Moonlion

51 minutes ago, stcroixguy said:

Thanks for all the great info so far.  Here is my question, we have booked the post extension Bergen to Oslo and of course be on the train. Is it worth while to additionally do Norway in a nutshell on the day we have free in Bergen, or is it better to do just the train in Flam. ( if possible), because part of Norway in a Nutshell is the same as we will see on the train to Oslo.  

You could also consider doing the fjord cruise from Bergen to Mostraumen (https://www.fjordtours.com/things-to-do-in-norway/fjord-cruises/fjord-cruise-bergen-mostraumen/?fbclid=IwAR1uSZv5Y6Zz5GM2476jR0kMiQ7qJIjvttSSaa_k5Wdv7ERWOkDLKmS8vGg).  It's a 3-hour (roundtrip) cruise on a catamaran, departing from Bergen harbor at 10 AM or 2 PM, and costs about $80 pp. 

It's SO easy to pack and dress appropriately for the Restaurant and other restaurants on Viking.  I bring along several light-weight black or navy pants (made out of some fake silk material), a few knit tops and some scarves to mix and match.  Voila!  Takes almost no space in my suitcase and easy to change into before dinner. Now, my husband...that's another story 😉

10 minutes ago, purpleally said:

When I did a dummy booking on vy.no (too early) there was no option to first class?

When you going through the vy.no booking process, you can select "Plus" which is their equivalent of first class.  You can also select fully refundable, partially refundable and non-refundable.  Seniors get a 25% discount.  The more expensive fares allow you to select your seats in advance. 

5 minutes ago, longterm said:

Lots of moving parts.

 

I decided to schedule the train trip on our own rather than using Viking, since it'll be cheaper and we can get reserved 1st-class train seats. 

 

After looking at flight arrangements, I was told by Viking that on this particular cruise, they don't allow deviations in departure cities in Norway; this would mean getting an additional flight on our own to get back to Bergen, then taking the return flight. 

 

After pricing the same day in 2023 (our trip's in 2024), I determined that we'd get better flights on our own, and not have to hop from Oslo to Bergen, then back to the US, if I booked it myself; plus, I can select a nonstop from DFW to London, which I'm sure Viking wouldn't do if left to their air department.

 

Plus, I'd have to pay $200 for us to be able to fly into London earlier, bringing flights for one of us to $1900, versus about $1700 each for us if I book it myself--which I'm going to do.

 

The only downside is not getting transfers from Viking, but with carryon bags and a short distance to the ship and to the train station in Bergen, it won't be a problem; we've done our own transfers in Amsterdam and Rome in the past, without any trouble at all.

 

Thanks for all the input; with our payment due date a little over a month away, I wanted to get all this squared away beforehand.

We're also doing our own flights for our May '23 London to Bergen cruise , arriving a day early in London and departing 3 days later from Oslo.  I used United frequent flyer points to book Premium Plus seats.  However, even without points, it was much less expensive to book flights on our own rather than going through Viking Air, especially after purchasing Air Plus and the deviation.  Pricing a cab or car from LHR (Heathrow) to London or Greenwich comes to between $100-150; I booked my Greenwich hotel through booking.com and was able to add on a cab from LHR to hotel for $100. 

Also, be aware that for the Bergen-to-Oslo train, seniors can get a 25% discount when booking through vy.no (not sure the age cut-off). 

3 minutes ago, longterm said:

You're absolutely right; I just created an account on vy.no and came up with $288.50, so that's good to see. Yes, the "plus" seating is their 1st-class seating.

 

I looked at daylight hours, and found that the average day in Oslo during July has 18.0 hours of daylight, with sunrise at 4:21 AM and sunset at 10:21 PM, so we'd be good to take that train. 

Whew, thought I had missed something!  We'll be in Norway toward the end of May with about 18 hours of daylight (https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/norway/bergen)...almost hitting the "midnight sun" time. 

1 minute ago, longterm said:

Here's what I came up with; these are just rough approximations, although I did look up train travel, and it looks like it will be approx. $250/person for 1st-class. I hope that's high, but when I looked at a random date in the next couple of months, it came back with $247 each (I forget what site it was).

$500 - 2 1st-class train tickets

$50 - transfer from ship to train station

$50 - food on the train

$300 - food in Oslo (2 nights, 1 morning)

$600 - hotel (2 nights - high, but I estimate high)

$1500 - TOTAL ESTIMATE

I know that the hotel's a little high, but there are always extra expenses that come up, like a souvenir or a museum entry fee, or perhaps an Uber.

 

 

What train booking site did you you use?  If booking directly with vy.no, I came up with ~$150 per ticket.  They only offer "plus" seating which I believe is their first class experience.  

12 minutes ago, longterm said:

Sounds like booking this myself may be the way to go. My rudimentary budget for booking it ourselves came out to about $1500 with 1st-class train, versus $1938 from Viking. The only difference would be 1 guided tour in Oslo, which I could probably arrange for less than $200.

 

Viking's arranging flights for us; we're already paying $100/person for Air Plus, but if we fly home from Oslo instead of Bergen, is Viking going to uncharge for that? We've never flown out of a city other than the termination city of a cruise.

 

Good to hear about the lack of a language barrier; I speak French and Italian, but certainly no Norwegian. 

 

 

@longterm I'm curious how you came up with a budget of $1500 if doing yourself.  We're on the BIE cruise this May (London to Bergen) and plan to spend 3 days post cruise on our own - 1 extra night in Bergen at the Thon Hotel Orion (at $138 USD through booking.com) and 2 nights in Oslo.  In Oslo, I booked two nights at the Thon Hotel Opera (same hotel that Viking uses for the post-excursion for $250/night including taxes (I booked directly with the hotel website).  Both hotels include breakfast.  Doing a dummy train booking since you can't book on vy.no site until 60-90 days in advance, fully refundable, plus train tickets from Bergen to Oslo come to just under $300 for the two of us.  Just pricing the Bergen Oslo part, it comes to about $800 USD for the two of us (2 nights in Oslo plus train tickets).  Transfers and a tour shouldn't come to $700.  Hopefully, I'm not missing something 🤣!

If you are using Viking Air and want to change the arrival/departure date or airport, there is a deviation fee.  However, the last time we did this, we only paid the deviation fee once and it included both inbound and return deviations.  Call Viking Air to see if there is an upcharge for flying back from Oslo instead of Bergen.  Good luck with your travel planning!

7 minutes ago, oskidunker said:

Being quoted 8,500 k

Is that for 1 person or the entire tour (for example, 8,500 k for up to 6 to 8 people)?  I'm looking at several private tours for our upcoming BIE cruise and many private operators charge by the entire tour. 

6 hours ago, formernuke said:

The math on this is really unchanged. From an economic only perspective, it only makes sense if both cruisers drink more than 2 drinks a day. 

Does anyone know if the bar prices (purchased separately) for wine, beer, liquor have gone up by 25%?  If so, the value of the SSBP is basically the same.

17 minutes ago, Mich3554 said:

Not quite.  You can book with Viking Air, pay for a deviation and Viking is not responsible for your transfers.  I have done this a few times myself.

You can also book your own air and, if your flight arrives on the day of embarkation (or departs on the day of disembarkation), you can purchase a Viking transfer for $49 pp.  For some locations, this is more economical than a cab or private car from airport to the ship.  We're doing this in London (LHR to Greenwich) next May.  My understanding is that you are treated the same as if you had purchased your air through Viking. Haven't done this before, so we'll see...

6 minutes ago, lackcreativity said:

Just speaking based on my assumptions, not on my experience. I can image that for an individual guest who had a missed flight booked through Viking Air, then Viking may be able to assist in rebooking a flight. During the circumstance under discussion, with thousands of cancelled flights over many days, I can't think of how Viking could have solved that problem. 

 

As far as Viking having to "make this right", that is purely the function of travel insurance. Viking did not cancel the cruise, which would certainly entail some obligation for a refund or voucher. Even if travel insurance is purchased through Viking, it is insurance through a third party, and that is the path to financial restitution. 

 

If the parents of the original poster did indeed have travel insurance, I can't imagine a situation where they will not be reimbursed. It may take a while, and it may require some effort, but (again, my assumption here) I would expect almost any travel insurance would cover this event. Best of luck to them.

 

 

Again, I don't question your logic or that this is all spelled out in the fine print of Viking's air contract.  My question, based on this case, is why anyone would book their flights through Viking unless there are substantial financial savings?  Unless you pay extra for Viking Air Plus and air deviations, you don't get to pick your flights, decide when to arrive, select seats far in advance, get upgrades, etc. This case, if true, will definitely pop the air out of the "benefits balloon" of using Viking Air. Just saying...

8 hours ago, Newleno said:

Hopefully you will get the resolution and then you can give us your update.  Thank you for the information because I falsely assumed that if you booked the flights with Viking Package then problems like this would be covered by Viking, I falsely assumed that they would either get you to the ship or make you whole.  I was indeed ignorant about what the Viking Flight package entailed.  Good Luck to you.

I too incorrectly assumed that if you booked flights through Viking, they would arrange to get you to the ship or provide some compensation - a voucher at least, if flights were cancelled or delayed.  On our pre-pandemic Viking river cruise, our flight booked through Viking was seriously delayed and Viking did get to us to the ship and took responsibility to retrieve my lost luggage. If this is no longer the case, then why in the world book flights through Viking unless there are substantial savings?  I hope that Viking in the end does right by these people. 

3 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

The May 9th departure is from Greenwich on the Neptune, with the BIE being the 1st cruise after the World Cruise.

Affirmative.

1 hour ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

@Moonlion  SOLD OUT is sometimes used as a place holder. Since excursions haven't opened, it may mean one of two things: "not going to be offered on this sailing" (which is probably not what is going on here because it is all of the optionals) and "we haven't finalized the contracts yet or some other snafu"  (the more likely answer).

 

Odd, because all these exact same excursions were showing as available just last week.

On 12/16/2022 at 12:54 PM, Moonlion said:

In My Viking Journey, shore excursions for our cruise were posted yesterday much to my surprise (almost 5 months in advance!). 

Update for our May 9, 2023 BIE cruise:  oddly, all of the optional excursions for the Orkney Islands (Kirkwall) are now showing as "SOLD OUT" in MVJ (however, the included excursion is still available). We're 133 days from sailing so too early for any of the premium cabins to have booked excursions.  None of the excursions in any of the other ports are sold out.  We had something similar happen on our January 2022 cruise when Viking cancelled a port 10 days before departure.  However, we were first notified by email of the port cancellation before the excursions were listed as "sold out" in MVJ.  Curious if any of the other 2023 BIE cruises are seeing this in MVJ?  Any guess what this means?

TIA

Thanks, Mcobean! Many of us will be following along with you on your WC adventures (vicariously)!!  DH and I will boarding the Neptune on May 9th in Greenwich for the BIE cruise.

Have a wonderful World Cruise!!!!

4 hours ago, MikeyB said:

We were on the Neptune last month.  I can happily concur that the Abba and Beatle shows are history.

What?? We'll be on the Neptune in May for the British Isles Explorer cruise with a stop in Liverpool  No Beatles show, not even the night before or night of our visiting Liverpool? 😉

3 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

In my experience it totally depends on the Viking Itinerary.

Agree, on our Northern Lights cruise last January, there was a wide age range on board with most appearing to be in their 50s to early 70s, along with some relative "youngsters" - could have been the cold weather and fairly demanding excursions on this cruise.  On our Viking river cruises, the age demographic overall seemed older but there were still a number of younger passengers on board.  

20 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

Pre-pandemic, the goal was to have them posted 120 days prior to departure.

So it looks like for the 2023 BIE cruises, Viking is posting excursions closer to 150 days prior to departure. 

9 hours ago, margu1241 said:

Moonlion,  when were your excursions originally set to post?   Want to keep an eye out for my cruise in July

thanks,

Patty

Pre-pandemic, I believe the norm was 90-100 days before departure but will let others who have taken many more Viking ocean cruises than me chime in. The one VOC we took was during the pandemic and excursions were not posted in MVJ until after our DV booking window opened.  Being a "planner," I usually check MVJ a couple of times a week and that's how I discovered, to my surprise, that excursions had been posted. 

4 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

I wonder how much more we will have to pay over the 2023 prices?

Frankly, my eyes popped out comparing Viking's optional excursion prices with what private tour operators charge.  I've been researching private (non-Viking) excursions for many of the BIE ports and prices are often half of what Viking charges... AND are more comprehensive (longer tours with more sites visited) along with fewer people on the tour.  Yes...some people are worried that a private excursion may not make it back to the ship on time. In my research, the top-rated tour operators are very experienced with ship schedules and it's rare that they don't get pax back to the ship on time. But, everyone has to determine their own level of risk.

Since there's been some interest on this forum for information about British Isles Explorer excursions, I thought I would share the excursions that Viking is offering on our BIE cruise (May 9, 2023 - London to Bergen).  In My Viking Journey, shore excursions for our cruise were posted yesterday much to my surprise (almost 5 months in advance!).  I've attached a spreadsheet with the excursions being offered, times and prices. Of course, no guarantees that the same excursions and times will be available on the other BIE cruises, especially those traveling from Bergen to London. 

I also included (in the far right column) the 2022 prices when available.  On average, prices increased about $20 per excursion (usually between $10 to $30) in 2023 compared to 2022. 

For future BIE cruisers, hope this helps with your planning!

Viking BIE ShoreEx May-9-2023.pdf

Another thing to consider is the "included" wines at lunch and dinner - they generally offer only one choice each of red and white. That said, the choices are usually of decent quality (others may disagree) and they rotate which wines are available on different days.  If you prefer to "upgrade" to Viking's extended selection of wines at lunch and dinner, you can purchase by the glass (or purchase a bottle).  If you have the SSBP, you can order any of the wines on the extended list without an additional charge (by the glass wines only; the SSBP offers a 15% discount on wines by the bottle). Also, at the Chef's table, you get the premium selection of paired wines without additional charge with the SSBP; without the package, the cost to upgrade to the premium list is $25 pp.  We enjoyed taking advantage of the extended wine list at lunch and dinner and at the Chef's Table. 

49 minutes ago, Mich3554 said:

We have the package on the WC, so will have to see if our drinking habits change any.  

We did find that we more "freely" imbibed with the package 😉

On our two Viking river cruises (pre-pandemic), it was very easy to purchase bottles of wine when at port.  That worked out well for us and we didn't purchase the SSBP.  In your situation, you may want to consider doing the same.  On our January '22 ocean cruise in a DV cabin, we purchased the SSBP because we had a substantial amount of on-board credit from our TA which could only be used while onboard.  We were very happy that we did since we couldn't go outside the "Viking bubble" on that pandemic cruise to buy wine or beer while at port.  As a word of warning, we were totally spoiled with the convenience of the package 🙂 and will probably use OBC to purchase it again on future cruises.