How early are Viking airport transfers to airport?

[Eggtuary]

We’ll be doing our first Viking cruise in March. Very excited!

 

I paid for an airport transfer at the end of the trip in Barcelona. I know I can save money by grabbing a cab, but I hear people really like the Viking service, and I like the idea of a pleasant end to our trip. 
 

However, I hear that some cruise lines kick off the transfers early in the morning. Is that a problem with Viking?  I scheduled our flight for 11:45 a.m., hoping to sleep in a bit, guessing they would want to take us around 8:30 or so. But if they are likely to do much earlier, then I may want to do a cab after all. 
 

Thoughts?

[KBs mum]

It will probably be around one and a half hours + transfer time before your flight. There will be transfers going to the airport around every half hour on departure day, you will get notification on the timings a few days before the end of your cruise. Everyone has to be off the ship by 9.30, Viking arrange a waiting room and refreshments somewhere ashore for those on afternoon flights.

If the time given isn't suitable for some reason ask customer services if you can go on an earlier/later bus. You will still have time to organise a taxi if need be. 

[Eggtuary]

That sounds ideal. Thanks!

[duquephart]

The last day of our "post" in Vancouver we had to get up at 2AM for the transfer to our flight home. The airport, for all practical purposes (luggage, customs), was not even open yet when we got there. This was our reward for purchasing the air+.

[Peregrina651]

10 hours ago, KBs mum said:

It will probably be around one and a half hours + transfer time before your flight. There will be transfers going to the airport around every half hour on departure day, you will get notification on the timings a few days before the end of your cruise. Everyone has to be off the ship by 9.30, Viking arrange a waiting room and refreshments somewhere ashore for those on afternoon flights.

 

In truth,  it is hard to predict what the actually plan will be. Each disembarkation plan is different, tailored to the port and flight times of the guests. It depends on what time the ship docks, how early the airport is telling passengers to be there, how many people need to be taken to the airport at a given time, etc.

 

A few things are SOP for all ships, such as all pax must vacate their cabins by 8:00 am regardless of what time their transfer is and at most ports must be off the ship by a stated time. On our Welcome Back cruise this summer, we had to be off the ship by 8:30am but I have heard different times for other ships and itineraries. 

 

 

 

4 hours ago, duquephart said:

The last day of our "post" in Vancouver we had to get up at 2AM for the transfer to our flight home. The airport, for all practical purposes (luggage, customs), was not even open yet when we got there. This was our reward for purchasing the air+.

 

Which can be avoided if you use AirPlus and have a say in what your flights will be.  Yes, there is a fee for it, but having spent $10k or more already, I am not not going to let $50 stand in my way.

[broker1217]

8:30 sounds about right, allowing for 15 minutes for the transfer.

From the Barcelona airport site:

 

The passenger should be at the check-in counter at least with : 
 For No Schengen flights: 3 hours prior the departure scheduled time.
 For Schengen and domestic flights: 2 hours prior the departure scheduled time.
Note that there might be many people at peak travel periods or special event dates.

 

When in doubt, arrive at the airport early. If possible, check in online and utilize self-check for bags.

Research what the wait time is at security for your day of week and time of departure.

I would look at your airline website and BCN website to clearly understand the expectations.

 

 

 

[duquephart]

59 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

In truth,  it is hard to predict what the actually plan will be. Each disembarkation plan is different, tailored to the port and flight times of the guests. It depends on what time the ship docks, how early the airport is telling passengers to be there, how many people need to be taken to the airport at a given time, etc.

 

A few things are SOP for all ships, such as all pax must vacate their cabins by 8:00 am regardless of what time their transfer is and at most ports must be off the ship by a stated time. On our Welcome Back cruise this summer, we had to be off the ship by 8:30am but I have heard different times for other ships and itineraries. 

 

 

 

 

Which can be avoided if you use AirPlus and have a say in what your flights will be.  Yes, there is a fee for it, but having spent $10k or more already, I am not not going to let $50 stand in my way.

 

Maybe you missed the "This was our reward for purchasing the air+" part?

[CILCIANRQTS]

Viking has put us in Mercedes cabs on many occasions.

There is no set schedule to bus departures - they’re clustered according to flight departure times. If you’re an “outlier”schedule-wise, they put you in a cab.

[PKNC]

I'm not sure that Viking would put you in a cab if you have a late morning / early afternoon flight these days with COVID. We just returned from our first Viking cruise and had Air Plus. We opted to do an overnight layover in London before our last two legs in the US so we could leave around 1 PM from Istanbul, otherwise, we would have had to take a 5 AM -  8 AM flight and get up at an ungodly hour. 11 AM or so would have been perfect but there were no options - it was either early morning or 1:40 PM onward into the evening. My body can't take the lack of sleep for the early morning options, I will get a migraine for sure. Some were scheduled to leave at 2:30 AM on a bus by Viking - I'm assuming those with the early AM flights. We were slotted into a 7:15 AM departure but got it moved to 8 AM, the last bus. We had hoped that we could hang out on the ship until around 9 or 10 but there were no options. There were others who had flights at 3:30 or 5 PM that were forced to go to the airport at 8 AM on a bus. The desk was not open when we arrived at the airport, we waited for over an hour before we could check in. On the plus side, Istanbul has a beautiful airport with lots of shopping. 

Edited November 27, 2021 by PKNC

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, PKNC said:

We had hoped that we could hang out on the ship until around 9 or 10 but there were no options.

 

This seems to be the new routine: everybody off the ship by 8 am. That is how it was on our Iceland cruise this past summer and now I am seeing reports from more recent cruises saying the same.         

[Squawkman]

3 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

This seems to be the new routine: everybody off the ship by 8 am. That is how it was on our Iceland cruise this past summer and now I am seeing reports from more recent cruises saying the same.         

FWIW, as we were on the last Portugal river cruise of the season, we were allowed to hang out until our ride to the airport (1:30PM).

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, Squawkman said:

FWIW, as we were on the last Portugal river cruise of the season, we were allowed to hang out until our ride to the airport (1:30PM).

 

For multiple reasons, the River cruises operate under different protocols than the Ocean, especially when it comes to disembarkation. It really is one of those apple and orange situations: you can't compare the two.

[Cienfuegos]

8 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

This seems to be the new routine: everybody off the ship by 8 am. That is how it was on our Iceland cruise this past summer and now I am seeing reports from more recent cruises saying the same.         

 

Having a nice breakfast, and walking off the ship is an enjoyable way to end a cruise

[Peregrina651]

5 minutes ago, Cienfuegos said:

 

Having a nice breakfast, and walking off the ship is an enjoyable way to end a cruise

 

Given some of the other options, yes. But it's the end of the cruise, man, and I'm never ready to get back to reality. 🥴

 

 

[Cienfuegos]

On 11/27/2021 at 8:15 PM, Peregrina651 said:

 

Given some of the other options, yes. But it's the end of the cruise, man, and I'm never ready to get back to reality. 🥴

 

 

Agreed. But compared to getting off the ship at 5 am, schlepping luggage, getting on a bus, etc, it is nicer.

[Twitchly]

We are flying out of Athens at the sadistic hour of 5:45 a.m. (after a post-cruise Viking extension). Not by choice; it was the only time that worked if we wanted only one stop en route home. I’m guessing Viking will throw us into a taxi since I can’t imagine this will be a wildly popular hour for departure.

[duquephart]

1 hour ago, Twitchly said:

We are flying out of Athens at the sadistic hour of 5:45 a.m. (after a post-cruise Viking extension). Not by choice; it was the only time that worked if we wanted only one stop en route home. I’m guessing Viking will throw us into a taxi since I can’t imagine this will be a wildly popular hour for departure.

 

We got picked up at our hotel at 2AM by a service. I'm sure Viking has you covered.

[FlaGirl13]

On 11/21/2021 at 5:51 PM, Peregrina651 said:

 

In truth,  it is hard to predict what the actually plan will be. Each disembarkation plan is different, tailored to the port and flight times of the guests. It depends on what time the ship docks, how early the airport is telling passengers to be there, how many people need to be taken to the airport at a given time, etc.

 

A few things are SOP for all ships, such as all pax must vacate their cabins by 8:00 am regardless of what time their transfer is and at most ports must be off the ship by a stated time. On our Welcome Back cruise this summer, we had to be off the ship by 8:30am but I have heard different times for other ships and itineraries. 

 

 

 

 

Which can be avoided if you use AirPlus and have a say in what your flights will be.  Yes, there is a fee for it, but having spent $10k or more already, I am not not going to let $50 stand in my way.

I paid the fee for AirPlus only to find out the airline I needed was not one Viking contracted with. Previously AirPlus took me 23 hours to get home from Alaska.  You can try and have a say but they’re not listening very well.  

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, FlaGirl13 said:

I paid the fee for AirPlus only to find out the airline I needed was not one Viking contracted with. Previously AirPlus took me 23 hours to get home from Alaska.  You can try and have a say but they’re not listening very well.  

 

Was your preferred airline listed as one of Viking's air partners listed in the Air Services (under My Trip) section of the website.

[Cienfuegos]

For our 2019 trip, Viking initially booked its Miami to Oslo passengers on Austrian Airlines, through Vienna. About three weeks before the departure, everyone was switched to Lufthansa, through Frankfurt.  LU controls AU, so it was almost certainly an in house deal.  The Austrian 767 was at the next gate when we left Miami.

 

Flying on an Airbus A380 was fine, but Frankfurt is an airport I try to avoid

[Australia08]

On 11/27/2021 at 8:08 AM, Peregrina651 said:

 

This seems to be the new routine: everybody off the ship by 8 am. That is how it was on our Iceland cruise this past summer and now I am seeing reports from more recent cruises saying the same.         

 

Every ship is doing different things now. We have to vacate our room by 7:00 am tomorrow morning in LA but don’t have to leave the ship until 9:30 am. We’re planning on a leisurely breakfast in The Restaurant. We arranged our own afternoon flights so will just grab an Uber when we leave the ship.