millybess

Calling people “piggish”, “rude”, “bad mannered”, “selfish”, “grabby” is just a form of bullying. This person asked a legitimate question and was verbally abused for doing so. Why not have a mature and substantive conversation about a topic which is of a concern to many others without throwing out belittling or disparaging adjectives? If you want to contribute, come up with a plausible solution!

Agreed! It’s “the bit” that nobody can seem to agree on 😊

In Covid world I wash way too much. You should see my hands 😢

Hehe. That seems to be exactly what’s going on here. IMO if you eye a chair that you want, and you watch it for an hour or so (like you have nothing else to do) and you see it’s still empty, complain and ask an attendant (?) to remove their stuff. We all have our different opinions on what is an acceptable time limit. “Be right back” from breakfast for me is probably less than 20 minutes which is acceptable to you, but not to others!

But what if I go to the washroom and then to the bar and the bartender has to make a complicated drink, like a mojito with Splenda and he/she has to go search for the Splenda. Is it my fault that I was gone for 16 minutes?

Totally agree with you about Carnival. Nor have I travelled with them. In fact the above photo reminded of a “beach club” in Vegas — one and done. But as both Curler Rob and I mentioned above, some pax would put up with 1 hour, some 30 minutes, others 15. How does Viking come up with a time limit that would cater to all?

We posted the arbitrary comment at the same time and you get my point. Although I have never used a sea facing lounger, it struck me during this conversation that it would be on my way to get my morning coffee and I don’t travel lightly — kindle, iPad, phone, etc. 😊

The time limit seems rather arbitrary. According to the photo above, Carnival says 40 minutes, duquephart says 30 minutes, you say 15. So no matter what would be mandated, nobody would be happy.

Ok, I can definitely grab breakfast in less than 30 minutes in the World Cafe and be right back. Or lunch in the WC or Pool Grill in less than 30 minutes.

Just curious. By these definitions, is one allowed to throw their stuff on a sea facing lounger, go to the World Cafe, grab a cappuccino in a cardboard cup and head back to the chair? Or should one take all their stuff with them to the WC to grab the morning coffee? Would this qualify as “grabbing a drink”. Just wondering 😊

I am saying that I have never heard of anyone paying more for a cabin for the perk of early booking. In most cases it costs substantially more and it just wouldn’t make sense. I would think that most people would book their cabin based on size, location and price. In regards to your opinion about Viking being discriminatory, I can’t think of a cruise line that is less so. I can guarantee you that once you board a Viking ship, everyone is treated the same no matter what your cabin category. That is probably what we like most about Viking!

Personally, I have never heard of anyone booking a more expensive cabin so they have more excursion choices. We always book a PS1 or PS2 (with one exception) because we like to be close to the Explorers' Lounge and we like to have more room (and no, we're not noisy chair hogs - lol). And, we usually book private tours.

Which is precisely why we cancelled the cruise. In this case, it cost us nothing to do so.

Respectfully Andy, I have to take issue with this. We have never had to pay for a flight 2 years in advance. We currently have 3 cruises booked with Viking. We were going to book the Grand Pacific Explorer for September 2024. Full payment is (was) due December 2022 — 22 months in advance! For us, Viking’s terms are becoming unacceptable for many of their most popular voyages.

I’m sorry, but could you elaborate on this? I’m confused.

Very nicely worded UWD. You are right in feeling that you and your wife felt safe that you hadn’t tested positive at a moment in time, and granted, you were on a very long WC. Our experience in May was quite different. No, we didn’t test positive. But we twice experienced our tests being labelled with other passengers’ names. We told guest relations about it and we were still allowed to continue with our day’s activities. We could have been infected and still socializing with others. We heard of several other people this had happened to. We also talked to two couples whose spouses thought they might have come into contact (coughing, etc) with Covid, so the other spouse did spittings into both tubes to avoid the possibility of quarantine. In an environment such as a cruise ship, these tests are only safe if they are proctored.

We stayed in a PV1 on deck 6 on Jupiter this past May. I would just caution you not to get one under the wings of the World Cafe. There was no noise at all, but you can’t get good photos from your balcony.

For our trip from Oslo to Bergen on May 4th of this year, we were able to book comfort class on February 2nd through vy.no and we were also able to get the seats we wanted. In fact, I checked back often, and for a few weeks, we were the only people in that car. I don’t think you will have any problem.

We booked the train from Oslo to Bergen for our trip last May on vy.no. The main reason we did that, is because you can’t choose your own seats on rail ninja and we wanted to be facing forward.

I have done a bit of research and have found out there is a train from Porto Marghera that takes you across the Ponte della Liberta into Venice. It takes about 7 minutes to Venezia S. Lucia. I couldn't find a ferry schedule from Port Marghera, but I have read there is one -- I'm beginning to have my doubts. However, there is a ferry from Venezia S. Lucia to St. Marks Square.

Fieldofdreams this could be a moot topic. From what I understand, Viking is currently docking in Ravenna -- about 2+ hours away from Venice by bus. We spent several days in Venice independently a few years ago and for us it's not worth a long bus ride to return. We are doing a b2b, so we will be in Venice overnight and will probably explore other options via train -- possibly Bologna or Rimini. But if you or anyone else has anything to add to this, that would be helpful. 🙂

For anyone who has docked in Maghera, is there a ferry to the islands of Murano and Burano? We have been to Venice and would like to explore the outer islands on our next trip. If not, is there a train from Maghera to the Santa Lucia station where we could catch a water taxi or a ferry to the islands?

Possibly you missed this thread that Andy started.

You are indeed correct. Where I live, we’re happy to greet 378 guests from Viking Octantis.

Wow! We missed Bornholm too, on a V cruise several years ago. It didn’t occur to us to ask for compensation. We were enjoying the cruise so much, we didn’t even care! Lesson learned for next time — if we remember to ask for it. 😎😎