Viking Sun,World Journey

[travel09]

I am beginning to have second thoughts on what was to be a very exciting journey. Sydney to Greenwich UK, part of the 2019 World Journey . South Africa being the very exciting part of 56 days ...however, already many of the Shore Excursions in South Africa are showing as Sold Out, I am assured that this is not the case, by Viking Ocean,and they will be available when our time to book comes around [ In a Veranda DV ]..I understand that those on the complete World Journey ,will of course have first choice and rightly so, but with the Viking booking system ,it seems unlikely there will be places left ,except for the

"Free Excursions", which guarantee a place for everyone. Safari adventures ,which are the reason for going ,I am concerned, may not be possible. Until final payment there is no way of knowing .Perhaps someone with more experience could share their views..

[Jammy Bun]

We've just booked for the last four weeks of this cruise - Durban to Greenwich - so you will definitely be able to make your selections ahead of us! I'm not too worried, as Viking guarantee an included tour in every port, and tbh we are looking forward to the long sea days as much as any of the ports.

We've never been to the Southern Hemisphere, so I'm also looking forward to looking up at some different stars in the sky - and to seeing the water go down the plughole in the 'wrong' direction. Simple things...!

[Jim Avery]

We felt the same way before the Inaugural WC but in the end booked everything we wanted. During the cruise we cancelled, changed, added excursions as did most. No problems with anything other than we had our fill of busses and "Panoramic Tours". We were in a DV too and when your time comes you will be fine.

[SantaFe1]

I am beginning to have second thoughts on what was to be a very exciting journey. Sydney to Greenwich UK, part of the 2019 World Journey . South Africa being the very exciting part of 56 days ...however, already many of the Shore Excursions in South Africa are showing as Sold Out, I am assured that this is not the case, by Viking Ocean,and they will be available when our time to book comes around [ In a Veranda DV ]..I understand that those on the complete World Journey ,will of course have first choice and rightly so, but with the Viking booking system ,it seems unlikely there will be places left ,except for the

"Free Excursions", which guarantee a place for everyone. Safari adventures ,which are the reason for going ,I am concerned, may not be possible. Until final payment there is no way of knowing .Perhaps someone with more experience could share their views..

 

We are on the full 2019 WC. I have noticed several people doing the segments have this same question. I am not completely sure about this, but I would image Viking has a system in place to portion out things for the segments. For example, the WC page shows DV1 and V1 as sold out, but the Western Africa segment shows availability. It is probably the same for shore ex. In any case, Viking is too smart to sell segments where there is nothing left for their passengers to choose from. And going it on your own is a fun option too, which we are doing in Sydney and Cape Town. The WC roll call has many segment people on it. If you would like to join in, here is the link. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2598035

[Jim Avery]

Just for information, the Inaugural WC did not have segments. LA to London was sold out as a complete cruise. First time I had seen this as every other lines WC has segments similar to the 2019 and later Viking WCs. We enjoyed getting to know most fellow passengers but admit it would have been nice for some others to go home and new faces take their places.....:eek: It was 4 months after all.:cool:

[Heidi13]

Since the 245-day 2019/2020 WC now has segments, we will be watching how this develops, as Jim mentioned, Vikings only previous WC had zero segments.

 

Although the WC is our first with Viking, so far we have been very pleased with their attention to detail and customer service. As others noted, I suspect Viking has a plan to ensure all passengers have an opportunity to take tours.

 

Other considerations are the fact that Shore-ex is generally the largest revenue producer for cruise lines, so the onus on the cruise line is to try and increase the number of spots on popular tours. On our previous WC, the Machu Picchu tour was full several times and they kept adding new groups. I suspect, Viking may do the same, provided local resources are available.

 

With other cruise lines, in our experience, in most ports less than 50% of pax book ship excursions, so you are also not competing with all 930 pax for the most popular tours. With the free included excursions, the percentage with Viking may be higher, but some will opt for free excursions and therefore be unavailable for many optional excursions due to timing conflicts.

 

Hoping to hear reports from the OP & others taking segments how it works out when your time comes to book excursions.

[Jim Avery]

You are right on the money about excursions. I keep telling folks to stop worrying, seems like Viking opens up different ones all the time. We really had no issues getting what we wanted. On the WC there were many on excursions, probably above average. The included ones might have 10 bus loads (maybe 450 or so passengers). We found the optional excursions, especially the overland multi day ones, to be much less crowded. Then again, we are pretty much do our own thing types and have booked private tours or through Viator in many ports. Usually for same or less money than the company excursions. I bet it is a big profit center for cruise lines....

[Peregrina651]

Just for information, the Inaugural WC did not have segments. LA to London was sold out as a complete cruise. First time I had seen this as every other lines WC has segments similar to the 2019 and later Viking WCs. We enjoyed getting to know most fellow passengers but admit it would have been nice for some others to go home and new faces take their places.....:eek: It was 4 months after all.:cool:

 

I was fortunate to talk with the VP of operations who was on-board with us for the second sailing of "Into the Midnight Sun" in June, 2016. The Inaugural WC had just been announced in April (not more than 8 weeks past). When I asked if they would be offering segments, his response was that they were already 60% sold and were not expecting to offer segments. I believe that by the end of the year, they were all but sold out. Personally, I thought those number were amazing.

[Jim Avery]

I was fortunate to talk with the VP of operations who was on-board with us for the second sailing of "Into the Midnight Sun" in June, 2016. The Inaugural WC had just been announced in April (not more than 8 weeks past). When I asked if they would be offering segments, his response was that they were already 60% sold and were not expecting to offer segments. I believe that by the end of the year, they were all but sold out. Personally, I thought those number were amazing.

Compared to the rest of the industry they are truly amazing booking numbers. We got one of the last 6 rooms late April 2017 for a January 5, 2018 departure. Not very late booking for a "normal" cruise but exceptional to fully sell out a World Cruise 8 months prior to departure and to sell it out without segments. I expect our August 2019 WC will have a much different feel with segments being sold. Might be better, might not. We shall see.

[Heidi13]

Compared to our previous WC, the numbers were amazing. I believe we only had about 600 doing the full 104 days, out of about 2,200 pax.

[travel09]

Very Reassuring,indeed.Thank you for the great response, new to Viking, but now looking forward to everything ahead.!

[deec]

so glad we got to experience the WC without segments...we did not board until LA and felt like redheaded stepchildren for a bit but were soon one big happy (usually) ship!! Segments may definitely change some of the atmosphere....Jim, it will interesting to see if you can see a difference.

[Jim Avery]

so glad we got to experience the WC without segments...we did not board until LA and felt like redheaded stepchildren for a bit but were soon one big happy (usually) ship!! Segments may definitely change some of the atmosphere....Jim, it will interesting to see if you can see a difference.

Hi Dee,

I anticipate it might make a different feel onboard. Who knows? Only our second Viking Oceans Cruise. You know me though, of course I will blab what it is like. I hope, when the time comes, I can get a good group involved in posting daily or near daily like we had on the last one. Y'all added a lot with your comments and observations. Fun trip wasn't it?:cool:

[SantaFe1]

Very Reassuring,indeed.Thank you for the great response, new to Viking, but now looking forward to everything ahead.!

 

Just one more “tip.” Even when we booked for our PV1 cabin for the WC, some of the big safaris were sold out. Viking told me to put what I wanted on my wish list and keep checking. Today I checked and one of the safaris we wanted now has openings, as do the Falls in Argentina, and a few others. So I suggest you try that too. And check all the way until booking online stops. And then ask when on board. As Jim said, people on the WC book so far out that they change their minds as things go along. Just go. You will have a wonderful time!

[Heidi13]

Hi Dee,

I anticipate it might make a different feel onboard. Who knows? Only our second Viking Oceans Cruise. You know me though, of course I will blab what it is like. I hope, when the time comes, I can get a good group involved in posting daily or near daily like we had on the last one. Y'all added a lot with your comments and observations. Fun trip wasn't it?:cool:

 

I guess when we depart LA we will have to try and match your standards of daily reports for the 1/2 half. Try not to set the standard too high for us rookies.