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chipmaster

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About Me

  • Location
    8% time in the air, ~380K air miles/year, till COVID
  • Interests
    Between honey to do, dad to do, Moore's Law to do, fitness & vacations to do no time for much else
  • Favorite Cruise Line(s)
    Haven't taken a cruise line I didn't like! So many ships so little vacation time :(
  • Favorite Cruise Destination Or Port of Call
    Yet to sample them all, so I can't decide
  • If you have a personal or hobby CRUISE or TRAVEL BLOG, include the url here:
    I am a photographer, got lots of pictures on a few sites/blogs, just ask me and I will share ;-)

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  1. Good advice, we recently completed a 15 day viking and booked many attraction tickets directly. When you do a search what comes up at the top is ALWAYS commercial sites that cost more. As noted all companies and attractions have their own site and they are always cheapest. We did find we had to use a reseller a few times for show tickets, museum as the time we wanted were sold out. We worried a bit about if they were selling counterfeit but in our case was all good, YMMV.
  2. I didn't do the NCL, but seems Viking offered similar. Even on the boat the excursion desk had little clue to the exact schedule. Upon badgering 🙂 the produced a hypothetical they would show us for the eventual Excursion we did take in Florence. Than when we got on it we discovered they were doing it in reverse!. I don't have a good recommendation for how to balance a ship excursion with pre-bought tickets to a museum or other. I do know there are a bunch of second hand resellers. We used that for the Academia on one day. Was a small premium but they had limited tickets and their agent was standing right outside the entrance and each allotted time hour had what looked like between 5-10 customers. Sadly for the Ufizzi we didn't have that option and had to wait about 30' in the no preserved line. Good luck
  3. I guess I party too late in the night on vacation to want to do 6am, LOL. I only do that when I'm working, I'm on vacation 😉 I'd be curious what the gym crowd at 6am is on Viking
  4. Don't go cheap, make sure it has what you need and is well built. Nothing worse than buy-in cheap and paying twice for it. BTW on our recent cruise we heard many stories of people getting things lifted from my ship. Not sure if it was the demographics or what. Even I lost something, luckily it was replaceable, my backup phone, thank god they lifted the "wrong" one.
  5. My final thought after our first Viking, we found it a good value and deserving of whatever they have been able to market as the "best smalll cruise". When we reflect back on the food, entertainment, ship and intangibles of the experience as well as the port offering for the included we have no regrets with the money we paid nor the choice going with them for our recent cruise. They have a niche, and hope they can hold that niche as I would sail them again if that is the niche I'm looking for on my next cruise, YMMV We had the chance to mingle with a few couples on the tour shared meals, on board, and during the social time. I wasn't surprised by the average age, but more the actual backgrounds. But I don't cruise necessarily based on who my mates would be, but I know if you are looking for a certain ambience than your mates become part of that consideration and Viking might not be for many people.
  6. We just got off our first cruise. I see no problem with the auto add, and then for the waiters and our room steward we gave them something extra when we saw them at the various dining venues or during the cruise for our steward. BTW they were all excellent, was an amazing environment!
  7. Aren't the gratuities for the crew of the ship? For excursion those are dispensed from what we saw to the guides and drives at the end of the tour.
  8. We took our first viking after sampling so many other lines. As to the value that is one debate versus the mainstream line, but wouldn't hesitate to make this our 1st choice for a SO only cruise. As to the merits of a public versus private. I can't see this will make the experience any better on ship. If anything the need to report quarterly finances can't be a good thing fundamentally. On our cruise we were told how wonderful the crew retention rate was > 97% was the number claimed. I can't imagine this going up once they are a public company!
  9. Very limited, on our cruise was 6am to 8pm. All I know it was shock to me how early it closed, but again given the demographics maybe not. We wanted to use the spa facilities after an early dinner CLOSED *****! I wanted to do it late after a dinner and before the Super Bowl onboard at 12:30 am, CLOSED. Pretty much unless you skip time in port or some other thing, CLOSED.
  10. Just got off a European, there were lots of duty free in port right at the dock. I'd never buy from the ship what you can get in port for cheaper and more selection, just saying...
  11. Cruise ship amenities vary, but some provide robes others don't. Cruise ship layout varies and for some the pool are mid and aft and spas are top at the front our back so using the spa facilities can be hit or miss. You are on a cruise, I've never seen any issues with strolling in flip-flops and swim suite with a shirt for guys, or towel wrap. For women a wrap or shirt thrown over the suit. In the warm weather cruise you see a lot less modest people too, wander to and fro, LOL
  12. Well good for the crew. I hear after the restaurants close the crew also works to clean it. Neither is relevant to me. i have never been on a cruise where the gym hours were so short and limiting. I appreciate most of the demographic spends little to no time exercise, Still leaving it open probably late and early probably not going to impact nor limit the crew. I did squeeze in some workouts and would have no issue working out with the crew over the other passengers.
  13. A couple things that could be considered that is probably consistent with the old folks 😉 Longer gym and spa hours, not everyone stops and goes too bed that early
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