Moonlion

Whew, thought I had missed something! We'll be in Norway toward the end of May with about 18 hours of daylight (https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/norway/bergen)...almost hitting the "midnight sun" time.

What train booking site did you you use? If booking directly with vy.no, I came up with ~$150 per ticket. They only offer "plus" seating which I believe is their first class experience.

@longterm I'm curious how you came up with a budget of $1500 if doing yourself. We're on the BIE cruise this May (London to Bergen) and plan to spend 3 days post cruise on our own - 1 extra night in Bergen at the Thon Hotel Orion (at $138 USD through booking.com) and 2 nights in Oslo. In Oslo, I booked two nights at the Thon Hotel Opera (same hotel that Viking uses for the post-excursion for $250/night including taxes (I booked directly with the hotel website). Both hotels include breakfast. Doing a dummy train booking since you can't book on vy.no site until 60-90 days in advance, fully refundable, plus train tickets from Bergen to Oslo come to just under $300 for the two of us. Just pricing the Bergen Oslo part, it comes to about $800 USD for the two of us (2 nights in Oslo plus train tickets). Transfers and a tour shouldn't come to $700. Hopefully, I'm not missing something 🤣! If you are using Viking Air and want to change the arrival/departure date or airport, there is a deviation fee. However, the last time we did this, we only paid the deviation fee once and it included both inbound and return deviations. Call Viking Air to see if there is an upcharge for flying back from Oslo instead of Bergen. Good luck with your travel planning!

Is that for 1 person or the entire tour (for example, 8,500 k for up to 6 to 8 people)? I'm looking at several private tours for our upcoming BIE cruise and many private operators charge by the entire tour.

Does anyone know if the bar prices (purchased separately) for wine, beer, liquor have gone up by 25%? If so, the value of the SSBP is basically the same.

You can also book your own air and, if your flight arrives on the day of embarkation (or departs on the day of disembarkation), you can purchase a Viking transfer for $49 pp. For some locations, this is more economical than a cab or private car from airport to the ship. We're doing this in London (LHR to Greenwich) next May. My understanding is that you are treated the same as if you had purchased your air through Viking. Haven't done this before, so we'll see...

Again, I don't question your logic or that this is all spelled out in the fine print of Viking's air contract. My question, based on this case, is why anyone would book their flights through Viking unless there are substantial financial savings? Unless you pay extra for Viking Air Plus and air deviations, you don't get to pick your flights, decide when to arrive, select seats far in advance, get upgrades, etc. This case, if true, will definitely pop the air out of the "benefits balloon" of using Viking Air. Just saying...

I too incorrectly assumed that if you booked flights through Viking, they would arrange to get you to the ship or provide some compensation - a voucher at least, if flights were cancelled or delayed. On our pre-pandemic Viking river cruise, our flight booked through Viking was seriously delayed and Viking did get to us to the ship and took responsibility to retrieve my lost luggage. If this is no longer the case, then why in the world book flights through Viking unless there are substantial savings? I hope that Viking in the end does right by these people.

Affirmative.

Odd, because all these exact same excursions were showing as available just last week.

Update for our May 9, 2023 BIE cruise: oddly, all of the optional excursions for the Orkney Islands (Kirkwall) are now showing as "SOLD OUT" in MVJ (however, the included excursion is still available). We're 133 days from sailing so too early for any of the premium cabins to have booked excursions. None of the excursions in any of the other ports are sold out. We had something similar happen on our January 2022 cruise when Viking cancelled a port 10 days before departure. However, we were first notified by email of the port cancellation before the excursions were listed as "sold out" in MVJ. Curious if any of the other 2023 BIE cruises are seeing this in MVJ? Any guess what this means? TIA

Thanks, Mcobean! Many of us will be following along with you on your WC adventures (vicariously)!! DH and I will boarding the Neptune on May 9th in Greenwich for the BIE cruise. Have a wonderful World Cruise!!!!

What?? We'll be on the Neptune in May for the British Isles Explorer cruise with a stop in Liverpool No Beatles show, not even the night before or night of our visiting Liverpool? 😉

Agree, on our Northern Lights cruise last January, there was a wide age range on board with most appearing to be in their 50s to early 70s, along with some relative "youngsters" - could have been the cold weather and fairly demanding excursions on this cruise. On our Viking river cruises, the age demographic overall seemed older but there were still a number of younger passengers on board.

So it looks like for the 2023 BIE cruises, Viking is posting excursions closer to 150 days prior to departure.

Pre-pandemic, I believe the norm was 90-100 days before departure but will let others who have taken many more Viking ocean cruises than me chime in. The one VOC we took was during the pandemic and excursions were not posted in MVJ until after our DV booking window opened. Being a "planner," I usually check MVJ a couple of times a week and that's how I discovered, to my surprise, that excursions had been posted.

Frankly, my eyes popped out comparing Viking's optional excursion prices with what private tour operators charge. I've been researching private (non-Viking) excursions for many of the BIE ports and prices are often half of what Viking charges... AND are more comprehensive (longer tours with more sites visited) along with fewer people on the tour. Yes...some people are worried that a private excursion may not make it back to the ship on time. In my research, the top-rated tour operators are very experienced with ship schedules and it's rare that they don't get pax back to the ship on time. But, everyone has to determine their own level of risk.

Since there's been some interest on this forum for information about British Isles Explorer excursions, I thought I would share the excursions that Viking is offering on our BIE cruise (May 9, 2023 - London to Bergen). In My Viking Journey, shore excursions for our cruise were posted yesterday much to my surprise (almost 5 months in advance!). I've attached a spreadsheet with the excursions being offered, times and prices. Of course, no guarantees that the same excursions and times will be available on the other BIE cruises, especially those traveling from Bergen to London. I also included (in the far right column) the 2022 prices when available. On average, prices increased about $20 per excursion (usually between $10 to $30) in 2023 compared to 2022. For future BIE cruisers, hope this helps with your planning! Viking BIE ShoreEx May-9-2023.pdf

Another thing to consider is the "included" wines at lunch and dinner - they generally offer only one choice each of red and white. That said, the choices are usually of decent quality (others may disagree) and they rotate which wines are available on different days. If you prefer to "upgrade" to Viking's extended selection of wines at lunch and dinner, you can purchase by the glass (or purchase a bottle). If you have the SSBP, you can order any of the wines on the extended list without an additional charge (by the glass wines only; the SSBP offers a 15% discount on wines by the bottle). Also, at the Chef's table, you get the premium selection of paired wines without additional charge with the SSBP; without the package, the cost to upgrade to the premium list is $25 pp. We enjoyed taking advantage of the extended wine list at lunch and dinner and at the Chef's Table.

We did find that we more "freely" imbibed with the package 😉

On our two Viking river cruises (pre-pandemic), it was very easy to purchase bottles of wine when at port. That worked out well for us and we didn't purchase the SSBP. In your situation, you may want to consider doing the same. On our January '22 ocean cruise in a DV cabin, we purchased the SSBP because we had a substantial amount of on-board credit from our TA which could only be used while onboard. We were very happy that we did since we couldn't go outside the "Viking bubble" on that pandemic cruise to buy wine or beer while at port. As a word of warning, we were totally spoiled with the convenience of the package 🙂 and will probably use OBC to purchase it again on future cruises.

Agree, on our January '22 cruise, we were offered $600 per person discount for the 15-day BIE cruise we booked while on board (when combining the on board and Explorer Society discounts) and $700 per person for the 16-day SA cruise. We also got a more generous on board credit for the cruise we were on, and final payment extended to 6 months before the future cruises.

On our 2022, we had the SSBP and were able to have alcohol and other drinks delivered to room.

On our January '22 NL cruise, the ship was kept warm. At the Restaurant and Specialty dining venues, people kept to the Viking guidelines: nice slacks and tops for dinner. I didn't see anyone in their outside winter gear.

Hmm, anyone remember the term "the 'Me' Generation" from the 70s referring to the Baby Boom and then later generations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_generation)? This conversation reminded me of the term, especially now that we Boomers have come of age on certain upscale cruise lines.