Good news for you, most of the major cruise lines no longer offer 2x/day cleaning. You can choose morning or later in the day, but not both.
We’ve been on two Viking Ocean cruises and have more booked. Our first was a full transit through the Panama Canal and our most recent one was Into the Midnight Sun from Bergen to Greenwich. We have deposits down on Chilean Fjords in December 2026 and Pharaohs & Pyramids in November 2027 (which is a land/river trip). Viking runs pretty frequent “sales” with $25 pp deposits. The main benefit of booking onboard is you get that $25 deposit plus some onboard credit for the cruise you’re currently on when you do the onboard booking.
When we were on our last one (Midnight Sun) we actually made quite a few friends onboard and remarked how friendly people were. One group talked us into booking on an Iconic Iceland itinerary and date they’d chosen for 2026. When we got home we had second thoughts so we switched the date to the same Iceland itinerary a year later, then had more second thoughts and decided to change it completely for the Egypt cruise. Since these changes were in advance of final payment it was pretty easy to keep moving that $25 deposit around. I like the Viking system of offering low deposits but making you pay earlier (usually at 6 months once you’re a repeat Viking customer). That works for us because we like to plan about 2 years in advance and we also like to book our own air, so by the time the cruise is 6 months out we’re pretty committed.
We also have upcoming cruises on Celebrity (New Zealand in March 2026) and Princess (Singapore to Tokyo in March 2027) so we haven’t completely abandoned the larger cruise ships, especially when sailing with friends or family who don’t want to pay for Viking.
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I think we’ve traded comments before as we ret’d from our first Viking Grand European River Cruise in October and fell in love with Viking and the river cruise model. I thought I would try Viking first and then switch to try Avalon or AMA but we’ve already signed up for another Viking river cruise in 2027. I do want to do an ocean cruise as well and love hearing about your experience. We made good friends on our river cruise, some we plan to travel with in the future - hope it holds, we’ve all been communicating over the holidays anyway. People really are so nice and you just need to see they are out there because the news has been so difficult to listen to lately and makes you just a tad cynical, me anyway.
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Getting ready to travel. Notified 2 of the cr card companies that we are traveling so they don’t think the cards were compromised (easy to do this on line). Don’t need to notify AmEx as they paid for the tix and ancillaries! They know (and they say on their site that they know!)
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We just signed up for the daily international phone plan through ATT. Only charged if we use it, and I think only 10 days per billing period. Our billing period starts the first day we arrive at our destination.
Also cancelled newspapers, and set up online bill payments where needed.
Now…I just need to PACK. Everything is sitting on a bed waiting to be rolled up and put into various bags!
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That’s my method. Works great with the kids gone, extra vacant beds in the house. (I use my daughter’s old room, which now has a queen sized bed for guests.)
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A fair bit of travel coming up. A few days with ShawSon and his wife at Sea Ranch, which is a remarkable place a bit south of Mendocino, CA. Then ShawWife has an opening of her paintings at a museum in Washington DC followed by a week in Sanibel Island (visiting MIL) and then a week in Banff (for a conference and then maybe some outdoor activities). A few weeks later, we’ll spend a week or so in Mexico (two days of work in Mexico City and then maybe Oaxaca and/or San Miguel de Allende). Hoping to eat at my favorite restaurants in Mexico City. We’ve been to San Miguel as we stay with a friend there but have never been to Oaxaca. Then Memphis in April for Passover.
@jym626, it is odd. Some cards think there is fraud whenever I travel abroad (including Canada or Mexico) whereas others expect it. If their analytics were any good, they realize that I travel a fair bit. Pre-pandemic,I traveled a ton.
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The hardest part of any trip is packing… but I think I’m done! If I forgot something…there are stores everywhere.
We get picked up in 2 hours from our house. It’s going to be a VERY long day. 3 hour drive to airport, 3-4 hours at the airport, and an almost 18 hour flight. I hope I can sleep for a few hours on that plane trip!
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Hope you both have a great trip! 
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Our long trip starts tomorrow. Still trying to get the last of my carry-on stuff organized.
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Safe travels to all those on the road and air today!
I agree that it’s the packing for me. Once I’m there, it’s much better.
I admire those who seem to take packing in stride because I’m always nervous. Especially overseas where it’s difficult to find things.
On our last trip, I had to go to the pharmacy 3 times for things my husband needed. All over the counter, once we were in a place that wasn’t as touristy and finding something that neither of us spoke each other’s language was hard! It all worked out.
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Our trip is going to be interesting- we depart on Dec. 30, cross the international dateline and land on Jan 1. New Year’s Eve never happens!
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Can I ask what country/area you are traveling to? Fun to know the excursions people take.
New Zealand/Australia
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Are you by chance going to stop at Perth? I want to get to Australia and New Zealand but would really like to see the western side as well.
Unfortunately, I don’t think so. Not this trip anyway.
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That’s where we’re going mid-February but we’re only skipping Lincoln’s birthday in flight! We’ll rent a car at SAN (we live nearby) and drop it off at LAX, then fly direct to Auckland. New Zealand is the Globus tour of both islands and Australia is just Sydney on our own for a few days. I have a packing list on a spreadsheet. Now that son is in the air back to Seattle after his 10 day visit, I can refocus my attention.
As an aside, do you think the flight attendants (Delta) would appreciate something like a bag of upscale Valentine’s candy to share amongst themselves?
Oh, I am sure they would. If you follow any of the airline Facebook groups, the common gift to the flight attendants are Starbucks cards.
When we fly on or right around Christmas, I always brought chocolate Santas but one day the TSA agent dropped my license when he took the chocolates and it fell into the mechanics of the belt and it took several of them a while to dig it out! No more gifts!
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We did New Zealand for a month in 2024, but decided not to go to Australia on the same trip.
Hope you both enjoy your trips.
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