id4elizabeth

1 hour ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

 

Please contact Viking directly with these questions. They will be happy to answer all of these questions for you about their policies and procedures. We can't be responsible for giving you accurate answers since we aren't the ones writing these policies and procedures.

 

Call Viking at 1-866-984-5464

Funny - Viking hasn't answered any of my questions whether on Live Chat, calling them on the phone, or  emailing via tellus@Viking.  All I get to any question is "we're still working on that", "soon", "we don't know", or "we'll email you when that becomes available."  

Wouldn't that be nice - ShoreX to book!

I spoke with a Viking rep this morning and she told me 928 passengers were aboard the Sky for our sailing on July 17.  That's not 75%, but FULL as in FULL capacity.  She said that early on there had been discussions about reduced capacity, but that they had decided that their Covid protocols were so excellent they could load up to the max.  I asked how that was going to work with social distancing in common areas like dining and she said they were extending restaurant hours to accommodate all passengers.   I guess that means some of us will be dining at 3:30 and others at 10:00.  Now, having been led astray by Viking reps recently on any number of issues, I'm not sure I believe what she told me, but there you are.

Aww shucks!  Why was this moved?  It was great where it was!

Good to know - thanks!

Regarding short excusions -

In some ports we're there for 8 to 9 hours but the excursions are 2 to 4 hours long.  Does anyone who's sailed with Viking know if we can sign up for multiple excursions on the same day?  When it's time to sign up do you recall if you sign up for a specific time slot, or just for that particular day with no control over when?

Supposedly the Westman Islands have the largest concentration of Puffins in Iceland, at least according to one of the guidebooks I'm reading.  Wonder why they didn't mention them.

Note: the regular Viking website has updated the shore excursions for the Iceland Natural Beauty cruises, including the excursion options in the last 2 ports.  Still can't book, but at least there's more information listed

Note: the regular Viking website has updated the shore excursions for the Iceland Natural Beauty cruises, including the excursion options in the last 2 ports.  Still can't book, but at least there's more information listed

Some thoughts about going directly to the Blue Lagoon from the airport.  I was reading the Blue Lagoon Terms and Conditions today and if I'm reading correctly you will not be allowed in the Blue Lagoon or any of the Hotels, or the Spa or restaurants until you've gotten the ok test results from your covid test at the airport which might take as long as 12 hours.  Now hopefully this changes.  We currently have a reservation at the Hilton in Reykjavík,  but I was thinking of changing that to a Blue Lagoon hotel so we could enjoy the retreat spa while we're waiting for check -in.  But this may not be possible.  I have a question into the hotel at the moment and will let you know what I find out.  So, if u r just planning on hitting the blue lagoon, and you don't have the results back from your airport  Covid  test, they might not allow u in. 

Now all this appears to apply to the general Covid restrictions before the vaccinated passengers became exempted in general.  So perhaps this will change hopefully soon.  Just wanted to make you aware of the Ts.& Cs of the Blue Lagoon

Someone in one of our groups was going to stay at a Lagoon hotel right from the airport and he may know more about the situation.  If you're reading this and have some insights please let us know!

Please ignore my previous message.  The article about the 4 people appeared in my newsfeed and I didn't check the dates.  It was a month old!  So the small outbreak was contained and all is well.  I sincerely apologize!  I will be more careful going forward. 

Just heard on Icelandic news that 4 people have just tested positive for Covid after a British man with Covid went to a concert with 800 people in Reykjavík.  Four doesn't sound like many but there have only be 9 cases in total up until now.  Hope this remains contained! 

We got an ADDITIONAL $300 for booking while onboard, but we were on a 50-day cruise and that might explain the higher discount.

We've had excellent experiences with Viking's laundry service. If you request hangers, things like shirts and jeans come back on hangers instead of folded. I do my own underwear in the sink, but jeans, shirts and heavy socks go to the laundry. They did not offer dry cleaning.

Great review Hawkmoth! Your experience with shore excursions was about the same as ours.

Very cool! Going to give this a try. Thanks!

We went down to the ShoreEx desk when we first got our "group" numbers on the tickets. They were able to tell us the times for each of the groups for the whole cruise. Some of the times had changed from morning to afternoon, or from early morning to late morning, totally messing up our private afternoon plans. (It was NOT due to different docking times.) In one case we had been changed to a totally different tour for no apparent reason. It took quite a while to straighten out, but eventually we were able to get all our original tours and times.

So, to reassure you about my granddaughter's wedding that seems to have started all the wedding nightmare stories, my camera doesn't even have a flash (haven't bought one yet), I stayed in my seat for the whole ceremony (but as grandmother of the bride I was on the first row, but not at a particularly good angle), never lifted my camera above eye level, and NEVER stood in the way of the professional photograper! As a matter of fact, part way through, the photographer asked me if I would take a pic with her and the bride and groom. I never asked anyone to "pose" for me - everything I took was candid. After family and friends saw my pics on smugmug, a typical response was, "I didn't even know you were taking my picture." My camera is an A7ii and I had my Sony FE 24-240 mm lens. As the grandmother, I TRIED to be as dignified and unobtrusive as possible!

Great article Dave! I was just at my granddaughter's wedding taking tons of pictures and wondered whether I missed some enjoyment by trying to capture the moment with my camera instead of my heart. But, it seemed to me, I was more aware of what was going on than others who were with me. What I can tell you is that when I posted 96 of my best pics on Smugmug for family and friends to share, everyone was glad I was snapping away. Not that my pics were as good as the professional photographer, but I did capture some magic moments the photograper missed.

A way out of the Bergen issue would be for Viking to change their itineraries slightly to begin and end cruise segments in Oslo. Many more flight options and hotel choices and so much more to see. Don't know why they are so wedded to Bergen.

There's nothing wrong with the Freyja products - they have a very, very light scent. If you don't have a good sniffer (nose) you may think they're unscented. They do the job. I did find the Body Lotion is non-greasy and sinks into the skin quickly, but for my old skin, did not provide enough moisture, so had to go buy something else while in port.

Missed my L'Occitane a lot!

This year for our Viking river cruise, suspecting that it might be Freyja, I brought my own L'Occitane soap and body lotion, but used the Freyja shampoo, conditioner and body wash.

On our cruise (50-day maiden) there was no separate tip for Cruise Director. We just got back from a Viking RIVER cruise, we asked for envelopes as opposed to the auto gratuity and there was one envelope for Staff and a separate one for Program Director. On the Oceans cruise we only got one envelope that said Gratuities - no separate one for Cruise Director.

Spa staff are tipped separately.

For the local guides and bus drivers, we tipped the recommended amount for half day tours and double for full day tours. Did not tip based on costs as most are "free". We adjusted up and down based on quality. We tipped in either local currency, Euros or US$.

Tipping in the Spa is confusing. My info is from the maiden cruise, so things might have changed. There is a 15% service charge automatically added to your spa treatment price. I took this to be the tip. However, the manicure lady told me this all went to the spa and she didn't get any, so if I wanted to tip her, I'd have to add a specific tip. I was not liking this at all so went to Spa Management and was told the "service charge" does go to the staff, but it gets divided up among them all. So the manicure lady was not being entirely honest. Yes, she only gets a portion of my service charge, but then she also gets a portion of everyone elses' service charge.

So, if you do want to specifically tip your person, when you check in, you can ask that the "auto service charge" not be added to your bill, and then in the tip field you can put in 15%. You can also leave the 15% service charge and add a few more bucks as a "tip" on top of that. But I strongly suggest you not do what I did the first time and leave the 15% service charge on and add another tip of 15% for a whopping total 30% gratuity.

In any case, whatever you decide, it gets added to your shipboard account. You don't need cash. You are correct in that the spa staff is not part of the general ship staff's gratuities.

As far as other services offered, there is a small beauty shop where you can get a harcut, manicure and pedicure. If you are on the Star, apparently they did not engineer in enough ventilation in order to handle the fumes to do hair coloring or acrylic nails or "shellacing". At least that was the story we were told. If you are on the Sea, they might have fixed this problem. They also offer a nice men's shave/facial. Payment is made to your shipboard account.

As mentioned, the toiletries are Freyja.

Anyone know how Notre Dame Cathedral is holding out?

Freyja products are definitely made exclusively for Viking. On our maiden cruise on the Oceans Viking Star, we listened to a lecture given by Torshein Hagen, the owner, how he specifically designed the tubes of the product so that you could read them without getting out your reading glasses. He also described how they're color coded - one tube is dark blue, another light blue, one white one with a white cap and a white one with a blue cap. Be careful to look at the caps of the white tubes carefully as one is the Hair Conditioner and the other the Body Lotion. The tubes themselves are much larger than you normally get in hotels. On the back of the tubes in fine print it says "exclusively made for Viking" and as I recall it was made in Germany.

As far as the contents of the bottles, they are fine. The scent is very mild, and if you don't have much ability to smell, you might not pick up any fragrance. The shampoo lathers well, the hair conditioner gets out tangles, and the body wash gets you clean. The body lotion is not greasy and sinks in quickly, but in my opinion not all that effective. But to be clear, I have old skin and need more moisture in my body lotion.

My only real disappointment is that I really LOVE the L'Occitane! I use it at home, having first been introduced to it on a river cruise.