john005

7 hours ago, jiminyC_fan said:

John, we had the same concern about Pulpit Rock.  Check the Norled website for their hours.  It seems that Rodne is good for some and Norled good for other sailings.

Good thought, but unfortunately Norled departs at 12:15, so not significantly different than Rodne.

I think I will target the 12:00 Rodne unless something changes.

Also, for anyone who took the Homelands cruise departing from Stockholm, is there a Viking shuttle that will take you to the ship from town for embarkation? I assume that once we are checked in to the ship we will be able to take a shuttle back into town, but it appears that the ship dock is quite a distance from town and I was trying to save a taxi fare (although it looks like the fare is only about $15, so maybe not a big deal!)

Thank you everyone! These are fantastic recommendations and ideas. I am starting to plan our shore excursions now...

I am sure I will have lots more questions, but the first one is regarding Stavenger and Pulpit Rock.

Rodne has three departures per day. 10am, noon, and 2pm. Per the schedule Viking has published, the ship arrives at 10am and leaves at 6pm. This means the 10am departure is probably too early, and the 2pm sounds risky (would return at about 5pm). That leaves the noon departure which will make it difficult to see the town or take the included tour. Am I missing something?

I do want to take the Pulpit Rock cruise, but I would also like to at least wander around the town. 

For those of you who did this excursion, what did you do?

Thanks again!

Wow. Thanks to all for such good feedback. I have learned a lot today!

4 hours ago, geffric said:

I'll chime in too.. I did do historic Berlin with Viking. The tour was ok, our guide was not wonderful but we did get a feel of the city. In Finland, I thought the included tour was meh.. will do an optional if I do it again.

In Stavenger , we did Pulpit Rock with NORLED..again right be the pier,  wonderful tour and we even had time to have lunch and then go on the last included tour..great day!  We really enjoyed our tour with TJ in St Petersburg. 

In Bergen, the included was fine and then we explored ..the funicular to the top of Mt Floyen is amazing.. and so is the Mt.( not a real mountain but a ski bump) anyway, in the afternoon, there is no line! and they offer a senior citizen discount.

Thanks for your reply geffric. I have heard from others on this forum that the included tour in Helsinki is not the best. I think we will pass on that one. I may look at TJ, SPB and Alla in SPB. I really wanted to use Anastasia based on my research, but every time I contact them the price seems to go up. We will likely never be in St. Petersburg again, so I don't mind spending some money on a private or small group (4-8 ppl) tour, but we can't just write a blank check! Will be sure to check out Mt. Floyen in the afternoon. Thanks for the tip!

4 hours ago, jiminyC_fan said:

Hey John, I see you're from Golden.  We're from Littleton.  My husband grew up in Golden and Lookout Mtn area.

Sounds like your husband may have grown up very close to where we live! We are in Genesee - just south of I-70 at the lookout mountain exit. Small world...

Another thing to consider is flying into Gustavus and staying at the Glacier Bay Lodge for a few days. We did this just last summer and it was amazing. Took a much smaller tour boat from the lodge into Glacier Bay with a NPS naturalist on board. Also went kayaking in Bartlet cove (just outside the lodge) and saw sea lions at eye level. Also had a humpback whale surface about 100 yards in front of us! The perspective from a kayak is far different than the deck of a cruise ship - not that I don't love cruising, I do!, but Alaska is really easy to do with a rental car and an adventurous spirit. Don't even get me started talking about how unbelievable the grizzly bears were at brooks falls...

Our Homelands itinerary (7/25/20) is still showing Gdansk, and I hope we do go there. My family is Danish (emigrated to the US in the early/mid 1800s), so I am spending several days in Denmark pre-cruise. Not that another day in Denmark wouldn't be enjoyable, but I am looking forward to seeing Poland. Seems like a lot to see - although the concentration camps would be hard to see, they are important to never forget. Hopefully it will stay.

Thanks for the great information!! I hadn't thought about using an outside tour company for the Pulpit Rock, but that is a great idea. I also really appreciate the feedback on the included tours that may not be worth our time. I think we may skip the included tour of Stockholm. Like you, we have some time in the city before the cruise departs, so I think we can do it on our own. We will probably just go to the ship and check in, have some lunch, then go exploring. Many people on these boards have echoed your thoughts on Berlin. I think we will go, however, just because we have never seen it and it has so much history. We may regret it, but I think we will give it a go!

For those of you who have been on the Viking Homelands cruise, what did you think were the best excursions? Are there any that you would skip if you were to repeat the trip? I am in the midst of planning for our upcoming (July 2020) homeland cruise from Stockholm to Bergen and the number of excursions, both included and optional, is simply overwhelming! I am thinking about doing a private tour in St. Petersburg with Anastasia Tours. Really not sure about any of the others. Would really appreciate any insight as to what you really enjoyed and what you might pass on next time. Berlin seems particularly challenging, but I think we do want to go as we have never been to Berlin before. We are going to spend several days in Norway after the cruise, so not sure about the Flam railway - since we will be taking much of this route on our way from Bergen to Oslo before we fly home. Would you do this twice? Also, would you do the Panoramic Stockholm tour with Viking or just explore Stockholm on your own? We will be in Stockholm the night before we board, so we will have the better part of two days in Stockholm. Definitely want to see the Vasa museum, but not sure if the overview tour is worth planning around...

Sorry for all the questions. There is just so much I don't know!

Wow, thanks for the quick reply and the great information!

Sounds like I will be making a call to my TA today. 

Probably not a lot left to move into, but I will try.

On 11/9/2019 at 7:40 AM, Jim Avery said:

To follow up on the room location question and the noise I referred to in an earlier post.  Ever since Puerto Rico we have had this clanging steel on steel noise somewhere between 3am and 5am.  As a former ship captain I know ship noises as well as human noises.  This is a crew member doing something in a way that was not done prior to Puerto Rico.  It sounds like a steel gate or steel hatch being opened with no consideration to noise.  I know they have to do deck maintenance very early as otherwise the decks are full of people but why this noise since Puerto Rico?  I have met with the General Manager a couple of times and he is nice and always says the right things but, so far, he has not been able to stop the issue.  This is the first time, 4 months last year, 2.5 months so far this year that any issue has not been addressed quickly and to our satisfaction.  I even asked about moving (which we really don't want but would be better than the noise)  and was told there were no rooms available.  Typical cruise ship speak.  All ships are full and we can't make changes.  Have heard this on many different lines when, obviously, they are not totally full.  So. as it stands, my advice to anyone booking Viking Sun is to avoid any rooms on 4 deck over the boats.  I would not like any of y'all to be constantly waken in the very early am....

Jim,

Sorry to bother you with another question on this issue, but I am getting concerned about our room location for our upcoming Viking Homelands cruise on the Sun. We are booked into room 4057, which appears to be just forward of lifeboat 1 (?) on the starboard side. My wife is very sensitive to noise and motion, so when we booked this cruise almost a year ago we asked our TA for a room with cabins above and below as near to midship as possible. I think she may have thought 4057 was directly above 3057, but studying the deck plans now, I can see that it is not. Sounds like a call to my TA is in order - do you agree?

Thank you!!

Thank you JVilleGal and t and c cruisers. I think my issue will be resolved soon!

Jany did get back to me today. Turns out that the shore excursion we booked was changed by RIL (without notifying me or the other CC couple joining us) because RIL was worried that we might not make it back to the ship on time. Jany said that because the ship was docking at the port of Salerno instead of Naples, the tour I booked (Naples, Pompeii and Sorrento) would not work - even though it is listed on their webpage for this port. They changed it to the Sorrento, Pompeii and Positano tour. Since we are spending a week in Positano pre-cruise, we wanted to see other parts of Italy! After talking with Jany, it was obvious that RIL was acting in our best interest and did this to protect us and to give us the best tour possible. Jany will be getting back to me soon with other options for the tour that don't include Positano. I was very pleased with the resolution. She is also reaching out to the other couple on our tour and getting all the details worked out. Needless to say, I am pleased. I even asked Jany for some recommended RIL tours down the Amalfi coast during our week in Positano...

First what is the problem? And did you email Jany because she is excellent at getting right back but do remember there is a time difference. When do you sail?

 

RIL is so good that when our ship docked last minute at a different port (different city) they still found me and apologized for being 5 min late (sent a text) never mind we docked over an hour from where we were scheduled to be.

 

If you sail in the next day or two I would call.

 

I just checked your posting history, you don't sail until October, why don't you give Jany a few days to reach out to you as she is dealing with passengers with pressing issues today and you sail months from now. You will hear from her soon I'm sure! :)

Thank you for you very quick answer to my question! I will wait. Is Info@romeinlimo.com the email address for Jany? I sent an email to that address yesterday and got a reply today (which is great response time), but the response completely misunderstood my question. Just thought it would be easier to clear up over the phone (they seem to have booked me on the wrong tour, and I already have others signed up to join me...). We do have time to get this resolved, but it does not seem that they understand what the problem is. I will keep trying!

I have a problem with our upcoming booking with Rome in Limo. I have tried emailing and they don't seem to understand the issue. The phone number listed on the website is for "emergencies" - this is not an emergency, just a misunderstanding. How do you get hold of this "Jany" that I have been reading such good things about on this thread?

Thanks so much for your help!