Australia08

Maybe things have changed, but in January 2023, we used UBER from EZE to the Buenos Aires Hilton with no problem. It was approximately $10 and we had the ease of not having to have local currency. I do remember that we were told a particular door to use. It was not the main door where all the taxis were but we had no problem. The car info make and color as well as the license plate seemed easy to find - plus on the UBER app we could see him arriving since we were standing outside the door by then.

We flew into EZE in January 2023 and just used our UBER app. Driver was there in no time. We went to the Buenos Aires Hilton which isn’t that far from the port. I’d have to go back to see what I paid but it seemed very reasonable. And no need to worry about having local currency.

Do they also have product too? I wouldn’t want to add to my packing.

No root touch-ups? What does one do on a month long cruise?

Clay, thanks so much for posting. I love following your live trip reports! Safe travels.

Get it in writing. I was questioned about information I was given previous to my cruise (on a different topic). Once on ship I was told Viking couldn’t assist me. I told them I had it in writing that I had been told they could. Passenger service rep said she needed to see it. Luckily I’d made a copy and brought down the hard copy email for Viking onboard rep to see and she immediately said she would honor the request.

On the Octantis last February, we had no problem making reservations each morning for the Restaurant or Manfredi’s. I think most people on the expedition ships want to stay in their expedition clothes so they tend to eat in the World Cafe where the food has more options than the ocean ships. We, too, prefer sitting down in the evenings and being served. We ate in the Restaurant or Manfredi’s every night but one.

Vietnam recently changed their Evisa process to include multiple entry visas. Also, for Vietnam you state the dates you will be there. Yes, it is only a 30 day visa, but you establish the dates, not based on when you apply.

Be careful that the promo code really works for a cruise that far out. Yesterday I tried to book using the Thanksgiving promotion because the October 2024 date appeared to take the promo code. I called to see if there were better rooms and was told the Thanksgiving promo doesn’t apply to the October 2024 cruise, only the March 2024 cruise. When I went back online, it still took the promo code, with the green checkmark next to it when I put in the October cruise (green usually indicates a “go” to me). When you go to the choose a room page, it still shows the Thanksgiving promo. However, when I called another Viking agent he said there was a tiny black star next to the March date, not next to the October date. That made the difference. Seems a bit deceptive to me but at least I found out before completing the booking because we specifically wanted the included Silver Spirits since it is a longer cruise with a lot of sea days. Just be sure the promo applies because in my experience, the good promos seldom apply to cruises more than a year in advance.

We were on the Octantis for the Antarctica expedition in January in a DV2 and had 2 pairs of the nice binoculars. We were encouraged to take them with us everywhere.

The end of August, we were at the Delta JFK lounge. They were running 2 lines to get in - the Delta One line and the credit card line. They took the Delta One line first. We were in the Delta One line which of course was much shorter. We got in pretty fast. That was the first time I saw the segregated lines.

Codeshares are difficult to understand. That’s why we book our own seats using the class of.service category we desire.

I should clarify. We wanted to upgrade with miles. We’ve never found the Dollar upgrade to be good. Cheaper usually to buy business class early on. And we were not allowed to upgrade to Delta One with miles because they said the Viking class of ticket was not upgradable with their contract. Maybe things have changed but I like having control over our tickets. I can call Delta when there’s a problem and since we have Medallion status and my husband is a million miler, we’ve always have any glitches or changes addressed. I don’t have to go through Viking Air agents. Again YMMV.

We don’t like leaving the ship at those crazy early hours either. We are night owls and don’t want our last evening of the cruise ruined by needing to try to go to bed early. We also like having a nice breakfast in the Restaurant before we disembark. Otherwise, I feel like I’m losing one of my cruise days I paid for. We’re retired now so we always fly in several days early and usually stay several days following a cruise to travel to another city or just see more in the disembarkation city on our own. We’ve done lots of totally independent travel in Europe through the years so planning a few extra days is fun for me. If we’re flying across the Atlantic or Pacific I want to stay at least 3-4 weeks (again, remember we are retired). We never take early morning flights and will break up a trip if need be to avoid super long travel days. We’re lucky that our son lives in NJ (we leave our car there and visit a few days on either end of a trip) so we have more direct flight options through NYC airports. We used Viking free air with Airplus for a couple of our early trips and found we could not upgrade our tickets through Delta (our preferred airline) or we were restricted to early morning flights. I have never found Viking’s Business Class tickets to be less since we prefer Delta. Of course, this is just our experience and our travel style.

Just got back from Istanbul. We did use Uber for relatively short 10-15 minute rides in Istanbul. I used the yellow cab option in my Uber App. The rides never cost more than $5 (although I booked them in Turkish lira). The app did not give me a definite price but a range (minimum to maximum). I was basically agreeing to the maximum, but it never actually came to that much. I got an email from Uber immediately at ride’s end to verify what was charged. As I said it was always less than the maximum. The only glitch was at the end of our vacation I figured I’d use it for our ride to the airport since it had been so reliable. The maximum quote was 795 lira which was fine by us. Once we were in the cab and driving, the driver said it was a trip on the “autobahn” so he needed 400 lira more. We said no and I showed him the max on the app. He was unhappy but kept driving. At the airport he asked for the extra 400 in cash. We said no and showed him the app max total again. When I walked in the airport I noticed my email from Uber saying I’d been charged 1500 lira. I called my credit card company right away to report it. The agent got Uber on the line right away with me and they said they’d immediately have it investigated and be back with me as soon as possible. My credit card agent who had remained on the line told me if it wasn’t rectified to my satisfaction to call him again. Within 3 hours, I had a text from Uber saying that the charge had been revised to 700 lira. I was happy with such a quick response. I had heard from other travelers we met on the trip that the airport taxis in general were problematic so maybe they feel it is easier to scam on the longer runs, but my experience with Uber in town was fine.

Thanks.

Hi Vickie. We were on the previous cruise with you. Could you post menus for Steamers, Planks and Vines. I was told that each would have a 3 course prixe-fixe. Thanks.

We did Panama Canal November 2021 and they canceled Leon then. They said it was because of political problems. I don’t know that any of the cruises have stopped there in the last few years. I’m surprised they still publish it as a stop.

Our docs said Pier 22 but the ship was at Pier 30. You will see the ship pretty easily from anywhere in the Old Town.

Again, my primary complaint was being served wine in a water tumbler. Yes, I do prefer glass so we did not go to the buffet again. We found it more relaxing to go to the dining room or even pick up a glass of wine at one of the bars and then choose a sandwich or quiche at the IC. There was always room to sit in Vines during the day (even when the IC dining areas were crowded). The number of passengers (and the fact they are all adults) is probably why other cruise lines (Viking Ocean in our experience) is able to provide glass in the buffet and plastic by the pools even though they are steps from each other just like Princess.

Just a shout out to some of the exceptional crew that served us this cruise. Joe and Mahmut in the E/P lounge were so personable. We are headed to Türkiye in less than two weeks from now for a month long vacation and Mahmut gave us some Turkish language lessons in addition to suggestions on foods to try. Our waiter, Renato, and our junior waiter, Kriti were so efficient and kind (in Palm Restaurant). The restaurant manager who handled seating made sure we got a table that was quiet and allowed us the have that table on a permanent basis. His name was Xavier. Loved Bo and Junella at Crooners who made sure our final nightcap was exactly to our liking. They also scored 4 bottles of Pellegrino for us last night. As I mentioned before, we loved the location of our stateroom and our stateroom attendant, Michelle, was great. She seemed to always have our stateroom cleaned by the time we returned, no matter how irregular our schedule was. The crew is wonderful and really try to please. Of course, we find this is true of all the cruise lines we’ve used through the years. Now if only the head corporate leaders had the same ability to make customers happy. There are many types of cruisers and I’m sure a cruise line that fits every cruiser’s needs.

We last sailed Princess in Feb 2020 for 28 days to French Polynesia. In 2019, we sailed in the Mediterranean with Princess for 14 days. In 2018, we sailed Singapore to Rome for 28 days. Those are the most recent experiences. We love trivia and we also realize the game shows are big draws for Princess. We understand but we can still be sad about the disappearance of ballroom and Latin dance. Skywalkers has always been rock and pop music. Don’t think there will ever be a cha cha or waltz there. Princess makes their decisions asked on what most people want. We’re just sad that something that made cruising fun for us appears to be in the rear view mirror. I’m just reporting our experiences and preferences and we’re not trying to make others feel our way.

One complaint I have regards the ship running out of specific drink items. One wine we ordered (minor issue since there were reasonable substitutes). Of more concern was the ship running out of sparkling water. We have this every night at dinner instead of still water. We also often order it when having a drink at the bar in order to slow down our alcohol consumption. Two nights ago, our dining room waiter apologized that the ship had run out of Pelligrino (or any other sparkling water). Sure enough, later at the bar we asked and they confirmed that the ship had none. We realized that Bar Harbor was a small port and resupplying there would be a problem. But we assumed they would be able to stock more in Boston. No, we were told, they would not restock until NYC (when we leave the ship). I realize that Boston might not be their regular restocking point, but surely, whoever was responsible for miscalculating the supply needed could have picked up the extra cost for this item. We would have been fine with any sparkling water brand. This is just an annoyance, but it is a negative to us. It’s ironic since we had just received a comment card from Princess, soliciting comments about the cruise so far and it as entitled “Attention to Detail.” We chuckled and thought that someone who ordered sparkling water had definitely not been trained in attention to detail since a third of the cruise days would be without this beverage we drink daily. I think I mentioned this before, but we had missed having a bar snack when having a cocktail. Princess used to have these and I’m sure that it disappeared due to Covid, but other cruise lines have developed ways to provide a small bowl of nuts or crunchy snacks for couples to share or use individually. While we have access to the P/E cocktail snacks from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm, sometimes we want to have a drink at one of the regular bars. When walking in Boston yesterday, I saw a Trader Joe’s and we popped in to buy some cashews so we have our own bar snack. I put some of the nuts in a snack size baggie and when we got to Vines last night, I divided them discretely onto two small cocktail napkins and our problem was solved. Shouldn’t have to do this, but it worked. Again, a problem we encountered that may impact very few cruisers is the lack of a variety of live dance music. Princess used to excel at this. Club Fusion, Wheel House Bar, and Explorers all have nice hardwood dance floors. While there was one evening that the Party Band was in Explorers, that venue had been used most evenings for game shows. Wheel House has had a nice jazz ensemble, but no dance music. They have pre-recorded music in Club Fusion some nights, but that is truly uninspiring. On our last pre-Covid cruise on Princess to the South Pacific, they had a stellar duo in Wheel House Bar every evening (on the Emerald). They played a variety of music - swing, rumba, salsa, waltz, cha-cha …. The dance floor was packed every evening. They also had a party band that played almost nightly in Explorers. We miss that type of entertainment so much. We are sad that Princess has left that model. We were excited because the Party Band was going to play for the Piazza Party. The Piazza is not a good place to dance because it is small and does not have a wood floor, but we were ready. We danced two or three numbers, them the cruise director took over and it became a game show for the next half hour. After that the band only had time for one last dance. We were disappointed. Now to be fair, we haven’t found another cruise line that provides a lot of dancing opportunities. Viking only has one dance floor and they tend to just have pop music for dancing, but I guess that is the best we can expect. The era of cruise dancing seems to have reached an end. Princess drew us back because they had it, but this is just another reason that this is probably our last Princess cruise since they seem to also have directed their interest to all huge ships (the newest one having all the Royal Caribbean toys that we know we don’t want). We will be looking for cruises of 1000 passengers or less with traditional promenades. I know that Princess has a market that wants what they are selling now. It just isn’t for us any longer.

Here is a photo of the Juice Bar menu on the Caribbean Princess. Its only location is the Calypso Bar on Deck 15. When I went at 10:30 this morning, they were already out of my preferred drink so I had to get another. I’m not sure that one juicer in one area of the ship is really a good idea. It seems like it should be made available at more locations.

I did not hear of a shuttle. We had just planned to walk around the waterfront area so it as a relatively short walk to reach the nice waterfront parks. Since we have visited all the historic sites in and around Boston, we didn’t want to go in to downtown Boston. There was a HOHO bus at the dock so I’m sure that’s a way to get downtown. Many people were arranging for UBERs too.