that day. It would be interesting to know if Viking make more money from selling SSBP or from charging for individual drinks. When we started sailing Viking in 2017 the SSBP was a good deal for us. Now, the price has gone up too much.

Exactly Aside from the loss of interest - if that is a key concern - there is no penalty to cancel until 120 days and less from the cruise. So pay in full, and then if you can make a decision not to go in excess of 120 days, then you only lose $100 per person. You don't even have to buy insurance until the 120 day mark.

6 months out is ok, but we only book the V1 and V2 cabins and those are generally gone if we wait. This is why we generally book at least 12+ months out as on the more popular itineraries, these cabins are gone early.

And... we have two different time frame issues of the TD Aeroplan cards. (Both Infinite and Privilege) The rules and point accumulations are different if they were issued in 2022 vs. 2023 vs 2024. We went back to the bank to get the rules for our previously issued cards because we thought they were different (better) than the promos that we were seeing now, and yes they were. We now screen print all the rules for each card we have and keep them in an archive. This all came to light because of the annual bonus of Aeroplan points. We were reading that the annual bonus on a more recently advertised card was paid when you hit the bonus spending limit, and I was sure that we had to wait until the year was up. It was the case. We had to wait until the 12 months was up to get the bonus but a card offered a few months after securing ours gave the bonus in 3 months or 6 months or whatever months if you hit the annual spending required.

With all due respect to your comment "which I have never needed", you just don't know when you will need it. I once said to my financial advisor when he was suggesting different types of disability insurance, that I did not plan to be disabled. His response was that no one does plan that. It happens. I hear what you are saying, but our credit cards only offer $2,500 per person for a covered reason for cancelling and most of our cruises are over $6K per person. Huge loss possible there if cancelling was more or less last minute for an unforeseen event.

I believe that changing the name on a ticket will be covered in the Cruise Contract and you should look for or ask for this and consider the potential consequences before booking. Names on tickets are part of the passenger manifest that is shared with each country that you are stopping in. There may be a time frame where the name can be changed, and there most certainly will be a cost. This may also be very different cruise line to cruise line, so I would pose this question to the cruise line specifically. This is probably not an uncommon question to the cruise line. Marriages break up, friendships end, and unfortunately people pass. I do hope your friend is not in this situation however.... Just one note to consider as well. Assuming that there will be airfare as well, some airlines do NOT allow the transfer of a ticket to another person. That is another consideration for you. Insurance would cover the loss of the air ticket, but the newly joining travel companion may have to buy airfare separately.

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.