MELSMOM47

17 minutes ago, calvin81 said:

To be clear, if you liked a house wine one day, you made note of that and asked for it future days? On Oceania we bought bottles and they kept them corked and chilled for the next day if we didn't finish them - is this possible on Viking? How they handle any bottles you bring onboard yourself? 

Yes. I took a photo of the bottle and asked for it at my next meals. It was not an issue. If you purchased a bottle and did not finish it, they would have it available wherever you chose to dine for your next meal. And there is no corkage fee if you bring your own. 

2 minutes ago, Mackdogmolly said:

This is not about the SS wines, but the SS package in general. From what I can see, it looks like the price of most cocktails is pretty inexpensive, about $8, and the current price of the SS package is $25 per day, so it would take quite a few drinks to make it worthwhile. Or have the cocktail prices gone up?

TIA

I can’t swear they were all $8 but we found them to be very reasonable. Wines with lunch and dinner were hit or miss but once we found one that we liked the staff could easily get it and have it available for future meals. That meant that we didn’t need to spend money to upgrade at mealtimes and only had to spend in between. Our final bar bill was less than $300 and we always had wine or a cocktail before and after dinner on a 15 day cruise. 

11 minutes ago, Ashland said:

A link for Troubles tour please.

There are many to choose from on TripAdvisor and aviator. 

8 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Send it back. 

I did

Just returned from the Viking Neptune. We found that the included wines were hit or miss. However, once we found one we liked our waiter was happy to continue to have it available. 

On 5/29/2023 at 10:59 PM, duquephart said:

 

The problem with the much touted rib eye is that it is cut far to thin. Impossible to cook correctly.

The rib eye is also heavily coated in a rub. I asked to have it medium rare without the rub.  It came heavily crusted and well done. 🤷🏼‍♀️

On 5/28/2023 at 3:47 AM, tocruiseguy said:

Most of the cruises we have taken to date have been on Celebrity, recently did a longer Viking Cruise, our first one.  Firstly the entertainment on Celebrity is significantly better and sea days on Viking were devoid of activities, unless you want to learn to play bridge or other rather sedate activities.  The age demographic, at least on the Viking cruise we took, I would guess was 75 plus and Viking really caters to that age group.  Almost all the music played was from the 1970's and older, not sure why Viking doesn't realize there have been 4 decades of music since 1979....

 

The staff on Viking were excellent and the food was generally very good, although repetitive at times and strangely the hours were somewhat limited in the World Cafe.  Viking did a good job of providing "local" cuisine in the World Cafe.  We find the staff on Celebrity equally good (and we are usually in a regular state room). but there seems to more Viking staff around so I am guessing Viking has a better staff to passenger ratio.  If you like to sleep in, forget about breakfast due to the world cafe hours, and there was really nowhere to grab a snack late afternoon when we returned from excursions.   Ship was very nice/clean and our stateroom was good.  Gym was good, as it wasn't busy, not really any gym classes though.  Spa was good, much of it included.  A few of the bar staff were excellent, went above and beyond, although at times in The Restaurant and Manfredi's we found almost too many staff were servicing our table which resulted in confusion. 

 

Viking's included excursions are basically, pile into a bus, drive around for an hour, get out, take a picture, get back in, rinse and repeat.  The included excursions seemed to be catered towards people who don't really want to move a lot (not us).  Some of the paid excursions weren't much better.  Our best days were either self guided stuff or private tours we arranged ourselves. 

 

Bottom line for us, even though the ship and staff were very good, we find Viking too sedate and even though there are some great Viking itineraries the excursions provided and sold do not live up to the potential of some of the ports, at least on the cruise we were on.  Based on the additional daily cost on Viking we don't think it's worth it, but that is subjective and our opinion.  

Just got back from our first Viking cruise. Many niceties but a lot that we miss from Celebrity. My ideal cruise would combine several. We love the size of Windstar, the food and entertainment of Celebrity and the elegance of the Viking ship. 

On 5/29/2023 at 3:46 PM, WESTEAST said:

FYI, in checking the Belfast Port Authority/Harbour site (https://cruise-belfast.co.uk/about-cruise-belfast/dedicated-cruise-facility) it states that the Cruise Terminal offers visitor information:  

• Cruise visitor information centre
• Shore excursion coach parking
• Dedicated shuttle bus space
• Taxi rank
• Free Wifi
• Destination showcase video wall
• Gift shop
• Washroom facilities including disabled access WC
• Security desks
• Seating

 

Hmmmm. We didn’t see a lot of information when we got off the ship. Certainly could have missed it. There was one taxi waiting and we took it to the Titanic Museum. We also had no problem getting an Uber in all the cities we visited. 

We toured the Titanic museum in the morning and took a Troubles Tour in the afternoon. Highly recommend both. We learned so much about the history of Belfast and Northern Ireland. 

2 minutes ago, dd57 said:

Most likely the red leather luggage tags.

Also bag tags with your cabin number 🤷🏼‍♀️

8 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

THANK YOU!

Is that confirmed for all decks?

 

Haven’t checked other than deck three. If I pass by I’ll check 

6 hours ago, May B said:

I agree.

 

But I think there’s an option for Wash Only, although not sure how that would help if you DO want to dry SOME of your wash.

 

I guess the other option is to stick around and watch when it goes into Dry mode, and pause it to take some items out.

On the Viking Neptune now. Washers and dryers are separate. 

1 minute ago, Mackdogmolly said:

Can you tell me how many washers and dryers there are in the launderette? Do they provide detergent?

There are four per floor. The detergent is automatically added. 

11 minutes ago, dd57 said:

A clarification  for others reading this thread.  Verizon Travel Pass (the $10/day) only kicks in if you make or receive a call, send a text(receiving is free) or use data.  Unfortunately there are a lot of apps that use data in the background like auto update, photo backup, fitness tracking, etc.  If you are able to stop all that, you can have your phone on at no cost.  That can be a lot of work, but is an option.

 

Also, wifi calling to an international number is billed at international rates, according to Verizon.  I've never tried it.  

Yes. This is true which is why we set up one phone with the $100 month long plan and will keep the other on airplane mode at all times. 

On 4/23/2023 at 9:44 AM, deec said:

There are umbrellas, they a big golf umbrellas. 

 

All cabins?

11 hours ago, philw1776 said:

Do not see my TA OBC there.

I called my TA. Our gift from her will come in the form of a check when we return. 

6 minutes ago, longterm said:

If Verizon does it like AT&T, their international plan ($10/day) kicks in automatically every day that you use your phone. The max is $100 for a month, I think, but you may want to confirm that. 

 

If you don't use your phone's cellular in a day, you're not charged that day; if you text, and are not on wifi, that'll count as a $10 day.

 

If you don’t sign up for the $100 plan and use the $10/day plan and use it more than ten days, you will be charged for however many days you use it. We are traveling for close to 20 days. Both my husband and I are on Verizon. I set up just one phone to be usable without Wi-Fi. Our total out of pocket will be $100 as long as we keep hubby’s phone on airplane mode. He will have access onboard with Wi-Fi. My phone has unlimited texts and data and 250 minutes of international calling. 

Thanks for asking this question. I’ve been wondering as well. 

13 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

No—different kettle of fish. It’s just a one-time deal and not the same as needing to buy the package for both people in a stateroom.

Thank you. 

4 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

There are two types of pairings at Chef’s Table, regular and premium.  There is no added charge for the regular pairings.  The premium pairings are $25pp, unless you have the Silver Spirit Beverage Package; if so the premium pairing are included in the package.

Is it like the SSBP where both need to upgrade the wine at Chef’s Table?

When I log on I see that I have no availability because I already have a reservation. Do I need to cancel to see if there are dates/times that I might prefer? 🤔

Thanks!

I thought we didn’t need to book the regular dining room. Just the two specialty restaurants. Did I mess that up?

6 minutes ago, longterm said:

I see that AT&T has a "cruising plan," but it's pretty awful if you need to do any data transfers. for 30 days and $100, you can make unlimited calls and texts, but only 200MB of data, which is a nothing burger. If you're using your iPhone for photos, and use iCloud to back them up to the cloud, you can eat up 200MB in a few days, and then every extra MB is $2/each. 

 

It'll be interesting to see how much data I eat up in 21 days in Italy next month.

Can you turn on and off the iCloud function so that you are only backing up when using the ship's Wifi?

4 minutes ago, Mercruiser said:

Looking at the fine print, "unlimited data" really means data limited to 20 GB: "^*After your first 20GB of high speed data enjoy unlimited 3G data." That's probably enough for 1 person. They do not appear to support tethering. So you cannot share your data with another device (notebook, tablet, i-pad, Kindle, etc.) Again, that might not be a problem for you.

 

The big advantage of this, for you, is that it's easy and simple. Make sure you Verizon phone is relatively new (the older Verizon CDMA phones are NOT internationally compatible.)

My thought is that since we have Wi-Fi on board the ship it will mostly be used to request a ride or send/respond to a text. I need to learn how to download Google maps for the cities that we will walk and might want directions.