Viking Star - Athens to Venice

[KyOh]

We've been following the first tour of the season that departed from Venice.  In September we'll be heading from Athens to Venice.  We'd love to hear about any excursions that you enjoyed on this cruise.  Since we are in the lowest level cabin, we'll be the last to book excursions so we're interested in any private tours that you took since we'll probably be blocked from many of the extra excursions.  Thanks for any tips you can share.  

[Dauntless]

3 hours ago, KyOh said:

We've been following the first tour of the season that departed from Venice.  In September we'll be heading from Athens to Venice.  We'd love to hear about any excursions that you enjoyed on this cruise.  Since we are in the lowest level cabin, we'll be the last to book excursions so we're interested in any private tours that you took since we'll probably be blocked from many of the extra excursions.  Thanks for any tips you can share.  

 

This looks like you will be stopping in Corfu, Dubrovnik, Split and Venice.   We did those ports with Viking MO cruise.  Corfu is a port that doesn't stand out.  It's there.  There are shuttles into town.  We did 2 separate excursions in the morning.  I did the blue caves boat trip and Mark did the 9 mile bike ride.  His excursion did not get back in time for 'included' but mine had done a mini tour of old town so we went back to the old city after lunch and did some touring and shopping.  Rick Steve's med. Cruise book had also given insight.  They brought on Greek dancers to the ship that performed before we left port.  I heard they were good.

 

Dubrovnik we did Croatian Riviera and the included.  The included was in the morning and we stayed in town and did part of the wall, then shuttled back to the ship, had lunch and headed off for the second excursion.  Ours included a ride on the cable car to the top--I heard they were having some labor problems recently so it may not be running when you are there.  We then went on to our destination.  This is a quiet Mediterranean port village.  Very nice, tranquil and we had a nice little stroll.  No 'baffo' attractions but the cruise was long enough it was nice to have some time to just relax, yet take in the local flavor.

 

In Split we did our own thing in the morning.  I wanted to do the boat cruise with lunch at a restaurant out of Omis but it was fully booked.  I wanted to see the countryside so I found something that covered that area off ship.  We went zip lining and it turns out we 'zipped' right over he restaurant where the ship excursion was eating.  We got back to the ship in time for the included, which we would not have been back if we had taken the ship excursion.  We thought this was one of the best included excursions that afternoon.  When we had read about the port it seemed rather dry but we totally enjoyed it.

 

Venice is crowded.  The area you know about will be teaming with tourists.  We were in a V cabin so had the 3:00 excursion after arriving in port at noon.  We were staying 3 more nights so we did most of our touring after leaving the ship and made a day trip to Bologna.

 

I mentioned some of the things related to V cabin.  Originally, we could not get the Riviera excursion but they added another in the afternoon before we left for the cruise and I kept checking and was able to reschedule our included tour.  We could have done it on our own but I didn't want to have to try and figure it out if I didn't have to.  The spot is only 10 miles from   Dubrovnik and there is local bus service.

[G. GIRL]

Hi, 

We did this itinerary last year but didn’t stop at Split. 

We took a ship day in Santorini as we have been lucky enough to spend two holidays there. Oia and the views from that village over the caldera are beautiful but if there are a few ships in port it totally spoils the experience. If you are there when the tomato season is in full swing and are there for lunch try the tomato balls, a local specialty.

An excursion that will show you the countryside of Montenegro would be good, it’s a lovely place. We did the tour that took in the Palace of the exiled Royal Family which was  very interesting. 

We did Dubrovnik by sea which takes a boat around the coast before getting to the city. I’m glad we did it that way as we were disappointed with the city. It was quite crowded and the guide was very political in her views featuring very heavily on the war. I understand it was a bad time but there surely is more to the city than that point in history. The boat trip was the best part of the day. 

Krka National Park was our favourite place, the woodland filled with all those waterfalls was beautiful. 

We had a post cruise stay in Venice and booked a private guide from Tours by Locals. Not cheap but she showed us places we would never have seen on our own and we had her for the day. 

We enjoyed the ship very much, the food and service were faultless and have booked another trip because of it.

[Peregrina651]

13 hours ago, KyOh said:

since we'll probably be blocked from many of the extra excursions

 

If reports here on Cruise Critic are any indication, this is not the case. If something you want to do is sold out, don't give up. People change their minds or have to cancel the cruise altogether and space opens. Just keep checking back daily. And, write to Viking. Tell them the shorex you wanted is sold out and you hope that they will be adding more seats.