Azulann

Set up your ACH in MVJ before you pick your excursions. Then when you pick each excursion for payment you just check the account button , repeat for each excursion and you are set. Once on board , I give them a cc card for on board account , not my checking account.

Another transportation questions, getting around ! We will be staying at Hotel NOFO in Sodermalm for three nights: June 9,10,11 . ON Saturday we want to go to old town area and visit the Pulitzer Museum Palace and Cathedral and walk around area. Question: can we take a bus from near hotel to Palace area? I do see bus stop near hotel. Being the weekend do buses run less frequently? Also I see on goggle map there is Transit/ metro stop near hotel, but where would one get off closest to Palace? On Sunday we will stay in Sodemalm and attend church at Katarina Kryka, visit the City museum of Stockholm and go to Fotografiska. I figure we can walk to all these places? Want to eat at Meatballs for the People on Sunday for Lunch or dinner(dinner reservations needed? On June 12 we board the Viking Jupiter which docks over night in Stockholm. We have a Viking Museum tour booked from ship for July 13. Would love feedback on this weekend schedule. TIA

Oh no, my sister will be so disappointed. We will be on the Jupiter June 12! guess we will have to find some in Stockholm before we board. Last cruise was on Venus in Oct of 2021. They had it then but ran out by end of cruise.

All the bars on Viking Ocean have a list of mocktails . My sister loved them. Also if you ask a bartender they will come up with a new mocktail based on your favorite tastes, sweet, sour, spicy refreshing, mint etc... Also she got San Pellegrino Water when ever she asked.

Yea, I am looking forward to your posts about Salsa etc excursion in Cozumel ! Love your luggage! Your Eden dinner looks fabulous. Now I want lobster. But its is snowing here in the North today. So enjoy your trip reports as always. I feel like I am on a cruise with you when I read them. I forgot, but which ship will you be on when you and Jeremey go to Europe this fall? If you are stopping in Liverno and want to do a private tour including wine tasting. I have the best guide ever. He is a sommelier/ tour guide in Tuscany.

What are the games that are loaded on the screen tables on the 2nd(or is it 3rd )fl floor overlooking the atrium? I have seen people playing at them but never looked at them myself?

I like your ports of call. Always wanted to go to Palma de Majorca and Ibiza. Have fun in Bermuda. We did the Viking Bermuda cruise during COVID. Love the island and it history. Funchal is wonderful. I could do a resort vacation there someday if I did n't live so far away. 4100 passenger capacity is huge. Hope you post some pic of the ship. Enjoy your pre cruise week.

Looking forward to your "live(ish)"trip report! Seeing it is a TA how many ports will you be able to find free wifi"? How big is the ship you will be on? Your friend from Viking! Cheers, Patti

Gratuities are $15.00 or 18,00 per day pp. I cannot remember because our TA give the cost of these gratuities as his OBC . It will be billed on your onboard account. You can have it removed if you like. As to tipping bartender and wait staff. That is done a lot on big cruise lines to get better service etc. No need on Viking. As Tanyana says gratuity of 15% is added to each drink you buy. But if you have the SSBP that is included . I do like to give a cash tip on last day to my room steward and maybe one or two wait staff I have gotten great service from each and every day. ..that is it.

Love the Cathedral of Pisa. Galileo taught at the university . Legend has it that he was sitting in the cathedral and looking a the swaying lamps when his mind turned to gravity etc... I am enjoying your report.

Thanks, I see my mistake. I just remember years ago, coming from Turkey thru AMS. the Duty Free shop was full of flight attendants buying wine to bring back to MSP. My friend bought her husband a very expensive bottle of Scotch. Guess I will have to find some good Italian /Spanish wine while Stockholm to bring on my Viking cruise.

Look forward to your perspective and your trip report. Having navigated the booking and excursion process , you are no longer a rookie!!!! 🥰 I am doing the Scenic Scandinavia cruise June 12-22. Finished my excursion bookings and did do two reservations this week for alternative restaurants. I see them more as a place holder till we get on ship. Can always change them or reserve on board. Love reading trip ropers. Currently reading three on celebrity and one on Agama . I too will write a trip report . Welcome to Viking!

Is it possible to buy wine at the AMS duty shop, while on layover, to bring with me to Stockholm? I will be traveling for MSP -AMS-ARN in June.

I have bought wine at European ports and brought the bottles on board. NO fee or corkage charge to have it served to you at dinner. I bought a wonderful bottle of Spanish CAVA my favorite sparkle wine. Shared it with our new friends at dinner in restaurant. Later at another port and wine tasting, my new friends ordered a case of Cava and had it shipped to CA. They loved this wine. I dropped off my wine in afternoon at restaurant and said I wanted it chilled and be served at our table that evening. Another options for wine drinkers on Viking.

Same here at 6am. I did book a shared table at Manfredi for 6pm on the first day, and did a chef table reservation for 8:30pm on another evening but will change that when on board.

Pre cruise you can book at the specialty restaurants one reservation to each if you have a DV stateroom Upper stateroom catergories can pe book more than one. Once on board, anyone can go to the restraint specialty person in World cafe , starboard side or guest relations or even just go to manfirdi;s and Chef table and see if you can get secure reservation or even be seated promptly if there is a opening. It is very dynamic once on board. People cancel reservations and others just t do not show up for their reservations.... I can book tomorrow ,one reservation for Manfredi and Chef table for our cruise in June have a DV 6 stateroom. It is a sold out cruise. So this time once on board might be different than past cruises, but I doubt it. . Hopefully I get a reservation for each . Once on board I can cancel the reservation if something comes up or I do not like the Chef table menu. Those who book the V staterooms can only book when they are on board: for both excursion and speciality restaurants reservations.

Please do stop by the Viking forum in early June(8) I will be doing a live trip report on Viking Jupiter "Scenic Scandinavia" It is a sold out cruise. 🤩 It will be my 4th Viking Ocean. My last two was during the pandemic and did have some supply problems , but service was outstanding and food was very good and varied. I find the vibe and type of passengers I have met as good as the Norwegian Success cake in Mamsen deli in the beautiful Explore Lounge..😍 I do like reading the Seabourn forum and some of the perennial posters who hang out here.

I see that will be a dilemma for you and others. I hope Viking takes that into consideration when the cruises that are long can be booked in shorter segments.As you say , I also agree that higher priced stateroom should have better ability to book earlier than other lower price staterooms for some of the best optional tours. I do miss the old days of vibrant roll calls when someone would organize a private tour and many would sign up on the roll call and it always worked out for everyone. But that was before pandemic and on other cruise lines. In my case, I am sailing on a cruise "ScenicScandinavia" that is only being done twice in 2023. Back to back 10 day cruises in June. Did get all the optional tours we wanted while booked in a DV stateroom.

Looking forward to your wonderful report all through April ! Your two are such great travelers.

Looking forward to your trip report and photos! Love the pictures of the green flash of the setting sun. I have seen it a couple of times at Mexico resorts overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

I want to welcome you to Cruise Critic and the Viking forum . Your posted Viking cruise is a wonderful itinerary. I have been to all those ports except Troy. I can believe that your friend was so disappointed in not getting the Viking excursion he wanted.I would have been too. My second time at Ephesus , I wanted to go to the archaeology museum but it was closed for renovation. I was so disappointed. . I suggest you book the optional Viking tour to Ephesus which includes the Terrance Houses rather than the included one. . Better yet, hire a private tour guide. I did this the first time we went to the port near Ephesus. The guide met us as soon as we got off the ship. We got to Ephesus before any of the tour buses. We started at the top of site and walked down with wonderful explanation of the various parts of this wondrous site. We then went into the Terrace Houses. At that time it was a working archeology site and saw the fabulous mosaics of these wealthly houses of the Romans. . We then ended at the great library of Ephesus. .By this time ,the whole site was full of tourists. As we walked further we saw the amphitheater that Paul preached in when he visited in ancient times. CC port of call is a wonderful resource for specific ports of call. Here is a thread by an expert about all thing Roman and Greek. She is a a wealth of knowledge. Post your idea there about what you want to see when you are in port. Good luck. you are doing all the good research before you go. You will love this Viking cuise and all the ports you will visit.

What cruise and excursion are your particular concerns? Maybe some who post here can share their experiences about this excursion .

As Heidi 13 just posted: everyone will be able to do an include excursion but maybe not at their first choice time. I will be on a" sold out" cruise in June. Last week those of us in DV staterooms booked our excursions. Many of the included ones had times of :8:30, 9:30, 11:45 even 1pm. Two of the included exclusion we wanted had the 9;30 slot were sold out. so we picked 8:30 am. There was one optional tour that was sold out. It was a tour by private yacht of various Swedish islands !

Spain has interesting architecture and cites to explore, with a dynamic history of various regions and it peoples. It is endlessly fascinating. Thanks for the pcictures, it bring back memories.

We stayed at El Convento near the catherdral and a couple blocks up from the "Red Door" in old town. It regionally a convent and hd has a beautiful inner courtyard withe rstaruant. a roof top pool and they have wine happy hour for all guests !. We took a taxi to the pier with all our luggage.