photopro2

That would be me Clay 🧑‍🎓 😁 Please keep the data coming everyone!

I'm sure you realize this data will not be available for EES and you will need to have them taken again. Let's assume you're right and the process takes 30 seconds per person. Now imagine you have 500 people in front of you going through five entry lanes at 30 extra seconds each. That is going to add an extra 50 minutes to the time that it takes for you to get through immigration into the EU. Hence my concern over the additional time. I do speak from experience having gone through the process when it was introduced for non-us citizens coming into the USA.

That is an interesting article and thank you for the link. What I think people are missing here is the impact of EES, the system that will be introduced ahead of ETIAS. EES will require that all non-EU nationals are photographed and fingerprinted at their first point of entry into the EU. ETIAS is a simple on-line form that people will be able to complete in the comfort of home. EES, on the other hand, will require us to stand in line to be processed in person at the point of entry. Therefore I feel that EES, which is likely to become active at some point in 2024, is a change that will have a much greater practical impact on our travel experience than ETIAS.

I am from the UK so, as you might imagine, I’ve had a fair amount of experience with British Airways over the last 30+ years. I must say that in all that time I’ve never had a really bad flight with BA, but until recently, never had a particularly outstanding one either. With the exception of the cabin crew who have generally been excellent, the rest of the BA experience was always at the lower end of average. I started flying my transatlantics mainly with American Airlines back in 80’s because of their “more room in coach” initiative (remember that!) and because I could reserve my favourite seats in advance, which was not available on BA at that time. As a result, I never went back on BA for a long time and so probably missed the lowest of the low point that they reportedly got to, maybe a decade ago. In the last few years, I’ve taken a few transatlantic flights with BA. I’ve been to Miami a couple of times, Barbados and a return sector with them from New York. All of the flights were fine and some I would even rate amongst my best ever flights, both in economy and business. The upper deck of the BA A380s on the Miami route has window/aisle pairs that I would rate as the best economy seats across the Atlantic. I have also flown the Miami route in business on their 787-10 which has the new club suite. This is a world away from their old cramped business class, and was one of the best flights I’ve ever taken. Overall, I think that the airline is turning things around and my own attitude to them has changed. I would certainly have no hesitation in using them again in future. It would be interesting to know which flight you’re currently booked on?

If you have booked direct with Viking I believe I am correct in saying that you can transfer that booking over to a TA within 30 days and benefit from the shipboard credit form them. Certainly something worth investigating.

Same for us. We once arrived at a Viking ship to find that our complementary beverage package had somehow gone missing. Rather than having to work the issue myself I emailed our agent who had it reinstated within a few hours. Without the agent it would have been my word against Viking's and I don't think I would have got very far.

You are absolutely right of course. You probably realised I was talking more about people's perceptions than the legality of making changes like this. As you say, contractually the cards will be stacked in Viking's favour. I'm hopeful that they will continue with their culture of being open and transparent. This is why they need to take care that their marketing material is not seen as being deliberately deceptive.

Thanks for the very quick response. I'm glad to see you're having such a great cruise!

Was there a charge?

Agreed. and I think this is something Viking will need to be careful of if they're not going to be accused of bait and switch tactics.

Thanks for that update @LinnieRed I noticed that it was marketed as included at one point, which led to the theory it might be one of these new upgraded included excursions. I absolutely agree with you that it is very poor practice by Viking to indicate that a tour of that type is likely to be included at the point people are committing to a particular cruise, only to disappoint them when the excursion booking window opens.

The expedition ships are rather a different case. My recollection is they were originally marketed with almost all excursions included. By the time we sailed on the Octantis, there was a mixture of optional and good quality included excursions which sounds like what you are seeing. Maybe this is spilling over, in a very limited way, to the ocean ships?

That makes sense, and I see you certainly did your best

Thanks for the information @Harrietq it is good to have further confirmation that this really is "a thing" Our experience has been somewhat different to yours. We have always sailed in DV and have always got onto the excursions that we wished to. Though, to be fair, we are quick off the mark when the booking window opens. I wish you the very best for all your future travel, whichever line it might happen to be on.

It seems that Viking have quietly introduced an additional upgraded excursion in some ports. Unlike the current included excursions, which are generally open to all passengers, the additional excursions have a limited number of places available. Some relatively high value excursions, that were previously optional, have recently been listed as included on MVJ and have been available to book free of charge. Examples are “Secrets of Puna” in Hawaii and a SNUBA adventure, believed to be “Sea Trek Helmet Diving at Pigeon Island” in Castries, St. Lucia. There are indications that “Highlights of Rio” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil might in future be offered as an additional included excursion. The “Highlights of Puerto Madryn & Welsh Tea at Gaiman” in Argentina may also become a top level, limited numbers included excursion with the “Sea Lions at Punta Loma & Ecocenter” added as an included excursion open to all passengers. The changes have not officially been announced by Viking and maybe experimental at this stage. This move would primarily benefit passengers in higher grade cabins, who are able to book excursions up to 107 days prior to departure. However, they have no effect on Viking’s promise to provide all passengers with an included excursion at every port. Once places on the upgraded excursion have been taken, there will still be availability for all remaining passengers on an alternative included excursion. Does anyone have any more examples of these additional and upgraded included excursions?

Thanks @Baron Barracuda and @CCWineLover your additional information adds further weight to the theory that I had developed.

I think we might be onto something! Some of the points that I have made below have been picked up by others in the time that I've been typing, My fault for being so long-winded 😁 I will post it in full anyway........ This SNUBA included excursion not only got as far as being shown as included but was actually bookable free of charge on MVJ. It seems highly unlikely that this was simply a snafu in the back office. I am wondering if Viking are experimenting with providing limited place, higher quality included excursions at particular ports on some cruises. These might be offered in addition to the “normal” tours that are included in each port. In practice, these “super” included excursions would only be available to those who, because they’re in a higher category cabins, get to choose first. This change could provide an additional differentiating factor for those who are paying a good deal more for their state rooms Viking are only committed in their promotional material to providing an included tour (of some sort) to all passengers in every port. There is nothing to say that all included tours have to have unlimited availability as long as one of them does. In this case, once the spaces are filled on the SNUBA “super” included excursion, then there will still be a “standard” included excursion in that port that is available to all passengers. My evidence for this theory comes from putting two and two together with this thread and something that I noticed on the Viking oceans website. On the itinerary for the Southern Atlantic Crossing, the eight-hour "Highlights of Rio” tour was flagged as included along with the much more basic “Historic Rio de Janeiro downtown by foot” I queried this with Viking UK, saying that the Highlights of Rio tour was unlikely to be included and having it flagged as such on their website was deceptive to potential customers. The included banner for that tour has now been removed but I would propose that it could still be offered as a “super” included tour on MVJ to a limited number of guests in the same way as the SNUBA tour. If you look at the example excursions for Puerto Madryn, Argentina on the South America and Chilean Fjords itinerary, you will see there are two excursions flagged as included. At the top of the list there is “Highlights of Puerto Madryn & Welsh tea at Gaiman” which has been the included excursion for that port in the past. I would suggest that in future, this will be a limited numbers “super” included excursion, again similar to the SNUBA excursion. Further down on the web page, you will see that the “Sea lions at Punta Loma & Ecocenter” is also shown as included. This is a shorter, and I would imagine, a less costly excursion from Viking’s point view, as it does not include a meal. If my theory is correct, this will be the “standard” included tour that will be available to everyone in future. Congratulations on reading through all that! Now, I have to say that this is all speculation on my part and is currently, at most, something Viking may be experimenting with. However, if it turns out that I am correct please remember you heard it here first……..

Things you can discover by asking questions on this board never ceases to amaze me 😁

If you are travelling from Calgary, you will most likely have to change planes somewhere. You might like to consider doing as we did to get to San Juan from the UK. Viking allowed us to leave Heathrow on the day before embarkation and overnight at a Miami airport hotel (A Sheraton, which we got to easily using the shuttle train to the rental car facility) at our own expense. We then got a direct flight on AA from Miami to San Juan, leaving about 8:30 and arriving around noon. We still qualified for Viking's transfer to the ship as we landed in San Juan on embarkation day. We arrived the ship around 1 o'clock and enjoyed the rest of that first day feeling refreshed having had a good previous nights sleep.

I made some notes on our trip in February 2023, so hope these might help you. We obviously paid for our excursions in pounds, but that will give you an idea of the dollar amount. We had visited Old San Juan and the forts previously, but would recommend taking a look at these on day two if you’ve not seen them before. However, our itinerary was as follows Day 1 San Juan Arrival in San Juan evening walk into town. Day 2 San Juan Made our own arrangements. Walk past government buildings to Palm lined beach at Balneario del Escambrón Day 3 Tortola AM walk round the bay to British governor’s old residence. PM Tortola Scenic Tour & Beach INCLUDED This was a good included tour with an informational ride across the island, followed by an hour or so at a beach club with loungers, and one included drink as I recall. Day 4 St Kitts Historic Basseterre & Fairview Great House INCLUDED Reasonable included tour, Busy in the house at times and we visited the garden first. Then went back into the house once the crowd had gone through. Day 5 St. Lucia St. Lucia Panorama INCLUDED mostly a drive-by coach tour but the Stony Hill Estate visit at the end was lovely – wish we had longer there. Day 6 Barbados Made our own arrangements. Walked into the old town, and then a couple of hours at Brownes Beach, which was nice. Day 7 Dominica Rainforest Waterfalls & Beachside OPTIONAL £69 per person Nice excursion. Swam in the pool under the waterfall and had a good amount of time (and lunch) on the secluded and picturesque beach. Day 8 Antigua Amazing Antigua INCLUDED Maybe an hour at Nelsons dockyard and a couple of high points for overviews of the island, not a bad included tour overall. Day 9 St. Thomas AM St. John National Park Champagne Catamaran Sail OPTIONAL £84 Per Person. Loved this excursion. We left the ship fairly early in the morning and were the first boat to arrive at the deserted beach, so those of us from Viking had it all to ourselves for the first 20 minutes. Then had time for swimming and sunning ourselves before returning to the ship. PM Secret Scenic Island Tour & Mountain Top INCLUDED Stopped at a couple of high points to view the island. The longer stop at the top was at a large touristy shopping area, not to our taste but okay for the view. Day 10 America’s Cup 12-Meter Regatta OPTIONAL £92 Per Person. This was one of the best excursions we have ever done. Sailing those fast boats across the blue ocean is a completely unique experience and one we will always remember. Day 11 leave ship and fly home

I was thinking the same thing, I wonder if one of our Canadian readers have an explanation?

Same for me, I've never seen chef's table menus on linked to specific dates on MVJ

I now see what you mean and understand why you binned it. And yet cruise critic have been promoting them via banners and emails....... That certainly seems to be the case. One of the criticisms of the Apple app is the number of adverts that appear. I don't normally see adverts using the app on my android mobile but I always do when using the browser on my MacBook. see screenshots.

I can certainly understand that that would be annoying. When I close and reopen my android version of the app it does return to wherever I was when I closed it - on a board or even in a particular post, so I am not normally seeing the ads that you saw. In my experience the general performance of the android version is better too, as you suggest might be the case, hence my preferring it to the browser site. What is really puzzling me though is why, on one hand, Cruisecritic sent out emails promoting the app and, on the other hand, they are saying that it doesn't exist when asked about it???? Does anyone have the text of the emails that Cruisecritic sent that they could post to this thread by any chance?

It is really strange that you got that you got that answer from someone at cruise critic saying that there is no app when this thread was started by people because they had received an email from cruise critic to say that there was an app??? To quote from Alice's adventures in Wonderland: Curiouser & Curiouser......