Viking Transfers

[Cruisin Kay D]

We will be using Viking transfers for 1st time on our 5th V cruise and have a few questions.  What have been your experiences??

Mike & I are flying into JFK on American Airlines, arriving 9:50 AM next week, with. transfer to V Sea in Manhattan.   AA uses Terminal 8, Delta & United a different terminal, and then there are people flying into LGA.   

Wondering if we will have to wait for others to arrive & perhaps how long?     What should we expect? 

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, Cruisin Kay D said:

We will be using Viking transfers for 1st time on our 5th V cruise and have a few questions.  What have been your experiences??

Mike & I are flying into JFK on American Airlines, arriving 9:50 AM next week, with. transfer to V Sea in Manhattan.   AA uses Terminal 8, Delta & United a different terminal, and then there are people flying into LGA.   

Wondering if we will have to wait for others to arrive & perhaps how long?     What should we expect? 

 

In general, Viking tries not to keep us guests waiting at the airport but the transfers are run by 3rd party contractors hence actual execution differs from airport to airport.

 

On a specific level, there is no way for us to predict in advance how long any one guest will have to wait at the airport. We just don't have the needed information.

 

On a personal level, our worst wait was at Heathrow. We waited about half an hour until we could board the bus and then maybe another 15-20 minutes on the bus until everyone who was supposed to be on the bus boarded. Our best experience was arriving in Rome where we were met as we walked out of immigration and told that there was one other couple and we were being put on a van. After a bathroom stop, we were escorted to the van and on our way.

[Parsley Cruises]

We flew out to Venice on BA, and had a great experience with the transfer.  The main hold up was waiting for luggage, then we were meeted and greeted, our luggage was deposited in the place for transfer to the ship and we walked a relatively short distance to the coach which stopped right outside the cruise terminal doorway.

 

Being experienced travellers, we always 'note' things, and on this occasion we noted that passengers were arriving in Venice at roughly the same time but on different airlines and obviously from different locations.  We knew before hand which flights were arriving and from where, but what we didn't know was that the passengers arriving on these scheduled flights were destined for different ships.  The difference in how we VO passengers were treated left people heading for different (allegedly luxury cruise lines)  was noticeable - we VO passengers were all nicely taken care of, whilst the people heading for other ships weren't given the same great standard of care and attention.

 

Despite the atrocious weather that day, it was a lovely start to our first VO cruise.  BTW the walkway to the nearby coach park was sort of covered.

 

Our transfer from both ship to hotel and hotel to airport at the end of the cruise were both superbly handled, and the disembarkation process with VO was the best ever.

 

[ARDXXX]

Usually they are pretty good but last November we flew from Heathrow to New York and after collecting bags and going to pick up point there was no one there, we waited for over an hour and a half before the reps arrived - after we had phoned ship so it does not work seamlessly all the time.

[janetcbl]

We recently did a transfer in Bergen from airport to ship and it was flawless! Collected our luggage, walked a short distance to the line of buses, handed our luggage to “someone”...(it appeared in our cabin by 1pm), got on the bus and was at the ship within a half hour. Easy Check In, lunch in the World Cafe and walked into our cabin. All went so seamlessly!

[Krisval]

Our transfer experiences have been pretty good. Most recent one, in Barcelona, was good, once we got through customs and immigration: about 6 planes from different countries landed at the same time and the lines were horrendous. We made it through and collected our luggage. The Viking rep was at a little kiosk in baggage claim and checked us off on his list. We did have to wait a fair amount of time until all the people on his list arrived. They took our luggage and off we went to the buses. On arriving at the ship, we went to the check in process and onto the ship for lunch and to wait for our cabin. We have been known to check on our cabin before the “magic hour” for access. If we have had to wait a while, a Viking person comes to find us and take us to the cabin. 

Transfers to the airport at the end of this cruise were very good- lots of Viking staff at the airport to greet us as we got off the bus, help us with luggage, get us in the right check in line, negotiate any language issues with the airport staff, and almost walk us to the gate! 

[Cruisin Kay D]

Thanks to all who posted.    We are encouraged....but guess I need to have the ship's phone number in my phone, just in case.... 

[philw1776]

Most transport goes extremely well, except for 2 out of 8 cruises.

 

Last river cruise flew into CDG and quickly collected our baggage.  Transfer folks said they were waiting for another couple who landed shortly before us.  After waiting well over an hour we insisted that we be taken to our ship.  Folks never showed.

Other mild disaster was Barcelona.  Started off great as Viking Ocean folks were right there inside the baggage dispenser and immediately took our luggage.  Wow!  Go outside and meet your transport they said.  We and 2 other couples exited the security area searched for transport for maybe 45 minutes.  No Vikes around.  Went outside asking every parking area, any Viking bus there.  Wife somehow convinced security to escort her back in to where the baggage Viking folks were.  They came out and finally found the transport people way far away sitting down far from the exit.  No lollypop up and visible.

[jiminyC_fan]

Our transfer in Stockholm a couple years ago went great.  They sent us off in a private BMW because there weren't enough people coming in and they didn't want us to wait.