tocruiseguy

We are in the 2nd "highest" Deluxe Verandah, so only Penthouse suites and up booked before us and I presume there aren't that many of them. Plus I would say when someone pays $35,000 for a cruise they would not expect to experience this type of thing to happen. That may not be a lot of money to some, but I would say 99% of the world would think thats a pretty expensive vacation, and we have a 15 hr flight to get to our departure city. Again, I was aware of the excursion window opening time but you can't book an excursion one minute after the open window if it is already sold out. I have booked some non-Viking excursions but some you really need to go with the ship. PS The rep who assured me she would call me back before days end...didn't call 😐

The problem is, many were sold out prior to our ability to even book them. We are in a Deluxe Verandah.

We are booked on a Australia to Thailand Cruise in March, I just happened to know the excursion window opened up less than 24 hours ago and some of the excursions, the better ones, were already sold out and now less than 24 hours later in some ports almost half are sold out. I am sure many passengers wouldn't know the excursion booking just opened, so I guess it could be worse. The couple who we are traveling with called and the supervisor they ended up with just quoted the terms and conditions of the contract, provided no assistance. I called myself and happened upon a more understanding Viking agent who is contacting the ship. Does Viking typically add excursion capacity if excursions are sold out? So far, less than impressed with Viking, this is a very expensive cruise at least by our standards and I would expect better customer service on a "premium" cruise line vs our experience on Celebrity but so far that is not the case. On Celebrity you could book almost any excursion once you boarded the ship so I find this unusual.

The issue was someone stereotyping passengers on another cruise line.

Thankfully these boards are not a reflection of the vast majority of passenger's attitudes towards others who don't fit their view of the world as very few passengers even know about CC.

Hello, I am trying to find the right Dewa people are recommending here (we are stopping in Bali in April). Is he on Trip Advisor, as there are 3 listed there and not sure which one, if any, is the one recommended? Thanks.

Nice to know you speak for the majority. Viking doesn't have to do customer surveys they can just ask you....😀

The cruise we booked is 28 days, half of which are either sea days or the port days start mid-day. A vacation to me isn't getting up earlier than I normally get up every day...😀

Umm, thats exactly what I said, ..."Viking is not a good fit for your requirements". Thanks for the example...

Thanks. All good. We have cruised primarily on Celebrity to date and each cruise has a different vibe, usually depending on itinerary. I wouldn't call any of the cruises a party cruise but they ranged from pretty lively to very quiet. I have to say reading these boards on occasion there seems to be an attitude from a few Viking posters (not you BTW) that there is some sort of classy vibe on the ship, everyone is in bed by 9 pm and when you walk the ship everyone is reading a book on local history wearing their cardigans. 😀 I am clearly exaggerating but there is an attitude good or bad, again from a few posters. (thus my "income comment") I am sure most of the posters on CC know that the number of cruisers who actually read and post on these boards is a very small percentage of actual cruise passengers on any one ship so you can't read too much into what is posted here at least from an attitudinal point of view. I posted about what bars on the ship are open later on a Viking thread and someone answered by saying "If you must..." in other words they didn't approve of us staying up late on OUR vacation. It was sort of "well maybe Viking isn't for you" kind of comment. Anyway we are booked on a longer cruise on Viking, will be the first, its a great itinerary, so we are quite excited and maybe just maybe... that cruise will be a just a little more lively....😁

So you assume Viking clientele are somehow better behaved than people who sail with Carnival? Is it because they can afford a much more expensive cruise line so have more money? If so....yikes.

Even Canada relinquished our crazy covid protocols, I thought we were the last (to be clear I boosted twice already, just think its time to move on).....Our cruise is in March so maybe things will lighten up by then,. Will go with the RAT test if not, seems easiest. Celebrity only requires self disclosure of a negative test. Whatever it is, we are locked in.

NSW doesn't seem to require a covid test on their website, unless I missed something? https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/travel/international-arrivals

Thanks. Yes, we expect a different "experience". The ship size along with the itinerary are the main reasons we are trying a smaller cruise line. We also looked at Oceania and Seabourne but this cruise worked out the best. The cruise has 8 full sea days and I think 5 port days which don't begin until around noon. For about half the cruise evenings the next day is not an early day and no, we don't expect it to New Years eve every night. For people who tend to go to bed early on cruises I think there is a lack of appreciation how little night life there is on most ships, even large ones like Celebrity. The only cruises where there seems to be a lot of night owls are Caribbean Cruises, for our Med, Australian and Hawaii cruises, if you were wandering around after say 10:30 pm, you pretty well had the run of the ship. No we aren't expecting a party animal kind of ship experience, not what we want, but we aren't people who go to bed early. We are travelling with another couple which means at least four people will be up past 8:30 pm 😁

Yes, very much looking forward to it, its a great itinerary... PS Agree there is some great info....except perhaps the individual who responded above who seems to think I go to bed too late whilst enjoying MY vacation.....😁

Thanks, silly me, didn't notice the times on the invoice. Appreciate the info.

"If I must"??

Hello all, booked our first Viking cruise, Sydney to Bangkok for next March. A few questions. When does Viking post the port times? Seems odd they are not posted when you book the cruise as other cruise lines post them. What are the included excursions like? Is there any night life on the ships? I have heard from some they roll up the hallways at 9 pm and others say some bars/locations have activity later into the evening. Thanks

PS no fee charged 😀...and it took about 2 business days to process.

Agree with you on the savings its not huge but its not bad either. We have an Aeroplan visa and an Amex. To use Aeroplan pts today, you need almost 100K plus to fly anywhere business class, Air Canada Aeroplan rewards have really gone up in pts value. Both the Aeroplan and Amex only give 1pt for dollar so for the Amex, which is a very good travel card BTW (4 pts for gas, groceries, restaurants etc), its only effectively a 1% reward although there is a small amount of travel insurance included. BTW Viking no longer sells cancelation insurance to Canadian passengers.

Hello all, I am contemplating paying for our cruise next year using the ACH payment option. None of our credit cards provide anywhere close to a 3.3% reward amount. Just wondering for Canadian cruisers, if your bank charged you any fees for this?

Hello all, we are booked our first Viking Cruise (March 2023 Sydney to Bangkok)...our longest cruise ever....first smaller ship etc....very excited. Anyway, just wondering if Viking typically provides shuttles to local downtowns, out of the ports etc. For example we have done an Australia cruise before and Celebrity provided regular shuttles to downtown Brisbane Thanks,

Hello all, we are looking to get back to cruising we have found a cruise we like on Azamara (over 20 days onboard). I have read that the cabins are quite small, just wondering about thoughts from those who have cruised on Azamara as to how much a big deal cruising in a smaller cabin is. We have mostly cruised on Celebrity in the past but are hoping to move a little more upscale, with either Azamara, Oceania or Viking. We both just turned 60 and are very active and like a bit of night life on our cruises, so any comment on the ambience on the Azamara would also be appreciated. Thanks!