Lozzie4415

Many thanks for all your helpful comments. It really helps to hear from experienced cruisers who know Viking well. I now know where to come for advice in the future. Once again, thank you.

Many thanks DrKoob. Having done the calculation, as Peregrina suggested, it looks as if we should be able to book our shore excursions and restaurant reservations before the Vs and DVs boarding in Auckland, but after the PVs. Hopefully we’ll be ok, fingers crossed. I’m just glad we pushed the boat out and booked a PJS. Our shore excursions open for booking on 24 December (12:00 Noon Pacific time - not sure how that equates to UK time!). I shall prioritise booking our excursions over stuffing the turkey and peeling veg for Christmas dinner the next day! Hope you enjoy your cruise to Barcelona.

Thank you so much for your advice Shadowlover and Peregrina, it’s very helpful and much appreciated.

I am new to this site so please excuse me if this is a stupid question. My husband and I are due to take our first Viking cruise next March - Komodo and the Australian Coast on Viking Mars. For us, this is the trip of a lifetime (unless we win the lottery!) We originally booked the March 2020 South East Asia and Hong Kong cruise on Viking Orion to celebrate my retirement in 2019. Sadly that was scuppered by the pandemic. After three cancellations by Viking we decided to change itinerary completely and to use our compensation vouchers to pay for pre and post cruise extensions in Sydney and Bali. Needless to say we are very excited! I am now aware that our trip is one segment of the longer Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia cruise which seems to be almost sold out. So, my question is, how will this affect our ability to take advantage of the priority booking arrangements for excursions (our primary concern) and the restaurants? Presumably people doing the longer trip will be able to book first? The priority booking perk was one of the main reasons for booking a Penthouse Junior Suite as this will be our one and only trip ‘down under’ (as we say in the UK). Any thoughts or experience you may be able to share will be much appreciated.