Twitchly

I know, I’m weird, but I’m loving the snow. It brightens up everything and makes the indoors feel cozy. If it’s going to be winter, I want snow.

The Bay of Biscay gave us a pretty dramatic ride, too — but that was on a clear, sunny day. Can’t imagine it in a hurricane!

This would be my husband’s philosophy. So I do all the planning, and he gets to enjoy the fruits of my labors. Works for us. That said, I don’t particularly enjoy planning anything other than vacations. Deciding what to do this weekend? Meh. Let’s wing it.

I like hearing about lots of details because it makes me feel like I’m already on vacation. That’s the joy of planning for me; it extends the experience.

There are worse occupations than traveling the world in search of the best Mai Tai. 🍹 Based on my vast experience, I’d like to nominate the one served up by Tahiti Nui in Hanalei on Kauai. Perfection. (FWIW, Viking’s was pleasant but didn’t really taste like a Mai Tai to me.)

I guess I don’t really understand why Viking doesn’t just bake this gratuity charge into the cost of the cruise (as they apparently do in other countries outside the US). They could make it a marketing point to say that gratuities are included, “which go directly to the welfare of staff, above and beyond payroll,” or something like that. I don’t get the lack of transparency around where the money goes, either.

We loved Monet’s Garden and Rouen. Even more than the Alhambra. We were there in April, and it was a riot of color. The excursion also included the best meal we had on the entire cruise, which was at a repurposed mill. Great cruise.

We found we had to remind waitstaff frequently. DH’s allergy (licorice) was not listed on the form in My Viking Journey, and it’s unusual enough that some of the staff weren’t familiar with it. In retrospect, we probably should’ve spoken with the restaurant manager first thing, as Heidi13 suggests. That said, the Chef’s Table was especially accommodating; they would prepare alternatives for him if there was even a slight chance of a dish containing his forbidden food.

On your cruises, did you ever see anyone put bare feet on a table used for food? Genuine question. We never have. (Thankfully.) This thread poses an interesting dilemma. Just what is the best response to seeing bad or thoughtless behavior? Kvetching about it on social media can feel good, but it probably doesn’t change anything. Is there a kind yet effective approach that others have discovered? (Emphasis on kind.) If so, I’d love to hear about it.

Ah, one of my pet peeves. Interestingly, I mostly notice this behavior among people over 50. Maybe because younger people don’t use phones as phones as much, I don’t know. It’s easy to focus on and remember just the negative. So I’m glad to hear the majority of your fellow cruisers were considerate. That’s been our experience, too.

Me too. Quite got my hopes up! 😄

We were there with Viking’s BIE cruise in September 2022. As I recall, they did not offer anything like Norway in a Nutshell. I would do that on your own. As for Viking offerings, I would recommend the trip to the Norwegian farm and the excursion to Edvard Grieg’s house, especially if it includes a concert. The concert was a real highlight of the cruise.

We’ve had 2 GTY PV rooms. The first one got assigned within just a few days of booking, nearly a year before sailing. The other was assigned a couple months before we sailed.

Not a biofouling issue, but it seems like it would make sense for smaller towns to ban larger ships, and for them to keep the number of daily visits down even for smaller ones. If you’re sailing on a massive cruise ship, you should expect to only visit areas that can accommodate massive ships without losing their character and wrecking the quality of life for their inhabitants. I guess cruising is just getting a little too popular for its own good.

Most people wear robes over their bathing suits en route to the pool. I don’t recall seeing any changing rooms nearby. Can’t see anything wrong with doing the same for the spa.

Made its way into the NY Times today. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/02/world/australia/biofoul-cruise-ship.html?unlocked_article_code=OrR0ZoayLHFOzzkJ4Ax9zGuLRALItHwn8hFc_AaIGnVcf8_sxJjRGCVCdO-Gz4whbAVzo_9v4mebqjNP3ncqISqMzszKO8weHRTkZnE2mehmR29Hynrblp-L-mdYLyOhZzQJiNlwnr_ismJWZNHFzpyCd6VEUKHj1rko4W4xou9TirMgzGDFhT6-rkU7kkqWh6uGPTcgMjz9WusRdI6wVXUjLjYLBItgXrNJIt_T8MuLRtLOUQxJHz69iJ53PLMTiBe0iaTAGDAnQINSqoxHIWRUAFe7Cfed6JYDVQNSbeVegupKlsb0Vv_M0mlOioIksSKmxFQjfyiU8KFYe1unIGZFoMaa&smid=share-url

Not at all. But thanks to this eye-opening thread, this foreign pest will travel there overland rather than by ship, if we ever do get to go.

What a kind offer! We would love to see New Zealand some day. (Though not, I think, on a cruise.) It’s on the bucket list. If we do, we will get in touch!

I think we’ll pass on cruising to New Zealand.

On our British Isles cruise in September, when Viking determined conditions were unfavorable for us to go to the Shetlands, they took us instead to Stavanger, Norway. So sometimes they do find alternatives.

And being in the wrong career, which this individual clearly was. I discovered early on that I could never, ever work in the service industry. I am in awe of most of Viking’s extremely courteous and friendly crew. I couldn’t do what they do in a million years.

I’m thinking the handle “Viking-nightmare” is a clue as to their intended longevity in this forum. Not casting stones here. There was a point where I would’ve been happy to post to any refrigerator discussion group under the name “LG-Is-a-Pile-of-Steaming-Pig-Feces.”

See this thread: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2787438-hair-dryer-question/

As others have said, you would need to check to see what each country’s policy is regarding CBD. Here’s a start for Europe: https://www.theextract.co.uk/is-cbd-legal-worldwide/ . But rules change, so you would need to do further research to get the most up-to-date information for each country you’re visiting. Seems like way too much work to me, but I guess it depends on how badly you want to bring those gummies. I can recommend a long walk and a cup of warm milk before bedtime as an alternative.

You can’t really go wrong either way. We’ve stayed in PV rooms and have cruised with and without the drinks package. We spent more with the drinks package than without it, but we had a lot of fun with it and would do it again. It just felt nice not thinking about running a tab because everything had already been paid for. With the package we definitely drank more than we otherwise would’ve — I think I tried every red wine they had — but managed to avoid falling off the gangplank.