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Wisconsin Travelers

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Cool Cruiser (2/15)

  1. We're taking our first Viking ocean cruise in 3 weeks, so last night I was browsing the posts on this board. A post commented about included excursions being SOLD OUT and how you needed to RESERVE an included excursion. I assumed the included excursions worked the same way they did on the river cruises: you're told what time to disembark and there are several buses waiting to take you on your included excursion. I had no idea I actually needed to reserve an included excursion. Nowhere on the Viking website nor in their email announcements do they tell you this! I immediately went to the website and clicked on the "Learn More" tab for the included excursions. And once again I read the details of the excursion, but this time I notice an indication for making a reservation, just because I was looking for it. Guess what . . . one excursion is indeed "sold out" and the others have several time options, most of them already showing as "sold out" for the times we would have preferred. At this late date, we are now stuck taking afternoon excursions instead of the morning ones we would have chosen. And I suppose these excursions don't include the excellent "Whispers" provided to everyone on a river cruise either. Yesterday I was worked up that I couldn't make specialty restaurant reservations until I was on board - makes me feel like a second class citizen, just because I didn't book a suite. Now this snafu. I have to say that Viking is NOT impressing me much at this point in time. We have taken over 40 cruises, and nowhere have I encountered a situation where I pay a premium for an "upscale" experience which doesn't feel very upscale at all. If I hadn't been browsing this message board last night, we would have boarded the ship without knowing about these advance reservations for Included Excursions and probably would have found that several of them would be entirely sold out. Viking is going to really have to provide us with a spectacular cruise for me to even consider booking them again.
  2. As first time Viking ocean cruisers, I must say that I'm very annoyed about this specialty restaurant booking business. When we booked our cruise (South America departing January 21), the only things still available was a guarantee cabin - and that affords us NO options to book specialty dining rooms until we are on board. Makes me feel like a real second class citizen, but they sure were quick to take our money way earlier than other cruise lines require! Excursions were another issue. Our TA is gifting us with a large amount of OBC - but it won't be reflected on our account until we are on board. So booking shore excursions with OBC funds can't happen now either. And nearly all of the excursions are sold out. Right now I'm feeling like I've paid a substantial amount of money to take this "higher end" cruise compared to the more standard cruise lines (Celebrity, Holland America, Princess), but I certainly don't feel like I'm getting any kind of extra value for the price. On Oceania we can book specialty dining rooms ahead of time no matter what cabin category we have booked. I guess we'll find out in a few weeks if Viking Ocean is really worth the extra expense. All of this talk about difficulty booking desired dining times and table size has me doubting that whatever else they do will make up for the nasty taste I've got in my mouth right now!
  3. So 3 votes for Paul, but not a peep of how to contact him?!! Private tour? Or tour company?
  4. Thanks, Mauibabes. Clarifies this point for me completely. From everything we've read on this board, I have a feeling Oceania will become our new cruiseline of choice so we'll be at the 10 Cruise Credit level in no time!
  5. First time O cruisers, and I'm surprised to see that gratuities are automatically included in our OLife cruise fare! In all my reading and perusal of O's website, I couldn't find the answer to this question so I called them and was told that gratuities are NOT included in the fare! The representative I spoke to said that $16 per person per day would appear as a debit on our account. Those charges would indicate that gratuities are not included. Which answer is correct?!!
  6. Jody Miles is scheduled to be the CD on the Crown in Alaska. We've sailed with her twice and she is absolutely dynamic and delightful. Almost makes us want to go to Alaska for a 3rd time!
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