Posting time of recorded port talks

[PRH]

So today, all aboard time was 7pm because many excursions arrived back around 5pm to 6:30pm.  So what time was the port talk?  4pm.  I called guest services to find out when we could find out about our 8:30am excursion tomorrow morning and was told “after 10pm tonight”.  To me, this is unacceptable.  The port talks are recorded.  What takes so long to post them?  And, or, why not schedule after everyone is on board?  We have an 8 hour excursion tomorrow and really would like to know what’s happening.  Also tired from today’s excursion so will not make it to 10pm+ to watch.  We’ve discovered that the write ups do not necessarily match what happens so port talks can give a little more up-to-date information, including weather, etc.  This has been an extremely frustrating cruise—NYC, Canada, Greenland and Iceland.  Immigration this morning was not well organized leading to hour long lines.

[CCWineLover]

7 minutes ago, PRH said:

So today, all aboard time was 7pm because many excursions arrived back around 5pm to 6:30pm.  So what time was the port talk?  4pm.  I called guest services to find out when we could find out about our 8:30am excursion tomorrow morning and was told “after 10pm tonight”.  To me, this is unacceptable.  The port talks are recorded.  What takes so long to post them?  And, or, why not schedule after everyone is on board?  We have an 8 hour excursion tomorrow and really would like to know what’s happening.  Also tired from today’s excursion so will not make it to 10pm+ to watch.  We’ve discovered that the write ups do not necessarily match what happens so port talks can give a little more up-to-date information, including weather, etc.  This has been an extremely frustrating cruise—NYC, Canada, Greenland and Iceland.  Immigration this morning was not well organized leading to hour long lines.

No answers!  I totally agree and have had this happen before.  Sometimes we've gotten lucky and it's posted at 8 or 9 PM - always check.   One of those annoyances for sure.  I never understood why they have them before people get back from excursions.

My other pet peeve is that when they describe the excursions, they now finally have very detailed information on time on a bus, time walking, length of walking, restroom stops, stairs, etc, and often say don't do this tour unless you can for example, climb 50 stairs or get onto a bus with steps, or how many cobblestones you'll encounter even.   However - by the night before it is too late to do anything about it!  Since they know all this information, it would be wonderful if this information could be provided when you book the excursions!!

(I've given this feedback for a couple years now to no avail).

[kctwinmommy]

I do agree with you, I didn't understand why the talks were while we were still in port and tours still out. We did find that we didn't have an issue watching the talks, usually after dinner. I would also sometimes watch it in the morning while we were getting ready. But, I didn't always want to listen to all the basic info about the city, sometimes I would just skip to our tour to hear those details.

 

But @CCWineLover I do agree with you. I don't understand why they can't give more detailed descriptions prior to the cruise, since you know they have that information. It seemed walking time and bathroom opportunities are the biggest things people want to know. For me, personally, those aren't issues. But I'm also on the younger side for Viking's normal demographic. 😉

[Catlover54]

11 minutes ago, kctwinmommy said:

I do agree with you, I didn't understand why the talks were while we were still in port and tours still out. We did find that we didn't have an issue watching the talks, usually after dinner. I would also sometimes watch it in the morning while we were getting ready. But, I didn't always want to listen to all the basic info about the city, sometimes I would just skip to our tour to hear those details.

 

But @CCWineLover I do agree with you. I don't understand why they can't give more detailed descriptions prior to the cruise, since you know they have that information. It seemed walking time and bathroom opportunities are the biggest things people want to know. For me, personally, those aren't issues. But I'm also on the younger side for Viking's normal demographic. 😉

 

My guess is they don't give you all the information in advance because they want people booking the excursions, but then have them decide  not to go  last minute if the excursions are described as too difficult (and my understanding is that you then forfeit your payment for the excursion if you cancel within less than 24 hours -- correct me if I am wrong, I am a novice to V.)

[OneSixtyToOne]

1 hour ago, kctwinmommy said:

I do agree with you, I didn't understand why the talks were while we were still in port and tours still out.

 

They made a change to port talks and lecture times in late 2022 - early 2023. We were told by a presenter that corporate introduced a strict schedule in order to try and mitigate the crowding at the restaurant and afternoon tea at specific times. IMO it seems to have worked.

 

As far as recordings being available on the server for broadcast, that is probably a resources issue, both human and IT (bandwidth, copy times, post-production).

Edited July 3 by OneSixtyToOne

[kctwinmommy]

@Catlover54 - but they still sell out and people are always looking to book, but can't. I get what you're saying though. Again, it didn't really affect us. There were 1 or 2 even that the longer description made us think "Uh oh, we may have picked a dud," but the tour was great! Montenegro was one of those.

[Mich3554]

The last few cruises we have been on, some of the port talks have been 2 days before that day in port rather than the day before.  We usually watch the recorded versions of port talks rather than go to the Star.  

[deec]

I liked when the port talks were a couple days ahead BUT sometimes it made it difficult to keep track of what day it was!  OLD brain...and more wine than usual!  Agree 100% give up BETTER descriptions when we are signing up for excursions!

[Clay Clayton]

On 7/3/2024 at 7:25 PM, Mich3554 said:

The last few cruises we have been on, some of the port talks have been 2 days before that day in port rather than the day before.  We usually watch the recorded versions of port talks rather than go to the Star.  

This was the case on the World Cruise on Sky this past winter/spring. 

[philw1776]

On 7/3/2024 at 4:58 PM, CCWineLover said:

No answers!  I totally agree and have had this happen before.  Sometimes we've gotten lucky and it's posted at 8 or 9 PM - always check.   One of those annoyances for sure.  I never understood why they have them before people get back from excursions.

My other pet peeve is that when they describe the excursions, they now finally have very detailed information on time on a bus, time walking, length of walking, restroom stops, stairs, etc, and often say don't do this tour unless you can for example, climb 50 stairs or get onto a bus with steps, or how many cobblestones you'll encounter even.   However - by the night before it is too late to do anything about it!  Since they know all this information, it would be wonderful if this information could be provided when you book the excursions!!

(I've given this feedback for a couple years now to no avail).

Boy do I agree with this. Our last Viking cruise we had booked a cruise described as difficult. Was not worried as we can walk fast and stand for hours and have climbed trails in Alaska, etc. That morning we saw the recorded description as being a sharp downhill. Foolishly I ignored this. It was a long steep downhill over extremely slippery surfaces in a vineyard. Took my usually fastest in the group walker & climber wife forever. We missed the wine tasting & were exhausted mentally & physically.  Yes, we should have heeded the belated warning.

[Clay Clayton]

I also wish (and have suggested) that the recordings of the poet talks be available on MVJ or Viking TV.  They would need lots of caveats but it would still give folks a better idea of what is coming than the paragraph or two of your description we get now. 

[OneSixtyToOne]

Currently on the Venus and the cruise director said the port talks are edited and then uploaded to the server. The process takes 2 hours. I believe they are speeding up the video and compressing the dead air.

 

 

 

[ericosmith]

5 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Currently on the Venus and the cruise director said the port talks are edited and then uploaded to the server. The process takes 2 hours. I believe they are speeding up the video and compressing the dead air.

 

 

 

They also do a kind of split screen technique.  They were advertised as being available at 8:00 but were often somewhat earlier.

[CCWineLover]

15 hours ago, ericosmith said:

They also do a kind of split screen technique.  

What do you mean by a kind of split screen?

[ericosmith]

9 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

What do you mean by a kind of split screen?

The speaker is shown on one side of the screen with the slide presentation on the other.  I suspect that's why the delay as they have to edit the two things together.

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, ericosmith said:

The speaker is shown on one side of the screen with the slide presentation on the other.  I suspect that's why the delay as they have to edit the two things together.

Got it.  I'll have to look again next time.

Last time a few months ago, the speaker was in a small window (like Picture in a Picture on a TV) and not a total split of the screen.

[OneSixtyToOne]

On 8/12/2024 at 11:43 PM, CCWineLover said:

Got it.  I'll have to look again next time.

Last time a few months ago, the speaker was in a small window (like Picture in a Picture on a TV) and not a total split of the screen.

The speaker is in a small box on the bottom of the screen.