Iloveketo

Don’t cancel! I would be very surprised if you don’t love it. We have only done Viking so I don’t know if I should give advice. Watch some YouTube videos about Viking Ocean. I find them pretty accurate. Our first cruise ever was January of 2020 to the Caribbean. I was concerned with some of the people commenting on FB, so I quit the Viking FB sites and had a marvelous cruise. We booked another for February of 2021… ended up doing it in December (West Indies Explorer). Loved it! Booked one embarking 3 days after disembarking the December one for a 33 day French Polynesian cruise. Loved it even with so many sea days. We were never bored! During both theses cruises the itineraries changed somewhat, but Viking always did their very best to make the best of any situation! We enjoy the music in the living room and also during tea in the Wintergarden. Oh, and I shouldn’t forget the music in the Explorer’s lounge. We fall asleep too early for Torshaven. Lol We love the spa, we love all the different dining options, we love the hot tubs and pools. Oops forgot that my husband went to medical for a ear problem in December and the again on the next cruise in January and he was very pleased with the medical staff. We did a Great Lakes Viking Expedition cruise in May. We prefer the slightly larger Viking ocean ship with just a little more music available. Also, we like having the main pool and the infinity pool rather than small pool on the Octantis. The service has been exceptional on all our cruises! Anyway, we are leaving November 1st to do a Mediterranean cruise with Viking. January will be a Panama Canal and Caribbean, then Northern Lights in March and next September NYC to Montreal. No complaints from us! We love Viking! Hope to see you onboard a Viking ship someday. 😀

Did you book with a private tour company or have you been able to book with Viking already?

You are the only other person besides me that has admitted to skipping or even thinking about skipping Manfredi’s! On an Expedition cruise on the Great Lakes in May we canceled Manfredi’s because the World Cafe had incredible surf and turf for dinner. Too bad about your allergies, we love the experience of the Chefs table. Thanks for your review!

We aren’t worried about our cruise on the Iconic Western Mediterranean in November or the Northern Lights in March, but we are going to do the Panama Canal and Central America in January where jungle and river excursions might present health issues. Also, planning on booking South America with a transatlantic to West Africa and then Barcelona. We figure better safe than sorry.

We are getting our Bivalent booster tomorrow! We leave for our first cruise to the Iconic Western Mediterranean 4 weeks later with a pre and a post with Viking. We are so excited! It will be our 4 cruise with Viking since the restart. Our second since the end of daily test. Mixed feelings about that, but we will be as careful as possible and just deal with whatever happens. So glad to see people getting the boosters! Enjoy your travels!

Thanks for your reply! This morning I did a test pack with my waterproof/wind proof pants added to my clothes. Everything still fits! Only 14.4 pounds! I just left our an extra bathing suit and coverup. I figure the pants were more important than an extra bathing suit. Coming from upset NY I will already be wearing my heavy outer gear. Not something people coming from warm climates will be doing. There are advantages coming from a snow-belt. Lol

Did you feel you needed snow pants/waterproof pants? We have heavy wool sock and either merino wool or Columbia’s insulated leggings to wear under our pants. Thanks

We are going in mid-March too. I wonder what March will be like, also… We live in upstate NY, so hopefully we will be able to deal with the cold… Enjoy your cruise!

I quit all my Viking FB groups because there is always someone being snarky about something! So far so good with Cruise Critics! I am surprised that this subject especially has been so friendly… We have done 3 cruises since the restart and so far so good doing many of the things mentioned in your post and others. Stay healthy and enjoy your travels!

You sound like us! We are fine going on the Ocean or Expedition ships where you can socially distance somewhat… BTW In December we went to San Juan for the first time (West Indies Explorer) and fell in love with it! Stay healthy!

You have my sympathy… We ran into similar attitudes on the cruises we took in December and especially on on French Polynesian cruise in January. We were very fortunate not to contract anything.

Thanks for your review! We are doing this in early January. I would love to do the Cave Tubing. Hope it isn’t SOLD OUT by the time I can book excursions! Fingers crossed!

Thanks! Enjoy any travels you have, too!

Depending on what my doctor says, we may have a Passport Health office not too far from us. Thanks for the response!

We don’t leave for a month still, so I don’t know about getting any of the SOLD OUT ones when we get onboard… My husband booked a post in Barcelona, so we booked the excursions we really wanted with Viator. We have never used a tour company before. I would be nervous about using it while on the cruise in case something happened and we missed getting back on in time. But since we will be staying and entire day extra… we thought we would try.

Of course we are checking with our doctor, but I wondering what others have done when traveling to Central America, South America and the West coast of Africa. We plan to take insect repellent, but not sure what vaccinations or prophylactic meds would be smart to have. Thanks for any serious responses.

Too expensive for us, also!

For me the biggest advantage in booking a higher cabin category is being able to book excursions sooner. DV and V cabin categories might only be able to book the included one at each port. Our cruise next month was totally SOLD OUT of all the non included Barcelona excursions by the time we were able to book anything being a DV category this cruise. So, for our Northern Lights cruise in March we moved up to PV to hopefully get a better choice of excursions.