bookbabe

FYI, Canadians, Viking’s current exchange rate, in combination with better sale pricing for the US, means that your cruise may currently be cheaper if you book in USD. Saved over $800 Cdn per person on our recently booked British Isles Explorer cruise, even with forfeiting the $25pp deposit, by cancelling and rebooking in USD. YMMV, but it’s maybe worth checking just in case.

Thanks for all the responses. I have presented the options to DH, who countered with the suggestion of a taxi or private car of some kind to the ship directly from whatever hotel we stay at in London itself. Are we likely to find a driver willing to make the trek from say the Paddington Station area to Tilbury? Or are we still better off staying on the Tilbury side of the city somewhere, to increase our chances of finding a taxi easily? Not really worried about cost so much as convenience. DH has decided he does not want to walk very far or to have to switch trains at all while dragging suitcases.

Thanks. Why Grays rather than Tilbury Town?

That’s the impression I got from my reading about Tilbury, but I’m not as worried about having things to see and do as I am about having an easy trip to the port on embarkation morning. Yeah, a nice hotel and half decent restaurants are important, but the point of staying extra days in London is really to get to the ship without issues or delays, not to sightsee. Been there, done that, will go to London as an actual vacation there if we want to do a ton of sightseeing.

Everyone I know back home is on FB, the social media site that corporation runs, as am I, but they’ve never heard of WhatsApp. Those with iPhones will sometimes use iMessage, but most people either use Messenger (owned by the same company as WhatsApp) or just text via their cell provider. From my experience, it’s not a conscious moral/ethical choice, they have just never heard of WhatsApp. YMMV, just stating my experience. It’s a good app no matter who owns it.

Okay, so we have booked Viking’s British Isles Explorer itinerary, London (Tilbury) to Bergen, for March 2025. Yes, I know it’s fairly far out still, but I’m not sure what to do for our pre-cruise plan. We have easy direct flights from our home airport to Heathrow, anything else requires a connection, likely through the US so adding complexity. We’ve flown into Heathrow before, it works for us since the flight itself is so easy. Previously, our plan has always been to fly to London for a couple of days pre-cruise, then fly from Heathrow to our embarkation port elsewhere in Europe. We have usually stayed at the Hilton Paddington, based on an initial recommendation from folks here on CC, and the location works for us, again, because travel to/from the hotel is so easy via the Heathrow Express. You will notice a theme here. We don’t like convoluted travel plans, and we will pay extra if we have to for ease and convenience. However, Tilbury, our departure port, is far enough from Heathrow to be inconvenient but close enough that another flight to get there doesn’t really make sense. 🙂 So, my questions: Pre-stay in London itself for better hotels, restaurants and attractions, or stay nearer to Tilbury to ensure easy embarkation? I’ve seen the various threads with tube/rail/taxi routes to get to the port from Heathrow and/or other tube/rail stations. The routes all make me a bit hesitant to rely on all the various pieces falling together smoothly on embarkation morning. But Tilbury doesn’t seem to have much to offer. If staying near Tilbury, nicest hotel? I’ve seen a few that look interesting, in a fewer-amenities-but-lots-of-atmosphere kind of way, Orsett Hall and the Bell Inn. Thoughts? Is the Gravesend side of the river an option or does it throw transportation risks back into the works? Would like to avoid Travelodge and the like if possible. Or, are the safe, convenient, nice options around the Tilbury cruise port limited enough that I should just get the Viking pre-stay even though we really don’t need a guided tour of London? Any other options that haven’t occurred to me? Am I overthinking this?

I know you can have multiple Airalo e-sims in your Airalo account but you cannot have more than one active at a time. We did that earlier this week because Jamaica isn’t on the supported countries list for the Airalo global, so we had to buy a small single country one and activate that for a couple days. I’m not sure if you can have multiple e-sims from different providers active on your phone at one time, we haven’t tried. That might be a phone-specific thing. I vaguely remember seeing something in an article I was skimming about some way to prioritize what sim was used for what calls, but as we only planned to use one at a time I didn’t pay any attention to what the procedure was. @FoggyEthan you may want to either turn off two-factor authentication while you travel, or switch it to an emailed code instead of a texted one. We had to do that when we were in the middle of moving and were trying to switch over various accounts, and it was getting totally frustrating having to continually swap sims back and forth between our old and new cell numbers to get all the stupid codes texted to us. Luckily we still had both phones active, I don’t know how we would have done it if we couldn’t still access our old phone number.

We had a 2bdrm family penthouse suite on the Jewel for the 2022 KissKruise. Had a butler, but service was scaled back from what we’d normally have gotten. Wasn’t a problem, since we were so busy we really didn’t notice a lack. Concierge had a desk in Moderno at breakfast time. Lunch was in Cagney’s. Le Bistro was closed entirely, and was where the talent & such ate so you won’t share dining with them unless they choose to go elsewhere. Haven courtyard was closed, and was where the main talent lived. Smaller bands were scattered around the ship in regular cabins, as far as we could tell. Suites that were available for general booking were only the suites outside the Haven complex, and did not include Haven access even if they normally would have. The Sixthman website for your cruise will have a section on the ship and suites, venues, etc. Read all of that info, and look at the deck plans there. They edit out anything that isn’t available, and describe the services/venues that are open and/or included with your cabin choice. It does NOT match info on the main NCL site, and it can vary from charter to charter, so ignore any previous experiences and info for that ship and go with what’s on the Sixthman website only.

We just did a date/itinerary swap earlier this week, so I can tell you our experience. Had Pharoahs & Pyramids booked for March 2025, British Isles Explorer for September 2025. Our PCC was able to turn P&P into BIE, similar but not identical dates, kept same booking number and deposit. Had to email vcmail@viking.com to cancel the extra BIE since our PCC said he couldn’t do that. Emailed with booking number, itinerary/dates, passenger names and a brief reason for cancellation. Got a cancellation confirmation email the next day. Only lost the $25pp deposit on the BIE that was cancelled.

We were clueless about WhatsApp until we moved to the Caribbean. It’s the most common means of communication here, and we’ve gotten used to using it as option one to contact anyone. It’s so weird that Canada and the US haven’t really picked up on it.

Look into WhatsApp. Works on Wi-Fi or data so we use it in combination with an Airalo data plan on shore and ship internet while onboard. You set up the account with your own cell phone number so family and friends don’t have to learn a new number. Other WhatsApp users can call or text you for free, plus it allows video and audio messages to be sent back and forth in addition to regular phone calls and texts. Easy enough that both our elderly moms have figured it out. The only negative is that you can only contact other WhatsApp users, it doesn’t work for calling landlines, etc. But for calling family back home, it can’t be beat.

The beach itself was great all through Silver Cove, the water was pretty shallow and calm in the lagoon area, less so in the section closer to the main non-SC area. DH liked the swimming in the non-lagoon area better. The lagoon area would be better for kids or weaker swimmers.

If it works the same way as it did when we had a villa a couple years ago… - one person books the villa - onboard, you’re asked for numbers, and I think names if you are not in the same cabin - there’s a way to pay extra for additional guests above the standard inclusion, I think it was $50 a person or something crazy like that, we didn’t need to so no idea how many extra they’d let you add - you receive excursion tickets for the villa, can’t remember whether it was one ticket or one each - we were in the haven, so no idea how tendering would work if you aren’t, sorry, but I’m assuming the number of guests specified could all get priority tendering - when you get to the island you go to Silver Cover Villa checkin to sign in, and they give everyone on your guest list a wristband - that’s the important part - no wristband, no silver cove access - golf carts will take you to and from the tender area to check in and from checkin to the villa and vice versa

We have the Airalo global+ or whatever it’s called, the one with the data and calling that’s good for a year. They assign you a phone number, ours is Austrian, I think. It’s a European-style number, so it’s tricky for elderly Canadian relatives calling us, but it worked fine for me calling Canada while in the covered countries, plus calling local numbers like taxis or restaurants. It doesn’t cover all countries, so look at the full countries list on their website or app to make sure it works in all the countries you’re stopping in. I highly recommend Airalo. Good product and good customer service, as far as we’ve encountered so far. We have been working to transition our parents to WhatsApp, which lets people call or text or send video/audio messages using data or whatever internet is available. Most individuals here in Cayman use it to avoid pricey phone company charges for regular calls and texts (data is generally unlimited on plans, texts and calls are not) so we’ve gotten used to using it on a daily basis. It’s pretty easy to use, and you set up your account using your regular cell number, so people wanting to WhatsApp you just use your same number no matter where in the world you are.

Technically, yes, I guess it's possible.. Routes run around both ends of the island as well as in town. It would be pricey, at $2.50pp a leg. There's no day passes or anything like that as buses are independently run. Practically, I personally wouldn't try it when visiting by cruise ship. Especially in the further reaches, buses can be infrequent and sometimes skip areas if they are full or don't have anyone to drop off at a certain stop. Not really supposed to, but they do. Your better bet is to rent a car and DIY an island tour that way, so you have control of your route and return timing.

It's not really near Rum Point either. You can't get there from shore without an excursion or your own watercraft. Yes, by water it's technically a bit closer to Rum Point, but since it's a 45 min drive to Rum Point and there's only one tour operator there, you're better off booking something that leaves from town. Coming in on a cruise ship and wanting to visit Stingray City as well as visit a beach, your best bet is to book an early excursion (through the ship or privately) and have them drop you at the beach afterwards, then taxi/bus back to the port. Or book one of the excursions that also stops someplace like Starfish Point and have a bit of beach time that way.

What Cruisematic said. And it's not on the Seven Mile Beach side of the island, so you won't find an operator at the beach there making runs out to Stingray City.

Bigger and better beach, IMO, and Public has facilities whereas Governors doesn't. Sometimes Governors has a portapotty, but there are no chair rentals, vendors, etc. Public also has a playground if you are traveling with kids. https://www.explorecayman.com/grand-cayman/things-to-do/beaches

Maybe they didn't actually cancel it? Ours could have booked immediately if we wanted a different cabin or different dates, but to keep the same cabin for the same date as the hold we had to wait for it to expire before he could book it.

As per my experience, even a rep at Viking cannot cancel the hold. Mine had to wait for it to expire before he could book that cabin for us.

I don't know if there's a way to cancel a hold (unpaid deposit) without just waiting the 72 hours for it to expire. Even my rep at Viking had to do that to get credit for the booking when I put in a hold on his days off and then wanted to pay the deposit with him when he was back at work. However, I really haven't noticed any sales in the last few years that would be worth the hassle of juggling bookings like that. Most of the sales are pretty similar, and often apply to a few undersold cruises in the near future. Check out the Promo Codes thread to see some of the recent sales. You'll likely get a better deal finding a good travel agent that offers onboard credit.

I'd try them all maybe, only takes two seconds as you're walking by to glance in. They'll either have a big display of the bottles or they won't. Tortuga and Jacques Scott at the airport had it, so at the very least I'd try those chains near the port. JS was the pics i posted, it was right in the doorway so very obvious. Besides, think of the fun you can have at each store, asking "Got any Big Black Dick?" 😉

You should look. I am sitting in the airport right now, and both duty free stores carry an assortment of BBD. I can’t see how the duty free stores at the port, which are run by the same companies, would not have it. I’ve also seen it in other stores around the island. It’s definitely still available.

In town? Turtles, dolphins, museum, art gallery, kittiwake snorkel Outside of town? Botanical gardens, scenic caves, parrot sanctuary, blow holes, Pedro St James historic site https://www.explorecayman.com/grand-cayman/things-to-do/attractions

Regular “calm” rain, probably not, but that’s a question better asked of your tour operator as to what their policy is. Cancellations would usually be for weather conditions that create safety issues, like high winds or a storm that causes rough waves.