Warning: Double-check the times for your shorex bookings

[screen-gem]

Viking passengers should be advised that Viking may change the times on excursion reservations you made on MVJ (My Viking Journey) website without notice. They won't notify you about the changes, and you might not find out about them until you're on board.

 

We're booked on the Star for an upcoming voyage. Last month, I logged on to MVJ at 6am the day the booking window opened for our cabin category, and made reservations for the excursions we wanted to go on. I selected the earliest available time slot for each, in order to leave the afternoons free for other private tours or activities. Being the 'early bird', I was fortunate to get the first time slots listed.

 

My booking requests were all accepted, and I obtained a printed confirmation of the tours and times for our trip planning folder. I verified that the various tours & times were all loaded into the My Calendar pages on MVJ. In the weeks since, I made arrangements with guides or drivers for some private tours in a number of the ports, at later times in the day. I thought I had our various port days all planned and under control.

 

A few days ago, I happened to be checking My Calendar to verify arrival time in one of the ports. To my surprise, I found that fully half of our reservations had been unilaterally changed by Viking. Two of them had been moved from the first time slot in the morning to tours in the afternoon. Viking did not notify us of the changes - had I not happened to check our MVJ My Calendar, I would never have known.

 

This was not an isolated event on our file. Travel companions on this trip (who had made similar shorex reservations) also found unexpected changes to their bookings when they looked on MVJ. Viking must be having some IT issues with their on-line reservations system, as depicted here:

 

So a word to the wise (I include all CC members in that cohort): double-check the times of any shorex reservations you've made on MVJ, especially if you've arranged your own port activities that could be impacted should Viking make changes to your schedule.

[url=

][/url]

[Viking Cruises]

Dear screen-gem,

 

We are sorry to learn of your disappointment in the adjustments made to your shore excursion departure times.

 

If you haven’t already, we would encourage you to contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com to discuss further.

 

Thank you for the opportunity to respond. We are looking forward to welcoming you aboard!

 

Best regards,

Viking Cruises

 

Viking passengers should be advised that Viking may change the times on excursion reservations you made on MVJ (My Viking Journey) website without notice. They won't notify you about the changes, and you might not find out about them until you're on board.

 

We're booked on the Star for an upcoming voyage. Last month, I logged on to MVJ at 6am the day the booking window opened for our cabin category, and made reservations for the excursions we wanted to go on. I selected the earliest available time slot for each, in order to leave the afternoons free for other private tours or activities. Being the 'early bird', I was fortunate to get the first time slots listed.

 

My booking requests were all accepted, and I obtained a printed confirmation of the tours and times for our trip planning folder. I verified that the various tours & times were all loaded into the My Calendar pages on MVJ. In the weeks since, I made arrangements with guides or drivers for some private tours in a number of the ports, at later times in the day. I thought I had our various port days all planned and under control.

 

A few days ago, I happened to be checking My Calendar to verify arrival time in one of the ports. To my surprise, I found that fully half of our reservations had been unilaterally changed by Viking. Two of them had been moved from the first time slot in the morning to tours in the afternoon. Viking did not notify us of the changes - had I not happened to check our MVJ My Calendar, I would never have known.

 

This was not an isolated event on our file. Travel companions on this trip (who had made similar shorex reservations) also found unexpected changes to their bookings when they looked on MVJ. Viking must be having some IT issues with their on-line reservations system, as depicted here:

 

So a word to the wise (I include all CC members in that cohort): double-check the times of any shorex reservations you've made on MVJ, especially if you've arranged your own port activities that could be impacted should Viking make changes to your schedule.

[url=

][/url]

[czst17]

WOW- screen-gem please let us know the resolution of this. Thanks. Hope you get it resolved to your satisfaction

[screen-gem]

We are sorry to learn of your disappointment in the adjustments made to your shore excursion departure times. If you haven’t already, we would encourage you to contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com to discuss further.

 

Thank you for the opportunity to respond.

 

Viking Cruises,

Thank you for reaching out. I appreciate your taking the time to reply.

 

"Disappointment" is not the word I'd use to describe our reaction. "Dissatisfaction" is perhaps more accurate.

 

To clarify the situation, could you answer two questions for us:

1) What triggered Viking to make changes to the confirmed booking times for excursion tours?

 

And more importantly:

2) Why does Viking not notify Customers when you make such changes (other than updating the calendar pages on MVJ)? Surely it's in everyone's interests to keep your Customers informed.

 

We look forward to your response.

Edited March 30, 2016 by screen-gem

[Jay Bee]

screen-gem,

 

This is a really good point (and I love your Seinfeld link :)). We are about to book excursions on a very port-intensive cruise, and I would be irate if the schedules were changed without notification. I do understand that cruise lines contract with local guides and changes will occur, but the communication has to be better. It certainly is with other cruise lines we have used; email is sent not only when a time is changed but also when, for some reason, the content of the excursion varies.

 

I have sent an email to Viking at TellUs@vikingcruises.com to voice my objection to the way they (don't) handle this. I urge everyone else to do likewise.

 

Jan

[espresso68]

that just happened to us.i too wanted to check & the same thing happened

to us.i contacted viking & hope it is resolved when we board next week.

i have a feeling they do this on purpose because many people book for am.

that isn't fair if so.you try to plan your days ahead of time.i guess if you don't check you get a surprise.

[id4elizabeth]

Also, when you board, you will get printed "tickets" for each person for each shore excursion. CHECK THESE TOO and verify the times. In some cases last year, the time slots on the tickets were wrong and did not match MVJ (much less the times we had reserved). We too had signed up for the earliest excursions (we were in Junior Penthouse Suites so got to book early) only to find out from the ticket that Viking had unilaterally changed the time slot on us. It's not that there were not tours going at the times we had been scheduled - the early tours were still going - we were just not on them. If we hadn't looked at the tickets we would not have known, as no word from Viking about the change. Make sure you take all your print-outs of confirmations with you in case this happens to you too. We spent HOURS at the Exploder's Desk straightening this out on our trip.

[screen-gem]

I do understand that cruise lines contract with local guides and changes will occur...

 

It's quite true that local suppliers (tour suppliers, bus companies, etc) might fail to deliver on contracted services, and thus force Viking to change excursion schedules. That's not what happened here. I've determined that the planned tours on our voyage are continuing as per the original published schedule. But for reasons unknown, Viking canceled our reservations for the first time slot on a number of our excursions, and rebooked us for the same excursions but at later times in the day. This can't be blamed on suppliers, or weather. The responsibility rests fully with Viking.

 

The Good News:

I contacted Viking, and a helpful Customer Engagement Specialist reinstated our excursions (and those of our friends) at the original times we had booked:). Our MVJ calendars confirm this. It remains to be seen if the printed 'tickets' provided when we board next month will be correct.

 

The Bad News:

It's apparent this is a systemic issue at Viking, both the unilateral changes, and the absence of any notifications to those impacted. At first, I thought it was a spurious computer glitch in their reservation system. But it happened on fully half of our shorex reservations, and to those of our friends on the same cruise. It's happened to espresso68, to id4elizabeth (on her 2015 voyage on the Star), and who knows how many others. It's not the result of a random software bug.

 

It's a mystery why Viking would manage excursions in this manner. One possibility is that they bump existing reservations in response to requests from VIP passengers (those in the Suites, or top-tier members of the Explorers Society) who neglected to reserve early and then demand to be booked in the earliest time slot. However, id4elizabeth was in a Penthouse suite, so that theory doesn't hold water.

 

I'll be watching this thread for a reply from Viking Cruises to my questions in post #4.

 

In any event, the best course of action for those in the know is to follow the collective advice in this thread: check your Calendar early, check often, take your shorex confirmation with you, check your onboard 'tickets', and be prepared for surprises:eek:.

Edited March 31, 2016 by screen-gem

[Viking Cruises]

Dear screen-gem & espresso68,

 

Thank you for the invitation to reply.

 

The shore excursion adjustments you describe resulted from an internal error that inadvertently overbooked the early morning time slots for several included tours. To even distribution, a handful of guests were moved to a later time slot – the majority of which will only experience a 30-minute difference in start times.

 

screen-gem & espresso68, we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience these adjustments may have caused you. Should your newly-assigned start times conflict with other arrangements, please contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com so that we may review other options.

 

We look forward to welcoming you both aboard!

 

Warm regards,

Viking Cruises

 

Viking Cruises,

Thank you for reaching out. I appreciate your taking the time to reply.

 

"Disappointment" is not the word I'd use to describe our reaction. "Dissatisfaction" is perhaps more accurate.

 

To clarify the situation, could you answer two questions for us:

1) What triggered Viking to make changes to the confirmed booking times for excursion tours?

 

And more importantly:

2) Why does Viking not notify Customers when you make such changes (other than updating the calendar pages on MVJ)? Surely it's in everyone's interests to keep your Customers informed.

 

We look forward to your response.

 

that just happened to us.i too wanted to check & the same thing happened

to us.i contacted viking & hope it is resolved when we board next week.

i have a feeling they do this on purpose because many people book for am.

that isn't fair if so.you try to plan your days ahead of time.i guess if you don't check you get a surprise.

[screen-gem]

Hello Viking,

Thanks for the explanation. These pesky internal errors really do need to be dealt with. According to other reports on CC, they've been mucking things up since the Star first sailed (see post #7 from id4elizabeth re her experience on the Star in 2015).

 

To even distribution, a handful of guests were moved to a later time slot – the majority of which will only experience a 30-minute difference in start times.

 

To set the record straight, fully half of the excursions I had made were changed due to the internal error. The smallest amount of the adjustment was 1:15 (from 8:15am to 9:30am). The longest was 3:45 (from 9:15am to 1:00pm). I'm sure you can appreciate that changes of this magnitude can seriously impact other shoreside plans made by your guests.

 

You neglected to answer my second question. For reference, I'll repeat it here:

2)Why does Viking not notify Customers when you make such changes?

 

That's what we find most disappointing. We understand that unexpected events can occur: suppliers reneg on their commitments, internal errors creep in, the dog eats the reservation forms. But when somebody at Viking consiously decided to change confirmed shorex reservations by 3 hours or more, why would you not notify your Customers?

 

I encourage you to reach out to all of the "handful" of guests whose shorex times were changed, advise them of their new time slots, and work with them to accomodate their needs. If you don't have their e-mails, contact them through their TAs.

 

We look forward to boarding the Star in a few weeks, and sincerely hope that we don't find ourselves spending hours at the Explorer's Desk sorting this out (as did id4elizabeth).

[Captain Hornblower]

Hi, I locked in my excursions after much planning and research. I had priority booking, logged in and chose excursions in the first hour, had them confirmed, then just by chance some weeks later, I noticed one excursion/tour moved, without notice, and in conflict with another booking, and now all other choices booked out, so we will lose our booking. This will waste our opportunity in that port. Why did Viking do this behind our backs? Big fail viking. I am attempting to get a resolution, if not it will be my LAST Viking cruise - they can not be trusted. Captain Hornblower

Viking passengers should be advised that Viking may change the times on excursion reservations you made on MVJ (My Viking Journey) website without notice. They won't notify you about the changes, and you might not find out about them until you're on board.

 

We're booked on the Star for an upcoming voyage. Last month, I logged on to MVJ at 6am the day the booking window opened for our cabin category, and made reservations for the excursions we wanted to go on. I selected the earliest available time slot for each, in order to leave the afternoons free for other private tours or activities. Being the 'early bird', I was fortunate to get the first time slots listed.

 

My booking requests were all accepted, and I obtained a printed confirmation of the tours and times for our trip planning folder. I verified that the various tours & times were all loaded into the My Calendar pages on MVJ. In the weeks since, I made arrangements with guides or drivers for some private tours in a number of the ports, at later times in the day. I thought I had our various port days all planned and under control.

 

A few days ago, I happened to be checking My Calendar to verify arrival time in one of the ports. To my surprise, I found that fully half of our reservations had been unilaterally changed by Viking. Two of them had been moved from the first time slot in the morning to tours in the afternoon. Viking did not notify us of the changes - had I not happened to check our MVJ My Calendar, I would never have known.

 

This was not an isolated event on our file. Travel companions on this trip (who had made similar shorex reservations) also found unexpected changes to their bookings when they looked on MVJ. Viking must be having some IT issues with their on-line reservations system, as depicted here:

 

So a word to the wise (I include all CC members in that cohort): double-check the times of any shorex reservations you've made on MVJ, especially if you've arranged your own port activities that could be impacted should Viking make changes to your schedule.

[url=

][/url]

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the heads up.

[espresso68]

starting to sound ridiculous with these excursions.if mine are restored when i get on board tues.,this will be my last viking cruise.good thing you checked mr.hornblower

[roothy123]

starting to sound ridiculous with these excursions.if mine are restored when i get on board tues.,this will be my last viking cruise.good thing you checked mr.hornblower

 

Sometimes it happens - on other cruise lines, too! If people are really bothered by this situation, they might want to consider booking private excursions.

 

I don't remember this happening with us on Star last fall, but I mostly booked the afternoon included excursions, which I think were less popular than the morning ones. If you're willing to tour in the afternoon, you may not have any changes. The tour groups may be smaller, too.

[Captain Hornblower]

The problem with VIKING is their system establishes a contract, at least a promise, to provide a chosen excursion. VIKING sets up on line what excursions they can/will provide, the passenger chooses on line, pays if necessary, and then the passenger has a contract for that excursion. VIKING provide preferential bookings based on what is paid for a state room (cabin). Over booking is not possible (in theory). In my case, I had preferential booking in the top 200 passengers of 950 in total. I booked in the first hour bookings opened. The excursion had showed as an option on the website for many months. We had placed it on our Wish List some time before booking. In this way VIKING knows what the demand is. VIKING would have known that we and many others wanted this choice, way before the bookings open and way before the cruise. Then as bookings opened we "locked in" the booking. Some weeks after booking, VIKING moved the time of our choice from morning to afternoon, conflicting with other booked excursions, and after all other options were booked out. This excursion is the most popular choice in this port. The change was made without notice to us, yet they have our email. I think hundreds of passengers are effected but are not yet aware of this change. I don't know whether VIKING likes riots on their ships but they are doing a lot to create one. The system VIKING use should never require a change if VIKING has any management capability at all. Certainly to make changes behind the passenger's back is indefensible. VIKING is a luxury line, I have paid for a top of the lien state room. yet they treat my patronage with disrespect. The VIKING on line system seems to be crap. I think VIKING are struggling to make the transition from river cruise line to ocean cruise line. Be warned.

[id4elizabeth]

I feel your pain, screen-gem, and Capt Hornblower. We were one of the first 30 passengers to book our excursions based on our cabin category, and still our ShoreEx times got arbitrarily changed. This was on the maiden cruise last year. You'd think by now, whatever "internal errors" that they had experienced, they would have had then fixed in the past year.

 

The good news is I did manage to get them all straightened out at the Exploder's Desk once onboard. It's not easy and I spent HOURS there, but we did get our original times. Just make sure you have your original excursion confirmations, or whatever documentation that shows what you booked. Dealing with the LA office before you leave is a waste of effort. Wait until you board and deal with the Exploder's Desk directly.

[screen-gem]

Dealing with the LA office before you leave is a waste of effort. Wait until you board and deal with the Exploder's Desk directly.

 

Thanks for the advice. I have a printed copy of my original bookings ready to go. Two of them, actually: one for me, and one to give to the Explorer's Desk (though I hope I don't have to spend hours there like you did. Life's too short...).

 

BTW, I loved the reports from your trip last year, and your travel blog. Thanks.

[Captain Hornblower]

thank you screen-gem for your information in this thread. I think it is a Viking system problem, but I await a response from Viking

[Captain Hornblower]

Of course those in St Petersburg on May 18/19 will enjoy the sight of Viking Star and Viking Sea both in port on the same days; Viking Sea departs Bergen on 8 may and Viking Sea departs Stockholm on May 15 both on the Viking Homelands cruise. Perhaps this is why VIKING is dishonouring previous shorex bookings. Perhaps they are fixing their many challenges of two ships in port at same time at passenger expense by reneging on bookings. At this point VIKING Ocean Cruises are likely in Beta version at best.

[id4elizabeth]

Question to Hornblower - are you saying that Viking is not providing you ANY shore excursions in St Petersburg?

 

If so, might I suggest contacting some of the Russian tour operators for a two-day tour. Red October, Alla, or TJ Tours. We used TJ Tours and loved their service. It's a little late for a May date, but your might be able to join an existing group. They will provide you with a blanket visa.

 

Don't let Viking's screw up here ruin your stay in St Petersburg - it's a fabulous city!

[Peregrina651]

Question to Hornblower - are you saying that Viking is not providing you ANY shore excursions in St Petersburg?

 

 

I would say that Hornblower is not a reliable source of information. He is an angry man with an ax to grind who has been making the rounds of the Viking threads over the past 24 hours. He is throwing around a lot of supposition hoping that people will confuse it for fact.

 

If anyone has any concerns with the opinions that he has expressed, they should clarify them directly with Viking.

[Viking Cruises]

Dear Captain Hornblower,

 

We are in receipt of your comments and apologize for any disappointment we may have caused you.

 

Your satisfaction is important to us and, to review your shore excursion schedule and to discuss your concerns as they relate to your booking, we would encourage you to contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com.

 

We appreciate the opportunity to respond and look forward to your email message.

 

Kind regards,

Viking Cruises

 

thank you screen-gem for your information in this thread. I think it is a Viking system problem, but I await a response from Viking

 

The problem with VIKING is their system establishes a contract, at least a promise, to provide a chosen excursion. VIKING sets up on line what excursions they can/will provide, the passenger chooses on line, pays if necessary, and then the passenger has a contract for that excursion. VIKING provide preferential bookings based on what is paid for a state room (cabin). Over booking is not possible (in theory). In my case, I had preferential booking in the top 200 passengers of 950 in total. I booked in the first hour bookings opened. The excursion had showed as an option on the website for many months. We had placed it on our Wish List some time before booking. In this way VIKING knows what the demand is. VIKING would have known that we and many others wanted this choice, way before the bookings open and way before the cruise. Then as bookings opened we "locked in" the booking. Some weeks after booking, VIKING moved the time of our choice from morning to afternoon, conflicting with other booked excursions, and after all other options were booked out. This excursion is the most popular choice in this port. The change was made without notice to us, yet they have our email. I think hundreds of passengers are effected but are not yet aware of this change. I don't know whether VIKING likes riots on their ships but they are doing a lot to create one. The system VIKING use should never require a change if VIKING has any management capability at all. Certainly to make changes behind the passenger's back is indefensible. VIKING is a luxury line, I have paid for a top of the lien state room. yet they treat my patronage with disrespect. The VIKING on line system seems to be crap. I think VIKING are struggling to make the transition from river cruise line to ocean cruise line. Be warned.

[Captain Hornblower]

Thanks for your feedback Peregrine. It is a fact that Viking have changed my shorex without notice. It is a fact that I have asked Viking to rectify or suggest how to get a reasonable alternative. At this stage I am left with a half day in St Petersburg without an excursion which I had previously booked. I don't have options for a non-viking tour to fill in that gap. I have not yet got a response from Viking going direct to them. I do note Viking have just responded to my thread on this Forum, I am dealing with my local supplier.

[Captain Hornblower]

thank you id4elzabeth. Viking are providing shorex in St Petersburg, it is just they have changed one of mine leaving me with an empty half day, and at this late stage I cannot get an alternative, either with Viking or non-Viking. I do have a request logged with Viking but they have yet addressed my request for a reinstatement or an alternative. I am not the only one effected. As said elsewhere, I think having the two Viking ships in St Petersburg at the same time may have tested Viking's resources.

[id4elizabeth]

Good luck Capt Hornblower - let us know how it works out. St Petersburg is one of our favorite cities so I hope you are able to thoroughly enjoy it. Let us know if you get a solution before you leave - but don't give up - see if you can work it out at the Exploder's Desk. Just be sure and bring your original paperwork with your original times.

 

Before our cruise we had no luck with any issue with the LA Viking office, but after on board we eventually got what we needed at the Exploder's Desk.