Cappadocia Extension?

[Mitina]

9 hours ago, RBachmann said:

Don't know if there was anything unique about that excursion that allowed the infection to spread so widely

Just back from the Cappadocia post extension in October.  Not sure if the schedule wears down your resistance but be prepared for very early mornings and full schedules. Very little down time.  Add the multiple air flights and bus journeys, it may have heightened the risk.

[horsdoc]

At what point are we able to reserve our hot air balloon ride?  Precruise?  Don't want to miss!

 

[Mitina]

3 hours ago, horsdoc said:

At what point are we able to reserve our hot air balloon ride?  Precruise?  Don't want to miss!

 

We received a notice in our stateroom a few days before disembarkation asking you to sign up at Guest Services.  This was last fall and things might have changed.  At the Cappadocia hotel, the tour guide also asked if anyone else wanted to sign up.

[ARDXXX]

We  returned from the extension just over a week ago, interesting to see the price for the balloon ride was $290 last october, it is now $499! you can pre-book it or when you arrive in Cappadocia. We did not do it as when you fly out from the ship you have to get up at two in the morning for a four am departure and repeating the very early balloon departure the next morning did not appeal, we have done previous balloon trips as well. People who did it really enjoyed it, you are in the air up to an hour. We did not like the cave hotel at all, it is a death trap with lots and lots of unmarked marble type very steep stairs, lots of cobbles to get to hotel and very poor lighting, I bet there are lots of accidents occur there, it can be described as very quaint! but we were pleased to leave and it would never pass our healh and safety standards. The UNESCO sights are very interesting and we enjoyed the two full days out although another carpet factory visit could have been left out after Kusadasi. Pleased we did the extension though.

[Mitina]

The Cappadocia carpet factory was the worst part of the trip. High pressure and our bus full of passengers waiting to leave because the tour guide wouldn’t cut off negotiations for a handful of people.  We were rushed through the rest of day at the later (more interesting) stops.

[Emptynesters38]

On 10/29/2022 at 4:18 AM, portisheadblue said:

Here we are sat in Athens awaiting our flight home and we are at the other end of the cruise having completed the Cappadocia extension - which went very well on the whole.

 

… on arrival we checked into our hotel, Carlton Hilton, where we spent 9 hours….. arrived at 7pm and up and out by 4am to catch scheduled flight with Turkish Airlines

… first surprise was to be told on arrival that we could leave our luggage with Viking and they would look after it and it would be on our bus from IST to the ship … a nice surprise that generated a rapid re-packing

…. Second surprise was to be told we had until 2pm next day to confirm or decline a booking for the ballon ride the next day … we opted to do the ballon ride but it was cancelled due to wind speed. Had it gone ahead it was 290 USD per person charged to your room on the ship and nothing to pay if it doesn’t go ahead

.. third surprise was that there were about 150 of us doing the pre extension

.. we stayed at a “cave” hotel but none of them have 75 caves so don’t be disappointed if, like us, you got a “normal” room

 

Well worth the effort and lack of sleep to visit Cappadocia especially in the good hands of Viking.

We are on the Cappadocia pre-cruise extension in April of 2024.  I am hoping that we can leave some of our luggage with Viking to be delivered to the ship when we board like the OP was able to do in 2022. Has anybody done it more recently or have any up to date information on this?

[Emptynesters38]

15 hours ago, Emptynesters38 said:

We are on the Cappadocia pre-cruise extension in April of 2024.  I am hoping that we can leave some of our luggage with Viking to be delivered to the ship when we board like the OP was able to do in 2022. Has anybody done it more recently or have any up to date information on this?

I just spoke to someone at Viking who confirmed that we would be able to leave some luggage with Viking at the Hotel and that they would deliver it to the sh8ip.

 

 

[umbrellagirl]

On 3/18/2024 at 2:58 PM, Emptynesters38 said:

I just spoke to someone at Viking who confirmed that we would be able to leave some luggage with Viking at the Hotel and that they would deliver it to the sh8ip.

 

 

Can I carry a pocketbook along with a carry-on, and suitcase on the flights to and from Cappadocia?

[anaky1229]

We booked our own air to Cappadocia (as well as the rest of the trip there). We paid a bit more for extra weight in our checked bags (we were on Pegasus in one direction and Turkish airline on the other). I believe the carry-ons were up to 8kg but don't remember being checked.

[Tutuma]

On 8/28/2022 at 3:07 PM, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

If you are on Facebook, look for one of the "fan" or "travelers" groups for Viking.  Someone recently really didn't like the extension.  My opinion was that he or she really didn't understand what Cappadoccia is - for example, that it's basically a cave land, with hotels built into and around caves.  The person felt the hotel was poor (forget the name, but not the one mentioned above), with no service, no AC, old and musty, etc.  And the person didn't like getting up at 3:30 to catch the flight.  But as I know from researching Cappadoccia extensively a few years ago, there are limited cushy hotels there, and somewhat limited flights, and two airlines that go to 2 different airports, and several different places in the area known as Cappadoccia.  I was planning my own 3 or 3 day adventure post cruise, but of course then it never happened due to Covid and cruise cancellation.  But I guess what's important in deciding if you really want to do this extension is to realize that this is NOT Singapore or Cairo or New York City.   But it IS quite a unique place.  My plan was to fly on Turkish to Nevsehir (spelling?), stay at Zara Cave Hotel, and concentrate my sightseeing in Goreme.  That would result in mostly using foot power and taxis.  I wanted to get up early and see the balloons, but didn't want to do a balloon ride.  (I've done a couple in Albuquerque and loved them, but don't think I want to take a chance on safety issues in Turkey so far from home.  And from what I've seen, they use huge baskets, and put a lot of people in them.  So while I'm sure it's an incredible experience, I decided to pass on it.)

 

But I think as long as a person realizes that even though Viking usually plans and pulls off quite good extensions (and almost always uses top notch hotels), the standards each person expects may not be met every place on the earth that a person wants to travel to.  And if a cruise line has to provide fabulous, American-style hotels and transportation to 50 people at a time, it just may not turn out well. And it's likely not possible to add enough caveats to the description of each extension or excursion to cover everything that may be encountered, especially now, as Covid lingers and flights get messed up.

 

Just my opinion, as I wasn't on the extension.  But I hope this helps.  

 

Interested in your opinion of the Zara Cave Hotel.  Will be staying there in a few days.

 

[roothy123]

7 hours ago, Tutuma said:

Interested in your opinion of the Zara Cave Hotel.  Will be staying there in a few days.

 

I'm the person you quoted above.  Unfortunately, Covid cancelled my Cappadocia plans, including the stay at Zara Cave. I kept the info on it and am hoping to get back one day.  I'm not the kind of person who looks for cookie cutter 5 star hotels.  However, I do a LOT of research, and Zara Cave looked quite good to me, both in terms of location (very important to me) and overall hotel appeal. But I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it when you return!

Edited August 6 by roothy123

[Tutuma]

57 minutes ago, roothy123 said:

I'm the person you quoted above.  Unfortunately, Covid cancelled my Cappadocia plans, including the stay at Zara Cave. I kept the info on it and am hoping to get back one day.  I'm not the kind of person who looks for cookie cutter 5 star hotels.  However, I do a LOT of research, and Zara Cave looked quite good to me, both in terms of location (very important to me) and overall hotel appeal. But I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it when you return!

 

57 minutes ago, roothy123 said:

I'm the person you quoted above.  Unfortunately, Covid cancelled my Cappadocia plans, including the stay at Zara Cave. I kept the info on it and am hoping to get back one day.  I'm not the kind of person who looks for cookie cutter 5 star hotels.  However, I do a LOT of research, and Zara Cave looked quite good to me, both in terms of location (very important to me) and overall hotel appeal. But I'd be interested to hear what you thought of it when you return!

Will Do!!  My research matched yours. 

[anaky1229]

I just thought I'd add my recent experience for anyone considering a trip to Cappadocia. I planned our own trip after our cruise and while the cruise was great, Cappadocia was the highlight of our trip. We stayed in the Panoramic Cave Hotel. It was nothing fancy but a great stay with a terrific staff (especially in the breakfast room). We stayed in a fairy chimney room. It was march so I can't comment on air conditioning. We did take a hot air balloon ride. I found Turkish safety pretty good. They wouldn't let us fly the first day but could go up the second. We had a blast. Our hotel arranged two days of a private guide for us (there were four of us) for a very reasonable price. There was a guide and a driver. Our guide was great, knowledgeable and we saw a lot. The last day I had arranged a cooking class that was also loads of fun and quite educational. They fed us way too much at the end of it. The owner then took us to the airport for our flight back to Istanbul. as a n aside, we had some problems contacting our airport hotel. The owner of the cooking school gave us his number and told us to call him if we had any problems and he would call a friend to help us.

 

If you are considering Cappadocia, I highly recommend it. Be aware, though, there is lots of walking and climbing up stairs etc. if you really want to see it.

[portisheadblue]

Two years ago we took the pre-cruise trip to Cappadocia o our Viking Cruise Istanbul to Athens.

 

The transfer from airport to hotel was somewhat shambolic - the least funny bit was Viking staff removing all luggage from the carousel with Viking labels at one end whilst passengers congregated at the other end, then we were made to wait whilst family that arrived on 2 different flights tried to find their luggage which turned out was still in USA … the hotel we stayed in was rather nice but late arrival and (very) early departure curtailed our enjoyment. The good thing was that just before we retired for the night one of the Viking staff told us we could leave any amount of our luggage with them and it would meet us when we headed to the ship - and that worked really well for us.

 

There was over 100 of us on the excursion and we were on a scheduled flight … Viking allocation of seats started at the very back and worked forwards - we both got window seats on different rows … oh well.

 

In Cappadocia the allocation of hotel seemed a bit random …. No hotel has that many cave rooms - we had a nice room but not a cave …. also most “cave” hotels are somewhat perpendicular. We enjoyed all our meals there and got some good photos.

 

The included excursions were very good except for the “carpet visit” which turns into a sales exercise and the building is in the middle of nowhere so be prepared to grin and bear it. 
 

Notwithstanding any of the above we had a great experience - our ballon flight was cancelled but the next day we saw the “lift off” on our way to the airport …. and Cappadocia is with a visit.

 

To be sure … our luggage was on our allocated bus when we got back to Istanbul and headed to our home on Viking Ocean Cruises where everything, as usual, was wonderful.

[roothy123]

Traveling can certain be an adventure! 

[tarhoosier]

Some of the travelers here use airline apps which track bags? Use Air Tags for personal tracking of any bag/item?

I trust the airline app to confirm bag on plane, off plane, expected carousel. Carousel sometimes changes and app is not updated. In-airport personnel are helpful then.  Air tag will be used first time next month.

[formernuke]

Yes, we use air tags to track out bags. It has come in handy. For example, when come back from Bergen this past spring, one of our bags did not make the transfer from the regional carrier to the cross-Atlantic flight. I was able to tell the airline exactly where my bag was. Got it back about 20 hours later.