stephenandrew

Frankly, it is rather remarkable that given the hygiene habits of many individuals there isn’t more illness on ships than what is currently experienced. Obviously one can only do so much before life becomes too difficult to navigate, but whenever practical, I avoid using public bathrooms, eating at buffets that are self serve, etc.

It is most definitely a drag having long layovers like you are scheduled for, but with the airlines being so crowded and flight delays being so frequent, maybe the extra time will be a blessing. I’ve never been to JFK….hopefully it’s a decent place to be stuck for a bit.

I started my booking with Air Plus, and after my first interaction with the Viking Air Staff (who were all very nice, thoughtful, competent) decided to just book my own airfare. Basically, at the time I called (about 6 months before sailing) they told me there were no contract air flights for my departure/arrival cities yet in their system, and might not be any for another 3 months. I saw the flights I wanted in google flights and just decided to book myself…it may have cost me a tad less going independently, but obviously, I have the added expense of ground transfers. I expect the Viking Air staff would do a good job for you, but they can only book what they have in their inventory flights at any given time.

It was United and its CEO Scott Kirby. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/united-airlines-ceo-apologizes-insensitive-decision-fly-private-airlin-rcna92171#

FWIW, I would say that some of the reactions to your posts have been less than sympathetic. When something bad happens, people are prone to emotional and potentially over reactions. Pretty normal. I find it somewhat “unkind” for others to immediately tell you how wrong you are, how right Viking is, how you are at fault for not reading the contract, hiring a TA, etc., etc. Just because someone may be wrong doesn’t mean it is necessary or useful to pile on the injured party. I think it sucks you lost $10K. If that happened to me, I’d be upset too. Move on….like all things, this feeling will pass.

You clearly have some big issues with Viking. I’m not saying you are wrong as I haven’t been on one of their ships yet, so have no first hand experience to match against, what sounds like, your multiple cruises over a, presumably, relatively long period of time. Obviously, I hope my experience will be very different than yours. It seems to me that on the whole, most of the posters here seems to still enjoy the product, not withstanding some frequently mentioned issues regarding, dining, wine, and customer service. And certainly, those are not insignificant….not trying to minimize them, but to a degree those issues are subjective. The food I hate may be the food you love. Anyway, I hope you find a cruise line that is more like the “Old Viking”. Viking, by my standards, isn’t cheap, so if you aren’t enjoying it, you should look elsewhere. I know I would. I’ll try and remember to let you know what I think when I get back from my trip.

You may well be correct. I have absolutely no idea what historical levels of advanced bookings are. And as the previous poster suggested, perhaps some of the current future bookings reflect the utilization of vouchers for past cruises that were canceled due to the pandemic. I guess over all, I see these as points of interest, rather than issues of direct impact (on me at least). Cruising to me is like pizza…some have been better than others, but I’ve never had a bad one. Ha!

Interesting point that never occurred to me. Your suggestion certainly seems plausible given the events of the past few years.

We recently booked our first cruise on Viking, and our TA suggested that we make use of Viking Air Plus. In previous cruises on other lines, I have always booked my own air, but figured what the heck. Anyway, the TA told us to call Viking to start the air reservation process, and when I spoke with Viking, they basically told me that they could not book anything for our itinerary at this point (about 6 months out) because they didn't have available flights in their system. The Viking reps were very nice, but told me that we might not have flights scheduled until 90 days out. I'm no genius, but even I can look in google flights, and I was able to find available flights that met my needs, and the costs were comparable to what Viking was charging for airfare. I just figured, what's the point of waiting for Viking to book something that may or may not meet my needs (and then having to work with them to reschedule if necessary) when I could book what I wanted now. So, we went ahead and canceled the Viking airfare and just booked independently. Obviously, we will need to pay for transfers, and if something goes wrong air transport wise, we are on our own. But things have always worked out for us in the past, and it just seemed that the benefits of Viking Air weren't terribly significant. Famous last words....we will probably be on the dock watching the ship sail away on embarkation day because our flight was delayed. Ha!

I don’t know how the rest of the industry is doing, but the article referenced that 49% (I think) of their 2024 Ocean cruises were already booked. Obviously people can cancel, but given that we are not quite halfway thru 2023, that struck me as pretty strong traveler interest in their product. It doesn’t seem like ‘draconian” deposit requirements are hurting them very much.

Yeah….I honestly don’t want to come across as unsympathetic to those posters who have expressed unhappiness about this change, or those who have shared their unhappiness about the quality of the lasagna (or insert your least favorite entree here). I get it. People have fond recollections of past events they have enjoyed and look forward to reliving them. When those expectations aren’t met, it is disappointing. I’ve been in that position. I have not yet sailed on Viking, but when I look at the new menus that have been shared, they look pretty nice to me. I think I could find something I would enjoy, and the best thing is if I choose poorly, I can pick something else off the menu. In the end, seems to me that these worrying about these sorts of changes are most certainly first world problems. I need to remind myself of that from time to time.

Viking Sea is stopping at Dominica on its 10-day West Indies’ itineraries in late 2023.

Well the good news is that based on the sizable number of negative reactions to this menu change, it should be easier to get a reservation at Manfredi’s moving forward.

I’m not much of a drinker, but if one is able to transport their own wine, this sounds like a pretty sensible thing to do. Select and drink your preferred wines….even if Viking has them available (or others that you might enjoy), bringing your own has to be a more economical way to go. Sounds like this might even make more sense if folks are noticing a reduction in the quality and/or breadth of Viking’s offerings.

Are you saying they just made a general offer of compensation? I’ve never been in that situation and would expect they would be pretty explicit about what they were prepared to offer. I suppose depending on your circumstances and their offer of compensation, this could work out really nicely for someone.

Makes complete sense about your disappointment regarding the company’s responsiveness (or perhaps more appropriately, their lack of responsiveness). Certainly, nobody likes to raise an issue that they feel is important, and then be ignored by the entity providing the service, especially when a lot of money has changed hands. Whatever your issues were, and whatever level of response you received before, I hope that Viking is able to “make things right” for you.

Makes sense….more people traveling, cruising, flying now than 20 years ago. Certainly increases the probability that “patient zero” is somewhere in that group of travelers. Coupled with the relatively confined spaces of planes, ships, etc. and seems like more travel related illness is inevitable.

I tried to read through all of this thread. Unless I missed it, I don’t believe I ever saw the OP share what his specific concerns were with the LA office. I’m totally fine with people sharing as much or as little information they want to. However with what has been shared, it’s impossible for me to make any assessment about the validity, urgency, significance of those concerns, so I’m not sure how the original post is particularly useful. If the purpose was just to make an announcement of his intentions…..ok, fair enough. Clearly the OP has many friends here, and I can see why he would want to share that he may not be around as much, and that his friends would want to know that as well. Folks can say “thanks”, “good bye”, “appreciate all of your past input”, etc…..all of which has been done here. But, seems to me that the value of these Boards is maximized when people who have an issue share what that issue is, so others can be more informed, take action to avoid problems others have experienced, etc.

I can understand this point of view.

I’m not from SF, and have not visited in many years. I read the news and was aware of the issues the city was facing, but was disheartened to see your characterization of Union Square. I completely believe you, but my memory of that area was very positive….as you described, it was an attractive, vibrant part of the city. It’s a shame.

Yeah, forgetting about COVID entirely, your point about contracting the Noro virus is certainly relevant. Washing one’s hands after handling /touching a bunch of shared serving utensils seems prudent to me. I wouldn’t argue with anyone who said I was neurotic for doing so, but seems like taking some relatively easy precautions (like frequent hand washing) don’t take much effort, and might prevent a trip to the ship’s doctor.

I think rbslos18's observation pretty much refutes pavementends' speculation.

Thank you!

Thank you. The flight options available to us are either on the early side or after 4 pm. We have no where to be after our cruise and could take a later flight, but figured if we could make an earlier flight, it might be better than hanging around the airport for 6 hours. Again, thanks.