jollyjoyce

Great review, thank you. We are onboard on 8/2/2018 so great to read your review. Our 1st Viking after quite a few Azamara so will be interesting !!

I had the same question, and also about the hairdryer. I thought the toiletries were on par with those of a nice, but not deluxe, hotel. I brought my own lotion and shower gel because I have sensitive skin. But what is provided is certainly fine, if you don't have particularly issues, including the hairdryer, which was better than those found in most hotels.

Thank you for the info re hairdryer. Much more important to me than the toiletries and I really don’t want to have to bring my own ! Hope it wasn’t one of those where you have to hold down the controls ?

OK. My wife and I are not huge cruise fans, having traveled independently for nearly 40 years. I hate the regimented structure and having to deal with the whims of other travelers. We prefer to spend 10 minutes or 3 hours according to how we feel and to consult only each other on where to eat. We have a longstanding relationship with Accor Hotels so are treated like royalty in Sofitels around the world.

 

That said, we took a river cruise to Bordeaux and enjoyed it, then wound up on the Viking Star 50 day cruise Istanbul-Stockholm and had a pretty good time. We spent much of the free time on our own, save for included(or paid) excursions that seemed particularly interesting. We didn't go to places like Paris or Berlin as we frequent those cities and the two plus hour trip each way from the port didn't make a lot of sense. As for river cruise, we would go again but certainly not to the places where we often go like Vienna, Budapest, Prague as the ship isn't nearly as nice as our hotel and you have paid for food so are either wasting money or not eating in the wonderful restaurants that we love.

 

OK, World Cruise: Why? They pitched it to us and we thought it seemed interesting but daunting. Looking it over, we thought that Panama and Suez Canals were a great draw, as is Petra and Australia/New Zealand, which we have not yet visited despite living in Asia for two years. Cuba was also quite interesting. I do like the fact that a cruise can take you to places that would be hard to reach(Tahiti,Fiji) and where you'd have to spend more time than necessary just due to airfare, though in truth we use points/miles for nearly all of our airfares.

 

Then we found out that booking through a travel agent would get us about $15,000 in cash(not OBC) rebates, plus a voucher and return passenger discount from VIking. Finally, booking early got us $4000 in excursion and onboard credit, $1500 each in store and spa credits, free gratuities, Silver beverage packing, free laundry and dry cleaning, free visas and also medical. We knew the price would increase and the perks would decrease in future years, as indeed it has, so it was now or never and we chose now!

 

We will stay off the ship in a few places, like LA and Saigon where we have busy agendas and possibly Sydney so we can walk to the Opera House and meet a friend who is a chef at our hotel so Every month we will get a day of no ship.

 

I did go on the Roll Call but it appeared that, as friendly and accomplished as they seemed, I wasn't quite ready to bond. However, I'm sure everyone will get along well and that we will find things about which to chat.

 

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!;p

I hope that you and everyone else doing this trip has fabulous time. You are all right, do it while you can and when you can afford it (!) Health is a major issue so if you are fit...go for it.

You all have the right attitude and who knows how long we have left to do these trips.

Envious

There has been some previous discussion on the Livorno Port thread. Just need to sift through a bit.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=118306274

Thank you .

In Venice......We stayed at Savoia and Jolanda Hotel in May. 100 metres from St Marks right on the Lagoon.

Vaporetta station to the ship and everywhere else in Venice just outside. Fabulous hotel....but book a junior suite overlooking the Lagoon....expensive but WOW. Best advise, take REALLY comfortable walking shoes !!! Book skip the line tickets in advance for St. Marks Basilica and Doges Palace.....the queues are LONG otherwise !

I know a lot of you seasoned travellers have done this day tour. Can you please give details if we are allowed...of companies you used..... and general comments and advise.

I know it is a long day but we have done Florence, Lucca etc and are ready to do something different !

Thank you in advance.

And mine.����

And ours too! No great surprise there then!

If you book a Penthouse you get all the free tours you want; if you book V6 then good luck!

Remember to book a penthouse next time then !

Nothing to stop you organising a tour yourself, we have done it often, or join some other folks on your Rollcall.

We are in a V1 and will take what is available and be happy for what we paid.

In May, we are flying to Stockholm for our Viking Homeland cruise. It looks like Icelandic has flights that would work from JFK. Have never flown them before, and I am finding mixed reviews. If any of you have flown them, I would appreciate any feedback you can give. how is the economy class, also how much time did you have for changing flights in KEF. Thanks for any help with this

We flew back with Iceland Air last year from Montreal to Manchester. We did a stopover in Reykjavik .

We flew Business Class which was good ...but not anywhere near as good as a lot of BC flights we have done before.....I would think Ecnomy would be fine too. It’s a very busy airport so don’t know about time for changing flights.

We are in a V1 and cannot book specialities until we board.

We will be happy to just get into either of them....but if we don’t then I doubt any of us will starve!!

A "heads-up" for those in the UK.

The documentary showing The Viking Sea sailing Into The Midnight Sun previously shown in Canada and the USA is on the cable channel "Quest" in the UK at 9.00pm Tuesday 24th October 2017. This is part of series two of "Mighty Cruise Ships".

Well timed for us as we booked that cruise (in reverse) for Summer 2019 only last week :D

Thank you for that. I will set the recorder. We are booked on Star in Feb so very interested.

 

Probably a made up story but someone spoke of a passenger who thought she HAD booked on a River Cruise!!! Our itinerary was Barcelona to St. Petersburg and ended in Stockholm...if true obviously no knowledge of geography.

/quote]

 

Probably not a made up story and to be honest it made me laugh so much.....I don’t suppose they knew which country this person was from ???

You only need money to be able to travel!!!!

Anyway, I hope they had a great Ocean Cruise !

We are doing our 1st Viking Ocean Cruise next February after many river cruises and many ocean cruises.....we know we will love it.

Joyce

All LCV members can seek tangible rewards by booking a future cruise onboard. In addition, you can apply for upgrades using the form on the Azamara website, upgrades are allocated by loyalty level.

 

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.co.uk/le-club-voyage/le-club-voyage-programme/member-savings/stateroom-upgrade

Can I just say that on the last 3 Cruises we have been on upgrades seemed to have been randomly handed out and certainly not by loyalty level.

We spoke, on all 3 cruises to folks on their first Az cruise who had been upgraded.

In fact, our last Az was the LCV cruise in May and we were lucky enough to be seated on Larry Pimental’s table at the special lunch.....(he and Sandie were wonderful company) .... we did actually raise the subject of the upgrades with him. I would hope that he looked into it!

We have always applied for the upgrades and never minded not getting them until we learned of first time Az cruisers getting them.

My cruise director is my wife. I have no idea who the ships cruise director is. Haven't heard them talk yet.

That really made me laugh!! ....and my husband laughed too as his cruise director me LOL.. We will be on our 1st Viking Cruise in February 2018 so all this info is invaluable.

I received The Kitchen Table in the mail from Viking yesterday, not sure why except that it's probably time to book another cruise!

Enjoy it. Even downloaded it's a lovely book. Well done Viking.

remove the space:

 

http://lifestyle.vikingcruisesd igital.com/TheKitchenTable/

Thanks for the help.

Joyce

Dear baycruising and jollyjoyce,

 

We appreciate your interest and are happy to assist you retrieving our digital cookbook. For direct access to the e-book, please follow the link below. There, you will be able to browse through, download and even print this digital collection of our favorite recipes from Scandinavia, Western and Eastern Europe, North America and the Caribbean, inspired by our travels and yours.

 

http://lifestyle.vikingcruisesdigital.com/TheKitchenTable/

 

 

Should you continue to have trouble accessing or viewing the recipe book, we encourage you to contact us at TellUs@vikingcruises.com for further assistance.

 

Have a wonderful Saturday, and happy cooking!

 

Kind regards,

Viking Cruises

 

 

Customer services.......Thank you....that worked. I can now read your gorgeous book.

Joyce

Hi JollyJoyce

I am also still having problems. I'm in Oz and I see you are in UK so it could be relevant.

When I paste and enter the URL I get a "page not found" message. I have noticed that the system automatically puts an "au" into the url (directing me to my home country's viking website) and however much I try I cannot get it to stop inserting the "au" so perhaps this page is only visible to people in the US?

 

Maybe someone from Viking can tell us?

Hu baycruising.

That is exactly the same problem as I have, except mine directs me to co.uk.

I cant persuade it to go to .com no matter what I do!

Glad it's not just me!!!!!... although sorry you are having a problem!

Joyce

take out all of the spaces:

 

https://w ww.vikingrivercruises. com/brochures/cook book-digital.html#noscroll

Thank you very much.

Cruise Critic automatically truncates the URL when it posts, so repeating it will only give you what you see above. If clicking on the above link doesn't work, then try right-clicking on the link and choosing something line "copy link address" or "copy link location" and then pasting the result into your browser. (Highlighting and copying the address may only copy what you see on the screen--and that won't get you to where you want to be).

Hi, Sorry but whatever Imtry I can't get this....any chance you could give me the truncated bit and I can hopefully do,it that way??

Thank you.

Hair dryer worked great in the plug near the pull-up vanity mirror in our cabin (PV1). If your cabin has such a vanity, you're all set. Check your floor plan. I am picky about hair dryers and hate "wimpy" ones. This one was fine.

Great, many thanks for that.

Joyce

We were over the theatre and could occassionally hear a slight rumble of the show or practice. If you are an afternoon napper or go to bed before the show is over is might be a smidge bothersome. Certainly nothing terrible...just not 100% no noise. IMO worth the savings to be in a v1! We were in 3003 and the anchor was a perfect wake up call like it or not!!!

 

What is it like in a v2 room over the main dining room? or Torshavn?

We will be in 3003 in February. Glad the noise will not be a nuisance....I was wondering about it.....we will probably at in the shows anyway.

The wakeup call might be useful !!

Anything else we should know about this cabin would be gratefully received.

Yes it is - think decent "named hairdresser" dryer, it's in a bag in a one of the drawers adjacent to the bathroom door along with shoehorn etc. JollyJoyce's wife is right!(but aren't we girls always! ;p )

 

One thing there is no magnifying mirror in these staterooms (or bathroom), so bring your own if you need one. This was something which we did miss but I always bring a small mirror - but the DH likes a magnifying mirror for shaving.

 

I mentioned this to Karine Hagen when we were on the Sky Christening Voyage - in response to a question she asked (and while we were having cuddles with Finse) -and was told to go tell her Dad! Oh no! I felt like I was being taken to the "headmaster's study"! Ha ha ha! But what a charming gentleman Mr Torstein Hagen is and he did listen and wanted to know all what we thought about his ship. It's not every day you get to meet the founder, chairman and CEO of a cruise line!

Thank you for that info...just what I needed to know and the best thing is it now saves me having to pack my own hairdryer !!!'

The sad thing is that customer service can't answer things like this.

Magnifying mirror isn't a problem for us but I have no doubt that bit of info will be useful to someone else.

You were very lucky to meet the "Main Man" and good that he was so nice.

Thanks again Cruisecritic members.

We were in a v1 cabin on the Sky last Spring. hair dryer was good not quite as strong as mine at home. I have shoulder length hair that is medium thick and it dried without an issue.

Thank you...can I ask if it was a free standing dryer...i.e...with its own plug that you could plug in anywhere?

Sorry if these seem stupid Qs to some folks !!!

We had one on the Sea and Sky and both had very good hairdryers . You shouldn't have to bring yours my wife said ! But we where in Dv1 cabins

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you for that....and to your wife.