id4elizabeth

The Penthouse Veranda has a lot more space, particularly storage - as in drawer space. A lot more room to move around in as well; and more area in the seating. My only caveat would be how far forward? I would not want to be in the first cabin in the bow - but several cabins back would be fine. We found the Star to be equally rocky or not rocky no matter where you were on the ship. We had a few rough seas last year, and it didn't seem to matter where you were, it was about the same. (Princess ships which is my only comparison, seem to be much more unstable at the bow and more stable at the stern, but not so on the Star.) So as long as you weren't the first forward cabin, I would DEFINITELY go with the upgrade! Have fun whatever you decide.

Thanks again everyone! I've been taking an online once a week class since Jan - it goes through June. That's what's gotten me started and caused me to upgrade from my point-and-shoot. Have learned a lot, but still have SO much to learn!

We were onboard last year for 50 days and hit every port. The walking tours (where you walk off ship with no busses involved) tended to be smaller - maybe 20 or so. Bus tours tended to be larger, pushing towards 40. One tour we had was 49 passengers with one guide - every seat on the bus was taken. And as pukekolive says Viking has the bad habit of sending the buses all out together. On several occasions, the groups were staggered leaving the ship, only to get onto the bus and wait until all the busses were full, then all the busses would leave together. As said, that makes for log-jams at the sight you're visiting.

Yes - they do use the Quiet-Vox system like the river cruises. That being said, we had about 3 guides on different tours that had never used them before and flat out refused to use them. Then we had about 6 or so guides who had never used them and had a great deal of difficulty with them.

On the bright side, occasionally we lucked out and had 10 or so on our tours. The afternoon tours tend to be smaller. I'm a big fan of private guides if you can find enough fellow CCers to go with you.

The only rooms with a bathtub are the Full Suites. All other rooms including the Junior Penthouse Suites on down have showers. The size of the showers decrease just a bit as you go down in cabin size, but all are roomy and nice. The shower heads are wonderful!

Thanks for the tips everyone! I checked out some of the links. Creative Live looks interesting and so does KelbyOne. I already have Issu on my phone and will check out the photograpy topic.

Peety3 - read the article you posted a link to and have to say HOW DEPRESSING ! ! I think I identified myself as already having started down the slippery slope... :eek:

If I forego print and just join the online world, are there particular favorite bloggers or forums that you subscribe to?

Our tour was to Canteberry and we were supposed to be back by 2:00pm. We were looking forward to exploring Greenwich on foot after our return. Alas, we did not get back until 5:30, just in time to grab a quick bite by the pier to assure ourselves we'd be ashore again in time for our 6:30 departure for the London Eye by night. We thoroughly enjoyed both Canteberry and the London Eye -- just wish we had had time to see Greenwich.

If the Christening celebration in Bergen is any indicator of what's going to take place in London, there's positives and negatives. We enjoyed the fireworks and festivities of the Christening itself, but it does cut into Viking's attention to it's passengers who didn't necessarily book the cruise because of the Christening. There were also a LOT of press corps, Viking big-wigs and other assorted VIPS who boarded for the occasion and the staff's attention was clearly focused on them - not the paying passengers. On Christening Day (during the day, not the evening) there were no activities, tours, special events - nothing. Passengers were basically on their own. In London, this will probably not be an issue as there is plenty to see and do there. We were in Bergen for 3 days and there's only so much to see and do there. So, my thoughts for the Viking Sea are that you will enjoy the fireworks and associated activities, but plan to spend the day on your own in London. Unless of course Viking is running tours that day. Also, be prepared for all the onslaught of VIPs, and places being more crowded that usual on board.

Hope you have a great time in London. We would have loved to have another day there!

Inborn traveler - as a passenger on the previous Greenwich port stop, there were some pretty severe problems with disembarking on time. Although the ship tied up on time at about 7:00am, our shore excursion, which was supposed to depart at 8:30, did not depart until after 11:00. This was not just a problem with our tour - - all tours were delayed. Our bus and guide had been sitting in the parking lot since 8:00am. About the only folks who were able to get off the ship at a reasonable time were independent travellers who got off a few at a time. The rest of us were waiting in the Theater or Torshavn Lounge for our tours to depart with no explanation.

Later, we were told various stories by Viking as to what caused the delays, none of which made sense. My own theory is that they were bringing onboard a lot of travel press corps and assorted VIPs who were sailing with us to Bergen for our Christening. These incoming (non-paying) folks with luggage and camera gear clogged up the gangways, making it impossible for us (paying) folks to get off. My theory anyway.

Additionally, the ship ties up to a floating barge kind of thing, a bit away from the shore. From here you get a shuttle boat that actually takes you to the dock onshore. The shuttle operator normally goes back and forth every half hour, not continuously. Supposedly, Viking made special arrangements to have them run more often - sometimes the shuttle operators seem to know this and sometimes not. This further added to the "shambles" as Mrs Miggins so charmingly phrased it. I would have called it something else...:o

I'm an experienced newbie to photograpy. Just bought my first "non-point-and-shoot" grown-up camera. New proud owner of a Sony a7 ii. Actually bought two lenses. I'm beginning to be comfortable taking the camera out of Auto mode.

So, now that I've spent a small fortune on outfitting my gear, I only have enough cash left to afford one photography magazine.

So my question for all you photography experts is, given my level of competence (or incompetence), if you could only subscribe to one magazine, what would it be?

Thanks!

Thanks notamermaid!

Good luck Capt Hornblower - let us know how it works out. St Petersburg is one of our favorite cities so I hope you are able to thoroughly enjoy it. Let us know if you get a solution before you leave - but don't give up - see if you can work it out at the Exploder's Desk. Just be sure and bring your original paperwork with your original times.

Before our cruise we had no luck with any issue with the LA Viking office, but after on board we eventually got what we needed at the Exploder's Desk.

Does anyone have any idea about water levels on the Danube? Are water levels on the Danube as much of an issue as they are on the Rhine? We travel from Budapest to Bucharest in 3 weeks. Thanks!

Question to Hornblower - are you saying that Viking is not providing you ANY shore excursions in St Petersburg?

If so, might I suggest contacting some of the Russian tour operators for a two-day tour. Red October, Alla, or TJ Tours. We used TJ Tours and loved their service. It's a little late for a May date, but your might be able to join an existing group. They will provide you with a blanket visa.

Don't let Viking's screw up here ruin your stay in St Petersburg - it's a fabulous city!

Captain Hornblower - I actually totally get where you're coming from. My suggestion is once you board, go IMMEDIATELY to the Excursion Desk part of the Exploder's Desk, along with your original documentation and demand they straighten it out and put you on your originally scheduled excursions. Be polite but firm. We found dealing with Viking pre-cruise was a colossal waste of time. Although the process was lenghty, we found the Excursion Desk part of the Exploder's Desk was at least willing to work with us.

I feel your pain, screen-gem, and Capt Hornblower. We were one of the first 30 passengers to book our excursions based on our cabin category, and still our ShoreEx times got arbitrarily changed. This was on the maiden cruise last year. You'd think by now, whatever "internal errors" that they had experienced, they would have had then fixed in the past year.

The good news is I did manage to get them all straightened out at the Exploder's Desk once onboard. It's not easy and I spent HOURS there, but we did get our original times. Just make sure you have your original excursion confirmations, or whatever documentation that shows what you booked. Dealing with the LA office before you leave is a waste of effort. Wait until you board and deal with the Exploder's Desk directly.

Dave - do these pictures have to be while on a cruise? Or can they just be of anything?

This is not a criticism of Viking, but my guess is that all cruise lines (river or otherwise) are overpriced. When possible, we like to do private tours with other CC contributors. Not only is it cheaper than the equivalent cruise company tour, but less crowded, and we usually see more. However, on river cruises, it's hard to find those like minded CC contributors, so taking the cruise company optional is an easy way to go. After all, we spent all this money on airfare to get there, plus the cost of the cruise, what's another $89 if it's something we really want to do?

Also, when you board, you will get printed "tickets" for each person for each shore excursion. CHECK THESE TOO and verify the times. In some cases last year, the time slots on the tickets were wrong and did not match MVJ (much less the times we had reserved). We too had signed up for the earliest excursions (we were in Junior Penthouse Suites so got to book early) only to find out from the ticket that Viking had unilaterally changed the time slot on us. It's not that there were not tours going at the times we had been scheduled - the early tours were still going - we were just not on them. If we hadn't looked at the tickets we would not have known, as no word from Viking about the change. Make sure you take all your print-outs of confirmations with you in case this happens to you too. We spent HOURS at the Exploder's Desk straightening this out on our trip.

If you have a group of 6 to 10 for your b'day, Manfredi's also has a private dining room (with a magnificent solid wood dining table). This cannot be reserved on-line, and I kinda doubt the customer service agents in CA even know about it. But you can try reserving it by going down to Manfredi's and booking it once onboard. We had several b'days on the maiden 50-day cruise and thoroughly enjoyed the private room. (I don't think Chef's Table has one.)

If you wanted to do this, I'd go ahead and reserve Manfredi's online just in case the private room is already booked. Depending on when your b'day is after Nov 17th, you might have 6 - 8 new friends who would be glad to join you.

Having been aboard for 50 days, I can't imagine 141 days :eek:

Not that we didn't enjoy it - we did - just cannot buy into THAT long a trip! Wowza!

Thanks guys - I knew I could count on you! Now, I have more to research. Last night I ended up buying "accessories" like extra batteries, chargers, polarizing filter, and big (128) SD cards from B&H - ended up spending way more than I intended. Could have probably bought a lens. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions - i'll check them out.

Today I finally made up my mind and bought an Sony A7 ii with the 28-70mm kit lens. I was also looking at the a6300, but I have trouble holding the camera steady and liked the built-in-camera stabilization, plus the full frame of the A7 ii. Now don't know what to do on the wide angle side of the equation. Any ideas / advice? Just went online and bought batteries and SD cards. More $$ :eek:

Squigmond - you're right. I was trying to keep it simple. We were going to Paris a few days early and we were willing to take a train back out to CDG airport on the day the regular non-deviation Viking passengers would be coming in, in order to get the transfer, but since we had come in early, we were told "no". When I reread my first message I can see how you thought that. I can't image spending several days in CDG. :eek:

On one Viking cruise where we had "deviated" we asked if we could meet up with the Viking transport at the airport on the embarkation day. We thought we could join up with the other Viking passengers and we were willing to pay the transfer fee. But because we had come in several days earlier, even though we'd be at the airport right there with other Viking passengers, the answer was "no."

We ended up deciding against Viking Air because of this and arranged our own.

We've traveled on Princess and we were on the 50-day inaugural cruise. We ate breakfast almost exclusively in the World Cafe due to usually being booked on the early morning excursions. We tried the dining room once for breakfast on a sea day, along with a whole lot of other passengers who did the same thing. Took forever.

However, we ate about 80% of the time in the dining room for dinner. I like to be served after a long day of sightseeing. Something about sitting down and relaxing is appealing. We usually ate at 6:30. Only once did we have a problem with service and that was when Mr Viking Owner himself had taken over the back of the dining room for a bunch of special invited guests and other big-wigs. Other than that, I'd say our service was great. Since we ate on the early side, not sure of the service later during the evening, but i'd say it was at least as good as Princess.

I realize the wording from Avalon states that your carry-on should not be a rolling one. But they state that it's "for safety reasons in coaches" I think what they are talking about is ON THE BUS. I don't see the rolling carry-on being a problem as long as you were willing to put it in the luggage hold of the bus. I CAN see it being a problem if you wanted to bring it on the bus as most of the busses we've been on have a very narrow aisle with very, very little overhead space. For that a medium cloth shoulder day bag is what we usually carry on the bus.

Our airline carry-on bag is definitely a rolling one. No way I'm going through Heathrow, Charles de Gaulle, or Frankfort with a non-rolling one!