Viking Ocean Cruise Excursions

[jbtmn]

This is our first time on a Viking Ocean Cruise. We are doing the Scandinavia and Kiel cruise next spring. I am curious if upgrading to a Deluxe Veranda Stateroom or Penthouse  is worth it to ensure you get the excursion or excursion time you want or is it pretty easy to get what you want? I know there other benefits to these staterooms but was curious about the excursion part of it. Thanks

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, jbtmn said:

This is our first time on a Viking Ocean Cruise. We are doing the Scandinavia and Kiel cruise next spring. I am curious if upgrading to a Deluxe Veranda Stateroom or Penthouse  is worth it to ensure you get the excursion or excursion time you want or is it pretty easy to get what you want? I know there other benefits to these staterooms but was curious about the excursion part of it. Thanks

 

 It depends on how wed you are to doing only shorex offered by the ship. These areas are so well visited that independent tours are easy to find --and many times are cheaper.

 

Five ocean adventures completed, all in DV cabins because of location, not because of the booking window. We have never had a problem booking the tours we wanted -- including on the trip we booked less than a month prior to sailing. At the same time, each sailing has its own vibe and you can never predict what the excursion situation will be.

 

 

[Heidi13]

We book cabins based on location, to ensure DW experiences minimum ship's motion. Most definitely we don't buy into the hype of booking tours to select more expensive cabins, which based on the science of ship motion are generally in worse locations than DV cabins. Having spent 40 years at sea, in cabins that couldn't be described as spacious, so I find the size of the DV cabin more than adequate.

 

If we are interested in a ship's shore-ex and it is full, if Viking don't open additional spots, it is their loss. In Europe, I have no problem booking private tours, which are generally smaller groups & are cheaper than the ship's tours.

 

Dining reservations - did not even make note of those dates, as we rarely make reservations at home, so have no desire to make reservations up to 6 months in advance.

[lonagarr]

We are in a DV1 cabin, and I got everything we wanted. I was at the ready at the window opening time and booked excursions based on priority for us. I booked and paid for the most important one first, then did the rest of the pay for excursions. Then I did the included ones....no problems.

Edited August 15, 2019 by lonagarr

[lackcreativity]

We have completed three ocean cruises, all in the Veranda cabins, and have been very satisfied with our ability to get the excursions we wanted. We usually are flexible in our choices, and have been closed out of a few, but some of those we were able to sign up for after spots opened up later. Times for the included excursions may not always be your first choice, but you are guaranteed a spot on those.

 

If there is a particular excursion that is a "must see" for you , then there are usually private tours available. We did book an independent group tour for our three days in St. Petersburg, as I didn't want to risk being shut out there. Other than that, we have always used Viking's tours and have not been disappointed with our mix of some included and some optional excursions. For us, it would not be worth booking a more expensive cabin just for that reason.

[zitsky]

On 8/14/2019 at 11:00 PM, Heidi13 said:

We book cabins based on location, to ensure DW experiences minimum ship's motion. Most definitely we don't buy into the hype of booking tours to select more expensive cabins, which based on the science of ship motion are generally in worse locations than DV cabins. Having spent 40 years at sea, in cabins that couldn't be described as spacious, so I find the size of the DV cabin more than adequate.

 

If we are interested in a ship's shore-ex and it is full, if Viking don't open additional spots, it is their loss. In Europe, I have no problem booking private tours, which are generally smaller groups & are cheaper than the ship's tours.

 

Dining reservations - did not even make note of those dates, as we rarely make reservations at home, so have no desire to make reservations up to 6 months in advance.

 

I would agree with this.  Only first time on Ocean but went on an NCL cruise.  Both times I picked a mid-ship cabin, middle deck if possible.  Both DH and I used meclizine and we didn't get motion sickness.

 

For a 14 day cruise there was only one excursion I couldn't get.  And folks here suggested I go to the excursion desk on board to try to sign up on the wait list.