SantaFe1

As long as I am in there, I don’t care, and we have gotten there all the aforementioned ways. I DO care when they close the lounge saying it is full. And I see that often. Delta is the worst, I have found. Even if you have first class tix, if it isn’t Delta One, they won’t let you in. And our CC is with United, not Delta. So next March, we have four hours at LAX between Delta domestic flights and have no lounge access. And you can’t buy a day pass! Well, we are from L.A. so maybe a friend will meet us and we call go to lunch!

Ok I will date myself. Mary Tyler Moore, on the Dick Van Dyke show, in the 1960’s.

😍

And one of ours last year was the ferry system on the Italian lakes. We spent a few days in Milan, then went to lake Maggiore, going to the Borromeo islands by ferry and then a week on Lake Como in an apt. And taking the ferry everywhere. Alas, I don’t know how many more DIY years we have🙁

I’m envious. We are 195 days out from our May ‘24 cruise, and although we have had our flights for several months, Viking says they won’t ticket until we make final payment, which is in two weeks. I check every morning to make sure nothing has changed, although changes can occur even after ticketed.

And that’s exactly what happened to me this morning. Two of our four bookings are gone. When I get a chance, I will have to go look up the booking numbers and add them back on. But it is really annoying when this happens and you are waiting to book your shore ex and you booking has disappeared!

Yes! Agree with all you say. 👍

You are right. I remember that too. Eating in theWC is not a hardship. We really don’t like the restaurant. On the World Cruise, if we ate there ten times in 18 weeks, I would be surprised. We love Viking, but feel,the food is their Achilles heel. But tastes vary.

During Covid, reservations were required, or at least could be made in advance for the Restaurant. This was for maybe a year, ‘21-22. It was very cumbersome. You made The Restaurant rez before you could book the other restaurants, and then had to roll the dice and cancel a Restaurant rez before you could make reservations for Manfredis or CT on a given night. If that night wasn’t available, then you had no reservations. We ate in World Cafe a lot during that time.

I am wondering, and so hoping, you got flights you like. Let us all know.

They consider gel polish removal a separate service and charge $20 for it. Although I have never had only polish removal, I’m sure they would be happy to do it for a price.

Back in June we got a notice from Viking that due to ”pier construction” we would skip Hilo and spend another day in Honolulu. We almost canceled, but just decided we needed to get away. But we have spent a lot of time on Oahu, and I don’t particularly like Honolulu. But we have recently had excursions added, and I’m sure we can find something to do for two days.

Have a lovely trip. We are on the Feb. 14 sailing of Hawaiian sojourn. We are missing Hilo and having two days in Honolulu. Not my preference and Maui doesn’t have much to offer. But getting out of town in February is a priority!

I’m am so glad for you, and just generally, so glad to hear this!!!

Before you call your TA pick 2-3 acceptable flights, and number them according to your preference. Also pick the seats you want for all of the flights. Don’t just let you TA pick. When we get Air plus, I try to get my flights and seats set up as soon as they are open, usually about 300 days from the date of the return flight. Most are wide open then. And if Viking says they don’t have your preferred flights, check back. For our Med cruise in February, Viking told us we couldn’t have our preferred flight, and then about three weeks later, it was available to us. I was also told I couldn’t choose seats for our KLM flight from Bergen, but a few weeks later, the seat map popped up and I snagged two good seats. For some reason, we seem to have better luck with Viking Air than others here.

Got them right off, no extra charge besides the business fare originally quoted (which was about $2000 pp less than what we got through Viking). im sorry this is wrong and I tried to edit it, but too late. Viking quoted us business class fares for significantly less than I could get them myself. So we gave them our preferred flights and there was no added cost. This isn't always true, but mostly for us.

I don’t really think it’s because of business class, but because we paid $150 pp to be able to chose our flights and seats. Our TA called and arranged our choices a few months ago. Got them right off, no extra charge besides the business fare originally quoted (which was about $2000 pp less than what we got through Viking). The other thing I think is that because we have to fly out of ABQ, which is an airport that doesn’t fly that many places, there are only so many flights Viking can put us on. And, I have to laugh, because there are so few, we have taken the same international leg several times with Viking, notably the Frankfurt to Denver flight on United, and the Amsterdam to SLC flight on Delta (or in reverse). We did both of these this year and will do AMS to SLC again coming home from BIE.

We used Air Plus so we could chose our own flights and the seats we wanted. These are in business class on all flights. We have had the same flights and seats for several months, and I actually changed our KLM seats to move us out of row 1 about a month ago. Now, all that being said, these flights have been chosen and seats selected, and nothing has changed in months. But the flights are NOT yet ticketed. We had our TA ask to have them ticketed and Viking said they would ticket them after final payment, which for us is Nov. 9. I am well aware that nothing is solid until ticketed, and even after that, the flights could be changed by the airline, I guess we are lucky, though. We have never had problems using Viking Air Plus.

Agree with both Jim and Andy. Embarkation not until 11 at the earliest for our Feb. cruise out of L.A. You will be much more comfortable just staying in your hotel until you have to check out of your room. And DV isn’t promised the room will be ready until 2 pm. Here’s what Viking says.

We were May, 2018. Maybe we were on the same cruise! Can’t remember the exact dates, but the end of May, beginning of June. We had lovely, weather. I loved that cruise and going to St. Petersburg.

We did this on our Viking Homelands trip in 2018. We took the train to Oslo and spent a wonderful few days there. This time, however, we need to get right home.

I had Air Plus and picked the flights myself. We have to have two stops. And with this sequence of flights, we get home at 5:15 pm, which is nice, because we have another hour drive from the airport. And, I wouldn’t balk at a four hour layover in Frankfurt. It can be crazy! And I can’t imagine anyone canceling a cruise because of an early flight—even if we so have to gather at 3 am to set off to the airport with a Viking transfer.

It’s a very small airport, and very limited flights. When we did Homelands in 2018 we flew home from Oslo where we had a greater selection of flights. Bergen is just a regional Airport, I would call it. But not that bad.

We have Viking Air Plus back from Bergen next May. Business class, flying to Amsterdam and then to US. Our flight from Bergen leaves at 6:05 am, but oh well, at least we get home at a decent time, 5:15 pm.

Well, I have Air Plus for our Douro River cruise in Nov 2024. So I guess if you already have it, it remains, but if you want to order it now, they don’t have it anymore. I also have it for our BIE cruise next May, with flights chosen, seats assigned etc. they confirmed that with me just last week. To be ticketed next month. But I guess for our April 2025 cruise we are on our own!