Viking MyVoyage --new Itinerary Process

[sharkster77]

AGAIN, the key word in Viking's response is AVAILABLE excursions. I don't believe they will add an extra bus, etc. for a handful of folks once the first bus is full!!

[Alberta Quilter]

I would think that Viking, like any other cruise line (ocean or river) would have a pretty good idea of how many people want to take a particular tour and will have at least that number of spots available, whether or not it is booked and paid in advance or onboard. It's kind of like an Executive Chef planning for the number of lobsters or escargot required for a given dinner.

 

While I didn't have the opportunity to book our optional tours in advance, for our cruise last November, there was still plenty of space for all who wanted to go. Why don't we wait and see how this actually works out? For those with OBC, I think you should wait until boarding to book the tour. I know we couldn't have used all of our OBC if we had booked in advance.

[id4elizabeth]

There should not be a problem with the included tours by waiting. They really have to accommodate everyone as they advertise these as included. It's only the Optional ones that might be an issue, and even then, it would only be the "limited availability" ones that I'd worry about, like the private performances in the Hermitage in St Petersburg, or the Cognac tour in Bordeaux. If you booked your optional tours the first day when you board, I'd think they'd accommodate you. After all, Viking is in the business of making money off the optional tours. Having said that though, if there's something you REALLY want to do, I'd book it ahead just to be sure.

[kate7047]

We will be on Tulips and Windmills on March 25. I went to "My Viking Journey" and similarly discovered some of the optional tours were (apparently) sold out. I then went back about a week LATER to find they were available again. More buses added? Booking glitch? Don't know, but what was previously sold out was was available a week later. So I would recommend checking back on and off.

[14 months and counting]

After over a week of trying, I was finally able to book all but three included tours on our October 2nd France's Finest 15 day cruise. I emailed tellus@vikingcruises.com and Valerie booked the last three tours for us. She was very gracious and super helpful.

 

We probably could have waited til we boarded our ship, but we both had excursions we definitely wanted to do, and excursions we were not interesed in at all. This way we were able to schedule the tours that suited us most - one more thing checked off the 'to do' list.

[eaglewatchers]

We are leaving March 30 for our upcoming April 4 Windmills and Tulips cruise. We are travelling with another couple.

 

Last week we all got email notifications from Viking inviting us to create our own personal login for "My Voyage". It's a new process from Viking and it's interactive. It's the itinerary booklet you get in the mail, rolled into an interactive website.

 

It has a day by day itinerary with the additional option of pre-selecting and pre-paying for optional excursions. This seems on the face of it to me a nice feature, however...

 

Several of the optional excursions on our trip are already sold out. There is no option to sign up for a waiting list (or to be notified by email if openings become available.) Do we assume that those options won't be offered once aboard as they have in the past? What about the people who aren't online or tech savvy and can't/don't pre-plan their excursions? Are they SOL on the excursions?

 

Also, you have to pre-pay via credit card for your excursions. There is no more opportunity to settle your bill with shipboard credits for your excursions.

 

Wondering if any early 2016 Viking travelers have gotten the invitation to login to MyVoyage and if they are seeing the same thing.

 

I like My Voyage as a tool but there are some weaknesses that I see being a customer satisfaction issue...

 

 

Bailey,

We are on the Mar 30 departure of the same itinerary. We were familiar with myvikingjourney.com from taking a Viking Oceans cruise last summer. We were poking around the site a while before they notified us that we could go on and book excursions, so we had done ours before they even sent the email. That may be why a few could have been sold out. We did not encounter ANY that were sold out, though.

 

I suggest that you:

1. Recheck the site, specifically checking those that had appeared "sold out." I recently saw a post by Viking on one of these boards stating that they were having a few issues with the myvikingjourney site for some folks booking Viking Oceans excursions (uses the same site). As someone who works/ed in tech, it is not unusual for a site glitch to mess things up once in awhile.

 

2. If not successful, try calling VRC and asking about booking your desired excursions. If they say they are full, don't panic.

 

3. Once ON your ship, ask the cruise excursion director IMMEDIATELY about getting on those excursions. Things do change. For example, if they have enough people asking, they may be able to add a group... or someone may have gotten sick and dropped out. If they cannot offer it for you, ask if they can help you arrange it on your own. Many of the paid excursions are things you can do on your own, too. A nice tip can work wonders...

 

Good luck!

[bellemere]

Looking forward to reports of the 2016 as you return from March 30 and

April trips. Could you still book on board the ship? Which optional excursions did you enjoy?

Thanks.

[Clay Clayton]

After over a week of trying, I was finally able to book all but three included tours on our October 2nd France's Finest 15 day cruise. I emailed tellus@vikingcruises.com and Valerie booked the last three tours for us. She was very gracious and super helpful.

 

We probably could have waited til we boarded our ship, but we both had excursions we definitely wanted to do, and excursions we were not interesed in at all. This way we were able to schedule the tours that suited us most - one more thing checked off the 'to do' list.

 

Thanks for the tip. I emailed "TellUs" and Valerie was able to book the tours in Bratislava that were noted on the website description of our cruise and in our documents (they came over the weekend:D) but weren't showing up on the My Journey website at all. She offered to do anything else she could to make our cruise more memorable....I responded that an upgrade to the Explorer Suite would be most appreciated...so far no response:rolleyes:;):D

[jrkstl]

Greetings from the Viking Forseti in Bordeaux! Just thought that I'd bump this conversation to mention that if you see an optional tour that you're interested in, be sure to book in advance. I'm happy that we booked the Camus Cognac tour months ago as now that we're onboard, the tour was sold out.

 

Jeff

[sharkster77]

Greetings from the Viking Forseti in Bordeaux! Just thought that I'd bump this conversation to mention that if you see an optional tour that you're interested in, be sure to book in advance. I'm happy that we booked the Camus Cognac tour months ago as now that we're onboard, the tour was sold out.

 

Jeff

 

I suggested earlier in the thread that this exact thing could happen if one waited to book excursions on board, in order to use onboard ship credit. My suggestion was shot down by other posters "oh no, that would never happen."

 

As I proposed, this makes onboard credit less useful, if one has to pay for excursions well in advance before credit is issued.