The Virtual Explorers' Lounge

[Clay Clayton]

On 10/21/2022 at 12:46 PM, Twitchly said:

Here you go:

 

They’re on HAL so they’re posting in that forum.

 

We are back! Well at least off the ship have 24 hours of travel before we get back to NC😳

 

HAL was fine.  They have some real hits (entertainment!) and some misses and they won’t become our preferred cruiseline but given our choice after Tors canceled our Hong Kong to Bangkok cruise was staying home or doing this, we are glad we went. 
 

As Twitchly posted, I did an almost live thread and tried to cover everything I could.  I’ll have a few more posts and will finish up the thread over there with an overview of the hits and misses after we have a couple of days to recover from the trip home. 

[TayanaLorna]

17 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

We are back! Well at least off the ship have 24 hours of travel before we get back to NC😳

 

HAL was fine.  They have some real hits (entertainment!) and some misses and they won’t become our preferred cruiseline but given our choice after Tors canceled our Hong Kong to Bangkok cruise was staying home or doing this, we are glad we went. 
 

As Twitchly posted, I did an almost live thread and tried to cover everything I could.  I’ll have a few more posts and will finish up the thread over there with an overview of the hits and misses after we have a couple of days to recover from the trip home. 

I enjoyed following along.  Glad you got out cruising. 

[CCWineLover]

Welcome home safely, Clay!

[GRACIECA]

We are going on our first Viking Ocean cruise on the Orion in March 2024. We must pay 100% of cruise fare by Feb 27, 2023 - a year ahead. Yet I find that there is no info as to the cost of their various shore excursions and won't be able to see them until December 2023. Very disconcerting. Since you have been on several cruises with them, what is their pricing like? It seems they give first opportunity to those booked in higher cabin categories?

 

Thanks for any insights you can give me.

 

Susan

[OneSixtyToOne]

1 hour ago, GRACIECA said:

We are going on our first Viking Ocean cruise on the Orion in March 2024. We must pay 100% of cruise fare by Feb 27, 2023 - a year ahead. Yet I find that there is no info as to the cost of their various shore excursions and won't be able to see them until December 2023. Very disconcerting. Since you have been on several cruises with them, what is their pricing like? It seems they give first opportunity to those booked in higher cabin categories?

 

Thanks for any insights you can give me.

 

Susan

There is a thread about optional excursion prices here

[CCWineLover]

11 hours ago, GRACIECA said:

We are going on our first Viking Ocean cruise on the Orion in March 2024. We must pay 100% of cruise fare by Feb 27, 2023 - a year ahead. Yet I find that there is no info as to the cost of their various shore excursions and won't be able to see them until December 2023. Very disconcerting. Since you have been on several cruises with them, what is their pricing like? It seems they give first opportunity to those booked in higher cabin categories?

 

Thanks for any insights you can give me.

 

Susan

Might be disconcerting, but likely logical with the prices of everything going up by the month.  There was a huge increase in general on excursion prices post-COVID versus pre-COVID.   I can't imagine Viking would want to commit to pricing 1.5 years ahead of time.  Unfortunate, but that's the world these days.   Sort of like fixing a price for a Thanksgiving Turkey dinner now good for a year from now.  🙂

 

On the other hand, now that people are being allowed by governments to do their own thing (like independent tours) - that is likely a very good avenue for some reasonable excursions.  There have been lots of discussions on that.  I would encourage you to go look at the various Roll Calls of itineraries similar to yours, as well as your specific Roll Call, and do a forum search.

Edited October 25, 2022 by CCWineLover

[Clay Clayton]

Isn’t it past time for the 2024/25 World Cruise to be announced?

[UWDawg]

3 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Isn’t it past time for the 2024/25 World Cruise to be announced?

The 2022/23 WC on the Neptune was announced/posted on 9 Dec 2020.  #1
The 2023/24 WC on the Neptune was announced/posted on 19 July 2021.  #2111
The 2023/24 WC on the Sky was announced/posted on 21 Aug 2021.  #2384

So here we are more than a year later… the 2024/25 WC could be announced at anytime.  

 

As @Heidi13 has mentioned, since the 2022/23 and 2023/24 WC's closely followed the original 2021/22 WC itinerary, and since the ports included in these WC's are largely a collection of the ports included in Viking's Asia & Australia and Mediterranean voyages, pulling together the Viking WCs for the past couple of years was probably straight forward.  I'm thinking the next Viking WC will likely be a complete overhaul and require more planning and coordination.  Plus I'd guess that they are looking for the geo-political situation to settle a bit.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2886878-do-wc-itineraries-change-much/?do=findComment&comment=64152840

 

This is a link to the start of the thread where @Heidi13 started a wish list of desired ports for a World Cruise:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2767734-december-22-2022-world-cruise-ft-lauderdale-to-london-incudes-la-dep-jan-8th/?do=findComment&comment=61127696

 

[Clay Clayton]

I think we both posted to that wish list…now I just wish they would announce it!😂

[OneSixtyToOne]

19 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

Isn’t it past time for the 2024/25 World Cruise to be announced?

 

I received the latest World Cruise large brochure in the mail on Oct 16. It's only for '23-'24.

If they are still mailing it out it seems '25 might be a ways off.

[Clay Clayton]

20 minutes ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

 

I received the latest World Cruise large brochure in the mail on Oct 16. It's only for '23-'24.

If they are still mailing it out it seems '25 might be a ways off.

That brochure is what reminded me that 24-25 hadn’t been announced and raised my question. 

[Blackduck59]

@Clay Clayton Hey Clay welcome back. I just wanted to say thanks for your thread on the HAL page.

It was interesting reading your posts as they came in. I mention this here only because a thought you should have the final post on your thread over there.

[Clay Clayton]

16 minutes ago, Blackduck59 said:

@Clay Clayton Hey Clay welcome back. I just wanted to say thanks for your thread on the HAL page.

It was interesting reading your posts as they came in. I mention this here only because a thought you should have the final post on your thread over there.

Glad you enjoyed it!

[CurlerRob]

Impossible to compete with @Clay Clayton's thread on HAL 😁, but for anyone interested, we just completed an initial trip with Oceania. I posted a number of my observations on their main board - the link is below. 🍺🥌

 

 

[Clay Clayton]

33 minutes ago, CurlerRob said:

Impossible to compete with @Clay Clayton's thread on HAL 😁, but for anyone interested, we just completed an initial trip with Oceania. I posted a number of my observations on their main board - the link is below. 🍺🥌

 

 

Great info! Thanks.  

[Sleep7]

9 hours ago, CurlerRob said:

Impossible to compete with @Clay Clayton's thread on HAL 😁, but for anyone interested, we just completed an initial trip with Oceania. I posted a number of my observations on their main board - the link is below. 🍺🥌

 

 

Thank you so much CurlerRob for posting the link to your review.

I have always wondered what a cruise on Oceania would be like and you really gave an in depth picture. Really enjoyed reading it.. thanks again.😊

[deec]

On 11/16/2022 at 10:30 PM, CurlerRob said:

Impossible to compete with @Clay Clayton's thread on HAL 😁, but for anyone interested, we just completed an initial trip with Oceania. I posted a number of my observations on their main board - the link is below. 🍺🥌

 

 

thanks for the great comparison...think we will stay with Viking especially costly excursions ( we only like DIY when overnighting in a port), small shower I have 260 pound 6ft1 husband, no free internet!  I am also wondering if there is a retractable roof on the pool and what the Spa was like or the gym?  thanks so much

[CurlerRob]

1 hour ago, deec said:

thanks for the great comparison...think we will stay with Viking especially costly excursions ( we only like DIY when overnighting in a port), small shower I have 260 pound 6ft1 husband, no free internet!  I am also wondering if there is a retractable roof on the pool and what the Spa was like or the gym?  thanks so much

Hi Dee - I'm 6 1" as well, so the shower was like a wet coffin 👿. Internet is included, but it blocks streaming sites like YouTube - for that you have to pay extra. You only get 1 login at a time unless you purchase an additional at notable cost - we had 4 devices, so constantly had to kick one off to activate another (this is similar to how HAL does it, Viking is much better, even when the service is poor).

 

The pool deck is permanently open - no retractable roof - good/bad depending on the weather. Gym was equivalent to Viking, can't speak to the spa, as we didn't use it and actually have not done so on our single Viking trip earlier - may change that next June! Cheers! 🍺🥌

[kcpvwill]

On 11/23/2020 at 4:35 PM, deec said:

We have never sailed over a Holiday...I bet Viking does an amazing Thanksgiving Dinner!!!

 

We’ve just realised that we will be onboard Neptune during thanksgiving 2023.  We are from the UK and wondered what to expect on that day.  

[deec]

We were on the Orion for a Panama Canal cruise in 2021.  Thanksgiving was mostly about the offering of a traditional USA thanksgiving meal however there were other choices on the menus.  During the next few days the ship began to be tastefully (IMO) decorated for Christmas.  The gingerbread village set up in the atrium was very nice!

[deec]

On 11/18/2022 at 5:47 PM, CurlerRob said:

Hi Dee - I'm 6 1" as well, so the shower was like a wet coffin 👿. Internet is included, but it blocks streaming sites like YouTube - for that you have to pay extra. You only get 1 login at a time unless you purchase an additional at notable cost - we had 4 devices, so constantly had to kick one off to activate another (this is similar to how HAL does it, Viking is much better, even when the service is poor).

 

The pool deck is permanently open - no retractable roof - good/bad depending on the weather. Gym was equivalent to Viking, can't speak to the spa, as we didn't use it and actually have not done so on our single Viking trip earlier - may change that next June! Cheers! 🍺🥌

Thanks for this great information.  We would not share one connection very well!

[CCWineLover]

4 hours ago, deec said:

We were on the Orion for a Panama Canal cruise in 2021.  Thanksgiving was mostly about the offering of a traditional USA thanksgiving meal however there were other choices on the menus.  During the next few days the ship began to be tastefully (IMO) decorated for Christmas.  The gingerbread village set up in the atrium was very nice!

Hi Dee -

We were also gone on Thanksgiving last  year - on the Viking Sea from Rome to Barcelona to San Juan.  We spent Thanksgiving day in Nice & Monte Carlo and came back to the ship at 7 PM to have a wonderful "American" style Thanksgiving dinner - all the usual trappings!   Even our Brit fans joined in.   Then on our ship, the next day Viking started putting up Christmas decorations - a little each day.

[kcpvwill]

15 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

Hi Dee -

We were also gone on Thanksgiving last  year - on the Viking Sea from Rome to Barcelona to San Juan.  We spent Thanksgiving day in Nice & Monte Carlo and came back to the ship at 7 PM to have a wonderful "American" style Thanksgiving dinner - all the usual trappings!   Even our Brit fans joined in.   Then on our ship, the next day Viking started putting up Christmas decorations - a little each day.

Sorry to be totally unaware of what you do for Thanksgiving (we are from UK) but what food, activities etc do you have?  

[TayanaLorna]

1 hour ago, kcpvwill said:

Sorry to be totally unaware of what you do for Thanksgiving (we are from UK) but what food, activities etc do you have?  

Its a day on which friends and family gather to be thankful for whatever they appreciate in their lives - that would be the activity.  Growing up in my family, the women would cook, the kids would play with their cousins and the men would watch US football games.  Traditional food would be roasted stuffed turkey.  The stuffing could be many things and based on regional traditions.  Its accompanied by cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and different vegetables.  Desserts could be pumpkin pie or pecan pie.  Often times recipes and meal plans are continued for generations.  The "first" thanksgiving meal was supposedly between settlers in North America and the native americans to give thanks for the years harvest.  Canada also celebrates a thanksgiving but earlier in the Fall.

[Azulann]

Stopping by the Explorer Lounge for a  nice Jameson and splash of soda water drink. Cold  and dreary  outside in my real vicinity, but cozy here with the great fake fireplace going strong. I am  happy to have paid the final payment today  for my cruise on the Viking Jupiter in June 2023! 

 Lots to look forward to as I  dream about visiting the land of my ancestors in Denmark on the Scenic Scandinavia  cruise June 12-22. Will be in Denmark for midsummer🥂

Edited December 5, 2022 by Azulann