loum140

Hi Joe and Elizabeth,

 

Please reply to shooman at cfofix dot com with your email address so I can send you descriptions and pricing. I have multiple quotes for Split and Dubrovnik.

 

Elaine and Mark

Elaine and Mark: I have sent you an email re: these tours. Waiting to hear. Marsha

I have to agree. After 4 wonderful Viking River Cruises, we were so excited to see the beautiful renderings of this ship and booked immediately for the first two legs of the maiden.

We too are Oceania cruisers (#20 coming up) but we loved the size - between the R ships and the O ships - the multi dining options, included wine with meals, and included tours.

However, after all these months of waiting the details of the offered tours vs. what one actually wants to see in these ports is very disappointing to say the least. We now find ourselves interested in taking only 4 included tours (over 22 days) and will either "wing it" on our own or be forced to take optionals or book private excursions for the rest of the ports.

This is not what we expected of Viking.

We are on the April 20 to May 2 segment from Venice to Barcelona. Unfortunately there is no experience with Viking Ocean's excursions, so we will probably do a few private ones along with some from Viking. I have contacted a guide in Split and we are looking for one or two couples to join us on an all day tour of Split and the Dalmatian Coast. Please let us know if you are interested in private excursions in any of the ports.

Please let us know the details of anything you find for Split and the Dalmation Coast. We were thinking of taking one of Viking's optional tours there as we've been to Split before and would like to see something more. Please provide details from your contact re: itinerary and price. (Viking's optional tour is $139 p/p) You can contact us privately marlou140 at yahoo dot com. Thanks, Marsha and Lou

We're on from Istanbul to Barcelona

Thanks for that very fair and balanced trip report.

Just a note: Vinod was our first butler experience and we also found him delightful.

Yes,being light drinkers will benefit you.

Are Viking just including drinks with lunch and dinner and can you purchase a drinks package if you would like a drink at other times on the ship?

Wine (possibly beer?) with lunch and dinner and yes, there is an optional drinks package.

Well, you may know best, but Viking's not charging us for hardly anything on this cruise. If you're not a big drinker, which we're not, it's pretty much all-inclusive.

I agree with you for the most part. However, we were expecting a bit more with the included tours.

On Viking's river cruises the included tours cover pretty much most of the "must-see" places in each of the cities. Yes, there are some options, usually for an evening performance. But after reviewing the descriptions of Viking Oceans' included tours, most seem to be lacking in providing any "depth", thus several of us are looking for more extensive options besides a 2 hour walking tour with free time for shopping.

The fact is that we will now be taking very few (if any) included tours and spending extra $$ for either Viking's optional tours or for a small group tour through our Roll Call.

Okay. We have reconsidered and will not seek private guides for any of the ports on our Istanbul/Barcelona cruise.

We have studied the descriptions of both the included (free) tours and the proposed optional excursions and have determined that in some cities we will just walk or take a taxi to the places we want to see that Viking does not offer. We are satisfied that many of the included tours will be sufficient but plan to try to book a number of Viking's optional excursions for cities we have already visited.

I tried, unsuccessfully, to get an idea of the cost of excursions on other cruise lines but the Viking options that appeal to us most appear to be unique in many cases.

The only issues now are cost and whether or not we can get our first choice of tours.

The only positive in all this lack of information is the fact that in a few days suite passengers on the April 11 sailing can start booking excursions, so perhaps we will be able to find out what they will cost????:confused:

We love Viking (4 prior river cruises) but this has been a really frustrating 18 months as we love to plan our port stays well in advance and in this case, many of the ports are repeats for us so we would either take optional excursions or private guides. We are in deluxe veranda so can book in February but the recommended private guides might be taken by then.

Thanks for posting. She looks lovely.

So sad to hear this terrible news. Our prayers go out to all the families impacted by this tragedy.

We just completed the survey as well and are in a state of shock. If these prices are what we can expect to see for excursions on our maiden voyage, I don't think we'll be taking very many! We'll do our homework and figure out how to get where we want to go in each port, as most (if not all) are repeat visits for us.

What is of critical importance to us are port arrival/departure times and the actual cost of the excursions that Viking posted on their website back in 2013 when we booked this cruise.

I think I'll go with Alla. They seem to have all the bases covered on their intense 2 day tour. We don't go until September 2016 so that might change but that's how it looks now.

We can recommend Alla very highly. They were extremely responsive to our requests as we had been to St. Petersburg before and had our own list of don't-miss sites.

How many people were on your river cruise?

About 200 people.

Please note that the question from OBX Cruisers was about included tours on Viking River cruises.

Viking Star will offer only one included tour in each port. At this point it's hard to know how many of the 900 passengers will be taking the included tours and how many will want the optionals. I assue they will have factored this into their planning. As we plan to take optional and/or private tours in a few of the cities on our April 2015 cruise, we are anxiously awaiting Viking's posting of full information re: cost.

From the info available on the Viking site, it looks like the free ship's tours will be very basic overviews - no more than 3 hours long. There will probably be many other guests that take advantage of the freebie, but I don't think it's a very good use of our time waiting for hundreds of passengers to board buses. We've sailed with Viking for Egypt and China but I'm sure these were not experiences that can be compared to the upcoming Viking Homelands ocean cruise. Has anyone been on a Viking river cruise where you were offered a choice of excursions in each "port"? How were they arranged? What was the quality?

On a Viking River Cruise a few years ago there were several ports where more than one basic free tourwas offered. At the evening briefing they were described and it was "first come first served" with a sign-up sheet. It worked very well and we were pleased with the ones we took, especially in Budapest. Of course there were also the optional excursions for a fee. These would have to be booked in advance using an order form in your stateroom.

Robert and Penny from Cape Cod. I'm a retired photographer, she's a retired professor: Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins. Looking forward to it. We're on Deck 8; you?

Deck 6. Booked this so long ago but it's finally starting to feel real!

We'll wave at you as we debark :-) We're cruising from Istanbul to Barcelona on the maiden, 21 days all told.

Hi: We're on Istanbul to Barcelona as well! Sure would have liked to do the entire 50 days, but can't be away that long. We are Marsha and Lou from NYC.

Looking forward to meeting you.

Best wishes Don for a full and speedy recovery. You've got lots more wonderful cruises ahead!

Regards to Betsy.....We really enjoyed spending so much time with you and Don on our NY/London cruise a few months ago and can't wait to sail with you again.

Marsha and Lou Meyer

Thanks id4elizabeth. That sounds right to me. We'll also be on the Star maiden voyage -- at least as far as Barcelona -- so look forward to meeting you then! Marsha

The Viking Oceans website mentions the Silver Spirits package but does not provide details -- saying to ask about it when you make a reservation. All passengers receive wine and soda with meals and "specialty coffee and tea". I am not sure about bottled water, either - especially for tours.

According to Viking River Cruises it provides unlimited premium wine, beer and espresso drinks, mineral water, cocktails and sparkling wine. On the CC River Cruises forum, someone posted that it's $30 per person per day, but that you can easily purchase spirits on shore to consume in your stateroom.

Don't really know if the policy will be the same on Oceans as on Rivers. :confused:

It seems like we booked the Star maiden voyage about two years out, maybe Spring 2013, so it stands to reason that now in the Summer of 2014 we should see something about the other two. I've seen hints on the boards of Bermuda, Antarctica, etc., but it would be nice to have some new itineraries to salivate over.

We love smaller ocean-going ships, especially Oceania, but after 18 cruises on O I'm starting to feel like "been there, done that". I'm really looking forward to Viking Star with 900 passengers -- a comfortable compromise between 678 (Regatta, Insignia, Nautica) and 1200 on Marina and Riviera. Waiting to see how Viking measures up in the areas of food and ambiance, but I agree that Viking always seems to come up with creative itineraries. And judging from past experience on Viking River Cruises the optional excursions are more reasonably priced than on Oceania.

IMHO I believe that even though the Star will have its inaugural sailing from Istanbul, the Christening will be done in Norway which will be the official "homeport".

I know we can't book ship excursions until 90 days out from our cruise - sailing July 25, 2015 on Viking Star, Stockholm to Bergen. Would really love to know cost of their excursions though. We often like to book our own private excursions and this would help with planning. Has anyone heard when this info might be available?

We feel the same as you about pre-planning, so I had asked my T/A if she could get a ballpark figure for the excursions for our Istanbul/Barcelona cruise on the Viking Star. She said they would not give her any info. I guess we'll just have to wait until 90 days out! :(

I believe it is $25 pd pp you have access to the spa deck with T-pool for that day

other rates for packages

http://www.oceaniacruises.com/ships/marina/lifestyle/default.aspx

 

If you are in a Concierge or above you will have access included

 

If you have a spa treatment you will have 1 hr before or after your treatment

Lyn: There is no T-Therapy pool on Marina, only on Riviera. Marina has hot tub on Spa deck. Marsha

oh i love that!!!! I think this should be a "theme" on this board... May be then every one will understand!!

 

River happens!!!! :) :)

 

 

sent from my iphone using forums mobile app

amen!!!

I'm sorry you experienced such difificulties on your Viking River Cruise.

It is well understood by most river cruisers that the boats often tie up along side each other while in port, but surely your enjoyment of your balcony was unimpeded while cruising?

We have done 4 Viking River cruises and have never had an issue with the food running out, but possibly the wait staff could have accomodated you?

Regarding the bus issue, we did have a bus that was in difficulty during one excursion. These things happen.

For us, the worst case scenario would have been either too high water levels or too low water levels. Thankfully this has never happened to us and we were able to complete each cruise as promised.