Advance excursion & dining reservations for PJS on cruise which is the middle segment of a longer itinerary

[Lozzie4415]

I am new to this site so please excuse me if this is a stupid question.

My husband and I are due to take our first Viking cruise next March - Komodo and the Australian Coast on Viking Mars.  For us, this is the trip of a lifetime (unless we win the lottery!)

We originally booked the March 2020 South East Asia and Hong Kong cruise on Viking Orion to celebrate my retirement in 2019.  Sadly that was scuppered by the pandemic.  After three cancellations by Viking we decided to change itinerary completely and to use our compensation vouchers to pay for pre and post cruise extensions in Sydney and Bali.  Needless to say we are very excited!  

I am now aware that our trip is one segment of the longer Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia cruise which seems to be almost sold out.  So, my question is, how will this affect our ability to take advantage of the priority booking arrangements for excursions (our primary concern) and the restaurants?  Presumably people doing the longer trip will be able to book first?  The priority booking perk was one of the main reasons for booking a Penthouse Junior Suite as this will be our one and only trip ‘down under’ (as we say in the UK).

Any thoughts or experience you may be able to share will be much appreciated.

 

[shadowlover]

I'm not sure but I think these longer combined itineraries are fairly new to viking, unless I just haven't seen them before, so I'm not sure that anyone will be able to answer your question adequately.  Having said that, you can only do what you can do... Make sure you have all the excursions that you want to book lined up and ready so that when they open you can add them and pay for them asap.  You can see them and the times available prior the day they open.  The more prepared and organized you are, the smoother the booking goes.  Sometimes the bookings open earlier in the day than listed on your myvikingjourney so keep checking throughout the day.  As far as restaurants, I wouldn't worry too much as we had no trouble adding and changing once on board.  We also noticed that sold out excursions became available both prior to and after boarding.  

Good luck!  That sounds like an amazing trip!

[Peregrina651]

Such segmented journeys are not new to Viking. They have been doing it since they combined "Viking Homelands" with "Into the Midnight Sun" and called "Baltic Jewels and Midnight Sun."  With a separate name for the combined journey, it is hard to tell that the longer one is actually just a B2B with its own name.

 

One good thing to know is that not everyone who boards in Aukland will be continuing beyond Sydney, even if the ship is. However, there is a downside and that is that everyone who is continuing on will book all of their shorex when booking opens for their Aukland to Sydney segment.

 

You are going to have to do the math on this one. Your Viking invoice should show the when shorex booking will open for you.  You will also need the starting date of the Aukland to Sydney sailing. Grab a calendar and mark your "booking opens" date on the calendar. Next find the start date for the Aukland to Sydney and start counting backwards. Mark 60 days with a V, mark 67 days with a DV and mark 77 with a PV.  Most of the cabins on the ship are V and DV cabins. If you book before they do, then you should be okay-- and if you book before the PVs, then even better.

 

If you do run into to sold out issues, don't panic. Write to Viking at tellus@vikingcruises.com and let them know how disappointed you are that you are having trouble booking the shorex that you want. Include your booking number and phone number.  In the meantime, keep checking on MVJ for openings. There is no waiting list. it is first come first served. If you see just one seat open up, take it. Then contact Viking to see what they can do to book a second.

 

It is easier to get reservations for the specialty restaurants when the segments are two weeks longs than when they are 1 week long.  Chef's Table menu changes every three days without regard to coming and goings of pax. You won't know until you board what day of the cycle you are on.

 

Finally, keep in mind, that the pandemic was really hard on the tourism infrastructure. Tourguides and bus drivers had to get jobs elsewhere when the tourists stopped coming. It is making it hard on the cruise lines.

 

 

 

[Lozzie4415]

Thank you so much for your advice Shadowlover and Peregrina, it’s very helpful and much appreciated. 

[DrKoob]

We are on one of those types of cruises next month. It is a four part cruise (Istanbul to Athens–7 days, Athens to Venice–7 days, Venice to Rome-7 days and Rome to Barcelona–7 days). We are boarding for 21 days in Athens. 

Those who we know from our CC roll call who are boarding in Istanbul were able to book excursions and dining from 60/90 days before their cruise left. Since we are in the second group, this realy didn't affect us. We were able to get pretty much whatever shore excursions we wanted. But it was very strange with dining. Being in a PV we were supposed to get two reservations, one for each restaurant. But we were able to get one reservation for each place for each week of the rest of the journey. That means that we had 6 reservations each. People boarding in Istanbul had 8! People boarding in Rome found next to nothing available other than VERY late times. 

 

Viking needs to figure this out. We benefitted from being early in the cruise but I would have been totally disappointed if we were boarding in Rome. Best of luck and Peregrina has the right idea about writing to tellus@viking.com

 

Good luck.

[Lozzie4415]

Many thanks DrKoob.  Having done the calculation, as Peregrina suggested, it looks as if we should be able to book our shore excursions and restaurant reservations before the Vs and DVs boarding in Auckland, but after the PVs. Hopefully we’ll be ok, fingers crossed.  I’m just glad we pushed the boat out and booked a PJS.  Our shore excursions open for booking on 24 December (12:00 Noon Pacific time - not sure how that equates to UK time!). I shall prioritise booking our excursions over stuffing the turkey and peeling veg for Christmas dinner the next day!  Hope you enjoy your cruise to Barcelona.

[Heidi13]

On 8/16/2022 at 3:06 AM, Lozzie4415 said:

I am new to this site so please excuse me if this is a stupid question.

My husband and I are due to take our first Viking cruise next March - Komodo and the Australian Coast on Viking Mars.  For us, this is the trip of a lifetime (unless we win the lottery!)

We originally booked the March 2020 South East Asia and Hong Kong cruise on Viking Orion to celebrate my retirement in 2019.  Sadly that was scuppered by the pandemic.  After three cancellations by Viking we decided to change itinerary completely and to use our compensation vouchers to pay for pre and post cruise extensions in Sydney and Bali.  Needless to say we are very excited!  

I am now aware that our trip is one segment of the longer Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia cruise which seems to be almost sold out.  So, my question is, how will this affect our ability to take advantage of the priority booking arrangements for excursions (our primary concern) and the restaurants?  Presumably people doing the longer trip will be able to book first?  The priority booking perk was one of the main reasons for booking a Penthouse Junior Suite as this will be our one and only trip ‘down under’ (as we say in the UK).

Any thoughts or experience you may be able to share will be much appreciated.

 

 

Having completed a World Cruise that had some segments, those of us on the full cruise did receive earlier booking opportunities than those on the segments.

 

Further to Peregrina651's reply, I spent a number of months contacting vendors in Australia for private tours. Many of the vendors I used in previous years have retired or shut down the business. Those that survived are trying to re-establish sufficient resources and are starting with tours for locals, before re-establishing the international/cruise tourist side of the business.

 

I have no doubt Viking will experience the same issue I did when arranging shore-ex, so I suspect some patience may be required, as Viking may not meet their deadlines.

[millybess]

8 hours ago, Lozzie4415 said:

Our shore excursions open for booking on 24 December (12:00 Noon Pacific time - not sure how that equates to UK time!). I shall prioritise booking our excursions over stuffing the turkey and peeling veg for Christmas dinner the next day!  Hope you enjoy your cruise to Barcelona.

You might want to prioritize each booking. We usually book and pay for excursions 2 or 3 at a time, always booking the ones that are most important to us first. 

[CurlerRob]

10 hours ago, Lozzie4415 said:

 Our shore excursions open for booking on 24 December (12:00 Noon Pacific time - not sure how that equates to UK time!). I shall prioritise booking our excursions over stuffing the turkey and peeling veg for Christmas dinner the next day!  Hope you enjoy your cruise to Barcelona.

 

2000h or 2100h UK time is my guess - I always manage to mess up regarding daylight savings time, or  rather the lack thereof in December. In any event, evening - hopefully the fowl is complete by then! 🍺🥌

[Peregrina651]

let timeanddate.com figure it out for you

[sugarside]

12 hours ago, CurlerRob said:

 

2000h or 2100h UK time is my guess - I always manage to mess up regarding daylight savings time, or  rather the lack thereof in December. In any event, evening - hopefully the fowl is complete by then! 🍺🥌

Here in the UK i have found that the bookings open at 8pm as stated above.

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, sugarside said:

Here in the UK i have found that the bookings open at 8pm as stated above.

 

Most of the year that is correct, as the time difference is normally 8-hrs.

 

However, in the Pacific Time Zone (Z-8) we change our clox to daylight savings (Z-7) about 2 weeks before UK does, which gives a 7-hour time difference. During this period, at the end March, the booking window should be opening at 19:00.

 

In the Autumn, UK goes back to normal time (GMT) about a week earlier than we do, so again in early November you only have a 7 hr difference, so it will also be 19:00.

[Lozzie4415]

Many thanks for all your helpful comments.  It really helps to hear from experienced cruisers who know Viking well.  I now know where to come for advice in the future. Once again, thank you.