McTravelersUS

9 hours ago, CCWineLover said:

That is exactly what we did.  We wanted the optional more so booked it.  Went onboard with no included in that port.  Then after a few days of checking with excursion desk, slots opened up.  Another time, we went standby on an included time.  Viking sadly gets many people who are no shows for an included tour and don't bother to cancel since it is free.  Happens all the time.

18 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

Which do you want to do more? The included or the optional?  Are you willing to give up taking the included so that you can do the optional tour? Those are your first decisions.

 

 

I cancelled the included excursion and booked the optional tour.  Then to my delight I found that an 8:30 slot was open on the included tour.  All is good.  Thanks to you both for your suggestions and ideas.

On 9/23/2023 at 11:34 PM, Peregrina651 said:

If there is something you really want, contact Viking at tellus@vikingcruises (not via chat and not the call center) and tell them how devastated that the shorex you really wanted is sold out already and that you are hoping that they will be adding more seats. (I try to go for the tears and sympathy vibe when I do this; there is nothing worse than dealing with a crying grandma😉).

Once you have booked an included tour with multiple times, is there any way to see if any other time slots have opened up?  Or might an email to ’tellus’ work?  We reserved the 11:45 one because all the earlier slots were taken and that conflicts with an interesting optional excursion.  Would it be smarter to cancel the free one and book the paid excursion?  Then maybe we could hope to get on an earlier version of that day’s included tour when we get on the ship?  I really should have gotten on CC earlier. 😢