Booking Excursions for “Multi Leg” Cruises

[Frenchberet]

We are booked on the Adriatic & Mediterranean Sojourn cruise.  As I understand it, there are 4 individual cruises (legs) on the full itinerary (Barcelona to Istanbul).  We are on 2, 3, & 4 (Rome to Istanbul).  
 

When our booking dates become available, will the people on leg 1 already have had the opportunity to book their excursions for the entire itinerary?  Just trying to figure out how this will work and if I should be looking into some private tours in case we are unable to book through Viking.  Appreciate any info.

[philw1776]

Great topic.
I am not happy with Viking on this issue. 
Pay $$ for a PV so I can book early, yet everyone who is already on the cruise can book BOTH excursions and preferred times before I can book. Not easy or even possible to find out beforehand if this is the situation.  

[Pushka]

It will depend on whether Cruise 1, 2 3 and 4 are also sold as one cruise of all sectors together. If so, then yes and depending on the length of each individual sector, it's possible that all cabins on Sector 1 get to choose before possibly PV and the various DV cruises on following sectors. This is what happened on our cruise. 
 

We could see excursions selling out long before so booked private tours. Some eventually did become available either through cancellations or extra capacity added. 

Edited April 23, 2023 by Pushka

[Frenchberet]

6 minutes ago, Pushka said:

It will depend on whether Cruise 1, 2 3 and 4 are also sold as one cruise of all sectors together. If so, then yes and depending on the length of each individual sector, it's possible that all cabins on Sector 1 get to choose before possibly PV and the various DV cruises on following sectors. This is what happened on our cruise. 

I guess that’s my answer.  The full itinerary is Mediterranean’s Iconic Shores (Barcelona to Istanbul, 29 days).  Our cruise starts in Rome which is day 8 of their itinerary.  

[Pushka]

19 minutes ago, Frenchberet said:

I guess that’s my answer.  The full itinerary is Mediterranean’s Iconic Shores (Barcelona to Istanbul, 29 days).  Our cruise starts in Rome which is day 8 of their itinerary.  

That won't be too bad as in our situation where the first leg was 14 days so PV on ours missed out on some as DV opened up before our cruise sector. But the people only doing sectors 3 and 4 might be rather unlucky. Ours was just two sectors. 

[Iloveketo]

That’s exactly what happened to us last fall on our cruise from Rome to Barcelona. We were on the last leg of a multi leg cruise. Every paid excursion we wanted was sold out by the time we could book. We were only Deluxe Veranda category, though. We still enjoyed our cruise and did a post in Barcelona and used Viator to see what we wanted. We have also, a couple of times, booked Penthouse Veranda to get earlier booking of excursions. We now also, look at if a cruise is just a part of a longer one. If it is we try to start at the beginning instead of the end if possible. If it reverses sometimes we can. So many things to consider. 
Good luck!

[TayanaLorna]

I was wondering about this also as we are on legs 2 and 3 of a cruise that is sold as 4 individual cruises as well as a 29, 21 and 14 day cruise.  Early research is definitely in order to find private alternatives to must see places just in case.

[Mich3554]

Yes.  
We recently booked excursions on the the 2 legs of the extension of the world cruise, British Isles and Norway.  The cruise was booked as a single, 29 day cruise.  I booked all excursions at the same time when our window opened.