Excursion listed in MyViking vs What is Offered Onboard

Well, here I am again with more questions.:confused:

My travel agent is telling me Viking is pushing me to sign up (and pay of course) for optional excursions listed in MyViking for our upcoming Danube Waltz cruise.

There are only a few optional excursions listed in MyViking and not for every port. Some are also offered at conflicting times. I hear that MYViking is relatively new, so maybe they don't always list all of the options available? For the veteran Viking cruisers out there - are there additional options available once onboard? Do these excursions really sell out in advance so that I should really strongly consider signing up now? Although, I can't see how an excursion could sell out, since I keep reading about bus loads of folks going on excursions. lol

I had planned to make these kinds of decisions once on board after chatting with the tour director and taking into account how we were feeling on a particular day. I keep hearing about how passengers need to be flexible about port times, schedule changes, and possible bussing, so I was actually settling into that " just go with the flow" mentality. That's why I'm feeling that it isn't very fair to be pushed into deciding on these optional excursions ahead of time. Just a ploy to lock in more $ on Viking's part or a real concern about being closed out of excursions?

Thanks, all! I'm learning a lot here!

Greetings!

Unless there is an optional excursion that you feel is a must, I would wait until you were on the cruise to see how you felt. During our Danube cruise, there were seasonal optional excursions offered, but this was before they started using the MyVikingJourney.com website so none were booked in advance.

We are cruising again with Viking through Bordeaux in a few weeks, and we absolutely wanted to do the Camus Cognac tasting/blending tour so to be safe, we went ahead and booked it. There is another optional tour that we are potentially interested in, but we'll wait to see how we feel once on the cruise.

Jeff

On our 2 previous Viking river cruises, we did not sign up for excursions prior to boarding, but I don't believe it was offered then. Last October, we did a Viking Mediterranean cruise on the Star, their first ocean cruise ship. We signed up for excursions as early as possible and I am happy we did as the spaces were filled up for those who waited, even on the "included" excursions. We I'll be doing the Rhine Getaway in October, 2016, and I have already signed up for most of the excursions I want.

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On our 2 previous Viking river cruises, we did not sign up for excursions prior to boarding, but I don't believe it was offered then. Last October, we did a Viking Mediterranean cruise on the Star, their first ocean cruise ship. We signed up for excursions as early as possible and I am happy we did as the spaces were filled up for those who waited, even on the "included" excursions. We I'll be doing the Rhine Getaway in October, 2016, and I have already signed up for most of the excursions I want.

 

 

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Thank you! Very helpful info!

We just returned yesterday from Tulips and Windmills with Viking. It was our seventh cruise with Viking. We did not sign up ahead of time for optional excursions. We waited till on the ship and heard the explanations. We had no problem but I would suggest signing up as soon as possible.

I have signed up for the optional shore excursions I wanted. What surprised me was that I had to signup for the included excursions too. My trip is not until October 2016 and one of the optional excursions was sold out! So I agree with Jeff, if there is an excursion you feel is a must, signup for it now. Good luck.

Since signing up for optional excursions for river cruises is new this year, you should check back from time to time because offerings do change. There are some optional excursions that you find out about when you board the ship that are not on the web site. Before I went I was assured in email and by talking with customer service that I could sign up on the ship.