Clay Clayton

Check and see where in “London” you port. If Greenwich then there is lots to see and you’re a an hour mass transit ride or 34 minutes in a car away from Central London. But if it’s Tillbury, you’re a two hour ride or an hour in a car to central London.

You would think but no. I believe it’s $100 pp but I can’t recall as it used to be $50. It allows deviation at both ends and often will allow you to deviate your airports. For example we disembarked a transatlantic in Barcelona and 10 days later flew home from Rome and our flights were “free” except for the deviation fee. You will need to talk with Viking to see if for example you could pay the deviation, fly into London for a few days, get yourself to Bergen, and then fly home from there (likely through London)

A couple of things Your friend doesn’t have to be on your same cruise to refer you and you get the discount-she just has to have sailed with Viking previously. If Oasis is your favorite ship, Viking may not be a match for you. It has less than a 1/5 of the number of passengers and with that comes less entertainment, venues, activities. We LOVE Viking for what it is (passenger crew ratio, mostly inclusive, not glitzy) and isn’t ) -no kids and no casino being the two biggies) but if you found Pearl too small and not engaging then you might want to watch some YouTubes. Gary Bembridge (among others) does a great job of describing Viking and what impact your cruising style has on your enjoyment of the line. While I don’t disagree that prices have gone up since COVID, we have still been able to book under promos (World Cruise, currently looking at an October 24 expedition) where savings are about 50% over initial rates. But as I noted, if you can’t be flexible with when you go and need a particular itinerary on a particular date, then I would book as early as possible. With the example I gave of last summer, we booked a year early as it was a birthday cruise and we wanted to be sure it did t sell out. If we had waited, it would have been over a $1000 cheaper per person.

As long as you don’t mind arriving the day of embarkation and having no control over the flights or routing. You can pay for a deviation to change the flight dates and pay again for Air+ to have some (but not guaranteed) control over your flight routing.

Answers in red above

Failed to realize I didn’t answer your question about pricing. I don’t think waiting for other lines ti list their prices will make any difference in what Viking charges. Typically, the stateroom prices stay the same, but they offer promos that have cabin upgrades, “free” air, or “free” Silver Spirits-the drinks package. We have found the best promos typically happen within 4-6 months pre-embarkation. For example, we took #4 last July (2023)but booked it in the summer of 2022. The last promo I saw was about $1000pp less than what we paid. So if you can be flexible with timing and either have ways of booking air on your own at a discount (points?) or are willing to take Viking’s “free” air, then it may be worth waiting to book.

Welcome to Viking! Where in NC are ya? Raleighite here If Fjords are the focus then only 2 & 4 will really satisfy that. #3 will a fjord to/from Eidford. Not familiar with that port but can’t imagine it will come close to 2 or 4. As a first time Viking cruiser, your final payment date will be at least 12 months prior to embarkation (some have reported 18 months). If you know someone who has sailed Viking (River, Ocean, Expedition) they can “refer” you and you’ll get $100 off per person. Additionally, if you find a travel agent who kickback the max Viking allows-you would get $300 per person which is enough to cover daily gratuities or other onboard purchases. Unless you want to take the excursions that have very limited numbers, you shouldn’t have any issue getting excursions. The biggest thing to keep in mind is you may not get them for the time you prefer. You may want to take a look at this thread, it has lots of tips and advice for making the most of your first Viking cruise: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2416372-tips-for-new-viking-ocean-cruisers/page/62/#comment-62141739

Ladies: bathing suit & a coverup (lots of sarongs on our last cruise) Gentlemen: bathing suit & tshirt

#NeptuneGetsEverything

My recollection is that most bartenders will make any cocktail you want whether on the menu or not.

There is also a section to leave a book/take a book. This is in The Living Room, starboard side, across from the computers

You’ve gotten good answers to your questions. You ought to check out this thread which is full of advice and hints to make the most of your Viking cruise: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2416372-tips-for-new-viking-ocean-cruisers/page/62/#comment-62141739

Never heard about having leftovers-seems side to order the half portion that is mentioned on thr menu.

Negotiate was the wrong word. Asked is what I should have written. In both cases Viking was offering promos and she was traveling with others.

Jim if this was a possibility on the 2024 WC aboard Sky it was kept very quiet…at least for those of us in DVs

https://www.viking.com/promotions/us/en/river/EL7/20240717/pharaohs-and-pyramids.html?cid=EML|AJO|999|Email+-+240717_vrc_el7&utm_source=email&utm_medium=AJO&utm_content=Email+-+240717_vrc_el7&correlationId=51073cef-33b2-4e1d-a412-c2ed42384616-0

Just one more data point as you consider your options. It’s unclear how long your cruise is but the amount Viking allows a TA to reimburse is based on the length of the cruise. $250 per person isn’t the max allowed for any of the lengths so I suspect the TA you’ve gotten that offer from is holding at least $50/pp back. To maximize your value, you may want to find a travel agent that provides the maximum kickback of their commission that Viking allows-$150pp on cruises up to 7 nights, $300pp on 8-14 night cruises, and $500pp on cruises of 15 nights or more. Like others have mentioned, some agents like the one we use provide this as refundable onboard credits-whatever we don’t use, we get in a check from Viking about two weeks after the cruise.

Unless the processes at the airport have changed since 2021, leave yourself plenty of time to checkin and get through security. We had Delta’s first flight back to JFK (11ish?) and spent three-four hours getting from the ship (prearranged taxi) to the gate and only had a few minutes to catch our breath before boarding. Not sure why but can’t seem to find the photo looking the other way, but this was the head of the line at the ticket counter and it extended at leave 150 people the other way. Luckily we were able to use the Priority line so only took us about 30 minutes. I suspect if we had been in the regular line it would have been at least twice as long. Hopefully, they have improved things since then-this was just after the world started to open up after the pandemic and I know everyone was short staffed.

Don’t you think a lot of that price drop was driven by people canceling after the unrest in the Mideast? Hopefully by the time of the eclipse, things will have calmed down?

We looked at booking this but the 5 days in Cairo are about 4 too many for us. The only thing that wanted us to make it back was to see the new Museun which maybe will be open by then. But we decided that we didn’t want to spend four other days there.

Here is the link: https://www.viking.com/promotions/us/en/portal/LM7.html?cid=EML|AJO|999|Email+-+240712_multiproduct_LM7&utm_source=email&utm_medium=AJO&utm_content=Email+-+240712_multiproduct_LM7&correlationId=c35311c0-4947-4003-aaf2-3472f6c6f006-0

Not that I know of, but when I click on the link it takes me to ones that are eligible. But I don’t know how to copy the email into this thread. I believe others have said though that sometimes the code will work for cruises not specifically listed.

Sale is offered on various River, Ocean, and Expedition cruises