Tips for New Viking Ocean Cruisers

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, madmedic said:

Just to add to the Silver Spirit drink package query can we decide after a day or two into our cruise to purchase it then or does it have to be pre cruise? 

You can buy onboard day 1 so have a day to decide and look at the drinks menu(s).  Any bartender can sell it to you.  Will go on your account.  No prorata days.

 

You might be able to "fudge" it until the morning of the day after boarding.  We did that once but it took some sweet talking and we did have to pay for the 1st day even though didn't have it then.

[Clay Clayton]

4 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

You can buy onboard day 1 so have a day to decide and look at the drinks menu(s).  Any bartender can sell it to you.  Will go on your account.  No prorata days.

 

You might be able to "fudge" it until the morning of the day after boarding.  We did that once but it took some sweet talking and we did have to pay for the 1st day even though didn't have it then.

Also, if you order a drink before you purchase, that charge will be reversed once you do. 

[Tinyrn]

New topic after all this time. As I have said, way back , I am traveling solo this May to Alaska. My question is about making the dinner reservations (my time to do the online thing is coming up pretty soon) for Manfredi's and the Chef's Table. Are there shared table's there? Or am I doomed to eat alone those nights? 

I know I can ask for a shared table at The Restaurant, once on board.

[Peregrina651]

I just booked our reservations for our upcoming cruise. To make your reservation you started by choosing one of three options: table for 2, shared table and shared with specific booking number.  I did not check out the shared table option, so I can't tell you exactly what they were offering.

[Haqdeluxe]

5 minutes ago, Tinyrn said:

New topic after all this time. As I have said, way back , I am traveling solo this May to Alaska. My question is about making the dinner reservations (my time to do the online thing is coming up pretty soon) for Manfredi's and the Chef's Table. Are there shared table's there? Or am I doomed to eat alone those nights? 

I know I can ask for a shared table at The Restaurant, once on board.

Yes, but...

I would visit the reservation desk once on board to make it is clear as to why you want a shared table. The wife and I typically ask to share a table in Manfredi's but have found that if it is slow we will end up at a two-top.

[Cattom]

On 10/18/2023 at 9:32 AM, Lilyskittymom said:

We did Hong Kong to Tokyo this past April and loved it.  If you have any questions, please ask.

 

Maria

I was wondering if you'd be willing to share what tours you did or if you used private companies?  I'm working on my spreadsheets right now.  As there are just two of us, I'm finding that the prices are even higher than the Viking prices.  They would be good if we were a small group.  We're on the Grand Pacific from Vancouver to Aukland September-December 2024.

Thanks in advance!

[Clay Clayton]

3 hours ago, Cattom said:

I was wondering if you'd be willing to share what tours you did or if you used private companies?  I'm working on my spreadsheets right now.  As there are just two of us, I'm finding that the prices are even higher than the Viking prices.  They would be good if we were a small group.  We're on the Grand Pacific from Vancouver to Aukland September-December 2024.

Thanks in advance!

I highly recommend trying to arrange “goodwill” guides in the Japanese ports. These are guides who in exchange for practicing their English tour you for free. You are expected to pay for their meal if you share one and for any admissions to museums or the like. When we did it in the before times, the maximum group size was 6.  We had a great guide in Tokyo and at the end of the day, it cost us each $8 but the best part was having someone with whom we had a real conversation about their life.  While the two of us were in Kyoto, we booked one for our day trip to Hiroshima. The cost there was higher as we didn’t have anyone to split it with and we requested to go to a specific restaurant.  Still was such a great day. Here is a link to where we requested ours:

https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/list-of-volunteer-guides/

[Lilyskittymom]

18 hours ago, Cattom said:

I was wondering if you'd be willing to share what tours you did or if you used private companies?  I'm working on my spreadsheets right now.  As there are just two of us, I'm finding that the prices are even higher than the Viking prices.  They would be good if we were a small group.  We're on the Grand Pacific from Vancouver to Aukland September-December 2024.

Thanks in advance!

A little back story on our cruise.  We were originally booked for Hong Kong to Vancouver but had to shorten it to Tokyo when my husband started having medical problems and couldn't be gone that long.  We had quite a bit of money to spend on a cabin upgrade and excursions.

 

Since we could book our excursions earlier with the upgrade, we had no problem getting what we wanted and there was no need to look for outside tours.  But there were local guides meeting people who booked private tours at every port.  Clay's suggestion of goodwill guides is something we would have done if it had been necessary.

 

We did a combination of included and paid excursions and generally liked everything, with the exception of the included tour in Kagoshima, the Kagoshima Scenic Ride.  It was a rainy day so the stop at the scenic overlook was soggy and the trip to the local museum was ok, but literally something you could find in any city, anywhere in the world.  A private tour would have been a better choice.

 

I'm not going to get into a lot of detail on the excursions because the descriptions were accurate.  Here's what we did.  Hong Kong - we flew into HK a day early, took the ferry across the harbor, and the tram to Victoria Peak, on our own. We enjoyed the views and the walk down one of the hiking trails.  The next day we took the Hong Kong Walking Tour, which was a nice representation of the city.  Afterwards, we wandered the area near the port, which is home to the largest shopping mall in HK.

 

In Taipei, we did the Highlights of Taipei.  Since we didn't have a lot of time in port, this was a good tour for us. 

 

In Nagasaki we went on the Atomic Bomb Museum and Park.  The museums in Nagasaki and Hiroshima are very different, and I'd recommend going to both of them if that's where your interest lies.  It was a very good tour.  The Glover Gardens are a short uphill walk from the ship and was definitely worth the visit.  In addition to the main house, and the gardens, there was a museum that had costumes and floats used for local festivals - very interesting.

 

In Beppu, we did the Steaming Sites of Beppu, which was very interesting.  If you'd like to go to an onsen, look for one close to the port - they're everywhere.  The Viking onsen tour is robbery. I wanted to go to an onsen, but would have had to go to one a bit further away because I have large visible tattoos.  Yes, there are tattoo friendly onsens in Beppu especially.  A Google search will find them.  Instead, we took the Viking shuttle bus (most ports had one) to the area near the train station.  From there, we wandered through shopping areas and stopped at some small neighborhood shrines and temples (Google maps is your friend).

 

Ultimate Hiroshima was wonderful, with its visit to their Atomic Bomb Museum and Park, and the trip to Miyajima Island.  The island was really worth going to - very quaint and lovely.  Again, the Atomic Bomb Museum is very different from Nagasaki's.  We were in port until noon the next day and went on a walk along the water the morning we left.

 

In Osaka, we were on Sights of Kyoto, another wonderful all day tour.  Food on the all day tours was always very good and at local Japanese restaurants.  

 

Shimizu took us to Highlights of Mt Fuji, another all day tour that took us to the 5th station of Mt Fuji, the furthest you can go by vehicle up the mountain.  Fuji-san wasn't visible when we pulled into port the evening prior, but we were treated to unobstructed views of the mountain the next day - a rare occurrence in April.

 

Tokyo had us docked at the port of Yokohama, and while the port area is very nice, it was a 1+ hour drive to Tokyo, so the Tokyo Panorama tour wasn't as good as it could have been because we spent 2.5 hours driving.  We did go back for An Evening in Tokyo, which was very nice.  The views from the Skytree and the way the streets are lit up at night was amazing.  Viking guides were available to help people navigate the subway system, for anyone who wanted to head out on their own.  Hopefully you'll be docked in Tokyo itself, which would put you so much closer to the city.

 

Overall, this was a wonderful cruise and makes me want to go back to Japan.  We were warmly welcomed, and sent off, from the all the ports.  The port areas themselves are surrounded by parks and are well taken care of.  International ATMs can be found at 7-11 and Lawson. Perfectly safe; I got Yen there a couple of times. And the stores are everywhere especially near the ports.  If you don't know about the wonders of 7-11, Lawson and Family Mart, look it up before you go.  They're not the sad version of 7-11 we have in the US.  

 

There's also another page called Everything "Far Eastern Horizons": Hong Kong to Tokyo that is being started back up again.  It's worth looking into.

 

Hope this helps.

Maria

 

 

[Cattom]

15 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

I highly recommend trying to arrange “goodwill” guides in the Japanese ports. These are guides who in exchange for practicing their English tour you for free. You are expected to pay for their meal if you share one and for any admissions to museums or the like. When we did it in the before times, the maximum group size was 6.  We had a great guide in Tokyo and at the end of the day, it cost us each $8 but the best part was having someone with whom we had a real conversation about their life.  While the two of us were in Kyoto, we booked one for our day trip to Hiroshima. The cost there was higher as we didn’t have anyone to split it with and we requested to go to a specific restaurant.  Still was such a great day. Here is a link to where we requested ours:

https://www.japan.travel/en/plan/list-of-volunteer-guides/

Thanks so much Clay!  Hope you have many more fun travels!

[Cattom]

16 minutes ago, Lilyskittymom said:

A little back story on our cruise.  We were originally booked for Hong Kong to Vancouver but had to shorten it to Tokyo when my husband started having medical problems and couldn't be gone that long.  We had quite a bit of money to spend on a cabin upgrade and excursions.

 

Since we could book our excursions earlier with the upgrade, we had no problem getting what we wanted and there was no need to look for outside tours.  But there were local guides meeting people who booked private tours at every port.  Clay's suggestion of goodwill guides is something we would have done if it had been necessary.

 

We did a combination of included and paid excursions and generally liked everything, with the exception of the included tour in Kagoshima, the Kagoshima Scenic Ride.  It was a rainy day so the stop at the scenic overlook was soggy and the trip to the local museum was ok, but literally something you could find in any city, anywhere in the world.  A private tour would have been a better choice.

 

I'm not going to get into a lot of detail on the excursions because the descriptions were accurate.  Here's what we did.  Hong Kong - we flew into HK a day early, took the ferry across the harbor, and the tram to Victoria Peak, on our own. We enjoyed the views and the walk down one of the hiking trails.  The next day we took the Hong Kong Walking Tour, which was a nice representation of the city.  Afterwards, we wandered the area near the port, which is home to the largest shopping mall in HK.

 

In Taipei, we did the Highlights of Taipei.  Since we didn't have a lot of time in port, this was a good tour for us. 

 

In Nagasaki we went on the Atomic Bomb Museum and Park.  The museums in Nagasaki and Hiroshima are very different, and I'd recommend going to both of them if that's where your interest lies.  It was a very good tour.  The Glover Gardens are a short uphill walk from the ship and was definitely worth the visit.  In addition to the main house, and the gardens, there was a museum that had costumes and floats used for local festivals - very interesting.

 

In Beppu, we did the Steaming Sites of Beppu, which was very interesting.  If you'd like to go to an onsen, look for one close to the port - they're everywhere.  The Viking onsen tour is robbery. I wanted to go to an onsen, but would have had to go to one a bit further away because I have large visible tattoos.  Yes, there are tattoo friendly onsens in Beppu especially.  A Google search will find them.  Instead, we took the Viking shuttle bus (most ports had one) to the area near the train station.  From there, we wandered through shopping areas and stopped at some small neighborhood shrines and temples (Google maps is your friend).

 

Ultimate Hiroshima was wonderful, with its visit to their Atomic Bomb Museum and Park, and the trip to Miyajima Island.  The island was really worth going to - very quaint and lovely.  Again, the Atomic Bomb Museum is very different from Nagasaki's.  We were in port until noon the next day and went on a walk along the water the morning we left.

 

In Osaka, we were on Sights of Kyoto, another wonderful all day tour.  Food on the all day tours was always very good and at local Japanese restaurants.  

 

Shimizu took us to Highlights of Mt Fuji, another all day tour that took us to the 5th station of Mt Fuji, the furthest you can go by vehicle up the mountain.  Fuji-san wasn't visible when we pulled into port the evening prior, but we were treated to unobstructed views of the mountain the next day - a rare occurrence in April.

 

Tokyo had us docked at the port of Yokohama, and while the port area is very nice, it was a 1+ hour drive to Tokyo, so the Tokyo Panorama tour wasn't as good as it could have been because we spent 2.5 hours driving.  We did go back for An Evening in Tokyo, which was very nice.  The views from the Skytree and the way the streets are lit up at night was amazing.  Viking guides were available to help people navigate the subway system, for anyone who wanted to head out on their own.  Hopefully you'll be docked in Tokyo itself, which would put you so much closer to the city.

 

Overall, this was a wonderful cruise and makes me want to go back to Japan.  We were warmly welcomed, and sent off, from the all the ports.  The port areas themselves are surrounded by parks and are well taken care of.  International ATMs can be found at 7-11 and Lawson. Perfectly safe; I got Yen there a couple of times. And the stores are everywhere especially near the ports.  If you don't know about the wonders of 7-11, Lawson and Family Mart, look it up before you go.  They're not the sad version of 7-11 we have in the US.  

 

There's also another page called Everything "Far Eastern Horizons": Hong Kong to Tokyo that is being started back up again.  It's worth looking into.

 

Hope this helps.

Maria

 

 

Thanks so much for all the great info!  I'll make sure to take some of your suggestions into consideration!  Hope your husband is healthy again and you're off and travelling.  Sometimes it's hard to plan so far in advance-we're in our 70s-healthy and active, but have had some Orthopedic issues and I'll need to have another one of my Total Knees replaced, but so far so good!

[Peregrina651]

@Lilyskittymom and @Clay Clayton, with your permission, I would like to copy your responses to Cattom into the thread that Maria mentions at the end of her comments, Everything "Far Eastern Horizons": Hong Kong to Tokyo

 

It is actually because of some off-line conversation with Cattom, that I remember some old notes that I had started in 2020 and found the link to the thread that I had started way back when.

[Clay Clayton]

6 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

@Lilyskittymom and @Clay Clayton, with your permission, I would like to copy your responses to Cattom into the thread that Maria mentions at the end of her comments, Everything "Far Eastern Horizons": Hong Kong to Tokyo

 

It is actually because of some off-line conversation with Cattom, that I remember some old notes that I had started in 2020 and found the link to the thread that I had started way back when.

Fine by me!

[Lilyskittymom]

16 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

@Lilyskittymom and @Clay Clayton, with your permission, I would like to copy your responses to Cattom into the thread that Maria mentions at the end of her comments, Everything "Far Eastern Horizons": Hong Kong to Tokyo

 

It is actually because of some off-line conversation with Cattom, that I remember some old notes that I had started in 2020 and found the link to the thread that I had started way back when.

No problem.  I'll probably chime in on that page when people have questions.

 

Maria

[FetaCheese]

If interested, I started a Live From Viking Star, 18 March 2024, on main Viking board.

 

 

[McTravelersUS]

On 9/23/2023 at 11:34 PM, Peregrina651 said:

If there is something you really want, contact Viking at tellus@vikingcruises (not via chat and not the call center) and tell them how devastated that the shorex you really wanted is sold out already and that you are hoping that they will be adding more seats. (I try to go for the tears and sympathy vibe when I do this; there is nothing worse than dealing with a crying grandma😉).

Once you have booked an included tour with multiple times, is there any way to see if any other time slots have opened up?  Or might an email to ’tellus’ work?  We reserved the 11:45 one because all the earlier slots were taken and that conflicts with an interesting optional excursion.  Would it be smarter to cancel the free one and book the paid excursion?  Then maybe we could hope to get on an earlier version of that day’s included tour when we get on the ship?  I really should have gotten on CC earlier. 😢

[Peregrina651]

Which do you want to do more? The included or the optional?  Are you willing to give up taking the included so that you can do the optional tour? Those are your first decisions.

 

 

[CCWineLover]

10 hours ago, McTravelersUS said:

Once you have booked an included tour with multiple times, is there any way to see if any other time slots have opened up?  Or might an email to ’tellus’ work?  We reserved the 11:45 one because all the earlier slots were taken and that conflicts with an interesting optional excursion.  Would it be smarter to cancel the free one and book the paid excursion?  Then maybe we could hope to get on an earlier version of that day’s included tour when we get on the ship?  I really should have gotten on CC earlier. 😢

That is exactly what we did.  We wanted the optional more so booked it.  Went onboard with no included in that port.  Then after a few days of checking with excursion desk, slots opened up.  Another time, we went standby on an included time.  Viking sadly gets many people who are no shows for an included tour and don't bother to cancel since it is free.  Happens all the time.

[McTravelersUS]

9 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

That is exactly what we did.  We wanted the optional more so booked it.  Went onboard with no included in that port.  Then after a few days of checking with excursion desk, slots opened up.  Another time, we went standby on an included time.  Viking sadly gets many people who are no shows for an included tour and don't bother to cancel since it is free.  Happens all the time.

 

18 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Which do you want to do more? The included or the optional?  Are you willing to give up taking the included so that you can do the optional tour? Those are your first decisions.

 

 

I cancelled the included excursion and booked the optional tour.  Then to my delight I found that an 8:30 slot was open on the included tour.  All is good.  Thanks to you both for your suggestions and ideas.

[CCWineLover]

2 minutes ago, McTravelersUS said:

 

I cancelled the included excursion and booked the optional tour.  Then to my delight I found that an 8:30 slot was open on the included tour.  All is good.  Thanks to you both for your suggestions and ideas.

Excellent strategy!  Glad it all worked out!  Enjoy the trip and the excursions.