Tips for New Viking Ocean Cruisers

Question posted by someone above: "....Probably should ask this on the San Juan board, but do any of you know if you go through customs in San Juan?..."

 

 

There is a mandatory "agricultural" screening of all luggage near the front doors of the terminal....you MUST do this before going to ticket counter to check in & check your luggage. After check in, there is the TSA screening. I was just there in January for a Celebrity cruise, but cannot remember about customs when we arrived & when we left.....

I’m referring to customs at the end of our cruise. I’m figuring that since San Juan is a US port we would go through customs there before flying back to NY - thereby skipping the JFK madhouse. We have Global Entry but I’d still like to bypass JFK customs.

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Last year we sailed from Montreal and up farther north starting September 30. The weather was great, and we seldom needed anything more than a light jacket. October is probably even a little better because more leaves are likely to be changing then - and I don't think it's cold then.

We had snow in mid October in Quebec!

I thought of a few more questions. I'll post them separately since they are completely different.

 

In Roothy's original post she said that on departure day the luggage needs to be put outside, then they put it on shore. We have made our own flight arrangements. If we wanted to take our luggage off (other lines call it self assist) ourselves in the morning, do you know if that's allowed. I don't know if we will. Our flight isn't until 1:30pm and the San Juan airport isn't far from the pier. I'd be inclined to hang around for breakfast, but DH is one who prefers to be on the way.

 

Probably should ask this on the San Juan board, but do any of you know if you go through customs in San Juan?

Sorry, didn't know this thread was still going. We are just off cultural cuba cruise. Luggage, except carryon for sleep stuff, meds etc had to be out in hallway day before day leave ship by 10 pm. Next am there were quite a few options for breakfast open early pluS can eat limited breakfast items in your cabin if put breakfast hang tag out by 10 pm night before. Had to be out of room on departure day by 8 and off ship by 9.

Couple of quick questions:

For staterooms which include a complimentary bottle of champagne, is it possible to swap it for a bottle of wine?

On the included tours, usually how many guests are in a single group/coach?

We haven't been in a room that comes with champagne, so I can't answer that first question.

On the second, it varies from port to port, but I can tell you that I don't remember Viking ever filling up an entire coach. I'm guessing each group, generally, was maybe 30 for the included tours, based on our (now) 3 cruises with Viking Ocean. Of course, there can be exceptions. On our first Viking Ocean cruise, the included afternoon tour of Athens had quite a few less, and the non-included tour we took in the morning had only 15. On this latest cruise, my husband said there were only 15 people on his bus tour (Cuba History - Bay of Pigs).

If you are traveling with others, you'll want to stick together when going to the buses or the tender boats. Almost always, the bus you're assigned to will become the group you'll tour with.

It does take a little time for 30 people to get off the coach, especially when there are only doors in the front. However, at least we never really felt cramped on the buses. My husband and I generally sat in the back - last ones off, but lots of room to stretch legs, look out the windows on both sides, take both aisle seats in the same row if we want, etc. It was probably a bit bumpier back there, though - at least in Cuba, where the roads aren't great!

The groups are too large!!! We had full coaches with some SLOW walkers and wheelchair bound passengers. At times the tour was negatively impacted by the size of the group. Fill the bus but provide 2 guides for a smaller group experience. Viking Ocean would also be well served if they had a "SLOW WALKER" group like they do on their River Cruises.

I was on the same cruise with Dee and I agree. Our buses were full on every tour and there were way too many people. Took forever on and off and way too slow walking.

Interesting! Not my experience, but I suppose each cruise is different.

The groups are too large!!! We had full coaches with some SLOW walkers and wheelchair bound passengers. At times the tour was negatively impacted by the size of the group. Fill the bus but provide 2 guides for a smaller group experience. Viking Ocean would also be well served if they had a "SLOW WALKER" group like they do on their River Cruises.

I COULD NOT AGREE MORE WITH THIS DEEC! This is not to fault the pace of anyone, but rather a concept that would allow the choice.....and a full bus moving with one tour guide. Nope. Doesn’t work well......

So yes, I believe that it sure would make a big difference if Viking would follow their River model and offer these changes to their Oceans passengers.....

We might not DIY as much if that were the case.

They made sure every single seat was full before the bus left. They even had someone in the front seat where the guide could sit and had the guide on a pull down seat next to the driver. And only one guide. For all those people.

They made sure every single seat was full before the bus left. They even had someone in the front seat where the guide could sit and had the guide on a pull down seat next to the driver. And only one guide. For all those people.

Which cruise was this? Just curious. Even for the Cuba overnight excursion, each bus was only about half to two thirds full - or at least OURS was; can't speak for the rest.

More Viking people need to get together on roll calls and book their own small group excursions! That's what a lot of Oceania people do.

They made sure every single seat was full before the bus left. They even had someone in the front seat where the guide could sit and had the guide on a pull down seat next to the driver. And only one guide. For all those people.

Yeah......no thank you. I am grateful we enjoy DIY, so it mostly works for us.....but Given that Viking truly is a step up in many/most aspects to the standard cruise lines, their Excursions appear to still be an area that could use improvement. I guess one could argue that they are included at no additional cost, but there is additional cost over standard cruiselines to sail on Viking, and it would seem to me that the excursions department should reflect that as well. JMHO

Barcelona the Baltics and Beyond. 3 weeks. We did the included tours which was part of the appeal to us of Viking. On other cruises we always book our own small private tours but with included tours we didn't want to spend the money. We did in St Petersburg though...2 days with 6 of us and it was fantastic.

I totally get that Strethcruise. We had the same thoughts and wanted to give it a try with Viking excursions. Our one exception, as you did, was to book ST Petersburg (no regrets whatsoever) private, but after a couple included excursions we reverted back to DIY...for reasons already discussed. On our next trip with Viking, there will be a few included excursions we will do, along with a few private, and quite a bit of DIY.

Following.... thanks for all the reminders

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Couple of quick questions:

 

For staterooms which include a complimentary bottle of champagne, is it possible to swap it for a bottle of wine?

 

On the included tours, usually how many guests are in a single group/coach?

Yes you can get the wine.

Probably around 30

I COULD NOT AGREE MORE WITH THIS DEEC! This is not to fault the pace of anyone, but rather a concept that would allow the choice.....and a full bus moving with one tour guide. Nope. Doesn’t work well......

 

So yes, I believe that it sure would make a big difference if Viking would follow their River model and offer these changes to their Oceans passengers.....

 

We might not DIY as much if that were the case.

On VH last May they did offer “slow paced” tours for the mobility challenged. I specifically remember a walking tour that had this option. I didn’t notice if it was offered on all included tours.

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Great thread, thanks. Taking our first-ever cruise vacation soon on Sky from Miami, I'd be grateful for any information on the following:

1) Keycards: I read elsewhere that you shouldn't punch a hole in Viking keycards to avoid damaging RFID circuitry? Has anyone punched a hole and had it still work?

2) I understand even if we decide not to book spa treatments, we should still be able to use sauna, loungers and other communal amenities of the spa that don't require a reservation. Can anyone confirm?

3) For a week-long cruise in the Caribbean, how much $ in small bills should we plan to bring for tips? We will use room service a few times and will be taking 3-4 shore excursions. $100? $200?

4) When disembarking back in Miami, can an Uber get close enough to pick us up such that we don't need to walk more than 100-200 yards from the ship? Where do we reclaim our luggage from if we have Viking pick it up from our room the night before?

5) I did not see our cruise listed in the Roll Call section of this site. At less than 3 weeks out, is this unusual? Other Viking cruises immediately before and after ours are listed.

Thanks for any input.

Great thread, thanks. Taking our first-ever cruise vacation soon on Sky from Miami, I'd be grateful for any information on the following:

 

5) I did not see our cruise listed in the Roll Call section of this site. At less than 3 weeks out, is this unusual? Other Viking cruises immediately before and after ours are listed.

 

 

Thanks for any input.

We take our first Viking Ocean Cruise in June 2018, so I'm not much help on your first few questions. I did manage to find a roll call for the Feb 4 Turquoise Caribbean Seas. I hope this link works:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2563325&highlight=Feb

I am assuming this is the cruise you are looking for. It was a little difficult to find, so I suggest you subscribe to it so you get notifications if there are new posts. I didn't read the entire thread, but it did look like there is a Meet & Mingle, so you might want to sign up for that.

Hope you have a great time!

Cruise Critic's Roll Call section is really messed up. I've been unable to find much on there since they re-engineered the section. If you're trying to find a Roll Call, I would use the search button rather than the Roll Call finder tool. If you post a new thread to start a Roll Call, make sure you have the correct info in there, including date of embarkation and "to" and "from" points, plus ship name. Search to see if someone has started a Roll Call already. I read that CC takes almost a month to get all the Roll Call threads sorted into their system, so that the Finder tool can be used. I'm not sure if it's true, but it looks that way to me, at least when I search for the Oceania cruise we're taking.

As for tips, we didn't tip for room service on the ship, but I'm not sure if it's customary or not, so do what you think best. On the excursions, not everyone tipped. It looked like maybe half of the group did, but perhaps the % of people was actually higher, as I believe many people did what I did - had my travel partner tip for both of us. It seems that at least on the ocean cruises, Viking is moving towards a tipping policy more like the rest of the ocean cruise lines - i.e., if you go on a ship's excursion, there's no need to tip. However, I forget what their actual guidance states. I'd just take maybe a five USD bill for 2 people per tour and that will, in my opinion, be quite adequate for both the included tours and the optional tours.

Spa things are free - pools, beds, sauna, ice bucket and snow room, lockers and robes, etc. Only the massages and what not, plus products, incur a fee.

I wouldn't punch the key card, but I don't know for sure that it will be damaged if you do that. There IS a chip in there, so I wouldn't do it.

I've been to Miami a couple times, but we have always just taken a cab to/from there (think there's a set fee from the rest of the city, although I'm not positive), so I don't know about Uber or Lyft. There are different berths in that port, but I assume if they DO go to the port, they could take you to any of the berths, just like a cab. But I really don't know. You might want to see if you can find info on the Port of Miami website.

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I've been to Miami a couple times, but we have always just taken a cab to/from there (think there's a set fee from the rest of the city, although I'm not positive), so I don't know about Uber or Lyft. There are different berths in that port, but I assume if they DO go to the port, they could take you to any of the berths, just like a cab. But I really don't know. You might want to see if you can find info on the Port of Miami website.

Uber and Lyft do indeed take passengers to the Port. Just make sure you know your terminal, and that the driver drops you at the correct terminal. We took Lyft from an airport hotel to the Port this last November. It is not a set fare.

According to the Miami Dade website, the set taxi fare from Port of Miami (any terminal/berth) to the airport is $27, plus optional tip.

If you find 1 or 2 other people going to the same airline or airline terminal (American Airlines?), you can probably share that price for an even lower trip by cab. If you're going to a hotel, I'm not sure what the metered rate would be, but this may tell you:

http://www.miamidade.gov/transit/taxicab.asp

It's nice to know Uber and Lyft can go to the POM.

At least a day or two before getting to Miami, Viking will tell you the berth and/or terminal to which Port of Miami has assigned the ship. That's what you'll probably need to know (or exact address, for example, XXXX Caribbean Way) to order the Uber/Lyft car. The POM used to give berth assignments on their website, but I don't see it now. But it's always subject to change until closer to cruise time, so there's really no reason to worry about that now.

The walk through the terminal to pick up baggage wasn't too bad when we came back into Miami last month - maybe a minute's walk or less, level ground, at a moderate pace? Keep your key card and passport handy as you leave the ship and then just follow the crowd! If you've been out of the country, you'll go through the U.S. immigration/customs check in the terminal, then go outside for cabs etc.

At POM there is a flat rate fare for a TAXI from the airport to the port (or return) ... this does not apply to UBER/LYFT

Arriving at POM by car, there are BIG overhead signs telling what terminal each ship o' the day is at.

however as you'll note in this map, MOST terminals are in a line down one road ....

the one exception is terminal J .... which you might want to be aware of cuz it is the smaller terminal most used by the smaller cruise ships ... that is to say a smaller berth that can be used by smaller ships when big boys fill the north side ....

Miami cruisers might want to check out the Port of Miami webcam: http://www.portmiamiwebcam.com/

I just watched a Disney ship depart from the port - fun!

Miami cruisers might want to check out the Port of Miami webcam: http://www.portmiamiwebcam.com/

 

 

 

I just watched a Disney ship depart from the port - fun!

What was amusing to me was how they have their horn set up to play the opening notes to "If You Wish Upon a Star". [emoji1] The Sky was docked opposite from and on the other side of Dodge Island from the Disney terminal (terminal J).

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