Viking World Cruise Excursions and Dining reservations

[BobCatter]

How does booking the excursions work for the WC? Do all excursions for the entire trip open for you based on your booking class/cabin? Do they release them in batches? 

 

Dining reservations are usually limited on the shorter cruises. How does that work on the WC? 

 

My understanding is that the vast majority of pax for Viking WC are going all the way (not segments). Just curious as to how that changes things.

[Heidi13]

18 hours ago, BobCatter said:

How does booking the excursions work for the WC? Do all excursions for the entire trip open for you based on your booking class/cabin? Do they release them in batches? 

 

Dining reservations are usually limited on the shorter cruises. How does that work on the WC? 

 

My understanding is that the vast majority of pax for Viking WC are going all the way (not segments). Just curious as to how that changes things.

 

For the 2020 WC, all shore-ex were released at the same time, but on almost all other Viking WC's they have been released in tranches. It looks like the upcoming 22/23 WC will also be released in groups. A WC is no different than the shorter cruises in that people change their plans frequently. While you may find some tours fully booked online, once aboard, the shore-ex dept can add additional resources and you also have pax cancelling tours.

 

When we booked tours for the 2020 WC, we got every tour we wanted and at our desired time. We were in a DV cabin.

 

Except for a special occasion, we never make alternative restaurant reservations prior to that day. If we decide that morning to try Manfredi's or Chef's Table, I turn on the TV and check what's available. Never failed to get a reservation within about 1/2 hr of our preferred time. Some nights we would walk down to the host/hostess desk asking if they had space. Again, we always got in.

 

Most other cruise lines don't/can't fill an entire ship for a World Cruise, so fill the ship by creating segments. This can be positive, or negative, depending on several factors -On our 2015 WC with Princess, less than 20% were taking the entire WC, with some segments being only 2-days. The atmosphere on the ship changed every segment and in reality, it didn't feel like a WC, just several B2B's.

 

Our 2020 Viking WC had 4 segments, with about 50% of the pax on for the duration. While the ship did change slightly with new pax, it felt like a WC. Viking are also vastly superior to Princess in creating a WC ambiance aboard the ship.

 

I see you joined the 23/24 Roll Call, but I suggest joining, or at least reading through the 22/23 Neptune Roll Call, which currently has almost 6,000 posts and 230 pages. It will take some time, but there is some excellent information included from several previous world cruisers. 

[BobCatter]

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

 

I see you joined the 23/24 Roll Call, but I suggest joining, or at least reading through the 22/23 Neptune Roll Call, which currently has almost 6,000 posts and 230 pages. It will take some time, but there is some excellent information included from several previous world cruisers. 

 

I'm currently working my way through it. 

[Heidi13]

2 hours ago, BobCatter said:

 

I'm currently working my way through it. 

 

On the 2020 WC, I completed daily blog posts. You can check it out at www.AndyandJudi.com

 

Some other blogs:

 - https://lowestravels.com/category/where-we-have-been/world-wonders-cruise/

 - https://roseandtedsexcellentadventure.com/