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aungrl

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Posts posted by aungrl

  1. 10 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

     

    AA has a JFK-LHR flight that gets in around 10pm. You could easily do a DCA-JFK-LHR itinerary and make that flight without having to spend the night at ORD as it doesn't leave JFK until like 10am. 

    👍  Thanks for that reminder, Zack.  For some reason, years ago, I avoided this flight, but no idea why.  

  2. 11 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

     

    BOS, EWR and JFK all have daytime flights. JFK has several. I know YYZ and IAD used to, not sure if they still do. My problem is, since I currently live in Kansas City, the ORD flight was the only one I could make it to in time. So it was that one or none. 

     

    I have done the BOS and JFK ones before as an originating passenger. I really, really like BOS in particular because you can land as early as like 6:15pm sometimes, not even rush, and make it in to London for a perfectly normal dinner time. The ORD one, while convenient, was a bit frustrating in that you wouldn't landing until 10:30pm, give or take. 

    I liked the ORD version because 10:30 pm landing would generally put me in the hotel by midnight London time, and after that long a travel day, I could fall right asleep and be right on the time.  (This will sound crazy to many, I know, but there are times that I've flown "backwards" from DCA and spent the night at ORD in order to fly out on that ORD-LHR flight.)

  3. 10 hours ago, Zach1213 said:

    Uh oh...it looks like my business travel life may be changing dramatically. Looks like AA recently (like, a week ago) dropped the daytime AA90 and I don't see it coming back, even in the summer. 

    Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!  The other option is across from Boston during the day.  Is that one still on the schedule?  I'll go look for myself as soon as I recover from this news.

  4. 18 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

    Had a friend long ago who said her idea of roughing it was checking into a hotel without reservations! 

    My husband's aunt used this one, except she always said:  "....without room service." 

    • Like 1
    • Haha 1
  5. 1 hour ago, panda1960 said:

    Thanks so much for replying and also for your thorough review.  At this time I think we will stay booked with Princess being we have another year to decide if we want to cancel or not.  This itinerary is very attractive to us compared to some of the other world cruises.  I guess if we go with low expectations maybe (fingers crossed) we will be pleasantly surprised.  After posting this topic I did find a blog from a couple from Tampa that seemed like they enjoyed their 2023 world cruise on the Island Princess.  Just out of curiosity how was it that your Viking cruise daily cost was identical when it started out double the price?  

     

    I'm sure Heidi13 will be back with additional detail, but the basic answer is that so much is included in the Viking fare that you would have to pay for separately on Princess that it netted out to a similar per day cost.

    • Like 2
  6. Paging @Heidi13  He has detailed information posted on his most recent - and final - experience with a Princess WC.  The search function isn't working for me to find a couple of links for you, but if he sees this, I'm sure he'll either provide some details here or steer you to one of his detailed posts.

    • Like 1
  7. 2 hours ago, scotchbonnet said:

    Loafin, I don't know where you will be staying when you visit Machu Picchu, but some years ago when we were living in Buenos Aires, we stayed at the hotel which was the only one right next to the Machu Picchu site. I believe it is now called the Sanctuary Lodge. Staying there meant that when all the other tourists had to return to Aguas Calientes we had the whole place to ourselves. Also we were able to get into the site early in the morning to see the sun rise - our only company a llama or two. It was a truly magical moment.  Iguazu is also amazing. Try and see it from the Brazilian as well as the Argentine side.A word of warning, if you are spending  any time in Lima, do be careful. Enjoy your visit. I'm jealous. I would do it all again in a heartbeat if I could.

     

    We did something similar a few years ago, and the hotel on the site, which was called Sanctuary Lodge when we were there, is an experience unto itself.  Everything @scotchbonnet says in terms of early and late access, being able to walk up to the top before sunrise and catch it as it comes up, etc., but then also the quality of the hotel itself is 5-star plus.  

  8. On 8/28/2024 at 12:08 PM, Hanoj said:

     

    Me too. Be awesome to arrange some sort of excursion to include a casual bike ride or other opportunity to meet Cav. He considers his Isle of Man residence his "real home." I'd shell out some real quid to do this. Yeah, I'm a dreamer.

    The Isle of Man is one of our more favorite locations.  We flew in for a four-night stay from London one December and thought it was absolutely magical.  I understand arriving by sea can be pretty rough, but I know from first hand experience that arriving by air is not usually a picnic, either.  Worth it, though.  

    • Like 1
  9. 15 hours ago, uktog said:

    Get real! You are going to Greenland. The description clearly said for both ports it was self guided. Maps and routes were available on the pier. We were greeted by delightful people including little girls having a lot of fun. 
    If you went straight back here are examples of what you missed. 
     

    Quaqortac

     

    IMG_1780.thumb.jpeg.b797f99f8d8bd35bbd76ecb8abcdb220.jpeg

    IMG_1781.thumb.jpeg.0b17bcbf1358094b899b452c183284d1.jpeg

    IMG_1794.thumb.jpeg.000e5a44a0636372fd74f7c367870f7d.jpeg

    IMG_1799.thumb.jpeg.f72a54d95a45a78a822929d86f329352.jpeg

    IMG_1807.thumb.jpeg.18686a050d1de5c53893f02d3eb7f98b.jpeg

     

    Nanotalik

     

    IMG_1839.thumb.jpeg.5de4a872c1e9d14f2654d1bae9dca286.jpeg

     

    IMG_1841.thumb.jpeg.4b68f53f80f76a19f9edd9637b91dc72.jpeg

     

    IMG_1852.thumb.jpeg.18a0fc24d2cb75a60f28a9b481121d8b.jpeg

     

     

    These pictures bring back such great memories!  Thanks for the trip down memory lane.  We loved both stops.

    • Like 2
  10. 1 hour ago, SJD117 said:

    We did this self-guided tour in 2019. It was great! We loved walking around at our own pace, seeing kayaking demonstrations, hearing music, meeting locals, and otherwise enjoying the small Greenland town of Qaqortoq.

     

     

    We did the same, also in 2019, and it was one of our most memorable stops of the cruise.  A local gentleman sound us walking back through a neighborhood and invited us up onto his deck for a spectacular view.  

    • Like 5
  11. Another thing I just remembered that we always do is to put plastic wrap across the toilet seat and the tank after we've cleaned it.  It's a tip that sounded crazy to me when I first came across it, but it keeps the water from evaporating - or at least slows it down quite a bit - so that you don't end up with rings that need to be tackled when you get back.  It really does work.

  12. On 7/25/2024 at 3:17 PM, lynncarol said:

    Exactly what we do too. Not only for cruising, but independent travel too. I blush to confess the longest trip so far with just a carry-on and a small backpack (our personal item) has been three weeks. Not having checked bags has allowed us to catch earlier flights, be first out of the gate when going through customs, and never having to worry about lost luggage.  It is easy to handwash things along the way...the only downside is, in all our travel photos over the years it looks like we have on the same outfits. 

    A friend of ours was looking at pictures from a trip to, I believe, London several years back, and at the end of scrolling through the first 3-4 days, she stopped, looked at me, and said:  "You did all of this stuff in one day?"  

    • Haha 1
  13. 1 minute ago, mom says said:

    A trick to find out if your fridge/freezer has had a lengthy power interruption:. Place a coin on top of one of the ice cubes in an old fashioned ice cube tray. If the coin has sunk down and is covered by ice, you will know that power was off long enough to cause melting in the freezer while you were gone.

    And if you don't have an old-fashioned ice cup tray, you can do the same thing with a cup of frozen water.

    • Like 3
  14. 13 hours ago, DrKoob said:

    What has happened to top sheets?  Everyplace now has a bottom sheet and a duvet/comforter combo. No one has a top sheet anymore. Where did they go?

    We've noticed this, as well, and my husband is 100% in your camp.  We end up 'undressing' the duvet and using the cover as a top sheet, which has to create all kinds of work for the staff, but seems to be the only option.  (We always leave a better tip when I've resorted to this!)  Occasionally we've been able to request a top sheet and get one, but less than half the time.  (It was actually the head of housekeeping at a London hotel who first told us just to take the duvet cover off and use that as a top sheet.) 

  15. On 6/16/2024 at 10:47 PM, duquephart said:

     

    Do you wish the prices would go up by a factor of 1.5?

    I would gladly pay it to get a Coke that tasted the way it did when I was kid!

    • Like 2
  16. 10 hours ago, ohiojohn said:

    Thank you for your kind insight and food for thought.  Yes you are correct, I am not allowing enough time. So, last week I sent to Viking a transfer request form, which I will follow up in about a week.  I preferred the private car route but do not believe Viking would have our bags ready in the terminal at 6:00am while they are focusing on getting bags into the terminal for the Viking transfer guests.

    I have appreciated reading your many comments, as we are refugees from Celebrity and do not know all that we should know after only 2 cruises with Viking.

    It sounds like you have a good plan in place, but one thing that occurred to me as I read this post is that - if you're able to do it  - you could walk your bags off yourself, rather than putting them out the night before for Viking to offload with all the others.  That eliminates the time associated with waiting for your bags once you disembark.  (That said, in our experience, the bags have always been waiting for us once we walked into the terminal.)

  17. 8 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

    Exactly!

     

    It took us some time to realize that calling in and emailing got you a completely different response from a different "level" of knowledge.

     

    I consider emailing tellus as starting at an escalated level of customer service.  We email about many things now and are always pleased with our response and if not pleased, we feel that at least it is the correct answer.

    This, to me, is the key..."even if we aren't pleased, it's the correct answer."  That's the big difference.

    • Like 2
  18. 15 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

     

    Anxious to see what the response is when the email is sent.

     

    We experienced this with a friend that has sailed Viking over 15 times now and she knows her way around Viking both email and phone, and her very consistent response was you can only address this onboard.  Viking will not sell the package to one person in a cabin that is inhabited by two people in advance of embarkation.

     

    Highly likely that they will approve onboard if the proper people are approached, but I will be very surprised if this is dealt with prior to being onboard.  It must be assessed by the appropriate crew with the appropriate authority onboard.

     

    This is also not the first time that this has been discussed on CC and others have reported the same thing - no approval before boarding, but can be done once onboard.

    Sounds like there are enough data points out there that confirm the only way to do it is once you're on board - but if @thekeifer1does end up writing Tellus, I'd love to hear if they do anything in advance, as well.

  19. 9 hours ago, thekeifer1 said:

     

    I called and Viking’s response was the exact advice offered by CDNPolar above. They cannot do anything in advance on it. I’m supposed to go on the ship and talk to the bursar/beverage folks and see if it can be bought for one person since the other person is under 21. Viking said there was no guarantee that this would be allowed.

    Unfortunately, if you call instead of sending an email to tellus@vikingcruises.com, you're likely to get the answer you got.  The customer service representatives who respond to emails at this address are more knowledgeable, (much) more consistent, and generally able to actually help you.  Even though you've called, I'd still suggest sending an email, as per @Peregrina651's suggestion.

    • Like 3
  20. 8 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

     

    In our opinion yes.

     

    We don't want a forward cabin of any category.  We like our mid-ship cabin and book early to have the selection.

     

    We booked late for one cruise and there was only a forward cabin available and because the ship had empty cabins after embarkation Viking reluctantly allowed us to move two or three days in.

     

    The seas were rough and the motion and the noise in this deck 3 forward cabin was something that we could not tolerate.

    Really glad that it worked out for you to move cabins on this cruise.  I'm wondering why Viking would have been reluctant to do that, since cabins were readily available?

  21. 10 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

    I can’t seem to find the thread I started with Primos, can anyone else see it. I wonder if CC deleted it?  Anyway, here is a promo I received today:

    IMG_7492.jpeg

    It's still up, Clay, although I've been having trouble accessing it these past few days.  When I click onto it, it starts to open, and then I get the swirl of death while it keeps "thinking about it."  So there may be a glitch with it, given the number of embedded marketing materials, idk!

    • Thanks 1
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