kctwinmommy

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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!! 😃

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.

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.

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.

Wow! That's surprising!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

@FetaCheese - Oh, so just the bookings on the first 2 days are locked in. That's a different thing.

This will definitely be interesting to see if anyone else can confirm. I just can't imagine this being the policy. I know it closes 7 days out, and then people say you can make changes on board after that. Maybe the Viking rep just got confused with that policy.