Dining and Shore Excursion Choices

[Vineyard View]

I asked about some of this for oceans -

No corkage fee and you can bring any alcohol on board.

I am not sure what the package runs - but on Rivers it was available - as is on all cruisines - for a premium.

I asked Viling for a wine list, and was told it would not be available until we board....

[Logistigr8r]

I can also see the info on the "My Trip", "About My Cruise" page without logging in on the MyVikingJourney site. So maybe that will work for you. Sorry couldn't do a link. Info doesn't seem to be specific to an individual cruise.

[dancermom09]

Those of you that have already booked excursions and dining, were you booked through a Travel Agent? We are, and I'm wondering if I will be able to make choices directly on the Viking website.

[roothy123]

Those of you that have already booked excursions and dining, were you booked through a Travel Agent? We are, and I'm wondering if I will be able to make choices directly on the Viking website.

 

I'm not able to book yet, but I pretty much assumed that once Viking got the myvikingjourney.com site up, that meant that everyone could go in and make their own reservations, regardless of whether a TA booked the cruise for them or they booked the cruise themselves. Hopefully someone who has already used the site, and used a TA to book the cruise, will confirm this. In the mean time, I assume you've gone into myvikingjourney.com to check it out, right? For us, there are messages that we can't book anything yet, but that's because we're still almost six months away from the cruise. We used a TA, and I wasn't crazy to hear early on that the TA would have to make reservations for passengers on the maiden voyage. However, now that Viking has their reservation system up, I'm assuming it's no longer necessary.

[Vineyard View]

We used a TA and were able to book dining and excursions ourselves under MyJourney. It was quick and easy. Viking did a good job with this - although when you go into book dining, you choose table size first, then it populates available times. If those times do not work, you do have to back out and re- select a different table (group or for two) then populate available times again. Maybe in the future they will Mary those features together, but it wasn't a big deal - not worth really getting frustrated over. On the excursions, if there are multiple times for a same outing, you can choose which time you want as long as it doesn't overlap times with any others you have chosen that day.

[dancermom09]

Yes, all signed up for myvikingjourney. It has a countdown clock until I can book, and it's very far away! But the clock is handy.

[NancyiNJ]

We are booked on the Viking Star Passage Through Western Europe leaving Bergen, Norway August 8, 2015 to Barcelona, with a back to back Mediterranean Odyssey From Barcelona to Venice ending September 3, 2015. My question is for those who have booked Shore Excursions. Did you receive information about the excursions, time and cost ahead of the day you could book or did you have to go to the site the day reservations opened. We would like to know what is available ahead of time so we can plan what we would like to do and see. There are lists of what to see and do in each port but we want to know what is doable as a tour or on our own. Thanks for any information.

[Lumpy1509]

If you go to the cruise itinerary, Mediterranean Odyssey for example, then click on the port of call, the excursions are listed with duration, price and a short description.

[Bear_Music]

Since you are already booked, you should be able to create a MyViking account and see everything in great detail, including a countdown to when you can make reservations etc. Be aware that even though reservations for individual segments open in a staggered way (60 days before in our case), as a multiple-segment traveler, you'll be able to make all your reservations for both segments at the same, earlier time, which is very helpful :-)

[Lumpy1509]

You cannot see any details in MY VIKING JOURNEY until you are within your booking window. There is a countdown that shows how many days until you can book.

[Ukalady]

You can "shop" the excursions well before you can book them. It lets you see the times/features/costs of each excursion for each port. You do this *not* from My Calendar but from the Menu>Shore Excursions and then move across to the city/port in question.

 

You can study the excursions available and even add them to you "Wish List" so it'll be quicker when your booking window opportunity *does* open up.

 

So far I've found that some excursions have disappeared from our itinerary and after they were placed on my Wish List--I'm *guessing* that's because higher "ranked" passengers have already purchased/reserved that trip on their earlier booking date and it's no longer available. Still wondering, though if that's what that means....

[roothy123]

You can study the excursions available and even add them to you "Wish List" so it'll be quicker when your booking window opportunity *does* open up.

 

So far I've found that some excursions have disappeared from our itinerary and after they were placed on my Wish List--I'm *guessing* that's because higher "ranked" passengers have already purchased/reserved that trip on their earlier booking date and it's no longer available. Still wondering, though if that's what that means....

 

I have no clue whether the higher ranked passengers snagged the excursions or something else happened to make certain excursions to be removed. However, it's possible the entire excursion was canceled. Maybe not enough interest was shown at first and the vendor required a minimum number of people to guarantee that it be a go, or maybe the tour provider just couldn't do the tour on that particular day and time. I've been on 3 ocean cruise lines, and on each line, there was always at least a few changes to the excursions when I got on board the ship. Excursions weren't always cancelled, but it seems to be common for changes to be made. You just have to roll with the punches, I guess. On the other hand, if your desired excursions ARE booked up, there may be some cancellations later on, so I would let the excursion folks know if you're interested in something that's full when you get on board the ship. Who knows, if a lot of people express interest in a particular trip, Viking may be able to get their vendor to add more spaces.

[id4elizabeth]

Ukalady - can you give us an example? For one thing, some of the excursions offered under the "sales" part of the Viking website NEVER showed up as possible excursions on the final "myViking" side of things, like the Ostia tour for Rome. Others were flat out cancelled by Viking with little expanation, even though we had already booked and paid for them, like all Optional Excursions for May 3rd in Barcelona. The only thing we can do that day is the included tour. One of our Bergen tours (a train ride up a mountain who's name I can't remember) that was booked and paid for was later cancelled. These cancellations were done about a month ago before everyone had signed up, so I don't think it was lack of interest yet. Perhaps if we knew the particular tours we could give you specific reasons ( or maybe not).

[Ukalady]

Okay, here's the example I'm finding:

 

Port: Flam

 

Excursion list last month listed both a one-day as well as a half-day excursion (see list here currently on Viking site). I put one of those in my Wishlist to keep track of what I want when I go online on my "day" to reserve.

 

I confirm the excursion is in my Wishlist.

 

I come back to my Wishlist a week later and there is *nothing* in my Wishlist for Flam. I check the Excursions section of MyVikingJourney and see that the half-day excursion is no longer listed as a "possibility" for the Flam port.

[id4elizabeth]

Hmmm...well I can't help you with that one because they dropped the ENTIRE port of Flam on us. So I can't go check that one for you unfortunately. Sorry.

[OneBag]

You can "shop" the excursions well before you can book them. It lets you see the times/features/costs of each excursion for each port. You do this *not* from My Calendar but from the Menu>Shore Excursions and then move across to the city/port in question.

 

You can study the excursions available and even add them to you "Wish List" so it'll be quicker when your booking window opportunity *does* open up.

 

So far I've found that some excursions have disappeared from our itinerary and after they were placed on my Wish List--I'm *guessing* that's because higher "ranked" passengers have already purchased/reserved that trip on their earlier booking date and it's no longer available. Still wondering, though if that's what that means....

 

Can anyone whose booking window is still in the future actually browse excursions at My Viking Journey and add them to their Wishlist? I know I can't.

 

I have been back and forth with Viking on this for weeks. We're 37 days out from our booking window today but are not able to browse excursions at My Viking Journey and therefore cannot create a Wishlist. (I can see what's supposed to be available on the generic website, but that's generic and unreliable). Viking has given me several (mostly contradictory) explanations, the latest being "there's a problem with the links and we're working to resolve it." I'm skeptical. Fixing links takes minutes, not weeks, unless what the links are linking to are the real problem, i.e., the excursions themselves. I can understand hitting some rough patches, especially with a new venture. What I don't like is getting the runaround, being told something different every time I call or email. It makes me question their competence. Their FAQ a says you should be able to do this once you've signed up at My Viking Journey but obviously that's not true.

[roothy123]

We aren't able to see anything there, but our cruise is quite a ways off, so I wasn't really expecting to see anything. Maybe Viking hasn't negotiated with the tour companies yet for late September tours. Then again, they could be close to that or have it completed, but want to see how the tours go next month (do enough people buy excursions? do the vendors perform well?) in case they have to do some tweaking. I suppose if I were at the helm, I'd also want to make sure the ship can actually achieve the speed they want to keep the schedules they've published, as arrival and departure (and tides) can affect excursions.

[OneBag]

We aren't able to see anything there, but our cruise is quite a ways off, so I wasn't really expecting to see anything. Maybe Viking hasn't negotiated with the tour companies yet for late September tours. ...I suppose if I were at the helm, I'd also want to make sure the ship can actually achieve the speed they want to keep the schedules they've published, as arrival and departure (and tides) can affect excursions.

 

Sure, that makes sense. But in our case the first booking window for our 7/11 Homelands cruise opens less than a week after the maiden voyage launches from Istanbul (? I think, somewhere nowhere near Bergen), so there won't be much useful data generated for our cruise by the time booking starts.

 

One Viking rep told me it was a problem with my browser. (Nope.) Another said we'll be able to browse and use the wish list before the booking window opens, but he was not sure exactly when that would be. The third one said the problem was that some "portions of website are still under construction" and to check back in a few days. A fourth said I should be able to browse now but "there is a problem with the links" which should be fixed in a few days but when a week went by with no change and I inquired again, the response was that they really have no idea when the "matter" will be resolved but to rest assured that they're working on it. This sort of thing does not inspire confidence.

 

I am very grateful to those here who have posted they're experience with Viking river cruises post embarkation as being a better experience than their experience with Viking pre embarkation. This is our first experience with Viking and these personal reports are reassuring. To give them credit, they do answer the phone and respond to online and email inquiries swiftly, so at least I don't have to wait long to receive these vague, inaccurate replies.

[roothy123]

I guess I'm lucky, as the first cruise goes exactly where we go almost 6 months from now (although reverse itinerary), so I'm hoping to at least get some early clues about the excursions, ship, etc. And by the time I cruise, I can probably ask questions on here and get them answered, or ask questions of Viking, and get them answered.

 

I don't remember if we ever asked Viking Rivers questions pre-cruise, but I can assure you that once on board, I think you'll find them to be a class act. Of course, a cruise line in their first year will always have some snafus, I suppose.

 

Enjoy the great north. We have been to Alesund and Geiranger in Norway and loved both. I hope to go back up that way some day and explore more.

[Ukalady]

Can anyone whose booking window is still in the future actually browse excursions at My Viking Journey and add them to their Wishlist? I know I can't.

 

If by "booking window" you mean the ability to actually *make* a reservation, then yes, we have been able to see the excursions and add them to our Wishlist for the past four weeks yet we do *not* have the ability to make our first reservations until March 24.

[Vineyard View]

We booked this maiden voyage based on our wonderful experience with Rivers. We have all had our frustrations these past few months for sure - and rightfully so. That said, I honestly believe that the ship, people, food, service, and experiences will prove to be wonderful....there may be some hiccups, but I think we will totally enjoy our vacations....

[OneBag]

If by "booking window" you mean the ability to actually *make* a reservation, then yes, we have been able to see the excursions and add them to our Wishlist for the past four weeks yet we do *not* have the ability to make our first reservations until March 24.

 

That's very helpful, Ukalady. Thanks. The "problem with the links" explanation just didn't resonate, but from what you've said, perhaps there is a browse window that opens up X days prior to the booking window. So if the theoretical browse window was 30-31 days prior to the booking window, your 4 weeks prior to 3/24 is on target. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that this is the case. If it is, I should be able to browse next week sometime as my booking window is 36 days out. That would be nice. My problem is my calendar is such that I won't have the time in late April to browse, choose and book all at once! 4 weeks prior to browse and create a wish list is perfect.

[Vineyard View]

We board in Barcelona and didn't receive the excursion information at the same time as those starting in Istanbul or Venice.....can't remember exactly when, but 4 weeks ahead of booking window opening sounds about right.

The original list of excursions for the full 50 days was published in a link on the 4/11 roll call, but a number of them have changed, so I wouldn't count on the accuracy.

[Ukalady]

I have all our chosen excursions in my Wishlist as well as Mom's on our separate MyVikingJourney sites.

 

Since we've booked this trip together, when I make the excursion reservations (after midnight tonight), will I be able to book *both* of our excursions with the same web visit or will I have to make mine, log out of MyVikingJourney and then log-in to Mom's to make hers?

 

I'll be doing this on an iPhone and logging in/out is no fun...so I'm crossing my fingers I can do both in one log-in 'cause we're "linked" in Viking's world...

[CrusinSubMan]

I have all our chosen excursions in my Wishlist as well as Mom's on our separate MyVikingJourney sites.

 

Since we've booked this trip together, when I make the excursion reservations (after midnight tonight), will I be able to book *both* of our excursions with the same web visit or will I have to make mine, log out of MyVikingJourney and then log-in to Mom's to make hers?

 

I'll be doing this on an iPhone and logging in/out is no fun...so I'm crossing my fingers I can do both in one log-in 'cause we're "linked" in Viking's world...

I only had to do it once. Each one I picked was automatically also made for my wife. I guess that makes sense, since they really do not want singles taking table slots etc. I never looked to see what this looks like from my wife's side of things (i.e., if we I looked at it from her log in, can she cancel or change those reservations?) Because we do have a separate log in for her for things she is doing differently than me (the spa, e.g.)