Reaniel

Our stewardess was a total sweetheart, and we didn't badger the front desk daily because she was doing it for us 😉 Whenever we saw her, she would tell us if she's already asked the front desk about it today or not (and, if not, she'd say she'll do it soon). They managed to get a new batch of hairdryers on day 7 resupply, and we got ours that day. And, yes, curling iron is a bit of curiosity. I mean, air humidifiers and refreshers are unsafe while curling iron isn't?!

I believe it's covered under the "Any electrical device that produces heat" It's not listed explicitly as an example, but it's under prohibition as an electrical device that produces heat. I remember for my first Viking cruise (river), I called about a month before the cruise with regards to hair dryer (whether they are provided onboard or I'll need to bring my own), and I was told not to bring my own, and that it'll be provided by Viking. On a related note, I wasn't provided one on board right away, and I didn't get mine until day 7 because they, apparently, had a shortage (lol)

As someone who doesn't drink... I'll just have to respectfully disagree on the SSP 😛 It's more discount to fares >>>>>>> free/discount air > SSP for me in terms of where I prefer the discount to be. But a lot of the codes don't do anything to the fares even when they say "special fares" 😕 I'm surprise that they wouldn't offer that for you with Air Plus. I mean I know that deviation is rather limited, but I thought Air Plus would usually come through.

Very nice! I gather you've booked your own air for this? For our upcoming sailing (Athens to Rome) in a few weeks, we booked with Viking Air and paid for flight deviation. We'll be flying in to Istanbul (instead of Athens) and stay there for 3 nights. Take a bus to Thessaloniki and stay there for another 3 nights, take the train to Athens, stay at a hotel for 3 nights before embarkment. And after getting off in Rome, it's 3 more nights in a hotel before taking the train to Venice, for 3 more nights there. We haven't done this much independent traveling for a long time, and hopefully it'll all go smoothly (fingers crossed). I hope your trip next year will be an enjoyable one!

This is the exact same advice my friend told me, and which is why we've done a deviation for our flights for our own visit in Venice. We'll be taking the train from Rome to Venice and staying in Murano for 3 nights before our flight back to the US. I was told Venice is very nice in the winter, but with a lot less tourists (lol) We originally wanted to do a cruise with port days in Venice, but the same friend talked us out of it, and we ended up booking the upcoming Cities of Antiquities &The Holy Land (Athens to Rome).

Wow, that sounds insane... I wonder if this will become a permanent change, and that they will now have a price hike on excursions to Venice in the future sailings because of the extra distance they have to cover, if/when the ship stops in Ravenna.

LOL Viking literally just did this after I posted. There's now a new (and almost identical except for the "free time" after lunch) tour offered for Limassol. It wasn't there when I check MVJ less than 2 hours ago.

Thank you for the info! I know that, for included excursions, Viking is contractually obligated to provide you with one per port, so if they ran out, they'll have to somehow make it work once your aboard. I'm just not sure if they'd do that for non-included ones 😕 Our upcoming sailing had a major itinerary change due to the situation in Israel (we have 1 day in Ashdod and 2 in Haifa), and the rollout of the updated excursion was a major fiasco. A lot of people were locked out from booking the new excursions, and many of the "good/interesting" non-included ones were sold-out before they fixed the issue.

Just want to ask the more seasoned cruisers with Viking - do they ever add more slots to the non-included excursion? Or is it a fixed number for each sailing, and the only way for a sold-out excursion to become available again is if someone had cancelled?

We're on the upcoming Cities of antiquity and the holy land sailing, and we have 3 sea days 🙂 I personally think I'll be fine, but mom might get bored and all. 😛 Just trying to find out what most people enjoy on sea days so that I can accompany her and make sure she's having a good time.

Thanks for the advice! I've personally never been on an Ocean Cruise, while my mom was on one maybe 30 years ago. She said she remember being sea sick throughout the whole thing, and that was what made us worried about being near the very rear. But you are absolutely right. We'll see if this one works out (or, at least, if the Bonine would keep it manageable 😛)

I assume the non-included Viking excursions for Venice were canceled?

Is there a science to picking a cabin? I mean for our cruise, it was pretty much picked for us by the agent. We ended up with DV3 5107 near the rear. It's supposed to be in the more quiet area with decent view. We were a bit worried about sea sickness, but the agent said it shouldn't be a problem. Was it a better idea to book somewhere in the middle as it seems to be the consensus here?

Ocean Cruise newbie here. We've only done 2 river cruises (with Viking and Grand Circle) prior to our upcoming sailing from Athens to Rome that's coming up. Would you be so kind and share what are some of the things we can do on sea days?

There's a recent (relatively speaking) thread on the sailing as well as the situation in Venice in general. It'd probably help you more than this thread from 2022.

I mean you can certainly just do it on your own to "cut out the middle man". However, from the looks of it, visit visa for Brazil sure look like a serious hassle at this time. You can check out the visa info page at the Brazilian Embassy in Washington DC: https://www.gov.br/mre/pt-br/consulado-washington/consulate-general-of-brazil-in-washington-dc/visitor-visa-vivis However, I don't recommend you start applying for your visa until January, since that's (probably) when a new eVisa will become available. They're supposed to have the system set up 30 days before the Jan. 10th date, but who knows. And from what I gather, it'll cost less (USD $44.50 vs USD $185) and valid for longer (2 years multiple entries vs 1 year single entry). So I suggest having everything ready but hold off on applying just yet.

It's a shame since we don't drink. It'd be nice if they would turn at least part of the SSBP benefit cost into SBC or discount on the fare.

We're keeping our trip since we've done both air deviations and planning/booking for our own land trip on top of our sailing. 😉 The reason I contacted Viking is that I wanted to ask them to convert the OBC into future vouchers because we don't even know how to spend all that. We still have $262 per person in OBC before the $250 compensation for crying out loud. The agent who called back for my email made that offer as another possible option that we can take.

It depends on the sailing as well as what Viking is offering. There are quite a few itineraries where *free air* is offered, and in those cases, booking your own flight is almost like throwing money away. What you can do is either pay $100 per person for minor flight deviations, or $150 per person for Viking Plus customization. They're both pretty decent for their value, and all things considered, would save you money overall. Of course, for sailings where Viking Air is offered at full price, it's probably cheaper/more convenient for folks to book their own flight.

We're total cheapskates, and we wouldn't be cruising unless it's a REALLY good deal. We went on the Grand European Tour on Viking River, and the pricing was $3000 (with air) ppdo for a standard stateroom. This year, this pricing was offered again during one of the sales in the summer. I understand most people doesn't really feel like keeping track of cruise prices constantly, but still, to take advantage of good prices, it's something you'll just have to do.

You've gotten a even better offer than me. When Viking called back on my inquiry on our sailing, I was only offered the option of no-penalty transfer to another sailing that's set to begin in 90 days. The offer of full conversion of what you've spent into future voucher is a significantly better one.

I'm not trying to be a Viking fanboi here, but it sounds more like a Delta/KLM issue than a Viking issue. From what I can piece together from your description: 1. Your flight has legs consisting both Delta and KLM flights. The transatlantic leg is a Delta. 2. Viking Air *most likely* booked the flight through KLM, not Delta, and it ended up with KLM being the managing carrier of the whole thing. 3. You're trying to use your Sky Mile points to upgrade your seat. Unfortunately, contrary to what you've stated in your post, that KLM does NOT, in fact, honor Sky Mile. KLM, along with Air France, has their own program called "Fly Blue", and it's independent of Sky Mile. When you fly on any flights belonging to SkyTeam alliance, you may earn points/miles for any reward programs from any airline in the alliance. For example, you can earn Sky Mile on KLM/Air France flights, or Fly Blue points on Delta flights, etc. However, each of the programs are independent of one another, and you may only redeem points (Sky Mile in your case) for things like seat upgrade on tickets where the company is the primary carrier (Delta, in your case). I know it sucks, but it's just the way it is at this time. KLM doesn't honor Sky Mile points the same way Delta doesn't honor Fly Blue points.

Emails usually aren't the fastest way to resolve these things, and they'll call you in reply anyway. Have you tried using the live chat option that's available on the MVJ pages? Sometimes it's faster (and less hassle) than calling or emailing.