Overnight in Port City

[ReturnCruiser]

Our Viking Ocean itinerary will have 3 days/2 nights at the Venice port. Does Viking permit a guest to remain in a port city overnight to avoid the evening return to the ship on night #1 and enjoy 24+ hours in the port city? I'll asl Viking but was curious if anyone has done this.

 

Thanks. 

[DrKoob]

I am going to follow this one because I want to see what Viking does. We have been overnights onboard other lines and you could go off and on at will. With Viking now docking at Marghera I am wondering how they will handle that. It is a vaporetto stop away from St. Mark's Square but not sure how late the vaporetto runs. 

[ReturnCruiser]

We finally received approval for spending one of the itinerary two nights at a single port for an overnight stay. It took many weeks to receive written approval from Viking for this activity. We were alerted that we are responsible for carrying our overnight luggage off/on board without ship assistance. This should be relatively easy as it is only one night. We're pleased that this was approved.

[Pushka]

I don't even know why you'd need their permission? Do they do an audit and close the gangway at a certain time? 

[Symmes99]

I’ve done overnights off ship 3 times on other cruise lines (in Alexandria, Safaga, and Haifa). It was not a problem. I didn't arrange this before the cruise; once on board, I simply let reception know our plan and they said fine (pretty sure I called the cruise lines in advance of the cruise and was told to do it this way). We also let our cabin attendant and usual dining room waiters know that we’d be off ship for the night. All we took was an overnight bag. Worked out well, although it hurt a bit having an unused cabin and meals left behind. 

[Heidi13]

7 hours ago, Pushka said:

I don't even know why you'd need their permission? Do they do an audit and close the gangway at a certain time? 

 

In some ports the cruise line must advise and receive approval from the local authorities. Some countries require a different Visa to stay ashore for the evening.

 

It is also a good plan to provide them with contact info, so the ship can contact you, should departure change, or the ship moves berth.

[Pushka]

5 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

In some ports the cruise line must advise and receive approval from the local authorities. Some countries require a different Visa to stay ashore for the evening.

 

It is also a good plan to provide them with contact info, so the ship can contact you, should departure change, or the ship moves berth.

Thankyou. We were overnight in Istanbul on Celebrity and Hong Kong on QM2 and I know people who never returned until the next day. They just did it.