Viking Homelands 2022 Season

[dottythecat]

Thanks for the replies. I'll check with Alla. I hope we can still go to St. P and Tallinn, but if not we will still have a great cruise.

[dottythecat]

Here is the payment/cancellation info for Alla.

Full prepayment for your tour(s) is required 1 month prior to your first port with us or within 72 hours after you receive a confirmation letter from your personal manager, whichever is later. You are more than welcome to make it with the help of our online payment system. We accept only Visa/MasterCard; no foreign currency conversion fee will be applied if you use a card in US dollars and/or Euros. Once the booking is completed, we will provide you with the necessary instructions.

 

CANCELLATION POLICY
(1) 100% refund if the ship doesn’t call into a port;
(2) 100% refund provided that you cancel your reservation in writing at least 72 hours prior to your arrival at the port;
(3) 75% refund will be made if the cancellation is received within less than 72 hours prior to your arrival at the port;
(4) No refund will be made if the cancellation is received within less than 24 hours prior to your arrival at the port;
(5) No refund will be made for any theatre performances (Ballet, Folk Show, Russian Musical Seasons) once your ticket is purchased by Alla Tours;
(6) No refund will be made for the Sapsan high-speed train tickets once they are purchased by Alla Tours.
Note for points 3 and 4: While we, unfortunately, cannot reimburse you even in case of a medical or any other emergency, we will gladly assist you with a letter to your insurance company (per your request) stating that you did not participate in the excursion although it had been paid by you in full.

[Floater67]

10 hours ago, duquephart said:

 

Read the responses here and elsewhere and you'll have your answer. Bottom line is that private tours are usually much more efficient by using smaller groups/vehicles and tend to have excellent and well educated guides as opposed to whatever Viking can scrape up. My research led me to choose Alla if our cruise ever happens - TJ was a very close second and is the choice for many others. You would do well to always compare local tours to what Viking offers. Viking middles the deals and mark-ups apply. A great example is the Pulpit Rock tour out of Stavanger ----- the Rodne tour is basically the same as what Viking offers for 2x (and a waffle). Viking uses the "We won't wait for you if your tour is late back to the ship" scare tactic as an incentive to choose their offering. Lots of info here for you to research in this overall regard.

I agree with most of what you said. I was interested in the thoughts behind your original comments, and appreciate your response. I’ve been looking at SPB Tours. They are the only company willing to customize a tour. I’m more interested in seeing placed in the central area, rather than using time on busses going to the big palaces outside of the city. 
 

Best. 

[dd57]

5 minutes ago, Floater67 said:

I agree with most of what you said. I was interested in the thoughts behind your original comments, and appreciate your response. I’ve been looking at SPB Tours. They are the only company willing to customize a tour. I’m more interested in seeing placed in the central area, rather than using time on busses going to the big palaces outside of the city. 
 

Best. 

We used Alla in St Petersburg for a private tour.  They were quite willing to change the tour to what we wanted.  According to the current FAQ on their website, they are still willing to do that.  If you haven't reached out to them yet, it might be good to in order to compare with SPB.

[Floater67]

1 minute ago, dd57 said:

We used Alla in St Petersburg for a private tour.  They were quite willing to change the tour to what we wanted.  According to the current FAQ on their website, they are still willing to do that.  If you haven't reached out to them yet, it might be good to in order to compare with SPB.

Thanks; I will.  All the best. 

[shorton]

We are on the September Homelands cruise from Stockholm to Bergen. I cannot find Venus listed in the Viking Ocean roll calls. Does anyone know why?

[MamaFej]

We used SPB tours on a Princess Baltic cruise in 2016. We paid by credit card in St. Petersburg, our second tour city. We were extremely impressed by SPB and would gladly use them again. 

 

I, too, have heard nothing but good things about Alla tours, and will certainly consider them. 

 

We have a Viking Homelands cruise in late July/early August and we are also concerned about the current turmoil, primarily for the sake of Ukraine and the rest of the planet, and also for the sake of our itinerary. 

[LindaS272]

12 minutes ago, shorton said:

We are on the September Homelands cruise from Stockholm to Bergen. I cannot find Venus listed in the Viking Ocean roll calls. Does anyone know why?

Here are the Venus roll calls:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/2468-viking-venus-roll-calls/
 

Maybe you meant you couldn’t find the roll call for your cruise? There’s one for Venus Sept. 9, 2022. Is that yours? It’s currently on page two.

[millybess]

12 hours ago, duquephart said:

A great example is the Pulpit Rock tour out of Stavanger ----- the Rodne tour is basically the same as what Viking offers for 2x (and a waffle).

Thanks a lot for this info duquephart. This sounds ideal to us. I researched it and unfortunately the Rodne boat leaves daily once at 10:00. We dock at 10:00. The Viking tour is 3x the price. 

[duquephart]

37 minutes ago, millybess said:

Thanks a lot for this info duquephart. This sounds ideal to us. I researched it and unfortunately the Rodne boat leaves daily once at 10:00. We dock at 10:00. The Viking tour is 3x the price. 

 

When I did my research (for 2020 cruise) the times were 10, 12, & 2 with noon being ideal.

[millybess]

Just now, duquephart said:

 

When I did my research (for 2020 cruise) the times were 10, 12, & 2 with noon being ideal.

I emailed them to see if their schedule might change before May. Looks like a great tour. Thanks for steering us towards Rodne. 

[duquephart]

6 minutes ago, millybess said:

I emailed them to see if their schedule might change before May. Looks like a great tour. Thanks for steering us towards Rodne. 

 

There's always the sardine museum.

[millybess]

Haha. We’ve felt like sardines on many excursions. 

[soundcruiser]

We used Norled to cruise to Pulpit Rock when we did the VH in 2017 - a fine experience at a similar price to Rodne.  The two schedules were different - Norled's worked better for our arrival and departure times.  I peeked at their website and it looks like it goes daily at 12:15, more often on busy days. It's always good to have choices!

[millybess]

1 minute ago, soundcruiser said:

We used Norled to cruise to Pulpit Rock when we did the VH in 2017 - a fine experience at a similar price to Rodne.  The two schedules were different - Norled's worked better for our arrival and departure times.  I peeked at their website and it looks like it goes daily at 12:15, more often on busy days. It's always good to have choices!

Thanks for this. The time certainly works and the tour looks interesting, but it is non refundable. 

[NeilP57]

It will great to get some feedback from the early VH cruisers this season about the independent trips to see pulpit rock. How crowded they were, were they fully booked or could you just walk up and pay on the day. 

I ask that question because if it is a clear day I am sure that this a worthwhile excursion. However, Norway can have low cloud, which would mean that whilst the boat trip to pulpit rock would still be interesting the views are somewhat limited up the side of the fjords to the cloud line and no chance to see pulpit rock itself. However, the waterfalls and a few goats are interesting. 
 

This was our experience when taking our first ever cruise to the Norwegian Fjords from the UK back in 2012. So this time, I maybe be tempted to wait and see how the weather is looking and see if we can pick up last minute availability. 

[millybess]

4 hours ago, NeilP57 said:

It will great to get some feedback from the early VH cruisers this season about the independent trips to see pulpit rock. How crowded they were, were they fully booked or could you just walk up and pay on the day. 

I ask that question because if it is a clear day I am sure that this a worthwhile excursion. However, Norway can have low cloud, which would mean that whilst the boat trip to pulpit rock would still be interesting the views are somewhat limited up the side of the fjords to the cloud line and no chance to see pulpit rock itself. However, the waterfalls and a few goats are interesting. 
 

This was our experience when taking our first ever cruise to the Norwegian Fjords from the UK back in 2012. So this time, I maybe be tempted to wait and see how the weather is looking and see if we can pick up last minute availability. 

Thanks for the advice. That might be the course of action. 

[dwlmg]

On 2/14/2022 at 11:42 AM, Heidi13 said:

 

We used Alla in 2017 for tours in Tallinn and then in St Petersburg. We paid nothing up front and they didn't want paid in Tallinn. Both tours were paid on the bus in St Petersburg. At that time we had zero risk, but their terms may have changed, so check the website.

 

We booked with Alla in St. Petersburg for our Sept 2022 Homelands cruise. The following is from Alla. We do not require any deposits for / while payment. Full prepayment for your tour is required 1 month prior to your first port with us. You are more than welcome to make it with the help of our online payment system. We accept only Visa/MasterCard; no foreign currency conversion fee will be applied if you use a card in US dollars and/or Euros.

 

[Peregrina651]

11 minutes ago, dwlmg said:

 

We booked with Alla in St. Petersburg for our Sept 2022 Homelands cruise. The following is from Alla. We do not require any deposits for / while payment. Full prepayment for your tour is required 1 month prior to your first port with us. You are more than welcome to make it with the help of our online payment system. We accept only Visa/MasterCard; no foreign currency conversion fee will be applied if you use a card in US dollars and/or Euros.

 

 

Is there a refund policy?  Can you get your money back if you have to cancel at the last minute?

 

 

[lkear]

52 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Is there a refund policy?  Can you get your money back if you have to cancel at the last minute?

 

 

What’s your cancellation policy?

(1) 100% refund if the ship doesn’t call into a port;
(2) 100% refund provided that you cancel your reservation in writing at least 72 hours prior to your arrival at the port;
(3) 75% refund will be made if the cancellation is received within less than 72 hours prior to your arrival at the port;
(4) No refund will be made if the cancellation is received within less than 24 hours prior to your arrival at the port;
(5) No refund will be made for any theatre performances (Ballet, Folk Show, Russian Musical Seasons) once your ticket is purchased by Alla Tours;
(6) No refund will be made for the Sapsan high-speed train tickets once they are purchased by Alla Tours.
Note for points 3 and 4: While we, unfortunately, cannot reimburse you even in case of a medical or any other emergency, we will gladly assist you with a letter to your insurance company (per your request) stating that you did not participate in the excursion although it had been paid by you in full.

[lkear]

Shore excursions just showed up on MVJ 🙂

[CDNPolar]

So many countries on this cruise that do not accept the Euro.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for purchasing local currency?

 

Normally we rely on credit cards, but there has been the occasion where we are at a street booth or small shop and they don't take a credit card, and without the local currency, you cannot purchase what you want.

[Heidi13]

4 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

So many countries on this cruise that do not accept the Euro.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for purchasing local currency?

 

Normally we rely on credit cards, but there has been the occasion where we are at a street booth or small shop and they don't take a credit card, and without the local currency, you cannot purchase what you want.

 

Before the cruise, we normally head into the Royal Bank and order about CAN $20 cash in each local currency. Mostly use credit cards, but have cash available for small vendors, markets, tips, etc.

[kag3120]

Jrkear, if you could share the excursions info now on MVJ for your cruise, we’d be so grateful!  We’re not scheduled for our VH cruise until July—Our 3rd attempt😊
It would be so helpful to see what’s even being offered at this point. Thanks so much to you, or anyone, who’s able to share. We’re hopeful we’ll finally be able to sail this fabulous itinerary. 

[duquephart]

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Before the cruise, we normally head into the Royal Bank and order about CAN $20 cash in each local currency. Mostly use credit cards, but have cash available for small vendors, markets, tips, etc.

 

Bathrooms?