Viking Ocean - Combined Cruise Schedule

[Heidi13]

34 minutes ago, janetcbl said:

Where do you find the information about the weekly Viking cruise news releases? We seem to find out about new/special cruises after they are fully booked! (And we have sailed with Viking 4 times.) Thanks for the information!

 

On the website, I select "Find a Cruise", select the month (May 2023) and then select the Scandinavia & Northern Europe filter. This will locate Viking Neptune's cruise from Greenwich, after the 22/23 WC, which is what interests us.

 

For a potential Trans-Atlantic in Nov/Dec 2022 on Viking Neptune, prior to the WC, I select those 2 months and look for a TA.

 

Probably easier ways, but this works for me.

[CharTrav]

2 hours ago, janetcbl said:

Where do you find the information about the weekly Viking cruise news releases? We seem to find out about new/special cruises after they are fully booked! (And we have sailed with Viking 4 times.) Thanks for the information!

I just go to their website frequently. If there is some weekly email with schedule updates I'd be in absolute nirvana. I find updates tend to occur over the weekends. Like @Heidi13 I search by month and year for changes. There's a hidden part of my spreadsheet that I use to compare number of itineraries by year, by ship & month, and by ship. Also the number of sailings by itinerary by year and by month. If I see differences between my numbers and theirs I dig into the source. 

Edited July 29, 2021 by CharTrav

[photopro2]

On 7/14/2021 at 5:58 AM, CharTrav said:

nothing scheduled in September or October.

Just a thought..... 

As there is nothing scheduled for the Star for those months I am wondering if that suggests a refit prior to the world cruise? I did read somewhere that Viking have promised to add draw space in the DV cabins before then and there may be other tweaks needed to bring the ship in line with the current spec.

We might be on the Star next month, if so I will report back any gossip I can pick up.  

[CharTrav]

On 7/28/2021 at 10:16 PM, CharTrav said:

Other than that, Orion is fully scheduled into March '24.

Should be Feb '24. Have corrected the log entry in the sheet and uploaded. 

[CharTrav]

FYI -- decided the change is too small to post an updated spreadsheet .. but did want you to know that the mystery of how Mars will transit from Athens to Bangkok in 2022 is solved:  Passage to India (Athens to Mumbai) departing 25 Oct 22 and Across the Bay of Bengal (Mumbai to Bangkok) departing 14 Nov 22.  Just posted to the VO site since yesterday or maybe the day before (can't remember if I checked yesterday but think I did...).

[harbourside]

Mars last listed cruise is Auckland to Sydney ending in Sydney 21st March 2023.  No Sydney to Bali listed which is normally the next cruise.  Maybe they do not need two cruise ships in Asia in 2023 as the Orion has a full schedule listed.

 

[CharTrav]

39 minutes ago, harbourside said:

Mars last listed cruise is Auckland to Sydney ending in Sydney 21st March 2023.  No Sydney to Bali listed which is normally the next cruise.  Maybe they do not need two cruise ships in Asia in 2023 as the Orion has a full schedule listed.

You're right. However I suspect that we're just watching the slow process of schedule development. The 2023 schedules for all of Viking ships - except Orion - are still incomplete. So I'm not surprised at all that Mars' schedule - esp for a ship that is under construction - isn't full....yet...in 2023. 

[MarkTapley]

@CharTrav

 

Great thread.  Thanks for all of your hard work.

 

We’re supposed to be on Orion in April (Hong Kong to Vancouver).  Any more recent cancellations of her itineraries?

 

Just a thought:  could Orion be in line to be transferred to the China venture?  Seems to me there was talk when Sun was transferred that there was to be a second ship sent to China as part of the agreement.  Then Mars would take over her schedule.

 

Jerry

[Little Monty]

27 minutes ago, MarkTapley said:

@CharTrav

 

Then Mars would take over her schedule.

 

 

 

Yes, great work CharTrav - thank you.

 

I'm not sure if this adds anything to the discussion;

 

https://www.traveller.com.au/viking-mars-cruise-ship-floats-out-for-final-state-of-construction-h1xjqf

 

In the Viking website it does indicate 2 ships will be in Aussie waters in late 2022 / early 2023 - which is fine if the demand is there. But what Viking does need to consider ... IMHO .. is something new in the itinerary (eg add Milford / Doubtful Sound in NZ, or a new 'around Australia' itinerary etc).

 

Obviously not something which will happen overnight .. but I did suggest something similar to them after our NZ cruise in 2018 / 2019 and got a reply from the local Viking office to say they were 'looking at options'.

 

But MarkTapley might be right. Time will tell.

 

Cheers, LM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harbourside]

The reason why Mars is in Australia for 2023 is take all the passengers from the cancelled 2022 Aust/NZ cruises.  They were all nearly sold out, with only a couple of cabins turning up now and again.

They could not all be transferred to the 2023 season. I was on a 2022 cruise and was transferred to the 2023 cruise with no lose of perks, (free business class airfare),  no price increase plus a bonus of OBC.  Same cabin.  Same dates but reverse itinerary.  I am happy with this.  I would imagine Viking is hoping to keep most of their passengers, therefore avoiding more payouts.

Monty.  I agree with you that it would be great to have a Round Australian trip, or even the West Coast taking in the Kimberley's.  Also, I wish they would include the Sounds.  I also have asked this question of them, and got the same response. 

[CharTrav]

this is just a test .. but the weirdest thing is going on -- I've submitted three replies on this thread .. .. and none of them have appeared.  Was working from my mobile phone -- now I'm on my workstation browser -- so just testing to see if THIS time my posting actually doesn't fly off into the ether never to be seen again. In which case I'll take to resurrect from memory the things I wrote before that got lost.

Edited August 8, 2021 by CharTrav

[CharTrav]

OK . .fourth attempt .. don't know what's going on when I post from my mobile phone.  

 

This is what I wrote before -- and have no idea where these two postings went ...

In reply to @Little Monty- you're welcome .. I actually have quite a lot of fun maintaining my spreadsheet.

In reply to @Little Monty and @MarkTapley -- I do not think Orion will be transferred to the joint venture with China.  I think it actually makes sense to have two ships plying the waters around Aussie/NZ.  Not only does it provide the flexibility to add new itineraries such as Milford/Doubtful Sound but also lets them run cruises going opposite directions.

 

This is what I wrote in reply to @Harborside and have no idea where it went .. (will it appear magically tomorrow??) 

Wonderful news about how Viking dealt with yours and others cancelled cruises on the Orion this Winter!!  I was actually surprised when I saw Mars scheduled for Aussie/NZ in 2022/23.  Didn't align with I had read earlier this year in an article regarding where Viking intended to deploy her.  But in light of all the cancelled trips on the Orion this year and next -- makes perfect sense.  FYI -- we will be sailing on the Orion in 2023 doing Aussie/NZ; how we used our FCVs when our Galapagos trip was cancelled.

[JeriGail]

1 hour ago, CharTrav said:

this is just a test .. but the weirdest thing is going on -- I've submitted three replies on this thread .. .. and none of them have appeared. 

I've had the same problem happen to me when posting on our Viking Sea Roll Call.  At the time I was writing the post, I received a notification about someone else replying, and clicked on the show new post button.  I wonder if that caused the issue?

[CharTrav]

20 minutes ago, JeriGail said:

I've had the same problem happen to me when posting on our Viking Sea Roll Call.  At the time I was writing the post, I received a notification about someone else replying, and clicked on the show new post button.  I wonder if that caused the issue?

No idea -- sometimes I think there's an evil genie operating in the background working hard to make things difficult.  Or one could point at Murphy! 😀

[CharTrav]

2 hours ago, harbourside said:

The reason why Mars is in Australia for 2023 is take all the passengers from the cancelled 2022 Aust/NZ cruises.  They were all nearly sold out, with only a couple of cabins turning up now and again.

certainly explains why it's been barely a week since VO started showing Mars doing Aussie/NZ and already cabin classes are showing 1 Left, Limited, and SoldOut.  I'm guessing that Viking held off posting these cruises to its main VO site until after everybody on the cancelled Orion cruises who chose to do so transferred their booking from Orion in 2021/22 to Mars in 2022/23.

[CharTrav]

I may be crazy and maybe shouldn't have done this .. but .. learned today from another source that Orion's schedule from October '21 to early January '22 has indeed been updated; however, for some bizarre reason (have written to Viking Customer Relations about it too), these updates do not appear on the main VO site  (yet..) but on .. of all places .. Expedia!!! Based on what I'm reading elsewhere -- that folks have indeed booked these cruises with their Viking TA even tho they're not listed on the VO site, -- I decided to update my spreadsheet while noting that the source of these additions is Expedia.  The additions are (in time order):

• An extended version of West Indies Explorer :  15 rather than 11 days because it starts and ends in Ft Lauderdale rather than San Juan. For now, because I don't know what it's really called -- have named it West Indies Explorer (temp) - 2 sailings in Oct & Nov
• Panama Canal & Coastal Holiday - 1 sailing in Dec ending in LA
• Two new ones I think are "one-offs" -- what I call "loop" cruises cuz they start and end at the same place (LA) with the additional feature of beaucoups sea days
  • Hawaiian Islands Sojourn (17 days - LA to Hawaii for 2 days and then back to LA)
  • Grand Hawaii & Polynesia (33 days - LA to Hawaii, 4 islands in French Polynesia, and back to LA with 23 sea days in between)

FYI -- based on what I observed while waiting for a flight to visit our son last month -- Hawaii has very strict COVID related procedures.  The gate across from ours was a direct flight to Hawaii. Every passenger had to verify they had met Hawaii's requirements.  Kept the gate agents very busy.

 

Have posted in the usual place. Do I really need to include the link here .. again??? Just look at my previous posts, OK?

[SantaFe1]

30 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

Panama Canal & Coastal Holiday - 1 sailing in Dec ending in LA

We are booked on this cruise on the Star, as the first leg of the WC.  I wonder if they will be running two of them or transferring us to a Orion.  Our dates are Dec. 24 from FLL to Jan. 10. LA.

[SantaFe1]

Just checked Expedia.  It’s not the Panama Cana and coastal holiday cruise, but just the regular Panama Canal cruise, FLL to LA.  Guess we are still on the Star. 

[CharTrav]

2 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

We are booked on this cruise on the Star, as the first leg of the WC.  I wonder if they will be running two of them or transferring us to a Orion.  Our dates are Dec. 24 from FLL to Jan. 10. LA.

I'm assuming they'll be doing both given the cruises Orion is scheduled to do directly afterwards - the ones out and back to Hawaii and then go Polynesia via Hawaii. 

[CharTrav]

2 hours ago, SantaFe1 said:

Just checked Expedia.  It’s not the Panama Cana and coastal holiday cruise, but just the regular Panama Canal cruise, FLL to LA.  Guess we are still on the Star. 

Expedia didn't give it a name but the itineraries are identical so I concluded the name is the same even tho in the case of Orion it's not the first leg of the World Cruise. But I'll double check. I could be wrong. 

Edited August 18, 2021 by CharTrav

[CharTrav]

Et voila!!! Just checked the VO site - the new cruises are there. Will update the sheet accordingly. The name I picked for the Panama Canal transit cruise was completely wrong!  Whoops! But what did I know? Honestly the cruises were not on the web site 3 hrs ago. My email to customer relations must have lit a fire under somebody. 😁

[JeriGail]

17 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

Et voila!!! Just checked the VO site - the new cruises are there. Will update the sheet accordingly. The name I picked for the Panama Canal transit cruise was completely wrong!  Whoops! But what did I know? Honestly the cruises were not on the web site 3 hrs ago. My email to customer relations must have lit a fire under somebody. 😁

The Grand Hawaii and Polynesia cruise is a great bargain - 33 days for $7,499!

[CharTrav]

Just now, JeriGail said:

The Grand Hawaii and Polynesia cruise is a great bargain - 33 days for $7,499!

lots and lots of sea days -- that's why! don't have nearly as many included shore excursions! 🙃

[JeriGail]

Just now, CharTrav said:

lots and lots of sea days -- that's why! don't have nearly as many included shore excursions! 🙃

I love sea days - that's why I'm currently on the Sea's Barcelona to San Juan cruise in November, but this would be the closest I could probably get to a world cruise.  🙂

[CharTrav]

1 minute ago, JeriGail said:

I love sea days - that's why I'm currently on the Sea's Barcelona to San Juan cruise in November, but this would be the closest I could probably get to a world cruise.  🙂

I wouldn't mind them either but hubby does. Must be all the multi-week research cruises he did before he retired.  In any case, we have big stuff planned for May and August 2022 so it would be simply crazy to add January to the mix.