biggerbearmom

On 6/2/2024 at 1:01 PM, puppymama1 said:

Would it be better/safer to take a taxi or is it okay to walk if we are careful?

We stayed at the Clarion last September and walked to the dock. We were both pulling luggage and it is about a 5 minute walk. There is no reason to hire a taxi. You literally walk out the door of the hotel, make a left and then a right at the street, once you cross the street you can see the ship.

The Flybussen is so easy to use and inexpensive. The bus is right outside baggage claim and you buy your ticket from the driver. We used it last summer and paid $14.00 pp. It drops off right in front of the Clarion, which by the way is a fabulous hotel and an excellent value for Norway.

Yes, you can absolutely disembark a day early. We did it two years ago in Bergen. We notified Viking of our intentions prior to the cruise. When we left the ship, the staff member who scanned our cards called Guest Services just  to make sure we were good to go.

43 minutes ago, AveSaloon said:

And remember that "free air" may very well NOT include deviations, either on dates and/or airports.  Or they may be at a significant up-charge in addition to deviation/AirPlus fees.

We have deviated with Viking on four different trips and never had an up charge, just the $100 deviation fee and the cost of getting to the airport that Viking utilizes. We frequently go to Gothenburg, Sweden to visit our son and family. Viking doesn’t utilize Gothenburg so we make our way to Copenhagen to get a flight home. Even with the costs of the extra flights and deviation fees we still come out ahead with “free” air.

54 minutes ago, Mich3554 said:

That’s strange.  I was told by Viking that it is no more than 30 days at either end.  So you can deviate 29 days at the beginning and 29 days at the end, but you cannot deviate 45 days at the end.

I had to verify this for our Circumnavigation of Australia we are doing next year.

It is strange, I just asked this question three days ago and was told by Viking it is a total of 30 days, and it was explained you can split it or do it on either end but it had to total no more than 30 days.

On 5/27/2024 at 1:32 PM, Mich3554 said:

Yes, 30 days at each end.  

To clarify, it is a total of 30 days. As an example, if you were to deviate 7 days prior to the start of your cruise, you would then have 23 days to deviate at the end of your cruise. It appears there is no exception to the 30 day rule. We are doing the GE in December and I asked for a 45 day deviation at the end of the cruise but was denied. 

15 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

Look at the itinerary and see what ship it is.  If it is the same ship as the WC ship in the same time frame it is a segment.

Thank you, that is obvious and should have occurred to me. Are there disadvantages to joining a segment, other than excursions sign ups?

How would one know if an advertised itinerary is a segment

of a World Cruise itinerary?

On our first trip to Amsterdam we used the city tram/bus. It was inexpensive, easy to use, efficient and was not as limited in stops and coverage as the HOHO.

The boat ride from Flam to Gudvagan is reason enough to go. The village is just an added interest. The boat ride is just beautiful, and the bus ride back to Flam is interesting as well. We booked it on our own while in port. There’s a tourist center in the Port of Flam with all kinds of excursions offered. It’s much less exspensive to book it on your own.

This is one of the reasons we have exclusively switched to Viking. No formal nights, and another good reason, no children under 18.

.

11 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

 

In Flam, I'd strongly recommend booking tickets independently for the Flam railroad.  Please note that they sell out quickly so get them early.  We did that in the morning and visited a goat farm in the afternoon for our kids.  If you have a full day in this port, you can do the train in the morning and another excursion like the RIB boat in the afternoon.

Absolutely, the train is popular. We did Flam to Myrdal in 2013 and bought our tickets through the vy.no website. So much cheaper than the ship excursion. On this trip this past summer we spent two nights in Flam and then took the train back to Bergen to pick up our Viking cruise. 

We were in Skjolden in June 2013 on Celebrity. It was one of our favorite stops, 
it’s just a tiny village. We took an excursion that took us through the countryside to  the Urnes Stave Church. The narrow, one way roads, on a tour bus were an experience. Our guide was a local college student and it was so interesting and memorable  having her point out to us her grandparents farm and talk about life in Skjolden. The Stave church was so interesting and is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. We have since been back to Norway many times and have another trip booked on Hurtigruten for this coming September. Norway and Sweden are truly my happy place.

We were in Flam this past summer and had sailed through the area on two other occasions. On this trip we took the ferry from Bergen to Flam, such a different experience being on a small boat and looking up and at the scenery. Once in Flam we took a RIB boat on a fjord excursion. It was fabulous, and again, it was scenery we had previously seen, but getting in close and seeing it from the water level is quite different.

8 hours ago, danny8826 said:

 

That's good news.  I don't have to worry about not being able to see Flåm and Geiranger. 

 

Thank you Nancy. Yeah, I heard about Hurtigruten.  I will discuss more with my travel companion.

 

 

Give Hurtigruten strong consideration. Our first trip to Norway was June 2013 on a two week Fjord cruise with Celebrity. We feel in love with Norway and have returned numerous times since. In December 2019 I did a Hurtigruten Coastal cruise from Bergen to Kirkenes with my daughter. It was a fabulous experience, the Northern Lights showed up, the stops at the small villages were so interesting, the scenery was spectacular, and the excursions were great. Very different than a traditional cruise but we felt like we got more of the essence of the Norwegian culture. We just booked the southbound Kirkenes to Bergen for September. Norway is my happy place. ❤️

It was an 8 hour tour, and we were a group of 20 on a large bus.

We went to the gardens after having lunch and visiting the monastic site.

After the gardens we finished up with a whisky tour and tasting. You very well may have a better experience with a different tour operator. 

On 1/11/2024 at 12:25 PM, snookie1 said:

I am looking at the excursions that might be offered on our BIE cruise in May.  For our day in Dublin I see 2 offerings that go to County Wicklow.  One is called "Discover County Wicklow"; the other is called " The Beauty of County Wicklow".  Has anyone been on either of these?  Would you recommend them?  Is there a difference between the two?  From the description they sound pretty much identical to me.  Any advice would be welcome.  Thank you.

We did the Discover County Wicklow last September and we were disappointed.

It was expensive and it did not meet our expectations. The lunch was good, the gardens and grounds of Powerscourt were beautiful but rushed. Also, we had very little time to explore the monastic settlement in Glendalough. I personally would not recommend it.

After most Viking trips in Europe/Scandinavia we will extend for two weeks to a month to visit family in Gothenburg, Sweden. The first time we did it, the Viking rep told me my options were either Copenhagen or Stockholm. So when we are using Viking Air, we buy our own air for the flight from where the cruise ends to Gothenburg, and then do the same or take the train to get the Viking flight home from Copenhagen. It works well for us, most of the time we are able to use points to purchase the inter Europe flights. We pay a deviation fee but not Air Plus.

On 12/16/2023 at 3:30 PM, Emptynesters38 said:

I believe if you buy insurance with Viking and you cancel you will forfeit the entire insurance premium. We have purchased insurance via Trip Insurance Store.com for our current cruise and you can pay at a later date for most of the policy depending on when the cancellation charges go into effect.

 

I have seen some posts on Cruise Critic from people who were upset when they cancelled and lost the insurance premium.

 

 

 

 

 

The tripinsurancestore.com is awesome! We have been using them for years, and Steve is knowledgeable and honest. He is the one who told me to initially just insure the deposit, which gives you preexisting coverage and then up the insured amount at final payment. And, if for some reason you have to cancel your cruise, and aren’t making a claim against the policy you can put what you’ve paid towards another vacation as long as it’s within 12 months.

@wine-wine-wine

we were on this sailing too, it was our 8th trip with Viking and we too had an absolutely wonderful trip. We made use of the amenities on the ship because we actually had the time to do so, and we met some wonderful people and made some new friends. Nightly before dinner we would have a drink in the Explorers Lounge and listen to Alan. He is incredibly talented and has such a deep repertoire of songs. The only thing I didn’t  enjoy was the cruise director. She is talented but I found her voice to be loud and somewhat annoying.

16 hours ago, MikeyB said:

 

Sorry, i was only trying to get your attention.

You could have just climbed over the railing and knocked on the door.

On 11/23/2023 at 5:23 AM, -Lew- said:

We're on the Sky TA right now in a PV1 with a slider.  We find it easy to keep the door open with a cushion on the track or Bungie cord.

 

What we find annoying is those with fixed doors allowing their door to slam when exciting or entering.  A little consideration would be welcome.

I near what you are saying. We are currently on the Sky too, we also have a PV1 on deck 6 with a fixed window and door. Our biggest gripe is our neighbors who constantly let their door slam, it’s not that hard to hold on to it as you close it. 

1 hour ago, CDNPolar said:

 

No need for a TA for that.  We have done that before a couple of times.  It is easy to move a deposit from one itinerary to another.    This was about getting a price deal.  Not the same thing.

A TA is not necessarily needed at all, but in certain situations and especially in a time of need they do come in handy. When my father was admitted to a hospital in Germany last summer, and it delayed our trip home, one call to our travel agent, and she took care of everything with Viking and the airline. I didn’t have to deal with the added stress of figuring out the details.

6 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

This was an escalation to Supervisor to make this happen and as much as we begged (unfortunate overplay of the situation) for the same dates, we were told it was not possible.

 

We could not have the free air automatically because the promo stated that it was for bookings between a set of dates and our original booking was not in that set of dates.

 

It also apparently would need to be for a new booking - which we were willing to cancel and rebook - but again without any solid reason why, we could not have the same cabin on the same booking even after a complete cancel and new booking.

 

Just another example however of how there is often a different story, information, or explanation for something Viking does or does not do depending on who you talk to.  

 

We enjoyed our cruise anyway...

I realize many disagree on the use of a Travel Advisor, but I believe this is a situation where the value of a good Travel Advisor comes in to play, one who has a good relationship with Viking. Just last week we shifted gears between two river cruises for next year. I had assumed I would lose my deposit, but my TA called her contact at Viking and transferred the booking. No loss of deposit as it was transferred to the new cruise and we received the lower price.