crispy23

These offers seem to be very selective to whom they are emailed out to, we have done a number of Viking cruises and have a couple more booked and have never received any of these offers, we do get plenty of other marketing stuff all at full price though. However friends who have only in the past made a very tentative enquiry a number of years ago and never travelled with them do receive these offers and forward them on to us. Very interesting marketing!

For us in the UK a travel agent without doubt as unfortunately we have found dealing with Viking directly very hit and miss.

We were on this itinerary in July and yes there was a complementary shuttle bus that ran to the aquarium on a very regular basis I think every 30 minutes and we used it ourselves. One thing to mention is that it cannot park at the aquarium for much longer than a few minutes so when it arrives passengers board and it’s off immediately so you need to be there.

Interested reading the comments on this topic having had our dramas recently so personally cannot ever understand anyone contemplating a cruise holiday without taking sensible precautions for example being properly vaccinated. We have recently returned from a 3 week trip from Mumbai to Athens on the Mars and it sounds like the same itinerary as Pushka commented on. Unfortunately after about a week onboard I started to feel very unwell and within a short time needed to call on the ships medical services in the early hours of the morning and very quickly it was established I had a very bad dose of covid, we don’t want to think what the outcome might have been had I not have been fully vaccinated. Fortunately following guidance from the ship’s medics I did not need to leave the ship for medical treatment at the next port in Saudi Arabia which was a possibility as was quite unwell. Following a number of days of isolation I started to recover, however one interesting aspect we found strange was my wife who admittedly tested negative did not have to isolate, however she did as felt it was the correct thing to do. There was an area of concern, we noticed a lack of basic hand hygiene in particular the world cafe, very few people were washing their hands when entering, admittedly you cannot force people to do so but there was no encouragement from any staff to do so. After about a week into the cruise and coincidentally when I became ill were there suddenly tannoy announcements from the cruise director to remind about hand washing, obviously there was a problem onboard. We don’t know to what extent but did speak to other guests who had also had to isolate so something was going through the ship. The good news, I have almost fully recovered and despite our experience we have to commend the assistance we received onboard from the ship, in particular the medical team and also the room stewards. At the time I first became unwell we needed to call on the ship’s medics at 3am, we were two days from the next port so quite an unnerving experience for both of us and the manner and swift response from them was reassuring. I think the one thing we all dread is being taken ill on holiday especially on a cruise ship many miles from anywhere, the one big positive for us that we can take from this experience is that Viking did really look after us for which we are most grateful and it’s not put us off too much travelling again! We hope going forward though they do encourage more hand hygiene when entering their restaurants something we have communicated to them strongly since our return.

We are seriously considering booking the 11 day Viking Alaska cruise. We wondered what people’s views are generally and in respect of a preference in which direction to travel, also has anyone has taken the 5/6 day Rocky Mountain rail extension which is seriously expensive but does look a fantastic add on.

We are in Singapore having arrived yesterday, you are correct about the 3 day rule and we did manage to do ours before leaving home as we traveled from the UK. To reassure you if you do have problems with the timescale they do let you do it on arrival, not sure what delay it may cause you but it looked pretty well organised as it may well be a common issue. Good luck and enjoy Singapore.

Hi there, yes did notice the visa issue affected Canadian citizens also and we did see the itinerary change, it came through the other day which now includes Saudi Arabia but no overnight in Athens, this for us is not a big issue as have been to Athens previously numerous times but is a shame if you haven’t. However as you state we need visas now for Saudi and that together with those for India for us is over £500 so 🥹

Just a heads up for anyone from the UK that may be visiting India whether it’s on a cruise or not. We are booked on the passage to India cruise in May 2023 and are really looking forward to visiting some great places on this itinerary. However we need a visa even though we are only there for a very short while as joining the ship in Mumbai. Unfortunately it appears for whatever reason we cannot now get an E visa that was available up until recently but now have to apply in person to a visa issuing centre to get an old fashioned paper version. We started to investigate and learnt there are serious delays in just getting even an appointment as you cannot just show up and the whole process is a real faff! Our advice is if you are planning a visit to India investigate the visa issue sooner rather than later, for us we have managed yesterday to get an appointment but not for 8 weeks, then wait about another 2 weeks for your passport to be returned so a good job we are not travelling anytime soon.

Good morning, Can anyone within the UK recommend any particular travel agents they have used for booking with Viking please. We have in the past always used a specific agent in the north east but sadly they became a casualty during covid. We have tried contacting Viking directly but not had much success as they don’t respond to emails and seem to take an eternity to call back, they might just be struggling with staffing levels like many in the travel and hospitality industry to give them the benefit of doubt. Any suggestions greatly received.