chaco

We were on the Sky Eastern Seaboard Explorer leaving NY on October 5 and going to Montreal.

My cruise agent talked with Viking about our experience after we got back. They, then, called me to discuss what happened. The woman told me that Viking does not guarantee included tours to all passengers. Included tours are available until full, but no more spaces would be added. This is not at all what was said when I called several times before we left. I wasn't surprised the the optional tours were full, but to have all tours (in some ports) full 60 days before departure isn't right. If we had known before we left, we could have gotten independent tours; however, this would have been at additional cost. We booked this cruise because of our fantastic experience on the Star (Barcelona to Rome) in January 2016. We had no trouble getting tours, both included and optional, and found no difference in quality in them. These tours were much better than any we took on the Sky. I wonder if this might be because they have a lot of river boat tours in Europe so have the connections they need?

We did try to get on the tours (yes, there were multiple time, but all were full) once we got to the ship, and even went down to the tour in case someone didn't show up. Very frustrating!

By the way, I typed my comments in Word and then copied into cruise critic. Somehow, doing this didn't copy over all the spaces. So sorry.

Viking "included tours" does NOT mean that they are available to all passengers. When I tried to sign up for tours on the first day available to outcategory before the cruise, I was shocked that most of the tours were sold out,even the included ones. After I let our cruise agent know about myconcerns, he called Viking and was assured that we (and all passengers) would beaccommodated on the included tours and suggested that we see the Explorersdesk upon embarkation if we hadn't been able to book before then. Iperiodically called Viking myself to check on this as tours continued to be full, and was always told the samething: "We know how many people will be onboard and will have aplace for everyone." I was even told at one point that it was acomputer glitch that they were working on. My last call was just beforewe left when I received the same assurances, so I was stunned when I was told atthe excursion desk, with a total lack of concern, that the tours were sold outand there was nothing that could be done. The only option was to come earlytoa tour that we wanted on the slight chance that someone wouldn’t show up. After being contacted by a customer service representative upon ourreturn, I was told that Viking does NOT guarantee availability of included toursto all passengers. My husband's response to me after thisconversation was "They just should make it clear that when you reserve alower category cabin, you are just buying a lottery ticket for a freeexcursion!" After our very frustrating experience before, during,and after the cruise, we will not be cruising with Viking again, nor will webe recommending this cruise line to our friends. Their true"included tour" policy should be clearly stated in their advertisingand literature, made know to their customer service agents answering thephone pre-cruise, and to travel agents so that passengers don't have anasty surprise after embarkation and can only try to see port cities on theirown with no easy way to do this.