CDNPolar

On Homelands - even the included ones had the cobblestones. They were everywhere.

All I will say is that many of the streets in many of the cities are cobblestone. You are NOT walking / rolling on smooth surfaces. This is where you are walking, not just where the cars are driving. We had one man on our excursions that complained on several excursions that "these cities should pave over the cobblestones and make it easier for us to walk". There were also stairs on several excursions. Not sure that this will be easy for you.

There are others that offer the same type of service, but for us it was simply no kids. That was one of the major draws for me. The fact that you can hear yourself think at the pool without screaming all around you.

I personally don't think that this is necessarily the case, but I do think the following: they suffer from a severe lack of consistency in their training of customer service and reservation/air plus agents Their policies - some of them - need some flexibility I also think this... when you look at the demographic that Viking attracts - the largest part of their demographic - is aging fast and won't always be there. (No offence intended to anyone) Like the job and career market - there is a large void of middle management and age groups. There are not enough people taking the place of Viking's largest demographic for them to remain viable in the market that they currently do well in. Viking will have to start to appeal to the younger cruising market to stay in business. Think about this when you are on a Viking cruise. We don't see the younger market yet on a Viking ship. Viking don't have a loyalty program, they increasingly tick me off when I have to call about something, and they are not the only ones in the market. We started our cruising craze with Viking and were loyal for a few years. Now we are not loyal. Perhaps they are too big for their britches.

That is all well and good to say but more than once my husband and I have mixed up our sail cards and security never noticed that we were not who we were supposed to be leaving the ship, and we went out at different times... This is not a failsafe method.

My experience with Aeroplan and Air Canada / Star Alliance, is that until I submit missing miles, my flight miles don't show on my Aeroplan. Anyone else experience this? It makes me think that unless I am monitoring every flight, I may not get the miles credited.

Don't know if you have already booked and paid for this cruise yet, but is there not an Alaska cruise that you can book that does not stop in Canada? Problem solved?

Here is the link to the article. It will give you more and also contact informtaion. https://deniedentryintocanada.com/denied-entry-to-canada/travelling-alaska-criminal-inadmissibility.html

Here is the thing... there is no physical barrier to you leaving the ship. Once CBSA "clears" the ship, there is nothing to stop you from getting off. This is where my thought process is that they have the passport information of everyone on the ship and they run all of that... they will find you and potentially escort you off.

Please let us know what you find out.

This is no different than transiting through a country by air. You have no intention to stay in that country, but you must be legally admissible just to transit through. For instance, I just came back from Australia. I was transiting through SFO. I had to collect my bags and present to US Immigration. If I was not admissible to the US, I would not be allowed to continue my journey on to Canada without being supervised to the flight. Once I have cleared immigration and am "loose" in the airport I could walk out the door and be in the USA free and clear, but not legally. I would not suggest that the CBSA have better things to do... My bet is they would find you.

From a Canadian law firm: Travelling to Alaska Whenever an American decides they would like to travel to Alaska, whether for business reasons, for leisure or for family, they must pass through Canada in order to enter Alaska. If the American has criminal inadmissibility issues that are not resolved, this may cause complications at the Canadian border. The Canadian Immigration officers at Canadian borders still assess whether the foreign national, in this case the American, is admissible to Canada or not. If they do see that the American is criminally inadmissible to Canada, they can refuse their entry into Canada and thus the trip to Alaska would never happen. Therefore, it is best to determine first whether you are criminally inadmissible to Canada before planning a trip to Alaska. Remember, it is essential to enter and exit Canada to arrive in Alaska. Many Americans travel to Alaska for its beautiful and enchanting nature and scenic views. There are many Alaskan cruises that are a popular activity that a lot of Americans like to engage in. Because of the icy scenes, it is an alternative travel destination for Americans, compared to other more tropical places in the United States. Moreover, if an American wants to go on an Alaskan cruise, they also have to consider their inadmissibility issues to Canada as these cruises often have a stop in Canada. The most popular stops are usually in Victoria or Vancouver, British Columbia. Therefore, if an American with criminal inadmissibility decides to go on one of these cruises and potentially visits any destination in Canada, they must ensure their criminal inadmissibility will not prevent them. Essentially, they must first overcome their criminal inadmissibility before going on the cruise. In the worst case scenario, if they have successfully boarded the Alaskan cruise ship and they touch down in a Canadian city, and the Immigration officer finds out that they are criminally inadmissible, they can potentially ask the American to be escorted off the cruise ship and return back to the United States. This would be very unfortunate for any individual who has paid a large amount of money to be on a cruise and to be sent back home for inadmissibility that could have been resolved beforehand.

Not sure "immigration" can help you. Contact the above - here is the web address:

Call the toll free number:

I think that your only solution is to contact the cruise line and be honest with your situation, and they may or may not be able to tell you a definitive answer, and then call Canada Border Services. The fact is that you are entering Canada even if you don't get off the ship. You are in Canadian waters and ports. You may not be eligible unless you are on a ship that does not stop in Canada.

I think honestly, you should contact the cruise company. I am sure that a cruise originating in the USA to Alaska, with a stop in Canada, they would know the answer to this. Then I would contact Canada Border Services officials too, to back up any answer. Just "wondering" and coming here for answers could leave you in a bad situation. I have an American cousin that has a white collar felony record that was also a plea, and he lives near the US Canada border and he loved to come to see baseball games in Toronto. Nope, not now. He has a long process that first starts with 5 years after probation then an application for entry that could take some time to process. I personally don't think that you would be arrested and removed from the ship, but you may not be able to leave the ship in Canada. OR, you may be denied boarding at your starting point. This is personal opinion and not backed with any facts. Call the cruise company and back that with a call to Canada Border Services.

Make sure that the trip cancellation insurance you are buying covers cancellation for any of the three of you. For this, you will need to buy a policy together as a group of three. Let me explain: Three travelling: A, B, and C Something happens that is a cancelable reason for A, and B and C decide not to go, all three are covered and the insurance covers the cost of all three. Something happens that i a cancelable reason for A, but B and C decide to continue, then the insurance covers the cost of cancelation of A, but B and C can still travel. You have to ensure that you have the ability of ALL getting covered if something happens to only ONE of the three of you. I have seen policies that do NOT cover this way, this is why I am suggesting that you make sure. Also ensure that you understand what is a cancelable reason. Third party insurance rarely if ever offer a cancel for any reason... it will be illness, death, or other serious reason. Do NOT include costs that are otherwise refundable like an airline fare where you maintain the value for a year - even if it has a change or fare increase fee. Insurance will not cover the cost of any part of your fare - airfare, cruise, excursions - that can be canceled or changed without a financial loss. Most - and I repeat - most airfares you can cancel and retain the value of the fare for at least a year. If you include costs like this in your premium calculation they will only increase the cost of your insurance for no benefit to you. For instance, we have an expensive air portion of our trip coming up and we booked the air independently of the cruise line. This airfare has a cancel for full refund option with a cancel fee of only $200 per person. The airfare has a cost of over $6,000.00 for the two of us. We did not include that cost in the cost of the trip for the cancelation insurance, because it would just increase our premium but not bring us any value. They would not pay out the cost of the air, if it can be canceled. If you included the $200 per person cancelation cost, it might pay that, not sure, have not ever tested that. Only include the non-cancelable non-refundable portions of your trip cost when calculating the premium. You may already know all this....

Believe me it saves time. I have just flown through Melbourne Australia and then SFO. I did not have to remove liquids or laptops in either city and the lines moved much more quickly... much more quickly than where all this stuff has to be pulled out. Travelling for work I two laptops and then the bag of small liquids... all this just stayed where it was. Imagine - just put your bag on the rollers and you are done. Walk through. In these cities, your liquids don't have to be limited to 100ml either. It may not seem like much for one person, but look into your experience where everyone that does not travel regularly struggles to have all this ready to pull out and you will understand why the lines will move faster. Also no belts, or shoes off...

... and this has been discussed up and down and right and left many times... There are statements in this discussion that crew are saying that they don't receive any additional tips or gratuities, but that it is just part of their contracted pay package. It has also been said here that crew are under non-disclosure on this topic and are not allowed to discuss this with us... not to say that someone would not share. The fact is that I emailed Viking and asked very direct questions to which I got a phone call back where they refused (politely quoting policy or no knowledge) to answer my direct questions. They would only state that the gratuities were distributed. I have very strong opinions on this subject, which my partner does not share.... If you tell me that this is a Gratuity that is optional and I can pay or remove it, then I would think that it is logical that I might understand, if I ask, how it is distributed. If it is part of the salary package that is a contract rate that does not change whether I pay this or not, then don't put a veil over this by calling it a gratuity. Call it a service charge, but I don't know when or where service charges are optional. There is probably a very small percentage of people that don't pay it so Viking are collecting this additional revenue stream all the while misleading us. Why do I care so much about this? Because many of the crew are from countries where - IMO - they are being taken advantage of by cruise lines. I am NOT saying that Viking is taking advantage. I am saying that this is a very low cost employee to the cruise ship. My company has vast operations in the Philippines, and I know the economy there and what people don't have there that makes these jobs very attractive. These attractive jobs however require them to be away from home, and family for months and while away they are working 7 days a week for the entire contract. Yes, they. are making more than they could at home, but still not enough, IMO. If you tell me that this is a GRATUITY, then I want to know that what I am paying is benefiting every person on the ship, and if you cannot tell me that then unfortunately I will stop paying the "optional" and give to the people that I see and know that I am benefiting them directly. We have a cruise in August. It remains to be seen if my partner will agree with me, but my intent is to use what would be paid on the auto gratuity to crew directly and just say no to the amount added to the bill.

Pardon me, but I think you indicated on a previous page that being from UK, the gratuity is included in your overall fare, and that would mean to me two things: 1). You do NOT see an additional charge on your cabin folio at the end of the cruise, and 2). Like me, being from Canada, and having the amount added at the end of the cruise, you also have the ability to say you don't want to pay the gratuity? Does Viking state the amount of gratuity included in your fare and give you the option to not pay this? I think that this would be unfair pricing strategy if the UK an amount baked in that cannot be removed, but US and Canada Viking guests and opt not to pay the auto gratuity?

We have asked Viking and they will NOT respond in writing nor will they be specific with their answers when they call you to explain. They will confirm that it is NOT a pooled fund for emergencies or upgrades of services for staff as some profess. They continue to say that it is a fund that is divided amongst all staff. I also asked and they would not confirm or deny - is this by cruise? Is it by contract? They will not answer this. We had a bartender in the Living Room bar that knew our names from day one and he left the ship - contract end - for vacation half way through the cruise. Did he get any of OUR gratuity that we paid for that cruise? We don't know. Viking will not answer this question. Because Viking are so PRIVATE with this information there are two things that you can do... Continue to pay it blindly and hope that people are fairly given a % of the money, OR, boycott onboard gratuities until they are transparent with how it is distributed. After my last call with Viking I made it very clear, that since they were not willing to answer the majority of my questions, that I may in the future decline all onboard gratuities and give a mid-cruise or end of cruise gratuity to those that I feel gave me the best experience. The problem with this is that there are people behind the scenes that deserve gratuities that would now not receive them... that being if Viking truly have an honest program that truly and fairly distributes the gratuities. We always tip our cabin stewards on the first day when they come to our cabin, and then half way through the cruise. We will NOT tip daily or for every drink that we order, but we will tip for excellent service when we feel it is deserved, or selfishly when we feel it will benefit us. We are on a river cruise in August, and it is my intent to decline the auto gratuity and give where I fee appropriate and I will make the statement to whoever is interested on the ship the reason why I am boycotting these auto gratuities.

Sad to say that we have been in this same mindset for about 2 years now. Viking WAS our ONLY cruise line. On board, everything is wonderful, but when you call in for anything it is an absolute horrible experience. Multiple phone calls receive multiple "stories" and one contradicts the other... Stiff policies that even when the change made was against our will, they will not back down... In short, we have one more booked cruise with Viking in August. We have already sailed on another cruise line and we are investigating others. Viking has fallen short to us so many times from an off ship customer service standpoint and we do not feel any loyalty to Viking any longer. Viking offer no incentive to book again through them, and the payment terms are horrible. We are not saying NEVER to Viking again, but we are more likely to spread our money around and experience other cruise lines and not be loyal to one....

Go to guest services and ask. OBC's may not be applied until the completion of the cruise.

Thanks, missed that.

No I booked buffalo drive border because I can do both. But now wonder if I can do the US one and then Canada after.