jc522

I'll restate the above for clarity (I hope): Be wary of the advice that the Viking phone agents give you. I saw no water taxis to and from St. Marks except those that served the excursions. The last excursion of the day returned around 5:30 or 6:00pm. Initially we were told that you needed to be on an excursion to take a water taxi, and you had to return with the taxi for your excursion. After several visits to Guest Services someone there told us if we wanted to arrange to stay in town past the scheduled 4:45 return of our "Venice On Your Own" excursion we could speak with the Viking dock coordinator where the taxi unloaded in Venice. Note that a 4:45pm return means you are back at the ship at 4:45pm. The taxi leaves Venice at about 3pm. That does not leave a lot of time to tour Venice. Taking the last taxi instead of the one for our excursion gave us an extra hour or so in Venice. If you talk to enough different people in Guest Services you will eventually figure out who the more senior staff are and they won't be afraid to help you find a way around the "rules". The 5 minute taxi ride to/from Chioggia takes you through Chioggia harbor between the cruise ship port and the city dock at the foot of Corso Del Popolo, Chioggia. It leaves the cruise dock headed for Chioggia on the hour, and it leaves the Chioggia city dock to return to the ship on the half hour. This taxi service ended at 9pm. You could also walk to/from Chioggia in 15 minutes.

I was referring to 2 different taxi routes. A 1:20 taxi ride for excursions to Venice. And a 5 minute ride for trips to Chioggia.

The 5 minute ride takes you through Chioggia harbor between the cruise ship port and the dock at the foot of Corso Del Popolo, Chioggia. It leaves the cruise dock headed for town on the hour, and it leaves the city dock to return to the ship on the half hour. You could also walk to/from Chioggia in 15 minutes. I recall now that after several visits to Guest Services someone there told us to speak with the Viking dock coordinator in Venice if we wanted to arrange to stay in town past the scheduled return of our excursion. That gave us an extra hour in Venice. If you talk to enough different people in Guest Services you can usually find a way around the rules.

The water taxis to and from St. Marks served the excursions. The last excursion of the day returned around 5pm. You needed to be on an excursion to take a taxi. They did not like the idea that we would book Venice On Your Own and come back whenever we wanted to hop a taxi. The water taxi to and from Chioggia (5 minute trip) ran every 30 minutes starting in the AM and ending around 9pm.

The amount of the gratuity in the bill seemed appropriate so I had them reduce that by 25%, and I gave the difference directly to our stewards.

Viking includes in our bill an optional 17/day/person for gratuities. Is it customary to tip the 2 room stewards an additional amount? If so, how much?

Since I started this, I thought I should close it out. Despite the problems that I've mentioned, we had a very nice cruise. The ship and crew are excellent. Music onboard appears to have gone a little less classical and a bit more pop. That is an improvement, but the house band and singers are not very good. Wifi has been greatly improved. I was able to stream Amazon Prime on my PC. Naples being reduced to 1/2 day goes unexplained. Venice sorted itself out because Gioggia is so nice. The Cap'n assured me that there was 35 knots of wind in the harbor at Messina which caused the Pilot to advise against trying to dock there (despite what all the reporting stations said). The urgency behind replacing floor tiles on deck 2 is a mystery. The food didn't improve.

We were concerned about the Venice-Chioggia part of the itinerary, too. So far it has been the highlight of our cruise. The boat will dock in Chioggia. Spend a day in Venice via a 1:20min water taxi ride. Then spend a day and especially an evening in Chioggia. You'll probably want to go back to Chioggia for another half day before the ship departs. You won't be disappointed.

Did anyone mention the pay toilets? It costs 1 euro to get thru the turnstile.

Just got my comp'd laundry back today. Out by 9am, back next day by 5pm. Maybe a little later....

55to 65F. Not much rain so far. Nice with a windbreaker or lightweight fleece-lined jacket.

The repairmen started working with impact chisels today. One side of deck 2 is sealed off from the atrium to the aft elevators while they jack out the floor tile and replace it. We could hear it from our stateroom on deck 8. This is supposed to last thru the entire second week of our cruise. Aside from the noise and inconvenience, the best evening music venue, Torshavn, has been shut down for the duration.

Here is the list. If you have done any of them please comment Pro or Con. Split Walking Tour Ancient Salona & Medieval Trogir Cetina River Cruise & Split Walking Tour Flavors of the Dalmatian Coast Highlights of the Split Riviera The Krka Waterfalls & Town of Skradin Meštrovic Gallery & Diocletian Palace Krka National Park Walk Charming Trogir & Village Heritage The Krka Waterfalls & Town of Skradin Krka National Park & Dubrava Falconry Center

I asked our tour guide and she recommended Osteria #2, but she said all of the restaurants on the side streets are very good. I asked one of the water taxi drivers and got the same answer. My guess is that the restaurants on Popolo are more tourist oriented than the other places that are off the main street. If you don't want a big pasta meal you can get Cicchetti at all the restaurants. It's a specialty of this region of Italy. Google it.

Osteria Numero 2, 255 Calle Fattorini

We just got back from a thoroughly enjoyable day in Chioggia. Nothing that I've read adequately describes this city. It is a very old, clean, vibrant town. It's much larger than I expected based on descriptions I've read here and elsewhere. It takes about 15 minutes to walk to the main street, Calle Del Popolo, which is about a mile long. The buildings date back to the 1400's and contain dozens of family run shops and sea food restaurants. All of the narrow cross streets (alleys) are filled with excellent restaurants, too. Most of the restaurants close just after noon time and re-open for dinner around 7pm. This is authentic old-world Italy, and it lacks the commercialism and tourist trap vibe that you get in Venice. We are going to walk back into town again this evening and probably tomorrow, too. I hope the cruise ships don't ruin this wonderful little town.

Palazzo Cornoldi. Four bridges east of St. Marks Square.

I'm on vacation. Talking to Viking's managers to beg for some compensation or to help them improve their product does not fit into my vacation plans. If they suck, they lose this customer. If they lose enough of them maybe they will make some corrections. Maybe not. It's not my problem. I'm just letting others know what to expect.

Since Viking is advertised as the "thinking person's" cruise, I would not expect the highest quality entertainment, At these prices I would expect high quality entertainment, just less of it. I would never spend less than three days in Venice. We intended to spend 3 days in Venice and then discovered that it takes a 2:40 round trip from Chioggia on an uncomfortable water taxi each time. We did that trip today, won't ever do it again.

No.

I have had much better food on Azamara and others, including some pretty decent lobster. The problem isn’t limited to some bad lobster. At the price Viking charges for a cruise, there is no excuse for what they are serving in The Restaurant or the World Cafe.

Wow. Glad I'm not the only one. What did you think of Lobster Night? I love lobster, but couldn't eat this stuff. Not sure how to describe it. It tasted muddy, not at all sweet. No amount of butter, lemon or anything else covered the bad flavor. Actually, it was bad on the Viking cruise we did last December, too.

Do you have to pay to use public toilets around St Mark's area? How much?

Sky

In addition: Yesterday I tried the worst crab legs I've ever tasted. Today I spoke to the IT/Technology officer. He installed Starlink 10 days ago. Quick connections, lots of bandwidth and streaming is now available.