powderhorn

Noticed you tied up with the Zaandam in port today…impressive to see HAL well represented here in Charlottetown….sorry about the rain this morning…glad to see you enjoying the cruise and port stops!

ok...Amtrak let me book the train....no big urgency to get back to SAN so hopefully the trains will be running or they will shuttle us down on buses....

I was just on Surfliner sight to see if I could book from Anaheim to Solana Beach and most of May is shaded out......might need to call them....any suggestions for a plan B?

That's two solid votes for amtrak and my son's sources tell him they are running again....there was a question regarding Anaheim or Fullerton so you have answered that question as well....Anaheim Amtrak it is....we can get the train to Solana Beach and meet the kids in time for lunch somewhere nice.....Thanks Again....

Good Morning All….we are Paula and Chris and we are looking to book a cruise out of San Pedro on May 11 (Regatta) and to visit our Son and DIL in San Diego….does anyone know if there is a ride share / shuttle / train they can recommend to get us to or from The cruise terminal to San Diego area?….I think our Son will run us up there but looking for options to get back to SD on the 18th….thks in advance….

Had a great tour of Casablanca and the Hassan II mosque today...beautiful sunny day....looks like we may have a rough crossing to the Canary Islands....announcement says forecasted 40mph winds tonight and tomorrow.....never sailed on a ship this small before and we are on deck 5 forward so this will be 'interesting'.....:-)

Looks like first sea day is Saturday, Dec 10 after our stop in Canary Islands....in Cadiz today, then Casablanca, sea day, Canary Islands...then cross the pond....6 sea days in a row.....boat is rocking a bit coming into Cadiz....

A couple of notes....locked our cabin keys in the room....easily resolved with guest services...then forgot the code to our safe....again easily resolved with GI Joe from security coming up to unlock it for us.....had Gary our steward install a topper on our mattress after 1st night experiencing the 'firm' mattress....much better.....staff are great....2 words....friendly and professional....

Glad you made it aboard....it was a gutsy move to fly in day of the cruise....specially from such a distance....the anxiety would have killed me....lol....but you made so now you can relax.....we finished our meal off with a lovely shot of averna from the bar.....kudos to Viking for stocking that...:-)

The crab cake was the bell of the ball.....:-)

We are on board and getting settled in our stateroom....had a glitch checking in...Viking depending on Internet connection in check-in hall and our receptionist couldn't connect so we had to queue at guest services on board to complete the task..... Also, queued up to get specialty dining adjusted....lovely lady with great patience fixed us up with times and dates that were suitable for us....going to try the California menu tonight in the Chef's tabel....we also got reservations for Indies and Asian Panorama....they are also offering the Scandinavian and the Ziaing menus...pardon the spelling...also had our 2 reservations in Manfredis moved up to 6:30.....so we are all set to go!

We had a lovely day touring the old market, Xmas market and enjoyed Tapas at El Portalon in the Gothic Quarter....enjoyed it all!

Is the crew masked?

Thank You for the explanation....it seems fishy to me why Viking are doing this...unless they felt an outbreak was eminent....even so it seems they were up for diverting the cruise to Madiera and Cape Verde Islands. Here is what is on the Sherpa website for restrictions travelling from Spain to Casablanca....says no testing required......why was Senegal scratched?

Was the requirement do do daily testing mandated by some of the countries?....or something Viking decided to do as part of their internal safety protocol? Our TA is scheduled to stop in Casablanca Dec 7th...no mention of a daily testing requirement last time I looked....

https://www.aig.com/travel-guard Travel Guard through AIG insurance will cover vouchers in Canada....just went through that with them around our trip in 2 weeks.....you can try them in the US.....reasonable rates as well....take care....

Just as a counterpoint, we had great luck applying a promo code to an existing booking through a call to Viking....see post 162 - 165 on page 7 for details....must have caught them on a good day....:-)

Looking forward to seeing some YouTube tours of the ship...some notes on what sets her apart from the others.....enjoy your cruise....:-)

Did they give you a reason why these stops were cancelled?

I had a neru jacket with that pattern in the 70's....:-)

World Kindness Day is next Sunday, Nov 13th..... https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/...:-)

We also sensed on our HAL cruise that the crew were stressed....although they did their best, there were still crew shortages.....reduced cleaning of our stateroom (only once a day)....one of our dining room waiters disappeared near the end of the cruise (probably caught Covid)....so there was a sense they were working under difficult conditions.....and maybe they were encountering more of that bad behavior directed at them......

This is a great topic, albeit a bit alarming to read these observations. We went on our first post Covid shutdown cruise in April on HAL and, although I can't recount any misbehavior specifically, we both noticed a change in our experience....hard to put a finger on it, but the level of enjoyment was not what it had been....maybe it was the sense that there were so many woes happening around the world....mean spirited politics, war, pandemics, climate change, supply chain, etc....it made us sort of feel we didn't belong or shouldn't be enjoying ourselves that much.....my sister told me after we got back that I had 'grown a concious'....so we all laughed about that...a bit uneasily....oh....and we caught Covid on the trip as well....lol. We are looking forward to our upcoming cruise on the Viking Sea....our first with Viking....and we will do our best to enjoy it.....I'm sure we will...and we'll keep our eyes open for bad apples....and promise to be on our best behavior.....thanks again for starting this conversation.....

I did some shopping for cancellation insurance for a cruise we have coming up on Viking 'paid' entirely using FCVs and promos. Original cash payment to Viking happened in November last year for a cruise we had to cancel. CAA and Manulife don't cover vouchers, however, travel guard does. Their response to my query as follows: "Our insurance is able to cover the value of credits or vouchers as long as you paid cash for the original tickets. If so, you can insure the entire value of that voucher using our insurance." So it looks like you can get insurance for vouchers in Canada anyway....buyer beware for sure.....