kctwinmommy

@TayanaLorna - that's super helpful info! I didn't realize you had booked the secrets one through Viking. I booked it through another company, but I can cancel up until 48 hours before. I'll probably cancel it now though as it looks like we'd never make it there in time. I guess I was under the impression that a lot of them would be "on your own" tours, meaning you would still need tickets to actually see things. I just hope that we can get into that one. We also have a DV cabin, so like you, those tours on Day 1 & 3 were also booked up already.

13 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

We did Secrets of the Doges Palace day 1

Murano & Burano day 2

A Taste of Chioggia day 3

 

The boat ride to/from Venice takes 1.5 hours each way.  There are bathrooms, a bar where folks could purchase coffee, hot chocolate etc and a guide explaining all kinds of things about the canals, Venice etc.  The boat had an open upper deck and the ride was scenic even in the awful weather we had.  We were the only cruise ship in town and Venice was still crowded in February.

So I just booked the Secret Itineraries of Doge's Palace, and it has a 9:15 start time. I can cancel up to 48 hours before. I'm hoping we can get on a boat early in the morning, like 7 a.m. or so, and make this tour. It was the only time available between Viator & Get Your Guide.

@OneSixtyToOne - thanks! I just am not sure what time we should pick for ticket entrance. I'm guessing the excursion will probably leave a few times that morning, probably between 8-10 a.m. I'm thinking of getting tickets for like 1 p.m. or so, kind of in the middle of the day. And just looked now, the only option is 9:15 a.m., which I doubt will work. Darn!

Thanks @TayanaLorna! I think I need to just get some tickets for St. Marks & Doge Palace on our own. It sounds like the "Venice on your own" basically just gets you there. Which is fine... I just wonder what time our tickets should be bought for.

16 minutes ago, Frenchberet said:

Sorry, I didn’t keep a copy.  I think there were two included walking tours and two optional tours to choose from on transfer day.  No problem booking, just stop at Guest Services.  We chose an optional tour to Murano/Burano, very good.  
 

On our other days in Venice we did an included walking tour, “Highlights of St Mark’s Square”, and an optional tour to the Doge’s Palace.  We booked these during the regular excursion booking process prior to boarding.

The issue with Venice is that you are docked 90 minutes from St. Mark’s Square.  You’re spending 3 hours in transit (by boat) each day which limits the time you can actually spend sightseeing.  Just something to keep in mind.

Thanks! And yeah, I know we're pretty far away. We currently have the 1 included booked for the first afternoon we get there. And I know we can only book 1 included at each port. So we'll see what opens up for the full day.

2 hours ago, Frenchberet said:

We just returned from this cruise.  The full itinerary was Barcelona to Istanbul.  We sailed Rome to Istanbul (legs 2, 3 & 4).  Venice and Athens were change-over days where passengers got on and off for a new leg.  Viking offered several included and optional excursions for passengers continuing on.  We received a handout in our cabin a couple of days before the change-over with all the info.  Great cruise, enjoy!

Do you by chance have a picture or know what they were? And were they difficult to book? What did you guys do in Venice? Thanks for any info!

Yep! We're on a similar cruise, so nothing posted for that middle day. However, someone in another group shared a photo of what they got once they boarded the ship. You will find out the excursions for that day once you are onboard. They don't post online, because the excursions offered aren't available for those who will be boarding on that day. It was pretty much similar to what's on the first day, a couple of basic "on your own" trips into Venice. I don't remember the other optional ones. We know we'll have to book that day once we get on board, and I'm keeping some options open on Viator as well.

On 3/16/2024 at 9:18 PM, SailorPaulH said:

How is the experience of ease of booking excursions relate to cabin choice? It would seem to me that if you are in an ES you can probably book what you want and maybe a good chance if you have PS or PV!? After that, the creative solutions I have seen in this thread and others seem to be critical as demand outstrips supply. Is there a sweet spot for cabin choice if excursions is your primary focus on your cruise?

We have a DV cabin, went on right at our time to select, and still got everything we wanted. I would say the only thing we may have missed was the exact time slot for an included excursion. But it was like instead of getting a 9:30 start time, we had to pick 10:00, so no big deal.

On 3/16/2024 at 9:36 PM, ericosmith said:

Does no one use a password manager that will autofill personal information and credit card data in forms.  It's a quick and easy way to check out with a card.

I do have auto-fill, but it didn't work for their site when doing the excursion purchases. First website it's never worked in.

We've done about 5 cruises, all Caribbean, with another couple, sometimes with both our kids too. I think it's best to look at things you absolutely want to do and then decide if you want to do the together. And if not, then just go on your own. It's always nice to catch up at dinner about what you each did. On one we did 2 years ago, only our son came, it was his senior year of HS graduation gift, so for 1/2 our ports, we did something on our own. Our friends wanted to do different things. It was nice to have some family time, but then other days, be the 5 of us, as our son could do without always talking to just us. LOL!

I realize Viking is different than our previous line of choice, but I'm sure you'll find times that you want to do things on your own and times you'll want to be together. Just be up front, like you said, with things that are important to you. And have fun!! 😃

4 minutes ago, millybess said:

If you use ACH, it's very quick.

Yes! We like to use our credit card because of the cash back, it's almost even. But in this case, it doesn't allow for auto-fill, but you can have the ACH info stored to use. So that was super fast.

1 minute ago, longterm said:

You're absolutely right--we just tested it. It wouldn't let us use our separate logins into the same MVJ, but so long as we logged in using the same login, it worked fine. Sadly, it appears now that my wife won't be available at that time, so it became a moot point for us. 😞

Oh no! Is anyone else around that could log in to help? Hopefully you won't need it! I know I was worried, but it was also a moot point. I'm not sure which cruise excursions fill up faster than others, or if it's just a random thing, which is quite possible. We did get everything we wanted and I don't think many, if any at all, were sold out after we booked. But there are several sold out. Plus, our ship changed one port now, due to the Olympic flame route, and I think 9 out of the 12 excursions in that stop are now sold out. It's odd...

They are not held and can be sold out before you purchase them. Simply being in your cart doesn't guarantee you getting them. Go in order of most importance to least, then book your included ones.

8 minutes ago, longterm said:

MVJ won't let 2 users be logged into the same account; in fact, if a Viking rep wants to see your account while you're logged in, they'll require you to logout first so that they can get in and see your account.
 

We tested that a couple of days ago; I logged into MVJ, then my wife logged in. While we were both able to login, a banner on the excursions page indicated that she wouldn't be able to do anything other than to view excursions--she wouldn't be able to book anything.
 

If you were able to that then you have some special powers... 🙂

Not sure I see any value in this, unless an excursion can fill up while it's sitting in your cart; perhaps someone can anyone confirm that this can happen.
 

Yes it will, my husband and I both logged in, using the same user name & password, and we were both able to purchase excursions. It won't let you log in with the different user names/passwords. He would purchase one, while I was looking at the next day. We did sometimes step on each other and would end up seeing both excursions in the cart, so one of us had to back out of the cart so we could check out.

Again, we did this because I had read plenty of stories about excursions booking up. We had our list, went down in order of most importance, then booked. It went super well.

And yes, many people have commented in the past that they filled their cart, went to check out, and found that things were unavailable. Now, our cruise had very few excursions sell out after I went back to look a few days later. But plenty of other people have said that even before they could book theirs (probably in a DV cabin like us, or maybe in a V cabin), that there were many excursions sold out.

5 hours ago, BradDFWTX said:

Got back last week from the Viking Polaris - what a FUN / EPIC cruise!! So, as a followup to the question I posed: on the first day - once onboard and having lunch I asked our server about purchasing the package and explained that my wife did not drink alcohol at all. She checked with her supervisor and it was A-OK and they sold / charged the package to just me, not for both of us. I did try the house wine and it was not so much to my liking. I definitely did enjoy the premium wines and had many nice drinks throughout the cruise and definitely came out ahead spend-wise by purchasing the package. Cheers!

Wow! That's surprising!

20 hours ago, Redtravel said:

On some lines, one person in cabin can buy a beverage package.  My husband has done it. I don’t drink anything alcoholic. I prefer tea, coffee, soda, and water. On Viking, they insisted that both of us had to buy.  We chose to not buy it. My husband paid by the drink. In reality, he didn’t spend that much. Itinerary was port intensive.  

I know the lines we've sailed so far, both adults had to buy it. I know we haven't sailed on all of them, LOL! But I'd be surprised if a line let only 1 adult buy the drink package. Now, non-alcoholic, yes, we've done that many times.

Just now, marazul said:

Book the tour anytime.  There is no particular advantage.  Since the SF is not near other tourist attractions like the Gothic Quarter, Passeig de Gracia, etc., I would go there first and then move on to the other areas.

I am not sure about what you say about which facade to do.  The entrance is through the Nativity facade and your guide will describe it.  The exit is through the Passion facade.

Thanks! I had posted somewhere else too, and got some info, basically the same. I ended up booking in the afternoon, just so we can take our time during the day. And it's for going up in the towers, you had to pick one of them. So I did google it, and found that the Passion tower has better views and the Nativity one is the one originally designed by Gaudi. So we picked the Passion one.

Hopefully and easy question... I'm looking to buy our tickets from their website to take the tour. We're in Barcelona the day before on our cruise, and have some walking tours already planned. We'll disembark then on Saturday morning, head over to our hotel which is about a mile or two from the cruise port, drop our luggage, than go back out of course. Being a Saturday, what would be a good time to book our tour? Would it be better to go a little later in the afternoon? Right now it looks like we could pick times starting around 10 a.m. and as late as 3:00 p.m. Just looking for thoughts on this. Thanks!

Oh, and does it matter which facade we do for the tours? Passion or Nativity?

So when we went 7 years ago, or 8 now, getting into Tracy Arm was difficult. I would say over the course of several years before and after us, hardly any ships got into Tracy Arm because of the ice jams. We went into Endicott Arm and saw Dawes glacier instead. And it was amazing! The cruise ship follows behind slowly. We got onto our small ferry boat and got super close. The glacier was caving the entire time, so it even rocked our small ferry boat. It was just awesome! You can see in the pictures how far back the cruise ship stayed and what it looks like from back on board. Oh, and the cute seal that popped up right next to us. We also saw some bears along the shore, up in beautiful waterfalls. I would absolutely recommend it, no matter which arm you end up in!

This what it looks like from the cruise ship, it doesn't get much closer than this. Basically, we took our ferry boat back to the ship, got back on the cruise ship, and another group got on and went up close. So there were 2 excursion times, we did the first one. Then the cruise ship slowly left out, and the ferry boat caught up when they were done.

This was awesome to see!

The cruise ship from the ferry boat, it never got any closer and I'm sure I'm zoomed in.

More of the caving.

4 hours ago, cruisin*tigger said:

I just loved the view out my balcony - completely different than seeing Caribbean islands! 

 

 

OK, I do agree, although it does get repetitive. But it is beautiful! However, one night, my husband was just laying in bed, it was like 10-11 at night, still somewhat light out, and I was like "OMG! You've got to see this!" And he jumps up to look and I was like "Sorry, it's just the same beautiful scenery we've been seeing for days." LOL! I just had to mess with him.

21 minutes ago, FetaCheese said:

OP @FetaCheese here.

 

Thanks to all who have provided info.  I most likely read the email to quickly.  Should have read it a couple more times, for better understanding.

It happens! I did that with a recent email regarding OBC for new bookings. I read that even if I booked a 2026 cruise, it had to be paid in full by April 30, 2024! I was like, no way am I paying $15-18,000 for a cruise 2.5 years away. I missed it, the print was so small, that it broke it down by each year. 😉 So if we booked that 2026 cruise, it was due in like April 2026.

13 minutes ago, Daruma said:

 

Thank you. 

 

Most Spring breaks are mid/end of March, (my son graduates this May... and his Spring Breaks have always been mid-March; this year Monday March 11 - Friday March 15), so hoping a late March into April should be safe. 

Not around here, a lot of them are in April. A lot of schools don't always go based on Easter these days, like we did when we were kids. When we went on our son's senior year spring break 2 years ago, it was in the middle of April.

As far as your question, I don't drink hardly ever and I do just fine. I don't go sit on the deck when they do the big parties, or really hang out in the bars much. But my husband likes a bourbon or something, so sometimes we will. But it hasn't been a big deal.

It's great, but definitely different than a Caribbean one. You won't have as many deck parties and such, it's more subdued, but it's wonderful. We went with our son 8 years ago and there were still plenty of kids onboard, so he had people to hang out with. But really, this cruise is much more about the ports and sites, not just sitting in a bar, IMO.

As far as attire, you will see it a little more relaxed, less people really dressing up. People are often packing so much to bring already, they're not always wanting to get dressed up. I also get cold easily, so there were plenty of nights I didn't want to be in a dress of any kind.

However, it's still one of the best cruises we've done. I always tell people, do what you want, don't say "Oh, maybe next time." We only planned to do Alaska once (I know others do it more than that). So we did the amazing things we wanted to - like helicopter onto a glacier, which was a once in a lifetime thing for us!

I will say, my husband and I joked that some of the talent on board isn't quite their best. We said it must be the cruise where the new entertainers go, or those who couldn't quite cut it on the Caribbean cruises. Just not as great of singers or dancers, IMO. But again, that's not the reason we go on a cruise.

You will have a great time if you just remember, it's not a Caribbean cruise, it's different, and definitely a wonderful place to see.

10 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Totally ludicrous policy. Easy solution is to boycott Optional Shore-ex and only book private tours.

 

Sorry Viking, yet another reduction to the original exceptional customer service standards.

 

 

Look at the screenshot the OP posted, it only applies to excursions within the first 2 days of sailing. That's not unreasonable at all. That's basically a 48 hour window, which many other companies have as well.

1 hour ago, Twitchly said:

Yup. We got that in 2022, as I recall. They stopped allowing changes in the couple of days before boarding, and no changes for the first couple of days of the cruise. We did talk with the excursion people on boarding day about getting on a waiting list for a later excursion and had no problem.

Yes, that I can see. It's chaotic to try and change things on the first day. However, the OP made it sound like they couldn't change ANY excursions for the entire cruise. And all the emails related to shore excursions have been saying it closes 7 days prior, which also makes sense.