Are Viking included shore excursions guaranteed?

[Hopeful Viking 2024]

I’m considering taking my first Viking cruise. I note that with every port there is only one included shore excursion, but are they guaranteed for every passenger or do some people miss out? I’m also aware that paid excursions first become available for more expensive cabins. Is there any other way to improve my chances of getting on the one I really want? 

[OneSixtyToOne]

Never say never, but I'm not aware of any included excursion being totally booked. You may not get your preferred time, but there will be a tour slot available. COVID caused a shortage of guides in some places but most of that is back to normal. If an included tour fills up, Viking will attempt to add additional resources to accommodate everyone. Remember that you must reserve your included tours so Viking can gauge the interest and assign busses and tour guides.

 

As far as optional tours and improving chances, this has been covered extensively in other threads, but here is a summary:

 

• Make a plan and prioritize what you want to book and book your #1 priority first, select the included tours last. Privileged access tours tend to fill up fast because space is usually limited to a single group. Other popular tours may also be confined to a single group because of restrictions by the venue. The Alhambra is such an excursion, one bus per cruise line.
• Log into MVJ as soon as your time slot opens.
• You cannot use multiple computers, updating will be locked based on a single connection per booking number.
• Book and checkout one excursion at a time. You are not guaranteed a booking until checkout so having items in your cart does not reserve anything.
• Using a bank ACH number is the quickest way to checkout and save time. Enter this information at least a day before your time slot opens. The credit card info you save in MVJ is for use when on the ship only. For MVJ excursions, you will be prompted to enter your info again at checkout, so ACH saves valuable time. ACH requires a simple click and selection of the passenger name from a dropdown list. It also saves you 3.3% of the cost.
• If a tour sells out, check MVJ daily. Sometimes there are cancellations and sometimes Viking is able to add additional resources and offer additional tours at a later time. Also check when onboard because situations can change, again cancellations or additional resources may occur.

 

 

I just reserved all my tours yesterday for my upcoming cruise and I got everything I wanted. I checked back 15 minutes later and some time slots were already filled or sold out.

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2023 by OneSixtyToOne

[Capt_BJ]

I've never failed to get a spot on an 'included' excursion and last time we were in the 'lowest class' cabin.

 

On our most recent cruise an included was cancelled a few day before sailing ... we were notified and rec'd some ON BOARD CREDT $ ......

 

And yes the popular extra cost excursions DO tend to get bought up fast. As a V cabin, not much was available by the time we were eligible to book

[LindaS272]

If the tour you want is sold out at time of booking, e-mail tellus@vikingcruises.com with your name & cruise booking number and tell them how disappointed you are that you couldn’t get a slot. Ask if they will add extra capacity.

 

Then research independent tours for your port stops—these are nearly always cheaper than Viking for the same tours and often with smaller buses.

[CDNPolar]

Like above, we book the lowest cabin available and have never missed on an included excursion.

 

If you cannot book online for any reason, reach out to Viking or at the very least speak with Guest Services the day you board and indicate the excursions you want.

 

Our experience is that Viking rarely fills an entire bus every seat, so there is generally always a spot.  Where you want to book in advance is if there is a meal or entrance fee to somewhere, but even still I believe that there is great flexibility.

[KBs mum]

We've booked a few, but only as transport, instead of local taxis or buses. We discount them unless they are the only practica/financial option. 

Don't worry about places on them, nine times out of ten independent will be as easy and cheaper

[lackcreativity]

We always travel in Veranda cabins, and usually book a few optional excursion on each cruise.  We have rarely missed out on one of the optional excursions that we wanted.

 

If something was really a top priority for me and I was unable to secure a spot, then there are generally independent options available. For instance, from Granada, Spain the trip to the spectacular Alhambra is restricted to just a set number of openings per cruise ship. I suspect that would regularly sell out, so I wouldn't even wait until excursions opened for my cabin category but would book an outside excursion in advance.

 

Taking advantage of the lower cost of the Veranda cabins has also taught me that there is usually more than one interesting option available in a port. We have had very few disappointing excursions on our travels. 

[taiwan_girl]

We have four cabins booked on an upcoming cruise with four separate booking numbers.  I am coordinating all the travel/bookings, so any tips on the best way of maximizing the chances of getting all four bookings on the same excursion at the same time slot?

[SWFLAOK]

We just booked our excursions today at 3PM EDT  for our Viking Mars Panama Canal cruise in December. We booked the first 2 excursions that required an additional payment, and the rest of our excursions were included. If you booked your 4 bookings separately, then you will all need to get online at your earliest booking time, and book them. You will find that there are more than 1 booking time, especially for the included excursions. There was as many as 5 booking times. If you want to be booked together for all of your excursions, you will need to coordinate your bookings. It might to be easyest to give one person all of the user id and passwords to myviking and have them book all of the excursions as soon as they are available. If you have a cruise TA, it might be easier for them to bookj your excursions for 4 different reservations.

We needed to supply a Visa or American Express card, or a bank checking account for the excursions that required an extra fee. We used a Visa card, and Mastercard and Discover are not allowed. They said our reservations for the Visa paid excursions were not guaranteed until our credit card payment cleared, but the included excursions were booked immediately. We did not hear whether our Visa paid excursions were paid for today. We also paid today for our Silver Beverage package, and used our bank checking account for a 3 percent discount. We didn't hear anything about that being paid for today,

[taiwan_girl]

@SWFLAOK Thanks!!!

 

This our first Viking cruise, and I wish they made it easier if a party has multiple cabins.  For example they initially had us on four separate air itineraries, which is frustrating as they (Viking) knew we were a single family group.  Had to pay the extra USD$100/person for Viking Air Plus in order to get the same flights.  Not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, but..............  Our only comparison is a cruise we did on Oceania and they treated the four cabins as one and we all had the same flights from the beginning.

 

Sorry to go off topic here!!  😀

Edited September 2, 2023 by taiwan_girl

[Azulann]

WOW that is a lot of responsibility.

Did you book using a TA or directly with Viking?

As to excursions , have your whole group pick out the optional excursions  you want first and then which included excursion. Make a list the groups priorities. Then someone in each booked stateroom needs to book for their stateroom. Hope you are all in the same category of stateroom: DV or PV's  

 

Pay by e-check which you set up on MVJ. When your  date for booking excursions open  each stateroom person can book for both of the occupants. Pick optional one  and pay for each , then go to include ones. Don't worry aboutincluded ones, most have a number of different time thought the day for the included ones. These are mostly 2-3 hrs bus ride or walking tour. 

Once on board you can also go to excursion desk and see if you all can get the same time for the included one if you did not previously.

Good Luck.

Once on board you can all relax and enjoy your first Viking Cruise. BTW, which itinerary are you going to be on as a group of 8?

Cheers! and welcome to Viking.

cheers!

[TayanaLorna]

Even if you all get the same included and optional excursions be aware that you may not all be on the same bus.  Often there are several buses for each excursion at the same time especially the included ones.  The ONLY way to be on the same bus is agree to meet at a specific location on the ship and then get in line as one group to get your bus number assignment.  When you reach the front of the line, let the Viking person know you are all together.  Don't send two people to wait in the line to get all the bus tickets because they will be asked to go back and get everyone and then get in line.  Just because 2 people get there first, the rest won't be allowed to cut the line.  Sorry if i am being rude, i've just seen it happen too many times with groups.

[formernuke]

Maybe it varies by ship or itinerary, but busses have always been pre assigned for us and listed on the excursion ticket 

[LindaS272]

Just now, formernuke said:

Maybe it varies by ship or itinerary, but busses have always been pre assigned for us and listed on the excursion ticket 

Never for us. We’re assigned a particular tour & the Daily shows when & where to meet, but then the group/bus number is assigned when you check in with the rep at disembarkation. Many tours have more than one bus/group—especially included tours. If somehow there is an actual bus assigned on your ticket (again, never happened to us in six cruises), have all your people traveling with you meet at Guest Services early in the cruise and get it sorted out.

[KBs mum]

If you allready have a small group it might be worth booking a private small group tour, you would likely see more of what interests you and be able to bypass things that don't. 

The included tours are rarely good enough to devote time to, unless ideal for your interests

[SWFLAOK]

Our previous experience on Viking was a river cruise, and there were just the 2 of us on the cruise. But the bus was assigned based on when we got to the buses based on the time on our tickets (and on TV), and not a bus number preassigned on the ticket.

Most of our cruise experience is 100 nights on Regent on a number of cruises from 2017 through this  year. The bus assigned was based on when you checked in for the excursion in the lounge, in most cases, or at the bus if it was a "meet on the dock" excursion which was announced on the TV, and in the printed bulletin on the bed the night before on Regent. I suspect it's the same on Viking Ocean.

We traveled with 2 other people in 2 other cabins on Regent last April. We agreed on the excursions we wanted at the time we wanted, and all got online at the assigned time to book them. On Regent, we knew all of the times for excursions before we booked them, but on Viking Ocean, there were additional times shown when booked that were not shown before the actual booking time. It wasn't a problem for us since we're alone on the upcoming Viking Ocean cruise. On Regent, we were able to book restaurant reservations for all 3 cabins so we did that for all 4 of us. Our Viking Ocean dinner reservations can't be made until next Friday, so I don't know if they allow other cabins to be added.

We almost always make reservations ourselves rather than having our cruise TA do it since if something comes up, we can react faster. For example, I normally use my Jet Blue MasterCard for my travel expenses, and that's what my cruise TA has. With the Viking Ocean excursions last Friday, she would have needed to call us to get a Visa card number.

[May B]

If four of you are booking for the four cabins, I would recommend opening a zoom call to be discussing what you’re doing, as you’re doing it.

 

And as much as I dislike paying with cash, it does seem that the eCheck booking has the potential to be quicker at actually purchasing your excursions. That means linking the bank info in advance.

 

Good luck!

[Fieldofdreams]

On 9/1/2023 at 7:04 AM, OneSixtyToOne said:

Never say never, but I'm not aware of any included excursion being totally booked. You may not get your preferred time, but there will be a tour slot available. COVID caused a shortage of guides in some places but most of that is back to normal. If an included tour fills up, Viking will attempt to add additional resources to accommodate everyone. Remember that you must reserve your included tours so Viking can gauge the interest and assign busses and tour guides.

 

As far as optional tours and improving chances, this has been covered extensively in other threads, but here is a summary:

 

• Make a plan and prioritize what you want to book and book your #1 priority first, select the included tours last. Privileged access tours tend to fill up fast because space is usually limited to a single group. Other popular tours may also be confined to a single group because of restrictions by the venue. The Alhambra is such an excursion, one bus per cruise line.
• Log into MVJ as soon as your time slot opens.
• You cannot use multiple computers, updating will be locked based on a single connection per booking number.
• Book and checkout one excursion at a time. You are not guaranteed a booking until checkout so having items in your cart does not reserve anything.
• Using a bank ACH number is the quickest way to checkout and save time. Enter this information at least a day before your time slot opens. The credit card info you save in MVJ is for use when on the ship only. For MVJ excursions, you will be prompted to enter your info again at checkout, so ACH saves valuable time. ACH requires a simple click and selection of the passenger name from a dropdown list. It also saves you 3.3% of the cost.
• If a tour sells out, check MVJ daily. Sometimes there are cancellations and sometimes Viking is able to add additional resources and offer additional tours at a later time. Also check when onboard because situations can change, again cancellations or additional resources may occur.

 

 

I just reserved all my tours yesterday for my upcoming cruise and I got everything I wanted. I checked back 15 minutes later and some time slots were already filled or sold out.

 

Good luck.

 

 

 

I would also add to check MVJ for availability of tours 24 hours prior to when Viking states that the excursions will load and keep checking every hour or so. On both of our Viking cruises the excursions were loaded into MVJ well in advance. Certainly increases the odds of getting the excursions you would like to take.

[CDNPolar]

We have also had great luck after boarding the ship to be moved, changed, or added to an excursion.

 

For optional, even if today they tell you that tomorrow is booked, go to the desk one hour before and ask to be included and often you can be.  There is great flexibility on board and we have always found that the customer service on the ship is about accommodating you and not pushing you away.

[taiwan_girl]

Thanks so much to everyone for the detailed replies!!

 

We are on the Dec 2023 Journey to Antiquities.  3-generation family cruise.  Kind of last minute as we didn't book until mid August.  Did air through Viking as much cheaper than anything we could find by ourselves.  

 

We really really liked the Oceania cruise we took and hope this one will be at least equal.

[OneSixtyToOne]

38 minutes ago, taiwan_girl said:

We are on the Dec 2023 Journey to Antiquities.  3-generation family cruise.  Kind of last minute as we didn't book until mid August.  Did air through Viking as much cheaper than anything we could find by ourselves.  

We were on the Journey to Antiquities last January. You will love it. Here is my live posting.