disudds

We've been following Antarctic cruises on CruiseMapper and it appears that both the Octantis and Polaris left Antarctica a day early and didn't really go past Cape Horn. At first we thought it was weather, remembering last year's December accident, but other ships seem to be navigating fine. Anyone have any intel on what's going on down there? We sail next month and are very excited!

So do you have to actually participate in the plunge to get the certificate?

I guess Viking figured that they had a problem with the medical forms because today we received an email from Viking pointing out that we had not completed our medical forms. So, we tried one more time and it seems to have worked. Problem solved. Thanks everyone for your input!

I think maybe the process has changed. The form is an online questionnaire with no option to download. I suppose we could print it once we fill it out, but I'm not sure what good that would do. There is no doctor form and no mention of a doctor on the form. Are you saying the doctor just signed off on what you filled in? We can do step ! and 2, but we do not get an email and have nothing for the doctor to fill out. Between my husband and myself, we have submitted 7 times.

Has anyone else had trouble finishing their medical documents? We've tried several times and never get the email response that is supposed to happen. Without the email response, we also do not have a form for our doctor to complete. We've contacted Viking guest services but haven't heard a solution yet.

That's what I was thinking too and just wanted confirmation.

Does anyone know what hotel Viking uses before the cruise in Buenos Aires?

Does anyone know if the TV's have AV connections available (AV or an extra HDMI)? We'd like to be able to review the pictures we take on a bigger screen and don't really want to haul our laptop along with us. I'd also be interested in other ideas for photo viewing without bringing extra equipment along. Thanks!

I couldn't agree more about the room for discussion on CC regarding the Viking Cruises. In general, I have found the conversation here to be much more civil and less snarky than some I've seen elsewhere. Furthermore, CC has a nice mix of seasoned cruisers with good advice and those newer to the adventures in cruising, making for more interesting reading than posts about things that are easily discernable from the web. I'd love to see the conversation here picked up over the next few months as we will be going to Antarctica in 2024 and I'd love to "cruise along virtually" this year.

We were in the Haven on the Getaway in May with the upgraded package. There were several wines that were on the menu that were not available and the servers always found a suitable replacement and did not charge us if the cost was more. We started every dinner with a glass of Veuve Cliquot, which paid for the upgrade charges. We would also have our partially consumed wine sent to our cabin to enjoy either later in the evening or the next afternoon. The Haven bartender made some truly miraculous drinks which we enjoyed. We felt we got our money's worth. That said, when we cruise in a club suite in January, we will make do with the regular drinks package.

It looks like, just all the other recent Crown cruises, you will not be going into the Inner Passage at all. Has anyone said anything about that? Is there any compensation?

I was excited to find this thread today as we just booked an Antarctic cruise for 2024. I'm wondering about the air that is provided by Viking. We booked for Premium Economy and noted that the website says this might only be on international portions of the trip. That made us think we might want to book our own air to ensure we have the cabin class and seats we want, and then I wondered about the flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, and whether that would be included as part of the cruise or if we'd be on our own for that too. The reply from our TA was that "transfers are not included" but this seems more like part of the cruise than a transfer. If we can book our own air, we might want to spend more time in Buenos Aires before the cruise at a cost less than an extension. Does anyone have experience with or knowledge of this?

I really appreciate the positive posts from those who have sailed the troubled Crown as we are booked with a large family group on August 20. Because of the size of our group, changing is not an option, and we normally sail NCL and have always been happy. This will be our second Alaska cruise and we upgraded to a club suite, knowing that we'd be unlikely to repeat excursions we've already done and wanting a comfortable place to hang out. I also started a roll call and have had very little participation, which I've wondered about, and yet, none of my family is participating in that either so ignorance of CC could be a thing. So, I guess we are looking forward to a nice relaxing drive by Alaska. There's worse things in life!