Paying for Excursions with Preregistered Credit Card

[miami mama]

Wondering how a preregistered credit card is used when purchasing excursions. When you request an excursion and you go to your cart to pay, will all of the payment fields be filled in for you if your card is already entered into the system? I know some excursions are so popular that you must sign up and pay immediately or you will lose the space. If preregistration helps one be faster, I'm willing to use a CC that gives me no points on the purchases but at least Viking accepts. (Wish they would go ahead and find a way to allow MC to be preregistered.).

[LindaS272]

Your pre registered cc is for onboard use only. Numerous discussions on these boards about how your info when booking excursions has to be entered every time. I personally don’t find this to be a problem since my iPad or iPhone already has my card and address details and I just click to paste them in the form.

 

However, if you book using ACH—electronic check transfer direct from your bank account—you save 3.3% as well as pre-filled info for the forms when you set that up in advance on MVJ.

[CDNPolar]

Pre-registration will not help.

 

For both included and optional (paid for) excursions, when you choose them you must go to the cart and pay for them at the time you book them.  

[miami mama]

Thanks for the input.

[Peregrina651]

Also note that 1) pre-registration is available only for VISA cards and 2) is not required even if you have a VISA card (it is pushed as convenience, nothing more).

[CCWineLover]

Also note that if you have credits it will default to use them unless you manually override to ACH or cr cd .

 

again for emphasis!  Choose an excursion and immediately go to your cart, pay for it and so on.  Rinse and repeat as often as necessary (option excursions).  Included ones get reserved on the spot - no cart)

[Peregrina651]

23 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

For both included and optional (paid for) excursions, when you choose them you must go to the cart and pay for them at the time you book them.  

 

12 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

 Included ones get reserved on the spot - no cart)

 

I just booked excursions. As CCWineLover said, I did not have to go to the cart to confirm our choices for the included tours; they were confirmed as we chose them.

 

When I did the paid excursions, I grabbed them two or three at a time and checked out. I did the ones I wanted the most, first. Then I came back and did more until I had booked everything I wanted. Since I wasn't picky about times for any of the included excursion, I reserved them last.

 

However, if you are trying to book two tours in one day, book your included at the same time you do the paid, to make sure you have enough time between the two.

 

[Moby_Spout]

Peregrina, when you say you 'grabbed two or three...' and then checked out, could you have done all the optional ones you wanted?  So, if I use ACH, can I load all 9 paid tours (x2 to include my spouse) that I want and then check out?

 

Or is that amount of time - to find/load/pay more than two or three, a risk to lose some tours to faster check outs? IE, the tours in your cart aren't 'protected'?

[janetcbl]

27 minutes ago, Moby_Spout said:

Peregrina, when you say you 'grabbed two or three...' and then checked out, could you have done all the optional ones you wanted?  So, if I use ACH, can I load all 9 paid tours (x2 to include my spouse) that I want and then check out?

 

Or is that amount of time - to find/load/pay more than two or three, a risk to lose some tours to faster check outs? IE, the tours in your cart aren't 'protected'?

For the Optional Excursions, it is safest to only load one or two and then pay, repeat with the next one or two, etc. If you wait until after you load all of them, you risk someone taking the one that is just sitting in your cart. 

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, Moby_Spout said:

IE, the tours in your cart aren't 'protected'?

 

Exactly, a seat on the bus isn't your seat on the bus until you have paid for it.  A really popular tour can sell out in the first few minutes.

 

That is why Viking veterans, especially those who travel in DV &V cabins, suggest working with a prioritized list of tours that you are interested in and at booking time (noon PT) paying after you have selected one or two tours, then repeat until you have everything you want.

 

 

[CDNPolar]

4 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Exactly, a seat on the bus isn't your seat on the bus until you have paid for it.  A really popular tour can sell out in the first few minutes.

 

That is why Viking veterans, especially those who travel in DV &V cabins, suggest working with a prioritized list of tours that you are interested in and at booking time (noon PT) paying after you have selected one or two tours, then repeat until you have everything you want.

 

 

Exactly what we do... two max and then pay, go back and do the next.

[Moby_Spout]

Thanks!

Doing the 'fastest finger' online duel with several hundred other passengers is daunting. And we have 20 tours to capture. But the advice given here on CC sure helps. ('Course, then I realize I'll be up against many of the same experienced cruisers! 😱😃)

[Peregrina651]

You will be fine.  If you don't get what you want on the first go-round.  Keep checking. People change their minds right up to the last minute (which is 7 days prior to Day 1 of your cruise, when all transactions are halted until you board the ship).

[Moby_Spout]

From experience with cruises in the Northern European part of the world, about how many of the Viking ship's passengers take an excursion (paid, free, own)?

 

And about how many ships tend to be in port, in general.
 

I'm just marveling at what a whopping logistics effort it must take to accommodate the sea of humanity!

[janetcbl]

13 minutes ago, Moby_Spout said:

 

Edited March 12 by janetcbl
Error

[Peregrina651]

2 hours ago, Moby_Spout said:

From experience with cruises in the Northern European part of the world, about how many of the Viking ship's passengers take an excursion (paid, free, own)?

 

And about how many ships tend to be in port, in general.
 

I'm just marveling at what a whopping logistics effort it must take to accommodate the sea of humanity!

 

You have asked some of those "no definitive answer" questions. Each port is different. Every time  of year is different.  Each sailing has its own vibe.

 

You can find out how many ships will be in a given port on a given day on the port/harbormaster's website. There are third-party websites that do similar but they aren't always reliable. 

 

As to how many Viking pax take tours, again, no way of knowing.  But the ship is pretty much deserted on port days.  The included tours are a draw for many and the optional tours are a draw for those who would rather let the cruiseline handle the research and logistics.  On the other hand, there are others who just want to explore on their own.

 

As you said, "whopping logistics effort" no matter what port you visit.

[Moby_Spout]

Yeah, sorry. That was sort of a 'how long is a piece of string' question. But appreciate the general comment.

 

We've been on different cruise lines and I'm interested in the Viking vibe which seems a bit more laid-back rather than rush the gang-plank.

[CDNPolar]

6 hours ago, Moby_Spout said:

Yeah, sorry. That was sort of a 'how long is a piece of string' question. But appreciate the general comment.

 

We've been on different cruise lines and I'm interested in the Viking vibe which seems a bit more laid-back rather than rush the gang-plank.

 

Viking tend to "stage" the guests in the Star Theatre before disembarking for excursion.  It is not a free-for-all rushing the gangway.

 

You get your daily excursion tickets when you board the ship - usually the first night during evening cabin service.

 

The Viking Daily tells you by group letter or number where to go, and at what time.  Then you are staged, as I said, in the Star Theatre.  Some may be directed to go directly to shore side depending on the excursion.  In my experience it has usually been the performance team of 4 that do the announcements in the Star Theatre and they call you by bus number or group number to leave the Star Theatre and migrate to the gangway.

 

If you were planning to explore on your own or you hired a private tour, you would just move to the gangway when it was necessary for you to do so.

 

Viking do tend to corral everyone so there is not a massive mob of people rushing the gangway all at once, but when that number is called, everyone does move pretty quickly.

[oskidunker]

We have booked a New Zealand cruise leaving jan 6. On the same ship, we have also booked the Australia circum navigation. So we got the same cabin for both.  
 

when will tours be available for viewing? Final pay due April 30

[CCWineLover]

5 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

 

Viking tend to "stage" the guests in the Star Theatre before disembarking for excursion.  It is not a free-for-all rushing the gangway.

 

Viking do tend to corral everyone so there is not a massive mob of people rushing the gangway all at once, but when that number is called, everyone does move pretty quickly.

 

That had been our experience before, especially post-COVID.

However, just got off Saturn in the Mediterranean.  Don't know whether the ports lended themselves to this - but we never were staged in the Star Theatre on this cruise.  (Maybe 1 or two tours the whole cruise?).   Everyone met on the pier at the assigned times.  Perhaps because of good weather as well?   Was nice since you didn't have to walk all the way up to the Star Theatre, only to turn around and walk all the way back to the gangway 🙂   And you also didn't have to keep listening to the port/Excursion rebroadcast all the time in the Star Theatre.   It all seemed to work out just great.

 

When there was more than one "group" for a specific time (like the included tours), Viking staff also did something I hadn't seen in a bit - instead of filling up a group or bus and then moving to the next, they rotated through assigning groups so that each group had the roughly the same number.  That is also why they kindly asked people to check in with whomever else they wished to be with.  Again - it worked quite well!

 

Another thing - we had several no shows on some tours and there were people who had been told to go to the pier as standby's.  Then Viking called the standbys and they got on the tour.  So never give up on the included tour times if you want to try for a different one.

[CDNPolar]

2 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

 

That had been our experience before, especially post-COVID.

However, just got off Saturn in the Mediterranean.  Don't know whether the ports lended themselves to this - but we never were staged in the Star Theatre on this cruise.  (Maybe 1 or two tours the whole cruise?).   Everyone met on the pier at the assigned times.  Perhaps because of good weather as well?   Was nice since you didn't have to walk all the way up to the Star Theatre, only to turn around and walk all the way back to the gangway 🙂   And you also didn't have to keep listening to the port/Excursion rebroadcast all the time in the Star Theatre.   It all seemed to work out just great.

 

When there was more than one "group" for a specific time (like the included tours), Viking staff also did something I hadn't seen in a bit - instead of filling up a group or bus and then moving to the next, they rotated through assigning groups so that each group had the roughly the same number.  That is also why they kindly asked people to check in with whomever else they wished to be with.  Again - it worked quite well!

 

Another thing - we had several no shows on some tours and there were people who had been told to go to the pier as standby's.  Then Viking called the standbys and they got on the tour.  So never give up on the included tour times if you want to try for a different one.

 

This is nice to know... If we know our bus number we prefer to go to the pier and wait outside instead of being staged.  On the river cruises, we are always outside way before when they call our group.