Iloveketo

We always use Viking Air+. My husband deals with all the specifics. He had flights home that he liked and even upgraded with United. Then UNITED switched our flights home, which my husband hated and United didn’t refund the upgraded seats or carry them over. He has a complaint in with United, but United said it could take 30 days to get an answer. Viking Air+ helped him arrange better flights, but he has to deal with United regarding the upgrade. Who knows if by the time my husband gets an answer there will be any upgrades available. He will never fly United again if at all possible!
Flying is always the absolute worst part of any trip!

As far a the food goes… you can start out with the same quality, but if you overcook something you can ruin it. 
Since we left on December 21 for the Caribbean and we were only home 1 day before heading to the west coast to get on the next cruise, which we disembarked on February 5th, I think, it seemed like we were gone forever. We both decided that our limit for being on vacation was 30 days. I knew this about myself, but my husband had been gently pushing for a world cruise. Now, he isn’t! Yay!

We have never done Chicago.

We did our first cruise ever on any cruise in January of 2020 on Viking for their Turquoise Caribbean cruise and loved it!

Since then we did Viking’s West Indies Explore in December of 2021. It was so nice! Then 3 days after disembarking from that ship we embarked on the Viking Orion for a 33 day Fr. Polynesian cruise. Wow! What a great cruise even with more sea days than port days! Loved it!

Ships are very similar, but a few like the Orion have a planetarium on the second floor of the Explorer’s lounge. 
Menus are basically the same on every ship… that being said the beef on the Orion was a little better than our first two cruises, but the poultry was too over cooked, in my opinion. 
The service has always been wonderful!

Our next cruise starts in 69 days with a pre in Chicago! Then we embark the Octantis in Milwaukee and head to Georgian Bay! I’m so excited! We disembark in Thunder Bay. I hope we love the expedition ship as much as we do their ocean ships. Fingers crossed!

We canceled a trip recently for personal reasons, not COVID, but made sure to do it before the 120 days. That way it only costs us $100 each and we got our full refund of travel insurance, which BTW was Allianz. 
Viking is very clear on their rules. We just kept the rules with each booking that they applied to due to when we booked them. 
Sorry you lost so much money. This can be a very confusing time.