December 11, 2022 Komodo and the Australian Coast

Weber

Weber

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Our first Viking cruise! We are extremely excited yet very hesitant because of the late offerings on air routes and excursions. I know it will all work out though.
 
For anyone that is booked on the Best of Australia post-cruise be sure you take note of the correction to the itinerary. It will operate from Sydney to Uluru to Alice Springs and end in Melbourne. Book your flight home from Melbourne and not Sydney. This change happened after we booked in May. Was supposed to be in Ayers Rock for New Years Eve but will now be in Melbourne.
 
Weber said:
For anyone that is booked on the Best of Australia post-cruise be sure you take note of the correction to the itinerary. It will operate from Sydney to Uluru to Alice Springs and end in Melbourne. Book your flight home from Melbourne and not Sydney. This change happened after we booked in May. Was supposed to be in Ayers Rock for New Years Eve but will now be in Melbourne.
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We were also looking forward to spending New Year’s Eve at the nice hotel in Ayers Rock. But Melbourne will be nice too!
Viking air plus has been working on our air and it’s been a whirlwind of changes.
Are you also doing one of the pre cruise tours? We are doing the Ubud one.
 
We are getting on the Viking Mars on Nov 29, 2022 for 42 nights and end up in Auckland. We are doing the pre in Bangkok before boarding. Hope to see you all on board.
 
Gayle said:
We are getting on the Viking Mars on Nov 29, 2022 for 42 nights and end up in Auckland. We are doing the pre in Bangkok before boarding. Hope to see you all on board.
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Hi Gayle. Looking forward to meeting you on ship. Where are you from? We are from Phoenix
 
Jim and Janie said:
We were also looking forward to spending New Year’s Eve at the nice hotel in Ayers Rock. But Melbourne will be nice too!
Viking air plus has been working on our air and it’s been a whirlwind of changes.
Are you also doing one of the pre cruise tours? We are doing the Ubud one.
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Hi Jim and Janie - looking forward to meeting you on ship.
The precruise were all sold out. We are arriving Dec 9th and doing our own thing such as Whitewater Rafting and checking out the areas.
We got all the flights we wanted and in premium economy. We just had to add the Melbourne Sydney on Jan 2nd because of the inland itinerary change. We stood our ground to get what we wanted. They tried to send us PHX -MSP -ICN - DPS. Like a 38 hour trip and most of it in coach as premium only on one segment. Ugghhh
 
After we booked this cruise, we learned it will be during typhoon season in the all the areas we will be visiting, except Sydney. This is apparently a repositioning cruise, not the best season for visiting northern Australia.
 
Are you all doing the required Australia visa online yourself, or using the service recommended by Viking, Generations Visa? They seem overpriced and the online one seems fairly easy to get.
 
We are USA also. We did the Australian ETA app one. It's $12 us dollars. Super easy. We also did the Indonesian tourist Visa-on-arrival application. You can find it at Travel.State.Gov scroll down to Indonesia. You actually get this upon flight arrival and I think its about $35 us dollars. We fly LAX - SIN and then connect to DPS.
 
We did the Australia visa and it was fairly easy. Our flight schedule is brutal! We fly from DFW to Doha Qatar. We have a 9 hr layover there and then to Bali, arriving about 5:30pm. With the World Cup being held in Doha during that time there are no hotels available so I’m checking on lounge access. If anyone has any experience with that, I’d appreciate any info!
 
What airline are you flying on? Check to see if they offer One Day Pass to their lounge. Also are you booked premium economy, business or first? Those classes might offer lounge access too.
 
We are in Qatar airlines and they only offer complimentary passes for first and business class. Sadly, we will be economy class. I found where we can buy a pass for $99 each which we are considering.
 
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