OnTheJourney

I'm sure. SO much out there to see. I'm planning to use that free Athens day to do the Viator tour of Athens, since the extension visits other areas on 2 of the days. Never been to Rome or Greece, so I'm good with whatever we manage to see.

Sure....if we find the time, sounds good also!

Indeed it was an amazing cruise! Glad that you and your daughter were able to be part of it. Karine's presentation is one I will long remember - so moving. Along with Mr. Hagen's presentation, it brought a sense of closure to the entire episode. What remains, of course, is the final report on the incident. It was our first time anywhere in the "Meddy". Such amazingly smooth sailing! Have a great remainder of the summer...

Well, wouldn't go quite that far. There were some glitches. Some people had their reports printed out from Viking, others didn't. The Viking guide, instead of having copies of the website to hand out that we needed to visit to locate our results, had it written on a piece of paper and told us to take pictures of it (really?) Some had trouble logging into the site, etc. So I guess I was a bit too positive on how it all went. The relief was that we were negative, as well as the entire time on the ship with the spit-in-a-tube tests.

I assume you're referring to being in port for just the day? Not knowing how much time you have available, I'll just mention that we were there as part of a post-cruise extension and had booked a private tour through Viator. It was a fantastic experience. Picked up at the hotel - just DW and I, the driver and guide. With being able to completely skip the lines and not having to hassle with admission tickets, we visited the Sagrada and Park Guell. Highly recommend both places! It was great having the guide (without a larger group of people and having to mess around with those quiet vox devices - which surely DO work well in a large group setting) who explained so much at both places. I know Viator does pick up (and likely drop off as well) for cruise ships. Wish we would have had at least another day but felt that we made the best use of the time we had. Viator was about 4 hours, and then we had also booked the HOHO bus for the remainder of the day - great way to get around and see alot of different sites.

Great that they were so on top of things. As much as our post-cruise extension hotel check-in was a true fiasco, the covid test before leaving the hotel went smoothly. Let's just hope that all this at some point is a thing of the past.

I think what we'll do - based on some suggestions I have - is to do Sabino Canyon and East Saguaro on the same day. Mt. Lemmon is probably best left for a day by itself. Either way, I have enough days to fit everything in that I'm hoping to while we're in the Tucson area.

Stretchcruz....thanks so much for this advice! I put 'em both in my notes! LOVE good Mexican food. Speaking of Sabino, I have trouble accessing directions. Google can't find it easily. I've tried Sabino Canyon Recreation Area, etc. So El Charro is on E. Sunrise, and so closer to Tucson than Sabino, right? This is probably the best address to use for getting directions: 5700 N. Sabino Canyon Road

Might you possibly mean 4 days? We're doing that. Day 5 is simply departure to the airport. Thanks. I'm no longer worried about the lack of the Overland tour. It'd be nice, but we'll just do "Jerusalem and Bethlehem" and "Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee" that the ship offers while docked in Haifa. I pretty much (at least tentatively) chose excursions - based on those mentioned at the present time at least - for the entire trip, and added a full-day private tour through Viator in both Rome and Athens. It's going to be a LONG and TIRING journey for sure. I don't take to super-long days of heavy sightseeing as well as when I was younger and free of some medical issues, so hopefully all will go well. Surely it'll be a once-and-done trip to Holy Land, although would still like to return to Italy at some point for a more extensive land tour. Most kind....sure hope to. Still have to get flights through Viking.

S.....thanks for your candid thoughts on it. I'm not surprised to hear any of that. I'm sure that I'll probably feel the same way - once being good enough. The 'crowded and commercialized' is not my favorite cup of tea. I think we'll just keep the trip as is. Just heard back from Viking (phone reply to my "tellus" email). The agent didn't have much to say other than the Overland tour likely will not be available for my sailing (or any other I'll bet going in the same direction). I'm tired of canceling and rebooking trips. I'm done with it - unless the need truly comes about again due to covid escalation. Otherwise, I think we'll go, do what we can, and so be it. We've never been to Rome or Greece, so that's almost reason enough to keep the trip.

Good thought, except that it's not just for my specific dates. It's not listed, in general, applying (presumably anyway) for all the dates that the cruise runs.

OK....sorry...I assumed you were on the Cities of Antiquities cruise.

I sent something to the tellus@viking site. See what I hear back. I'd like to know if, historically since the cruise has been offered, has the Overland generally only been available for Athens to Rome? If so, we might cancel and rebook some other time. I'd have to find out what the timeframe would be on that. November dates don't work for us, and no dates are out yet beyond end of '23.

Total bummer to hear this...so sounds like they no longer offer it. We have to think about this and maybe still cancel. I just wish there was a way to find out. I really should decide on this before making any flight arrangements. IF they were to continue doing the Overland for the itinerary going the other way, that would be my preference. With a longer trip ending in mid-November, I really wouldn't need another (especially more extensive one like "Cities") the following January already. Bob, can you elaborate on this? Which ones are you referring to? Jerusalem and Bethlehem for one I'd suspect (?) You and I have chatted before...the piano player, right? 😉 We also have the Athens post-extension booked, as well as the Rome pre. Have never been to Rome, other than sailing out of CV for the Chairman's cruise. What makes NO sense to me is that both itineraries are identical from the standpoing of Day 7 being Jerusalem, and then 8 and 9 in Haifa. This is the case regardless of which direction the trip goes. So...what's the problem with not offering it both ways? I'm going to do a "tellus" email and see if I can get any further info on it.

This is indeed the way to do things. We've used Viator twice to set up a private (driver and guide) in places that draw lots of tourists and will do so again in Rome before the Antiquities cruise. Both times were fantastic experiences. I will check into the link you provided. We are a bit hesitant to go outside the cruise line for things like shore excursions, arranging private tours and such. I know it's done all the time very successfully, but just a tad out of our comfort zone. Getting nearly stranded in a foreign country during a (ship) shore excursion - guide decided to go back to the ship and didn't count her group, so we were left behind wondering where everybody went - didn't do anything to motivate us to become more adventurous outside of what the cruiseline offers. Good to hear...at least the first part. Agreed, for sure, on it NOT being a "small group tour" lol Most interesting! Sometimes I guess what is touted or expected as being the 'highlight' of a journey doesn't always necessarily turn out to be such. The one thing I don't look forward to is that it's another one of those very 'port intensive' itineraries with very little downtime (sea days). Much like a Baltic cruise, which we really enjoyed, but it was go-go-go for like 2 weeks non-stop. We were 7 years younger than too! Funny how, when we first started cruising, we disliked the idea of sea days (waste of time, etc.) NOW....we look forward to them! So, yeah, as you say, a trip of a liftetime for sure. I don't suspect we'll do too many more longer trips that do real extensive sightseeing without some sort of breaks in between.

Agreed...any of those things could be the cause. It may very well just be a mistake or oversight. I think I'll try to inquire a bit further with Viking - perhaps they can tell me if, historically speaking since the cruise has been offered, whether or not that particular excursion has been available on both itineraries. Since I've contemplated doing (and thus having researched) this cruise a few years ago already, and have info saved from a Viking agent I had been dealing with specific to that excursion, it leads me to believe that at least - at that time - it was probably available since I was considering the same itinerary. But, as we all know, so much has changed with the availability of many different commodities and services. Thanks for your thoughts on it.

Agreed...shouldn't need a TA to do that. I've never been fond of limitations being placed on the customer just because an agent is also on the booking. I just found out today that, in the case of AAA (where my TA works), there are certain contractual restrictions with Viking as to what I can do on my own. That can be a problem when the agent can't be contacted (or doesn't respond in a timely manner). Sometimes there is a need to move quickly on an issue.

An interesting question has come up. There is an overnight tour that takes place called "Overland to the Holy Land" -stays one night in Jerusalem and then returns to the ship in Haifa. A CC member just pointed out to me that this tour is listed for the Athens to Rome itinerary but not from Rome to Athens (which is the way both he and I are doing it). If indeed it's not available in the direction our sailing goes, I'm not sure I want to keep the booking. I'd rather do it in the other direction in that case. There are many shore excursions that visit the same places, but they involve very long bus rides, consuming much time. The most efficient use of time - and a more comprehensive tour and better experience, I feel - is the off-ship excursion option. If anyone here has done this cruise going from Rome to Athens, kindly reply with any info you might have on whether or not that Overland option was available on your sailing. I chatted with a Viking agent, who also found it odd that it wouldn't be available going in both directions (itineraries are identical), but of course he has no way of knowing since excursions are not available yet. To wait till November to find out is a bit too long, since by then I'd like to have all arrangements in place - including flights. Thanks!

Andy...assume you're referring to the two pairs of D-H that appear closest together? Could all be moot of course depending on what's available. Still nothing arranged with Viking yet. Thanks....

Those who have used business class seating for couples...which seats would you receommend in this configuration as being best for two people? I'm thinking that in this set-up probably every other DH combination where the seats are closest together (?) Or else a set of 2 A's or L's on either side.

Never had miles and likely never will. Just sounds so much easier to book flights myself, but then all the money is at risk if we'd cancel compared to being under Viking. I don't want to book economy and then hassle with some sort of upgrade. That worked out ok with the Chairman's cruise to upgrade the free economy air they offered us and changed it to PE. Nice enough going over, but the PE was crappy on the way back. I'm ready to lay flat when trying to sleep on a plane...gettin' too old to keep inconveniencing myself for the sake of trying to save a few bucks (well...more like quite a few) LOL

Interesting that you mention this, since the outbound flight I'm considering is a Finnish Air flight codeshared with AA. One of the inbound flights is also codeshared with BA. I recall going around the bush with all that once before with Viking - must have been for the flights associated with the March '19 Northern Lights trip. Except for the Chairman's cruise, that's the only other time I've ever traveled with Viking.

OK...now I believe I recall your mentioning this before.

Yeah, I wanted to...as I think I mentioned along the way somewhere, and then the agent said I couldn't do it. I got conflicting info that made no sense to me. I will add this to my notes prior to calling them. I don't care about the extra charge if it means knowing which seats I get. I tried this...lots of times...once you get to the completion of itinerary, next step is that they ask for payment. There are NO options to choose seats prior to paying. I've been using expedia and such for many years and always have been able to see seats before paying. Still can for domestic, but not for longhaul.

suggesting...what? That you first have to book economy and then upgrade later?