FoggyEthan

I'm looking forward to seeing your comparison. Although I'm not drawn to Seabourn because of the more formal feel, I've been looking into Oceania for one of their Japan-intensive itineraries. These types of itineraries appeal to me quite a lot, and unfortunately Viking doesn't really do them except a few limited places like Norway. Which explains my upcoming 3 week itinerary with 11 unique Norwegian ports, 2 being overnights. My frustration with Oceania was the stateroom quality, especially the tiny bathrooms and showers and lack of even a loveseat or comfortable chairs to sit on in many rooms, even the low-end suites. But I'm sure I'm not the only one to notice this.

My shorex for July 29 and Aug 5 sailings posted a week ago. It sounds like it's not consistent from sailing to sailing. And like Ms. P so sagely said: make sure you slide over to a port day in the middle of your sailing and see if any shorex pop up!

If you are someone who prefers private tours, I don't think Viking will change that for you. Most tours will be middling sized groups of 20+, and the guides are going to vary in quality. You'll often be using radio audio devices to hear your guide. Read the tour descriptions very carefully, since often they will mention sites but you may only be driving past them. Also, Viking seems to be charging an 80% mark-up, or at least that's the math I'm doing on my upcoming trip when I could figure out what operator they are using.

First, that link to thepreismans.com was fabulous. They went to a lot of effort for that! Starting off by acknowledging that this is entirely subjective, I would describe Viking's food as "playing it safe". They would rather present food that (upscale) Americans are used to than take a chance. From thepreismans I think you could see that there was often one choice that had some spice / edge to it, but most were safely in the Continental Cuisine realm. I have only sailed Viking once, admittedly, but this was also my sense of Viking in general. Everything about the ship was designed to be comfortable, rather than exciting or challenging. Nothing wrong with that; I'm just setting expectations. e.g. the musicians stayed within fairly predictable bounds.

Oh ok, so if they say "2 hours @ 2pm" they probably mean that you tender from the ship earlier than 2pm, so it actually starts at 2pm. Thanks, that's what I was trying to understand! 😎 I will check. I think they won't care because the Viking ship is likely stocked from Norway or other EU countries. But I'll check.

The catch is that I need to buy the excursions in advance -- it's competitive out there! 😎 -- before I'll know what the tickets have to say. Thanks for your advice on Longyearbyen! I'm looking forward to it. And as you say, packing a lunch and carrying it with me is always an option. I'll be sure to bring some ziplocs with me for flexibility.

In Longyearbyen proper getting food should be great, like you say! But the port is 20-30 minutes walk from town, and if my returning excursion brings me to the port and the next one departs from the port, then that's a lot of lost time and I'd might as well just tender back to the ship.

Ah, that's the magic, then. iPhone-to-iPhone messaging is data, not text message. We're in an era where text messages are used to send 4 or 6 digit codes and without those codes it can be impossible to log in to websites or get basic business done. It makes me nervous to be gone from home and maybe not be able to promptly fix a problem with a financial account!

At a tender port, is the start time for a shore excursion the time you need to be waiting in the theater, and the end time the time you are back on-board Viking after return tendering? i.e. is the apparent time for the shore excursion actually approximately an hour longer than the excursion's real total time, because the first and last half hours are eaten by tendering? I'll be in Svalbard / Longyearbyen for 2 days and sadly we'll be tendering. (Surprising since no other ship is listed as being in port that day.) I'm trying to figure out what shore excursions I can combine, perhaps by not returning onto the ship, just staying by the dock. Bonus points if you know if Viking will provide regular shuttles from the dock into town, and whether there's any way to get a quick lunch (sandwich?) at the port without tendering back first. Thanks! -- Ethan

You ported your USA home phone number to the Airalo e-sim, and were then able to receive calls and texts that went to your home phone number? From the Airalo website: For most Airalo eSIMs, you will not be able to make phone calls or send SMS text messages, as our eSIM packs provide data only. And if you port your home phone number to another SIM, your home cell phone provider will close your account immediately.

Was there some way to continue to receive texts sent to your home phone number after you disabled the main eSIM? Or did you just accept that you would lose the texts? For me with Verizon, for $100 I can get 30 days of international use of my phone. I realize that Airalo is much cheaper than that, but if Airalo would mean that texts and calls to my home phone would be lost, then I'd rather pay $100.

I'd thought you were talking about the "Private" pulpit rock cruise! Viking is offering a supposedly private option, $839pp, but they don't tell you how many people will share the private cruise with you. I've learned not to bother calling Viking to ask questions about shore excursions -- two separate people insisted they don't have any info beyond the listing. I've written down Rodne and will keep it as an option for us! We're considering it. Stavanger's excursions are a bit frustrating because they all seem to leave in the morning, so no opportunity to combine multiple excursions. At least for the options I was interested in. Can we walk to Rodne's boat from our Viking ship?

Hey all! I'm trying to find comments for two food-based shore excursions. I couldn't find any posts about them. Has anyone done Oslo for Food Lovers or A Taste of Stavanger? I'm really curious about how many people are on these excursions, and whether they also serve as a good city tour.

Sorry -- you can receive calls and texts, but not at your normal USA number.

Depending upon your carrier and plan, you may be able to tell your phone to create a "hotspot". So first turn off wi-fi on your phone, assuming you are near enough to land to have cell phone connection, then turn on the hotspot. Your phone will then create its own local wi-fi network and relay it automatically via cell service. So with this you can have your laptop connect to your phone's hotspots and get the higher speeds. Of course, be certain that your carrier won't charge you a fortune. My plan has it included. I looked into Airalo and those e-sims you can pre-purchase. The catch is that they won't tie into your existing phone number, so you can't receive calls and texts. Text messages that are undelivered can be deleted by your carrier after just a few days, so you may permanently lose texts that the sender assumes have been delivered. This isn't a deal-breaker for everyone, but for me I'd rather spend $100 and get to keep my home phone number. -- Ethan

Thanks, and yes, no Haven restaurant. The charters get the older ships in the off-season.

Hey all. I'm slated to sail on a Sixthman-charter cruise and we splurged on a swanky Owner's Suite. It seems like the Butler and Concierge services are a subset of what NCL normally offers? I'm hoping that our expectations could be set realistically. e.g. will we get simplified boarding and disembarkation? I remember last year's disembarkation was a line that ran nearly the entire length of the ship. Things like the escorts, sodas and free bottle of alcohol in the room, mobile phone, and the nightly treats, are missing from Sixthman's list of services. Breakfast and lunch is listed as being available to us in Cagney's. Will the food be much different than the MDR? i.e. is it mostly a quieter venue with better service? Thanks for your thoughts! -- Ethan

Data point: Nov '22 booked "Iceland & Norway's Arctic Explorer" PS1 for $12,149pp. It's now $16,399pp. That's more than a third more. It's not a glitch, because this has been true for a while now. But it's nearly sold out now, so it makes sense that the price goes up when they're confident of selling out the ship.

Thanks for the comment about Norway -- almost all our ports are Norway. Plus one in Denmark and one in Iceland. And the room snacks also a great idea.

Has anyone tried options for grabbing a simple to-go breakfast or snacks when going on an early shore excursion and you don't feel like eating breakfast first? What works well? Can the living room bar make a coffee in a to-go paper cup? Thanks!

If you can swing it, or share the cost with others, hiring a private driver for the day would give you so much more time to do what you want, drive you straight to your destinations, then take you anywhere. BTW the Vatican Museums are a place where you can go faster or slower, depending upon your preference. You could do the rush tour in an hour and a half (maybe) or stay for four. There is also a completely different path available. Instead of the long drive to Rome, there are many sights in the countryside north of Rome much closer to Civitavecchia. The papal town of Viterbo. Villa Farnese. Sacro Bosco. Montefiascone. With a driver and a guide (yes, I know, not cheap) you could see some very special places and not have to worry about the traffic and crowds of Rome. I found one on Viator that isn't private and isn't that expensive.

Ugh! What happens if they close it and you're already at the top! 😎

There is so much variation between policies that no generalization is safe to make, but... several have phrasing about a lookback period prior to the effective date of the coverage. e.g. 60 days or 180 days. But here's another catch that most people can't just figure out easily: the effective date is different for your cancellation vs interruption coverage. Cancellation is effective from when you purchase the insurance. Interruption is effective from your date of departure. So the lookback range is different if we're talking about cancelling the trip vs interrupting the trip. Mostly I'm thinking about policies that don't have the waiver for pre-existing conditions.

I agree with cienfuegos. If they opened up excursion bookings per-leg it seems like they would solve both problems. i.e. the problem of customers being lied to about the order of which cabins book excursions first. And also the problem from the new change to advance booking timelines which is disadvantaging some people on leg 1 of a multi-leg. I just double checked to be sure, and I'm on legs 1 and 2 of a cruise, which would seem good except they are separate reservations. So my leg 2 will be booking 1 week late compared to people on the full-length sailing. -- Ethan

It sounds like OP is concerned both about holding up a group and about being held up by a group. I think you have a lot of options, if you're willing to do some research beforehand. I'd suggest not being dependent upon being with a tour group. Most of your ports are in towns or cities. Learn how to get back to the ship independently, or else to the bus that takes you back to the ship. Figure out how you can summon a taxi or uber, e.g. do you have to find a taxi stand, does the city have uber, etc. This way you can start with the tour group, but if the pace is wrong then you can break out on your own. If money allows, look into hiring private guides / tours, where you can customize the itinerary however you like and it will always travel at your own pace. Sometimes you can find other people to travel with you on a private tour, and share the costs, by posting in a roll call. If you want to stick to the safety and lack of advance planning that comes with using the cruise's tours, as everyone has said, read the details in the itinerary. Often things seem to be "moderate" simply because you have to walk around. You're in Europe, so try to explore it as best as you're able!