Shore Excursion questions-price, availability, quality

[Ready to Sail!]

We have taken many cruises but this will be our first Viking. We are in a DV and know that we have a certain date when excursions will be listed with prices and a date when we can actually book. My calendar is marked! So, just a couple of questions.

 

It seems from what I have read that some excursions get sold out quickly. Is this mainly the "complimentary" ones or all of them?

 

Do you all find the prices comparable to excursions offered on other cruise lines? Are they better than other lines or pretty comparable as for as size of group, tour guides, etc?

 

Are there usually several time slots to choose from?

 

Not that it probably makes any difference, but we are on Empires of the Mediterranean in April, 2019. It is certainly a popular itinerary. I think they had 3-4 dates for the last 2 years, all of which got booked quickly (I know, I tried several times, always too late) I see there are 6 for 2019 and they are all sold out. I booked in December of last year, not "miss the boat" again!

[Host Jazzbeau]

The included excursions never get sold out – Viking has made a promise that every passenger who wants to take them will be accommodated. What does happen is that the popular times get sold out, especially if it is possible to do a second tour on the same day with the right timing.

 

As to the optional tours our experience was that they are very similar to other cruise lines' tours – which we avoid because they are crowded and spend too much time on comfort stops and shopping. We had an active roll call on our sailing, so we were able to set up several private tours with better itineraries and comparable prices to Viking's. The only Viking tours we took were chosen for unique itineraries and one day with a short port stay, and they were the least satisfying of all our shore activities.

[deec]

my experiences agree!

[Ready to Sail!]

I guess that is what I was getting at. We have come to not doing more than one or two excursions on a cruise because we feel they are overpriced for what is offered. I was hoping maybe Viking was stepping it up a notch. This cruise is stepping it up a notch for us as we have mostly sailed with Princess and NCL. Am beginning to feel we probably won't go back after trying Viking. We're very excited for this new experience.

 

I think it depends on where you are how easy it is to find tours on your own. Some places easy, others not so much.

 

Have you been satisfied with the included tours? My feeling is that for most walking type tours in a port it would be just as easy to do on your own, at your own pace, and without the constraints of a large group of people. We have traveled all over Europe on our own and feel pretty comfortable doing so, so I think in ports like Dubrovnik that we have no desire to leave the city we would not book a tour at all.

 

Thanks, always good to get different points of view.

[Host Jazzbeau]

The real problem is that if you write off the included tours because they are too basic and avoid the optional tours because they are still just cruise line tours and still not as good as roll call private tours – the Viking Ocean value proposition is greatly impacted. You are very clearly paying for the 'included' tours, so if you don't take them your cruise cost per day doesn't stack up well against the competition in the near-luxury (and sometimes even the luxury) cruise brackets. We loved our Viking Ocean cruise, but it was the most expensive ocean cruise so far. We will therefore continue to compare against Azamara, Crystal etc.

[Peregrina651]

I'm one of those who does not mind taking the tours that Viking offers. I've done 3 VO cruises now and have done a combination of included, optional and DIY. I don't mind short shopping stops and I do appreciate the comfort stops. I actual think that Viking has a good understanding of its diverse audience and does its best to accommodate all. I actually appreciate the slower pace and for me, less can be more. I don't want to be rushed from place and want time to enjoy what I am seeing. I want time to take pictures and to examine the details. I want time for the unexpected.

 

In general, Viking is only as good as the local contractors they hire and some cities are much better prepared for tourism than others--and honestly there are some ports where even Viking can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. I guess I have been lucky so far because there is only one port that I can think of where the tour itself was terrible and the guide even worse--and since Viking is no longer calling there, I will name no names.

[stretchcruz]

The real problem is that if you write off the included tours because they are too basic and avoid the optional tours because they are still just cruise line tours and still not as good as roll call private tours – the Viking Ocean value proposition is greatly impacted. You are very clearly paying for the 'included' tours, so if you don't take them your cruise cost per day doesn't stack up well against the competition in the near-luxury (and sometimes even the luxury) cruise brackets. We loved our Viking Ocean cruise, but it was the most expensive ocean cruise so far. We will therefore continue to compare against Azamara, Crystal etc.

 

Agree. We loved our Viking Ocean 3 week cruise, Barcelona, the Baltics, and Beyond, and we are booked in Feb for 32 nights Auckland to Bali. However, the thing we were disappointed in were the included tours. To us it meant a greater value, and we justified spending the money that way. However, there were many ports where the included tours were bus drive by tours, nothing we were interested in. We did every single one of them, however, because my husband said they were included. Bored to death on many. It would have been nice to have a choice of a bus tour or a walking tour, but in many ports it was one or none, unless you paid. We did not pay for any optional tours through Viking. If we wanted to do something else (ie St Petersburg) we booked our own. In St Petersburg we booked 2 days with Alla. Wonderful. In LeHavre, Viking did not even give us a choice of included tours other than going to Paris. We weren't going to waste all of those hours traveling for a few hours in Paris. We hired a taxi and a guide at the pier and went to Honfleur. It was a good choice, but very disappointing that Viking did not have another choice for included tour. In Warnemunde they had the included tour to Berlin. Again, we did not want to spend hours to get there. There was no other choice....until a bit before the cruise they opened up a walking tour to Rostock, which ended up being one of our best included tours!! We love the Viking Ocean experience on the ship, love that there are no kids, the quality of the cabins, the no nickel and diming...but the included tours could use some tweaking, in our opinion.

Edited October 7, 2018 by stretchcruz