Size of groups on excursions?

We just returned from Viking's Passage to Eastern Europe. While overall we enjoyed the cruise the size of groups on excursions was 40+ and that was a serious challenge for my sanity. We did use the QuietVox system so we could hear well and didn't need to huddle around the guide but that is just too many people in a group for my liking.

Each stop involved a bathroom break which for that many people took forever and in one instance used up all but 15 minutes of our time at a museum.

Do any other companies consistently use smaller groups? I think I read one AMA review where they said there were 20 in a group but maybe it depends on the itinerary or how full the ship is.

Also dividing passengers into "gentle walkers" or "active" groups seems like a no-brainer. Again I think AMA is the one that does that or maybe others do as well?

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

Leslie

We are just back from an AMA cruise. I think that the max in our groups was about 24, we also used the QuietVox system and they broke our groups up into gentle walkers, active and regular walkers for the larger tours. If it was a smaller group, there was still always a gentle walkers group.

thanks -- it does sound like AMA will be one to seriously consider for next time. 24 is do-able!

I hate hate hate waiting around for people. I've always been a little concerned about the included tours on river cruises. Gak. Fingers crossed our groups are a little smaller:o

We had very little waiting around on our AMA shore excursions. The group sizes were kept small, and they split into gentle (only about 6 people, so that worked well for them and everybody else), several regular, and often an active. We always took the active, but since the guides had to get their entire spiel in I'm not sure we really walked any faster (except once when it made all the difference for our getting to Mass on time!).

I hope yours are, too! The main waiting was really the bathroom breaks. I don't know why the guides couldn't somehow stagger that like point it out and say "sometime during our hour here feel free to come back and use the WC." I guess then they risk everyone trying to go at once at the end of the excursion and end up late getting everyone back on the bus or back to the boat.

Or maybe our experience was unique and most guides know better how to handle that.

But 40+ people moving in a group is just slow, slow, slow no matter how agile people are so we had to be very patient.

It wasn't enough to ruin our trip or anything but I'll probably avoid a company that uses big groups in the future. Other than that we really enjoyed the Viking experience.

jazzbeau - sorry I missed your post before I replied. I love what I'm hearing about AMA's small groups. Other than that did you enjoy everything else about your cruise? The ship you were on, etc.? I think I did read your post with your review a while back - I'll have to take another look now that AMA is seeming like a real possibility.

On our AMA river cruise, we were divided into groups and given a color card. That told us the color of the lollipop that our guide carried. We were never offered the opportunity to have slow or active walking groups. We traveled on large busses that were about 2/3 full. I would estimate that each group consisted of 25 to 30 people. One tour was poorly attended and had less than 15 participants.

On Avalon cruise July 2013 we had 4 tour groups each day, different colours that you could pick each day, one was for slow walkers, each group had 20 to 25 in. All tours had headsets that you could hear guide even if you were 50 to 80m away. Was very well done.

You could also leave group and find your own way back to boat or bus by a given time. You were always provide with emergency phone number and map of location with ship dock clearly labelled.

On a Tauck cruise there is a maximum of 118 passengers and all of our groups were around 18-20 people. It was perfect. If you travel on a boat that has 170-200 passengers then it is logical to me that the groups will be much, much larger. The boat capacity is just one of the criteria we used when selecting our Southern France river cruise for 2014.

jazzbeau - sorry I missed your post before I replied. I love what I'm hearing about AMA's small groups. Other than that did you enjoy everything else about your cruise? The ship you were on, etc.? I think I did read your post with your review a while back - I'll have to take another look now that AMA is seeming like a real possibility.

Yes, we loved everything about our cruise. AMAcello is one of their older ships at this point (relatively - nothing on AMA is very old). It is very well designed and maintained. We had a French balcony, which I think is better than a balcony because it doesn't steal any sf from the room (the only better design is I think on Uniworld, where the top half of the glass wall drops down so you have the entire cabin width open from waist level up). The food was great, the wines were good (and varied - a different red and white every dinner) and liberally poured.

The tours were also great. When the center of town was a ways away (or for the multiple town tours) they had several coaches. The coaches were never filled, and there were more guides than coaches so the walking groups were quite manageable. When you turned your Quietvox on it synched to the frequency of the nearest guide - so I guess if you didn't like your guide you could just find another group and re-synch [there was only one guide we didn't like, and thankfully she paired up with a better one for our Strasbourg canal cruise].

I also don't think the prices on AMA are higher than other lines, when you count the inclusives and the quality.

We just returned from Viking's Passage to Eastern Europe. While overall we enjoyed the cruise the size of groups on excursions was 40+ and that was a serious challenge for my sanity. We did use the QuietVox system so we could hear well and didn't need to huddle around the guide but that is just too many people in a group for my liking.

 

Each stop involved a bathroom break which for that many people took forever and in one instance used up all but 15 minutes of our time at a museum.

 

Do any other companies consistently use smaller groups? I think I read one AMA review where they said there were 20 in a group but maybe it depends on the itinerary or how full the ship is.

 

Also dividing passengers into "gentle walkers" or "active" groups seems like a no-brainer. Again I think AMA is the one that does that or maybe others do as well?

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

Leslie

The groups on the Passage to Eastern Europe were bigger than on many of our other cruises - but I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that many of the excursions were dependent on transportation by bus - and they had to jockey the groups to prevent overwhelming the area we were to visit. (ie: 3 or 4 spots to visit, and the buses rotated to each area....)

Not sure if I explained that well... Does it make sense??

Fran

We are just back from an AMA cruise. I think that the max in our groups was about 24, we also used the QuietVox system and they broke our groups up into gentle walkers, active and regular walkers for the larger tours. If it was a smaller group, there was still always a gentle walkers group.

Was this a river cruise ???

Thanks to all for the additional feedback.

Franski - I wondered too if those large groups had something to do with that particular itinerary or if it's just a Viking thing. Have you done any other Viking trips which used smaller groups?

Running the numbers. If a Viking Long ship holds 190 5 buses would seems to make sense.

Are you saying they had less than 5.

I don't know the # of buses but they were all full.

Just because the buses were full doesn't mean the walking tour groups have to be that big. They could have more guides than buses. That's what AMA did.

Was this a river cruise ???

As shown in my signature: AmaWaterways AmaCello Enchanting Rhine (Amsterdam to Basel with extension to Lucerne and Zurich) Aug-Sept. 2013

Was this a river cruise ???

Yes I think AMA only does river cruises.

Thanks to all for the additional feedback.

 

Franski - I wondered too if those large groups had something to do with that particular itinerary or if it's just a Viking thing. Have you done any other Viking trips which used smaller groups?

No, that was our 1st with Viking....

Fran

Our first Cruise was with Viking (2008) but on one of the older smaller boats..I don't remember the amt in each group but am sure it was less than 50. Second river cruise ( 2012) was with Avalon in France.. it also split up into 4 groups....34-36 persons in each..the boat holds 140....The groups never felt too crowded. And as was mentioned..you got maps & could go off on your own any time. So my impression is that the new Viking boats which hold more passangers would have larger tour groups. We are looking foreward to our next Avalon cruise in August 2014 .

Dear Sparky333,

Welcome home from your cruise — we’re happy to hear that overall you enjoyed your trip. Walking tours tend to have group sizes of approximately 20-25 people, although in certain cases groups may need to be a bit larger. All Viking itineraries also feature a variety of paces to choose from for walking tours, along with different excursion types, such as “extended tours” or “highlights only.” Unfortunately it sounds as though your particular sailing may have been met with some exceptions – and for that we do apologize. We’d liked to put you in touch with our Customer Relations team so we can learn more about your experience, work to make adjustments based on feedback, and answer any questions you may have. Please contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com.

Sincerely,

Viking Cruises

We just returned from Viking's Passage to Eastern Europe. While overall we enjoyed the cruise the size of groups on excursions was 40+ and that was a serious challenge for my sanity. We did use the QuietVox system so we could hear well and didn't need to huddle around the guide but that is just too many people in a group for my liking.

 

Each stop involved a bathroom break which for that many people took forever and in one instance used up all but 15 minutes of our time at a museum.

 

Do any other companies consistently use smaller groups? I think I read one AMA review where they said there were 20 in a group but maybe it depends on the itinerary or how full the ship is.

 

Also dividing passengers into "gentle walkers" or "active" groups seems like a no-brainer. Again I think AMA is the one that does that or maybe others do as well?

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback.

 

Leslie

I was so happy to see Viking's response. We are doing the Budapest to Amsterdam next fall and thought of large groups being herded around is definitely what we hoped to avoid by choosing a River Cruise. Viking know that this is important to our group of 10!

I was thinking along the same lines as Fran regarding Viking. On our 'Tulips & Windmills' cruise, we had smaller groups on our walking tours that departed directly from the ship. I'd estimate the group size at 25 max. We only had a couple of tours that required bus transportation, and on those tours we were able to visit the sights independently. We did have guides on the bus who gave us background as we rode to the attraction, which was good preparation for our visit.

I will be doing the Bucharest to Budapest on November 21, 2013 I will try to keep track of the numbers. I am really looking forward to this one.