KTRaveller

I took all the included tours on the West Indies cruise and though they did get a little repetitive, given the islands' history and cultural connections, that wasn't surprising. I was glad to get driven around and see the islands' highest viewpoints in most cases. I was also glad to meet at least one person from the island who seemed interested in sharing his or her culture. The two paid excursions I took were for snorkeling and were disappointing because the recent hurricanes (this was February 2019) had scoured the ocean bottom. My husband was very unhappy with his catamaran sailing excursion to another island because it turned out to be with a hard partying group -- loud music, lots of free rum punch. It all depends on quality of the guide (most Viking guides have been excellent in our experience on 2 ocean and one long river cruise) and the other passengers. Most people we've met on Viking tend to be like us -- interested in history and culture -- less interested in loud partying or gambling -- but you never know. Depending on the tourist infrastructure and general level of development of the country, I would take care making private arrangements. The greatest advantage of Viking tours is that you will never miss the ship sailing! I wanted to go snorkeling at other beaches during the Caribbean cruise, but felt uneasy about a taxi returning to pick me up. It wasn't worth being nervous all day about missing the ship!

We were on the same cruise with you -- Kathleen and Chris. We were also pleased and surprised to receive the vouchers for $250 each. I think they were issued because the cause was an engine failure so we were slowed down just enough to have to miss Madeira. We have just applied the vouchers to our accounts ahead of the date we can book excursions for our next cruise -- a very port intensive one, so this comes in very handy! We embark the Sky in Rome on October 6, 3 weeks to Istanbul Where are you going next?

Thanks -- fun to see the new menu! We board the Sky October 6 for 3 weeks -- longest cruise yet, so maybe more time to try different places. When we lived in Stockholm, Sweden for a magical 5 mos. we learned that Thursdays are traditionally split pea soup and pancakes days (later confirmed by one of Astrid Lindgren's books about village children). The US Embassy cafeteria had a great chef and families were allowed to join the employee at lunch anytime so my 3 year old and I made Thursdays our day. The soup was made with yellow split peas, not green and the pancakes were served with lingonberries and whipped cream. Definitely low calorie!

Any chance you'd pass on the name -- I'd love to let my daughter and her husband know about it. They've lived in London now for 2 years and it looks like they are staying. No room for us yet, but recent new job and promotion may mean they'll be able to host us someday!

We've hardly used the pool grill on our two past cruises, but with your idea of adding grilled salmon to a salad, and the news about wings, we certainly will next cruise. Thanks!

I had to cut short a visit to family on the east coast due to covid, so am enjoying cruising vicariously with you instead. Sadly, Covid is not over, even for the well-vaccinated and fairly cautious. My husband caught a case probably in Barcelona after our TA in spring, and now I have this one -- also probably due to air travel. There's only so much you can do to stay safe. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to post -- and for all the tips. I'll definitely ask for a galley tour this next time. We leave for 3 weeks on B2B trips -- Rome to Athens, then Athens to Istanbul on the Sky -- October 5. Can't wait!

darn -- forgot to eat lamb chops for breakfast on our TA in April -- but I'll get another chance in October as we round out the year of 4 cruises (never to be repeated -- all due to Covid disruptions) I remember reading about you eating them on some forum or other and meant to make a mental note... This time I won't forget!

I've also found the chat function in My Viking Journey to be helpful for questions like port addresses.

Thanks for the useful review. One thing to remember is that the World Cafe food is not the same on all sides, or the people and atmosphere in all the seating corners. We didn't discover the sushi until our second cruise! We'll be on the Sky for 3 weeks -- the last one identical to your cruise-- in October. I love the variety of lovely spaces on the ship. If your father was very taken with the books available on the ship, I hope he's seen the Viking TV episodes about Heywood Hill Bookshop in London which curates the Viking ships' collections. Perhaps this link will work: https://viking.tv/search?search=Heywood+Hill

Note -- once on board you should be able to get a Manfredis reservation -- or Chef's Table even if you haven't been able to get one ahead of time. (You should have one guaranteed in each restaurant whatever your level cabin, but you need to be flexible about date and time.) Once on board, we were easily able to get extra reservations -- ate at Chef's Table every time the menu changed on a recent transatlantic "repositioning" cruise even though you'd imagine more pressure on the restaurants with 8 days at sea!

Thanks for the opportunity to come along. On our TA from San Juan to Barcelona in April we had no sense that service in the MDR was slow at all and never heard anyone mention it. We had mostly sea days so perhaps the dining times spread out more and around 780 pax so not a full ship. It will be interesting to see if there's a problem from Rome to Istanbul this fall when there will be so many stops and busy schedules.

I don't have much expensive jewelry and mostly wear just earrings. They got all tangled up with each other in a pouch or little box so I invented this hanger. I wrap it in a t-shirt and put it in my carryon, then hang it on a doorknob or on a cruise, I'll use a magnetic hook on a wall somewhere. It's kind of pretty. You'll need one knee high, or a piece of cut off stocking and an embroidery hoop of whatever size fits your collection. Mine is 8". Just slip the closed hoop into the knee hi, pull it up snugly and fit the other hoop over it, tightening as much as needed. I use the excess for hanging it on a doorknob, but you could tie it off with a ribbon instead and use that. C0D85714-502B-4304-B65E-9A86EA856FA5.heic

Thanks so much for this, Patti! That was clever to look back at the pictures to see what you were wearing. I hope we are as lucky with the weather. I'm about to actually pack after gathering things and thinking about it for weeks, so this is great timing. I hope you have another cruise to look forward to -- sounds like you have had quite a winter up in Minnesota. I plan to write here about the cruise or at least post when it's over. Our one cruise on Viking Ocean was San Juan to San Juan in 2019 and we've been trying to get back on board ever since. We felt like Adam and Eve expelled from Eden at the end of that one. We stayed on for 4 days in San Juan afterwards and watched the ship depart with a huge sigh!

I've been able to get quite detailed information about tours and other land based questions from the Chat box people sometimes. I've noticed that they aren't available 24 hours any longer, but they still answer quickly and stay with you until they get your question answered.

I'll be fine, then 😬. Life in places like Seoul (in the late 70s) Bangladesh, Madagascar and Rwanda gives one an appreciation for any beer without a fly in it and any alcohol with an actual tax seal on the bottle! Oh, and that endless Algerian rosé. I actually like the Korean makkoli (milky rice wine) and wish I could find it occasionally.

Hi Patti -- we are just about 10 days from departure from home for our first TA, on Viking Sea, which was the same ship we enjoyed so very much in 2019 on the West Indies Explorer. I'd be interested to know how cold it was outdoors during the ocean crossing -- could you enjoy being on the deck? Walking the path or dining outdoors? I'm assuming your crossing was the same one -- it seems like this is how the Sea gets back to Europe for the next season's itineraries there. Thanks for your advice. Kathleen

Finally an excellent idea! I knew I should keep reading...

We've been able to negotiate later payment dates twice when we just wanted to get the payment into a new tax year. I'd ask for a couple of business days into the year and they'd say "Take a month"

Not in my future, but I'd just like to help with this marvelous effort. The image is clipped from my email and the link is what you get to when you click on View Itinerary. https://www.vikingcruises.com/expeditions/cruise-destinations/antarctica/antarctic-explorer/index.html?contid=30095820725_1019715094&utm_id=email_vrc.54715142&cid=EML|RSP|999|vrc.54715142&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=55presale

thanks for the information - this has been a fun thread (pun intended!)

That's why these gold colored cocoons were so special -- and I was seeing the thread come right off the cocoons. I don't know how long the color would last though -- even whether it was considered desirable but to me it looked like Rapunzel spinning gold! It was hard to capture in a photo.

So interesting to see this silk weaving. Here's a few pictures from a silk weaving enterprise in Cambodia if I can figure out how to upload. I was there on a Road Scholar trip in December. We saw the whole process from moths mating to tiny caterpillars emerging, then pupating and making their cocoons. It was much more basic a setting but stunning silk scarves and other clothing came from it -- no rugs! That natural gold color is a specialty -- just the kind of moth, I guess! We were rafted with the Viking Mekong one day -- far more elegant but much less intimate than our 18 passenger experience with Road Scholar. We had to go up about 4 flights of stairs to get from our little boat through the Viking ship to the street! IMG_9032.MOV

I wonder if she lost Wifi, or just got too busy to post. I hope she'll be back! Thank you Chris -- for bringing us along so far. Hope to hear more and that nothing is going wrong.

Thanks very much for the detail. I hope we will get to hear from Peter LaSorsa or another great guest lecturer. I'll have to decide between Pompeii and Herculaneum in about August, I guess, so perhaps you'll already have gotten to visit the second one. Your pictures are wonderful -- especially Sienna. That was just about my favorite visit back on a 3 week trip through Italy in 1985. Also loved Assisi and Perugia -- especially the visit to the Etruscan town underground. Gubbio was fun, too. There are almost no places in Italy I wouldn't enjoy visiting again - what a marvelous country to tour.

Thank you for taking so much time to post about your experiences. We'll overlap with a great deal of your trip next October when we'll travel from Rome to Istanbul, via Athens -- two trips back to back -- but we get to stay on the same ship, same cabin. Sweet! Did you talk to anyone who opted to go to Herculaneum instead of Pompeii and compare experiences? We've heard so much about crowds at Pompeii... We hope October is late enough in the season to not be too bad. Congratulations on your anniversary, too -- and best wishes for many more.