Newby with excursion question

[Envelope21]

We are excited to be booked on our first Viking cruise this Fall. I understand that with Viking, an excursion at each port is included in the cruise price, and that there are additional ones you can purchase for a fee. Can someone help me with how that works? Is there typically just one free one and the rest are not? Or are there several free ones to choose from? 

 

Also, I've been seeing on my roll call that people are busy making dinner reservations before the cruise. Is it necessary to make a reservation, or is that just for a specialty restaurant.

 

We are experienced cruisers with several other cruise lines, but are looking forward to our first Viking.

 

[JM0115]

32 minutes ago, Envelope21 said:

We are excited to be booked on our first Viking cruise this Fall. I understand that with Viking, an excursion at each port is included in the cruise price, and that there are additional ones you can purchase for a fee. Can someone help me with how that works? Is there typically just one free one and the rest are not? Or are there several free ones to choose from? 

 

Also, I've been seeing on my roll call that people are busy making dinner reservations before the cruise. Is it necessary to make a reservation, or is that just for a specialty restaurant.

 

We are experienced cruisers with several other cruise lines, but are looking forward to our first Viking.

 

I am not an expert but...There is always an included excursion in every port. It is free.  There are typically additional offered excursions that have a fee associated with them. Booking is done through myvikingjourney and the timing of when you can book depends on your cabin level. You need to wait until closer to your cruise to see what is really going to be available and the costs. in the past, making reservations at the Restaurant were not necessary but maybe more necessary with the new Covid protocols. You are limited to specialty restaurant reservations both in terms of when you can do so and how many you can make beforehand depending on your cabin level.  Everyone once on board can make more up to a certain limit by using the Viking app on board.  Hope this helps!

 

[Heidi13]

29 minutes ago, Envelope21 said:

We are excited to be booked on our first Viking cruise this Fall. I understand that with Viking, an excursion at each port is included in the cruise price, and that there are additional ones you can purchase for a fee. Can someone help me with how that works? Is there typically just one free one and the rest are not? Or are there several free ones to choose from? 

 

Also, I've been seeing on my roll call that people are busy making dinner reservations before the cruise. Is it necessary to make a reservation, or is that just for a specialty restaurant.

 

We are experienced cruisers with several other cruise lines, but are looking forward to our first Viking.

 

 

In the greatest majority of ports they only have 1 included Shore-ex, however we have experienced 2 included Shore-ex, but you can only take 1 or them. Note - this was a World Cruise, so may not be offered on shorter cruises. Regardless in each port you can only book 1 included Shore-ex.

 

Pre-COVID, only the 2 alternative restaurants accepted reservations, as the MDR, World Cafe, Pool Grill, Aquavit, etc were all drop in. However, it looks like to manage capacity and ensure social distancing, reservations are now also available for the MDR.

 

 

[Jim Avery]

And I will add that I don't know what I want to eat tonight much less months in advance.  We book what we are allowed when available pre cruise but when on board mostly change it up.  We have never not gotten what we wanted as far as specialty dining.  As Andy said this is all pre covid advice.  None of us know what to expect really.  Mr. Hagen has repeatedly stated when they restart it will be "the Viking way".  Our experience is world cruises but the last world cruise was a bunch of segments.  Still were able to get rez when we wanted.  Viking is not like any other line.  Some things you might find odd or not to your liking but I bet, like the rest of us, you will find Viking to be such a great change from all the rest. 🍸

[SantaFe1]

We are booked on the first of the new welcome back Iceland cruises.  Yesterday all of us, all cabin levels, could make a reservation for the restaurant for each of the seven nights.  This is new, you never had to make dinner reservations for the main restaurant before.  So, since nobody really knew what to do, everyone just booked every night.  Next week, when our cabin level is up, we will cancel some and make the specialty restaurant reservations.  One poor soul is locked out of MVJ and can’t make restaurant reservations and is worried he will go hungry.  Anyone who has sailed on Viking will tell you that will never happen!  All this said, this is an 8 day cruise.  On our world cruise, like Jim, we just turned up when and where we wanted to eat and ate!

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, JM0115 said:

I am not an expert but...There is always an included excursion in every port. It is free.  There are typically additional offered excursions that have a fee associated with them. Booking is done through myvikingjourney and the timing of when you can book depends on your cabin level. You need to wait until closer to your cruise to see what is really going to be available and the costs. in the past, making reservations at the Restaurant were not necessary but maybe more necessary with the new Covid protocols. You are limited to specialty restaurant reservations both in terms of when you can do so and how many you can make beforehand depending on your cabin level.  Everyone once on board can make more up to a certain limit by using the Viking app on board.  Hope this helps!

 

 

Okay, let me fill in some details.

 

The roster of excursions (with times and prices) typically loads into MVJ (MyVikingJourney) around 120 days prior to sailing. Once they load in, everyone can see them. As Heidi13 pointed out, occasionally there is a choice of included tours; we may choose one of them.

 

Cabin mates do not have to choose the same tour or even the same time slot -- but if you are touring together, you have to select both names.

 

When your time to book opens up, the screen will change to allow you to reserve your seats. Even though the included tours are free and everyone is entitled to a seat, we are requested to reserve our seats in advance.

 

The dates for when the various booking options open for you are given on your Viking invoice. If you don't have a copy of your Viking invoice, you can get it from your travel agent or Viking rep.

It looks something like this:

 

If you decide to do an optional tour as well, your seat on that tour is not yours until you pay for it. That means you can't put a tour in your cart and let it sit there for days while you decide if you really want it; it might not be there when you return.

 

 

[Envelope21]

Thanks so much for all who responded! Yes, this was all very helpful. We will be on one of the Welcome Back cruises to Iceland in July. I just got in to MVJ today and filled out the passenger information form. I see that none of the restaurant reservations are available but it might be because we are in a lowly V1 cabin. ( 😀 ). The information about the excursion opportunities being typically one free one per port was about what I expected.

 

I'm not too worried about the restaurant situation. And like Jim stated above, I can't imagine how I'll feel on any given day as to what I want to do for dinner. We will probably take it one day at a time.

 

Living in Florida, we've had many easy cruising opportunities and over the years have now gone on over 50. Clearly we love cruising and are excited to get back on a ship! Viking has always been something we wanted to try and this Iceland cruise really fits the bill!

 

Again, thanks so much to all!

[Peregrina651]

31 minutes ago, Envelope21 said:

Iceland in July.

 

There are four very active roll calls up and running. Suggest you check in with the one for your sail date and follow the rest of them.  There is a lot of information sharing go on.

 

 

[Clay Clayton]

Just to add a non-world cruiser’s 😢take on the excursion. We have had two “included” tours offered to us once. This was sailaway day in Tianjin-the port for Bejing after an overnight. We boarded, spent the night and the next day the choice of either an 8 hour (which due to the National Holiday actually became 10 due to traffic) excursion to a portion of the Great Wall OR a much shorter excursion to Tianjin. 
 

Typically, the included excursion will be a bus tour with one or two stops. When you see the adjective “panoramic” in the description substitute the word “bus”. The nice part is that even pre-Covid the buses were never packed full so my husband and I (both of us are big men) never had trouble sitting in a row to ourselves. I’d also suggest reading the descriptions carefully as it may mention a facility you are interested in but unless it’s clear you are stopping and going inside-don’t count on it.  I seem to recall some folks were upset that the Barcelona City Tour which mentioned taking pictures of Sagrada Familia didn’t actually go inside. They stopped the bus so you were able to see the outside but....

 

As others stated previously, none of us know what exactly is going to happen dining wise under the new protocols but in the past, when we weren’t able to make a reservation for a particular Chef’s Table menu we love even after being onboard, we stopped by the host stand and asked him to notify us of a cancellation. He looked through his computer and said would you like to dine tonight?  Sure!  He said come back in 15 minutes.  So don’t give up. 

Edited April 10, 2021 by Clay Clayton

[CCWineLover]

As another non-World Cruiser - I echo what Clay said.   For dinner reservations, never give up!  So many people in our experience booked everything ahead of time and then as the cruise began, they started to change their minds. The back half or even 2/3 of every cruise we've had had restaurants open up daily even though they had been booked solid!

 

Great tip Clay on the word "Panoramic"!  We definitely figured that one out.  There are good included tours too (from our concern) which explicitly state walking tours and show "Demanding".  That's another clue that you might get to see a lot of more interesting things than through the bus window.  These obviously tend to be offered most when the ship is docked right in town or very near.  Sometimes a short bus ride to town and then the whole tour is walking.  We enjoy those!

[Clay Clayton]

One other suggestion related to dining. Download the Viking App before you leave home.  
 

Once onboard, attach to the ships Wifi and log on with your room number. This will give you access to menus at all venues and the ability it manage reservations. 

[Dauntless]

I've done V1 and V2.  In the past you can not make dinner reservations until yo board.  Never really had a problem getting them but I usually board at the first opportunity(11 am).  You can check the excursions for the ports on the itinerary portion of your cruise webpage on the Viking sight.  The included will be noted as such on each day.  The other excursions will probably be offered but they can also change by the time of booking.  I have experienced walking tours that are included so the destination makes a difference.  You should be able to make reservations for that 60 days out from sailing.  If you don't get what you want, keep trying because things can be added but there is no waiting list so it's up to you.  Also, most of these excursions  will have more than one group at each time listed.

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, Dauntless said:

In the past you can not make dinner reservations until yo board.

 

A lot has changed. Currently, under the new Covid procedures, reservations are needed for the MDR  and advanced reservations are open to all on a first come, served basis.  This is for MDR reservations only; the rules for the specialty restaurants have not changed. World Cafe will be open seating and table service.

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

I will add that you are typically given a choice of times on the included excursions.  We booked all the included excursions around the other excursions we wanted.  When you are onboard, the day prior to your excursions, they will have someone on TV (and in person if you want to go) talk about each of the excursions for the next day.  We found that information very helpful and with that information made our final decision on whether we were going to go on the included or not.  If it didn't look interesting to us, we just simply let them know then that we were not going to go.  

 

With these Welcome Back cruises, none of us at this point really know what the bottom line is.  Yesterday the Viking agent told my TA that they are making this up as they go along....because they don't know how this is all going to work.  

[Envelope21]

Many thanks to the recent posters! Really appreciate it!

 

 

[Dauntless]

Steve Rhodes has just posted about this on his website on Facebook  He's signed for a Bermuda cruise and will post more after that---if it goes.

[Jazmyn49]

Please do cancel your included excursion if you cannot go.  Once we had an afternoon paid excursion planned and decided too late that we also wanted the morning included one.  Luckily a few people had cancelled and we were able to enjoy both morning and afternoon, followed by the Explorers Lounge, of course.  We also learned that booking the first included excursion of the day was not the best plan as it was always the most crowded.  Not every seat was taken but later in the morning, we had smaller groups and more room to spread out. 

 

Specialty dining reservations CAN be had last minute with dining tables open on port days for walk-up guests, though not so often on sea days.

[Clay Clayton]

By the same token, we have found that if an included excursion is “sold out” that if you go to the meeting point, there will often be no shows (missed their alarms? Changed their minds? ) and you can join the tour.

[Jchivers]

On 4/10/2021 at 3:44 PM, CCWineLover said:

Great tip Clay on the word "Panoramic"!  We definitely figured that one out. 

If an excursion description describes a stop as The Gateway to [fabulous and world-famous] Region X...that means it's an hour-long bus ride to get there.  🙂

[LindaS272]

4 hours ago, Jchivers said:

If an excursion description describes a stop as The Gateway to [fabulous and world-famous] Region X...that means it's an hour-long bus ride to get there.  🙂

More like HOURS LONG. We had a bit of an issue on our SE Asian Viking cruise in Nov. 2019. I think the description said our Cambodia stop at Sihanoukville was the “gateway” to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat—but it was only included as a $4,000 pp add-on for three days out of Saigon—an earlier stop. We wanted to go on our own from Sihanoukville, at a vastly reduced price, and rejoin the end of the cruise a couple of days later in Bangkok. When we made a courtesy call to Viking a couple of months before the cruise to let them know our plans (after making our own arrangements), the bottom fell out because they said we had to get permission from the port authority in Cambodia to leave the ship. It took three weeks and numerous calls to Viking—finally “permission” came through but we were too exhausted by the onerous process to follow through.

[Heidi13]

43 minutes ago, LindaS272 said:

When we made a courtesy call to Viking a couple of months before the cruise to let them know our plans (after making our own arrangements), the bottom fell out because they said we had to get permission from the port authority in Cambodia to leave the ship. It took three weeks and numerous calls to Viking—finally “permission” came through but we were too exhausted by the onerous process to follow through.

 

Unfortunately, when planning private travel that will have you rejoin a cruise in another country it is NOT a courtesy call you make to the cruise line. This is critical information that must be provided to the cruise line in a reasonable time in advance of the cruise. This is even more critical when Visas are required, especially when they are procured on arrival by the cruise line.

 

To explain the process. When ships completes the arrival process, the ship's manifest lists the compliment of pax & crew, noting any that are leaving the ship at that port, with the remainder departing onboard. If the ship acquires Visas on arrival, they must provide details of everyones travel plans to the local authorities.

 

When pax book overland Shore-ex tours, this information is known to the ship and the correct travel information is provided to the local authorities. Similar for officers/crew/entertainers etc that are paying-off, the authorities are advised they will fly out of the country. All others are listed as being aboard upon departure. Local authorities take a rather dim view of crew/pax that miss the ship's departure.

 

Had you applied for a Cambodia tourist Visa prior to the cruise and provided your travel plans, but had not advised the ship, it could potentially delay the ship's clearance. Had the ship submitted that you were departing Cambodia onboard the ship, but the local authorities had record of your alternative travel plans, the discrepancy would have to be resolved before granting the ship's clearance. Delaying the ship's clearance would delay everyone from getting ashore.

 

When you notify the cruise line of alternative travel plans, such as rejoining in another country, the Cruise Line must check the Visa requirements, as some countries may require a different Visa. The crew must also make changes to the ship's manifest, which requires additional workload. It is fairly common for cruise lines to charge a fee to approve this type of request.

[LindaS272]

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Unfortunately, when planning private travel that will have you rejoin a cruise in another country it is NOT a courtesy call you make to the cruise line. This is critical information that must be provided to the cruise line in a reasonable time in advance of the cruise. This is even more critical when Visas are required, especially when they are procured on arrival by the cruise line.

 

To explain the process. When ships completes the arrival process, the ship's manifest lists the compliment of pax & crew, noting any that are leaving the ship at that port, with the remainder departing onboard. If the ship acquires Visas on arrival, they must provide details of everyones travel plans to the local authorities.

 

When pax book overland Shore-ex tours, this information is known to the ship and the correct travel information is provided to the local authorities. Similar for officers/crew/entertainers etc that are paying-off, the authorities are advised they will fly out of the country. All others are listed as being aboard upon departure. Local authorities take a rather dim view of crew/pax that miss the ship's departure.

 

Had you applied for a Cambodia tourist Visa prior to the cruise and provided your travel plans, but had not advised the ship, it could potentially delay the ship's clearance. Had the ship submitted that you were departing Cambodia onboard the ship, but the local authorities had record of your alternative travel plans, the discrepancy would have to be resolved before granting the ship's clearance. Delaying the ship's clearance would delay everyone from getting ashore.

 

When you notify the cruise line of alternative travel plans, such as rejoining in another country, the Cruise Line must check the Visa requirements, as some countries may require a different Visa. The crew must also make changes to the ship's manifest, which requires additional workload. It is fairly common for cruise lines to charge a fee to approve this type of request.

With all due respect, you don’t know the details of what transpired in our situation. And Viking doesn’t get your visas for you, it’s the responsibility of the passengers to procure their own visas prior to boarding the ship (which we did in the case of our Cambodia visas). Viking made it extremely difficult for us even though they had no role in obtaining our visas. And there was nothing in the cruise documents that said we couldn’t do what we were arranging. From our perspective it most certainly was a courtesy call. We have traveled on our own all over the world for the last 40+ years and had not expected the rather exhausting and somewhat discourteous response from Viking customer service and management at the time. When we finally were able to talk it through with Guest Services and management on the ship, there was no problem. But it was the process before boarding that completely took the wind out of our sails. We met another couple on the ship who were doing exactly the same thing we had arranged but were not going to tell Viking about it. We saw them take off with backpacks from HCMC. When we saw them upon their return in a hallway onboard, they were royally pissed about the issues they had getting back on board and they decided they were going to stick with cruising with Oceania.

Edited April 16, 2021 by LindaS272

[Peregrina651]

8 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

With all due respect, you don’t know the details of what transpired in our situation. And Viking doesn’t get your visas for you, it’s the responsibility of the passengers to procure their own visas prior to boarding the ship (which we did in the case of our Cambodia visas). Viking made it extremely difficult for us even though they had no role in obtaining our visas. And there was nothing in the cruise documents that said we couldn’t do what we were arranging. From our perspective it most certainly was a courtesy call. We have traveled on our own all over the world for the last 40+ years and had not expected the rather exhausting and somewhat discourteous response from Viking customer service and management at the time. When we finally were able to talk it through with Guest Services and management on the ship, there was no problem. But it was the process before boarding that completely took the wind out of our sails. We met another couple on the ship who were doing exactly the same thing we had arranged but were not going to tell Viking about it. We saw them take off with backpacks from HCMC. When we saw them upon their return in a hallway onboard, they were royally pissed about the issues they had getting back on board and they decided they were going to stick with cruising with Oceania.

 

 

Linda, with his years of experience as a cruise ship officer, we rely on Heidi13 to give us the perspective of the cruise lines. He understands what drives the policies and procedures and can give us the inside view.

 

Also, keep in mind that on Cruise Critic, responses to posts are read by more than just the person with the issue.  While his response may not apply to the specifics of your situation, his reply is instructional and informational for the other people who will be reading his response and it will help others to avoid the problems that you faced.

[Heidi13]

9 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

With all due respect, you don’t know the details of what transpired in our situation. And Viking doesn’t get your visas for you, it’s the responsibility of the passengers to procure their own visas prior to boarding the ship (which we did in the case of our Cambodia visas). Viking made it extremely difficult for us even though they had no role in obtaining our visas. And there was nothing in the cruise documents that said we couldn’t do what we were arranging. From our perspective it most certainly was a courtesy call. We have traveled on our own all over the world for the last 40+ years and had not expected the rather exhausting and somewhat discourteous response from Viking customer service and management at the time. When we finally were able to talk it through with Guest Services and management on the ship, there was no problem. But it was the process before boarding that completely took the wind out of our sails. We met another couple on the ship who were doing exactly the same thing we had arranged but were not going to tell Viking about it. We saw them take off with backpacks from HCMC. When we saw them upon their return in a hallway onboard, they were royally pissed about the issues they had getting back on board and they decided they were going to stick with cruising with Oceania.

 

Thanks for the clarifications, but having experienced similar situations, I probably have a better understanding of the entire process than most people. As Peregrina explained, I have experienced these situations from both the pax and ship's perspective. I suggest you are only considering the pax perspective and not the implications on the entire ship's clearance and departure process. You may also not have fully read and understood the Terms & Conditions of the Passenger Contract.

 

With respect to Visas, yes I am aware that 2 options for Visas are available in Cambodia, the ship may procure a Visa upon arrival, or each pax is required to procure their own individual Visas. I believe I explained that regardless of whether you procured you own Visa or the ship procured on arrival Visas, you plans would result in delayed ship clearance and possibly also departure.

 

With respect to the cruise documents, I believe the situation is addressed in the Terms & Conditions - specifically in Section 19 and also Section 8. If I reread them in depth, I can probably find others, but these are the 2 main ones I can think of:

• Section 8 - You are required to obey ship's rules & regulations including the Master's Orders - the gangway board with the "Time Aboard" is not a suggestion, it is a Master's Order. Any pax who have not advised the ship of an intension not to reboard and have made alternate arrangements in any port have contravened this section of the Passenger Contract
• Section 8 - pax conduct will not impair the ship or inconvenience other pax - by planning independent travel and not returning by all aboard time, the ship's departure can very well be delayed, which is an inconvenience to pax and a cost driver for the cruise line.
• Section 19 -  Unauthorised stopover or disembarkation or failure to make any sailing of the ship at any port shall be at your sole risk and expense, you may be denied subsequent boarding, and you will not be entitled to any refund, payment, compensation or credit of any kind. 

The other couple that disembarked in Saigon clearly contravened Section 19 by disembarking the ship without authorisation. They are actually lucky that both the ship and local authorities permitted them to reboard the ship. Many cruise lines would have prevented them from re-boarding.

 

When the Terms & Conditions require "Authorisation" for a stopover or unplanned disembarkation, I suggest that advising the cruise line of your independent travel plans is not a "courtesy", but a requirement.

[LindaS272]

1 hour ago, Heidi13 said:

 

Thanks for the clarifications, but having experienced similar situations, I probably have a better understanding of the entire process than most people. As Peregrina explained, I have experienced these situations from both the pax and ship's perspective. I suggest you are only considering the pax perspective and not the implications on the entire ship's clearance and departure process. You may also not have fully read and understood the Terms & Conditions of the Passenger Contract.

Actually, one of us is a lawyer and we did read the Terms and Conditions carefully. Most importantly, our initial inquiry to Viking about leaving and reboarding was okayed by a Viking agent who wrote us in an email “You guys can leave the ship and come back. This is not an issue.” We then proceeded to book a flight to Siem Reap and return to Bangkok, as well as a non-refundable hotel. When we called Viking a few weeks later to tell them we would not need the airport transfer at the end of the cruise because of travel to Siem Reap, we were told we would need to get independent approval from the Cambodian port authorities. So the problem here was being told by a Viking agent “no problem”- then being told WE had to get “permission” directly from the Cambodian port authorities, not that Viking would take care of things for us from their end. Of course we had no way to know who to get permission from, and it was only after weeks of frustration through various levels of Viking management stateside that Viking said they had finally figured out what needed to be done from their end and that we could do what we wanted to do.

Quote

With respect to Visas, yes I am aware that 2 options for Visas are available in Cambodia, the ship may procure a Visa upon arrival, or each pax is required to procure their own individual Visas. I believe I explained that regardless of whether you procured you own Visa or the ship procured on arrival Visas, you plans would result in delayed ship clearance and possibly also departure.

 

With respect to the cruise documents, I believe the situation is addressed in the Terms & Conditions - specifically in Section 19 and also Section 8. If I reread them in depth, I can probably find others, but these are the 2 main ones I can think of:

• Section 8 - You are required to obey ship's rules & regulations including the Master's Orders - the gangway board with the "Time Aboard" is not a suggestion, it is a Master's Order. Any pax who have not advised the ship of an intension not to reboard and have made alternate arrangements in any port have contravened this section of the Passenger Contract
• Section 8 - pax conduct will not impair the ship or inconvenience other pax - by planning independent travel and not returning by all aboard time, the ship's departure can very well be delayed, which is an inconvenience to pax and a cost driver for the cruise line.
• Section 19 -  Unauthorised stopover or disembarkation or failure to make any sailing of the ship at any port shall be at your sole risk and expense, you may be denied subsequent boarding, and you will not be entitled to any refund, payment, compensation or credit of any kind. 

 

 

The other couple that disembarked in Saigon clearly contravened Section 19 by disembarking the ship without authorisation. They are actually lucky that both the ship and local authorities permitted them to reboard the ship. Many cruise lines would have prevented them from re-boarding.

 

When the Terms & Conditions require "Authorisation" for a stopover or unplanned disembarkation, I suggest that advising the cruise line of your independent travel plans is not a "courtesy", but a requirement.

 

 

As you can see by my response above, none of this applied to our situation.

And the Terms and Conditions do not “require Authorisation”—Section 19 just says it “shall be at your own risk and expense” and that “you may be denied subsequent boarding.” And the “Authorisation” that Viking said we needed to do was not from Viking but from the Cambodian port authorities.

 

So we are talking a little bit of apples to oranges here. That’s why I said you didn’t know the details of what we had to deal with.

Edited April 16, 2021 by LindaS272