Day trip to Alhambra Palace / Granada

[ChurchCJ]

We're on the Viking Jupiter and will be in Malaga, Spain on Thursday, October 17, 2019.

 

We're looking for three other couples to share a private tour to the Alhambra Palace in Granada. Please contact me if you can join us and share the expense.

 

Viking's online reservation system for booking excursions is very poor in our opinion.  We were picking our excursions at the exact day and time their system opened for our cruise.  We had the Alhambra tour in our shopping cart and were in the process of paying for it when their system crashed.  When we finally got access again a few minutes later, this tour was already full.  I called and complained to a supervisor, but Viking was unwilling to do anything for us.  This is really poor customer service.

 

So a private tour seems to be our only option at this point.

 

 

[KyOh]

You would have better luck getting others to join you if you posted this on the Roll Call.  We've had great luck getting others to join us on private tours this way.

[Kentishincanada]

We are also on Jupiter but Southern Crossing arriving Malaga on 16 November.  One of the attractions of this cruise was Alhambra and it has completely disappeared from the excursion list.  I contacted Viking but was not offered an explanation:  in our case it is not even a sold out scenario.  We are very upset and it will probably make us think twice before booking Viking again, especially as it still features in the promotional material on line.  I find it difficult to believe that it is not possible to arrange a ship’s excursion to such an iconic place.  I wholeheartedly agree about Viking customer service.

 

I will be interested to hear about your private tour which unfortunately is not our sailing. Our concern was timing and cutting it short for sailing if not using the ship’s tour. 

[Clay Clayton]

1 hour ago, ChurchCJ said:

We're on the Viking Jupiter and will be in Malaga, Spain on Thursday, October 17, 2019.

 

We're looking for three other couples to share a private tour to the Alhambra Palace in Granada. Please contact me if you can join us and share the expense.

 

Viking's online reservation system for booking excursions is very poor in our opinion.  We were picking our excursions at the exact day and time their system opened for our cruise.  We had the Alhambra tour in our shopping cart and were in the process of paying for it when their system crashed.  When we finally got access again a few minutes later, this tour was already full.  I called and complained to a supervisor, but Viking was unwilling to do anything for us.  This is really poor customer service.

 

So a private tour seems to be our only option at this point.

 

 

Have you tried emailing TellUs?  They have proven in the past to work miracles 

[lonagarr]

3 hours ago, ChurchCJ said:

We're on the Viking Jupiter and will be in Malaga, Spain on Thursday, October 17, 2019.

 

We're looking for three other couples to share a private tour to the Alhambra Palace in Granada. Please contact me if you can join us and share the expense.

 

Viking's online reservation system for booking excursions is very poor in our opinion.  We were picking our excursions at the exact day and time their system opened for our cruise.  We had the Alhambra tour in our shopping cart and were in the process of paying for it when their system crashed.  When we finally got access again a few minutes later, this tour was already full.  I called and complained to a supervisor, but Viking was unwilling to do anything for us.  This is really poor customer service.

 

So a private tour seems to be our only option at this point.

 

 

We are on this cruise too, and I agree, the process for reserving excursions is woefully inadequate. Have you signed up for the Meet and Mingle yet? If not, go to the top of this page and look to the left and click on Meet and Mingle and follow the prompts. The M&M is a special cocktail party hosted by Viking just for CC members. It's usually held on the second or third evening at 6:PM in the Wintergarden on Deck 7 - if you sign up, look for your invitation in your stateroom. Looking forward to meeting you, and I hope you are successful in getting others to go on the private tour! I'm sure there are others who are disappointed at not getting to reserve - it is very popular!

[Peregrina651]

4 hours ago, ChurchCJ said:

We're on the Viking Jupiter and will be in Malaga, Spain on Thursday, October 17, 2019.

 

We're looking for three other couples to share a private tour to the Alhambra Palace in Granada. Please contact me if you can join us and share the expense.

 

Viking's online reservation system for booking excursions is very poor in our opinion.  We were picking our excursions at the exact day and time their system opened for our cruise.  We had the Alhambra tour in our shopping cart and were in the process of paying for it when their system crashed.  When we finally got access again a few minutes later, this tour was already full.  I called and complained to a supervisor, but Viking was unwilling to do anything for us.  This is really poor customer service.

 

So a private tour seems to be our only option at this point.

 

 

 

1. Contact the folks at tellus@vikingcruises.com and see what they can do for you. Give your name, phone number and booking number.

 

2. Keep checking back to see if space opens up on the tours. People change their minds. People have to cancel at the last minute.

 

3. House rules say that we have to look for people to share a tour with us in the roll call for our sailing. You said you were on the Jupiter', so you should look for the roll call here; scroll down until you find your sail date:

Viking Jupiter Roll Calls

 

4 hours ago, Kentishincanada said:

 We are very upset and it will probably make us think twice before booking Viking again, especially as it still features in the promotional material on line.

 

You missed the fine print at the bottom of the page; it is on the bottom of every page that shows the tours that may be offered in each port of call. I wish they would put it at the top of the page: it would make for fewer disappointed people: Shore excursions vary by departure and are subject to change.

 

Another thing to note is that just because it is not showing as one of the tours now does not mean that it won't show up later. Sometimes it just takes them longer to nail down the contract with the provider.

[Cyber Kat]

7 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

1. Contact the folks at tellus@vikingcruises.com and see what they can do for you. Give your name, phone number and booking number.

 

2. Keep checking back to see if space opens up on the tours. People change their minds. People have to cancel at the last minute.

 

3. House rules say that we have to look for people to share a tour with us in the roll call for our sailing. You said you were on the Jupiter', so you should look for the roll call here; scroll down until you find your sail date:

Viking Jupiter Roll Calls

 

 

You missed the fine print at the bottom of the page; it is on the bottom of every page that shows the tours that may be offered in each port of call. I wish they would put it at the top of the page: it would make for fewer disappointed people: Shore excursions vary by departure and are subject to change.

 

Another thing to note is that just because it is not showing as one of the tours now does not mean that it won't show up later. Sometimes it just takes them longer to nail down the contract with the provider.

 

I agree!  We had issues with the one excursion we really wanted to do on our West Indies cruise - the St Kitts Railway. It was showing on my Viking Journey, then just disappeared before any of the booking windows opened. I had several frustrating phone calls with reps who insisted it was because of hurricane damage. The back to back hurricanes of 2017, had not come near St Kitts, but I couldn’t seem to convince them. 

 

I wrote to Tellus and two days after the window for DV cabins opened it showed up and I was able to book it. 

 

On our Grand European river cruise I booked the Vintage Barge excursion in Kinderdijk. It was on my calendar. It was on my cc bill. It disappeared from the calendar and the listed excursions. Once again I contacted Tellus and they said it was still a go. - not cancelled. They finally got back to me. - computer glitch and it magically reappeared. They need some new IT people. 😆

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, Cyber Kat said:

They need some new IT people. 😆

 

And a few other departments as well. Just as long as they don't mess around with TellUs.

[lackcreativity]

I will not dispute that Viking has more than its fair share of "technical issues". However, a part of the problem with the Alhambra is the limited number of tickets available across all tour groups. It is one more place that is plagued by the popularity of the location (and it is indeed spectacular). Viking has to compete with all the other cruise ships, land based tours, and independent travelers for a portion of the available tickets. 

 

It would be a small consolation for someone who has never seen the Alhambra, but there is a wonderful 11th century Moorish palace/fort called the Alcazaba in Malaga that is worth a visit. It is a huge complex, and the palace is much smaller that the Alhambra, but similar in style. It is a bit of a hike to the top, but I think there is an elevator as well. There is a wonderful view of the city from the top, and a Roman amphitheater right at the base. Malaga was a delightful surprise on our Trade Routes of the Middle Ages cruise. I would be happy to get back there.

Edited August 17, 2019 by lackcreativity

[lackcreativity]

25 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

And a few other departments as well. Just as long as they don't mess around with TellUs.

Or the on board experience, which makes any pre-cruise frustrations worth the aggravation.

[stcroixguy]

We did this last year.  It was all booked up before we could get excursions, I checked with a private tour and needed more people (I can’t remember how many), this was also less expensive than the Viking tour.  So I posted on our meet and mingle but no one there was interested, so we lost the private tour.  I kept watching Viking and luckily there was more availability one day.  Booked right away and in a few hours all availability was gone.  My understanding is, since the Alhambra has limited entry, Viking can only get so many tickets. It was a wonderful place to visit. Good luck.