Murt22

Thanks for the information - we just booked the included walking tour and had intended to do the wall on our own and you answered all the questions!

We did get everything booked. A few times, it wouldn't let me add the excursion to the cart so I would skip to the next one and a few times it would freeze and make me go back to the home page. I put a few paid excursions in the cart and paid for them before doing the next batch. Overall, it took about 40 minutes - we are on a 22 day cruise and didn't book anything for 4 of the days.

We book our excursions on Saturday and in preparing for that, I have been going to the website often to look at the excursions. I have found the website down as much as i have found it up. I have really never seen so much "maintenance" on a website. Obviously, it is random - so some can say that they don't have the problem, but have anyone had this issue? I know there is no solution to this problem - but I find it frustrating and hope the website is available during our booking time as I am missing some things to stay home to do it.

We thought about that - but how do you get back to the ship?

Thank you so much for the information - debating on doing the Venice on your own which has a longer time in Venice - but if we can't pre-order our tickets, we may be in the same boat - so to speak - as doing the paid excursion that includes St Mark's.

Did you go inside St. Mark's and/or Doge's Palace on the first day? We have an excursion "Unraveling St. Mark’s Square & Doge’s Palace" and wonder if it goes inside Doge's palace. I find the descriptions to be unclear.

While sitting on our balcony while sailing to see a glacier, overheard our neighbors bragging about how they were glad to be in Florida during Covid because they didn't have all the rules, etc. One of them was hacking and hacking. The next day, we came out of our room to see the whole medical team standing in front of their door - and there was a do not disturb on their door- and suddenly our cabin steward was wearing a mask...hmmmm.

We are on the reverse cruise that starts in Istanbul, but we start in Athens -so Venice and Rome are our turnaround days. We knew this would not give us enough time in Rome, so we are going early to Rome and then flying to Athens to catch the cruise. The Venice discussion is on point for us as well - we don't book our excursions for 5 weeks - so the information in this thread is very informative.

I like control of my air flights, so choose to book exactly what we want, cabin class, seats, routes, connections, etc. I'm sure it costs more, but with the too close connection times, multiple stops, terrible times, etc. it is worth it to us, especially if we are planning activities the first day.

Favorite outfit seen on our Alaskan cruise was a pastel seersucker suit with shorts worn by a lovely white - haired man with a handle bar mustache.

Our 22 day cruise includes Sunday embarkation at Athens, Sunday visit to Venice and Rome. After we originally were going to do the pre-tour in Athens and realized that it really only included a hotel(and transport). We decided to cancel our Viking Air and pre-tour and book our own pre-tour. We are flying to Rome a week before the cruise and will do all the sites then fly to Athens and do the sites, then embark on the cruise. We are planning on doing Ostia in Rome if available. We are also planning on staying overnight in Florence so we can do as much as possible. Venice is another issue - but still working on that. I haven't been any of these places before and have no idea if I will ever get there again.

In Italy, you must use your passport for ID when picking up tickets, etc. if you booked anything on your own. Not sure about other countries - but a photocopy or driver's license is not sufficient.

Thank you so much for the information. I did just book a walking tour that would require we stay overnight so I have been researching the hotels. I don't know what excursions will be offered for our cruise but we do want to do the museums closed on Monday.

What is the normal time that you must be on-board after excursions if the ship is scheduled to leave at 6pm?

Sorry about that, but thanks for the response. I hope you are able to cruise in the future.

Did you do this? We have exactly the same situation in September and have been trying to figure out the best option.

Thanks for the detailed info. If we want to go inside the museums, we would have to do it on sail away day which adds a layer of risk. I need to do more research on what we really want to do. I do appreciate the answer.

How did you do this? We don't have our excursion list yet, but we will be in Livorno on a Mon/Tues so museums closed on Monday, so thought we might want to book our own tix on Tues. Thanks

What are you scheduled to do on Maui and when? The weather here was horrible yesterday and is very windy today, although there is sun. Supposed to be windy tomorrow too , but less so later in the week. Any boat tours will be pretty rocky but guess you are getting used to it.

How about SPAM?

We did literally nothing in Valdez - there is a museum which gets kind of crowded. We were there on a Sunday so one of the attractions was closed. Not many shops, places to eat etc. Some of the people we knew took a glacier cruise and thought it was good - but I think it was similar to the Kenai fjords cruise, which I also recommend (bring your WARM clothes). In Ketchikan, we did the bear excursion - which were black bears, not the brown bears. There was a little walk through the forest on a boardwalk, and a mom and her 3 cubs came under and went to the river for fishing. A bald eagle landed in the tree right over our head, and a juvenile eagle was sitting by the river in front of us. There was a small raptor display with eagle, owl, etc. There was a little sawmill and a totem carver with some totems outside and a gift shop. For being a "reserve" it is not wild - but was one of the best outings we had.

We did the Scenic Sitka and theatrical performance - which involved taking a bus for one 'scenic" stop, then to a church for a performance - which was actually nice. Then they dropped us off downtown to walk around. You could pick up a shuttle bus back to the ship when you were done. There were some nice shops, places to eat and I think some historical sites -which we didn't do.

On an Alaskan cruise in August, they had Jaquart Brute by the glass that qualified for the SS package. I made sure to get my money's worth of that!

We did the Denali explorer this August. We haven't done group tours at all - so can't compare but we enjoyed it. The train ride was nice, the park tour was fine - but animals were pretty far away and not always on our side of the bus. Hotels were good. We enjoyed the Talkeetna hotel - and we DID get to see Denali there. Every uneducated Alaskan tourist (including myself) thought that Denali park was where Denali the mountain was located...not so! Nice to meet some of your shipmates - and actually there were 4 of us couples who were actually on the same deck and hallway. It was a nice way to start the cruise. We had some rain on the pre-cruise but none on the actual cruise - which is unusual.

2 glasses of the champagne/day = cost of Silver Spirits package - and if you drink more than that - you are making money!!(of course, I never did that 😉). Definitely better than the included sparkling wine.