CDNPolar

Yes. Cruise Lines won't do this for you, but they may advise you. You are responsible for every country that you are visiting to arrange the Visa or eTA in advance for yourself. Even if you don't plan on disembarking at a country port, you still have to have the Visa or you could be denied boarding of the ship.

Don't know if you were responding to my comment: I know that United Premium and Business/First provide noise cancelling headphones that cover the ear, but I travel with my own because you don't know how these are sanitized. The noise cancelling headphones are individually wrapped but they are recycled and repackaged after every flight. Some of these have foam type ear cushions, and my question is how are these being sanitized. (Yes, I am a germaphobe) The ear buds that are individually wrapped, I don't believe that they are recycled. They are used in such high numbers, they would be cheap to buy and probably more expensive to recycle.

Personally I would say NO. Expect nothing more than a typical flight. I have flown many times on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, and New Years Day, and never had any special surprise.

This is always something that we look at closely because I am a budgeting freak and budget to the penny for our trips. Mostly because we are still both working and we save in advance and pay for the trips fully before we go. I cannot fathom having a credit card bill to pay after the trip. Well, in fact we do but the budget is there to pay for it. I budget for the meals and drinks and optional excursions for the land portion of the trip, so it is important to know what you have to pay for yourself. We have opted for an optional excursion once or twice in the land portion and it has often included a lunch in the price. You have to be careful however that an excursion over the typical lunch period does not always include a full lunch. Sometimes it is just a snack, or nothing at all. These are all clearly indicated in the excursion information. The information above is what you need.

This is something that I have not looked at - the number of people vs. the space. We have only done three river cruises and two were with Viking. The third was Uniworld on The Nile, and that was not a good test of what Uniworld is all about because the ship actually to me was a huge disappointment. On our recent Viking River Cruise - the first one was a few years ago prior to Covid - we did find that the lounge could not hold all guests for port talks and the dining room was a bit claustrophobic when the dinner rush settled each night. If other lines offer more space, I would see that as a plus. We love Viking Ocean because we feel there is plenty of space on the Ocean ships.

1.5 GB of data should be enough for the average person doing email and perhaps some Facebook or Instagram posts. I think why Viking is doing this is because more and more are likely using the free WiFi to stream content which can be very draining on the bandwidth and causing it to slow for all of us. My understanding is to stream Netflix you use about 1GB of data an hour, so if you consume a lot of this kind of entertainment when you are onboard, you will have to purchase. Zoom consumes about 900MB per hour so if you are trying to work onboard, you will have to purchase the package. Personally for travel, I download Netflix and Prime content to my phone in advance to watch on the plane or on the ship, so this consumes nothing when onboard.

Yes, absolutely. We know from our departure point YYZ, the airlines that Viking typically have contract with and we tend to gravitate to those first. We have been quoted a couple hundred bucks more for flights to get certain airlines or schedules that we wanted. That can happen. I should have qualified that. Also that not all Viking contract rates allow you to upgrade to Business or Premium Economy, but we ask that up front. We generally have 4 or 5 options when we call Air Plus and we work through them from our top choice down.

I/We start our flight research usually about 300-310 days out. We start with Google Flights and yes, do exactly what you are asking. We enter our departure airport and our destination airport and then look at options. Then we call Air Plus if we have that on our cruise booking. (Sometimes we book the air directly) We look at all options and then choose routes and times and call Air Plus.

I am just looking in general what people do to enhance their experience. I don't want to limit this by naming airports, nor am I really looking for pages of options... just what you have done as it comes to mind.

Are you saying that NO payment went through for the original application, but it showed that they were submitted? But, when doing it again, the payment was processed immediately? I remember doing this earlier this year and my payment was immediate. This is a good indication for anyone else, as these government agencies want their payments immediately. I have notifications on my phone and watch for any activity on my bank account or credit cards. Rarely are they anything but instant, and I will stay on the phone line when booking something to make sure that the payment has gone through. Good that you got this resolved. One stress out of the way.

I would be wary of that amount of time. You never know how long baggage claim alone will take. You will have to hope that you are not late leaving ATL and that you land on time in Edmonton. We always choose routes and connections based on the layover time in the connecting city and we never opt for the shorter connection time. In fact, we will often choose a 3 hour layover if we can find it - especially when customs and immigration or passport control is involved.

On our most recent Viking River cruise, there were no tables for two in the dining room but we connected with two couples the first day which had a hotel night before the actual cruise began. We ended up sitting with them for all meals for the cruise at a table of 6. (Actually table of 6 was the smallest table) A couple of times the 6 top was not available and we ended up at a table of 8 or 10 and a couple of times the additional couples that sat with us - other than nodding when they sat down - never spoke to us. They just carried on their own conversation and they never appeared to want to get to know us so we just left them alone... On Portugal's River of Gold River cruise, there were tables for 2 in the dining room. This ship however was purpose built for the Douro River and is shorter in length with only about half the passengers. I do remember that there were many tables for 2 on that ship in the main dining. This ship did not have the outside terrace.

Not sure where you are from in the world - your profile does not give your location - but you should travel with some seasickness remedy. The Drake is known as the "Shake" or the "Lake" so you could get relatively calm waters or crazy high waves. Hurtigruten will supply 2 pills per day per person of seasickness medication, which is a non-branded Dimenhydrinate and I believe at 50mg per tablet. For us on the Nansen, we had to go to Guest Services and sign a sheet to receive the pills. We took the same strength - 50mg - of Gravol with us and took one morning and one late in the afternoon and we survived 11 metre waves. Others had the behind the ear patch and many were just not seen out of their cabins for 2 days.

I get this concept, but if you don't buy insurance for the value of the entire trip at the beginning, will they cover you for pre-existing and cancel for any reason? I would think not... but am probably wrong 'cause I don't know....

Hence the entire discussion about food....! We did not care for it and you liked it! But as I said, we would give the GB menu another go for sure.

I prefer to go into things with "no" expectations, rather than "low" expectations. Might just be a word and the interpretation of that word, but for me no expectations works well. We absolutely LOVE the Chef's Table and on any length of cruise we do our utmost to make every menu change they have. We have only ever disliked one menu of the Chef's Table and we have probably eaten every menu that they produce over the cruises we have been on. The menu we did not like was the UK menu, and the challenge we had with that was the battered fish, but then we have found in general that Viking do not do deep fried well - in our opinion. But I would try that menu again with no expectations.

Our preferred cruise line is not handled by this Canadian TA, so we have only used them once but agree, the benefit here is worth it. This is having us start to look at trying other cruise lines for the savings.

Two things here... One is RobEsson suggesting food is personal preference rather than Viking doing anything wrong... Food is very subjective. We have friends - like us - that eat anything and everything, and then others that are so picky I don't know how they function in the world outside their own kitchen. The second is the noise level in the dining room. I do agree that as we age, hearing aids or not, noise levels do begin to challenge us. I don't know if there is a fix for this as Viking dining rooms are not echoing noise, it is just close quarters. One thing however, as much as loud guests can make me wish silently that they would quiet down, if a table is having fun and a good time, more power to them. They are on vacation and enjoying themselves. I don't own the right to quiet enjoyment - in my opinion - on a cruise ship.

Ok... now I get it... I think that we are doing the same bringing my mother-in-law to Canada from China. My husband is flying home to accompany her in May of next year. He booked his ticket Toronto to China in May returning to Toronto in August. In between, we have two tickets (husband and mother) coming China to Toronto later in May return to China prior to his previously booked return ticket. Unfortunately for us, the was no cheaper, just easier to coordinate the travel, seat selection, etc. When it is cheaper for us is when we book long haul to Beijing paying in Canada, and then buying the inter China trip on his sister's credit card in China.

Let me clarify, so instead of booking one ticket with AA from home city, to final destination, with a connection somewhere in Europe, you want to book AA to the first European city, then book a separate ticket with BA to the final destination? We do this flying to China. We book the long haul flight from Toronto to Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong, and book the short flight within mainland China to my husbands home city with a Chinese Airline at substantial savings - sometimes. The question is always is it worth the extra hassle? If that is the case, then, if you can save money, that is great, but... You will have to claim your luggage at your first European city and then check it to your new flight and go through all the security again. This may require a long layover. If anything happens to your first flight - late, delayed, cancelled - you are on your own with the second flight because they are not in one reservation, and you either miss that flight and or pay change fees, or whatever... The question is, is it worth the risk or the extra hassle?

Awesome that you have a backup and PV is worth a week. We have been there several times. Let us know what you think!

I don't know that there is a negative to a lower deck, but do note that you will have the expedition staging area where they launch all the zodiac boats, and kayaks etc. This could have some noise if you were right above. But in my experience with other ships we generally are on the lowest deck (on Viking) and that does not bring more noise, in our opinion. We have long since however accepted that cruise ships have creaking, squeaking, vibrations, and other noises and it is the nature of the travel. We just learn to enjoy past these noises, even though in rough seas it can be harder to get to sleep. Although, we slept through the Drake Passage with 11 metre waves!

On the Nansen we were in an Arctic Superior with Balcony - XTD Category. We chose this because of the shape of the room and the wider windows and wider balcony. This gave us all the basic privileges on the ship, and I think that if you were in a suite, that you could have your meals in the specialty restaurant. The rest of us had to reserve and pay extra for that option. We looked at the menu a couple of times and did not see the value, so other than size of the cabin, I am not sure that there are other advantages to a suite?

You are welcome... and I hope you find the information that you are looking for about the Maud. Unfortunately there is not the same activity in the Hurtigruten forum as there is for outer cruise lines and it is difficult to get direct information. We used a travel agent to book this cruise that knew Hurtigruten well and also Antarctica expedition cruises. Mostly however it was because she had a direct connection to a Hurtigruten Rep that answered all our questions. Perhaps you can find - no sure where you are located - a TA that specializes with Hurtigruten? It is about the Expedition Team, and I am certain that Hurtigruten would not skimp on this, but also look at the total number of passengers on the ship because that will have an impact on whether you land once, twice, or can do more than one excursion in a day. Also will determine your time on land.

If you look at the deck plans - this is the Nansen - see the wide cabins mid-ship. The cabin layout is true to the deck plan.