downsmead

We are looking to visit the Jamieson distillery at Middleton. Can you pick up a taxi in Cork or is it best to prebook one, and if so does anyone know of a good taxi company to use please?

We pick a DV cabin directly across from the elevators, never been disturbed by noise.

3036 is our favourite DV6 cabin, no noise from below and also we have not noticed any noise from the elevators 

14 minutes ago, bebe08 said:

Agree with the positives already posted.  Thanks for this thread 🙂

 

We were on the Connie last month and had a great cruise!  Positives for us:

- every meal in MDR was excellent and lots of choices

- they are experimenting with making the Elite coffee/breakfast a buffet which we really enjoyed

- no photographers in your face trying to get you to pose and buy pictures

 

We had an amazing cruise!! 

The Elite breakfast use to be a buffet! Can’t remember when or why (?Covid) it was changed to waiter service. 

We did the Princess 50th anniversary sailing on the Pacific Princess which had all the stars of the Loveboat onboard. We also visited most of the ports, except Acapulco. It was a really memorable cruise 😊

We were on the cruise with Lorna. As she said Viking did nothing to celebrate crossing the equator, was not even mentioned over the tannoy system that we were crossing it, nor any certificate. I took this picture on my phone using Google maps.

Hi Lorna

We have done the Kkra falls but not with Viking. As others have said, to get the full ‘experience’ it is quite a walk down to the falls but generally easy with broad walks as shown. There are a couple of places where it can be a bit dodgy! The falls are now viewed from a distance, you can no longer paddle/ swim in the water 😞. They are beautiful. Again as has been said, the walk back to the meeting place is shorter in time but involves a lot more short, sharp uphill (steps) than going down. I think you can go back the way you come down but due to time constraints it may not be feasible. 
Croatia is a beautiful place, there are so many wonderful places to visit.

12 minutes ago, Charles4515 said:

Sooner or later, probably sooner they will send me an email with my points total. I know I won’t make it to Zenith because my future cruises won’t all be on Celebrity and I am cruising less often.  

I have never had an email telling me my points total. I only ever know if I sign into my account.

2 hours ago, -Lew- said:

 

We're on the Sky cruising the Med and were charged $17US per night for gratuities for the first segment of the cruise.  Billing is done in US dollars.

It differs between Ocean and River cruises.

55 minutes ago, kcpvwill said:

I’m expecting to see the Holy Land cruises in November significantly altered in view of the situation happening there. In the UK our Foreign & Commonwealth says:

 

FCDO advises against all but essential travel to Israel 

 

so this would invalidate insurance.  I haven’t seen any announcements on Viking website, but the instruction only got posted late yesterday.  
 

Has the US got similar instructions? 
 

We were originally booked on one of these cruises but changed our plans when the problems flared up several months ago.  
 

I hope things calm down soon for the poor people of the region.  

They have cancelled the Jerusalem pre trip stay for those on the Nile cruises and have rearranged flights direct to Cairo. All cruise ships have rescheduled their Israel ports, when is the first Viking cruise due to visit?

1 hour ago, Nixieh said:

Sorry fr delay in updating. Am so thrilled because a lovely customer services guy managed to swap the dates for me this morning to the date I thought I had booked and only paid what I wld hv paid yesterday. So impressef with Celebrity. Hopefully my cruise will be great too. Thanks for all the replies. 
ps I am in Uk

Great service from X UK 😞

We use Hotel Olimpia which is just by Pizzale Roma very convenient for the train station, Vaporetto station and aerobus for the airport. Only one bridge to cross with luggage. Great places to eat in walking distance and lovely to wander through the streets to St. Marks. We have stayed here 3 times, it is our ‘go to’ hotel. Offer a lovely breakfast which you can eat in the garden behind the hotel or inside.

3 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

Different countries different rules.  UK for sure pay the agency, not the cruise line AU is likely the same.  

Yes but some agencies do not pay the cruise companies as soon as you pay the agencies! Some well known ones here in the U.K. ask for the balance ahead of the time when the cruise companies would but then don’t pay them until much nearer the departure date - obviously an agreement they have. However when cruises were being cancelled during Covid, because our balance was being held by the agency we waited far longer to get our money back than we would if we had paid direct to the cruise company.

We live in the U.K. but visited Liverpool a couple of years ago. We stayed at a hotel in the Albert Docks and parked the car in the shopping centre for the 3 days we were there. Worked out about £20 per day. It was ~ 7 min walk from the car park to the hotel.

We were already mixing cruises - Celebrity and other lines. Our last Celebrity cruise was just OK which isn’t good enough for the prices they charge. This was before the new President started implementing her changes. 
Considering what we can get on other cruise lines, Celebrity is no longer a major player in our eyes. Price is not the only consideration, itinerary is important to us and we have exhausted most of the Celebrity ones that appeal to us, apart from the Galapagos. 

We had Damian as our cruise director on our last Viking cruise, I agree he was very talented and an excellent cruise director.

So glad to hear you managed to escape the U.K. on Monday with all the flight problems. Have a great cruise?

33 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

I believe the shuttle was from the port to the train station. We took the included tour but I recall the port talk saying you could take the train to Bruges. The port is very large and requires transportation to exit.

You can get a taxi from the terminal building into Bruge. If you get the train, the city itself is ~15 mins walk from Bruge train station.

Since the taxis take 4, we asked another couple at the terminal if they wanted to share the taxi into town, so we split the fare

Whereas Torshavn itself is fun 😊

8 hours ago, Geoffa30 said:

Thanks for posting this Clay. Interesting to see the correct prices - the sample menu on Viking’s website (at least in the U.K.) shows prices of 15-30% lower so, on that basis, we had decided not to buy the drinks package for our August cruise. Now debating whether we should reconsider. 

We usually have the SS package but on our last cruise decided against it. We found our bar bill was nowhere near the price of the SS package for the two of us!

59 minutes ago, AZ_Tim said:

Plan B could be booking your own flights. This way you would have a better chance of getting flights that you find suitable. You would have a little more control over where you connect, flight and connection times, etc.

It does seem like San Juan is one of those locations that has less desirable flight options currently than in the past.

Even booking your own flights does not guarantee plain sailing (or flying in this case). We have booked flights ourselves for San Juan using BA, but unfortunately the BA flight out was hit with a flood from the upper deck which could not be repaired. By the time they got another aircraft, we were so delayed we missed our connection in Miami. Give BA their due, when we got to Miami they bussed us to Fort Lauderdale to catch a flight to San Juan, as that one left a lot earlier than the one from Miami. We arrived in  San Juan at 4 am instead of 10pm the day before - luckily still with time to spare for our 1pm ship boarding. 

On 7/23/2023 at 6:14 PM, madmedic said:

As I'm considering booking a VO cruise for the small ship experience. I usually do Celebrity with 3000 guests. I am wondering how crowded the bars, theatre and pool deck is . Obviously a lot less passengers but also a smaller ship. So stressful having to get up at the crack of dawn to beat the chair hogs when I'm supposed to be on holiday. Please tell me it's better on Viking.😂

We also sail Celebrity but love Viking for the small ship experience - ~900 passengers, nowhere ever fills crowded, can always get a seat virtually anywhere when you want one. Two specialty restaurants included, a shore excursion included ( though beware often a coach sightseeing tour), drinks with lunch and dinner - we have bought a silver silver package on some trips and not on others.  Rooms are spacious, free Nordic spa, afternoon tea in the Wintergarden is not to be missed. World cafe (aka the buffet) is very good and has many of the items on offer in the Resturant (lobster is not limited unlike Celebrity 😂). We are doing less Celebrity and more Viking cruises this year and next.

On 7/25/2023 at 8:55 PM, Heidi13 said:

 

 

Am interested which other ships you have sailed on that also tender directly through a shell door.

Not a shell door but On Celebrity E class ships you step directly off the Magic Carpet onto the tender, no steps down to the tender.

We have flown LHR to San Juan a few times. No direct flights. This year we picked up a Viking cruise from San Juan and speaking to people there were a variety of flights booked. We did LHR to Dallas Fort Worth, then San Juan, whilst other people were booked LHR to Miami, then San Juan. I vaguely remember there being a direct flight from Dublin.

Travelling out wasn’t particularly onerous as it is a daytime flight. I think we had 3-4 hours layover at Dallas Fort Worth. We always choose a minimum of 3 hours in case of delays etc. We boarded the ship at midnight.

On 7/24/2023 at 2:42 PM, Clay Clayton said:

I just like you don't have to scramble down an aluminum stair sortakinda attached to the side of the ship but instead there is a large platform that is part of the hull of the Viking ships. 

Not sure which ships have that contraption 🤷‍♀️, I have only ever been on ones that have a similar set up to Viking