bookbabe

Our recent 36 day cruise generated 12 reservations in each restaurant, although we didn’t book even half. Three 7 day segments and one longer segment, even though we booked it as one long trip with one booking number.

I would have the relevant members of the party watch a YouTube video of the tendering process. Even a video of a different port, as long as it’s the right ship. Depending on the wave conditions, there can be a fairly rocky “bounce” as you step off the ship and onto the tender. The crew will assist, but it’s quite a daunting process if it’s not something you’ve done before. My elderly mom with mobility challenges is not a fan of the process at all, she can do it with assistance, but would greatly prefer to avoid tender ports if she can. Before bothering to search out an appropriate excursion, and I’d probably recommend the ease of a ship one if a number of the group needs accessibility accommodations, it’s essential to figure out if they’re going to be willing/able to do the tender to get off the ship in the first place.

You will need to check with your cruise line, ideally the accessibility department and then shore excursions. The bigger issue is that Grand Cayman is a tender port, so depending on what type of wheelchair, that guest may not be able to board the tender to the island. A scooter almost definitely can’t be taken on the tender. Once you know about tender accessibility for the guests, the next step would be deciding what type of excursion you are interested in. There are dozens of options of what to do in Grand Cayman, from beach to shopping to stingrays to turtles to gardens and historical sites, so you’ll need to narrow it down a bit. But first figure out if your party can get to shore.

Good luck, I hope it works out for you. I know we couldn’t manage without a data plan of some kind, not these days with elderly relatives to keep tabs on. But if you just want to check a couple emails once in a while and do your flight checkin for the return trip, you’re likely okay. Our last few cruises, no matter which line we were on, the internet was mediocre to okay at best. Even then, it only works when you are physically on the ship, so won’t work while on excursions or touring (ie using google or maps functions). And public wifi completely freaks my retired IT guy hubby out, even with a VPN it’s an option of last resort.

You can get one of their local esims that will work there, but yeah, there’s a few countries missing from the global list. We’ve had a few cruises where the Global covered all the ports except one, so we just had to figure out a Plan B for that day and then the Global worked the rest of the time. Their French Polynesia only option doesn’t seem too bad, though. https://www.airalo.com/french-polynesia-esim

We’ve stayed in a Sky Owners Suite, and never had a problem with the hot tub staying hot, and didn’t notice it taking any longer to fill than any other pool/tub of that size. We will always book a suite with a private hot tub if that option is available, since I love hot tubs but I hate the madhouse and “people soup” that is the public hot tubs on the pool deck.

Me neither. We got the Global plan and have used it in the Caribbean and all over Europe. However, it doesn’t work everywhere, so you have to look at the list of countries covered and choose your plan accordingly.

And good news (possibly) for the old Calico Jack’s spot… https://www.caymancompass.com/2024/05/24/local-favorite-calico-jacks-reborn-as-bonny-moon-beach-club/

I guess I wasn’t clear. I asked the hostess at CT if I could talk to the chef or restaurant manager about possible alterations to an upcoming menu. She said no, just tell the waiter that night and they’d figure something out. It wasn’t that they refused to modify, it was that they refused to let me discuss it in advance. I dislike last minute modifications, I’d rather know in advance what my options were so I could decide if that was a menu I not only was able to eat, but that I wanted to eat. And, as I have said previously, I was told by the hostess at the restaurants desk that they couldn’t deliver the menus in advance each night, to just look on the app and tv each day. And that’s who guest services told me to talk to. I know that’s not how it’s supposed to work, but that’s what happened on *Saturn* (March/April 2024). And yes, I had all of the same allergy info entered in MVJ and noted on our reservation by my PCC that I’d had for Sky and Mars, our two other cruises over the last year. Menus delivered on Sky and Mars, not on Saturn. *** sorry, just noticed I’ve had my ships reversed, we were on Saturn most recently, not Mars. Mars was in September. LOL. Too many cruises, and the identical ships in Viking’s fleet causes me to mix them up sometimes.

We asked at the restaurant reservations desk. They said that wasn’t something they did. Guest Services said that couldn’t be done through them, to talk to the restaurant reservations desk. Didn’t bother to waste any more time on it after that. On Sky and Mars, and on Regent and NCL, it just effortlessly happened, based on my standing pre-notifications of allergies. We did seem to have a lot of new crew, especially in the restaurants, so maybe they just didn’t know what they were doing yet. Saturn just didn’t handle that area of things as well as Sky or Mars. I don’t know why people keep blaming me, I’m an experienced cruiser and an experienced traveller, and I’ve spent my whole life dealing with food-related and other allergies. Not a rookie, I know how things should work. However, I’m also not going to Go Karen and demand services after being told no by a couple of different sources, even if it’s something that usually should be within their policies and procedures. I also dislike having to custom order at the time of the meal, that’s not fair to the chefs, so if I can’t deal with menu alterations ahead of time I’ll just order whatever is on the menu that I can eat. YMMV. Edited to fix ship names. Issues were on Saturn in March/April. Mars was back in September and it was fine.

We were fine getting substitutions actually at CT during the meal, it was the fact that the hostess (blond, Eastern European) wouldn’t even consider letting us talk to the chef in advance to see if/what could be done. Because of my allergies, we very rarely go to any meal without advance planning, to avoid disappointment or mishaps. She wasn’t the best hostess I’ve encountered. And menus on the app or tv that morning or even late the night before aren’t what I’m talking about. On Saturn and Sky, and on other cruise lines, a set of menus was delivered with evening turndown for me to peruse and make choices, which I would then return the next morning at breakfast, so that the chef and kitchen could be prepared. That wasn’t an option on Mars. Overall, Mars just seemed less concerned about allergies, sort of blasé about the issue as a whole. Not something you would have noticed if you weren’t dealing with allergies, though. Mars did have some great crew, especially the CD “make good choices” Matt and the Shore Excursions Mgr Steven, who I think was going on vacation shortly after we disembarked. They were both fabulous dealing with the vast number of entitled Karens that seemed to be unhappy with every aspect of some of the shore excursions. The restaurant staff just wasn’t up to their same level, though. There were a few standouts, but a lot seemed new and weren’t really giving the best service yet.

As I said very clearly, we like everything else about Viking, so I think we’ll keep the three future cruises we have booked, thanks. But thanks for reminding me why the fellow passengers aren't necessarily a reason we book Viking either. Why you think I haven’t done my homework is beyond me, I do plenty of research before booking vacations of any sort, especially at the price points for most of our trips. And that wasn’t our first or only Viking cruise, we’ve done multiple itineraries and ships, and our opinions of the food haven’t changed since cruise one. If you like food that’s been fancied-up for the sake of fancy with mixed success in the taste department, that’s your right. If everyone liked the same thing, there would only be one dish on the menu. Food isn’t our main priority in cruising, we have tons of fabulous restaurants near our home that we can eat at any day of the week, plus all the great restaurants we encounter in our other travels. We do have a world cruise booked with Regent, whose food is more to our taste, but it was still cabin and itinerary that was our deciding factor, not the dinner selections. And I have met with restaurant managers in the past, I just don’t want to have to commit the day before and lock in what I feel like for dinner the next night. And be thankful you don’t have food allergies, you have no idea how much more difficult it makes things unless you’ve been there. *Editing to add that I did make the attempt to talk to people at CT on Mars because there was a menu DH wouldn’t have minded trying that was heavily fish-based, and the hostess refused, saying to just talk to the waiter that night. And Mars is the first ship on any line we’ve travelled that didn’t send out main restaurant menus the night before, even if I didn’t choose to return them with selections each day.

We were also on Mars recently, but we stayed on Istanbul to Bergen…36 days onboard. We both lost weight. I am allergic to fish and DH doesn’t eat exotic or game meats, which poses a problem when those foods comprise a majority of the offerings every night. Even Tuna Pizza..*****?! There’s only so many times in a row you can eat steak. lol. And a lot of the time the dishes we could eat were only mediocre. The Asian station at the back of WC had a few good options, but there and in all the restaurants the menu was quite repetitive, probably because the cruise was made up of a bunch of shorter segments. Manfredi’s was okay, not fabulous, only ate there twice, but I agree the carbonara needed more sauce. Ate at CT twice, but a lot of their menus are challenging for us due to the no fish or exotic meats issue. We had issues a few times when we dined late where the kitchen had run out of a dish we were looking forward to and subbed something else for the second half of the evening, especially at WC. Once, the restaurant manager chased us down and had the executive chef make DH short ribs when he expressed disappointment that they had run out at WC (we left and headed down to the restaurant to get something different and they found us there). They were great, but DH’s point was that they should be experienced enough to make sufficient quantities of dishes to meet demand. And it should tell them something when they don’t run out of even the first tray of some of the weirder stuff, like maybe take a closer look at your menus? We love the ship size, service, atmosphere, staterooms, spa, etc, and have more Viking cruises booked, but we’ve accepted that we don’t sail Viking for the food. It’s the one thing we would change about Viking if we could.

We are on the 2026 WC and made the full first deposit, we have the same second deposit link. I think it’s a WC thing

Since I know a ton of people have asked about the status of Royal Palms Beach Club, there’s good news. It’s a tiny light at the end of the tunnel, but maybe, just maybe, it will reopen by Christmas. https://www.caymancompass.com/2024/05/15/former-calicos-owner-back-in-the-beach-bar-business-at-royal-palms/

Porters are great if you are taking large checked bags, or any checked bags. For checked bags, I really don’t care how big or how many. My pet peeve is huge heavy carryons. If the bag owner (or someone else in their party) can’t lift it into the overhead bin, then it should be checked. And while I know many flights never check the size or number of carryons, that isn’t an excuse to exceed the size limits or bring on more bags than allowed. Especially when people try to cram all of it into the overhead bins instead of using the space under the seats in front of them. Boarding takes forever now, since so many people are going the carryon only route and often bringing more onto the plane than they can easily manage themselves. I wish airlines did things in reverse, make checked bags free and charge for carryons. It would make boarding so much faster.

According to our tour guide, yes. He gave lots of info about how the government pays back the merchant for any shipping costs and provides training for the weavers and such. No idea how much is fact and how much was part of his spiel, but that’s what he said.

One of our guides in Turkey on a recent cruise let it slip that it’s a government requirement that all tours stop at a rug shop, one of the government-subsidized ones, as part of their initiative to preserve the carpet weaving art. There’s a whole system of schools to train new weavers, with a lot of financial incentives to get girls to attend.

I wonder how they are verifying Canadian teachers then. I know for other US company discounts (ie hotels) that run through id.me for verification, it’s never worked to verify me as a Canadian teacher. Hmmm…

What two countries? I have only seen id.me work for teachers from the US…

Us too. We’d love to spend six months on Splendor, but the different start and end points for 2027 are a total no go for DH. We had hoped to swap, but we are sticking with 2026 as the itinerary is perfect. (Yeah, I know there can be port changes, but the general route meets 100% of DH’s preferences. I care much less, but the WC is his bucket list thing, not mine, so he’s calling the shots on this one.)

A little late period for me, but I’m in. I have a lot more outfits that meet this dress code than the actual RSSC one, so it would be fairly easy. LOL. We frequently make the joke that all our formal wear is about 800 years out of date…IYKYK (SCA.org)

Has anyone here actually done this transfer yet? Anyone able to comment on the logistics and how well it went?

We had a very good astronomy guy, and one WWII person plus one other I can’t remember. But nothing even remotely Norse.

My mom is 80, and took her first solo cruise with Princess last fall. She is NOT an experienced traveller, and can get lost on the way to her local Walmart, but has done one recent cruise (Alaska) with us and a couple of cruises with my dad decades ago before he passed. The cruise was a Pacific Coastal, so easy ports. She took the daily with her in both print and electronic form, and in the one port where she DIY’d, she made sure to be back on board an hour before all aboard time. If she can figure it out, anyone can, especially people who are supposedly experienced travellers. Do I feel badly for that couple in the article? Sure, anyone experiencing travel disruptions of whatever sort deserve kind thoughts. That doesn’t change the facts of the situation, which is that their issue was created by their own actions or lack thereof. However, if I was the family member on the ship, at least one of our party would be getting off with passports, meds, etc to stay with the elderly relatives and help them navigate their way to the next port. Heck, someone would have been getting off to wait for them well before all aboard time when they weren’t back at the originally scheduled time. Who abandons their parents or grandparents like that?