Tom2

If you buy the Silver Spirits Beverage Package On MVJ and pay for it with ACH you get a 3.3% discount.

We have Viking Air Plus for business class seats for our May 2024 Alaskan Inside Passage Cruise. I normally book my own flights but because we have to get from Seward to Anchorage to get a flight home I decided to go with Viking Air to get the transfer. When I go on to My Viking Journey is says “Your air itinerary will be available starting on February 12, 2024”. I have other Delta Flights booked for this year and when I go into the Delta website to check my flights it shows that we are already booked first class for our return flight from Anchorage, obviously booked by Viking, but nothing is shown for our outbound flight to Vancouver. If Viking booked our outbound on a different airline shouldn’t all flights be showing up on My Viking Journey and why would they only book our return flight on Delta instead of round trip?

We have Viking Air Plus for business class seats for our May 2024 Alaskan Inside Passage Cruise. When I go on to My Viking Journey is says “Your air itinerary will be available starting on February 12, 2024”. I am a Delta Million Miler and have other Delta Flights booked for this year and when I go into the Delta website it shows that we are already booked first class for our return flight from Anchorage, obviously booked by Viking, but nothing is shown for our outbound flight to Vancouver. If Viking booked our outbound on a different airline shouldn’t all flights be showing up on My Viking Journey and why would they only book our return flight on Delta instead of round trip?

Thank you everyone for your replies. We have been to Oslo before and were doing the extension for the train ride, but don’t want to get to the ship that late so decided to go with the 2 nights in Bergen extension.  

We have had 3 Viking Cruises cancelled on us during the pandemic and figure the 4th time is the charm and have just booked the British Isles Explorer. If we take the Oslo extension and train to Bergen what time will we arrive Bergen to board the ship? I know it is a 7 hour train ride.

Thank you in advance.

13 minutes ago, jagoffee said:

Just curious, how much are they paid?  I only ask because you said they were underpaid.

This is what they advertise for housekeeping and servers:

Qualifications

1 hour ago, twototravel said:

How were the waters, rough or calm, or did it depend on the weather?

For the most part we had really calm seas although there were 2 nights that after we went to bed the ship started really rocking and rolling. I think that the Captain was speeding up to make the next port on time. Weather wise we only had one really bad day and that was Provincetown where it was cold, windy and raining most of the day.

Breakfast at the Four Seasons was great. It was a buffet in a private room just for people getting on the ship. All you could eat with an omlet station. The test was done at the hotel and they checked your vaccination record.

I would definitely recommend a cab and the ships office will book it for you. We took the shuttle and it was very disorganized and we were lucky to make our noon flight. Next time I will book a cab or uber.

The ship was suffering start up pains and keeping workers was difficult. When they restarted cruises, they had to hire almost all new staff and almost every day some staff left, one got sea sick and left, some thought the work was too hard, and some found the stimulus money was just much easier. It seems to be a sign of the times. They were constantly shuffling staff. I must say the food, when you got it, was absolutely delicious. They were short servers but it was not their problem and they tried really hard. There appeared to be a shortage of workers in the kitchen delaying getting the food out. Some of the desserts were beyond delicious. The prime rib was great and how can one beat lobster in some form almost every meal. The Lobster Bake was a definite high lite of the trip. It was nice to get away. We met some great people and almost everyone took the glitches in stride. We would definitely do it again. Of course, there were some people that complained about everything, but you find that on every cruise. We stayed an extra night at the Four Seasons, rented a car and drove to Plymouth for the day. A great way to start the trip. If anyone has any questions, I would be happy to try and answer them. If anyone is interested a daily travelogue and some pictures are posted at:  http://www.tomjed.com/index.php/gne-1

I have a final payment coming up soon on a Viking 15 day cruise and have serious reservations about making it. When I read about some of the things being talked about it is starting to sound more like being hassled than going on a vacation. We had our June Viking Cruise cancelled and were able to get a full refund. With the money the cruise industry is hemorrhaging I have got to wonder how much longer they will be able to give full refunds. The fact that Holland America just sold 4 ships is an indicator how much they are hurting. We took our first cruise on our honeymoon in 1969 from Miami to the Bahamas on Norwegian Cruise Lines 550 passenger MS Sunward. We were the only ship in the harbor in Nassau, and the straw market was an actual straw market. We had an inside cabin so small we had to step outside to change our minds but at least we had our own bathroom and had a fabulous time. Some of the cabins used a community bath and shower, and the entertainment was a limbo contest on deck. Since then we have taken over 70 cruises including a 45 pax icebreaker in Antarctica and a four-mast square rigger, the Sea Cloud, in the Lesser Antilles and stood on all 7 continents. We love cruises but I’m like Jim, I don’t think I am ready to spend thousands of dollars on a future cruise until cruise conditions get back to normal, if that is even possible. I think my frustration with this whole ordeal is starting to show.

Tom

Here is a link to the European Unions interim guidance for restarting cruise ship operations in Europe. https://www.healthygateways.eu/Portals/0/plcdocs/EU_HEALTHY_GATEWAYS_COVID-19_RESTARTING_CRUISES.pdf?ver=2020-07-01-115942-557

1 hour ago, DrJJ said:

I suggest that you submit a charge back request to your credit card. I had a similar issue with Swiss Air, filed a charge back request with my Visa card, and received the charge back into my account yesterday.

Thank you for the idea, I contacted AMX and they are disputing the charges. 

Viking cancelled our June 3, 2020 Iceland’s Majestic Landscapes Cruise on March 30. I applied for a refund and just got the final payment amount, which I paid by e-check, deposited back into my account today. I made the initial deposit, pre-paid gratuities, silver spirits package and tours on 2 different credit cards, and that has been put back on the credit cards. I initially had Viking Air but found out I could do better booking Business Class tickets direct so I cancelled Viking Air and that amount paid by e-check was previously refunded.  I purchased nonrefundable tickets direct from Delta and because I purchased them so far in advance, I decided to take the trip insurance offered by Delta. The flight was cancelled by Delta so I filed a claim. Here is the response I got back: “Thank you for choosing Allianz Global Assistance to protect your recent travel investment. We are sorry that your travel experience did not go as planned. We have completed our review of your claim, and unfortunately are unable to provide benefits under the coverage you purchased because:

Your plan excludes coverage for losses due to an epidemic.

Your insurance program provided Trip Cancellation benefits for very specific reasons. Unfortunately, cancelling your trip or having your trip cancelled/changed due to the Corona virus are not included among those reasons.” After going back and closely reading the fine print it appears that there are reasons listed to deny almost any claim submitted. So much for Delta Trip Insurance, should have stuck with Viking Air, but at least I will be able to use the e-ticket credit offered by Delta for our Viking “British Isles Explorer” Cruise next April. I have nothing but praise for the way Viking handled everything.

Tom

We did Israel, Egypt and Jordan with Viking and the whole 24 days were amazing but three of the most memorable moments were riding a camel 2 miles to the pyramids, visiting the Temple mount and Petra.

I want to book an Eastern Caribbean Cruise out of Port Canaveral for June 2021. How will I know when June 2021 Cruises will be available for booking? I have taken 2 previous Disney Cruises so I believe I can book a day or 2 before the booking period opens to the general public. I will be booking for some other family members and there are some particular cabin numbers we would like to book.

Thank you,

Tom

Thank you, I knew I could find the answer here.

We are on the Disney Fantasy June 8th sailing. How many days before the cruise can I expect to get the documents. Luggage tags, airline tickets booked by Disney etc.

Thank you,

Tom

The guides were excellent although they talked the Socialist Party line but when you talked to them one on one, they all seemed to have an exit plan to some day leave Cuba. Our guides as a whole where highly educated Doctors and Engineers that could make more off tourist tips than they could their government capped salaries. We did at least one people to people exchange every day we were in port. The ship had reserved up front seats at the Tropicana and the show was outstanding. The on-board lecturers were extremely knowledgeable and prepared us for what awaited us in Cuba. Enjoy your trip.  

On 1/20/2019 at 2:04 PM, Jan3 said:

How was the December 29th cruise to Cuba?

We are booked on the January 30 cruise and concerned about reviews regarding difficulty docking in the various ports   It appears that because Pearl Seas is a small ship they may not be able to get in due to the  larger ships with many more passengers. 

Would appreciate hearing about your experience. 

Thank you

we docked at every planned port and where we docked big ships wouldn't fit other than Havana and there we were docked next to some big ships but there was plenty of room.

My wife and I took that same trip on the Sea Bird in March 2011. Here is a link to the travelogue we posted while on the trip and a short video slide show I put together after the trip. Great trip.

http://www.tomjed.com/index.php/whales

Tom

We put the recommended ships gratuities on our ships bill and it was really the only thing on the bill because everything on the ship is free. The ship gratuities came to $440 for the two of us. The ship will tell you the recommended amount and how to handle guide and driver tips but as I recall we tipped the guide 10 CUCs and the driver 5 CUCs for each tour. They were all outstanding.

any info regarding their vegetarian and/or vegan food on board? Their website says they can accommodate special dietary needs, but any first hand experience would be very helpful.

There was a vegetarian entree offered on the menu at every meal.

We booked a Pearl Seas cruise for February 2019:)

I hope you enjoy Cuba as much as we did. The Cubans were amazingly friendly and helpful. Now is the time to go before they start allowing all of the big cruise ships in and Cuba becomes just another touristy Caribbean Island.

The Pearl Mist is completely smoke free in all public areas, rooms, and balconies. There might have been an area on one of the outside decks where smoking was permitted but I didn’t see it. I was also concerned before we left because of the availability of Cuban Cigars but it turned out not to be a problem. We changed $400.00 into CUCs at our first stop in Santiago de Cuba and then another $200.00, which it turned out we didn’t need to do, when we got to Havana. It was very easy converting the CUCs back to US Dollars before we left Havana. There is no charge converting CUCs to dollars only in converting dollars to CUCs.