Kiwi-gal Posted September 13 #1 Share Posted September 13 Hi Everyone New here to river cruising and doing a lot of research at the moment. In regards to Viking river cruise excursions I have a couple of questions. I see that they have an included excursion at each stop. I also seen other excursions that are available. Do you get time to do more than 1 excursion or is time only available for 1? Can anyone tell me roughly what I should budget for these tours as there is no price on them? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare pontac Posted September 14 #2 Share Posted September 14 My Viking Journey (MVJ) will state the cost of optional tours, also the start & end time; also it won't let you book two tours that clash. You have to go to MVJ to book included tours, so for example, if you book an included excursion that runs from 09:00 - 12:00 and then try to book an optional tour that runs 08:30 - 12:30 on the same day then it will tell you they clash and you can do only one. If you prefer the optional tour, then you unbook the included excursion and then you can book the optional. There's also full details of what all these excursions include. Most excursions are in the morning or afternoon timed so that you have time for lunch on the boat and are back in time for dinner. A few are all day excursions where lunch on the excursion may or may not be included. Note: the excursions are not available for booking until about 6-9 months in advance of the cruise. I suggest you book all included excursions; you don't have to go on them if you decide on the day but they have laid on enough coaches (where necessary) to include you. https://www.myvikingjourney.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planning to cruise Posted September 14 #3 Share Posted September 14 Note that you do have to make a booking for any included excursion, just not pay anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare twototravel Posted September 16 #4 Share Posted September 16 @Kiwi-gal We just had all the excursions pop up on our My Viking account last week. We went through each day. There is a included excursion in each port. If you stay at a port more than one day, there will only be optionals available. From what we saw, you may not be able to do both the included and an optional, so be sure to go through everything and choose wisely. We only chose a few optionals, and then reserved almost all the included tours. Prices for the optionals went from around $100 to $400. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkster77 Posted September 17 #5 Share Posted September 17 On our tulip cruise in April, we were able to do both an included and an optional tour on the same day 3 times.. None of them were all day tours so it all worked out. Not all the offered optionals were over $100) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted September 19 #6 Share Posted September 19 We often do two excursions in one day and depending on the sailing time find time to go back into the city. We are generally exhausted on a River cruise for this reason. Sometimes however if you really want one optional excursion you may have to miss the included because they conflict in time. We look at every excursion and the times available and then book the best selections for us. You cannot book a conflicting time excursion on the Viking site, it won't let you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare JordanF Posted September 19 #7 Share Posted September 19 General advice I have seen and agree with is to sign up for all the included tours so you get into them, and then only sign up for the paid tours you really want (I have not been on Viking, but other lines are similar). Also to consider, it is nice to have free time to wander around town, or to just chill on the boat. Have a great trip! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted September 21 #8 Share Posted September 21 On 9/19/2024 at 2:53 PM, JordanF said: General advice I have seen and agree with is to sign up for all the included tours so you get into them, and then only sign up for the paid tours you really want (I have not been on Viking, but other lines are similar). Also to consider, it is nice to have free time to wander around town, or to just chill on the boat. Have a great trip! When excursions open, I will often do just this. Book every included, and then go back and see what I want in optional. If a conflict then I cancel the included and book the optional. On Viking however, book the optionals quickly as they can and do sell out. Viking do not add additional optional spaces - this directly from tellus@vikingcruises.com. If you are seeing optionals open up it is because someone has cancelled. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smlri Posted September 24 #9 Share Posted September 24 Agree with JordanF. Going on our 3rd Viking in 3 weeks. We sign up for all the included tours then do our own thing in town after-museum, church, lunch, shopping, a better look at something we saw on the tour, etc. If there’s a paid excursion to something special we really want to see we book it. Usually pretty easy to find your way back to the boat in time for pre dinner cocktails and next days port talk… 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campbell40 Posted October 15 #10 Share Posted October 15 How many days in advance do the excursion options post? TIA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare pontac Posted October 15 #11 Share Posted October 15 19 minutes ago, Campbell40 said: How many days in advance do the excursion options post? TIA I got an email from Viking on 2 October 2024 saying Optional Excursions are open for my cruise starting 22 June 2025 so almost nine months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planning to cruise Posted October 15 #12 Share Posted October 15 2 hours ago, Campbell40 said: How many days in advance do the excursion options post? TIA It varies by cabin grade. The more expensive rooms have a longer run in period and it works down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted October 15 #13 Share Posted October 15 2 hours ago, Campbell40 said: How many days in advance do the excursion options post? TIA River they open much in advance as @pontac indicated. We have found them open before getting an email. 4 minutes ago, Planning to cruise said: It varies by cabin grade. The more expensive rooms have a longer run in period and it works down. I may be wrong with this, but on River, I think they just open for all cabin categories at once. If you look at various Ocean cabin categories, they DO open on specific dates, but on River, there is no category that lists shore excursions earlier than anyone else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planning to cruise Posted October 15 #14 Share Posted October 15 16 minutes ago, CDNPolar said: River they open much in advance as @pontac indicated. We have found them open before getting an email. I may be wrong with this, but on River, I think they just open for all cabin categories at once. If you look at various Ocean cabin categories, they DO open on specific dates, but on River, there is no category that lists shore excursions earlier than anyone else. Sorry, I think this is right. I just forgot that I was on the river not the ocean board. Apologies for any confusion or misleading info. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Campbell40 Posted October 16 #15 Share Posted October 16 I went on my Viking account today and I was able to book all of our excursions, we’re doing the Rhine Getaway next June. We have an Explorer Suite so I did think we got to pick very early. As I have no pending notifications I’m glad that I asked this question yesterday and received some responses, otherwise I would have waited for the notification, thank you! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare austinetc Posted Tuesday at 06:40 PM #16 Share Posted Tuesday at 06:40 PM On 9/14/2024 at 9:35 AM, Planning to cruise said: Note that you do have to make a booking for any included excursion, just not pay anything. Actually, I've been told many times that you don't HAVE to book the included excursions early. They never get fully booked. They can be booked the night before. MyVikingJourney will sometimes list an included excursion as fully booked, but I've always learned on board that it's just a computer thing. (BUT on the flip side of this good thing, we once booked an included excursion because the optional one we booked was canceled. Pandemonium! The Included tour had four groups of 40 people each, all walking the same route at nearly the same time. I'm sure the people who booked early didn't appreciate the situation.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Jazzbeau Posted Tuesday at 07:07 PM #17 Share Posted Tuesday at 07:07 PM 26 minutes ago, austinetc said: The Included tour had four groups of 40 people each, all walking the same route at nearly the same time. This is typical of Viking (40 people in a group). Whenever we see a Viking flag in a European city we either walk fast to get ahead of them or go the other way! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare austinetc Posted Tuesday at 07:50 PM #18 Share Posted Tuesday at 07:50 PM 36 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said: This is typical of Viking (40 people in a group). Whenever we see a Viking flag in a European city we either walk fast to get ahead of them or go the other way! I've been on eight Viking River cruises. 40 is the max size, with duplicate tours having separate start times. In this case it wasn't in any way typical. We toured a small village with narrow streets. It was more like 160 people grouped together, with four escorts. The start time and route were the same. The local tour guides were not happy with Viking at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Host Jazzbeau Posted Tuesday at 08:09 PM #19 Share Posted Tuesday at 08:09 PM 12 minutes ago, austinetc said: I've been on eight Viking River cruises. 40 is the max size, with duplicate tours having separate start times. In this case it wasn't in any way typical. We toured a small village with narrow streets. It was more like 160 people grouped together, with four escorts. The start time and route were the same. The local tour guides were not happy with Viking at all. I just had a private tour guide in Sorrento who refuses to work with Viking because of the large group sizes. She had 50 and spent all her time counting them! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted Wednesday at 06:20 AM #20 Share Posted Wednesday at 06:20 AM We left Madeira yesterday. We booked a private tour that included the Cabo Girao Skywalk and as we were leaving, 3 Viking busses arrived at the same time. We were on Viking, but chose to book private because our tour had elements that Viking did not offer. But this skywalk was not large and 3 bus loads would be a nightmare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smlri Posted 20 hours ago #21 Share Posted 20 hours ago Just returned 2 days ago from our 3rd Viking River cruise-Passau to Budapest down the Danube and we agreed it was the best of the 3. Great food, pleasant staff and comfy, standard cabin(same square footage and used on all 3 of our cruises).For tours we were broken up into 5 groups and as not all cabins were full, I would guess that’s about 35 per group but the headsets allow you some distance from tour guide so u are not bunched up. We did not purchase any other tours but fellow passengers we came to know seemed to enjoy. We just did our own thing after tours-lunch out, museum in Vienna, shopping, cafes, etc. easy to get around(Vienna metro a breeze, shuttle buses available in some towns and others you just had short walks). Best part? Going up to top deck late in evening as suggested for sail into Budapest! One of the best travel moments ever! Don’t miss it if you do this cruise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted 15 hours ago #22 Share Posted 15 hours ago 4 hours ago, smlri said: Best part? Going up to top deck late in evening as suggested for sail into Budapest! One of the best travel moments ever! Don’t miss it if you do this cruise. Both times to Budapest now we have arrived during the day. We booked a night cruise of the city scape and it was unbelievable. Budapest lit up is amazing! If you sail in at night, be on deck. If you do not sail in at night find a local city based cruise and go on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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