Port Shuttles?

[shmabbies]

On 5/28/2024 at 8:47 AM, Travelswithmycamera said:

Viking Med cruise last August out of Athens-overnight.  Shuttle offered to the Plaka area which we took advantage of for a wonderful day. 

 

We did Viking Med March 2024 and also had free shuttle from ship in Piraeus to Plaka in Athens and we were in port multiple days.  It was NOT an on your own excursion, it was a true shuttle that IIRC ran hourly.  I know we used it in both directions two of the three days we were in port, not sure it ran the third day, would have to verify this by checking ship newsletter. Just booked our first Azamara for 2025 and had expectations of shuttles where appropriate.  Lack thereof may influence whether we stay booked.

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

Good job for Viking offering this – but, doesn't Viking promise one free excursion in every port?  Are you sure this wasn't your free excursion?  Because Piraeus to Athens is farther than I would expect a "port shuttle to town" – getting closer to Livorno to Florence.

[Mrs Miggins]

The Viking free shuttle (which surprised me as we didnt have one on Azamara) was separate from the free excursion offered.  Many like us took the included tour then stayed on in Athens taking the free shuttle back to the ship later in the day.

[shmabbies]

On 6/2/2024 at 12:34 AM, Host Jazzbeau said:

Are you sure this wasn't your free excursion?  Because Piraeus to Athens is farther than I would expect a "port shuttle to town" – getting closer to Livorno to Florence.

I was a little offended by this comment as I clearly stated in my post that I knew the difference between an excursion and a free shuttle, but then I calmed down a bit and Mr. Shmabbies and I had a good laugh.  So I'll make another statement which will also likely be ignored and say that I am NOT a Viking cheerleader and for other reasons we are exploring other options to Viking (which is why I'm on the Azamara forum) - but that doesn't negate the fact that they DO run shuttles.  Here is a photo of the Viking Daily from one of the days the shuttle ran.  We were in Piraeus for multiple days so the same post appeared more than once.  If you don't believe the Viking Daily clip and still think I'm mistaken, I can't do anything about that.  Thank you Mrs Miggins for confirming that I was not using hallucinogenic drugs those days in Piraeus.

 

 

[laurieb]

On 5/25/2024 at 12:37 PM, carfla7 said:

As a regular Azamara cruiser I am a bit concerned that the port shuttles (where available) are being dropped. I can’t see any mention of them on the website. My next cruise (Northern Cities 22/08/24) has several ports where a shuttle would be needed. But reading others’ posts it looks like they won’t be providing them. Of course, it could just be that they are simply not available. What recent experiences do people have?

We are already vexed because there has been a major change to the itinerary and I am trying now to manage expectations…. 🙄😎

Currently on Quest; there have been shuttles offered at many of the ports we’ve been over the past month.  Currently in Nantes with shuttles offered all day.  Because of a possible strike here, captain Johannes changed our itinerary to include Belle-Ille-En-Mer yesterday; the strike was called off, but because we now weren’t going to be here two days, the shuttle provider-not Azamara- no longer wanted to provide busses for us.  Miami stepped in and convinced the company to provide the busses for today.