Viking Port Talks - when are they typically scheduled?

[coloradocruiselover88]

Have my first Viking Ocean cruise and was curious about when the port talks are scheduled? On a river cruise they were typically before dinner.  Thanks for the help.   

PS - I search the forum and may have missed this.

[duquephart]

Same.

[CCWineLover]

We found it varies by itinerary.  No standard practice.  On ocean people eat dinner over a long multi hour span.  A lot depends on if a sea day or not.

even if you miss the talk live, you can watch it on TV which is what we do.  
have seen the talks go on anywhere from 1:00 to 8:00 pm.  Check your dailies each day.

[TayanaLorna]

Our last cruise, typically at 5:30 pm.  If multiple sea days in a row, last day before port but could be anytime.  We typically watch it on our stateroom TV.  That way we can do other things in the room and then stop to watch when our chosen excursion comes up. We also listen to the general info given at the beginning and end of the talk.  Can watch it in the evening after dinner or in the morning as we prepare for the day.

[loriva]

During the past few months following the Viking board in advance of our first ocean cruise with Viking, I picked up the comment that "Port talks are at 1630 hours and lectures at 1845 (must finish by 2000 hours).  Corporate policy to reduce rush times for tea and restaurants."  Sounds like this no longer what people are experiencing?

[Mich3554]

Usually the port talks are 1-2 days before going into ports.  We are usually doing something, so watch them on TV the evening before.  We just finished watching the port talk for Rhodes, where we dock tomorrow.  Since we have had several, consecutive days of long excursions recently (9-13 hours), a group of port talks have been dropped onto the TV to watch at our leisure.  

Edited April 17, 2023 by Mich3554

[oskidunker]

They had some at 6:30 pm on our Northern lights cruise. This meant everyone went to dinner at the same time. Slammed the restaurant. Not very smart. We did not go.they eed to have these in tne afternoon, not at dinner time. 

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, loriva said:

During the past few months following the Viking board in advance of our first ocean cruise with Viking, I picked up the comment that "Port talks are at 1630 hours and lectures at 1845 (must finish by 2000 hours).  Corporate policy to reduce rush times for tea and restaurants."  Sounds like this no longer what people are experiencing?

That is correct -  there is no "set" time or schedule for lectures or port talks.  "It all depends".

One of the issues, as described above, with "always" having a port talk at 6 or 6:30 is that the restaurants do get flooded.  On our cruises (11 ocean) - the port talks were scheduled all over the board timewise.  On River Cruises, it is more functional to have port talks just ahead of dinner, as everyone has to eat dinner at the same time.   On a sea day, they did tend to be around 4:30 and they last about 45 minutes, of which probably only about 20 is useful information.  Another reason we now avoid going in person, and just watch it on the TV that evening!

If you missed anything, they usually play the recording in the Star Theatre in the morning while you wait for your excursion number to be called, along with many other passengers.

Edited April 17, 2023 by CCWineLover

[springtravel]

We just returned from Sky, and most port talks were 1630, unless they had a reason to change it.  Always the day before our day in port.  We normally watched it on tv, since it wasn't a convenient time for us and at that point, couldn't change excursions anyway.

[dd57]

2 hours ago, springtravel said:

We just returned from Sky, and most port talks were 1630, unless they had a reason to change it.  Always the day before our day in port.  We normally watched it on tv, since it wasn't a convenient time for us and at that point, couldn't change excursions anyway.

See, this is why I always leave a comment about port talks on the feedback form.  Sometimes there is information about an excursion that you can't really get otherwise that might make you want to change to a different one.  I think it would be helpful to have the port talk further in advance than the day before.

[OneSixtyToOne]

On 4/17/2023 at 4:49 AM, loriva said:

During the past few months following the Viking board in advance of our first ocean cruise with Viking, I picked up the comment that "Port talks are at 1630 hours and lectures at 1845 (must finish by 2000 hours).  Corporate policy to reduce rush times for tea and restaurants."  Sounds like this no longer what people are experiencing?

On our last two cruises on the Sky (January, April) this has been the policy. We were told the new schedule was implemented to reduce congestion at afternoon tea and dinner. The only variation was on sea days. IMO it works. We never had to wait for a table and tea was less crowded than on previous cruises. We watched the port talks later in the evening on TV.

Edited April 19, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[May B]

On 4/19/2023 at 10:56 AM, OneSixtyToOne said:

On our last two cruises on the Sky (January, April) this has been the policy. We were told the new schedule was implemented to reduce congestion at afternoon tea and dinner. The only variation was on sea days. IMO it works. We never had to wait for a table and tea was less crowded than on previous cruises. We watched the port talks later in the evening on TV.

Thank you for this info, especially as it’s so very current.

 

If I understand correctly, an enrichment talk is given at 6:45 pm, to be concluded by 8 pm. I know you were in the Mediterranean, but I’m guessing the Baltic may be similar. Is this pretty much every evening? Are they also recorded, to watch at a later time on our stateroom t.v.?

 

Is the only “entertainment” the musical groups, in the bar areas?

[OneSixtyToOne]

13 hours ago, May B said:

Thank you for this info, especially as it’s so very current.

 

If I understand correctly, an enrichment talk is given at 6:45 pm, to be concluded by 8 pm. I know you were in the Mediterranean, but I’m guessing the Baltic may be similar. Is this pretty much every evening? Are they also recorded, to watch at a later time on our stateroom t.v.?

 

Is the only “entertainment” the musical groups, in the bar areas?

 

On the Sky as of last week:

Port Talks 4:30 PM

Lectures : 6:30 PM

Star Theater entertainment 9:15 PM

No port talks the day before a sea day.

On sea days the lectures are scheduled during the day.

All port talks and lectures are recorded and are available to watch within an hour ot two.

The Star Theater events are also broadcast live on your stateroom TV so there is no need to rush to the theater to see anything.

 

Thrre is some form of entertainment in the Star Theater at 9:15 every night. Typically Abba songbook, Beatles songbook, variety show put on by the tour directors / Viking band, and some sort of guest entertainer (comedian, pianist, etc.)

 

Nightly trivia contest in the Explorers’ Loungs at 8:00 PM followed by some musical performance at 9:00.

 

There are musical performances at various places such as afternoon tea in the Wintergarden and periodically in the Atrium throughout the day.

Edited April 21, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[May B]

And we don’t even have any at-sea days!

 

Thank you so much for that great description. I really appreciate it, OneSixtyToOne.

 

We leave in two months. So very much looking forward to it.

 

And next year on June 24th, we cruise out of your home port! Eight nights, to Vancouver, not on Viking.

[oskidunker]

How does this help? If you have lectures at 6:30, everyone shows up at the dining room at 7:30. We ate at6:30 and no one was  there. Our friends who ate at 7:30 said dining room was full and took 3 hours. 

[May B]

38 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

How does this help? If you have lectures at 6:30, everyone shows up at the dining room at 7:30. We ate at6:30 and no one was  there. Our friends who ate at 7:30 said dining room was full and took 3 hours. 

Nobody wanted to watch the lecture on t.v., later or the next day? Must’ve been a wonderful lecturer!

 

And I guess if people were willing to take three hours for dinner (color me skeptical), they didn’t care about the evening entertainment. Or perhaps they changed their plans, after the first time they went to a full dining room at 7:30.