millybess

All very good points! And you are right, a crew member might well be going to Shoppers in Halifax. In our case, the ship is turning around and headed north, so U.S. $ it is then. Thanks much for your perspective.

Please let us know!🙂

You have us beat! We're usually around 9:00. But we have made it to Torshavn........once. 😴😴

Thanks much @Jim Avery. My question was specific to docking in Vancouver and given the docking location, should we tip in Canadian or USD? Thanks for bringing Asian currency into the discussion. I'm not sure I would have pursued that. But now going back to what @OneSixtyToOne said at the beginning -- this may be overthinking. Thanks again for your perspective.

Did you look at the The Sebel Auckland Viaduct Harbour. We've booked that for March next year.

Hey, 🙂 I love off-topic discussions. I think they can be very informative. But before we get into that again, can I just get back to what @Jim Avery said about tipping in Asian currency once docked in Vancouver. We will probably have both HKD and Japanese Yen. Anyone else can chime in on this too. Should we stick to USD? Or go with Asian currency?

Yes, I had a hydrafacial on board a few cruises ago. It was nice, but it didn’t deliver on its promise to “remove years”.

We had a Viking excursion booked for Kyoto (Kobe) and then decided we could see much more and take the bullet train if we toured on our own. Once your voyage gets closer, and if you're interested, we can post our tour map.

This is our plan for Tokyo Day 1 with a guide: Asakusa (Senso-ji temple) Ueno park Yanaka Monzen-Nakacho or Skytree Day 2 independently: Tokyo National Museum Day 3 with a guide: Imperial Palace Meiji-jingu Shrine Shibuya Crossing or Yoyogi park Kyu Asakura On our own, we plan on cruising the Sumida River in the evening and visiting Nihonbashi and possibly cruising on the canals. I want to find one of the three year-round Christmas stores in Tokyo and Messybill has a camera store in mind where he can find a particular lens he's looking for.

And when you are dealing with Viking land, that says it all. If you can find your way through that difficulty without too much stress, it’s worth it.

Thank you. We've been and would recommend Corral de la Moreria. I just thought because Spain is your homeland, you might have a better recommendation. 🙂

Right. I think @hutch1994 is referencing an ES.

We have a lot of Euros, but we're giving them to one of our sons who is doing an extended European trip this summer. How about HKD or Yen? What do you think?

Yes.

Our cruise will be ending in Vancouver. We tip out-front staff at the end. Given our disembarkation location, should we tip in Canadian $, U.S. $?

I agree with you. We often change our reserved time for one reason or another. I disagree about booking a higher level cabin in order to gain more restaurant reservations. I can't imagine paying thousands more $ so that I could eat in one of their specialty restaurants. I think that if one books a higher level cabin, it's probably because of square footage and location. I'm glad they posted this information on their website. It's not often Viking updates their website with relevant information, unfortunately.

We were fortunate enough to go to St. Petersburg with Viking. Nothing compares to the palaces in and around St. Petersburg. Even without that experience, the Madrid Royal Palace was underwhelming -- fairly drab and lots of stairs.

It really does vary by ship/chef. We had lobster tail and chateaubriand on Sea in January and it was incredibly delicious. I could have eaten that every night.

Yes, Corral de la Moreria. If you book directly on their website, you will get a better table. But if @Torquato has a recommendation, take that one over mine.

I think that's right. We often arrive and there are a lot of empty tables. I think they keep them open for those who weren't able to book online.

The OBC would pay, or at least contribute, to the gratuities at the end. Or you could splurge on a Viking jacket!

I can't find a "Dinner Reservation" thread to post this on so I'll post it here. I was just on MVJ and I noticed that they have now added this to the dinner reservation site: "In case reservations are fully booked, they can be made directly on board the ship." 🙂

Yes, as you know, we did the show/dinner also. No, definitely not Michelin Star, but fun. We did enjoy the Tuk Tuk tour. Did you get to the Palace? It's easy for us to get to Madrid from Toronto also. I just wish it was as easy for us to get to San Juan.

Thanks @SantaFe1 So that begs this question: If we have a dinner reservation on May 2nd, do we get to eat there twice? It's not important, but it is interesting to understand how the ship handles that.

It sounds like you might have had our table. I'm glad you were able to get in. It did make for good photos. I had read here previously that if you book it yourself on their website rather than through a tour you will get the best tables. Is that what you did?