1sttimerrt Posted October 13 #1 Share Posted October 13 I am considering some of the optional tours that require payment. Is there any way to tell in advance what the group size for one of these tours might be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare OneSixtyToOne Posted October 13 #2 Share Posted October 13 (edited) There is no way of telling the group size. Most tours that require bus transportation will have one guide per bus. Occasionally they may break it into two guides per bus if the venue requires smaller groups. Most tours average 30-40 people. Edited October 13 by OneSixtyToOne Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
formernuke Posted October 13 #3 Share Posted October 13 That is the average, but I have also been on tours with much fewer(as little as 8-10). No way to tell in advance in general. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted October 13 #4 Share Posted October 13 On Viking Homelands the optional tour to Berlin had over 400 people. No way to tell. We have also been on a couple of tours where it was only 6 people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LindaS272 Posted October 13 #5 Share Posted October 13 10 hours ago, 1sttimerrt said: I am considering some of the optional tours that require payment. Is there any way to tell in advance what the group size for one of these tours might be. Probably not. But you could always book what appeals to you and then inquire of the shore excursions manager once on the ship. You can cancel up to 48 hrs in advance if you don’t like the numbers. But you wouldn’t be able to do that for the first two days of the cruise, obviously. And if you did end up canceling excursions for later in the cruise when you’re on board, you might not be able to book into a substitute (maybe others would be sold out), and not likely to book a 3rd party tour at that late date either. But you never know! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Planning to cruise Posted October 13 #6 Share Posted October 13 36 minutes ago, CDNPolar said: On Viking Homelands the optional tour to Berlin had over 400 people. No way to tell. The Berlin tours all share one private chartered train that takes all who have booked the Viking included or optional tours to Berlin from Warnemunde to the city. On our visit 300 were on the train. Once there, each tour goes their separate ways with their own guide in smaller groups. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare island lady Posted October 13 #7 Share Posted October 13 We were on one that was just the two of us!! We couldn't believe they did not cancel it. The guide was fantastic...we all had a great time. We shared bus space with another tour to get from ship to town and back. Our tour was a walking tour once we got into town. Guess there was not a lot of cost layout for that one, so perhaps is why they did not cancel. And of course we paid a generous cash tip. 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted October 13 #8 Share Posted October 13 21 minutes ago, island lady said: We were on one that was just the two of us!! We couldn't believe they did not cancel it. The guide was fantastic...we all had a great time. We shared bus space with another tour to get from ship to town and back. Our tour was a walking tour once we got into town. Guess there was not a lot of cost layout for that one, so perhaps is why they did not cancel. And of course we paid a generous cash tip. 😉 They won't cancel, the guides and tour companies are all pre-booked and paid for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare island lady Posted October 13 #9 Share Posted October 13 24 minutes ago, CDNPolar said: They won't cancel, the guides and tour companies are all pre-booked and paid for. That's nice to know...but I have had it happen on other cruise lines. I guess Viking cares more. I wouldn't mind another "private...two person" tour again in the future. 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare OneSixtyToOne Posted October 13 #10 Share Posted October 13 25 minutes ago, CDNPolar said: They won't cancel, the guides and tour companies are all pre-booked and paid for. On our most recent trip to Iceland we received a note in our stateroom that one of our paid excursions was cancelled for lack of participants, so it all depends on a lot of factors. We had to schedule another tour as soon as we boarded. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mich3554 Posted October 13 #11 Share Posted October 13 1 hour ago, CDNPolar said: They won't cancel, the guides and tour companies are all pre-booked and paid for. They will cancel. I had an excursion canceled as DH and I were the only ones who signed up for it. I was not a happy camper about this, and let them know. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mich3554 Posted October 13 #12 Share Posted October 13 1 hour ago, CDNPolar said: They won't cancel, the guides and tour companies are all pre-booked and paid for. In my experience, they will cancel as we have had one canceled on us. DH and I were the only ones signed up for it. I was not a happy camper about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mich3554 Posted October 13 #13 Share Posted October 13 1 hour ago, CDNPolar said: They won't cancel, the guides and tour companies are all pre-booked and paid for. I have had them cancel an excursion on us too. DH and I were the onl6 ones on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare LindaS272 Posted October 13 #14 Share Posted October 13 We had a tour canceled on us by Viking out of Valparaiso. It was the Pablo Neruda tour for the day after boarding. They said it had been a go on the previous sailing, but ours didn’t have enough bookings. We learned as soon as we boarded and had to scramble to make alternative arrangements. As it happened, we had stayed two nights in Valparaiso at a small hotel and the driver the hotel booked for us was president of the local tour guide association. We contacted him and he booked us with his son & another driver the next day on a Pablo Neruda tour. It was substantially higher in price than Viking’s but a great tour. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baron Barracuda Posted October 13 #15 Share Posted October 13 On the other hand have seen them add additional capacity when tours sell out. Comes down to whether tour company can accommodate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iloveketo Posted October 13 #16 Share Posted October 13 In French Polynesia our WaveRunner excursion only had 6 people total! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mich3554 Posted October 14 #17 Share Posted October 14 20 hours ago, Iloveketo said: In French Polynesia our WaveRunner excursion only had 6 people total! I can tell you why here. We were scheduled on this and they have a weight limit (I want to say a total of 400 lbs for 2 people). If you were over, they don’t provide 2 Waverunners. I suspect they lost a lot of customers this way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare May B Posted October 15 #18 Share Posted October 15 On 10/13/2024 at 8:27 AM, CDNPolar said: On Viking Homelands the optional tour to Berlin had over 400 people. No way to tell. We have also been on a couple of tours where it was only 6 people. I would say we had over 600 guests go to Berlin. Many of us went on the included tour. Some were on optional. The welcome back from the crew and staff was priceless. Berlin (actually, Warnemunde) is a rather unique port. I doubt it has much relation to most any other port. How many guests were on the actual optional tour that you took, @CDNPolar ? On a cruise full of wonderful ports, our time in Berlin was very special. There’s a little bus tour on the included tour, before dropping us to explore on our own. One fun thing, we thought, was how amused our guide was, seeing the British Embassy near Brandenburg Gate, directly across the street from a building with a big EU symbol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CKspring Posted October 15 #19 Share Posted October 15 We just booked our excursions for February. I paid for the optional excursions with an ACH draft. The charge has not hit my account yet. When does Viking pull the funds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
millybess Posted October 15 #20 Share Posted October 15 8 minutes ago, CKspring said: We just booked our excursions for February. I paid for the optional excursions with an ACH draft. The charge has not hit my account yet. When does Viking pull the funds? We booked excursions for our upcoming January cruise in August through ACH. We were able to secure our spots on the excursions, but when we went to look at our account, the money was still there. The next day we received a new invoice from Viking with the amount due for the excursions. In our case, the excursions could be booked before the Payment in Full date. So, in the end, we didn't have to pay for the excursions until the PIF date. For us, the whole process was an oddity -- something we had never experienced with Viking before. Usually the money is taken from the account as you book the excursions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted October 15 #21 Share Posted October 15 15 minutes ago, CKspring said: We just booked our excursions for February. I paid for the optional excursions with an ACH draft. The charge has not hit my account yet. When does Viking pull the funds? We have had ACH take 7 days before... it will happen... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare CDNPolar Posted October 15 #22 Share Posted October 15 2 hours ago, May B said: Berlin (actually, Warnemunde) is a rather unique port. I doubt it has much relation to most any other port. How many guests were on the actual optional tour that you took, @CDNPolar ? I don't remember exactly, but I want to say that there were 2 busses for our optional tour? Perhaps a little less than a quarter of the people that went on the train? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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