Excursion booking date moved up 5 weeks!

[longterm]

Because I tend to keep a close eye on travel plans, I went into My Viking Journey just to confirm the excursion booking, and lo and behold, it moved form April 27th to March 19th.

 

So, if you have a cruise coming up, you should double-check your excursion booking date; I was pleasantly surprised that ours had moved up 5 weeks.

[shipboy]

Our excursions were planned to open Christmas Day at 8pm. I received an MVJ notification on Christmas Eve, to inform me that they were now open for selection. They weren’t, they opened at 8pm on Christmas Day !!

[millybess]

40 minutes ago, shipboy said:

Our excursions were planned to open Christmas Day at 8pm. I received an MVJ notification on Christmas Eve, to inform me that they were now open for selection. They weren’t, they opened at 8pm on Christmas Day !!

LOL.  That's happened to us before too.  

[millybess]

54 minutes ago, longterm said:

Because I tend to keep a close eye on travel plans, I went into My Viking Journey just to confirm the excursion booking, and lo and behold, it moved form April 27th to March 19th.

 

So, if you have a cruise coming up, you should double-check your excursion booking date; I was pleasantly surprised that ours had moved up 5 weeks.

That's really nice.  I wish that would happen to us.  We are on the 2nd-last leg of a very long cruise.  I look everyday to see what's sold out -- only a couple of things so far.

 

We're on a 5 week journey, which requires a lot of planning and contingency planning as well.

 

Here's hoping you are able to book everything you're interested in. 

[CannotSwim]

I just received an e-mail message mentioning the change for my June cruise. I expect everyone will get a message before the date they can select excursions. My cruise is 155 days out (the 1 June transition is 149 days out) and the new furthest advance selection is 147 days prior for the Owner's Suite.

 

I reviewed all of the levels on Viking Homelands -- the stateroom descriptions now list the old and new day counts. The change was to move excursion reservations 40 days earlier for everyone. There were no changes for restaurant and spa reservation dates.

 

I had wondered if they were adding additional levels -- for example letting P1 choose, then PV2, then PV3 -- but that didn't happen.

[millybess]

55 minutes ago, CannotSwim said:

I just received an e-mail message mentioning the change for my June cruise. I expect everyone will get a message before the date they can select excursions. My cruise is 155 days out (the 1 June transition is 149 days out) and the new furthest advance selection is 147 days prior for the Owner's Suite.

 

I reviewed all of the levels on Viking Homelands -- the stateroom descriptions now list the old and new day counts. The change was to move excursion reservations 40 days earlier for everyone. There were no changes for restaurant and spa reservation dates.

 

I had wondered if they were adding additional levels -- for example letting P1 choose, then PV2, then PV3 -- but that didn't happen.

I just went and checked our future cruises and that is correct.

Edited January 3 by millybess

[JRIH]

39 minutes ago, millybess said:

I just went and checked our future cruises and that is correct.

Same for me.

[millybess]

I guess if you book excursions sooner, they will get the money sooner.  Maybe it's all about cashflow?

[CDR2001]

I checked my cruise, embarkation is May1. The old excursions booking date is still listed. I checked the cabin descriptions for several ships, and excursion booking date changes only apply to cruises beginning on or after June1,2024.  Good news for some, no change for me! 

[Breckski]

See below - from the Viking website

 

• Priority shore excursion reservations 87 days prior to departure. (Voyages embarking before May 31, 2024)
• Priority shore excursion reservations 127 days prior to departure (Voyages embarking on or after June 1, 2024)

[HUNKY]

For all cabin categories shorex reservations have moved up forty days, for those cruises embarking as of June 1, 2024.

[Peregrina651]

We are 127 days away from our May 9 embarkation date. Viking hasn't even loaded in the excursions for us to view. No way that they could have moved us to the new plan at this point. 

 

We'll see how the roll out works for the early June departures as they need to be loading in the shorex already for the OS to be able to see what is on offer before before they book.

[SailorPaulH]

On 1/3/2024 at 7:03 PM, millybess said:

I guess if you book excursions sooner, they will get the money sooner.  Maybe it's all about cashflow?

Or it could be to overcome increased competition for local guide/tour operator resources!? 

[SailorPaulH]

So the date for reserving excursions has been advanced (for cruises after 6/1/124), but can you select excursions before that .... drop them in a 'wish bucket' for example and pay for them in one swoop: is that a thing? 

[millybess]

6 minutes ago, SailorPaulH said:

So the date for reserving excursions has been advanced (for cruises after 6/1/124), but can you select excursions before that .... drop them in a 'wish bucket' for example and pay for them in one swoop: is that a thing? 

That's a great idea!  I'll look forward to the answer.

[formernuke]

1 hour ago, SailorPaulH said:

So the date for reserving excursions has been advanced (for cruises after 6/1/124), but can you select excursions before that .... drop them in a 'wish bucket' for example and pay for them in one swoop: is that a thing? 

No it is not. (At least up to now)

[longterm]

4 hours ago, SailorPaulH said:

So the date for reserving excursions has been advanced (for cruises after 6/1/124), but can you select excursions before that .... drop them in a 'wish bucket' for example and pay for them in one swoop: is that a thing? 

That's a good idea, but so far not possible; they don't even post the excursions too far in advance. Our cruise is 163 days away, and the excursions aren't listed yet. I've made a list of favorites from those listed in their cruise listing, although there's no guarantee that all of those will be offered for our particular sailing. I'll keep checking every day or so to see when they actually start posting them.

[SantaFe1]

I have a cruise in May, 125 days away, and shore ex loaded yet.  

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, SantaFe1 said:

I have a cruise in May, 125 days away, and shore ex loaded yet.  

 

What SF1 meant to say is that shorex for our May cruise have NOT loaded in yet. (we're on the same cruise).

 

2 hours ago, longterm said:

Our cruise is 163 days away, and the excursions aren't listed yet.

 

Makes me think that this is a last minute decision. They announced the program for June 1 but don't  have the June shorex loaded in and ready to go. They don't even have all of the May departures loaded in yet (and that should be their priority). It is going to be a rough couple of weeks -- and I am very sorry to have to be part of the transition.😖

 

[SantaFe1]

13 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

What SF1 meant to say is that shorex for our May cruise have NOT loaded in yet. (we're on the same cruise).

Yes, thank you!  They aren’t loaded yet. 

[longterm]

I forget--how much before a cruise are excursions normally added to MVJ? We just did a river cruise, but I forget now how much before the trip they start displaying excursions.

It'd be nice to be able to finalize our excursion choices before selection day; we've made preliminary choices based on the cruise listing, but there's no way to know what will actually be offered on our cruise.

[BlairsvilleCruiseGirl]

31 minutes ago, longterm said:

I forget--how much before a cruise are excursions normally added to MVJ? We just did a river cruise, but I forget now how much before the trip they start displaying excursions.

It'd be nice to be able to finalize our excursion choices before selection day; we've made preliminary choices based on the cruise listing, but there's no way to know what will actually be offered on our cruise.

In November 2023 I asked Viking Customer Service (on-line chat) when our May 31, 2024 shore excursions would be available for review and they said they're posted 110 days prior to sailing.  

[Peregrina651]

25 minutes ago, longterm said:

I forget--how much before a cruise are excursions normally added to MVJ?

 

Once upon a time, the target seemed to be 120 days, about two weeks before booking opened for the owner's suite. Still, there was a lot of variation in when things actually occurred.

[philw1776]

29 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Once upon a time, the target seemed to be 120 days, about two weeks before booking opened for the owner's suite. Still, there was a lot of variation in when things actually occurred.

So true! 

[Gail Boertzel]

I think Viking should have planned this change better. For a June cruise, owner's suite can book excursions tomorrow and the excursions being offered are still not posted on line. This is an Iceland cruise that is port intensive. You need time and information in order to figure things out.