TayanaLorna

Sleep7, on Ocean cruises, guests must line up at the entrance door to The Restaurant to be seated by Viking staff. Folks are not allowed to enter the Restaurant before opening time to claim their table. Is it the same on River? I ask because i read recently on CC and FB complaints about people on River who go in early and claiming the same window table each day or else sitting at a large table and refusing to let others sit there because they are holding it for friends. On Ocean, Viking seats a large party only when all guests arrive.

I get depressed when i see travelers trotting off with carry on only or when i read their packing list contains 2 pairs of pants, 4 shirts and 1 sweater.

You are right. River cruises go from point A to B with occasionally a hotel stay at the beginning or end. I don't think any Viking Ocean cruises have a hotel stay at either end unless you book and pay for a pre or post. However with both River and Ocean, one needs to look at the day by day itinerary to learn if there is an overnight in port, a sea day, a scenic cruising day or a hotel stay at either end of the cruise. Now gnome12, you really have me thinking about those packing cubes. I've read that some folks pack them as outfits for the day. I like to choose what I wear according to my mood and the weather. But all the same stuff separated into individual cubes is intriguing. How do the cubes fit into a suitcase? Are there still corners and edges where you can stuff rolled up underwear or socks?

Well I definitely resemble Sleep7 in bringing way too much. I really need to rethink packing for our next trip as I created an insane itinerary for us. Will be doing 1 night in Madrid, 3 nights on a Viking pre in Umbria, 14 nights on ship, 2 nights post in Athens and 2 nights in Madrid. For flights I like to cross pack our bags in case one gets lost or delayed.

Hotel stays are easy to miss unless we read the day by day itinerary. What is harder to learn is if a one week itinerary is part of 2, 3 or 4 segments. We booked Italy, the Adriatic & Greece as a 2 week itinerary only to learn afterwards that it is segments 2 & 3 of a 4 week itinerary. It doesn't matter to us other then folks will be disembarking in Venice and new people will board. Viking sold 4 one week itineraries each with a different name. Then they sold a 4 week itinerary with a different name and another 3 week itinerary with a different name. The weeks go from Barcelona to Rome, Rome to Venice, Venice to Athens and Athens to Istanbul.

I see you did find my West Indies & Amazon plus Iberostar cruise write up. Thank you for reading and liking it. I get so wordy and you gave me some ideas for style change with yours. I like being able to ID some of the photos but when i post so many at once i can't get captions inbetween. We like off the beaten path itineraries and off season for less crowds as well.

Thank you for this magnificent report. This itinerary might be our first river cruise. I don't like crowds of people and your trip seemed quite uncrowded - at least the photos. Our next Ocean cruise is the Med in February.

I can understand your frustration in learning how much you could have saved in OBC by using a TA. I began hearing about the amounts a TA is allowed to offer by Viking here on CC. After 5 cruises, we asked for a recomnendation from someone I met on CC and then in person on our cruise. Its a TA who is very familiar with Viking and gives the highest allowable OBC. I booked our next cruise directly with Viking and transferred it to our new TA within the required 30 days. I booked another cruise a few months later but had the TA do it for me. It was for 2025 with no cabins near sold out and i told her exactly what cabin i wanted and she got it. We are a bit specific in our cabin locations and if there was limited availability i would have made the reservation directly with Viking so i could review room availability and decide on the spot. The only differences i found is that i can no longer request a Guest Statement through MVJ and have to ask our TA to send it to us. The Viking invoice does not show the OBC from the TA. It only shows the OBC that Viking sometimes gives in a promotion. I also receive an invoice from the TA in their name and the TA OBC is listed there. I can have the TA do as much or as little as I want. The TA reminds us when final payment is due, we tell her how to pay it - either CC or bank transfer for the 3.3% discount. It is not paid early but on the due date or the date I say it should be paid. If I refer someone else, we will receive a referral check from the TA after the cruise is completed. Friends were joining us on our next cruise so i referred them. I don't mind at all that our CC friend will receive a referral fee from us as i asked them for the name of their TA. What I did mind was a guy on a cruise once "working the room" with a stack of his TA cards asking people if they use a TA and then trying to "sell" them. Totally inappropriate.

Enjoying this very much. Thank you. I like how you are including the Dailies, menus and photos from the same day/location. It gives a continuity to the photo journal. I also like your technique of showing a photo or two along with your comments and posting it as an individual item.

Aw man, my mom made the best poppyseed (also walnut) strudel!

The parking area is just after the dock. There is just a bit of an up from the dock and then fairly level as I recall. Cannot use a scooter, wheelchair or rolling walker at Volunteer Point and there is a bit of walking to see the penguins. Most of the ride to get there is in a 4 wheel drive vehicle off road through bumpy terrain. Not even recommended for those with back issues.

Wow, you went outside to the Horn. The Jupiter sailings went from Ushuaia through the Beagle Channel, completely around the Horn then off to the Falklands. Like Deec said, we would consider doing this cruise in the future. We wished we had more time in Patagonia. Great job. Have a safe trip home.

After our shipped docked at Punta Arenas we had winds of 100 kph. Passengers could not walk on dock from terminal to ship, they used an 18 person mini bus. I was walking in town after an excursion and held on to the ropes along the sidewalks installed for the high winds. Unfortunately they ended at the corners where a person needed to cross the street. I wrapped my arms around a traffic light as it changed several times before a local man offered an arm to hold on to. He helped me get back to the terminal as i could not stand on my own when the gusts came. Aparently Punta Arenas and the Straits of Magellan are known for fierce winds. It took 2-3 tugboats to get the Jupiter off the dock.

You are right. It looks like the Hourly Forecast of 45 F is correct but the Now and 5-Day one can no way be C.

Yes it is definitely champagne in the PV. Each time we had a PV it was a different kind but never the Verve Cliquot.

Champagne is also on the drinks menu and it is from France and much higher in price per glass then sparkling wine or Proseco. The champagne by the glass was also higher priced then the limit per drink on the old SSBP. I think now there is a champagne by the glass at $18 which is the limit per drink of the new SSBP. Right Kent?

I have been following along mostly silently with your amazing cruise reporting and photos. The lecture topics have been outstanding. Although we loved our 2020 Chilean Fjords, Patagonia and Round Cape Horn cruise, I was very disappointed the the lecture topics. With the exception of a talk on whales, there were no lectures about the amazingly diverse floristic zones or the flora and fauna, there was no mention of the indigenous peoples or the 3 different tribes that populated the horn and Tierra del Fuego area. I see a Viking Daily is highlighting the Yamana. There was no mention of the sailing through glacier alley in the Beagle Channel so most passengers missed it by not getting up early enough. I was so glad we purchased and read Rounding the Horn and gotten a wildlife guide which thoroughly covered the flora and fauna. Also fun to have was the Patagonian & Fuegian Channels Chilean Fjords Cruise Chart up on our stateroom wall which gave much more detail then the Viking TV map. Think we have to return for an Expedition cruise. Thank you for the time you are taking to document your wonderful trip.

Thank you. This description of what happens is very helpful. We usually put our phone on airplane mode for our entire travels on board and have no need to talk to anyone. But our next holiday is a combo of land travel on both ends of the cruise and will most likely use the $10 day plan at times.

And on cruises with sea days...massages...ooo la la.

Only place I ever saw an optional photography excursion was in Barbados this year. It was excellent and i would like Viking to do more...but as others are suggesting, there is a private option.

There should be tons of choices - Swedish and Deep Tissue Massage, 50 and 90(?) minutes, different kinds of facials and body wraps and combinations of all of the above EVEN if times are fully booked. Usually you click on a treatment then day to see times available. If no times, then you know its fully booked. The hair and nail treatments have never been on MVJ to see choices or book in advance. Just go to Spa desk to find out.

We have seen the brand of bottled water given out change with region and the brand change within the same cruise. Sometimes its spring water and sometimes purified. Its free. You might be able to get Perrier or San Pellegrino at a bar but you will pay for it. We have our own natural spring fed water system at our house so i am surprised how good the caraf water in the cabin tastes. To save on plastic pollution we pour that water into our own bottles.

I saw a UTube video on this new ship and found it very interesting. Did not see an itinerary we would want but haven't looked since launch.

In 2018 on our first Viking Ocean the sugggested gratuity was $15.00 pp. It was automatically added however we would receive notice in MVJ. The notice was something like - check your on board account and advise Guest Services if there are any changes/errors as the credit card you registered on board will be charged on X date. On our 2023 VO cruise, the suggested gratuity rose to $17.00 pp with the same type of notice.

You may wish to try a Barcelona to San Juan TA or vice versa. We did it and had Barcelona, Valencia, Cadiz, Gilbrator instead of Casablanca because Morocco was still Covid closed, Maderia, St. Martin and San Juan. There were sea days between some ports but only 5 sea days to cross the Atlantic. We love being at sea and really enjoy the ship. I think it was our only cruise where we had the time to enjoy sitting out on the deck 8 loungers and reading.