Tour group sizes for inculded and extra cost tours?

I can not seem to find an answer to how large the tour groups are that Viking offers. Are they big groups of 40-50 people? Do they divide into smaller groups with several tour guides? Do they offer the headset listening devices like the river cruises do?

Thanks!

Hi,

We have just been on Empires of the Med 18/3/16.

Some tours have multiple groups going out if the tour is popular, usually 15 minutes apart. Unfortunately this often means several buses will be a the same place at the same time. An example of this was at Troy where I believe there were about 10-15 buses and everyone trying to view the ruins at the same time!

Usually it is OK but a busful of people is still about 30-40 people.

We opted for some independent tours - see my other separate posting today in the main Viking Ocean Forum.

We prefer to be in smaller groups and apart from 2 Viking excursions we toured in groups of 6 or less privately.

Cheers

Elaine from New Zealand

I can not seem to find an answer to how large the tour groups are that Viking offers. Are they big groups of 40-50 people? Do they divide into smaller groups with several tour guides? Do they offer the headset listening devices like the river cruises do?

 

Thanks!

We were onboard last year for 50 days and hit every port. The walking tours (where you walk off ship with no busses involved) tended to be smaller - maybe 20 or so. Bus tours tended to be larger, pushing towards 40. One tour we had was 49 passengers with one guide - every seat on the bus was taken. And as pukekolive says Viking has the bad habit of sending the buses all out together. On several occasions, the groups were staggered leaving the ship, only to get onto the bus and wait until all the busses were full, then all the busses would leave together. As said, that makes for log-jams at the sight you're visiting.

Yes - they do use the Quiet-Vox system like the river cruises. That being said, we had about 3 guides on different tours that had never used them before and flat out refused to use them. Then we had about 6 or so guides who had never used them and had a great deal of difficulty with them.

On the bright side, occasionally we lucked out and had 10 or so on our tours. The afternoon tours tend to be smaller. I'm a big fan of private guides if you can find enough fellow CCers to go with you.

We had five optional tours on our Viking Sea Mediterranean Odyssey cruise, just back. The first one in Rome had only 13 people which should have been a hint. It was not even an ok value at $179 pp, but that's another story.

The other four tours were very popular, and we enjoyed them. All had 28-30 people, or a bus full. Yes, it was tough in some places to keep with the group, especially Barcelona which was very crowded that day. I think Eze/Nice/Monte Carlo tour had three buses.

Interestingly, the optional tours were almost completely American with the occasional Aussie. Told DH, other couple must have had the same idea we did. Traveling that far, we wanted the best tours available even at an extra cost. There were a lot of Brits on our cruise, and they seemed to stick to the included tours.

And an odd note, Viking provided us with a chaperone on only one tour, the one with 13 people. She was a Stateroom Stewardess, and she kept to the back to make sure everyone was together. We enjoyed her, she was really having fun seeing Rome for the fist time. But that was the only tour that happened on.

The foregoing comments and others provided elsewhere on this site, as well as past experience has greatly effected our decision to team up with some other fellow passengers and book our own tours a several ports on our Viking Homelands cruise this July--St. P, Tallinn, Warnemunde, Copenhagen, Stavanger, and Flam. We do plan to book a Viking freebie in ports of Stockholm (will have been here 2 days touring on our won post-cruise), Gdansk and Bergen, and plan to book optional paid tours with Viking for Helsinki, Aalborg, and Bergen. We have objections to also wandering around town on our own--accompanied by our Rick Steve's Baltic guidebook and a few Euros for taxi or bus fare if too far to walk.

FFwineOK, are you willing to share with others the names of the tour groups that you have hired for the different ports? We are much like you and like to strike out on our own. We did that in Amsterdam and our experience was superior. Thanks

I can not seem to find an answer to how large the tour groups are that Viking offers. Are they big groups of 40-50 people? Do they divide into smaller groups with several tour guides? Do they offer the headset listening devices like the river cruises do?

 

Thanks!

Hi there Travel Man.

The group sizes usually regulated by the size of the coaches. The optional tours are usually undersubscribed vis-a-vis the coach capacity.

Yes, the quiet boxes are the same.

Here is my review of my recent cruise on Viking Star. Hope it helps...

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2015/12/28/viking-star-a-taste-of-something-different/

JiminyC --glad to share our tour companies we have arranged--pls contact me at otisandjoan@comcast.net.

Folks on these cruises tend to line up very early. So we would showed up on time, what a novelty, and were typically assigned to the last group. This very often meant a group with a less than full bus and a less stressed guide.

We got over the passive-aggresive looks from some on the bus when we boarded among last people.

On walking tours, it was not unknown to bail out of less capable guide and join a nearby guide who seemed to be more interesting or had better language skills. All you had to do was ask someone following the new guide what channel they were on. We did not do this ourselves as we did not have a single problem walking guide.

FFwineOK, are you willing to share with others the names of the tour groups that you have hired for the different ports? We are much like you and like to strike out on our own. We did that in Amsterdam and our experience was superior. Thanks

We will be on Viking Sea in early May and have signed up with TJ Tours for St. Petersburg. We were hoping to sign up for other tours with them but they require a minimum of 16 people which did not look like it was going to happen. Were you able to find another tour company with a smaller minimum.

Folks on these cruises tend to line up very early. So we would showed up on time, what a novelty, and were typically assigned to the last group. This very often meant a group with a less than full bus and a less stressed guide.

 

We got over the passive-aggresive looks from some on the bus when we boarded among last people.

 

On walking tours, it was not unknown to bail out of less capable guide and join a nearby guide who seemed to be more interesting or had better language skills. All you had to do was ask someone following the new guide what channel they were on. We did not do this ourselves as we did not have a single problem walking guide.

That's pretty much what we do as well. Getting on the last bus out pretty well ensures that yours will be the least crowded. And we've bailed on a few walking tours--we just say we're leaving and that's it.

We've had some pretty extraordinary guides on the included Viking tours and some ordinary ones, just as we've had on private tours we've booked.

We just finished (two days ago) a snorkel tour to the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns that had 300!! This on the World Cruise. The Viking Tours are a disappointment to say the least. We are returning (for the most part) to our own devices, as are many other passengers. 300 people all trying to don snorkel gear, stinger suits, and get in the water at the same time......Well I am sure you get the picture. And coaches we have been on all carry approximately 50. Little to no legroom. Oh yeah, for this snorkel tour we paid $299 US per person......

This is such good feedback. In light of this post and the one on the world cruise thread, I have decided to research all the ports on the 2019 WC—and that’s a lot as you know—as if we ere going to be exploring each on our own. Some it will doubtless prove better to go with Viking, but if my husband ever found himself on a shore excursion with 300 he would doubtless turn around and run—as would I, truth be told.

This is such good feedback. In light of this post and the one on the world cruise thread, I have decided to research all the ports on the 2019 WC—and that’s a lot as you know—as if we ere going to be exploring each on our own. Some it will doubtless prove better to go with Viking, but if my husband ever found himself on a shore excursion with 300 he would doubtless turn around and run—as would I, truth be told.

Me too......Except I was on a boat 30 some miles from Cairns....:eek:

We will be on Viking Sea in early May and have signed up with TJ Tours for St. Petersburg. We were hoping to sign up for other tours with them but they require a minimum of 16 people which did not look like it was going to happen. Were you able to find another tour company with a smaller minimum.

I was never able to find other companies but once in SP we learned that our tour company had tours in a couple of cities on our Homelands cruise. Our group were so extremely happy with Alla tours and were kicking ourselves for not booking with them in other ports. You might want to check out TJ Tours website a bit better. Perhaps they offer the same.

The foregoing comments and others provided elsewhere on this site, as well as past experience has greatly effected our decision to team up with some other fellow passengers and book our own tours a several ports on our Viking Homelands cruise this July--St. P, Tallinn, Warnemunde, Copenhagen, Stavanger, and Flam. We do plan to book a Viking freebie in ports of Stockholm (will have been here 2 days touring on our won post-cruise), Gdansk and Bergen, and plan to book optional paid tours with Viking for Helsinki, Aalborg, and Bergen. We have objections to also wandering around town on our own--accompanied by our Rick Steve's Baltic guidebook and a few Euros for taxi or bus fare if too far to walk.

Gdańsk included tour was very nice. You have more free time if you are going Stockholm-Bergen direction. Didn’t like Stockholm and Bergen included tours - you are in the bus all the time with very few photo opportunities. Both guides though were very knowledgeable and with good sense of humor. We will do our own Bergen this year.

We had a fantastic guide in Aalborg. Great walking tour through the city. Reminded us great walking tours on Viking Great European.

We just finished (two days ago) a snorkel tour to the Great Barrier Reef from Cairns that had 300!! This on the World Cruise. The Viking Tours are a disappointment to say the least. We are returning (for the most part) to our own devices, as are many other passengers. 300 people all trying to don snorkel gear, stinger suits, and get in the water at the same time......Well I am sure you get the picture. And coaches we have been on all carry approximately 50. Little to no legroom. Oh yeah, for this snorkel tour we paid $299 US per person......

That sounds hellish. I profoundly hope none of our excursions in Europe will have 300 people. :eek: The tight legroom will also be a problem; my husband is over 6’ tall. Yikes.

We were onboard last year for 50 days and hit every port. The walking tours (where you walk off ship with no busses involved) tended to be smaller - maybe 20 or so. Bus tours tended to be larger, pushing towards 40. One tour we had was 49 passengers with one guide - every seat on the bus was taken. And as pukekolive says Viking has the bad habit of sending the buses all out together. On several occasions, the groups were staggered leaving the ship, only to get onto the bus and wait until all the busses were full, then all the busses would leave together. As said, that makes for log-jams at the sight you're visiting.

 

Yes - they do use the Quiet-Vox system like the river cruises. That being said, we had about 3 guides on different tours that had never used them before and flat out refused to use them. Then we had about 6 or so guides who had never used them and had a great deal of difficulty with them.

 

On the bright side, occasionally we lucked out and had 10 or so on our tours. The afternoon tours tend to be smaller. I'm a big fan of private guides if you can find enough fellow CCers to go with you.

Keep in mind that Viking does not run the tours in each port; tour services are contracted out to local companies. While Viking may prefer that bus depart as they are filled, sadly many tour companies may be stuck in their ways and unwilling to comply (THIS is the way we do it, even if you have asked us to do otherwise). Yeah, I think that some of this stuff is just out of Viking's control.

Contrary to pukolive's experience, we have been on a number of Viking tours in various ports and on a good number of them, buses have left as they were filled. (The best Viking experience we ever had was in China, where the group escorts did their best in each port to make sure that not only were departures slightly staggered but also, where possible, that we weren't all in the same location at the same time.)

I'm a big fan of the QuietVoxes and imho they should be mandatory for all guides on all tours. For guides who refuse to use them, maybe we could just keep asking them to speak louder :evilsmile:.

We were onboard last year for 50 days and hit every port. The walking tours (where you walk off ship with no busses involved) tended to be smaller - maybe 20 or so. Bus tours tended to be larger, pushing towards 40. One tour we had was 49 passengers with one guide - every seat on the bus was taken. And as pukekolive says Viking has the bad habit of sending the buses all out together. On several occasions, the groups were staggered leaving the ship, only to get onto the bus and wait until all the busses were full, then all the busses would leave together. As said, that makes for log-jams at the sight you're visiting.

 

Yes - they do use the Quiet-Vox system like the river cruises. That being said, we had about 3 guides on different tours that had never used them before and flat out refused to use them. Then we had about 6 or so guides who had never used them and had a great deal of difficulty with them.

 

On the bright side, occasionally we lucked out and had 10 or so on our tours. The afternoon tours tend to be smaller. I'm a big fan of private guides if you can find enough fellow CCers to go with you.

Please take note that this comment was posted on April 8, 2016, and refers to a trip taken the previous year. Viking only launched the Star in 2015, so this trip was taken on a brand new ship in a brand new venture for Viking.

I know there were some issues with the organization of the shore excursions at the beginning. Even now, in new areas (the Amazon, and some of the World Cruise) I still see some reports of problems. However, Viking is reportedly quick to address these issues. On our Mediterranean cruise, our included and optional excursions were mostly good to excellent. Only one of them was disappointing.

As you read through this thread, be aware that some of these almost two year old comments may be out of date.