Pappri

Not hard. We got everything we wanted, You have to do your research, rank the excursions you want the most and sign up for them first. Sign up as soon as the booking period opens (down to the minute it opens). After getting the ones you want the most, book the rest of your optional excursions, then you can go back and sign up for any included tours you want. If you start from day one and go sequentially through the days you’ll find that some of the optional excursions will be sold out. A spread sheet like @Penspack created for this WC made the ranking a breeze.

They’re the 8th and 9th, and we’re the 5th and 6th. My fingers and toes calculated the original 3 days apart. Plus I have a “our bus broke down in Dakar story”

Brooke.williams@viking.com. The Viking “system” doesn’t work well with longer cruises like the WC. In the “system”, the pre-cruise non-refundable credits get applied to the most expensive excursions first. Every time you schedule a new excursion, the “system” re-shuffles the credits to the most expensive first. So when we cancel the most expensive excursion (in our case the Indian Overland) the “system” returns non-refundable credit. She says it just takes someone knowledgeable to manually work it out. It took us nearly 4 weeks until we found Brooke and her knowledge working through all the other unhelpful, condescending, unknowledgeable knuckle heads until we finally got to her desk. She understands that the WC’ers are in a special circumstance that requires special manipulation of the “system”. Now it does require trust because she can’t balance out until post cruise - which got me hollering BS. After she calmed me down, she sent an email that committed her and Viking to refunding our non-refundable credit for the excursion in full provided we didn’t spend it on other things. Ie. we still have to have $4998 in non-refundable credit at the end of the cruise. We still have the extra $2K that we received when we got onboard that we are using for our new excursions that came up during the new itinerary. I think accepting a Viking future credit is easier for her to approve and give without anyone else being involved then it is if you are wanting your credit card or bank account sent real cash. The credit was acceptable to us because we have future cruises already booked and this will pay for them. Like Denise, we were all set to cancel the 4 cruises we have if this hadn’t worked out for us. I know another passenger on our ship wasn’t about to settle for a voucher, and they were able to work out a cash refund (post cruise with the email promise). hope this helps other folks. Brooke is super to work with and very pleasant- most of all - knowledgeable. If you have been assigned someone else and they aren’t helping, then hang up the phone and send Brooke an email. She’s able to call your state room directly from LA - usually around 8am her time, 5pm our time.

Denise, were you able to use your credits and everything is good? If not, I can tell you what our resolution with LA was and who to speak to.

Just curious, did they pay originally and were refunded, or were they able to cancel prior to payment? Non-refundable or refundable credit issued? None of your business is also acceptable.

That is sad, I loved the sing-a-longs

Just the IPhone, I was amazed it turned out

Oh, and I HIGHLY recommend the “Scenic South Tour”, and it looks like it’s not sold out. We visited those places listed in the excursion with a guide yesterday (and a few more places with included lunch) and it was awesome. 8 hours tour around. Especially the Seven colored earths park was outstanding.

FYI, Cyclone Gamane is in Madagascar and headed for Mauritius. It’s minimal, 40mph winds, mostly a rain event. Looks like it should be far enough away for the Sky to dock on the 30th and make Reunion on the 31st. *knocking wood table and head*. Heads up Neptune. i did take this night pic of the near full moon over our room in Mauritius. First time I’ve gotten a night pic to come out true to the eye. here’s the Cyclone’s projected path: the locals aren’t worried about it in least.

Amen!!

Thank you!!

That’s the one

Sure thing

BTW - we decided in Cochin that we needed a break to clear our heads. So while the boat travels to Mauritius, we decided to fly to Mauritius and stay at the Shang ri La resort for 6 days, and pick you guys back up when you get to Port Louis on the 30th. See you then! got the whole beach to myself…

Absolutely no need to apologize, I feel the exact same way. Love the crew, the WC, and everything we’ve experienced. I will not let the LA folks ruin that, but it will ruin us for future travel. We booked 3 additional cruises on board earlier this trip (had one already booked prior) for a total of 4 at $150,000. We canceled 1 already and will probably keep canceling one at a time the longer this remains unresolved. Seems like a bad business practice for Viking corporate. DW was so frustrated one night while I was venting here, she wrote an email to Torstien’s office and cc’ed Stephanie Maldonado, head of Vikings Financial or Hotel ops (can’t remember). We just received and email from a customer service rep who said he is responding to the email (handed down from Mr. Hagen’s office). We’ll see where it goes from here. When we respond to his email, We will mention this thread to him (give him a link) so he can see the frustration and discontent they are fostering.