CDNPolar

I don't know that any cruise line has to refund the taxes if you cancel. Your insurance should cover that. My recent claim to a US based insurance company was the full price paid for everything, and the insurance covered it. Rest assured if the tour company had the responsibility to refund the taxes, then the insurance would not have paid that to me.

Then write Viking asking for extended hours. I was just sharing what I understood to be the situation and could have something to do with the hours. If you don't like the hours - write them and investigate why for yourself.

Very true on the gym and spa hours, but if I am not mistaken, I have always understood that after the spa and gym closes for the night, it is available to some crew. I may be wrong with this, but this is what I understand.

I agree that Viking is appropriate for the main demographic that is the Viking guest, BUT, we are younger than the main demographic and we love the Viking atmosphere. We don't want the noise, crowds, casinos, etc. We enjoy the more sedate atmosphere of the Viking experience. I sometimes think that Viking have a reputation that suggests only the older crowd will enjoy. We think that more would enjoy Viking if they gave it a try.

We always choose to pay in local currency and let our bank/credit card apply the exchange.

Was there no other viewing point that you could have gone to on the ship? We move about the ship so much that if we go to one deck and there is a crowd, we move to another deck. Although we always are there early to get our best spot, if it is occupied we always seem to find another vantage point.

First of all, I am sorry for the loss of your Mother. In general with insurance, the passing of an immediate family member is a covered reason and should have been good enough without medical records. In Canada, we have lots of smaller lessor known insurance companies, but I stick with the "Big Guys" when it comes to travel medical or cancellation insurance. By the Big Guys I mean insurance companies that are well known, sometimes part of our major banks, and sometimes standalone from the banks, but are also investment firms and very well done. There can be deals out there, but for us, we pay what the best known companies charge because we know that they are going to honour a claim. I am sorry for your challenges with this, but as discussed about travel insurance many times over on CC, the insurance company goal is to not pay out so you have to understand the language of the policy completely. We have a challenge in that US based policies tend to be more specific and Canadian policies - especially with pre-existing conditions - tend to be more vague. The vagueness of this language means that the insurance company has more room to deny a claim. We have always bought cancellation insurance but never had to use it until this past December. We have spent probably 10-12K on insurance policies in the last 8 years or so. Our first claim was for 14K because of an unexpected medical situation and it was covered. We got the whole thing back. Just as a note, this was Arch Insurance and it was a policy that we bought through Gate1 Tours for a land based tour. Arch were incredibly easy to work with. We had never heard of Arch before, but the reviews were good, and we also had an annual plan with a provider in Canada that we have used for years.

With Viking there is no credit if you don't use their free air offer. The price is the price. If you are using Air Plus with Viking it is not last minute, with bad connections and bad seats. We just booked our air for our cruise in November of this year and we got the flights, connections and seats we wanted. With Air Plus you are in control of the decisions made.

Viking Air Plus is $100.00 per person (for Canadians) to book the air and this includes the round trip booking. We always have our choices of airline, times, seats, etc., prepared in advance. If you are flying in early or later than what Viking would book... for example, if you are going to Europe and the cruise sails on the 17th of the month, Viking will fly you overnight leaving Canada on the 16th. Viking will also book you home the morning the cruise arrives at the destination port. If you want to fly other than these times, such as arrive a day early or depart a day later, then you will be charged a deviation fee of $100 per person for that and this is per person per side of the trip. So you could be paying $200 per person to do this if you deviate before and after the cruise. Also, if you are flying in early or late transfers are not included by Viking, you would have to pay for those yourself to your hotel, or wherever. We just booked air for an upcoming Europe and we are flying into Amsterdam and home from Budapest. Our first choice was Air Canada direct to Amsterdam, and then Lufthansa/AC from Budapest to Munich to Toronto. Viking gave us the Air Canada direct to Amsterdam, but the flights we wanted from BUD to YYZ were going to be $153.00 CAD more per person. Instead they offered us British Air home through Heathrow and the times and connection was good so we took that at no cost. The bottom line is you can make decisions on this instead of being handed an air itinerary a few months before. We are flying in a day early so we paid $100.00 per person for Air Plus, and $100.00 per person for the deviation on the way in.

But you can remove them so there is no obligation to pay them, so the price is the price. The price does not change after you have booked because you can choose not to pay them. Splitting hairs, but in my opinion, gratuities does not come into the price when they are optional. Gratuities come into the discussion for countries like the UK where they are part of the price. The UK has no option but to pay them. But for them, the price is the price too!

There are people that complain about Viking mattresses, but we love them. We were considering Virgin heavily, but this mattress thing is going to make me rethink our option to try them. If I have to pay more to get a real mattress and not a pushed together sofa, then they are off my radar.

Never, never, and with Viking if you read and understand what you are "buying" it is not a hidden secret for the North American market that gratuities are extra. But what is not widely known is that you can refuse the entire charge, or reduce it, or increase it. You will not - in our experience - receive any resistance to remove or adjust the gratuities on Viking.

Yes, as I expected. You likely have an older demographic because of the length of the segments. With many cruise lines, time of year, itinerary, and length of cruise can often dictate the age demographic. Hope you find enjoyment on Viking in spite of the situation.

Oh, my.... Every airline when you are flying for 13+ hours and you have not downloaded Netflix to your phone or tablet. If I want to be entertained, I force myself to watch something again. Only YOU can force YOU to watch something again.... haha.

All I will say is that I have traveled to Vancouver for business for years and hotel prices in Van are high downtown or at the airport at any time. If you want a decent place to stay you will likely pay for it. Just did a day room search for Van and yes, the rates are high... Day rooms in hotels are tricky things and typically not cheap because it is a technical nightmare for a standard hotel to administrate, unless they are set up for this day room kind of booking. For you to check in at 8am, the room has to be vacant overnight as the check out time for hotels is typically 11am. It is almost like the opposite of booking for overnight. Hotels that do this have to have a separate set of rooms that are dedicated to this booking option and they have to employ housekeeping staff at different hours - than typical - to clean and ready these rooms in the evening. They also have to have demand for this kind of booking ongoing. My experience is that day rooms, unless you are travelling huge international airports such as in Japan, China, London, etc., you won't find lots of options. I think you may have to just pay the price.

You say you are picking up new passengers in Sydney? Are you on a segment of a world cruise? Or a segment of a 45 or 90 day cruise? You will find the demographics on these cruises - IMO - to be older because the younger are working and are not able to commit to long cruise itineraries like that.

Viking does tend to be an older demographic, however we are starting to see that change over the years now that we have sailed with Viking. We are especially seeing a much younger age coming on the River Cruises now. Surprised that you are seeing activity up to 10pm! Haha. We have experienced the Explorer Lounge dead every night at 8pm and some cruises that it was "rocking" by Viking standards much later. Viking is quiet everywhere after the Star Theatre show for the night. We are good with this because we exhaust ourselves during the day with excursions and going back into the city or town, and by the end of dinner and the show, we are ready for bed to rest for the next day. We are on a Viking cruise for the destinations and not for entertainment in the evening.

Have not sailed Emerald... But, I find it difficult to compare pricing between lines and if price is a decision, then you have to look at many things, but it often comes down to your price per night on the ship, rather than Emerald is X per person and Viking is Y per person for the cabin. Look at: Are the two cruises the same number of nights? Do they dock in the same cities, or is one going to smaller cities and ports? (This can be the case) Viking include wine and beer with lunch and dinner. Do Emerald? Viking include one excursion in each port - do Emerald? Viking include Wifi - do Emerald? Viking can have free air and / or transfers, or not if you don't book air through Viking So many things go into price that it is rarely apples to apples. We have tried to compare Viking to other lines and when you are looking at price there is always a discrepancy that makes it difficult to say that one is more price comparative than the other.

We love the Star Theatre and even though it is not a "big show" we have always been entertained with the evening show. The only complaint that we have is there is not enough variety of show material across the Ocean itineraries. It is kind of like when you fly a lot, you have watched every movie on the plane that you are interested in and you are forced to watch something again on your next flight. With Viking, we have seen the Abba and other standard performances a few times now and would like some variety. The only variety with this is a different crew of four (2 female and 2 male) performing the show. We have found the Cruise Director led reviews very good and there will usually be one of these. We have also had magicians, and other types of entertainment brought on board for some variety. We only look at this as 45 minutes after dinner before we go to bed. We don't have high expectations for this entertainment which is why we are generally always entertained and content with the show. We have only been to Torshavn once with friends that we were travelling with and we were good with the Viking Band and singers, because they also perform on the Star Theatre stage, but we found the venue itself to be claustrophobically small and low ceilings. It was too tightly packed and too loud for our tastes. We do like the guitarist, the pianist, and the strings that rotate from the Living Room to the Explorer Lounge at night.

Yeah, we book only DV cabins by choice because we personally see no value in paying more for something that we don't use or need... We have never had liquor of any kind - beer, wine, spirits - in our minibar, and often we find that even the soft drinks are not replenished daily. We don't care about that anyway because we don't visit our cabin unless we are sleeping, changing, showering, etc., and there is always water there.

Yes, but no included beer and wine with meals. No included thermal spa.

We / I have been researching Virgin lately as a possible future line to cruise with - although we have three future Viking cruises booked now... What I did not come across yet is this: Other than suites, all Virgin beds are convertible couches which means that the mattress isn't actually a mattress but a couch cushion. We're told they're too firm for many people - we were in a Rock Star Suite and so had a real mattress Not too thrilled about sleeping on a convertible couch, but I guess in some cabin pictures, they are suspiciously missing a bed now that I go and look again. I also don't like that the thermal spa is $59 bucks for a few hours. This is a mainstay for us on Viking Ocean. After an excursion we can almost always be found nursing our sore muscles in the thermal spa. Would not want to have to pay for this. Food for thought. Thank you for such a detailed account and comparison.

It is empty seating that the people in the chairs do not "own". I have been sitting back somewhat from the viewing window with reasonable view and then a group of 4 people have come and stood right in front of us and while standing they have a great view, and now I have no view. I don't "own" that floor space. It would be wrong of me to say anything to them. I personally would probably not go and sit on the bench directly in front of someone, but that is me and my sensibility and consideration for others. There are many people that don't think that way.

No offence, but this is currently being discussed on the Viking Ocean forum and has been discussed over and over and over. In brief: * House wine and beer included with lunch and dinner - unlimited. Wines are good in general. You can get a top up before leaving the dining room and carry that anywhere on the ship. * You can bring your own liquor or wine on board and viking will open and pour for you, or you can pour in your cabin and carry that drink/wine anywhere on the ship. * You can get anything on the expanded beverage menu by paying for it as an individual drink and nothing is off limits to you because you are not on the package. * If you take the package, and you are drinking the included wines and beers, then you would have to drink a minimum of 3 drinks per person per night to break even. * If you don't like the included wines, then you could drink the expanded list of wines at meals either way, but if not on the SSBP then you will pay for them. If on the SSBP then you won't pay extra. You basically just have to decide how much you intend to drink. We used to always buy the package, and we don't any longer. We don't personally find the value.

Personally I think that a thread for this kind of discussion would be so huge and long and go off topic so frequently that the discussion would end up about airlines and lost luggage as soon as someone mentions that in a response... Even if the response was initially about an excursion. My preference would be for CC to look at opening a sub-forum for each cruise line's excursions and that when you post you post about the specific cruise name/itinerary, and the full name of the excursion. One post per excursion. Just my opinion.