Time in port, first two legs of the Maiden

I have the following information for time spent in port, and the duration of the included shore excursion) for the first two legs of the maiden: Forgive the awkward formatting but I'm dragging it off a PDF and not used to this forum...

Istanbul to Venice:

Location Country Arrival Departure Included Shorex Duration

Istanbul (Constantinople) Turkey Embark Overnight Turnaround Day

Istanbul (Constantinople) Turkey 14:00 Panoramic Istanbul 5 hours

Kusadasi (Ephesus) Turkey 12:00 18:00 Ephesus 3½ hours

Piraeus (Athens) Greece 08:00 22:00 Panoramic Athens 2½ hours

Thíra, (Santorini) Greece 09:00 18:00 Santorini Crater Walk & Swim 3¼ hours

At Sea At Sea

Kotor Montenegro 08:00 23:59 Walking Tour of Kotor 2 hours

Dubrovnik Croatia 07:00 17:00 Panoramic Dubrovnik 4 hours

Pula Croatia 09:00 23:00 Walking Tour of Pula 2 hours

Venice Italy Disembark Turnaround Day

Venice to Barcelona:

Location Country Arrival Departure Included Shorex Duration

Venice Italy Embark Overnight Turnaround Day

Venice Italy 16:00 Historic Venice 4 hours

Split Croatia 08:00 18:00 Split Walking Tour 2 hours

Dubrovnik Croatia 08:00 18:00 Panoramic Dubrovnik 4 hours

Kérkira, (Corfu) Greece 09:00 23:00 Panoramic Corfu 3 hours

At Sea At Sea

Naples (Pompeii) Italy 08:00 18:00 Naples City Tour 3 hours

Civitavecchia (Rome) Italy 07:00 23:30 Highlights of Rome 10 hours

Livorno (Florence/Pisa) Italy 09:00 20:00 Pisa 4 hours

Monte Carlo Monaco 08:00 23:00 Monaco Walking Tour 2½ hours

Toulon France 08:00 18:00 Toulon Walking Tour 2 hours

Barcelona Spain 08:00 Overnight Panoramic Barcelona 3 hours

Barcelona Spain Disembark Turnaround Day

Thanks, Bear Music, that's tremendous information!

I'm sorry to see us pull out of Athens at nearly midnight but Santorini at 6:00 p.m. I'm also sorry that we'll be leaving Dubrovnik at 5:00, but leaving Kotor at midnight. I guess there's more to it of course - times between ports, port schedules, etc., but boy I would love more time in Dubrovnik and Santorini.

I wonder how set in stone this is?

All the guidebooks rate Santorini sunsets very highly, but almost all cruise ships leave too early. :confused:

Maybe I'll fall in love with it so much to plan a future land-based vacation (almost ready just by reading Tasha Alexander's Lady Emily mysteries :D).

WOW! So much for longer times in port. Only 6 hours in port to see Ephesus? And leaving others by 5 or 6 pm? Sounds similar to mass-market lines, not one touting longer port stays.

WOW! So much for longer times in port. Only 6 hours in port to see Ephesus? And leaving others by 5 or 6 pm? Sounds similar to mass-market lines, not one touting longer port stays.

Ephesus, 6 hrs.

Athens 14 hrs

Santorini 9 hrs

Kotor 16 hrs

Dubrovnik 10 hrs

Pula 14 hrs

Split 10 hrs

Dubrovnik 10 hrs

Kerkira 14 hrs

Naples 10 hrs

Rome 16.5 hrs

Livorno 11 hrs

Monaco 15 hrs

Toulon 10 hrs

Maybe I'm easy to please but this seems pretty good to me :-)

 

Maybe I'm easy to please but this seems pretty good to me :-)

Me too! ;)

True, on second look, there are long times in port, but I stiil think 6 hours in Ephesus is rather short. But that is not lessening my enthusiasm for this cruise.

By the way, did Viking Oceans send you the port times, or is it found somewhere on their site?

By the way, did Viking Oceans send you the port times, or is it found somewhere on their site?

They came inexplicably attached, with no explanation, to a mail on an unrelated topic sent to us from a Viking agent. The agent's aware I post here, so I can only assume I'm an unofficial leak, LOL.

I'd like to find out the disembark. time in Venice, as we are getting off and spending two days. Did they possibly include that time?

I'd like to find out the disembark. time in Venice, as we are getting off and spending two days. Did they possibly include that time?

Unfortunately, no. But since your disembark day is the same as the next leg's EMBARK day, you can safely assume you'll be getting off before noon, possibly well before noon, if that helps?

I have to agree that the time in Kusadasi is rather short at 6 hours, they do have time to look at this though and amend it, same for Santorini.... definitely worth seeing the sunsets there! :)

Just an observation - as Viking Oceans is a brand new ocean cruise line not due to sail until 2015, these port times are most likely a product of the marketing department and represent the best case scenario.

As they hire captains for the ship, and the feasibility of the sailing schedule is looked at more closely, I would expect some of the port times to be amended (if ever so slightly).

Just an observation - as Viking Oceans is a brand new ocean cruise line not due to sail until 2015, these port times are most likely a product of the marketing department and represent the best case scenario.

 

As they hire captains for the ship, and the feasibility of the sailing schedule is looked at more closely, I would expect some of the port times to be amended (if ever so slightly).

No doubt the port times will change, hopefully not by too much.

It's time to pop this up to the top.

Don't know if it's right, but it's all we have.

I have just booked my flights through the Viking office in the UK and on the updated invoice they have provided the following information regarding arrival and departure times that I thought you may all be interested in. These relate to the September 2015 departure of the Empires of the Meditteranean from Venice to Instanbul

Venice Depart 11:59pm

Pula Arrival 8:00am Depart 4:00pm (tender)

Dubrovnik Arrival 8:00am Depart 11:59pm

Kotor Arrival 7:00am Depart 6:00pm

Santorini Arrival 7:00am Depart 6:00pm

Athens Arrival 7:00am Depart 6:00pm (tender)

Ephesus Arrival 7:00am Depart 2:00pm

Istanbul Arrival 1:00pm (overnight in port)

Hopefully this is useful for you all. The departure from Ephesus seems early and I am glad that I have booked an extra couple of nights in a hotel in Istanbul otherwise there would not be time to see all the great sites that city has to offer.

Apologies for the formatting but despite putting it in columns CC reformats it like this.

Neil

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Thanks for posting but this doesn't help us poor waifs on the maiden voyage.

But it does confirm that Viking know the times even if they will not share them with you!

What's confusing is the departure out of Istanbul. One day 2 (April 12) they list all kinds of evening optional tours such as a Night Visit to Hagia Sophia, or the Cistern Tour. Either the 2:00 pm departure time is wrong, or the list of excursions is wrong, and you can only do those evening excursions on embarkation day on April 11. And according to the schedule Bear Music got, we don't get to Ephesus until noon the following day. It shouldn't take from 2:00 to noon the next day to get from Istanbul to Ephesus, but what do I know, right? Anyway, I sure hope things are straightened out by Thursday - I know we're all anxiously waiting.

Yeah, that noon arrival at Ephesus after a 2 PM departure from Istanbul seems a little extreme... 23 hours...? Of course, it takes 9-10 hours to DRIVE, and the sea mileage is quite a bit more...

Just got this in latest invoicing from Viking:

They say "there may be some changes" but I wouldn't expect many at this time. Note that the itinerary now says "Naples/Capri" and shows us anchored, whereas before it showed Naples only. If they are giving us Capri as an alternative to Naples, I'm all for that :-)

Bear Music that is interesting. Thanks for posting! Did you book with a TA?

Kathy

I'm on the same cruise as Neil, and I'm pretty happy about the times. We are in Venice until midnight, overnight in Istanbul, and only have one day at sea and one short day (Ephesus). I'm OK with Ephesus (Kusadasi port) because all I plan to do is take the included tour to Ephesus and if we have to leave early to go the long distance up and over to Istanbul, that's OK. These port times are a little better than most cruise lines from what I can tell, and assuming they don't change as the Captain and ship get a workout this spring and summer, I think I'll be very happy with them.

From the photos I've seen, that sunset from Santorini is pretty over-rated - and yes, almost all cruise ships leave way before it arrives!

Bear Music that is interesting. Thanks for posting! Did you book with a TA?

Kathy

Nope. Booked it direct with Viking the very first day bookings opened up. We had our eye on a specific cabin (two of them actually), A DV1 on the starboard side of Deck 8, and we got it. There are four DV1's up there out of 20 cabins total; the rest are Penthouse Suites.

Deck 8 is what I call the "weather deck", the one deck that's completely exposed to the weather if you don't count the little bit of "sports deck" on level 9. Weather decks are great for photographers, which we are, big-time. And deck 8 is not gonna have much crowds at all, only 20 people live there and there's nothing else happening up there, no food, no bar, no pool, just empty sky and ocean. Sounds good, huh?

So if something exciting is happening, we're just feet away from the open-air shooting platform, so to speak. Bring on the weather!

Why Starboard side, you might ask? Because on the April 11- May 2 sailing we're on, the bulk of the land will BE on the starboard side as we make our coastings... :D

Can't wait to get steaming...

I'm wondering why we're not all getting this info. Did it just come unsolicited from Viking or did you request a new invoice or in some way that you know of did you do something to trigger it?

I'm also curious about the Jan 26th shore excursion date when you're in a DV cabin and are supposed to not have access until 60 days before launch (I thought anyway). The original information pack I got from Viking said shore excursions would be the 90-80-70-60 day window depending on cabin class.

Where are you Bear_Music? US or UK? Maybe that would explain it? Different rules perhaps?

BTW, we'll be several doors down from you on the starboard side. We're the last cabin, near the stairs and elevators unfortunately!

I'm USA. We live on Cape Cod. I'm getting this stuff because I'm bugging my Viking Agent via E-mail. According to her, everything is changing on the 15th and all will be revealed. Why it's telling me I can book excursions on the 26th of this month I have no clue.

But I'm kinda laid-back on these things, I have faith it's all gonna be wonderful. All my life I've wanted to do a maiden. Practically nothing could spoil it for me :-)

So, we're gonna be Weatherdeck Neighbors, eh? Do you enjoy playing Farkle? Jejeje...

Robt.