My wife and I are booked on the Viking Sea for January 6, sailing to Manaus Brazil. We choose our trips according to itinerary and available shore excursions (among other things).
Viking has various stateroom classes and the higher the class the sooner one can book excursions and specialty dining. I understand this but did not understand the full implications of this policy.
We are booked in a Deluxe Veranda. One-third of the ship’s staterooms are of a higher category (Penthouse Verandas or Suites). By the time reservations opened up for shore excursions for the Deluxe Veranda guests, many of the offered shore excursions were already sold out (including one included one). This means that two-thirds of the guests had no shot at booking many of the excursions that were “offered” in the pre-cruise information provided by Viking.
Also, specialty dining (The Chef’s Table and Manfredi’s) was completely booked before we were permitted to book a reservation (I tried minutes after our window “opened”). Again, the upper one-third snared all the reservations meaning the other two-thirds are unable to make specialty dining reservations. I understand from Viking that once I am on board the ship, I can talk to someone who can squeeze us into the specialty restaurants but I don’t know what flexibility there will be regarding dates and times. Same with the sold-out included tour – we can check once on board and Viking will make additional spots available. But why can’t they do these things before hand and save the anxiety in hassle?
