jiminyC_fan

Luckily for us on the Star in May everyone played fair. No laundry was left in dryers. Some stayed. Some left but no one was late for their laundry. Only problem we had was that the washer was not getting soap into it. My husband jiggled the tube and voila, everyone got soap. We weren't sure how long that had been going on so I'm betting some people thought they actually washed their clothes. My suggestion is to make sure that you see suds before walking out the door.

They do BUT if you are staying at any hotel before or after you more than likely will not get one there. I wish I packed some on our trip. I normally do but spaced it out this time.

I asked that same question before we cruised. We ended up not tipping in the specialty restaurants BUT we did get to know a couple of them that took great care of us both in the specialty restaurant and also during breakfast and lunch in the buffet. We ended up giving them an extra tip at the end of our cruise.

Thanks for the info.

 

River cruise was all pay toilets.

Sure was!

Wow. I'm an extremely shy American!! Can I wear my bathing suit under my clothes, leave the clothes in the locker and shower in a private stall, taking the suit off? The idea of walking naked from the locker room to the shower causes me great anxiety!!

Yikes, I agree with you on this one! I would do everything I could think of not to be naked.

Thanks for responding. What kind of water camera do you have? Do water cameras make as good a picture of non-water scenes vs. regular cameras?

We have an Olympus Tough. It takes better land pictures than it does underwater. My "real" camera takes better pictures. My attitude was that I wouldn't want to risk ruining my good camera and not having it for the rest of the trip so a picture off my water is better than none. It isn't that big of a difference. I really think all that I miss on my water camera is the good zoom that I have on my real camera. We go to Cozumel every January so we already had the water camera. It is a few years old. Perhaps the newer ones have improved.

I brought our real camera and the water camera both. I was happy to have the water camera and did use it on our Viking Homelands cruise, not in every port but I did use it.

My pleasure, siggy. Happy sailing!

We never encountered a pay toilet on this trip. We did on our river cruise for sure.

The cabins are not designed for more that two people. As far as I know, they don't have connecting rooms either.

Anytime luvnps, anytime. Enjoy your trip!

I did the same putting tip bills in different marked envelopes to pull out for the day's tour. Leftover small bills I added to the bonus Euros cash tip for housekeeping. Didn't want to go on an ATM quest per port with limited time. Also may ATMs don't issue smallest bills so you then next need to find change. Not worth the hassle with limited time in port and many tours starting 7-8AM.

Very true!

Thank you for the review.

 

How did you manage Norled? The tour leaves at 12:15 and is 2 hours.

The ship leaves at 2.

 

Thanks

Hi, we left at 6:00. Your hours are different than ours. My suggestion for you is Rodne at 10:00. I assume you will arrive earlier than we did.

It may have been me that mentioned the tipping, who knows. But, I do know that we didn't see much of it. Many did but many did not. They would slither right past the guide and driver, LOL. We were told that USD would work fine for tipping but we used local currency. We stopped at the bank at home for all the different currencies before leaving and IMHO that was a blessing. We never had to go on search for an ATM. We could focus on the port itself. I kept all the currency in separate bank envelopes marked with the country in the safe and at night I would put back that day's and pull out for the next day. It never got mixed up and was a great routine.....for us. Just today we went to the bank and they bought back all the bills that we had leftover. The cost of doing it was minimal and it was peace of mind while there.

After thinking about it, we did have about 30-45 minutes free time. I just went through my pictures because I second guessed myself.

We did not have free time per se. They definitely tried to get the sights in over shopping. Personally, I felt it wasn't heavy bus. We did get off. All the ports started to run together so don't ask me exactly what we saw, LOL.

And you did! We all stress too much over little things...

Agree!

luvnps, I totally agree. To each his own. I'm glad you have found some useful things in my posts. I searched and searched before we left and wanted to try and get some more info out there.

We took the Historic Berlin about a week or so ago. We had zero regrets. Enjoyed it very much.

Thank you for posting this. In Stavenger, we booked with Rodne--they have a 10:00 excursion and our ship sails at 2:00--Norled shows only one departure at 12:15 which doesn't work. Did Viking use Rodne or Norled for their trip to Pulpit Rock? Did you notice if the Rodne boat returned close to when yours did? Just don't want to be left!

I had a nice email conversation with Rodne and they told me that Viking does not use them. I had read here somewhere that they do so I asked hoping it was the case. I knew if we were going to be late they would hold the ship for Viking tours but when I learned Viking doesn't use them I cancelled Rodne and booked Norled. We actually watched Rodne leave the port at 10 on our cruise and there was absolutely no way we could have made it to them in time for 10. Their 2:00 cruise was cutting it too close for comfort for us. I know port times vary from cruise to cruise and which direction you are coming from.

We, too, used Alla in SP (thanks for the recommendation, Dauntless). The smaller size group was a HUGE advantage. Like Dauntless said, it is stated in the paperwork about the tips so read everything. The three couples on our tour were upset that we hadn't booked with Alla in a couple other cities. It was a great experience.

We sailed on the Star in November out of San Juan. Let me qualify this by saying I work for myself out of my house...jeans are dressing up for me! I packed for the cruise like all others we have taken, dress pants/khaki's and polo shirts. The first night at Manfredi's I spotted an older dude (we are both "just" 50...older being relative!!) wearing very nice jeans. That was it for me...jeans the rest of the nights except when we ate outdoors where I wore shorts.

 

We are booked for the Carib/Panama Canal 15 Day in November/December and I will not be packing any dress pants. One more plus for Viking in my book!!

It will certainly lighten the luggage!

caskale, we did the same thing in one port. We had an afternoon included tour but wanted a morning one so we asked the excursion desk about it the night before. They told us they were all booked but to go down to the Star Theater in the morning and ask them. They said that it is not uncommon for no shows. They told us to follow them to the bus and we could wait as stand by. They did get us on a morning tour.

stretchcruz, too funny. I didn't think about that. We were there early, too. Why didn't you give that advice earlier?

You are both welcome. vnb2003, Norled and Rodne are both in several ports. I think they both have a ferry service as well as the fjord cruise.