longterm

We grew up in the South as well (Louisiana), where properly-cooked grits are an excellent part of a breakfast. They weren't on the menu last time we did an ocean cruise though; sadly, too many non-southern restaurants make watery grits, which is awful. For me, jalapeño cheese grits and a pair of eggs over easy makes for a great meal; at home, I put freshly-cooked grits in a bowl, then fry a pair of eggs and lay them on top of the grits. There was a little diner in Nashville where you could pop in and get that to go. True Southern food.

I don't drink decaf, but I do remember that the regular brew were black, which I think is ristretto, a fairly dark bean. I did bring my own (Roma) and plan to pack my portable Nespresso for our upcoming river cruise, where the only espresso to be had is in the bar (the Nespresso machine they have uses powdered coffee).

Not at all; we always book excursions on the day they're available so that we can get what we want. We have an upcoming river cruise in October, and have had those excursions booked for about 2 months.

The smarter reps realize that when a company resolves things in a good manner, like what eventually happened with us and you, it pays in the long run when we tell others about it. After things resolved amicably, I was once more a Viking fan, and we've gone on more cruises and have 3 more booked in the future.

I have ALWAYS had to pay for excursions to secure the bookings. If you don't, you haven't actually booked the excursion.

In addition to some onboard credits that you'll be offered, your final payment date will probably b e pushed back significantly. On our upcoming cruise in mid-2024, we don't have to make our final payment until January 2024 (6 months out), rather than more than a year away.

That seems so strange... we've always had cabin assignments far in advance of our cruises. In fact, we have the British Isles Explorer cruise in July 2024, already have our cabin assignment (it's listed in our guest statement). We have a river cruise in October, and we have our room for that cruise as well, and it's sold out. Does it have something to do with how the cruise is booked? I've always booked them either onboard a cruise or on the Viking site, then I transfer them to my TA afterwards.

I was paying with a card, so there was no discount.

I didn't have the option either, but they accepted a payment over the phone.

I don't believe this is the case; we're using a TA, and made our balance payment on an upcoming river cruise directly with Viking. I could of course be wrong... I think I was wrong before, but I may be mistaken.

I am so happy for you; I know any number of booking agents in Nashville who have the same ego walls. While I have never wanted to be a “star, “I’ve played behind Grammy artists literally thousands of times, have recorded on albums for Grammy award-winning artists; I’m so pleased that you have gold-record plaques on your wall; if you’re running low, there are lots of companies in Nashville that sell them cut-rate. Enjoy your cruise!

No, but someone who smokes cigars could give a crap about their own health. I have been traveling professionally, since I was about 20 years old, I’ve played concerts on five continents. I don’t expect airlines, cruise ships, or hotels to provide the things I need; I’ll bring them with me. I do live in Texas, but I lived in Nashville for 34 years and toured with world-class artists; I watch out for the crazies, both here in this godforsaken state, and on cruise ships as well.

I forgot to mention the “flamingo dancers” mentioned by this “music business executive.” I assume they were wearing huge feather headdresses and looked like flamingoes… As opposed to FLAMENCO dancers, who, uh, do not. (from someone who really DID spend more than 40 years in the music business and who played in most of the largest casinos in Las Vegas). 😂😂😂

This is the kind of traveler that cruise lines should probably pay to stay home. Extension cord: I carry one with me, along with a small 3-to-1 splitter so that I can plug in multiple devices. A "seasoned traveler" should bring what he needs and not expect a cruise ship to provide things like extension cords. CPAP user and cigar smoker? Good thinking.

We went on the Viking Caribbean cruise (10 or 11 days, don't recall) in December 2021, a trip that was twice postponed due to Covid. Although masking and testing were still mandatory at that time, we had a great time; anyone traveling to the Caribbean should expect to see abject poverty, because that's just the way it is on many of those islands. We enjoyed our time on the beaches there, but the excursions into most of the towns were disappointing, only because there's not much to see. On one, the guide pointed out the electric company... not much of note to show us, so that's what we were shown. Our best excursion was on St. Lucia, when we got off the ship and started walking into town, met a driver, who took us on a private excursion for a few hours up to see the bubbling lava pits of the extinct volcano on that island--well worth the trip. Because we were on our own, we did what we wanted and had a great day there. We bailed on our Panama Canal trip, which was booked for March, because of the preponderance of sea days; just didn't make sense, given the cost of the trip--plus, the remaining port days, other than the Canal, just didn't seem to offer much. We decided that, if we want to spend time on the beach, which we really enjoy, we'll simply do a weeklong trip to Cancun every year and get our time that way, and choose Viking trips to other destinations, like a river cruise this fall, the British Isles next year, and Australia/New Zealand/Indonesia in 2025.

We were in the Adriatic cruise last year (Rome to Athens) and did the tour of the Olympia site. I don't recall ever being offered tickets to the museum; we had a guided tour of the site, then had about an hour or so on our own--even though it was late March, it was very cold, so some of the guests ended up going straight back to the bus, while I continued to look at the site. It was one of my favorite excursions that we took. We also went to Magna Grecia, which is a farm where olives and grapes are grown; although the time there was clearly designed for us to leave money with the farm, we enjoyed our time there and came home with some oil from the farm. There was a brief presentation on pressing olives, then a light lunch (which I enjoyed), and some Greek dancing--very touristy and not for everyone, but despite my usual disdain for touristy stops, I enjoyed it. Would I do that tour again? Absolutely; well worth the stop.

We took an Uber, if I recall; to get from the hotel to the ship, we used a driver that was recommended by the hotel, and who was excellent.

We were in Cancun recently, and I wanted to tip our housekeeper, who had been doing our room all week; we'd been giving her small tips almost every day. It was 5:30pm on the last day, she was in the hallway, and all I had was a US $20. My wife and I looked at each other, and I went down the hall to the housekeeper and handed her the $20. Her face lit up like it was Christmas, and I realized that I'd probably just given her more than she made that day in hourly wages. Honestly, it made my week; such a little thing in our world and such a huge thing in hers. If I can find happiness that easily, I'm going to keep it up.

We had a situation in 2020 that very nearly went as badly as the OP's unfortunately story. We wanted to try a Viking ocean cruise, after enjoying a river cruise, but we'd never done any cruising, so I selected the shortest/cheapest cruise that Viking had, which was a 5-day trip into the Caribbean. Our departure date was February 2020. The day before we were to leave, I got an email telling me that they'd oversold the cruise, and we were offered a choice of 2 or 3 alternate cruises, plus $1500, plus upgrade to a suite instead of a Veranda stateroom. Since Covid had yet to become catastrophic, and since we had a flexible schedule, and since it was such a good deal, I went for it. We were given an 11-day cruise (West Indies Explorer) in a junior penthouse, for December 2020. Then Covid. So our cruise was canceled; I called to find out when it would be rescheduled, and was told that we would get a credit for what we'd actually paid, not the value of the upgraded cruise. I was not pleased. I explained that we'd deferred our trip, could have gone that February, but didn't because we were given such a good deal. I went through 3 reps on the phone, and got more irritated with each new and useless Viking rep. Finally, the 3rd one mentioned that the "move-over" department handles these upgrade offers, and that I might get better help from them. She gave me an email address, I sent a plaintive email, got a quick response telling me that they would honor their deal for a future cruise, but I only got ONE shot at it--if the subsequent cruise didn't happen, all bets were off. So I scheduled us to go in December 2021, hoping that it was far enough in the future that a 2nd Covid cancellation wouldn't happen. Luckily, we went on the cruise, enjoyed it immensely, got our suite (had already gotten the $1500), and I was restored to being a loyal Viking customer. The lessons for me were these: 1. Keep an eagle eye on reservations; check on MVJ almost daily to make sure things are still as they should be. This includes excursions (we had one cancel in Venice last March, the day before). 2. Don't give up on getting resolution. Call as many times as it takes to get escalated to someone who actually knows something, because some of the phone reps are woefully short on reliable information or assistance. 3. Use a TA. We didn't have a TA for that cruise but we use one all the time now. Haven't had to use him for any heavy lifting, but you never know... 4. Keep every email, make notes on every phone conversation, get the name of the rep you speak to EVERY time and note it in your trip notes.

I don't know what ship employees make, but I would guess that other than the engineering personnel, I'm guessing it's not great money. Compared to what they might make in their home countries, I'm sure it's considered by them to be wonderful pay, but by our standards, it's probably pretty skimpy. This, combined with the fact that they do 6-month stints and live in tiny cabins (4 to a cabin I'm guessing), prompts me to be generous with them. My wife and I have a maxim that we live by; we both worked hard for everything we have, both from families whose parents had no money to leave their kids. We have a great life, are able to take these wonderful cruises, and like to pay it foward. We live by this, which I read somewhere many years ago: "Never pass up the impulse to be generous."

Appear to whom, I'm wondering... no one would know, but you'd know. Personally, your idea sounds good, but what we usually do is to pay the prepaid gratuity, then we always tip our room steward directly on each trip. The same could be applied when you have particularly good service in one of the restaurants; I would discreetly hand money to the server.

Congratulations! Such a great trip, you'll have a blast. If you like walking, you might contact Marisa at toursbylocals.com; not only was she extremely nice, but she's an expert on Rome--she pointed out areas in the Roman Forum where she'd been part of a dig as an archaeology student. She likes to walk though! There were a few things we didn't get to; I wish we'd seen the Appian Way, the aqueduct there, the Spanish Steps (although I understand it's usually crowded); we walked around Trastavere, but by the time we got there I was totally exhausted, so we probably missed a lot. If you don't mind walking or heights, be sure to go on the wall walk in Dubrovnik; I'm really scared of heights but did it anyway somehow, and it's one of my favorite memories. Also, be sure to find time for lunch in Dubrovnik and Split; in Dubovnik, after walking the wall, we were wandering down the main street inside the walled city, and looked down an alley to the right, and saw a cafe called Proto, where I had the best fish I've ever had. As we were leaving, having asked about a place to buy local olive oil, the waiter handed me a new jar of their own bottled olive oil, which we still have. In Split, there are cafes along the promenade facing the water; we wandered into one for lunch and had an excellent meal there. If you stay at the Intercontinental in Athens, ask about the little Greek restaurant about a block away; unfortunately, the restaurant in the hotel is overly expensive and not so hot; we only had dinner there once and were disappointed. I think it was in Bari Italy that we wandered into a shop called Silk and Silky, ended up buying a really exquisite silk rug--they're good salesmen, that's for sure. Saw us coming a mile away. But the rugs are beautiful, and we don't regret our purchase. We didn't see the waterfalls near Split, but were told they were magnificent; our time in the town was really nice though. Trying to think of other highlights... there were so many. You'll have an incredible trip!

My suggestion as well! We took that cruise in December 2021, after 2 postponements (one when they oversold our original cruise, the second due to Covid). The temperature at that time of year is perfect; we were in shorts and shirtsleeves the entire time, and had a great trip.

Found the link: https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/caribbean-americas/atlantic-crossing/index.html Thanks!

I'd be concerned about being able to get off the ship by that time though; I was thinking we may have to plan to do an 11:45am train, which, since daylight is so long, wouldn't be a problem. Right now we're still planning to duplicate the post extension that Viking offers, but with our own train reservations. If someone has a compelling argument in favor of doing the Norway in a Nutshell trip instead, I'd definitely be interested in hearing. We're not going until July 4, 2024, so we have plenty of time to get things booked.