Included Tours Not Available For Everyone

We are booked on the Viking Sky out of Miami on 24 December -- Panama & Central America.

Have diligently tried getting onto the included tours for two of the ports for the past several weeks through the online MyJourney system. Finally decided to call Viking and was shocked to hear that we are not guaranteed a spot on the included tours and need to keep checking every day or go to the desk on the ship during the cruise.

This just doesn't seem fair to all passengers. We are in a DV4 and so could book fairly early compared to a lot of other passengers.

So now we have had to pay for an optional tour in Costa Rica, and in Cartagena, my wife is on the included tour and after confirming her spot online, I tried booking mine, but it was then full -- just 30 seconds later.

Viking Ocean needs to do something about getting all passengers who want to go on an included tour on it. We have done several Viking River Cruises and never had this treatment -- Viking Ocean is not being fair to passengers when they say there are included tours, but one cannot get on them.:eek::eek:

We are booked on the Viking Sky out of Miami on 24 December -- Panama & Central America.

Have diligently tried getting onto the included tours for two of the ports for the past several weeks through the online MyJourney system. Finally decided to call Viking and was shocked to hear that we are not guaranteed a spot on the included tours and need to keep checking every day or go to the desk on the ship during the cruise.

This just doesn't seem fair to all passengers. We are in a DV4 and so could book fairly early compared to a lot of other passengers.

So now we have had to pay for an optional tour in Costa Rica, and in Cartagena, my wife is on the included tour and after confirming her spot online, I tried booking mine, but it was then full -- just 30 seconds later.

Viking Ocean needs to do something about getting all passengers who want to go on an included tour on it. We have done several Viking River Cruises and never had this treatment -- Viking Ocean is not being fair to passengers when they say there are included tours, but one cannot get on them.:eek::eek:

Contact Viking immediately at tellus@vikingcruises.com. Explain what you have explained here. Give them your name, booking number and telephone number and ask them to call you.

We are booked on the Viking Sky out of Miami on 24 December -- Panama & Central America.

Have diligently tried getting onto the included tours for two of the ports for the past several weeks through the online MyJourney system. Finally decided to call Viking and was shocked to hear that we are not guaranteed a spot on the included tours and need to keep checking every day or go to the desk on the ship during the cruise.

This just doesn't seem fair to all passengers. We are in a DV4 and so could book fairly early compared to a lot of other passengers.

So now we have had to pay for an optional tour in Costa Rica, and in Cartagena, my wife is on the included tour and after confirming her spot online, I tried booking mine, but it was then full -- just 30 seconds later.

Viking Ocean needs to do something about getting all passengers who want to go on an included tour on it. We have done several Viking River Cruises and never had this treatment -- Viking Ocean is not being fair to passengers when they say there are included tours, but one cannot get on them.:eek::eek:

Viking does guarantee a spot on an included excursion for every passenger. They do not promise a place on a particular time slot. If you were not able to book a place on any of the offered times, then that is a glitch that you may require assistance from Viking by way of the tellus email address that Peregrina has mentioned.

I went back to an earlier thread to find Viking Cruises' direct response to a similar question:

We regret to learn of this disappointing experience, and assure you that this is not typical of our shore excursion booking process. While the times may vary, Viking does indeed guarantee each guest an included shore excursion in every port of call.

Along with aquidneck1 and A&D Cruising, we’re concerned with what transpired, and hope for the opportunity to fully investigate the matter and further our conversation with you.

Accordingly, and as Peregrina651 helpfully pointed out, we welcome you to contact us at TellUs@vikingcruises.com with your booking information, where a Viking Agent may address these concerns directly.

We sincerely apologize for the missed shore excursion, chaco, and look forward to speaking with you soon.

Kind regards,

Viking Cruises

Thank you both for the quick replies.

I have just written to the email address you recommended and explained my concerns.

We have done several Viking River Cruises and have always been exceptionally pleased with Viking. Hopefully they can get this sorted.

This may be a software problem in their booking system, but looking at all of the included tours, no time slots are available for any of them and they haven't been for weeks. We don't have a preference for the time slot, I just don't have the time to keep checking on availability everyday -- that is why I called them today.

This was just discussed in another thread, I see you are new to Cruise Critic but its best to check alittle bit since most concerns / questions have happened to others before. Thats why we find Cruise Critic such a good resource. One persons experience does not imply it will happen again (always many sides to a story).

This happened to me. I contacted Viking. It was a glitch in the system and was fixed right away. Included tours are garanteed.

Following up on my original thread starter I contacted Viking several days ago since I could not get on two of the included tours. Viking has been working on getting it sorted out and they have since added extra space on one of the tours and are still working on extra space on the Cartagena tour.

Viking seem to be responsive to the issue and are working to correct it.

Here is the response (one of several) from Viking:

Hoping this message finds youwell.

I am happy to share that theincluded shore excursion Tortuguero Canals is now available for you to book on MyViking Journey.

While this Costa Rica tour hasopened up, please know that our team is continuing to work on increasing spacefor the Walking Tour of Old Cartagena so that you may join your wife on thisadventure. Although I encourage you to periodically check My Viking Journeyover the next few days for booking availability, rest assured I will bemonitoring the status of this shore excursion as well and will notify you whenit has opened up.

Thanks again for yourpatience,