Shore Excursions

[agnesd]

 I think a new system is necessary to accommodate reserving shore excursions. Today was  “my day to reserve.”  The site crashed for 45 minutes. I  think a semi luxury cruise line should find a more civilized  system regardless of category.  

 

[Hanoj]

3 hours ago, agnesd said:

 I think a new system is necessary to accommodate reserving shore excursions. Today was  “my day to reserve.”  The site crashed for 45 minutes. I  think a semi luxury cruise line should find a more civilized  system regardless of category.  

 

 

We just booked our 3rd VO cruise today. This conundrum provides me additional incentive to do our own thing ashore or to book private excursions. 

 

It behoves Viking to remedy this as it won’t improve itself especially with increasing demands on their systems as they add more ships and cruise itineraries. 

[agnesd]

9 minutes ago, Hanoj said:

 

We just booked our 3rd VO cruise today. This conundrum provides me additional incentive to do our own thing ashore or to book private excursions. 

 

It behoves Viking to remedy this as it won’t improve itself especially with increasing demands on their systems as they add more ships and cruise itineraries. 

Personally I would prefer alcohol included rather than tours. We usually cruise with Crystal.  Tours and restaurant reservations can be made once the cruise is paid in full. We don’t need the Silver pkg but it will be annoying to produce a card or whatever when we want an extra drink. 

[Hanoj]

32 minutes ago, agnesd said:

Personally I would prefer alcohol included rather than tours. We usually cruise with Crystal.  Tours and restaurant reservations can be made once the cruise is paid in full. We don’t need the Silver pkg but it will be annoying to produce a card or whatever when we want an extra drink. 

 

Viking asks guests to keep their room key with them when not in stateroom. Whomever takes your drink order asks for your room number and the charge is made your onboard account. We had someone else’s drink order charged to our account and it was removed when I disputed it. I think the room key is supposed to be shown when ordering noninclusive drinks but I’m not sure since I don’t drink anymore. 

 

Generally I would prefer Viking to be all inclusive. We now fly business/first class and the total price of our Viking British Isles Explorer cruise in May is close to Regent when everything is factored into the comparison. If we do optional excursions most days with Viking (most of the included ones have been only marginally satisfying to us), the total cost with Viking could be higher when gratuities (onboard and ashore for guides/drivers) and drink charges (either the package or per item if we drank) are considered. I’m ready to give Regent a try, but DW isn’t yet. The main draw of Viking is no kids, no casino and a more relaxed (less formal and less overtly opulent) ambiance. 

Edited July 24, 2019 by Hanoj
Omitted word typo

[agnesd]

This is our first Viking and I am sure we will enjoy it.  Each line has something to offer that is more appealing, but none are perfect. It depends on your priorities. 

 

[philw1776]

Never had to show room key when ordering drinks.  Not on the package.  Gave room #.
Were Viking to add anything to the cruise charge to be more inclusive, I would prefer tip fee.  I don't want to pay for everyone else's expensive cocktails and specialty wines.
I find the included tours on ocean less value than on river.  Too many lame panoramas.  Reminding self now of shuttle options from ports to cities.

[just_dont]

I wonder if the switch from midnight Pacific time to noon Pacific time has resulted in more strain on the website when the booking windows open. There were far fewer North American customers aware and willing to be up when the window opened, and many complained about it. So they changed to noon, and now the website overloads almost every day at noon Pacific time as another cruise/cabin-class window opens.

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[agnesd]

I think you are right. This is my first Viking. I don’t think I would get up at 3am. I would probably wait until morning. Good observation. 

[just_dont]

When I booked excursions back in April, I had everything planned out, including times, and got on MVJ right at noon Pacific time. I'd booked (and paid for) all my excursions, included and optional, in less than 10 minutes. The website was inaccessible by 12:10 and stayed that way for at least the next hour.

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[SLSD]

Hmmm.. I haven't cruised on Viking yet, but it appears that the registration for excursions is a huge problem.  Is the real problem not enough excursions with room for everyone to do the excursions they want to do?  We cruise on Seabourn and have never had this issue.  Of course excursions are not included--and I prefer it that way.  

Edited July 25, 2019 by SLSD

[just_dont]

Hmmm.. I haven't cruised on Viking yet, but it appears that the registration for excursions is a huge problem.  Is the real problem not enough excursions with room for everyone to do the excursions they want to do?  We cruise on Seabourn and have never had this issue.  Of course excursions are not included--and I prefer it that way.  

No, it's not that exactly. And I'd really hesitate to call it a "huge" problem.
The problems seem to be mostly that the website can't handle the massive surge of traffic that occurs when a booking window opens, combined with lots of passengers wanting to make sure they get in right away to avoid "missing out" and not getting the excursions/times they want, combined with the booking windows for all cruises and all cabin categories opening for all customers around the world at 12:01 PM Pacific Time.

Now, the reality is that they can't possibly plan for every excursion to have room for all 930 passengers. That would be unrealistic. And some excursions will necessarily be quite limited (e.g. Flightseeing excursions, where a plane or helicopter may only have 4 to 10 seats), and those excursions may sell out.
And even the "included excursion" that is supposed to be available to any and all passengers will not be planned by Viking, 120 days before the cruise, to actually have 930 spots, because the reality is that not all 930 passengers will ultimately want to take every included excursion in every port.
So based on Viking's past experience with the popularity of each excursion, they will plan how many seats to make available for a future cruise and what time(s) they will be offered, being careful logistically to not have too many people leaving or returning to the ship at the same time (especially if tenders will be involved). [side note: IMHO, lack of past experience is the reason behind issue/complaints about excursions on newer Viking itineraries. ]
But passengers are unpredictable, and there will be situations where more people than planned want a specific excursion/time than there were seats available, so that one sells out. Meanwhile, potentially the same excursion with a different time slot may have plenty of open seats because it overlaps another popular excursion.
If there is clearly a great deal of interest in a particular excursion that sells out early, and if they can figure out the logistics to add another time slot, they will. They did on the cruise I took last month. And if the included excursion completely books up in advance and stays that way, they will try to find a way to get you on the excursion, but you may have to be flexible about the time slot.

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[Jim Avery]

1 hour ago, SLSD said:

Hmmm.. I haven't cruised on Viking yet, but it appears that the registration for excursions is a huge problem.  Is the real problem not enough excursions with room for everyone to do the excursions they want to do?  We cruise on Seabourn and have never had this issue.  Of course excursions are not included--and I prefer it that way.  

I don't think of it as a huge problem either.  It is very different from how other lines operate but then that is Viking's entire plan.  Viking does not bother with level after level of "status".  No special parties for "Diamond Members" (as we are with Cunard).  Once onboard the only difference between passenger perks is the size of your accommodation. So, my take on all this is that this is Viking's way to infer "status".  Higher priced rooms get to book excursions and meals earlier.  Again, just my take but Who Cares!  As DV passengers we have always, repeat always, gotten the excursions we wanted.  Occasionally got on a wait list but once onboard was never disappointed in what we wanted.  Maybe I am just very lucky but then I have never won the lottery so I don't think so.  As to getting up in the middle of the night to try to beat someone to an excursion 6 months away,  Yeah right........  And the pre booking of restaurants is as silly as it gets.  Who knows what you will feel like eating 6 months from now???  Not me.  And again, once onboard we ate when we wanted, where we wanted, as much as we wanted (probably too much) with no stress or problems.  Don't read too much in the doomsayers having to hit enter at exactly the stroke of midnight, or 3 am or any other time.  And as Andy noted, there are always private tours everywhere, usually at the same or less money than Viking.  Enjoy.🍸

[SLSD]

20 minutes ago, Jim Avery said:

I don't think of it as a huge problem either.  It is very different from how other lines operate but then that is Viking's entire plan.  Viking does not bother with level after level of "status".  No special parties for "Diamond Members" (as we are with Cunard).  Once onboard the only difference between passenger perks is the size of your accommodation. So, my take on all this is that this is Viking's way to infer "status".  Higher priced rooms get to book excursions and meals earlier.  Again, just my take but Who Cares!  As DV passengers we have always, repeat always, gotten the excursions we wanted.  Occasionally got on a wait list but once onboard was never disappointed in what we wanted.  Maybe I am just very lucky but then I have never won the lottery so I don't think so.  As to getting up in the middle of the night to try to beat someone to an excursion 6 months away,  Yeah right........  And the pre booking of restaurants is as silly as it gets.  Who knows what you will feel like eating 6 months from now???  Not me.  And again, once onboard we ate when we wanted, where we wanted, as much as we wanted (probably too much) with no stress or problems.  Don't read too much in the doomsayers having to hit enter at exactly the stroke of midnight, or 3 am or any other time.  And as Andy noted, there are always private tours everywhere, usually at the same or less money than Viking.  Enjoy.🍸

It just seems so much more straight forward on Seabourn.  We just book the excursions we want and pay for them.  I'm sure that Viking has many fine attributes, I just find the priority booking of excursions puzzling.  

[Jim Avery]

1 minute ago, SLSD said:

It just seems so much more straight forward on Seabourn.  We just book the excursions we want and pay for them.  I'm sure that Viking has many fine attributes, I just find the priority booking of excursions puzzling.  

Yes, it can be a bit strange at first.  Just one of the many Viking differences.  We also have sailed Seabourn going back to the little sisters.  Last year, after leaving Viking Sun's Inaugural World Cruise, we jumped on a last minute Seabourn in Alaska.  The price and perks were to our liking but a week before sailing they offered a large discount.  I called our Seabourn rep and they immediately gave us the deal.  So far, that won't happen on Viking.  You buy it it becomes yours.  But then, Viking has no kids and other reasons which suit us perfectly.  As with all lines, not everyone will be pleased.

[Dauntless]

On 7/23/2019 at 9:49 PM, agnesd said:

Personally I would prefer alcohol included rather than tours. We usually cruise with Crystal.  Tours and restaurant reservations can be made once the cruise is paid in full. We don’t need the Silver pkg but it will be annoying to produce a card or whatever when we want an extra drink. 

 

You only have to produce your cabin number.  Not a problem if you've got a memory.  It was very easy the first cruise but I did take a time or two on the second.