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Viking Star 2015 Cruisers List

rblevow

By rblevow,
in Viking Ocean

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kathy9

kathy9

Posted
Posted
Curious if anyone has booked the 2night pre embarkation stay at the Conrad Istanbul...we arrive on 9April and will most likely book excursions from the Conrad, particularly Grand Bazaar, during those two days. If anyone will be at the Conrad we will share what we find in the way of tours those first two days. Getting close...

guka244 Have you gone to the roll calls section of CC? The roll call for Viking Oceans are listed under "all other roll calls" there you can make private tour plans etc with the other cruisers on your sailing. Make plans to together pre cruise etc.

Kathy

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theshoo

theshoo

Posted
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Because Cruise Critic refuses to create a dedicated Roll Call for Viking Ocean, it is really difficult to find our cruise in the Roll Call. To further confuse things, a number of people are doing the inaugural 50 day cruise. We are only doing one segment. The 50 day people seem to be active on this blog, rather than each segment on the Roll Call. Having successfully used Roll Call on a number of previous cruises I am extremely frustrated by the difficulty in using what has been a great planning tool.

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theshoo

theshoo

Posted
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We definitely are. Joe & Elizabeth. I would like to find something else to do in Split than the Viking tours. Same with Dubrovnik.

 

Hi Joe and Elizabeth,

 

Please reply to shooman at cfofix dot com with your email address so I can send you descriptions and pricing. I have multiple quotes for Split and Dubrovnik.

 

Elaine and Mark

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loum140

loum140

Posted
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Hi Joe and Elizabeth,

 

Please reply to shooman at cfofix dot com with your email address so I can send you descriptions and pricing. I have multiple quotes for Split and Dubrovnik.

 

Elaine and Mark

 

Elaine and Mark: I have sent you an email re: these tours. Waiting to hear. Marsha

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id4elizabeth

id4elizabeth

Posted
Posted

Talked with Viking today and have our dining and excursions booked for our 50-day cruise (we're in a PS1 cabin). It took a little over an hour. I have to tell you though, I was totally organized with a spreadsheet - by date, excursion numbers, costs, times, specialty dining times, everything. So I was able to rattle it off to the Viking rep one after another. If you're not that organized, it could take a lot longer. Can't believe they are going to do this by phone for the whole ship - that's a lot of phone calls.

 

When you look at the pdf that Lady Vol posted, you will notice that some of the excursions have been dropped. For example, in Santorini, there's no excursion that takes in Akrotiri. In Rome, there's no excursion to Tarquinia. And has been posted elsewhere, there's no included tour in St Petersburg. (I specifically asked about that today and all I got was "yes, that was dropped but we don't know why.")

 

The only issue I had was I was trying to book two excursions for the same day - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. There was 15 minutes between them. Apparently they won't allow this - there has to be 30 minutes between tours. This conflict only happened once - all the other times, I had a half hour between and there was no problem booking one tour in the morning and one in the afternoon. Also, often my husband and I want to see different things, and there was no problem with me booking one tour and him another.

 

The port times and excursions do line up. And I have gotten back confirmations for the dining and excursions via e-mail while I was on the phone, so that was good. Still going through the excursions to make sure all is correct, but have verified the dining is correct.

 

Note - you do have to pay with a credit card for any optional excursions. Did not think to ask whether the card would be charged now, or is just to reserve, but my guess is that it's charged now.

 

So have a good look at what Lady Vol posted. It's pretty comprehensive. Don't try and tie it to the 2016 excursion details or the 2015 short pdf on the Viking site - they are both inaccurate. Go by what Lady Vol posted - it's what they are actually booking - all else is illusion at this point.

 

This applies to the 2015 maiden voyage only - not later cruises, but it probably is the best info to go on for those cruises too.

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Honey31

Honey31

Posted
Posted

My DH and I are booked on the Star, July 11th Voyage!!

Dale and Susan Williams

along with his DS and DH

Pat and Judy McDonnell

Thanks for making the list.

So there are no Roll Calls per voyage?

I'll try to check in here more regularly in the future.

We are SO looking forward to this Viking Cruise!!

Susan

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Ukalady

Ukalady

Posted
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Just adding us in to this "catch all" thread (we're already on the roll call for the specific cruise).

 

Maxine and Tonya, Viking Homelands, embarking May 30, 2015.

 

Oh boy, oh boy! We are so happy to have found a cancellation on this itinerary and on Star's first year. Bugs or not, this is going to be great fun!

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amarsh

amarsh

Posted
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I agree with you. I requested CC add Viking to the Roll Call Tool, but obviously they will not do that. It would be much better if people posted to each segment to arrange excursions.

 

Hoping that anyone who is taking the Star from Stockholm to Bergen on May 30, 2015, realizes that a thread specific to this sailing has been posted. CC's posting for the Star has been very confusing. Look for the VIKING STAR, MAY 30, STOCKHOLM TO BERGEN thread. If you are cruising on this itinerary we could streamline our postings and better get to know one another before we sail by posting on it. I'm working on a private excursion for St Petersburg for those who have been there before and have done everything Viking in offering with their optional excursions. Don't know how successful I'll be and it's a bit late to be doing so. If anyone prefers doing something like this, please respond on the thread specific to our sailing. Please realize this tour would not include what one should, if not must see, if this is your first time visiting this lovely city. Please feel free to suggest anything that you can think of to do, other than the usual. Unless, thing have changed since the last time we were there, you have to get a visa if you plan to be out and about on your own. Only contracting with a Russian licensed tour guide will negate the need for a visa. And you must stay with the guide.

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amarsh

amarsh

Posted
Posted
Judy & Peter - yes, we would be interested. I've been doing a bit of research on Ephesus, and while the included tour seems to get you there, I'm a bit put off by the last little part about free time to shop the arts & crafts booths at the bottom. I've seem pictures of this, and they're nothing more than t-shirt shops and trinkets. I don't want to spend what precious time we have in Ephesus on souvenir shops. So I too had been looking at the private option. They seem to vary widely in price - from $250 for a group of 2 to $39pp on something called the Ephesus Shuttle. We would be definitely interested in teaming up with you. The more expensive option does get cheaper the more people go. The mini-van in question seats 14. Not sure what $39 is going to get you although from reading their website, it does seem like it covered the same stuff. What we'd like to do in Ephesus is take in the main site, plus do the Terrace Houses, and possibly do the Ephesus Museum if there's time. Skip the shopping and carpet factory!

 

Hope this may be of help to you. We were on the Constellation last fall and while we were in Ephesus we took a private tour with http://www.tourguidesinturkey.com/yelda. Yelda was great and the tour wonderful. Below was out info

Tour Information

You have a private van in service for the day. Starting at 10-10.15am, finishing around 5.30pm, there is time to see/do:

- Ephesus,

- Terrace Houses of Ephesus,

- Temple of Artemis (just a short stop on route... not much is left to this day) and

- House of Virgin Mary

- The Basilica of St John (which is located a short distance from Ephesus) if time allows

 

Rate of the day is 400 Euros (in total, not per person).

Above rate includes:

- our private tour guiding services,

- a private air-conditioned van in service,

- all expenses related with the private touring vehicle such as fuel expenses, parking fees, etc.

Above rate does not include:

- museum admissions of our guests,

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amarsh

amarsh

Posted
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I agree with you. I requested CC add Viking to the Roll Call Tool, but obviously they will not do that. It would be much better if people posted to each segment to arrange excursions.

 

The problem is that CC is not making it easy. They came a bit late with introducing Viking Oceans and people started there own way cof ommunicating, doing it the best way they could and probably, if new to CC, don't even know what a thread or roll call is. Give them time but I think it will take just that. We do need to keep nicely, directing them to a Roll Call and perhaps explain what it is and even how to start a thread if a thread hasn't been started yet.

May sound simple to some but dummy here, doesn't think so.

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Fairfield Nana

Fairfield Nana

Posted
Posted

We are also on the summer of 2016 Vikings Homeland cruise (July) and would like to see a list of fellow travelers get started. Would much rather see the "host" for this site finds a way to consolidate all of these informative threads into a single one re. the initial adventures of the Star. Its driving me crazy having to open at least 10 related threads. Maybe this exercise will help fight off old-age dementia?:D

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