chaunceyb

Exactly!

We are on the Viking Star in October, Ft. Lauderdale to Los Angeles. We are not real cocktail drinkers but enjoy good wines, Proseccos, and Champagnes. With that said, the Silver Spirits pkg is not a good value for us. Viking allows you to bring your own wine on board and drink anywhere on the ship with no corkage fee. Planning on buying at least a dozen great reds in Miami to enjoy during the cruise. Regarding the "inclusive" wines on Viking and for that matter Regent, Silversea, etc,. they are everyday grocery store wines, not bad, but not great!🙂 I agree with you that, even on Silversea, it was sometimes challenging to request an included Chardonnay instead of the wine they were featuring for that night. The sommeliers obviously focus their attendtion on those guests purchasing bottles off of their premium list.

www.ecminibus.co.uk

After they removed my post, I posted "....does anyone know why Viking canceled the Leon port stop?", and the Administrator deleted that post also! I opted out of the Viking FB page - in addition to this issue, most of the posts on that page are passenger photos of the places they visit and little content or photos about the ship or river boats.

You can't say "covid" on the FB Viking Ocean Travelers page - they removed my post saying it was a violation - the pandemic has made people cuckoo cuckoo😅

We live on Oahu. Lahaina is completely gone. I do not see any cruise ships being able to stop in Lahaina for probably a year or more. They are flying visitors off the island over to Oahu and housing them and displaced Maui residents in the Convention Cemter. Very sad!

We did western Greenland last month on Silversea. An ice field was blocking one of our stops but luckily cleared and we were able to enter the fjord. The Captain cancelled the Nuuk stop due to a storm system with high winds. Other than those two issues the ship was able to complete the itinerary.

We were on the small Silver Explorer this past March. Like most cruise lines that include wines, the included selection on the Explorer were of "grocery store" wines that retail in the $10-$15 range, many of which were Australian and South African wines that I had never heard of. You will NOT find a nice Napa Cab or Oregon Pinot Noir on the included list but will find them to purchase at restaurant pricing. I must say that the wine steward was very accomodating in finding the included wines that we liked! Had a decent included California chardonnay.

Our July Greenland cruise on the Cloud has charter flights from JFK to Greenland and also London to Greenland.

I guess we can all hope that they don't pull us for the random test when we arrive!🙂

Chilean travel restrictions have been lifted. On October 1st, the requirements to enter Chile were updated. Now, at the time of embarking to Chile, the person must comply with the following: U.S. Citizens can enter Chile with government-issued identification and a vaccination certificate issued by the country in which they were vaccinated. Unvaccinated travelers must present a negative PCR test taken within a maximum of 48 hours at their last point of departure prior to their arrival in Chile. Only Chilean nationals (including dual nationals) returning from abroad will be randomly tested at the airport upon arrival. Proof of Health Insurance is no longer required. However, it is recommended to travel with health insurance that has coverage for SARS CoV 2 (COVID19). Please keep in mind that Medicare will not provide medical coverage in Chile. Masks are no longer required, except inside medical facilities (clinics, hospitals, laboratories, etc.). Meanwhile, those who are under 18 years of age do not have any requirements to enter Chile.

Yes we did this tour years ago - it is a long drive out in four wheel vehicles but was well worth it seeing the King Penguin colony. On a side note they were still clearing land mines from the war when we were there in 2011.

We booked the Greenland cruise on Silver Cloud departing July 14, 2023 and Port to Port was offered which we chose as we always do our own air on United.

We bring a foldable cooler bag, fill with ice, and chill our white wines for the day - the fridges never are cold enough and they are small.

We always bring some nice bottles of wine on board and sometimes depending on ports buy some wine when we go ashore- Viking has a very liberal alcohol policy which is nice! Viking included selection of wines like most cruise lines that include wine are what one would call mid-priced "grocery store shelf" wines. Here is from Viking FAQs: Guests may bring alcohol and beverages with them, purchase alcohol ashore at destinations that sell alcohol, or purchase them from the onboard shop. Alcohol can be consumed in the guest’s stateroom or in public spaces, including the restaurants. There is no corkage fee.

Great news, one more travel irritant eliminated from the list!

https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/sinxr-the-st-regis-singapore/overview/ Really enjoyed our stay at the St. Regis a few years ago - not in such touristy area (Tanglin Road).

We were very lucky to arrive and then transit through London Heathrow Airport last week with no issues. But we did notice unclaimed luggage strewn about the baggae claim area. Now this: London’s Heathrow Airport Limits Passengers Amid Staff Shortages, Surging Demand https://www.wsj.com/articles/londons-heathrow-airport-limits-passengers-amid-staff-shortages-surging-demand-11657622503?mod=hp_lead_pos5

Again most everything about the Voyager was wonderful but they need to up their game in the included "Fine Wines" department. Our only conclusion is that some of these older wines were held over from pre-pandemic, but would hate to think they were "unloading" them on us!

Rapid antigen test is accepted, we did our test at a London testing clinic the day before boarding.

We just returned from a very nice 10 day cruise on the Voyager. Everything was great, especially the very large staterooms. One area that was a bit lacking was the included wines which Regent advertises as "Fine". There were only a couple of decent wines - a very nice St. Francis Chardonnay and a California Pinot Noir from an obscure winery. The other offerings were acceptable grocery shelf wines, but the biggest negative was that they were offering white wines that were way beyond their prime, ie. a 2016 Sebastiani North Coast Chardonnay that was definitely corked and a deep yellow color - sorry but a $12.00 bottle of wine is not one to age gracefully! Also we were given a 2018 Pinot Grigio for our stateroom that was flat. We think that Regent was just trying to unload all of their older bottles of wine as a result of the pandemic shut down - which is a bit shocking from a cruise line that sells itself as a luxury brand. Also, the many "sommeliers" in the Compass Rose did not really seem to know what they were serving.