When do excursions show up online?

[LindaS272]

1 hour ago, Twitchly said:

Our cruise is 3 months away, and MVJ still says “shore excursions are not available at this time, we are working with our local operators, etc.” Since our cruise includes Israel and Israel is currently closed, I’m guessing that’s the main holdup here. 
 

For those of you who did finally get to preview excursions for your cruise, how far in advance did they show up? Weeks? Months?

I haven’t seen anybody on the roll calls for Iceland/Malta/Adriatic/Greece say that they got a preview in MVJ—but please let us know if you did. The only previews this year to my knowledge are on the main Viking website for each cruise—but the final ones at booking can, and do, change. In my experience this summer dealing with booking (and cancelling) three or four cruises, the excursions were never available for preview. For our Sept. Malta cruise, an intrepid soul on FB who booked the first cruise (July?) posted screen shots of what was offered, and another person made a pdf of the Viking website excursion details and posted it in a roll call.

Edited September 30, 2021 by LindaS272

[JeriGail]

1 hour ago, Twitchly said:

Our cruise is 3 months away, and MVJ still says “shore excursions are not available at this time, we are working with our local operators, etc.” Since our cruise includes Israel and Israel is currently closed, I’m guessing that’s the main holdup here. 
 

For those of you who did finally get to preview excursions for your cruise, how far in advance did they show up? Weeks? Months?

The excursions for the November 2021 Viking Sea TA opened at 75 days.

[LisaDee]

2 hours ago, Twitchly said:

For those of you who did finally get to preview excursions for your cruise, how far in advance did they show up? Weeks? Months?

 

We are sailing 12/22.  I noticed the excursions showed up in MVJ (list of tours with prices and times but not yet bookable) on 8/28 which is 116 days ahead of sailing but I wasn't checking every day so they may have shown up a few days before.

[molymoo]

18 hours ago, DaveSJ711 said:

 

I wouldn't call "hell in a handbasket" a hyperbolic statement. It's an American idiom with a rich history dating back to the Gold Rush. Earlier versions include "hell in a wheelbarrow" and "hell in a handcart." A more modern version is "hell in a handbag."

 

Anyway, I digress. The idiom accurately describes much of the cruise experience these days, including Viking's chaotic process for booking shore excursions. That was Linda's point. 

I guess I stand corrected.  The “chaos” was about what I would have expected considering the fact that we are still dealing with a pandemic.  I was happy to be traveling again and willing to deal with the hassles … heck, going to the grocery store is a hassle … why would I think planning a cruise would be ANYTHING like it has been in the past?  Sounds like I’m in the minority here … mea culpa!  

[Let Me Travel!]

I’m an obsessive planner…We’re doing a “butterfly” trip next August (2022)…I’ve already been able to book our Paris to Normandy River Cruise excursions (seems very early) but there are no excursions to even look at on the Ocean Cruise portion of our trip (British Isles)…I do check MVJ almost daily….I figure that the International travel to the UK is still in the planning stages….I can’t wait until they let us look! Another reason I like to book as soon as possible is to get as much paid for as possible well before the cruise date.

[Peregrina651]

13 hours ago, Let Me Travel! said:

but there are no excursions to even look at on the Ocean Cruise portion of our trip (British Isles)

 

Save yourself some aggravation and some frustration.  Under normal circumstance (aka pre-pandemic), which hopefully they will be closer to in the coming months, Viking does not load in the final selection of shorex for ocean voyages until around 120 days prior to the start of the voyage. This is a goal, not a guarantee, as in the past some sailings have had to wait until even 100 or 90 days prior. (And since resumption of sailings, it has been even worse,  sometimes only weeks before sailing with new itineraries to new ports).

 

In any case, don't even start looking for them on MVJ more than 120 days out.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Peregrina651

[Eggtuary]

On 9/26/2021 at 6:48 AM, TayanaLorna said:

However they opened on the same day for all cabin categories for 4 Iceland cruises.

Do we know if things are more normal recently, in terms of those with higher cabin categories getting to book earlier?  I just upgraded to PV, mostly to give myself a good chance of getting the optional excursions we want. I hate to sound selfish, but my wife and I won’t likely be able to cruise again for 5 years after the one we’ve booked, and this is our first time to Europe. 

Edited October 6, 2021 by Eggtuary

[Peregrina651]

6 minutes ago, Eggtuary said:

Do we know if things are more normal recently, in terms of those with higher cabin categories getting to book earlier?  I just upgraded to PV, mostly to give myself a good chance of getting the optional excursions we want. I hate to sound selfish, but my wife and I won’t likely be able to cruise again for 5 years after the one we’ve booked, and this is our first time to Europe. 

 

Normal by prior standards may be a long time coming -- and it may be a long period  of advance and retreat until we get there. We just have no way of predicting.

 

 

[Twitchly]

10 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Save yourself some aggravation and some frustration.  Under normal circumstance (aka pre-pandemic), which hopefully they will be closer to in the coming months, Viking does not load in the final selection of shorex for ocean voyages until around 120 days prior to the start of the voyage. This is a goal, not a guarantee, as in the past some sailings have had to wait until even 100 or 90 days prior. (And since resumption of sailings, it has been even worse,  sometimes only weeks before sailing with new itineraries to new ports).

 

In any case, don't even start looking for them on MVJ more than 120 days out.

We’re at about 90 days out now, no excursions. I’m pretty sure the holdup is Israel. No point in arranging excursions if the country won’t let us in. 

[JeriGail]

10 hours ago, Eggtuary said:

Do we know if things are more normal recently, in terms of those with higher cabin categories getting to book earlier?  I just upgraded to PV, mostly to give myself a good chance of getting the optional excursions we want. I hate to sound selfish, but my wife and I won’t likely be able to cruise again for 5 years after the one we’ve booked, and this is our first time to Europe. 

I'm in a PV for the Sea's 11/29/2021 cruise from Barcelona.  Viking didn't have our excursions up in time for the Suite guests to book, but they were available for PV and up about 3 days later then the PV published date.  There was no preview time though, so we had to decide and book quickly.  The good news is that all cabins have been able to book excursions, but only one is sold out.

[C-sea]

1 hour ago, Twitchly said:

We’re at about 90 days out now, no excursions. I’m pretty sure the holdup is Israel. No point in arranging excursions if the country won’t let us in. 

IMHO, because Viking charges your credit card the moment you book your excursion, it is better for Viking to be confident the port will be viable, better for all to wait until closer to sail date these days. If you need to cancel a cruise, be sure to cancel any prepaid excursions BEFORE you cancel the cruise so the excursions do not become part of your Viking Ocean future voucher.

We are 59 days out from the Hawaiian Sojourn cruise on Orion no shore excursions booking yet.

 

[TayanaLorna]

12 hours ago, Eggtuary said:

Do we know if things are more normal recently, in terms of those with higher cabin categories getting to book earlier?  I just upgraded to PV, mostly to give myself a good chance of getting the optional excursions we want. I hate to sound selfish, but my wife and I won’t likely be able to cruise again for 5 years after the one we’ve booked, and this is our first time to Europe. 

For our Iberia TA in November, the excursions were up for us in DV before we were able to book and reservations could be made on the normal date for our cabin except the actual time was earlier then stated.  However for the higher cabin categories, the appearance of excursions as well as availability to reserve was late and they were not notified in advance.  It was much better then our Iceland excursion experience but still no where near to where it was pre Covid.

[dcl999]

We’re booked on the February Greek odyssey. Even though it had the warning across the top about not available for booking, the information for the tours showed up if you went to each day. They were available to book just after midnight on the day listed on my reservation. Hopefully the optional ones we signed up for will be popular enough so they aren’t canceled. 

[Moonlion]

We're booked on the January 24th Northern Lights cruise.  We also had the warning banner at the top saying that Viking was still negotiating with the tour operators.  About 75 days before our cruise, shore excursion options appeared in MVJ, without any other notification.  At 6 AM EST on the day our cabin class was open to book , I was able to purchase excursions through MVJ and got most of what we wanted.  I didn't try logging on any earlier that day but heard that others were able to book earlier (after midnight Pacific Time).