Cienfuegos

Companies are often very aware of customer attitudes, and will adjust policies as they feel appropriate. However, companies are also sensitive to the needs of distributors / sales agencies, etc. When travel agents, booking groups, etc begin to complain or divert business elsewhere, it will be noticed.

Uber, Lyft, and Mears Transportation are listed as serving this station. https://sunrail.com/station/orlando-health-amtrak/#otherconnections

Depending on the preferences (and $$$) of the travelers, you could drop a few folks at Aventura Mall or Bal Harbour Shops Mall. Both are in the area, and considered to be high end locations. Everyone else could go on to the beach or day pass.

Most cruise lines have some attribute that some travelers will find unacceptable. I've found that balancing the attributes I like / love against those I abhor works for me. This is a good thread. It offers a dialogue about the attributes on each shipping line.

Yes. I'm guessing you concur that the brokers will exercise their approved over-allotment and put a few more shares in play. I'm sure the Hagen family considered the dilution impact in authorizing the possibility of additional shares.

Several sources report the offering was 15x oversubscribed. That is, for each share issued by the company or offered by current holders, there were buyers for 15 shares. Lots of folks were interested in buying it at the offering price. Some of these potential buyers will purchase shares from the packages offered to the underwriting brokerages as an incentive by Viking. That sounds to me like Viking will do a follow on offering, and issue some more stock.

I don't know the answer, but these folks surely will 1-800-TRI-RAIL Tri-Rail's Customer Experience Office is open weekdays from 5 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., weekend and holiday hours are from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

I'm sorry, I misread the original question. And substituted Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale) for Port Canaveral. So, BrightLine would be of no use at all.

The BrightLine train from Fort Lauderdale is one good alternative. The first train out of Fort Lauderdale downtown station is 8.20 am, arriving Orlando airport station at 11.15 am. You would be in the C Terminal building. GoBrightLine https://orlandoairports.net/getting-around-mco/train-station/

Hurricane and serious tropical storm activity usually gets attention in the local south Florida media about 7-10 days before landfall could be expected. By 3-4 days out, the threat has driven everything else off the TV entirely. The cruise lines undoubtedly have their own forecasting services to advise them where to position their ships out of the way of a direct hit.

Experience and understanding are always good cruise memories. Just ticking items off a list rarely delivers the kind of pleasure the ticker seeks.

Thanks for this report on your experience, I'm glad you made it with time to spare. Sounds like everything lined up perfectly for you For what it's worth, Fort Lauderdale airport has had widely varying experiences with TSA. Sometimes the process is like greased lightning, other times it is slow as molasses. Even from terminal to terminal.

Having a ready reply to those intrusive questions is always useful. The questioner has usually just said something about 80 cruises, seven continents, and the like.

Barron's magazine has a discussion of the Viking IPO in today's magazine. In general, veteran financial reporter Andrew Bary likes the offering. He sees the new ships, the loyal customer base, and the focus on older, more affluent, educated, curious travelers as a winning recipe.

Viking buys its blocks of air travel in wholesale quantities, and I'm sure it negotiates with the various major providers from different US etc gateways to European and Asian embarkation venues. That said, I doubt that many airlines would be interested in selling deeply discounted business class seats in markets where they can command a premium price on an individual sale.

Yes. I though it was suggested up thread that the principal purpose of this IPO is to fund the exit of two early institutional share holders. Not necessarily to provide much in the way of investment in plant and people, etc. Viking Corporation is on the hook for a lot of investment in ships. Both delivered and promised for the future. Note, I have not read the IPO documents, and have no interest in buying shares in the company.

Yes. I though it was suggested up thread that the principal purpose of this IPO is to fund the exit of two early institutional share holders. Not necessarily to provide much in the way of investment in plant and people, etc. Viking Corporation is on the hook for a lot of investment in ships. Both delivered and promised for the future. Note, I have not read the IPO documents, and have no interest in buying shares in the company.

Glad you enjoyed it. Watching a launch from under 10 miles away is a very impressive experience. In some cases the ground will rumble / shake. You can see the shape of the rocket tube, feel the air wave.

Vero Beach (exit 147 or so) has several hotels right at the I-95 / FL 60 interchange. The usual names are represented, and prices are competitive. If you head eastward, there are a few ocean-front hotels for folks who are into that sort of thing.

Moving to a more "mass market demographic" isn't a plus in my view. If VOC decides that a small casino, a few formal nights, kids, extra fee restaurants etc are in their future, I would say Viking is in my past...

Good advice. There are often several YouTube feeds from various local sources like SpaceX, SpaceFlightNow, Florida Today etc.

"middle of the night" launches usually draw smaller crowds than 7 pm - 10 pm launches in my experience. Spaceflightnow has a good launch calendar. But, launches do get scrubbed or pushed to the back end of the launch window regularly

It shouldn't be hard for Viking to stock their ships with a decent selection of wines and spirits. Many countries produce fine wines, and spirits from known makers are widely available.

My wife still talks about the wonderful brown bread at the breakfast bar in the Explorer's lounge. Warm, fragrant, thin crust. Have not seen it elsewhere on the ship.

Auto rental companies will often do the same. They place a substantial hold / pending charge on the credit or debit card until the vehicle is returned and inspected.