Vikingm0mma

WOO HOO! Viking has our One Day Bergen -Express to Oslo excursion squared away for us! We will be on the morning Bergen - Express to Oslo where we'll be met by Viking Staff and guided to the Oslo Panoramic Drive tour and the Viking Ship Museum before we check in the Radisson Blu Scandinavian Hotel. ( We are assuming that the Radisson will host their Viking guests in one of their newly renovated rooms.) I was assured by Viking that the itinerary details for this excursion will be provided to us on the ship. I do so wish all of this was printed in the documents. Since we are on our own for dinner on our last night in Norway, it would be nice to know what time we'll be available for restaurant reservations. Oh well, we're open to surprises, too! This is going to be a great adventure! Oh BTW I was told there is an umbrella in every state room..........a mixed omen ?

 

When my husband was at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship his rowing coach was Prince Harald of Norway (now the King of Norway). Good job we hadn't made plans to visit the Palace. If we had I wonder whether Viking might have been agreeable to getting us there a day early?

That's a great story about your hubby and the soon-to-be King! LOL

Keep that story in your hip pocket, in case you have open the strong stuff

to convince Viking to do what you require. After all, if you're dining at the Palace.....

I love it!

See? This journey is already fun!

VIKING probably expected the two day, two night, two hotels tour covering two

cities to appeal strongly to its passengers. We were initially attracted to it, but it was

expensive and we were already required to pay a steep fee to SAS to change our return to leave from Oslo. (Our air was already ticketed when we added this excursion in April.)

I am waiting to receive fresh documents that will have the confirmed hotel, train and tour

details in writing.

I'm confident that it is only a glitch that Viking will do all possible to rectify.

Hey! Don't we sail one month from today? WOO HOO

It's been a long time coming

since May 2013

I get it, cassandra44--it sounds like a lot of miscommunication between original booking and today's "reality."

 

FWIW, I have this just received from my TA regarding my question about the Komfort class booking (I'd asked if it was possible for us to pay a premium to book it for the Bergen>Oslo train trip):

 

Thank you for your recent inquiry regarding your clients’ upgrade request for the rail transport on the Oslo and Bergen Rail extension. The standard seating is the only class of service Viking Cruises can provide during this extension package. While we cannot prevent pax from booking/upgrading to Komfort service on their own upon arrival, we also do not recommend that pax do this as it greatly increases the chance that they will miss our staff. Our staff greets and escorts our passengers as a group in one class of service to make transfers more efficient and to be readily available if any issues arise during the transfer process. Furthermore, we cannot preclude the possibility that our staff may make last minute travel decisions that would prevent them from easily getting in touch with passengers in a different class of service. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience.

 

Hmmm...I'm not really that worried about "issues" during the transfer process so I'm inquiring of NSB.no whether we can purchase an upgraded Komfort seat the morning of the trip...I'll keep you posted.

Disappointed re: your negative received response concerning upgrade to Komfort class.

However, I am somewhat reassured by Vikings explanation that their staff "meets and escorts" the passengers. I think I'll be able to sleep tonight......

However, I am decidedly NOT reassured by the remarks that allude to the possibility of "staff making last minute travel decisions". Maybe I should stay up and research Oslo Panoramic tour and the Viking Ship Museum......?

Nah.....I'm going to put my trust in Viking's Norwegian staff to fulfill their obligation to all of us, even if it means they need to arrange after hours entry to the VSM

It does seems we have only a short period of time left to tour once we arrive Oslo at 3:00pm.

It will all be worked out, I'm sure. Let's keep each other posted as we so along. Only a month to go!

I am confident that all the logistics will be worked out to our ultimate satisfaction.

I am keeping in mind that this is an inaugural cruise for Viking Ocean.

Thanks for the heads up on train times, as it is essential we are on the early train.

We booked the one day excursion and there are some issues with that one too. The Radisson Blu Scandinavian is not a top hotel. Expedia offers it for $125 a night and tripadvisor gives it some low ratings, especially recently. Clearly not the luxury hotel promised. Their breakfast is praised, but on Sunday breakfast is served from 7AM. For us and anybody else with a flight before 10AM, we will have to leave the hotel before breakfast starts. Viking picked this hotel and also picked the flights for us, so they knew that we would miss breakfast, even though the excursion promises it. I mentioned this to the Viking agent and they did not seem aware of the conflict. Viking should either give us box breakfast or reimburse us for the cost for buying at the airport or on the plane.

 

This is going to be a great cruise and the glitch on hotel breakfast is minor, but wish Viking would have addressed it.

Yes, I've read the disappointing reviews of the Scandinavian. It appears that Viking has a contract with Radisson Blu hotels. At this point I am satisfied that they have us staying in Oslo. (Our docs had information for Radisson in Bergen for the night of the 13th)

My concern now is reservations for Bergen Express when we disembark the Star. We have no ticket or Oslo tour information or transfer details from the Radisson to the airport.

(We are on the one day tour also.) Tell me, Did you receive any of that info in your docs?

It's going to be a magical time for us all......

Seems like we will be on the same cruise on 29May! I think it will all be worked out for our cruise...but I'm really glad i went over our documents with an eagle eye. I did the booking on my own and it was pretty detailed figuring out the shore excursions. So far, the post cruise excursion has been the only glitch.

Ukelady and her mom booked the two day Bergen-Oslo excursion

OBX cruisers....Thanks for the heads-up. I have contacted our agent this evening and asked her to contact Viking to have us switched to the one day extension and to keep our booking for the second night in Oslo. We note that the day they have booked us for Oslo is a Sunday so that would present problems- with the switch we will have Saturday and Sunday.

Given that we were misled when we booked the extension and that we were led to believe we would have 2 days in Oslo I really hope that Viking will undertake to make the switch.

Surely they must understand that changes made after the booking was made are really problematic.

It shouldn't be difficult for them to make the switch.

Popsa...sorry to hear about your problems too.

We booked the one night extension. I caught the mistake on our documents when

I saw that our hotel was booked in Bergen instead of Oslo. I had a difficult time convincing them of their mistake, finally resorting to sending a photo of my document page that has the wrong (Bergen) hotel info printed. Anxiously awaiting to hear that we disembark Star, board the Bergen Express to Oslo, join up for an afternoon tour that will include the Viking Ship Museum. We will be on our own for the evening, and staying at the Radisson Blu Scandinavian hotel in Oslo. Viking will arrange transfer to airport the next morning.

Good luck to us all. It appears the Viking operations needs more time to become acquainted with this new line of products. (Excursions)