auntieS

Sydney extension $900. Best of Australia $5300 (I think reasonable for what is included compared with a full land tour I did with another operator (and we didn’t stay at Sails in the Desert nor fancy hotel in Melbourne), given some usual upcharge by Viking). If they made a mistake perhaps they should offer you something but the Best extension no way could be done for only $900. If they jacked up price from $5300 to $9700 then that’s unreasonable, unless it includes business air in which case it’s a good price!

We did Istanbul pre cruise extension so logistics slightly different but you get guided tour inside Blue Mosque, skip the line access and guided tour inside Basilica Cistern, Bosporus cruise with lunch nicely relaxing and tasty, rug demo interesting but will need to escape when salesmen swarm your group at the end of demo ( we didn’t, but if you’re actually in the market for rug, prices seemed reasonable and of course negotiable). You have time after for Grand Bazaar on your own. Our tour regrouped for late afternoon/early evening tour of Hagia Sophia, which doesn’t sound like it’s included in your tour. Pros of later visit to HS: less crowded (still crowded but less). If long line is waiting for mosque to reopen after prayers, the line moves pretty quickly once it does (do not waste time detouring to the bathrooms as you near the entrance!). Cons of late visit: shorter time between prayers and they aggressively shoo women out of the main space once prayers start (our guide was good in standing our ground until we were able to get a quick look around and pictures), light (or lack of) made pictures of dome difficult. We were at the Conrad hotel which was really nice (great breakfast buffet included, great weekend dinner buffet not included, nice rooftop restaurant with views) but far from Sultanahmet area and no convenient public transportation. We always ate at hotel but there is park “in front “ of hotel ( area quite hilly) and neighborhood street with shops and restaurants beyond the park. Yes, mosques have loaner head coverings but better to bring your own—depending on your cruise itinerary you could buy one at an earlier port visit (my sister bought hers afterwards in Rhodes where she could pay in euros and didn’t have to haggle 😄 ). Our guide gave us bags so we could carry our shoes in the mosques, instead of leaving them at the entrance (we had packed our own just in case). Our included port excursion “Istanbul Majestic Waterway “ was not exactly the same but similar to the extension day, so we skipped the excursion (walked around Galataport a bit).

Did Ancient Med Treasures with Classic Greece extension in Oct. You walk on mostly wooden walkways around ruins at Troy, some with several stairs to get up to the walkway (I think there was a wooden lookout with alot of stairs but I didn't do that). Our group had a lady using a rollator, but still able to walk/climb stairs on her own--her husband and my sister carried her rollator up and down while she took the stairs herself, then used her rollator on the walkways. If you can manage ~4-12 stairs (with guardrails), albeit slowly, then you should be able to do this tour. Remember, you will have Whisper sound system, so you can still hear your guide even if you're a bit behind. Mycenae had mostly concrete mildly winding/rolling walkways around the ruins. Our guide finished her talk at the largish open space and then we had some free time to explore the rest of the ruins, so you can decide how far you want to venture before heading back to the bus. I can't remember the walk from bus to theater at Epidaurus, but once there, you can just stay at ground level to view the theater around you. "Demanding" in this case mainly refers to if you want to climb (stone stairs) up into the theater. There is a mezzanine level so you can go half way and walk around; all the way to the top; or just a few rows up and rest on the stone seats, your choice! Bon Voyage!

I think “regular/included “ Viking Air only has so many seats with their contracted airlines (seems to mostly be Star Alliance?) in each available cabin class. If you bought Viking Air Plus ( now $100 pp) then you can work with the Viking Air rep to book “any” airline routing you would like (or the rep has access to “all “ available airline routings). If not with their contracted airlines, then you pay “market “ rate or maybe a small discount, but you get the protections and benefits of Viking Air (if flight delays and airport transfers, respectively). Air Plus is a bit of roll of the dice cause you might have gotten the same routing from “free” Air but don’t know until you’re ticketed. Air Plus does let you purchase your air quite a bit earlier than you would know if waiting for regular Air. Finally only the transoceanic leg is “guaranteed “ in your purchased cabin class. Domestic could be in economy (even if premium available domestically and you purchased business for international flight. Don’t assume the rep is correct if they say you’ll be in PE for the domestic leg! Once booked, you can check on the airlines own website). Or do your own air, especially if you build in extra day/ time before/after your cruise. Bon Voyage!

My widowed sister was able to substitute me for her late husband on their planned cruise and apply “his “ voucher towards her fare on a future cruise. I paid/am paying my own share to travel with her. Vouchers do have an expiration date ( must book future cruise by). I assume if funds were originally for 2 travelers then they can only be applied to 2 travelers when rebooking. Upgrade your cabin. Purchase Viking Air and upgrade your cabin class. Book a Viking pre/post extension. I believe all of these options can utilize more of your voucher value. Not sure about pre paying for premium shore excursions , spa treatments or Silver Spirits beverage package? My condolences on your loss. It’s very kind of you to share your vouchers with your sister! Good luck optimizing their value; I’m sure your husband would want you to treat yourself to some splurges!

Leaving for Ancient Med Treasures (pre extension Istanbul) tomorrow! Anyone ever register their cruise trips with STEP? We have cruise/ pre and post (Athens 4 day) extensions/air/travel insurance all with Viking. Not really worried about regional conflict affecting our cruise directly, and assume we would be taken care of by Viking if escalates and does affect our itinerary, but...worth registering just in case?

No, ETIAS Won't Become Operational in 2024, EU Sources Say - SchengenVisaInfo.com Rick Steves forum and other news sites quoting above now say May 2025 😄 Don't think official confirmation from .eu yet though.

More experienced cruisers, please correct me if my info is wrong for eddieg: Viking, with "smaller" cruise ships, is docking at Chioggia or Fusina, which are still closer to Venice, compared with Trieste or Ravenna, where some of the large ships are docking! Agree with posters above, if you really want to explore Venice in depth, you'll want to do an extension (on own more cost savvy; but Viking does offer extension in Venice with hotel and all transfers included!) Just saying, don't pick your cruise line based only on the included time in Venice (all of them will have travel time for included excursions, and Venice <--> cruise-port logistics to figure out if you do a pre/post extension)...Bon Voyage!

Whoops! Excuse me Heidi13, I missed your post further up, with Canadian link which would be more directly helpful for Wendylet! Thanks Katlew, yes to clarify my first post, the Australian ETA is good for 12 mo (multiple entries), but you can only stay in Australia for 3 mo at a time. Trevelingwithstyle, entry requirements to other countries for US citizens can be found through travel.state.gov as I detailed above. For NZ you are directed to Information about NZeTA: New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority | Immigration New Zealand . US is visa waiver country so you don't need a visa but you do need a NZeTA. They push you towards the $17 NZD phone app but you can do the $23 online application if you really want. Buried in the online application is info about additional $35 International Visitor Levy (for conservation and tourism infrastructure) which is paid with your NZeTA, so at least $52 NZD total?

Just checked MVJ for my own upcoming cruise--looks like the Travel Requirements info is boilerplate instead of specific to each cruise and the Guest Docs/Visa info not very helpful (directs you to their 3rd party visa service, but doesn't actually mention which visas needed for your specific cruise.) That said, we did receive separate mail/email (my sis is taking care of our stuff) that did give specific info for the visa needed for our cruise. The boilerplate flyer for Travel Requirements does say that even though Australia (country as a whole) doesn't require testing, that some Australian states are still requiring pre cruise testing (I've found Viking not that up to date about certain things, so you may want to look at updated "official" websites separate from Viking.) In any case, the flyer says you can take a self antigen test, as long as you can document when you took it (within 24 hrs of your embarkation. Oops, this may be more applicable to you: if you arrive in Australia already on your cruise, Viking will arrange testing.) Ask your TA/Viking agent if this testing will still be required by the time of your cruise?

Most if not all countries have dropped testing and vaccination requirements, including Australia. COVID-19 and travel | Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care Travelling to Australia | COVID-19 information | Qantas Many tour companies/cruise lines are dropping testing and vaccination requirements, including Viking. Viking Health & Safety Program (vikingrivercruises.com) It's getting harder to find info about Covid requirements, because there aren't any more, but if you google "country X covid entry requirements" or similar, then look for an official site (.gov, .uk, .eu, .au, etc) that should be most accurate. I also use the country's "national" airline website for entry requirements. Not sure if there's a Canadian equivalent, but I also use travel.state.gov -> international travel -> learn about destination -> type in country -> country info inc entry/visa requirements and health requirements (remember this site gives travel visa requirements for US citizens, but usually lists links to the other country's official sites where you can hopefully find info for your country. I see Indonesia info on this site, but I'll let you explore further on your own :-) Viking should be sending you visa info as well, including their 3rd party visa service if applicable and you choose to use instead of doing yourself (the Australia e-visa is "easy" (the hardest part was taking my self photo) and I think e-visa was the only way to get the "regular traveler" visa. If you don't have any hotel nights in country X, I guess you use the Viking cruise local office/port(?) address if asked, but check with Viking on that! (My Australia trip was a land tour.)) I would still "bring" your vaccination card (or phone/paper copy) even if "not required". Enjoy!

The Australia ETA application is phone app based (at least for US), so you'll have your approved ETA on your phone, but they also recommend printing a copy. It was $20 USD and good for a year, so add some time in Sydney/Australia after your cruise if you can! Bon Voyage!

I wear trail runners, look like and double as sneakers, but better grip more like hiking boots, but not as heavy (just like running shoes, you can find quite light trail runners too.) I usually get mine at REI. Also doing Turkey/Greece cruise in Oct! Read that ancient sites can have quite slippery pavements. Yes on bringing hiking poles too! Bon Voyage!

Bumping this thread back up since I found it super helpful! But my question is for anyone who's done both the Istanbul extension and included excursion: is the extension Bosphorus cruise pretty much the same as the excursion cruise (the extension includes lunch, but do you sail by the same sites on the excursion)? If yes, I'm thinking of skipping a repeat cruise and walking Galata Bridge (maybe, see next paragraph) to Galataport, explore there a bit, then return to ship (I realize another long walk through the terminal!) Can anyone confirm that Bosphorus day cruises will be (Oct) departing from the "New Town" side, instead of the "Old Town" side? (I thought I bumbled upon an article during my research, saying the dock location was changing, but can't find it again.) Finally, can you walk on the pier all the way from Galata Bridge (or the day cruise dock) to Galataport? Thanks!

1. Can you walk all the way from Galata Bridge along the pedestrian pier to Galataport cruise terminal? Looks like it's a mile plus? 2. I think you then turn behind the dockside buildings, just past the Museum of Painting and Sculpture, to the "D Block cruise Terminal Lobby"? Once you enter the Terminal Lobby, the path looks well signed? (I've looked at Galataport.com and YouTube videos but hoping to confirm with any cruisers who have walked back to their ship, thanks!)

Usual lurker here. I know Clay is a Viking aficionado and must have attended plenty of their enrichment lectures, so has an idea of what makes an engaging lecturer or not. I'm assuming you're an architect by trade, and not a college prof of architecture? Have you given lectures (community/college, local senior center, etc) or architecture tours? I've been watching a bunch of Great Courses (I like history, travel, architecture, all of which you could weave together.) Going on my first VO this fall, but I would guess the audience ranges from people with zero background knowledge, to those who maybe took art history in college, to experts/well traveled enough to have picked up a lot of knowledge, and appealing to them all. Good Luck!

Doesn't sound like you've booked the cruise yet? I realize it could be redundant for you and relatively expensive for this trip, but given your cruise cost vs gravity of your granddaughter's condition, why not buy a stand alone full trip insurance policy from Viking or 3rd party, just for this particular cruise?

Krazy4Kruisin' , I do as Capt_BJ says (Verizon travel pass), but have recently figured out wifi calls on WhatsApp. Since you already do that, why not just use the chat feature on WhatsApp to text your daughters (assuming everyone's on WA)?

To elaborate on cruisemom42's first point, your planned 2025 dates will be after Ramadan, but for anyone thinking of spring 2024 late Mar/early Apr, will be during Ramadan. I thought this was interesting and helpful, especially the part about restaurants being crowded after sunset: Istanbul during Ramadan (2023 Guide + Best Areas, Festivities, Hotels) (istanbeautiful.com)

For Paris, I recommend Rick Steves guidebook (sites, dining, self guided walks, etc!) and/or website including their very active travel forum! For this cruise: as Americans, we did the US tour of Normandy beaches, which was very moving. But if you have any interest in viewing the Bayeux Tapestry, the Commonwealth tour also includes the Tapestry Museum (the Tapestry will be loaned to the UK in ~2024 while the Tapestry Museum undergoes renovations.)

Going on my first OAT (non cruise) tour soon! Never sailed with GCT/OAT, but get a lot of brochures! I believe they own some and charter some ships, so you may have to internet dig a bit for ship info: Grand Circle River Harmony Cruise: Expert Review (2023) (cruisecritic.com)

We did Viking Danube in April and went to Szenchenyi Baths. Our tour was combined with another Viking ship group (we were ending; they were starting.) Our cruise director put together bags (we got to keep the bags) with towels, robes and slippers. The other ship's group only got towels. May not matter as much in June, but the robes were great for walking to/from the outdoor pools, and we could keep our towels dry for changing later. Fabric slippers not helpful (we left them in our cabin to take home later); bring your own waterproof flip flops! (If CD doesn't provide robe for Baths, or you just want robes and slippers for during your cruise, you can ask your cabin steward for them!)