miami mama

Since we are embarking in Chioggia, I suspect our paired down choices are a reflection of that. Our choices consisted of 3 in Chioggia, 1 included to Venice and 1 optional excursion to Venice.

Longterm, that is really cool. Love your painting. I think if Burano were paired with Murano I wouldn't even question what to do. I also enjoy photography and wanted to photograph the houses due to their multi-colors. However, it is Murano and the Abbey they have chosen for the only optional excursion to Venice. If transportation takes up to 1.5 hours each way, I don't think it is worth it for us but still have a little time to reconsider.

Also, if you don't at first get the excursion you really truly need to do, keep checking MyVikingJourney right up to 7 days before sailing. People change their minds and all of a sudden spaces open up. This is also true once you board. Make sure to inform Guest Services that you would like to be on a waitlist and as others change from that excursion to another, they inform people of the openings.

Still curious if anyone on here has taken a Viking excursion from Chioggia into Venice and can relay what kind of transportation was used and exactly how long it took. Hoping someone has the info on this.

Also keep checking back. I was not interested in a shared option so I kept checking into MyVikingJourney. Luckily I was able to snag tables for 2 at one point at an early hour (which we wanted).

Will do. Thanks.

Trying to decide if we really want to keep our excursion to Murano from Chioggia or not. For anyone who has done an excursion on Viking from Chioggia to Venice, what kind of transportation did they use and how long did it take to get from one place to the other? Did the time spent traveling take away from the overall experience? Would you do it again? Or maybe, just stay on the ship in Chioggia, walk around the town a little and relax? We have been to Venice before but I have not been out to Murano. Really wanted to do both Murano and Burano but Viking is only offering the Murano and the Abbey experience and nothing more but the included tour to St. Mark's square. We are also staying in Venice the night before taking private transport down to the ship in Chioggia and not really sure I want to spend more time traveling back to Venice the next day.

The machines are the original Nepresso machines. It is stocked with a few with caffeine and a few decaf. When we were on the Octantis, the strongest Nepresso pod was a #8. You can ask the room steward to give you all caffeinated but they might not have any choice on the strength or type of coffee as on our cruise there was only the one type with caffeine. I ended up bringing a few sleeves of Nepresso pods with us. We usually have room service for breakfast and enjoy a few good cups (much more robust than what can be found in the World Cafe) of coffee before starting out for the day.

We often order food the night before when we have an early start. We make sure to pack large plastic bags and a few feet of tin foil in order to cover the food for the in room refrigerator.Cheese/fruit plate is perfect for me but my husband will order something heavier such as one of the sandwiches. Nippy Sweetie, think polenta when talking about grits. It is a corn product but many grits are white in appearance. Since butter is often generously included after cooking, the white does take on a light yellow appearance. Some grits are more yellow, and I would guess that is due to the grinding and production processes. I am from the South also and often wish for grits when away from home. It is a comfort breakfast item for me and it tastes particularly nice when mixed up with scambled eggs (after the eggs are already cooked). I don't recall seeing them on the ship but I may have missed the offering.

I would recommend NIN also. You will find the Viking excursion to be very crowded while going from Bergen will be much less crowded and more relaxing. We actually had an empty train car to ourselves traveling outbound from Bergen.

Correction, it looks like the bus now does not require connections, there is one with a lot of stops though.

All forms of transportation you need to connect from either the bus to a train, a bus to a bus, or a ferry to a bus to a vaperetto to a vaperetto. Not so easy and takes a long time. Can't even think about doing it with luggage at our age, therefore, the need to hire private transport.

BlairsvilleCruiseGirl thank you for link. Will be sure to check back with it later in the month to see if March is listed. It looks like at some point in time Viking was comfortably scheduled at Marghera. For whatever reasons, Chioggia came into play. Perhaps, they wanted a port that was a guarantee for them for now and into the future. The Chioggia port as shown above looks very nice, however, there really isn't much to do in the area currently. The excursions as shown on Viking.com website are numerous and varied. However, once our excursion sign-up opened on MyVikingJourney, only 5 different ones were available. If you choose one of the two for Venice, you must endure 1 to 1.5 hours on some kind of transportation each way, ends up being almost half the time allotted for the excursion. Out of the 3 remaining excursions for Chioggia, 2 involve a walk with breakfast or a walk with lunch bites. The other is a one hour guided walk around Chioggia. Because of Chioggia's location, there are no direct transportation options outside private transfers, so Padua is out if one only has a partial day (our ship leaves at 2:00 pm). And looking on Tripadvisor, really nothing much in Chioggia, hence 2 out of the 3 excursions with Viking involve eating. Right now we do have the optional Venice excursion reserved but since we must take a private transfer from Venice to Chioggia the day before, we are thinking we really don't want to be on a bus or a boat for up to 3 hours that day. Reading, walking on our own, getting a good start on our Silver Spirits package sounds a lot more inviting. Fortunately we are really looking forward to the remainder of the cruise. Viking and the city of Chioggia really need to work on options for this city if Viking has made a committment to only use this port. Direct transportation to other areas also need to be established.

I have tried to find the schedule for the Isola Saloni port also and a link would be helpful. I usually check all of the ports on my itinerary in order to see what other ships will also be in port the same day.

Is there a more reliable place than cruisemapper to find out the cruise schedules for each port?

Like others with a Venice port, we were informed at the end of November, 2022, that our port for embarkation was to be Chioggia. “Going forward, to support Venice in their goal of preserving the lagoon’s environment, all affected 2023 Viking voyages on your itinerary will now dock in Chioggia (Venice) instead of central Venice. Chioggia is approximately a 1½ hour drive south of the Venetian Lagoon, depending on traffic.” However, in checking Cruisemapper.com, I see that Viking ships for the next six months are to dock at Marghera, and not Chioggia. For all of you veteran sailors/cruisers can you tell me if Cruisemapper.com is an accurate source (excluding last minute changes due to current situations such as weather, strikes, etc.) or are these two ports practically interchangeable, with numerous last minute changes? We have some rather expensive private transportation arranged to get us to Chioggia. And of course, the port in Marghera is much closer to Venice, and would probably open up more actual Venice excursion options instead of just the two that are now offered. There are three rather unattractive excursions in Chioggia and really no private touring to do. If Cruisemapper.com is reliable, it looks like Viking has been assigned the closer port. Why would they be trying for Chioggia? Or are they just preparing us for "worst case" scenario? When queried, the person on the chat said Chioggia was the port and we would receive final information 2 weeks before the actual cruise.

Thank you all. The information provided will help us make an appropriate decision. Since the tour with Viking is already guided, it sounds like that will be sufficient. I like LindaS272's thoughts about taking the time for the museum and if necessary taking alternative transportation back to the ship. We tend to take a lot of time in museums (to be honest my husband tends to take a lot of time), and if transportation is readily available, that sounds like a good solution.

All of the excursions in Katakolon involve time at Ancient Olympia. Would love to know if the time in Olympia involves an escorted tour around the site or if people walk around at their leisure? Also, is there sufficient time to go through the museum and is it included as part of the excursion or would one have to purchase tickets for it? We are trying to decide between the ship's excursion or doing it on our own with a guide.

Absolutely loved all your postings and pictures. This last section brought back a lot of memories of the Italian trip my husband and I took just about 20 years. Since then I have always had difficulty with smoothly, correctly pronouncing San Gimignano. Finally have a way to remember how to say it.

Thanks Mich3554 for the information. I don't think I'll ever get around to doing a world cruise but it sure sounds wonderful. Hope you are having a great time.

Although this is our fourth cruise, it is the first one that is part of a larger linked cruise, therefore, meeting this frustration for the first time. As I said, my husband is very happy with the World Cafe and we probably will be able to get reservations for 2 when we need them once onboard. However, when looking at future cruises I will certainly remember this information and maybe choose a cruise where this will not occur. Fortunately I did not encounter the same situation with shore excursions. Part of the reason for this, is that I booked privately for over half the ports at either the same or less cost. For those booked with Viking, no problem.

Thank you SantaFe1. This will allow me to revise my expectations when booking travel on multiple section cruises.

I do understand the concerns regarding the dining reservations. I have been on 3 cruises with Viking and have never had a problem obtaining reservations for 2 when reservations opened for booking. All 3 times we were in DV (or the equivalent on the expedition ship). For my upcoming crusie I am in PV which allowed me to "book" reservations even earlier. However, for this cruise when I signed in, everything was gone except for a few days at 9:00 PM. I can think of two possibilities for this (I'm sure there are more). The first is that we are on one of the middle legs for a multiple leg cruise. For those that are cruising on all of the legs, their window to reserve (whether they were in the Owner's Suite or DV) occurs before our time to reserve, and if they can reserve tables for their entire cruise (which start before ours and ends after ours), most of the reservations would be taken up. Another reason may be that the number of 2 person tables have been reduced in favor of adding larger tables that must be shared. This would actually increase overall capacity in the restaurant as the reduction of required space between all of those 2 person tables would be reduced. I actually wouldn't might sharing with others I didn't know if this was Pre-Covid. However, not so much now when dining. Maybe someone who has sailed with Viking on multiple occasions and is currently on board might know if the table layout seems to be very different or is now dominated by larger tables versus smaller 2-person tables. Perhaps someone who has been on the first leg and continued on for multiple legs of a cruise can let me know if they were able to make reservations for their entire cruise when their reservation booking opened. Someone who has been on the world cruise would know this also. Right now these questions are just a matter of curiosity. I do understand I can make reservations once on the ship, and if for some reason that does not work out, my husband really enjoys the World Cafe.

You must be having a great time. Can't wait to see your postings.

Well, it really does seem like layers may be enough. Thanks for sharing.