IloveLA

Just received notification that two of our chosen excursions have been cancelled for "operational reasons". Boy, that covers a lot of ground. Anyway, they are the Day 2 Singapore Oddyssey and the Casbah Stroll and Bahia House. Full refunds are promised "within the next two weeks". The cost showed up on the credit card minutes after we booked them but I guess that's the way it works these days. We will worry about replacement excursions once onboard. Long time till Singapore. Hope all the "Bomb Cyclone" (that's a new made up news word for sure) area folks get their flights ok. See Y'all Friday!!!:cool:

This happened to us as well but they cancelled even more excursions for us. We called and no one could help us. This is our fist ocean cruise and I'm unable to understand how they can do things like this willy-nilly. No plan B

Here was Vikings note.

Due to operational changes, your Tahiti Jeep Adventure, Hong Kong Walking Tour, Singapore After Dark, Singapore Odyssey and Casbah Stroll and Bahia House excursions have unfortunately been canceled. A full refund for the canceled excursion will be credited to your purchasing account within the next two weeks.

day 96 (April 10) Oman

The excursion is called "Ancient Cities of Iran & Petra "

Expensive but when would we ever get a chance again?

I noticed only yesterday that Viking added an excursion to Iran. This excursion was not listed when we booked our outings. We did not receive any announcement that they added the excursion and unfortunately the excursion is sold out.

I wonder if it is because we only have a deluxe veranda on deck 4.

Anyway, I'm quite bummed out.

Do they typically increase the size of excursions?

As much as I like Viking, I can't imagine doing this. Spending two weeks on a cruise learning about each destination is pretty overwhelming. But going to over a hundred places in 150 days!

And the cruise is sold out! Who is going? And why?

Once, about 40 years or so ago and just after my best friend in the universe and I got married, we saw an advertisement for the inaugural "Around the World" trip on the QE2 in National Geographic. We had barely enough money, would have to give up our apartment, jobs, and likely any chance of buying a house, but we still thought long and hard about it but opted for the "responsible route". Yet we continued to dreamed about it. The thought would creep into our conversations every few years, decade after decade.

Well things are different now and We are not going to worry about being responsible, not be burdened by what we might have done. . Rather, we are going to make these last 20-25 years a blast. So first, we are doing this trip because we did not do it 40 years ago. Second, because it will take us places we likely might not have thought about exploring in the first place, and finally, we might discover places to explore in depth. If we like it maybe we'll do the one next year. If not, we'll go back to conventional travel, 4-8 weeks in an area, car, maps, ipad, and rick steves books in hand.