Ktwofish

@deec May I ask what cabin you had on the Octanis? We will be on the Octanis in a couple weeks. Last Friday, Viking emailed and offered us an upgrade from DN3 to Nordic Penthouse (Deck 4) for $495 each. We went for the upgrade. 😊

Viking has sold us. We will be on Octanis next month!

Definitely worth posting! I had no idea Viking would drop the price so much on the expedition cruise, and fortunately we were able to take advantage.

I understand how you feel, but I understand that Viking is just trying to fill their ships, too. We booked last month (about 60 days out) and got $6000 pp off on our cruise price plus free air. We did not have any choice of cabins. We have a “guaranteed” cabin in our category or higher. Also, we did not have much choice of dates. I agree with you. If you can wait and monitor deals and can sail with little notice, you can get some great deals. If you want to plan to go at a certain time and get a certain cabin/location, you will have to pay closer to full price.

@kchand I have read comments on the FB group where Viking scheduled people to fly as you said—“north and west to go south.” Several mentioned a connection in South America before arriving in Buenos Aires. We are from your area, and we would typically fly from Tampa, but this time we opted for a 3-3.5 hour drive to Miami. It’s a late flight, so we have plenty of time to get to MIA. (We’d love to fly out of Sarasota, but the options are better out of Tampa.) In our opinion, it was worth the Viking Air Plus fee ($150 each) to talk to an agent about the exact flights we were getting. In fact, we had to pay an additional $110 each to get the requested nonstop flights from Miami (called air differential.). We also paid $100 each for air deviation to fly into Buenos Aires one day early. Also, we upgraded our free airfare to premium economy ($1499 each.) In total, we paid an extra $360 x 2 (on top of premium economy) to get the American Airlines nonstop flights we wanted. Still, the total airfare cost to us was $1600+ less ($800+ x 2) than what we would have paid booking directly with American Airlines.

Hello @kchand We live in SWFL, too, and we have decided to fly out of Miami and be assured of a nonstop flight. We had to use Viking Air Plus guarantee this. Right now, we are assigned to the Buenos Aires Hilton, but we were originally assigned to the Intercontinental. We’ll wait for our final documents for the final word on our hotel. Our flight to leave Ushuaia is at 1:00 pm, and our Buenos Aires to MIA flight is at 11:35 pm. Can’t help with the temperature on board since we haven’t sailed yet. We did Viking’s In Search of the Northern Lights cruise in very cold weather (larger ship than the expedition ships.) The temperature on board was always very comfortable with no extra jacket needed (unless you wanted to go outside.)

Hi, @wpklee . We did the same as you and booked the Feb. 17th Octanis trip about 60 days out. There is a fantastic FB group that has lots of information about the Viking Expedition Antarctica Cruises. I’ve been lurking there for over a year, but I’ve been able to quickly get lots of information and ask a few questions. Current cruisers are posting regularly, too.

@puffy Thank you for sharing your experiences!

Thanks for sharing this offer. The link would not work for me as it was for Canadian customers. I was able to find the offer in my email, though. The code/link offered a $6,000 discount on the February 17th sailing! Great deal. We are going for it!

@Buckwheel I agree totally! When I see a “free air” promotion, I look to see if there are any other perks. Maybe if I lived near a major hub, it might be different. As it is, we usually have to transfer twice before we make our destination in Europe.

I’ve never understood why those FB admins choose to turn off comments. They say it’s because it’s “asked and answered.” I thought the idea was to allow anyone to share their experience and thoughts. They will also scold people for asking questions that have already been posted. Who wants to go through a thousand posts? (Yes, I know how to use the search function but things have changed from one expedition season to another.) I’ll stop ranting now LOL

That’s unfortunate. I thought Viking had restrictions on running too early in the morning. We were on a cruise that someone ignored the allowed running times. After several complaints, the PD mentioned the problem at a port talk and said a crew member would be waiting for the person the next morning. Everyone laughed and clapped. No runner after that! LOL

@HUNKY Could you pay a flight deviation fee to fly in one day early? Maybe it would still be a “deal” with free airfare.

We are considering an Antarctic cruise, too. There is a Cruise Critic Group (Viking Expeditions Thread) that might give you more information. Also, there is a FB group that is very active (Viking Expedition Antarctica Cruises.)

@Clay Clayton What a deal! You got me looking! Just not sure I can be gone for 4 months.

Thank you for the information. That’s truly unfortunate. We booked a 2024 cruise under the $25 pp deposit promotion. We are not sure we are going to go on the trip. We were able to get the final payment pushed to 6 months before sailing since we had another cruise fully paid. If we don’t go, we are only out $50.

If you don’t mind me asking, how did the $25 pp deposit promo end up costing you $4300? Yikes!

This is all so tragic, and my heart goes out to the family of the deceased.