goldwingers

Good to know, I will keep that in mind, thanks

We are flying out on the 5th British Air @ 9:45 PM. We were assigned a different itinerary thru Viking but I upgraded to premium economy on the website & this was the best route. A bit less than 3 hrs to change planes (& terminals) in Heathrow, so hopefully that will be long enough. You will be at the Clarion Hub in Oslo? They changed the hotel on us a while back. Look forward to getting to know you! Barb (& Wayne)

Gosh, I hope you are able to get that resolved! We had problems last year with Delta - partnering with ITA. Funnily enough when we went on a Rick Steves Sicily tour. Not able to select a seat even though we had paid for premium economy - not able to check in online or get boarding passes. Delta said talk to ITA who said Delta was responsible, etc.... Nearly missed our 6 AM flight from Catania to Rome as the airport didn't open till 5 and the whole country must have been in line ahead of us... BTW, we have also done the Rick Steves Villages of Italy and it was marvelous as was Sicily, hope you have a wonderful time even with the airlines making life miserable.

I think we will be on the same tour. I just booked this because of the good reviews here. I had wanted the Viking Outlander tour but it was sold out even before we got a chance to book. So we had to settle for the Cawdor/Culloden since the Urquart one was sold out as well. This Thistle tour hits all the spots we wanted to see and it is also far less expensive. This thread is so helpful. I see you are from Pittsburgh - we are in Beaver Falls area. Maybe we will meet up on board the Venus?

Yes, good idea - that's what we normally try to do. This itinerary has stops with (I think) 3 different currencies. I'd like not to have an excessive amount left over of Kroners or Pounds, that's why I'd prefer to use a CC if possible, but I don't want to stiff the guides & drivers, they deserve recognition - especially after being out of work for so long with the lack of tourism. Leaving 2 weeks from today - getting last minute details attended to! Love the reports on the ports of call - save some of that lovely weather for us! Thanks

I am curious about this as well. SteelCity, I believe we are on the same cruise. We have the 4 day pre ext. from Oslo to Bergen. I had read on this site somewhere that Norway is mostly cashless so had planned on using our CC since we don't want to end up with Kroner (?) left over. But we will have several excursions while there and wondered how much to have on hand for tips. We normally get foreign cash from an ATM but that would probably not be in small denominations. So some idea of how others have approached the tipping would be helpful. Same question for Pounds - we have a good supply of Euros from prior trips, but I think only the stop in Dublin uses Euros? Thanks to anyone who can help!

Thanks. Sunflower, SantaFe & deec - I had purchased the optional tours first - as soon as I could thanks to the info I had from this site! - and went back & scheduled the included ones at whatever time would fit and was still available. That put two of them in the earlier time slot. The third one is after the paid excursion, so I'm not too worried about that, especially as it didn't get the best reviews. The free Shetland tour only gives me 30 minutes before the Shetland pony experience, so I may just forego that since it covers some of the same ground. Just trying to maximize my time! Thanks

We will be leaving in a little over 3 weeks for this cruise from Bergen to London. I have a question re: shore excursions. On several days I have booked the included exc. and also a paid exc. There is about a 30-45 minute gap between when the one ends and the other begins. I figured that would be enough time. Do the ship's tours usually get back at the scheduled time or am I being overly ambitious? I would hate to miss a paid tour that I really wanted just to go on the included one. I can check with guest services when onboard, just wondered if anyone had any experience with doing this. Thanks

Thanks for your thoughts on the included Dublin tour. That was all I had planned for our day there, as we had spent time there several years ago on a Road Scolar tour and had hit most of the sites we had wanted to see. After reading your input, I just went and added an extra excursion ( the trip to Wicklow with the baking demo) so we don't feel as if we wasted our time there. The longer Wicklow tour also looks lovely, but we had seen a good bit of that area before & it was rather pricey for the day. Really appreciate everyone's reviews and feedback!

Thank you, Peregrina651 and CDR2001 for the info & suggestions. The Bergen to Mostraumen cruise is the one I was looking at - it does look great, glad to know you enjoyed it. I can try to speak to the Viking rep while we are still in Oslo. If there's a way for them to transfer our bags, or we can drop them off early, we could still make the 10:30 tour. I won't pre-book online until I am sure it will work out, I don't think it's refundable. You've given me some good options, thanks again.

Thanks, Ceegeefl - I guess I should have been more specific. I didn't realize there were 2 different pre-ext. train trips - we are on the one with 2 nights in Oslo & 2 nights in Bergen after the train ride and would be boarding the ship on the 10th from the hotel - I think it is to be the Hotel Norge by Scandic. Good to know that Viking will be dealing with the luggage, though. That gives me a little more leeway in what I can pack. Now I just need to know how early we would be boarding the ship. Maybe we will see you onboard. Starting to get excited!

I've found all the tips on here so far very helpful. There's a few things I haven't seen that I still have questions about, though. We are on the June 10 Bergen to Greenwich on Venus with the pre-ext from Oslo to Bergen on the train. First question - does Viking take care of transporting your luggage from the Oslo hotel to the Bergen hotel or do you have to lug it onto the train yourself? This will make a difference on whether we pack in carry-on only (as we normally do) or take an additional checked bag as I had hoped to do since we will have a variety of weather on this trip. Second - on the day we board the ship in Bergen, does anyone know approx. what time they do the transfer? And again, do they take your bags? I was looking at doing a fjord cruise that day as there aren't any excusions, but the cruise starts at 10:30. I am hoping it will be near the vicinity where the ship will be docked so we could just walk there. This will be on a Saturday, so I was thinking perhaps it would be best to book this ahead and not just try doing it as a walk-up. Feasible? Thanks to anyone who might have any info!