Cruiz'nBaers

It’s not about sitting alone in your cabin drinking, it’s more about socializing. I also like to pick up a coke on our way back to our room. I know, I can get one from the mini bar in our room, but we usually purchase the HIA package, so why would I want to pay for that package and then pay for a mini bar purchase?

I think this is the exact cruise I was referring to. The lady whose blog I followed described it so perfectly and had great pictures with it. We would absolutely book it. Thanks for posting.

No one besides me interested in this itinerary?

Quite a few years ago, maybe 10 or more, I followed along via a blog that was a cruise that went round trip to the Mediterranean and back via Port Everglades in Florida. I believe that it was in the 60 day range. We were both working then, so a cruise of that length was not possible. We have now been retired for 8 years and (of course) I have never seen a similar cruise. We love cruises that are round trip out of the US, hate traveling to Europe via air. What are the odds that a cruise like this may be on the horizon? I’m sure that we are not the only travelers that would be interested in such an itinerary.

Thanks for the replies, I guess time will tell if Viking and river cruising is for us.

Thanks, we already paid $1598 total for premium economy. They have us flying United, use a United partner for a couple of the flights. I looked up flights for our returning day, they are multiple flights that are better. They want us to pay another $100 per person to upgrade to Viking select air (?) to take control of our flights. This is in addition to having to pay for our cruise a year in advance. It’s beginning to feel a lot like a money grab to me. Not a great feeling to have before our first Viking cruise experience.

I have a question regarding Viking air. We are on the Grand European this summer, we upgraded to economy plus. My issue is on our flights home from Budapest our first flight home is at 7AM. To my that means leaving the ship at 4AM for our trip home. To me this is absolutely ridiculous. We under that getting off of a ship early is normal, but seriously, this early? The last night of a cruise is special to us, we say goodbye to the ship, friends and crew. This early leaving the ship time really puts a damper on the end of a very expensive cruise for us. Is anyone on the ship even awake at that hour? So far, this leaves me less than impressed with Viking. Anyone else have this experience?

We have been on 2 HAL cruises since the restart, 1 in October 2021 for 7 days, and on the VOV in July 2022. I expected a staff shortage on our first cruise, but in July of ‘22 I was disappointed. It is my opinion that HAL is intentionally understaffing to keep their costs down. I also believe they are cutting their inventory too close, resulting in being out of so many items. Our October cruise was very inexpensive, they were still enticing people back on board, our July VOV was not a bargain cruise, very much in line with previous VOV prices. We are booked, again, for 35 days in February of 2024 to Hawaii and the South Pacific, I am hoping that things will be much improved by then. If not, we may not be cruising with them for a while. It’s disappointing when our favorite way to see the world has been downgraded. Just my opinion.

You should put these thoughts in an email to the president of HAL. Everything you say is spot on, but, HAL is missing the mark on it all.

We have primarily cruised on HAL,but decided to try Crlebrity a few years ago. We have been on the Equinox 3 times and 1time on the Silhouette, in a standard veranda stateroom 3 times and an Oceanview once. The ships were well maintained, the cabins nice and clean . The Martini Bar is a lot of fun and the shows in the theater were definitely a cut above HAL. The food in the main dining room was on par with HAL, the food in the buffet restaurant was much better. Toward the end of the cruise, they have a grand buffet in the lido that is fabulous. Their pools are much more crowded, their drinks and drink packages are more expensive. The specialty restaurants, we tried Tuscan Grill and Murano were ok, but we probably wouldn’t buy them again. Each time we were on a 10 or 11 day cruise. The staff was very friendly, our room steward on our cruise last February was outstanding. I believe that Celebrity is a bit more expensive. We love the longer itineraries on HAL, especially when they are round trip from the US. We were on this past summer’s VOV on the Zaandam, while the itinerary was great, the ship seemed tired, shabby and a bit dirty if you looked in the corners (and yes, I look in the corners). My opinion.

You are right, some things of HAL’s loyal customers (us) have begun looking and choosing other brands. We have cruised multiple times on Celebrity and enjoy it immensely. A very different experience.

We just booked a cruise for February 2024 and purchased the HIA package. We have found it to be a good value for us. It’s not free, we are paying for it, if HAL is overselling it, do not place the responsibility of limited availability in the specialty restaurants on the passengers who have bought and paid for this benefit. This will be our third cruise on HAL since cruising started up again, we had no trouble getting reservations on either of our first two cruises. I guess we will book our 3 dinners in advance when reservations open up. We can always try to change things around once onboard. We try not to have anything reserved on the Gala or dressy nights, the MDR usually has a nicer menu on those nights. We’ll see how it goes.

I’m beginning to believe that we are going to be priced out of cruising for our vacations. We love Celebrity, but I just priced a 10 day Caribbean cruise for 2 in an guarantee ocean view room without any perks at $2700 plus gratuities of around 300.00 and 600.00 for airfare, so we’re looking at about roughly $3600.00 as a base price. For middle income people that’s a lot of money, especially factoring in the additional expenses of cocktails, shore excursions and specialty dining. Cruising for us may be a thing of the past. Sad days ahead for us.

We are new to Viking, going on our first river cruise this July. We received an ocean cruise book today that has some very interesting itineraries in it. We are interested in 33 day Hawaii and South Pacific cruise in January 2024. We have cruised Holland America, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean before, with Royal being our least favorite. Our last HAL cruise was 35 days this past summer, The Voyage of the Vikings itinerary. While the overall cruise was wonderful, so many things about HAL have taken a nose dive. After looking at the prices and considering all that is included in Viking’s fare, it seems to be priced about the same per day after adding in paying for the shore excursions we booked. Help convince me that Viking would be a good fit for us. We are retired, aged 69 and 71 and still somewhat active. Thanks in advance.

We have been in inside, ocean view and balcony rooms, enjoyed them all, some were guarantee and some we picked. One thing to consider about Alaska is the amount of daylight that seeps into your cabin early in the morning, for that reason we picked an inside guarantee. HAL generously upgraded us to an ocean view. The first morning of our cruise we were up so decided to go get some coffee. After looking at my watch we discovered that it was 4AM. Fortunately, we found that hair clips work great for closing the curtains tight, now we never travel without them.

While not being able to use on the ship, we have 2 of these and pack them on each trip where water days are involved. They fold very flat and dry quickly, they are great for the beach.

Just off the Zaandam August 13, I thought that the tub was high. I’m 5’5” tall and had to stretch to reach the floor when getting out. I prefer a shower, but, we were in the non renovated OV rooms.

I’m not a fan of the dance shows, either. We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam in October and were very disappointed with the entertainment. We have been HAL cruisers since 2003, we have also cruised RCCL and Celebrity, but the majority of our cruises are on HAL. The other 2 lines have much better entertainment and more evening things to do. We will be on the VOV in July for 5 weeks and have serious concerns about what we will have to do in the evenings. Not everyone wants to go to bed at 9PM.

We were on the Nieuw Amsterdam in October, chocolates on formal nights on a 7 night cruise. On Celebrity in February on a 10 night cruise, chocolates every night. Skimping on pillow chocolates, HAL, seems pretty cheap to me .

Your stateroom looks lovely. We were on the Zaandam in 2018 for 23 days for a Panama Canal cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Seattle, we loved her. we are looking forward to cruising on her again in July.

We were on the beautiful Zaandam in April 2018 for 23 days, Ft. Lauderdale to Seattle. We will be back on board in July for the VOV. We loved this ship, a great small ship, and look forward to sailing her again. VOV is a bucket list cruise for us.