Tips for New Viking Ocean Cruisers

[Dauntless]

4 hours ago, roothy123 said:

Well, at least you made it in there.  I still haven't been, except to poke my head in there once out of curiosity!   

 

I did see 2 shows there on the first cruise and showed a couple of nights this last cruise.

[DRJVH]

We will be going on our first VO cruise in 2021. Seems a long way off but ..... 

My question and what concerns me, is that Viking allow power boards to be brought onto the ship for extra outlets. I thought this was a big no no on cruise ships because they are a fire hazard, especially ones brought from $$ shops. 
Please tell me the ruling has changed😬😬😬 

 

“”There are packing tips all over the place, but one I would add regarding outlets: we buy power strips at the dollar store and take them along- no big loss if we forget one and expands the number of outlets available. ”” 

 

[Peregrina651]

20 minutes ago, DRJVH said:

We will be going on our first VO cruise in 2021. Seems a long way off but ..... 

My question and what concerns me, is that Viking allow power boards to be brought onto the ship for extra outlets. I thought this was a big no no on cruise ships because they are a fire hazard, especially ones brought from $$ shops. 
Please tell me the ruling has changed😬😬😬 

 

“”There are packing tips all over the place, but one I would add regarding outlets: we buy power strips at the dollar store and take them along- no big loss if we forget one and expands the number of outlets available. ”” 

 

 

The ruling has not changed! They never have been allowed.

 

The person you quoted has no idea what they are talking about. That is why questions about what is permitted on board should be directed to the cruise lines and not forums like this. I wish that you had cited where you read it. If it is in this forum, then it should be reported as erroneous information that should be deleted for ship safety reasons.

 

Here is the current list of prohibited items. Extension cords, power strips and anything with a surge protector are definitely on the list: http://wpc.475d.edgecastcdn.net/00475D/mvj/onboard-prohibited-list.pdf

 

 

[just_dont]

Viking cabins have plenty of outlets. You will not need a strip.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

[DRJVH]

1 hour ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

The ruling has not changed! They never have been allowed.

 

The person you quoted has no idea what they are talking about. That is why questions about what is permitted on board should be directed to the cruise lines and not forums like this. I wish that you had cited where you read it. If it is in this forum, then it should be reported as erroneous information that should be deleted for ship safety reasons.

 

Here is the current list of prohibited items. Extension cords, power strips and anything with a surge protector are definitely on the list: http://wpc.475d.edgecastcdn.net/00475D/mvj/onboard-prohibited-list.pdf

 

 

1 hour ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

The ruling has not changed! They never have been allowed.

 

The person you quoted has no idea what they are talking about. That is why questions about what is permitted on board should be directed to the cruise lines and not forums like this. I wish that you had cited where you read it. If it is in this forum, then it should be reported as erroneous information that should be deleted for ship safety reasons.

 

Here is the current list of prohibited items. Extension cords, power strips and anything with a surge protector are definitely on the list: http://wpc.475d.edgecastcdn.net/00475D/mvj/onboard-prohibited-list.pdf

 

 

Thank you Peregrina651. I thought that was the case.  It was quoted on this forum but back in 2015. Still concerned me though. The post should be deleted. 
I’ve travelled with Azamara and it’s definitely a prohibited item, along with travel irons etc. 

Thank you for a copy of the list. 

[DRJVH]

1 hour ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

The ruling has not changed! They never have been allowed.

 

The person you quoted has no idea what they are talking about. That is why questions about what is permitted on board should be directed to the cruise lines and not forums like this. I wish that you had cited where you read it. If it is in this forum, then it should be reported as erroneous information that should be deleted for ship safety reasons.

 

Here is the current list of prohibited items. Extension cords, power strips and anything with a surge protector are definitely on the list: http://wpc.475d.edgecastcdn.net/00475D/mvj/onboard-prohibited-list.pdf

 

 

Have read the list. Glad to see they are prohibited. 

[terrydtx]

5 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

The ruling has not changed! They never have been allowed.

 

The person you quoted has no idea what they are talking about. That is why questions about what is permitted on board should be directed to the cruise lines and not forums like this. I wish that you had cited where you read it. If it is in this forum, then it should be reported as erroneous information that should be deleted for ship safety reasons.

 

Here is the current list of prohibited items. Extension cords, power strips and anything with a surge protector are definitely on the list: http://wpc.475d.edgecastcdn.net/00475D/mvj/onboard-prohibited-list.pdf

 

 

I have a form of power strip, it has just 6 USB ports for charging cell phones, smart watch and tablets. It does not have a standard 120v outlet but is has a 3ft cord. I am not sure if it has a surge protector or not. I have used this several times on other cruise lines without an issue. Would this be prohibited on VO?

 

Thanks

Edited December 17, 2019 by terrydtx

[pacruise804]

1 hour ago, terrydtx said:

I have a form of power strip, it has just 6 USB ports for charging cell phones, smart watch and tablets. It does not have a standard 120v outlet but is has a 3ft cord. I am not sure if it has a surge protector or not. I have used this several times on other cruise lines without an issue. Would this be prohibited on VO?

 

Thanks

Here is a quote from the list @Peregrina651 provided:

ø Extension cords (USB and laptop charging cables are exempt)

 

Since it states USB charging cables are exempt, I think you should be safe.  We also usually bring one on a cruise and plan to for Viking as well based on my reading of the exempt/allowed list.

 

Thank you to those who commented on entertainment.  It doesn't sound like there is a piano bar in the mainstream line sense (place to sing along), but that there is plenty of available music to enjoy.

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, terrydtx said:

I have a form of power strip, it has just 6 USB ports for charging cell phones, smart watch and tablets. It does not have a standard 120v outlet but is has a 3ft cord. I am not sure if it has a surge protector or not. I have used this several times on other cruise lines without an issue. Would this be prohibited on VO?

 

Thanks

 

I was concerned about a charging block that I wanted to use on a Longship, so I took it to Guest Services and asked. I didn't want to guess--because I didn't want to find out the hard way. I let Viking make the decision.

 

 

1 hour ago, pacruise804 said:

It doesn't sound like there is a piano bar in the mainstream line sense (place to sing along), but that there is plenty of available music to enjoy.

 

Perhaps, but each sailing has its own vibe and it doesn't mean that no one sings along ever. No pardon for the pun, but play it by ear. I seem to remember a lot of singing along at the Beatles show.

[SempreMare]

On 6/8/2017 at 11:57 PM, Peregrina651 said:

We have a dedicated travel account with an ATM-only card (the daily debit card limit is set to $0) that is not connected to any other account. If our card gets skimmed or lost, we can only lose the couple thousand that is that one account and not all of the money in all of our accounts.

 

What a clever idea @Peregrina651 ! 

 

Is this account at a completely separate bank from your main banking accounts? 

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, SempreMare said:

 

What a clever idea @Peregrina651 ! 

 

Is this account at a completely separate bank from your main banking accounts? 

 

Yes and no.

 

Yes. It is a separate account as far as my ATM card goes; the card can only access the one account. The rest of my accounts are on another ATM card, which we never carry when traveling.

But, no,  it is a sub-account of my credit union account and I can transfer money in and out of it between my other accounts from my computer. 

[philw1776]

I do the same.  ATM card is a separate account and only has several hundred bucks.  Just in case.
The bank suggested this to me for travel ages ago.

[LazyDonkey]

A few questions for you seasoned Viking adventurers:

 

1. Do you generally opt to schedule excursions for every port, even the smaller, walkable ones?

2. How strong is the shower head when used as a hand-held at various angles?

3. Should I plan to gain more than 5 pounds on a 2-week cruise, LOL?

4. Is the choice of Mediterranean cruises all down to individual preference and cost, or are some itineraries almost intrinsically more interesting and/or beautiful? 

 

Thank you!

Edited December 29, 2019 by LazyDonkey

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

19 minutes ago, LazyDonkey said:

A few questions for you seasoned Viking adventurers:

 

1. Do you generally opt to schedule excursions for every port, even the smaller, walkable ones?

2. How strong is the shower head when used as a hand-held at various angles?

3. Should I plan to gain more than 5 pounds on a 2-week cruise, LOL?

4. Is the choice of Mediterranean cruises all down to individual preference and cost, or are some itineraries almost intrinsically more interesting and/or beautiful? 

 

Thank you!

1. All personal preference....do you like to explore on your own, or do you like someone else to do the organization for you.  We do both, if any of the excursions sound great, we do them, if not we wing it. 

2. Viking has great shower heads. Bathrooms and showers are large in comparison to other ships. Doubt you will have issues with it. 

3. Seriously? That all depends on how much food you shovel into your mouth.  There are a lot of healthy options and they have an amazing amount of seafood.  My husband did not gain weight as he ate much like he does at home...lots of fish and veggies.  It was fantastic to have crab, shrimp, and every other option you can imagine available for dinner every night.  We ate in the dinning room a few times, but much preferred the buffet as they had mounds of seafood and a ton of options.  

4.  Guess that all depends on what your interest are and where you want to go!  Again all about personal preference.  What one person loves, another might not like.  

[LazyDonkey]

Thank you very much for your quick and helpful reply, Sunflower! Glad to hear about the shower heads and abundance of healthful food.

[BarbarianPaul]

29 minutes ago, LazyDonkey said:

A few questions for you seasoned Viking adventurers:

 

1. Do you generally opt to schedule excursions for every port, even the smaller, walkable ones?

2. How strong is the shower head when used as a hand-held at various angles?

3. Should I plan to gain more than 5 pounds on a 2-week cruise, LOL?

4. Is the choice of Mediterranean cruises all down to individual preference and cost, or are some itineraries almost intrinsically more interesting and/or beautiful? 

 

Thank you!

1. On our Viking Baltic cruise, we did schedule an included excursion for every port. We wouldn’t do it again. Most of our excursions were somewhat mediocre walking tours for ports we could easily explore on our own. Viking promotes this as a good value, but personally I disagree. We wound up wandering away from the group pretty quickly most of the time.

2. Have no recollection of water pressure in the shower, but if it was bad, I would probably remember.

3. We’ve never actually gained weight on a cruise, but if you over eat, there’s always the gym!

4. Yes, I do think some itineraries are more interesting and beautiful, but if you’re new to the mediterranean, am sure you’ll enjoy every port. But doing some online research and looking at port reviews is always a good idea.

[LazyDonkey]

Thanks, BarbarianPaul. May I ask whether you think Empires would be a particularly desirable itinerary? Also, did you have to exercise lots of restraint not to gain weight? I'm going to try hard not to overeat, but at home it's vastly easier without the doughy temptations of Mamsen's and afternoon tea.

[irishwitchy]

I'm new to Viking,  I have cruised on Regent and Celebrity before.  I'm used to seeing the excursions like a solid 8 months before the cruise and being able to book 6 months out.  Plenty of time to decide what works best for us.  On Viking the it appear you don't see the excursion until 3 months out and depending on the suite you are in, you can book in the next two weeks.    If they take my money a whole year before the cruise,  why can't they schedule the excursions a bit earlier,  we find that to be a fun task to plan and this feels very rushed.   

[terrydtx]

52 minutes ago, irishwitchy said:

I'm new to Viking,  I have cruised on Regent and Celebrity before.  I'm used to seeing the excursions like a solid 8 months before the cruise and being able to book 6 months out.  Plenty of time to decide what works best for us.  On Viking the it appear you don't see the excursion until 3 months out and depending on the suite you are in, you can book in the next two weeks.    If they take my money a whole year before the cruise,  why can't they schedule the excursions a bit earlier,  we find that to be a fun task to plan and this feels very rushed.   

I agree our cruise is sold out and having to wait so long to book excursions makes no sense. We are booked on a Celebrity 2021 Cruise of Spain and Portugal and we can see excursions to book now.

[Peregrina651]

56 minutes ago, irishwitchy said:

I'm new to Viking,  I have cruised on Regent and Celebrity before.  I'm used to seeing the excursions like a solid 8 months before the cruise and being able to book 6 months out.  Plenty of time to decide what works best for us.  On Viking the it appear you don't see the excursion until 3 months out and depending on the suite you are in, you can book in the next two weeks.    If they take my money a whole year before the cruise,  why can't they schedule the excursions a bit earlier,  we find that to be a fun task to plan and this feels very rushed.   

 

There is no doubt that Viking marches to its own drummer.

 

Viking does give you an advanced view of the excursions. They are part of the description of the itinerary (unless it is an itinerary going to ports that are new to Viking). You can see them before you even book. However, the port by port pages are generic and not all of the excursions shown will necessarily be available on the sailing you choose.

[CharTrav]

16 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

There is no doubt that Viking marches to its own drummer.

 

Viking does give you an advanced view of the excursions. They are part of the description of the itinerary (unless it is an itinerary going to ports that are new to Viking). You can see them before you even book. However, the port by port pages are generic and not all of the excursions shown will necessarily be available on the sailing you choose.

Thanks for fielding this question. I feel as tho I've answered this question myself more times than I can count. 

 

They may also add excursions to your MVJ that aren't on the VO site at all. Sometimes a few months later they migrate to the VO site. 

Edited December 30, 2019 by CharTrav

[lil_miss_mimi]

21 hours ago, LazyDonkey said:

A few questions for you seasoned Viking adventurers:

 

1. Do you generally opt to schedule excursions for every port, even the smaller, walkable ones?

2. How strong is the shower head when used as a hand-held at various angles?

3. Should I plan to gain more than 5 pounds on a 2-week cruise, LOL?

4. Is the choice of Mediterranean cruises all down to individual preference and cost, or are some itineraries almost intrinsically more interesting and/or beautiful? 

 

Thank you!

1. We usually do the included excursions unless it is somewhere we have been before and we know of something else we want to see. If it is not your cup of tea you can always leave the group and strike out on your own. There have been several occasions that we saw or heard something on the included tour that we went back to see on our own afterwards. We did Empires of the Med in Sept of 2019....We had been to Venice before so we walked around on our own the night of departure (viking provided a boat shuttle back and forth) and we did not opt for the gondola or opera since we had done both before. Koper, Slovenia looked to be an industrial port town so we opted for the paid tour to Lake Bled, it is a long bus ride but the lake is beautiful (this is a location we would probably go back to visit on our own someday). The included lunch was mediocre but I was really there for the scenery! Loved going over to the island in the pletna boat! Zadar, Croatia, I was on the fence about the Krka Waterfall excursion because I had seen mixed reviews...it was hot and very crowded and was sadly not worth it for us. We walked a raised plank walkway over the water like ants in a row, no time to stop and look around because of the pressing crowd behind us. The waterfalls themselves were pretty but the crowd on the bridge was compacted shoulder to shoulder. If I had to do it again I would book with a private company and try to get there as early as possible to beat the crowds, that would make it more enjoyable I think. The walk around town afterwards was good, same as the included one from the morning, I think? Dubrovnik, Croatia We did the morning included excursion, we had Maris as our guide and she was fantastic, one of the best Viking guides we have ever had! We went back to the boat for lunch and came back late afternoon and walked the city walls on our own. Hardly any crowd at 5pm so it was much more enjoyable than the paid excursion in the morning. The ship was docked until 11pm so we had plenty of time to wonder. Kotor, Montenegro, we knew we wanted to climb the steps to the fortress so we skipped the included tour and went our on our own as soon as the boat docked to beat the crowd. It is about 1100 uneven rocky steps but the view is so worth it. We walked around town before heading back for a late lunch. Corfu, Greece, we did the included excursion( this was probably my least favorite stop) bus ride out to a restaurant and pier to see the planes land/take off right over the water, really not that impressive, back to town for a walk around. LOTS of shops, if you are a shopper you will probably like this place, I am not, so we strolled the streets for a bit and went back to the ship for a late lunch and massage instead of more of the town! Ancient Olympia, Greece included tour worth it if you have not seen it! longish bus ride. Santorini, Greece, very crowded, did the included tour, could not understand a word the guide said on the bus, sounded like she was speaking Chinese over a very bad sound system. Mostly just had free time in Oia to walk around, which was breath taking! Lunch on our own at a rooftop cafe and then more wondering. Line for the cable car was 2.5 hours when we got there so opted to walk the donkey path! Not for the faint of heart, dodging donkeys and poop the whole way down to the tender boat. Athens, Greece opted for a food tour on our own that was fantastic then did the acropolis on our own in the late afternoon with no crowds!

2. Hubby is 6'5" so he is too tall to stand under the shower head, the hand held is his only option....he had no issues, good pressure and temp.

3. I actually lost 2 pounds on Empires, but we walk A LOT in port. Plenty of healthy options though! Also, had afternoon tea several times!

4. Itineraries are personal choice I think...First time to Greece, glad I went, feel like I saw everything I wanted to see, beautiful but probably would not go back? except maybe Santorini on our own, not on a cruise. Loved Slovenia, Montenegro and Croatia, probably not places I would have gone on my own before the cruise but would definitely go back now that I have experienced a small piece of each. I am partial to Italy- Tuscany is my favorite place on the planet, so if you have not been to Florence, small towns in Tuscany or Rome, those itineraries would be worth a look too. Whatever you pick, hope you enjoy your travels!!

[LazyDonkey]

Your post is so, so helpful, lil_miss_mimi. Can't thank you enough for your specificity about the ports. You brought the crowds and donkey poop to life. Would have thought Sept. would be at least a little quieter, but it does sound as though you had a really full and interesting experience. I mainly like this itinerary because of Venice and Dubrovnik, but am also interested in Kotor. Have already been to spectacular Lake Bled, so wouldn't need to venture that far. Like you, am not a shopper, though it could be fun to peruse local wares a bit. Love to walk a lot in new places. No wonder you lost weight with those 1100 steps in Kotor! Thank you again. Useful info about shower and tours and tea.

[lil_miss_mimi]

18 hours ago, irishwitchy said:

I'm new to Viking,  I have cruised on Regent and Celebrity before.  I'm used to seeing the excursions like a solid 8 months before the cruise and being able to book 6 months out.  Plenty of time to decide what works best for us.  On Viking the it appear you don't see the excursion until 3 months out and depending on the suite you are in, you can book in the next two weeks.    If they take my money a whole year before the cruise,  why can't they schedule the excursions a bit earlier,  we find that to be a fun task to plan and this feels very rushed.   

Also, don't be dismayed if you don't get the times you want for the included excursions....we had the lowest cabin so by the time we could make reservations most of the early times were gone. I kept checking back and Viking added additional times and people changed times so slots opened up. In the end, I got every time that I wanted except one and got that once we got on the ship. Also, did not make Manfredi's or Chef's Table reservations before we left. Once we got in the cabin, I got on the TV and made reservations for both with no issues. Enjoy your travels!!

[lil_miss_mimi]

10 minutes ago, LazyDonkey said:

Your post is so, so helpful, lil_miss_mimi. Can't thank you enough for your specificity about the ports. You brought the crowds and donkey poop to life. Would have thought Sept. would be at least a little quieter, but it does sound as though you had a really full and interesting experience. I mainly like this itinerary because of Venice and Dubrovnik, but am also interested in Kotor. Have already been to spectacular Lake Bled, so wouldn't need to venture that far. Like you, am not a shopper, though it could be fun to peruse local wares a bit. Love to walk a lot in new places. No wonder you lost weight with those 1100 steps in Kotor! Thank you again. Useful info about shower and tours and tea.

Oh, so glad it was helpful! If you think of anything else, let me know. I would be glad to answer any other question you have.