Viewing shore excursions online

[bellemere]

We are in a Deluxe Veranda stateroom. Will we be able to view the excursions for each port before the time opens that our category of staterooms are allowed to book? I would like to do some research before booking an excursion.

Thanks for the help.

[philw1776]

Yes.

But don't think that putting them in the MyVikingJourney My Wishlist helps you reserve them.

You only reserve your excursion when you finally book it once your allow window opens

Edited July 4, 2017 by philw1776

[CharTrav]

Yes. Go to the main VO page (https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/index.html),search for your cruise, then view the Itinerary for your cruise. This will allow you to progressively select and view the details including excursions for each day of that cruise.

 

 

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[CharTrav]

Yes.

But don't think that putting them in the MyVikingJourney My Wishlist helps you reserve them.

You only reserve your excursion when you finally book it once your allow window opens

 

 

Phil, MVJ is no help at all until the excursion portion goes live N days before the cruise. The only place to view what excursions are offered (but not the cost) is back on the main VO pages.

 

 

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[philw1776]

MVJ goes online with specific excursion options long before the excursion selection window opens up. Plenty of time to choose & evaluate.

Note that the boilerplate Viking website excursions and descriptions may change on MVJ somewhat once more "official" for that particular cruise.

[CharTrav]

MVJ goes online with specific excursion options long before the excursion selection window opens up. Plenty of time to choose & evaluate.

Note that the boilerplate Viking website excursions and descriptions may change on MVJ somewhat once more "official" for that particular cruise.

 

 

Really? As I recall when we booked Viking Homelands back in 2015, MVJ didn't show anything, not even benign info about what excursions were offered, until the booking window opened. The only place I could see anything about the excursions for Viking Homelands was back on the main page which I understood was subject to change. And what I used as my primary resource until our booking window opened (kept checking btw even the day before to see if MVJ was showing anything). From what I can see now (checked a few minutes ago on our upcoming - 2018 - Panama cruise, that is still true "not ready to see"). If that practice has changed, if MVJ provides excursion info before the booking window opens, I'll be the first to sing hallelujah. [emoji3]

 

 

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[philw1776]

They do post before the booking window. I had an early window too. I used it for May Homelands to select in advance so I was ready for my window. MVJ will list duration and times. And as I warned, several excursions had substantive changes from the Viking webpage description. And some folks in another thread thought that loading their wishlist reserved a reservation. It does not.

My 2018 Viking Ocean cruise has nothing on MVJ as of now, over a year to go.

[Peregrina651]

MVJ goes online with specific excursion options long before the excursion selection window opens up. Plenty of time to choose & evaluate.

Note that the boilerplate Viking website excursions and descriptions may change on MVJ somewhat once more "official" for that particular cruise.

 

My experience has been that MVJ does not go live with the shorex that will be on your cruise until about two weeks before booking opens for the suites at 97 days out. On our first Ocean adventure, it was closer to a couple of days before booking opened.

 

Wish list is a waste of time and energy. You can't add cruises to your shopping basket/cart from there. You can't view it at the same time you are booking. Why bother. Writing them down on a piece of paper works just fine and is much quicker than going back and forth between wish list and shorex windows (even if you work your browser in tabs).

 

HEADS UP: Viking has changed the layout of the itinerary page. The easy to use tabs down the left side of the page are gone. However, once you get into the detail pages, you can navigate back and forth from one day to the next with navigation buttons (next day, previous day) that are at the top of the page (not hiding out of site at the bottom). And remember that the shorex shown on the main website are just a list of possibilities, as these pages are generic pages used each time a particular port shows up in an itinerary (regardless of season that you are actually visiting there).

[CharTrav]

Do you remember how many days before the booking window? And yes I fully understand the potential for variations between the main VO site and MVJ. In fact the main VO site itself isn't fixed. For ex, the list of excursions for our Panama Central America cruise I saw in March (no more than 2 optionals at each port) grew a lot by mid June to in some cases 7 optionals. This is a new cruise for 2017-18 so I'm not surprised at all.

 

 

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[AdventureGal79]

Good morning!

 

Ours opened up about 115 - 110 days before sailing. We are on our first (cruise and VO). Some of the excursions that were on the "Itinerary Details" page (the generic one about the cruise, regardless of dates) don't seem to be available for our specific date range, maybe due to timing / weather.

 

I am one of "those" travelers, and I used Microsoft Project to create a timeline of the available excursions at each port to see what we "could" fit in, and then color-coded the lines depending on first/second/third preference. When our window opens up to actually reserve, we'll go off of that list.

[philw1776]

My experience has been that MVJ does not go live with the shorex that will be on your cruise until about two weeks before booking opens for the suites at 97 days out. On our first Ocean adventure, it was closer to a couple of days before booking opened.

 

Wish list is a waste of time and energy. You can't add cruises to your shopping basket/cart from there. You can't view it at the same time you are booking. Why bother. Writing them down on a piece of paper works just fine and is much quicker than going back and forth between wish list and shorex windows (even if you work your browser in tabs).

 

HEADS UP: Viking has changed the layout of the itinerary page. The easy to use tabs down the left side of the page are gone. However, once you get into the detail pages, you can navigate back and forth from one day to the next with navigation buttons (next day, previous day) that are at the top of the page (not hiding out of site at the bottom). And remember that the shorex shown on the main website are just a list of possibilities, as these pages are generic pages used each time a particular port shows up in an itinerary (regardless of season that you are actually visiting there).

 

These points cannot be emphasized enough.

[CharTrav]

Good morning!

 

I am one of "those" travelers, and I used Microsoft Project to create a timeline of the available excursions at each port to see what we "could" fit in, and then color-coded the lines depending on first/second/third preference. When our window opens up to actually reserve, we'll go off of that list.

 

[emoji16][emoji16][emoji16][emoji16] I use Excel. Working from the generic VO pages and then fine tuning when MVJ goes live. Last year I did an Excel rendition of MS Project so that we could better visualize how the excursions overlapped each day.

 

 

 

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[AdventureGal79]

[emoji16][emoji16][emoji16][emoji16] I use Excel. Working from the generic VO pages and then fine tuning when MVJ goes live. Last year I did an Excel rendition of MS Project so that we could better visualize how the excursions overlapped each day.

 

That's exactly why I did it! I wanted to see if we could do the Included ones plus any of the optional ones we wanted!

 

Do you happen to know if we'd be able to make it if we had only 15 minutes between returning from one excursion and leaving on another? :o

[CharTrav]

 

 

Do you happen to know if we'd be able to make it if we had only 15 minutes between returning from one excursion and leaving on another? :o

 

 

I wouldn't try it. It takes a good 5-10 min sometimes to get back on board (off the bus, board ship, etc) and what if you return late?

 

 

 

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[Peregrina651]

I wouldn't try it. It takes a good 5-10 min sometimes to get back on board (off the bus, board ship, etc) and what if you return late?

 

 

 

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Because they won't refund your money if you miss the tour.

[drmarg]

My "booking" window opened today at 12 midnight CDT and I was able to book the optionals I wanted. Was able to see all the details but not reserve at least 2 months in advance. Was NOT able to book an included excursion in Helsinki for both myself and my sister. There was only one a available slot which I took. There was a message on the site that said "temporarily unavailable". Those of you who have traveled on this cruise- do they usually open up additional spaces? What is the best strategy- keep checking the site? Wait until getting on board?

 

 

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[philw1776]

Yes

When you get onboard excursions often open up.

This June on Homelands folks were excluded from the Flam excursion. It was not full. Had they tried onboard they could have gone.

Persistance! Good luck!

[Peregrina651]

My "booking" window opened today at 12 midnight CDT and I was able to book the optionals I wanted. Was able to see all the details but not reserve at least 2 months in advance. Was NOT able to book an included excursion in Helsinki for both myself and my sister. There was only one a available slot which I took. There was a message on the site that said "temporarily unavailable". Those of you who have traveled on this cruise- do they usually open up additional spaces? What is the best strategy- keep checking the site? Wait until getting on board?

 

 

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Temporarily unavailable is not something that you usually see. Usually, it just says SOLD OUT. There might be some problems with the website or they may be in the process of adding more seats to the tour. It is an included tour, so you should not have to wait until you board the ship to reserve your seats. Keep checking back over the next few days (or even weeks) to see if booking become available again.

 

Phil's idea of checking back on the ship or even on the day of the tour works great for optional tours but for the included tours, since they are part of the package, you really want to get problems settled before you board, even it means dealing with the kinds folks at TellUs@vikingcruises.com to get things straightened out.

[philw1776]

Temporarily unavailable is not something that you usually see. Usually, it just says SOLD OUT. There might be some problems with the website or they may be in the process of adding more seats to the tour. It is an included tour, so you should not have to wait until you board the ship to reserve your seats. Keep checking back over the next few days (or even weeks) to see if booking become available again.

 

Phil's idea of checking back on the ship or even on the day of the tour works great for optional tours but for the included tours, since they are part of the package, you really want to get problems settled before you board, even it means dealing with the kinds folks at TellUs@vikingcruises.com to get things straightened out.

 

Agreed. Why not use TellUs?

[bellemere]

Thank you for all the responses.

We are on a new cruise for Viking Ocean, the Turquoise Caribbean.

Some of you have mentioned possible optional excursions are mentioned on the regular Viking Ocean pages. Are they just briefly described under the section on the given cruise?

First departure for the cruise is not until December 2017.

Thanks for your help.

[Peregrina651]

Thank you for all the responses.

We are on a new cruise for Viking Ocean, the Turquoise Caribbean.

Some of you have mentioned possible optional excursions are mentioned on the regular Viking Ocean pages. Are they just briefly described under the section on the given cruise?

First departure for the cruise is not until December 2017.

Thanks for your help.

 

It is so much easier to answer you with a link rather than instructions how to get there. Viking has very recently made some changes to its website. To see the shorex for Turquoise Caribbean, follow this link. It will take you to the Day 2 page of your itinerary. From there, you can click on NEXT to get to Day 3, etc. If you scroll down a page, you will a tentative selection of tours for that port; Viking will not necessarily be offering all of these on each sailing. For each tour, you can then click on QUICK LOOK to open a pop-up with more details.

[AdventureGal79]

I wouldn't try it. It takes a good 5-10 min sometimes to get back on board (off the bus, board ship, etc) and what if you return late?

 

Because they won't refund your money if you miss the tour.

 

Thanks! I had a feeling that would be the case, but wanted to confirm. Probably for the best, don't want to wear myself out!

[CharTrav]

Thanks! I had a feeling that would be the case, but wanted to confirm. Probably for the best, don't want to wear myself out!

 

 

 

Delicate balancing act of wanting to cram everything in while also ensuring it's a vacation and not a race. [emoji3]

 

 

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[bellemere]

Thank you for the link. It was just what I needed to think ahead about what to do.

[Viking Cruises]

Dear drmarg,

 

We are delighted to hear you were able to secure the optional shore excursions you’d hoped for, but regret to learn that you had trouble booking Helsinki Highlights with your sister.

 

Although the first start time of the day, 9:30 a.m., has indeed sold out, rest assured that there is plenty of availability for the subsequent start times that day.

 

We encourage you to revisit My Viking Journey to view your other options. If you still encounter the “temporarily unavailable” message, please reach out to us at TellUs@vikingcruises.com so that we can troubleshoot further.

 

Kind regards,

Viking Cruises

 

My "booking" window opened today at 12 midnight CDT and I was able to book the optionals I wanted. Was able to see all the details but not reserve at least 2 months in advance. Was NOT able to book an included excursion in Helsinki for both myself and my sister. There was only one a available slot which I took. There was a message on the site that said "temporarily unavailable". Those of you who have traveled on this cruise- do they usually open up additional spaces? What is the best strategy- keep checking the site? Wait until getting on board?

 

 

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