longterm

2 minutes ago, kctwinmommy said:

Yes it will, my husband and I both logged in, using the same user name & password, and we were both able to purchase excursions. It won't let you log in with the different user names/passwords. He would purchase one, while I was looking at the next day. We did sometimes step on each other and would end up seeing both excursions in the cart, so one of us had to back out of the cart so we could check out.

 

Again, we did this because I had read plenty of stories about excursions booking up. We had our list, went down in order of most importance, then booked. It went super well.

 

And yes, many people have commented in the past that they filled their cart, went to check out, and found that things were unavailable. Now, our cruise had very few excursions sell out after I went back to look a few days later. But plenty of other people have said that even before they could book theirs (probably in a DV cabin like us, or maybe in a V cabin), that there were many excursions sold out.

You're absolutely right--we just tested it. It wouldn't let us use our separate logins into the same MVJ, but so long as we logged in using the same login, it worked fine. Sadly, it appears now that my wife won't be available at that time, so it became a moot point for us. 😞

Our excursion booking opens up Tuesday, and I've got my list ready, have a question:

If I select some excursions, is there a chance that one or more of them could fill up before I actually submit payment for them, or are they "held" for me since I've made the selections? 

For example, if you are buying tickets to a baseball game, your seat selections are held for you for a set # of minutes, after which the seat choices are released and again made available to the public.

If anyone knows the answer, I'd appreciate the info; if selections are "held," I'll select all my excursions, then make payment; if they are NOT held, I guess I'll buy them one at a time, which will be a much bigger pain.

On 2/13/2024 at 3:13 PM, kctwinmommy said:

Three, we both logged in on 2 computers - you log into the same, one MVJ account and you can both book at the same time. 

MVJ won't let 2 users be logged into the same account; in fact, if a Viking rep wants to see your account while you're logged in, they'll require you to logout first so that they can get in and see your account.
 

We tested that a couple of days ago; I logged into MVJ, then my wife logged in. While we were both able to login, a banner on the excursions page indicated that she wouldn't be able to do anything other than to view excursions--she wouldn't be able to book anything.
 

If you were able to that then you have some special powers... 🙂

On 2/13/2024 at 3:13 PM, kctwinmommy said:

Five, we put in the cart and then checked out for each excursion instead of adding them all and waiting to do it all at once. Six, went back and then just went in order of the remaining ports to pick the included time slots we wanted.

Not sure I see any value in this, unless an excursion can fill up while it's sitting in your cart; perhaps someone can anyone confirm that this can happen.
 

4 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Dress is such a personal thing.  Today individual dress choice is even more complicated as we welcome and accept gender fluidity into our worlds.  Gender fluidity often also impacts what we wear.

 

I have said this before.  We like to dress up a bit - not formal - but a bit for dinner.  This makes us feel good.  It is about US, not you, not the crew, it is about us feeling good about ourselves.  I am of an age that we used to dress up to fly on a plane, to go to the stage theatre, and out to dinner.  I don't want to be that formal now, but still like to dress to a point that makes ME feel good about my appearance.  I do believe that dress codes of the past should remain in the past now.

 

I do think that if you are clean, and your clothes are clean, then heck, dress the way you want to to express yourself.

 

@CatalinaUK We would love to dine with you in your 40's 50's fashion.  Let them grumble.

 

We also like Viking because there are no formal nights.  I went on one cruise many years ago now with two formal nights and what a production, and for what exactly.  Never again, or if there was a formal night, then I would put on shorts and go to the buffet. 

We go often to both the Dallas and Fort Worth Symphony concerts, and it's really interesting to see what people wear these days.

Symphonies all over the country are in trouble from poor attendance; some are doing better than others, but generous donations by local people have saved symphonies. Because they are so desperate to fill the seats, to pay the salaries of their orchestras, no one is distressed to see people wearing jogging pants (yes, I've seen that), shorts, t-shirts (yep, that too), as well as women dressed to the nines in evening gowns. We tend to go somewhere in the middle--no jacket, but a nice dress shirt and slacks for me, beautiful dress on my lovely wife. 

At first I was surprised to see the disparity in clothing, but I'm glad to see people attending symphony concerts. I have lots of musician friends in Nashville who were afraid their jobs were going to go away; Nashville has an excellent symphony, due to all the world-class musicians who move there. Fortunately, some wealthy donors stepped up and made huge endowments that allowed the Nashville Symphony to continue. 

I tend to look at cruises the same way; Viking wants to keep their ships at capacity, so that they can continue to provide the best possible experience for us. If someone wants to wear casual clothes during the day, I'm fine with it; we do like to dress a little better for dinner, but I like not having to pack a dinner jacket--we're carryon people.

On 3/4/2024 at 3:52 PM, OneSixtyToOne said:

There are musicians playing as background music in many parts of the ship. I would not elevate this to the category of a performance that requires a dress code.

Exactly. Having spent my college years playing clubs and restaurants, I can say from experience that playing piano in a bar or restaurant is a millimeter higher in stature from Muzak in the PA system, and more often than not, given every bit as much respect.

On 3/7/2024 at 2:13 PM, oskidunker said:

Looking like crap makes some people happy. I cant stand the t shirt generation 

Nice.

I wear t-shirts a lot (not white ones but those I've picked up here and there on my travels), especially when I'm relaxing on board. If someone doesn't like it, they should feel free to give me wide berth, leaving more room on board for me to enjoy myself.

For dinner I wear button shirts and slacks; certainly wouldn't want to cause another traveler to get angina.

Or they can go sail Cunard.

14 hours ago, norahs-lot said:

Yes... I do get where you’re coming from. We wouldn’t sail Cunard again but thoroughly enjoyed the Literature Festival... some great guest speakers.

We would really enjoy the speakers; I have yet to talk my wife into a TA crossing, but we may try one in a couple of years... 

1 hour ago, norahs-lot said:

Avid readers? You would probably love The Literature Festival @ Sea on Cunards Queen Mary 2, a 7 night transatlantic crossing... usually November time.

I'm afraid Cunard isn't our style... we're way too casual for it. I've watched videos showing the Cunard crossings, and we both feel that it's not quite our thing. 

52 minutes ago, Hobson1754 said:

We and others we spoke to, felt that the ship was very loud and noisy, more so than the other Viking cruises we’ve been on. Especially around the bar areas - there seemed to be people shouting & talking very loud and, if the guitarist or classical duo was performing their voices were raised even more so that it was difficult to hear the entertainment. 

A few thoughts:

For the record, Torstein Hagen told USA Today that 82% of Viking's guests are from the United States; so, it would follow that most of the loud voices you'd hear would be American. Walk into any Irish pub, and you'll hear lots of loud voices, and strangely enough, almost all of them will be Irish. 🙂

Second, the bar area: back in my college days when I was a lounge musician, I played literally thousands of hours in bars--restaurant bars, dance clubs, you name it. I've also played lots of times in restaurants on solo piano. I've also played hundreds of nights in a jazz club in Austin (jazz clubs are supposed to be "listening" rooms, but this one certainly isn't).

Sometimes people listen, sometimes they drink and get noisy; it's the nature of rooms where alcohol is served. Sometimes people listen to the music, sometimes they talk so loud that they drown out the music--apparently their goal. Is it annoying to a musician or to someone trying to listen? Absolutely, but unless you're at a concert, it's just the way it is when alcohol is concerned.

I was on a Viking Caribbean cruise, sitting in the atrium talking to a friend; a woman got up and sang along with the pianist. She was mediocre at best, but because her friends wanted to hear her, they tried to shush me because I was sitting on a couch, having a polite conversation with a friend. I ignored them; it was my right to sit in the atrium and have a conversation; the atrium isn't a listening room, and I certainly didn't need to be quiet so that some maudlin barely-talented woman could belt out songs to the glee of her friends.

As someone who has been a professional musician all my life, you've managed to touch on something I've thought about countless times; in a jazz club, loud talking is considered the height of rudeness--yet some clubs, like the one in Austin, and another in Dallas, allow it to go on because they're more concerned about liquor sales than any sense of club integrity. It comes down to a club or bar setting the tone of a room; some enforce quiet conversation--or even silence--during a musical performance, some let patrons do what they want. Go into a jazz club in NYC and you'd better stay extremely quiet during a set; people are there to listen, not to talk.

On a cruise, however, the bar area is a place for passengers to mix and mingle, and the job of the musician is to provide ambient background music; it's a venue where being quiet isn't the order of the day, and shouldn't be expected. If it bothers you and you find the drunks too noisy--as I often do--the best thing to do is to avoid the bar--which is exactly what we do. 

Another thought: sometimes the musicians on cruises are so mediocre that talking over them is a gift to the people in the room; there was a cellist/violinist pair on our Med cruise that sounded like 2nd-year music students, and I couldn't bear to listen to them.

Funny thing is, when I was in college I made a living playing bars; I hated bars then and I still to now; we rarely go in the bar on Viking cruises, except in off-hours when it's quiet and sedate.

 

50 minutes ago, PRH said:

If you’re interested in the political history of Belfast, I highly recommend Tours by Locals Frank (Francis).  He is excellent, picks you up at the ship in his Mercedes van and you will see and hear far more than Viking.  Our 23 year old nephew who was with us on this cruise was blown away.  Frank lived through the Troubles and is a historian—he really does give a fairly balanced account of what happened and where things stand now.

Thanks... we did book a toursByLocals in Belfast, but with a man named Pat. 

On 2/13/2024 at 1:16 PM, Azulann said:

Every optional excursion I have taken with Viking have been well worth the money. 

Most of the optional excursions we've booked have been excellent, there have been a couple of stinkers though.

We're doing the British Isles Explorer in July, and have booked a half-dozen private tours. Having done other touring off-ship (Rick Steves, Odyssey), we've seen the same (or similar) tour guides on those tours as well. Viking clearly pulls from the same pool of local guides, though they have favorites with whom they probably contract with well in advance.

We've had great success with toursByLocals.com, and have a couple of tours scheduled with them this summer. Our toursByLocals guide in Rome (Marisa) was absolutely fantastic.

On 2/15/2024 at 12:37 PM, longterm said:

On 2/15/2024 at 10:24 AM, longterm said:

 

Also in Athens, a visit to the Plaza district is well worth a few hours.

It's "Plaka District," not Plaza (damn autocorrect).

Our excursions showed up a couple of days ago... we're now 30 days from being able to book them.

That's a good idea; I would add the name of the local guide, where applicable; that might be useful if it's a tour in a smaller place where there aren't lots of possible tour guides. Also add:

- food included

- length of tour

- time of year (the same tour can vary depending on the season)

- Viking's excursion charge per person

(Not sure why CC showed my photo 7 times... I only added it once)

What was special? Well, it's totally subjective, but my wife and I liked the guys who worked there, and bought a couple of small items that we really love.

Another thing that made that visit memorable was that we were on our tour in 2022, when Italy was just rebounding from the pandemic. At that time in Italy, cruise passengers had to be accompanied by ship tour directors, so we couldn't go off into Italian towns while we were on the cruise (we spent 5 days in Rome on our own before the tour though), so when we got to Kotor, we were allowed to wander freely through the town, for the first time since boarding the ship in Rome. Just being able to be alone in a town was a relief, after having to be squired through each Italian port.

Needless to say, these guys at the rug shop were on the watch for cruise passengers like us, and were slick as can be, but we knew that before we went in, laughed at their rather obvious attempts to upsell, and managed to resist their attempts to send us home after parting with thousands of dollars. Taking into account our limited knowledge of woven goods, the quality of what we saw seemed very fine.

We have quite a few nice rugs in our house, but I have to say that the throw rug we bought at that shop is the finest one that we have. 

 

I'd recommend the Dubrovnik walk on the wall around the Old City, but will note that it's not for people with a fear of heights (as I have), and does involve 1,080 steps if you do the entire 1.2 miles around the town. Having said that, I made it all the way around, despite my fear, and definitely plan to do it again.

In Kotor we found a great rug shop called Silk and Silky; we plan to revisit it when we do the Barcelona->Istanbul cruise in 2026. 

I don't recall if you said you'd be stopping in Sicily, but if you are docking in Messina, and if you're a fan of the Godfather movies, the excursion into the hills above Messina, to some filming sites from the Godfather movies, was a highlight for us.

In Athens, we took the post-extension and visited Delphi and Mycenae, both of which were some of my favorite spots to visit. Also, in Athens, the Acropolis Museum is easily my favorite archaeological museum and is a must-see. Also in Athens, a visit to the Plaza district is well worth a few hours.

I always look at days that have excursions; so far, nothing is showing. 

We're 142 days out from our July 4th sailing; I said 125 days earlier, but that's how far out we are from flying over (we're going early).

We're 125 days out from our BIE cruise on July 4; no excursions viewable yet, but I've been checking every day. We're in a DV cabin, so our excursion selection opens up on March 19th.

21 minutes ago, Kountess said:

It won't help you for 2026, but we are doing the reverse itinerary starting in Fort Lauderdale in October 2025.

That's the route we would prefer, but in mid-2025 we're doing a long trip in Africa to see the gorillas...

Viking lists a 48-day cruise (called NEW! Antarctica, Chile & the Americas") that goes from Buenos Aires to Antarctica, then north up the west coast of South America, through the Panama Canal, and terminating in Fort Lauderdale. It would tick 2 boxes for us--Antarctica and the Panama Canal.

It's listed only in February 2025, but not in 2026; based on any experience with listings like this from past cruises, here's my question:

Is it likely that a 2026 date will be added, or does this indicate that they're not going to do this route anymore?

I hesitate to call Viking because the person on the other end will probably know no more than I do from looking at the website.

We want to do this cruise, but not next year; we're looking for a 2026 sailing...

15 hours ago, Kountess said:

Luckily, I still had my email confirmation from Viator.  Our guide was Dairine Nuttall, and here's 

a snapshot of the confirmation.  She was willing to do or go anywhere we wanted, and you may be able to contact her directly.

Tour Wicklow in a limo with a private guide. Scenery, history, exploring & more!

Confirmation number: 1283949296 Booking reference number: 893264896

Monday, June 13, 2022 at 08:30 AM 2 Adults See ticket for location details

For questions, contact the tour operator directly at +353861936861 or by email

Thank you so much! I'll look into it and let me know if we end up booking it. 🙂

We're doing the BIE starting on July 4th; I've already booked 4 private tours for this trip, might be interested in this one if you can recall its name on Viator or any other info that might help me find it. We've had great luck with Viator tours, both in England and in France, and I in fact have one booked for us on our BIE cruise.

6 hours ago, Josefa said:

I just booked a cruise on Viking Saturn.  I am getting a room on deck 4.  I have a room reserved near the rear elevator right now.  There are some rooms available midship directly across from the laundry room/launderette.  Would these have noise from laundry?  I like location better but I don't want noise.  Does anyone have experience with this?  Thanks.

On one of our cruises, we were in a stateroom directly across from the laundry.

Not only did we never hear any noise from the laundry, but my wife found it extremely convenient to be able to scoot across the hall, put clothes in a machine, then go back at the appropriate time to move our clothes.

In fact, she's asked me to try to get future staterooms in a similar location.

We had AT&T, but switched to T-Mobile after we found out that they provide free international data & text (not voice though). After about 6 months or more with T-Mobile, I can report that here in the North Texas area our coverage is identical to what we got from AT&T--which makes sense since they use the same towers.

At sea, where there are no cell towers, cell phones aren't going to be able to make cell calls, so the info you got from your Verizon rep seems odd. We rarely make phone calls when we're on cruises, but if we do have to we just wait until we're in port. Wifi-only calling *should* work, but I've never had much luck with it.

If you want to stick with Verizon, and you have a fairly new smartphone, look into the Airolo app for iPhone and Android; you can get an eSim for about $30 for a month, and this will allow you to make phone calls anywhere in the are that you select. For example, they have a plan that works all over Europe, and I think it was about $30 for a month. If you start to use up the allotted data, you can top it off anytime. Works great, fairly easy to set up if you follow the excellent guided instructions.
 

4 hours ago, philw1776 said:

Watch out for any tours that end at rug merchants. Do not enter the building.

I wish I'd read that before we went for a stroll through Kotor!

Although, I have to admit, the rug we brought home is beautiful and we've not regretted it (although we probably paid more than it's worth).

It was a funny; the guy in the first store said, "Let me introduce you to my brother!" (brother owned the rug store). Then, because we needed a cheap suitcase to get it home, he said, "My cousin owns a store down the street." So we go there to buy a cheap suitcase, and of course my wife found a jacket she loved as well... 

You don't suppose they saw us coming, do you? 🙂