CDNPolar

We tend to ask for the same table in the Restaurant each night so that exactly as you say, the wine steward and the servers know your preferences and they start to react to them.

In the restaurants, they look you up on their handheld device and then know if you are SS or not. In all cases of Ocean cruises I have been on you have a different wine glass if you are on SS from house wines. This is true in each restaurant too. This has to be the case because we have often been sitting with folks that are not on the SS and we are, or the opposite. Yes, they constantly top your glass whether you are on SS or house wines. You typically don't have to ask. If you are SS you can change the wine you are drinking too at anytime. Well, in fact with house you can change from white to red or sparking too.

Final payment can also be 180 days IF you have a future cruise booked with Viking - River or Ocean. We always keep one booking way in the future for exactly that purpose and is very non-painful now that deposits are only $25 pp.

We cannot unfortunately share this information on CC. You essentially have to do the research by calling around and asking. Often cruise lines list preferred TA's on their sites for you to deal with. These are TA's that are "certified" with them and high volume and know the line well. We use a few TA's depending on who we are booking with. It is just knowledge that comes over time. We found a very specific TA when we wanted to do an Antarctica cruise. This TA was good, but there was no financial benefit to us to use her. She did snag us a great overall fare however.

Viking OCEAN have coffee makers in their cabins above the "V" level cabins - which there are two at this level and they are the lowest level cabin with Viking. You must be in a DV cabin or above. My experience however with the ones on Viking is that they are so noisy that they will wake the dead. I can actually dress and leave the cabin to get coffee and reenter without waking my spouse, but I would wake them using the coffee maker.

For the forums that I frequent on CC, and as a veteran cruiser, I feel that most of the information shared here is credible. There are opinions that differ and even though we "know" that mid-ship is best to avoid seasickness, others express opinions that never experience seasickness. I sometimes cringe at advice shared on CC and I have been guilty myself of saying things that have been corrected or adjusted by others, but in general this forum I feel is credible because there are so many here that will steer a conversation in the correct direction if it needs to have the direction corrected - so to speak. There are other forums however that I abandoned because the information shared is outrageous and then fighting is a common thing.

On page 2 of your invoice from Viking the cancellation penalty is clear. (See screen shot below) The cancelation policy is actually $100 per person, but since you only deposited $25 per person, that is all they are keeping because they don't have more from you than the $50 bucks. Clearly stated, is that 120 days or more the cost is $100.00 per person. No offence, but you are mis-reading the terms. It is 120 days or more from departure, not 120 days from departure. And these terms are on the invoice. You cancelled more than 120 days from departure. This cost of $100 pp applies when Viking were routinely charging $500 pp deposit. Now that their promotion is a deposit of $25 pp, they are keeping your $50 bucks. I am sure that this is also on the Viking site somewhere. What you could have done in hind-sight is move the deposit to another cruise in the future that are better dates or a different itinerary. You can do this and keep the deposit and lose nothing. We have moved deposits often in situations where we have booked something and then friends cannot make those dates, or friends would rather go on a different cruise... No loss with this tactic. Sorry that this happened to you, but I am sure that this is covered well in the Viking site, but it is certainly covered in the Viking invoice. Today, deposits cannot just be considered refundable. Rarely are deposits fully refundable in my experience.

Yes, you certainly did!

I believe that this is a ship by ship experience. We have loved every guitarist that we have encountered on Viking and we love the Explorer Lounge, and never found the service to be slow, unless it is full to capacity, which is not our experience.

I believe the Spa hours match the gym

If you search the Viking forum you will find countless threads discussing the SSBP and if it is worth it. To reinforce what millybess said, yes, both in the cabin need to sign up. You cannot just say that one does not drink that much. Both or nothing unless you are travelling with an under the drinking age child. Here are just a few discussions... there are many more.

For some reason that email is not available right now.. but will be again soon. To identify the right TA you literally have to call and interview or ask what they offer. Some offer by length of cruise and some by total cost. Some offer nothing, and are not required to. We use different TA's depending on the cruise line but we have one mainstay TA. One TA offers amazing value for one cruise line, but not for others...

We are experienced travellers in every way. Local travel, European travel, Far East travel. We enjoy the research and ultimately doing the booking ourselves. Both the cruise and the air. We also like to ask questions when booking to understand fully what we are getting. This is easier if we are doing the booking, as there is no back and forth. The transfer to a travel agency is only for the incentives - for onboard credit, rebates, etc. We book what we want, and then transfer the booking to receive the incentives. We don't want to call a TA, relay our information, have them come back with questions, or worse yet, we then have questions... so we do the full booking and move it over. Done and dusted.

The Viking Reps should have a manifest with your names, airline, flight numbers, etc. They SHOULD know that your flight was late and should have still been expecting you. I find this odd that they were "about to give up on you". This is what they are there for - to locate you and get you to the ship.

We obviously have different experiences.

Yes, depends on the cruise line, the volume of the "Bing" and the sound proofing. We sail Viking almost exclusively and we have been near the elevators and never heard anything. I think a bigger concern for a lot of folks are the ones that let their cabin door slam shut.

Booking a cruise with a Travel Agent or Online Travel Site is one choice or you can book direct. People use an Agent for very different reasons. The value of an Agent is that they can guide you in areas that you are unsure or have not navigated before. The other value of an Agent is that you MIGHT receive incentives to book through them that the cruise line direct does not offer. There are pros and cons to both. We book direct with the cruise line - always - and then transfer the booking to an Agent.

Viking book by contract so even though you provide your preferred airlines, that does not mean that you will get those airlines. This is where Viking Air Plus comes in at $100.00 per person. You can call Viking up to 300 days before and book your airline of choice - if it is on a contract rate - or given the opportunity to pay a bit extra for that airline if it is not in a contract rate.

My suggestion would be that we have never had to move terminals, or go anywhere other than exit from where our luggage was claimed to find the Viking Rep. Viking will have a Rep to find you without you moving terminals.

We still get the red Viking stickers, but we don't put them on... We scan the airport area while waiting for luggage and then on exiting the luggage hall for folks wearing RED with clipboards and have always found them in the first 30-45 seconds. Many folks do put on the stickers, but I kind of feel like I am on a school field trip and waiting for someone to pass me the rope to hold on to as we walk to the bus. I feel that the Red Leather luggage tags that Viking send are enough.

It is hard to go hungry on a Viking ship - yea, kind of true - but I am a very early riser. I want tea or coffee at 4:30am to 5:00am. That is difficult on a Viking Ocean ship. I won't use the in-cabin coffee maker at that hour because the noise it makes could and will wake the dead, and my husband. I have tried room service with a note on the door hanger menu to "knock ONCE ONLY" but they will come and ring the buzzer several times and wake my husband. The best thing for me is to slip out the door - does not wake my husband - and go to the World Cafe. This is a fine choice but I have so many times found the coffee machines there in cleaning mode, being restocked, or whatever and therefore not able to get a coffee or tea. Viking Ocean need a station for folks like me to self-serve early. River has it and I LOVE River for this fact.

There is a discussion somewhere on comparing cost of one cruise line to another. It is very difficult because they are not apples to apples. A recent post - could even be on this discussion - a poster suggests comparing two cruise lines where they say that the itineraries are "similar" but not the same. This makes it difficult to compare. So, increasing Viking fares to include gratuities (in Canada and the USA) or lowering other lines fares to not include gratuities is not the answer - I don't think. I think back to the original discussion, we vote for what we know. Those that are voting Viking as number one, are doing so because they like it. Others look at this when they have had a sub-standard experience on Viking and wonder why Viking ranks so high. It is because annually - somehow - I get the email or the survey asking me to vote. I vote for the experience that I know which is Viking.

I think somewhere on the left hand panel, mine said that the card would continue to work until the new one was issued. It was not a prominent message.

Hmmmm... I guess that I applied before actual expiry so mine was honoured during renewal process. Perhaps someone else knows? If in this case the card HAS expired, is the expired card invalid and you have to wait until the new one is issued?

Since you have done your flights through Viking you have transfers included. There will be a Viking Agent at the airport either at the luggage carousel, or just as you exit the luggage area. Viking will send you special luggage tags - this is when you want to apply these. (These are temporary ones that indicate your Viking cabin number) Viking will take your luggage and take it to the cabin - you don't have to do anything with your luggage other than claim it at the airport. If you don't want to deal with your carry ons then tag them as well and leave them with Viking. Find your Viking Rep - always in Red and often more than one. You will be taken to the ship pronto - we have never waited more than 20'ish minutes and it is always because they have several people to pick up. You will typically board the ship at that point and you can go to the restaurant even if your cabin is not ready. We went to the Guest Services desk and were issued a temporary card with the intended Cabin number on it and asked to keep that visible on the table wherever we were. On our most recent River Cruise, we arrived about noon to the ship, we went into the restaurant. I believe that it was a buffet offering. Not a full typical lunch. There was however hot and cold food options. After lunch we went up to the lounge and sat there and had a drink and met some folks. Viking crew came looking for us as the cabins were ready and accompanied us to the cabin. You could leave if you wanted, but probably better to just wait for your cabin... We just wait on board.