kctwinmommy

This has nothing to do with Viking, this is a Venice issue. They're controlling the number of people in and out each day. They had to count us off, we had to have a ticket with our name and such. Again, if you want to check, then ask Viking. I just know on ours, nobody was able to just jump onto our shuttle back.

Just my thought, I don't even see what people are wearing below their waist once they sit down. 😉 Having said that, we still followed the dress code.

That's correct. As far as what they said, and from what others said, it's not a shuttle boat. It's a boat to take people on an excursion and back. Any changes you would have to talk to Viking about. Venice makes it much more difficult these days to actually get there.

So looking at a map, Fusina is much closer than Chioggia. I can't tell you how long it will take to get to Venice. I'm guessing maybe only about 30 minutes. Although, I've also read that others say they were told one city, then Viking changed to the other. It's always subject to change. I just looked at the Viking Dailies, I kept them all. And yes, our tour was 7 hours, and 3 hours of that was the shuttle boat ride. So our tour was 4 hours.

We also had 3 days in Venice, but docked in Chioggia. I'm guessing it's similar to docking in Fusina though. The tour length includes the water shuttle time. The boat ride was about 90 minutes, and I believe from Fusina it's about the same. However, there was no water shuttle to just go back & forth. Because Venice is now charging a tourist fee, you must buy a ticket to get onto the island. The Viking tours include this. If you want to go on your own, you'd need to schedule you're own transportation and get your own ticket for that day. I had also been looking at on our own options for our cruise in April, and it's not super clear before you get onboard what the options are. People who have gone on their own (and a few who have spent a night there since you're docked for 2 nights), had to take care of things on their own. They don't make it very easy to do things on your own there, unless you are staying before or after. If you can, you could pick a tour that is an "on your own" type of one, so then you could book a gondola ride through a different vendor. Otherwise, you won't be able to just catch a ride back. They have to account for the number of people they take and the number they bring back.

Yeah, that's always a good idea. We just couldn't do that, none of his friends would have been able to go. We did go with another couple who we've sailed with before. At least it gave him other people to talk to other than us! LOL!

Maybe check Welcome Pickups. They're similar to Uber. We used them for our ride from the hotel to the airport in Barcelona. But worth a look!

Our 18 (almost 19) year old also found it a bit boring because he fell in that same category when we sailed 2 years ago. They're too old for the teen clubs, but they're limited because they're not 21 yet. Our son had a great time on our excursions, but did find his down time to be a little boring. And he just couldn't really find others in his age to connect with.

Yes! That was a reason we went with Viking this past one. We were tired of the same ol' stuff with our previous trips.

I will say, we went to a lecture once on our Med. cruise and found it a bit disappointing. It was as though she was reading just from her notes. She stumbled over pronunciation on several words, which for being a lecturer on a topic, I would have thought she would know these names inside & out. She was approachable though, we did talk to her once, right before her lecture actually. So that actually made it a little more disappointing. But I did see other passengers talking to her a few times, so she didn't mind when people came to talk to her.

@RLK33853 - it's interesting about the comment related to running out of things. I wouldn't have expected that on Viking either. And yet, at the end of our cruise, they ran out of peanuts in the Explorer lounge. I'm sure every ship/cruise director is different. We had a great one on ours, Aaron. He was a performer in his past life, so he joined in on several different shows that we went to. Usually just singing one song though, as to not upstage the singers. We did have 4 singers on ours for the main theater shows that I thought were quite good. Out of all of our cruises, we found the performers on our Alaska cruise to be least entertaining. I don't like to say the worst, but they were nowhere near the level of talent as our other cruises.

@Peregrina651 - well stated! And I guess I'm in the minority, but it didn't bother me at all having to pay a year in advance. I like having everything paid off early. I realize it's more of a psychological thing, as it doesn't actually matter when you pay for it all. Once the price is locked in, it's the price. Although there are other things that have the potential to rise, so it's better to pay for it before they do.

@millybess - and like I said, not like it mattered to us. We had charges on our account anyway. LOL! We don't prepay our gratuities, we bought some drinks, and we did add 2 excursions. So, the ones we cancelled just partially covered that stuff.

Got it! Didn't even pay attention to her city there. 😉 That may be why then.

Well, all our friends that we had on the ship and ourselves are from the U.S.

@millybess don't know then. Us, and the people we were hanging with on our cruise, all had it posted to our account. Which again, was fine because we had things on there to pay for anyway. So it's all a wash.

We used ACH for our excursions because that is easier to do. But, when we cancelled a few of them onboard, it just went to our onboard account. Which was fine, we don't pay our gratuities in advance, so it just rolls over to cover that.

We actually paid most of it with our credit card because we get 3% back from them, so it's almost a wash. Plus, as we learned, they give travel protection. My only mistake was that we did do a little bit with the ACH. So, because it wasn't ALL on the card, there's no protection. We'll definitely put it all on our card for our next one. Of course, our next one is about 1/3 the cost of our last one. LOL!

5/7 - Monte Carlo - Included walking tour (leisurely option) I don't know why, but for some reason I selected the leisurely option for this walking tour. Maybe I was just thinking that it would be near the end, so we'd want a little slower pace. It wasn't that much different than any of the other walking tours we'd been on. And this one was pretty minimal to begin with. We started off from the ship, walking through a small traffic tunnel, which brings you out to the backside of the Oceanographic Museum, famous for the work of Jacques Cousteau. The building is beautiful! We considering going in later, but my husband decided he didn't want to spent the money. I think it was around €20. The tour then went through the Princess Grace park there, really pretty, and past the houses that her Princess daughters live in. From there we went to the cathedral, which was built in the 1800s to replace an old one. The royal family does attend masses there, so you can see their seats up at the altar. It's also where Princess Grace and Prince Ranier were married. From there, it's a 5 minute walk to the palace. Our guide was telling us that there really is no crime, we heard later there are like 4 people in the prison there, which overlooks the ocean. They don't have any homeless population and no immigration issues. Of course, they're very strict on people actually living there and being citizens. Plus, we found out that real estate, on average, runs about €90,000/sq. meter! She was also telling us that they have almost 700 police officers for the 40,000 residents, and they're pretty much all over, so you can't get away with things. When we got to the palace, she gave us a little free time, some people headed back, others just wandered around, we opted to grab a spot at the chains for the changing of the guard. The noon one is the main ceremony, but they do smaller ones on the hour, like most other places we've been to. This one fills in much more than the others we saw on our trip, so if you want to see it, get there at least 30-40 minutes early to grab a spot. The ceremony was nice, lasted about 10-15 minutes. We commented that it seemed a little less formal than others as well. There was an officer walking around, watching things, which was odd. But, he also noticed a family before the ceremony started. It was a couple with a severely handicapped, wheelchair bound child. They were at the end, in the sun. So he moved them to other side, making some room in the crowd, and moving the wheelchair in front of the chains, with the parents sitting next to him. Having had a child who passed away, but was medically fragile, we appreciate someone making those efforts. After we were done, we just walked around the area, there's great views from the palace grounds, looking towards the port area, and you could see the F1 racing setup. That race was about 3 weeks after we were there, but takes a long time to set it all up. We did a little shopping here, got my Christmas ornament. Then we headed back down towards the cathedral because we saw a sign that we had to go back - Monaco's Best Burgers! We did share one, and it was really good! We then just walked through the town a bit, stopping in a few shops to look, found a chocolate shop and picked up some treats. Then we also came across a nice little park with some statues. We were finally starting to have warmer weather, so we headed back to the ship, put on our bathing suits, and headed to the water. Right on the pier where we docked, they have these cement steps and there were people hanging out, laying out in the sun, and a few jumping in the water. I took a pass on that, but did throw down some towels, got some sun and watched my husband jump in the water. LOL! He also wanted to try a little fishing, so we came across a couple of conservation police on bikes. My husband asked about it, and we kind of were surprised, because they didn't know! Although they were then speaking to each other in French, and my husband (a retired officer) did kind of call the out that even in another language they thought he was goofy. It wasn't in a bad way, and they were all laughing then. I think they were more surprised when he said yes, he has his own fishing rod, he travels with it. So in the end, we had a nice chat with them and they said go ahead, shouldn't be a problem. We had planned or considered going to the casino, but it was so nice outside, we wanted to enjoy the sun. I also didn't feel like getting all dolled up to go over. Friends of ours did though. But, they "forgot" their passports. I say "forgot" because we think the husband purposely didn't tell his wife so that she wouldn't be able to go in and spend money. LOL! I would definitely come back and spend some time here. I just wish I had the bank account to go with the people who live and visit here regularly. LOL! Several of the "little boats" parked in the harbor. There was one that was for sale, only €26 million! The Oceanographic museum, backside, facing the water. Jacques Cousteau's submersible in front of the museum Front of the museum Princess Grace statue in her garden The cathedral Princess Grace's tomb inside the cathedral She's buried next to Prince Ranier The Royal Palace. We emailed this to our financial guy, joking around, that we found a place to buy. Then sent a 2nd picture with the guard shack circled to clarify that was probably all we could afford. LOL! The palace guards for the ceremony You can see the stands set up for the F1 Grand Prix Us 😃 So, we can't 100% verify that they're the best in all of Monaco, but they were really good! Our burger, we just shared it A unique statue in some gardens that we strolled though. My husband doing a little fishing. No, he didn't catch anything. Flowers inside the Princess Grace park Walkway in the park A shorter video of part of the ceremony 20240507_120116.mp4 My husband jumping in the sea, and yes, as he said, it was chilly! 20240507_150747.mp4

Yep! And often a topic of discussion among new Viking cruisers. I can tell you that if you book a future one while on a cruise, then it's only 6 months out. We did that for our next one. I should add, for me personally, it doesn't matter. I like having things paid off early and out of the way. When we took our cruise, there was very little out of pocket expenses by that point.

@jimbo5544 oh I know, he just looks very different!!

And yet when they turn 16 they can get the 10 year one. Which will be funny when my then 21 year old travels next summer. He had short, cropped hair back when he was 16. Now, not so much. He has that very common long, floppy, curly hair. LOL!

I tend to get chilly, so I always had a cardigan of some kind with me. Of course, I'm also at that age where I can hot quickly too! LOL! But I found that I would use it when we were in the restaurant.

I posted it in Carnival, but then someone else shared my post in another page. I thought it was Holland America, but not totally sure. I don't know if anyone posted it here in RC.

We did ours in November and it was so hot for sure. In fact, there was an extra guide with our group for some reason (again, with Carnival, not Viking), and we had an older gentleman who was having difficulties. So she stayed with him on a bench and I'm assuming got help to get him back to the ship. But since we're supposed to be here overnight at the start, maybe we'll look at going that night this time. Good tip!