kctwinmommy

@Brookspw70 - this post is also pinned to the top of this page. It is helpful...

So, the ES are the Explorer Suites, the DV is Deluxe Veranda, PV is Penthouse Veranda. I would highly recommend you look on the Viking website to watch the 360 videos they have, along with photos. We did our first Viking, after many on Carnival and a few other lines, this past spring. We decided to go kind of middle of the road and picked a DV4 cabin. This put us on the 4th deck, so kind of in the top 1/2 of the ship. We ended up with 4027, which was in the front 1/3 of the ship. Typically, when we're on the large, other line ships, we prefer to be near the front and as far up as we can (we like the Lido deck). But Viking cruises are different, we don't need to worry about getting to things as the Viking ships are much smaller and super easy to navigate. We didn't see the need to pay for a DV6 cabin just to be on the deck 6. And, when it comes to selecting your excursions, all DV cabins can select on the same date. However, ES and PV can select their excursions earlier, which is partially why some want those cabins. A lot of this depends on the cruise you're taking. I can't speak to all the different cruises, as we just took our first one. There were a LOT of excursions available as we had a 22 day cruise. Our next Viking one will be the West Indies. We still went with a DV4 cabin, as we just liked the location, and we're not super concerned about excursions for this one, we just want to go to the beach. LOL! But definitely peek around Viking's website to read more, they have a lot of info there. I picked the Mars, but they're all the almost the same... https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/ships/viking-mars.html

Yes, we noticed many of the talks were scheduled around the start of dinner. We didn't go to more than 1 (wasn't totally impressed with her talk). Our friends went to a few of them. And yes,the port talks were always early like that too. Again, I think we went once, and instead would rather just watch the recording later on. Saved us time because we'd watch his intro to the port city, then skip to listen to just our excursion.

Yes, on ours it doesn't seem as though it was used that much, but it was open for people to sit in when they wanted. Although one day, it was closed off in the morning as there was a wedding that took place. The captain did the ceremony and then they had a small reception in there. We then saw them in the private dining room for dinner that night. It was a young couple too! In the evening they would open the window partitions so that people could go between and sit in whichever they wanted.

4/27 & 28 - Chioggia port. For the 2nd day we were docked in Chioggia (Venice), we decided to head into Chioggia on our own. Our friends had been in town the day before, they said it was pretty easy to just walk around on your own. We headed over in the afternoon. It's a cute little town, there was a nice market set up as well. We did take the little shuttle bus from the ship that drops you off right outside the port gates. Then it's an easy walk right into town. When you start walking, you get to the first canal, and it was pretty empty. Then we kept walking further and that's where the stuff was all going on. We just basically walked up and down the different streets, crossing over the canals and such. Now, we were feeling a little tired that day, and thought it was just being 2 weeks of on the go. However, the next morning we both felt a little more under the weather. We had plenty of meds in our room, fluids, etc... and just stayed in our cabin. I actually slept from around noon until almost 6 a.m. the next day. I had a horrible migraine, I think the start of a head cold, but I managed to keep it at bay. We both had been using Zicam to help us. My husband did end up with a little cough (it was worse at night, but that only affect me my sleeping), and meds seemed to help him. Plus, he was not the only one on the ship, that's for sure. We had actually planned to do an included excursion to Venice that day. However, this is where we found 1 problem with Viking. We had changed excursions a few days earlier, so we could do the optional one the day before in Venice, and then have this included one for this day. When we went to cancel this one (we tried doing this on Saturday actually), they told us it was cancelled. So, there was definitely some confusion on our bookings. Yes, at the end of the day, it was fine since we were planning to cancel it, but had we not been, I wouldn't have been too happy. Again, this Sunday that we were down and out, it seemed a lot of people were hanging out that day. Because the Pope was in Venice, a lot of people decided not to go on excursions because so many things were blocked off. We also commented that we see Chioggia growing with what they will offer. If ships continue to dock there, instead of Venice, then they'll start adding more excursions there I'm sure. But as it is, it's a cute town. A wreath left at the memorial Crossing over one of the many canals here. They call it a Little Venice Inside on of the cathedrals They have their own famous bridge here too. The Vigo Bridge Some of the various buildings around town... Us over the canal Porthole looking out to the canal A cute sign Canal Italian flag and we saw the EU flag on a lot of the buildings around too.

It is also dependent on the person working and the sight you're visiting. We were going into the cathedral in Florence. My husband is a short guy, so his shorts come right to his knees. He asked at the entrance and the security guy said he was fine. And then, 2 tall guys came in right after us, wearing nice golf shorts, but it was obvious the shorts came a little above their knees. He gave them each a lightweight, disposable tunic like thing that went over their heads.

Oh, @itsanita - here's a link that tells you the difference too... https://barcelonahacks.com/which-sagrada-familia-tower-is-better/

I actually asked this same question about 2 months ago before our trip. Then I just googled it. The Passion tower has better views, but the Nativity one was the one actually designed by Gaudi. Plus, the Passion tower is taller. And yes, you take an elevator to go up, but then the narrow, winding stairs to come back down. A couple of views from our trip up the Passion tower.... This is looking down at the basilica when we were up there.

4/26 - Venice (Day 1) - We did the optional St. Mark's basilica and Doge's Palace. As many people know, you don't dock in Venice anymore. We docked in Chioggia, so it's about 90 minutes away by boat. There is no shuttle boat option. As some may know, our cruise was technically 3 legs out of 4. Each leg is really considered it's own cruise, although we booked all 3 legs at one time, under one title, so we didn't know that Viking did this (had multiple segments of cruises available). But, this means we couldn't book any Venice tours until we got on board in Athens. I'm not sure if the people who got on the week before in Istanbul had a chance before us. All I know is that almost everything was sold out by the time we went that afternoon. It was a little confusing and not a lot of options. Venice also just started the required pass for each person to have. We were given our ticket, and we had to fill out our initials on it, that we gave to the security when we docked at St. Mark's square area. On the ride over, we heard a lot about the history of Venice and the surrounding islands leading up to. It's a nice ride, not too fast, we had to go slow several times due to other boats and such. There's some really neat, colorful houses on the islands heading over. I recommend picking one side of the boat and sticking with it there and back, so you see different things each time. Once we got to Venice, our Viking guide walked us to St. Mark's square, it's about a 10 minute walk. Then she gave us some pointers and sent us on our own. We had about 75 minutes on our own. We were here on a Friday, and the Pope was coming on Sunday to preside over mass in the square, so it was super busy. There were areas already roped off, stacks of chairs all over to set up, etc... We were going to try and go up in the bell tower, but the line was pretty long and there was no guarantee that we'd be done in time for our tour. So, we booked it over to the Rialto Bridge, it's really a zig-zag walk to get there. But we got a few pics, it was packed of course. Then we wanted to get a piece of pizza. Of course, when we weren't looking, it seemed like there was pizza on every corner, then we couldn't find any. We made a mistake with the place we chose, we should have just walked out, but I was hungry. They had pizzas, but it was also a sit down place. We asked if they had slices to go (like all the other places), they did. And then we watched them heat it up in a microwave. 🫣 🙄 Again, we should have just say no to it. It wasn't very good, of course. But oh well... We did get some Gelato to make up for it later on. LOL! After we got back to the square, our Viking guide handed us off to the woman who was going to be our tour guide for the 2 sights we were seeing. First, we went into St. Mark's. It was pretty busy and a lot of groups were inside. Like I said, with the Pope coming, there were things that were being set up and sections that were closed off. We did a basic tour through there. I wish I had known or planned differently, because it's obvious there are tours that go to the top of the basilica too. Again, because this was a stop that couldn't be booked until we were onboard, it was hard to make plans for it. From there we went to the Doge's Palace. We were waiting in line where the groups enter, and we had to wait for quite a long time. In fact, a tour guide with a small group behind us actually went up to find out what was going on. Turns out, some group ahead of us, dumped their backpacks in the lobby, so security had to deal with that and a guide was trying to clear it out. You do have to go through security here and no large bags are allowed. We eventually made it in and started our tour. It actually wasn't that busy inside, which was nice. It was a little later in the afternoon too. Our guide walked us through the courtyard, then into the palace showing us the major things along the way. Our guide was really good, explaining a lot of the history and background. There are so many great pieces of art and amazing ceilings!! Once we were done, she brought us back to the square and our Viking guide walked us back to our boat. Like I said, there is no shuttle boat to go back and forth on your own. They have a head count of how many go and how many are coming back. Anyone doing things outside of the tours must make arrangements with Viking ahead of time so they can make this work for you. We had a nice ride back to the ship. Oh, and this is one place where we HAD to have our passport with us to get back on the ship. Viking announces this, puts it in the Viking Daily, etc... It was the strictest security we went through. Overall, Venice was a little "meh" for us. I've been before, about 30 years ago. I think the massive crowds have really done a number on it. I know people who stay there, outside of the cruise, say it's much better. But it's not high on my list of any place I want to return to. Coming into Venice Us at the Rialto Bridge The clock tower Inside St. Mark's Part of the altar in St. Mark's More of the ceiling inside St. Mark's More ceiling The old gondola at Doge's Palace Just an unbelievable ceiling inside the palace These rooms are massive, holding a lot of people! Looking out the window from the Bridge of Sighs The Bridge of Sighs, where the prisoners would take their last walk before hearing their sentence. Looking up at the bell tower in the square. One of the many, many canals. Some of the colorful houses on the islands leading to Venice I would actually love to spend a little time on these small islands along the way.

@OneSixtyToOne - my husband did. LOL! I thought I snapped a photo, but oops!

Yes, we knew several people who did 2 excursions on our cruise. Typically they had 2-3 hours between them as well, so that helped. But like someone else already said, you most likely can't do 2 included ones, but definitely an included and optional one. We actually had 2 booked for our day in Barcelona. We did the included one in the morning, but we decided a few days before that we'd rather just go on our own afterwards. We had booked an optional evening tour, but it was going to be pretty similar to our included one, so we saved the $200. After our included one that morning, we went back into town on our own anyway.

4/25 - Split Croatia - We did the optional Cetina River Cruise and Split Walking Tour. We started with a walking tour in Split, seeing Diocletian's Palace and the old town area. It's really neat, because the palace walls are now all residential areas. People have houses/apartments in all the walls. Our guide was saying that it's not really any more expensive than any other properties in the area. But there are also areas that have artifacts and things to see still. We did about an hour walk through here and she gave us about 20 minutes to walk through the local market that's set up outside. My husband actually got some sugar coated orange and lemon peel, it's a local candy. He actually asked the woman if he could get a mixed bag, and her good sense of humor said yes, she handed him a bag of each and pushed them together! LOL! But, seriously, she said no problem, and took 1/2 from each bag and put them into a new baggie. He said they were good, but sweet. I also was able to pick up a plain white baseball cap, which was good to have later on when I didn't want to wear my fedora hat, it was €10. After leaving Split, we had about a 45 minute bus ride along the coast (beautiful!!). During our drive she explained (again for us) some of the history of Croatia, the wars, and economy. Like we already knew, they rely heavily on tourism, which is why they learn English. Their income isn't the best, but they live good lives. They do have a high income tax too (30-35%). However, if you get good grades, you can go to college for free. Plus, they don't have a homeless population, as the country takes care of people who need help. Once we got to the mouth of the river, we got into 3 boats, about 12 people in each. It was a nice, leisurely trip up the river, about 30 minutes or so. We had a young guy driving our boat, but no commentary or anything. We arrived at the little restaurant and had some meat, cheese, and wine. It had been a water mill in the past, but not anymore. Once lunch was over, the bus came to pick us up and we headed back to Split. The driver headed back to the port, and we walked some to get back into town, they didn't drop us off. We went back through the area we'd been in earlier, in the palace. There's a neat clock tower that we wanted to go up in, so we found the ticket office. Be aware, they were closed when we got there, for their afternoon break. Where in the US we might close around the noon hour for lunch break, places in Europe will have a break closer to 130-2 p.m. We ended up buying the €13 combo ticket to see all 5 of the sights here. This included the bell tower, the baptistry, the mausoleum, the treasury & the cathedral. If you have the time, it's all worth it. The cathedral is regarded as the the oldest Catholic cathedral which remains in use in its original structure, in the entire world. With the mausoleum being the second oldest structure used by any Christian Cathedral. Plus, the view from the top of the bell tower is beautiful. Once again, Croatia is at the top of our list now for favorite countries. I'd love to go back and spend a few days on the coast here. On our walk in the city area, the bell tower. Gorgeous day for our tours. The entrance to the cathedral and bell tower are just to the left, the ticket office is right across from it. One of the many cute walkways and alleys. You'll find little things like this all over too. This is Croatia!! If I showed it to anyone and said it was the Caribbean, nobody would disagree. Just beautiful! Riding on the boat up the river. This was a slow ride, nothing strenuous. A wine barrel at the restaurant we had lunch at. An old cross relic, one of many old relics in the baptistry. Some other beautiful pieces in here. It's not a big museum, but worth the time. Cathedral of St. Domnius Looking out from the top of the bell tower. Our ship in the background there. My husband in the mausoleum. After the Diocletian's death, they cut the heads off the Sphinxes out of anger for what he had done, since he brought these statues to the city. Gelato, of course! Part of the walls A cute city sign for pictures. 😃

Yes, on the road going in/out of Sorrento, our guide mentioned how all it takes is one bus to mess it all up. Sure enough, on our way out of town, a bus heading into town had stopped on the side to let out 50 people to take photos! The backup was at least 2-3 miles! And it's already pretty slow going through there.

@Hlitner said it perfectly! We didn't want to do the Sorrento/Pompeii tour, but I kind of screwed up, panicked, and then that was my only option. As it is, Viking had to wait until the night before to even add us. I was very disappointed in our time at Pompeii. Did I see it? Yes. Was it what I wanted? Not even close... =( I was disappointed, but I didn't let it ruin my trip either. Like it was already said too, make sure you get exact details from the tour operator. Make sure they know that you're coming in on a cruise. And just be ready in case there is a problem.

We did the same, went to the adult comedy shows with ours. LOL! We also hit the casino one night, but since none of us are gamblers, we lasted maybe 30 minutes. LOL!

Yes, agreed... I think we did at least 50 for our host on our extension.

Our 18 year old, while he enjoyed our excursions, he was bored on the ship. That's the age where there isn't much for them to do.

4/24 - Dubrovnik, Croatia - Walking tour (included) So for this, we knew we wanted to do things on our own, so we did the included walking tour knowing that it offered the option to stay in the city on our own. Viking had a shuttle bus that ran right from outside the city gate back to the ship, I believe it was every 30 minutes. There were 2 other ships in port that day, so it was busy when we got into the Old Town area. One thing we learned, after being in Croatia, then Montenegro, then Croatia again, they all have their own opinion on the wars that were raged between their countries (as well as Serbia). It's sad to see and hear about how much damage was done in the Old Town area too. Our guide was really good about explaining that history. She talked a bit about how things are now, it's a little tense still, and understandable. It wasn't that long ago for many people still alive. We took some time right outside the walls, overlooking the water, to hear about all this, then headed into the city. She took us around the main highlights within the Old Town, pointing out various sights. There are also signs around the area to explain parts of the town that were damaged by the Balkan Wars of the 90's. After about an hour or so of walking with the guide, we were at the Dominican Monastery, which was nice. But, they were calling for some rain in the afternoon and we wanted to walk the city walls. We peeled off from our tour and headed to find tickets. Now, we did have a hard time finding tickets by the Ploce Gate, which was where we were close to. Instead of wasting more time, we knew they sold tickets by the main gate, the Pile Gate. It is off to the side, it's not obvious. The actual ticket office is truly tucked into a corner, so you might have to ask someone for its location. Once you start, there are 2 points were you can exit. Also, there are a few cafes along the way, in case you need to rest and refresh. Oh, and one other thing they don't tell you, they do a ticket check at one of the points as well. Thankfully, my husband didn't just toss our tickets. We didn't rush, but we didn't take forever either. It took us about 90 minutes to walk the whole thing. That's with stopping for photos of course. Plus, they have the path set up to go only one way, which is the best! There are a few points where it's a little narrow, so that's helpful. There are quite a few stairs as well. Afterwards, we grabbed some pizza, again, and of course Gelato, again. LOL! We were able to walk right up and jump on the shuttle bus right before it was ready to leave. We had hoped to do the cable car, if we had time, but it was closed in the afternoon. I read that it can happen depending on weather and winds. This was one of my favorite cities for sure and would love to spend more time here. I guess the Game of Thrones fans know this view. Such beautiful views! Areas that were damaged The Onofrio Fountain, about 600 years old The tree grew through the stone The Cathedral of the Assumption of Virgin Mary Inside the Dominican Monastery Vaulted ceilings of the monastery Cat on a hot tin roof. LOL! Overlooking Fort Lovrijenac, if we'd had more time we would have gone over there. Walking on the walls Another view of the fortress Overlooking Old Town A memorial plaque reminding people to not forget what happened. A map showing areas that were damaged. Yummy!! Ugh! Not sure why they rotated this way!!

Yay! I'm so glad! It's funny, my husband was kind of like "Ehh... do we really need that extension." But I did rationalize that it seemed like a good bang for the buck type of thing. After we did it, he was 100% in agreement that it was worth it. He doesn't usually rave about things, but he did about that.

Thanks @Podgieree! I hope it helps people. I'm working on getting through it as quickly as possible, without just doing it all at once. I do have others things to work on. LOL! But I also kept a journal with me (and short notes on my phone), so that has helped with remembering the details of things.

Oh, we also learned, in case others weren't aware (like me), when they say you get 1 included at each port, it doesn't matter if it's 3 days that you're there. It makes sense, and it is what they say. I just wasn't totally thinking. LOL! So we could only try to get into one included excursion, and it didn't matter if it was on a day/time that we didn't like. We would have preferred Sunday, but it ended up working out better being on Friday.

So like others have already commented, for our specific cruise, we booked it as one cruise, it was titled as such. We were new to Viking. We didn't realize it until after we booked, that it was technically 3 legs of a longer 4 leg cruise. This means that the 2 ports where it was a turnover day (Venice & Rome) had excursions that weren't posted before we sailed. When we got on board, we were able to book Venice and then the next day we were given forms for Rome. It was kind of weird that there were 2 different ways for the 2 ports. Now, it sounds like others are saying that they have since changed this process. Maybe they finally figured out how to limit access to those excursions to people who are booked through that port. That would be great if they did!

Seems like you've hit the main points. I would also say, since you mentioned your daughter's appearance and concerns, she shouldn't be off on her own then. Make sure she hangs out with other kids. Safety in numbers! Hope they have a great time!

I echo what @euro cruiser said. We did an excursion through our Viking cruise that was Sorrento & Pompeii. We honestly didn't have enough time at either of the places. Traffic was bad both going into Sorrento and getting back to Pompeii. Our friends had a private tour scheduled to just the Amalfi Coast and theirs got cancelled because the your operator said they couldn't guarantee their time back to the ship.

4/23 - Kotor, Montenegro - Highlights of Montenegro (optional tour). I'll be honest, when they described this in the port talk, we weren't sure we had picked a good one. It sounded a little underwhelming. We got up a little early to see some of the sail into the bay, it's really beautiful. It reminded us of Norway, with the fjords there. It was overcast and they were calling for some rain during the day. We were certainly glad we bought those rain jackets the day before! We headed to our bus and met our guide, George, who spoke perfect English. He even commented that people don't think he's from there, but he's spent about half of his life living there. He explained how his sister was raised as a child in Montenegro, during the good times (the Yugo being a big deal at the time, as the country was part of Yugoslavia at that time). However, after the war in the early 90's, when the country fell apart and their economy tanked, his parents moved with the 2 kids to Toronto for a better life. This means he spent most of his childhood living in Canada, hence, the perfect English. He also explained the insanely high inflation rate the country had when his parents left, it was like 300 million percent! We headed up the mountains on our bus, it's 25 switchbacks and can be really tight at times. If you're prone to anxiety with this, just keep it in mind. He told us how he's had a few guests in the past really freak out. As we climbed, the view down to the bay was beautiful, even with the overcast day. You'll start taking pictures, only to realize the view just gets better and better. LOL! We got pretty high up and stopped at a little town Njegusi, a small town that makes their own smoked meats, pretty common around this entire area. We had a small meal of some meat and cheese, with local wine (or soda). People had a chance to use the bathroom and stretch their legs. This is where the last king of Montenegro was born. From here, we moved through the Lovcen National Park, so pretty, even with the rain and clouds. There was snow on the ground here too, so pretty high up. It's a nice, scenic drive through the area. We continued on to Cetinje, the former capital city of Montenegro. There's a small museum, King Nikola's palace, the last ruler of the country. He actually did a lot for the country, but was exiled after WWI, with the country becoming Yugoslavia. We were in the rain now, it was a decent rain, not heavy, but steady. Everyone was using umbrellas. The museum was small, but some neat things. George showed us around, pointing out various things. It's a little tight in there, and with the wet umbrellas, it was pretty packed in there. We had a little free time after we were done, but again, the weather put a damper on the town. Not much was going on, a few cafes were open. We walked around to see a few of the sights. I wish the weather had been better, so we could have enjoyed it a bit more. There's a beautiful, little church here, the Castle Church, along with the Cetinje Monastery. We headed back to the bus to start our drive back to Kotor. We came in a slightly different way, to see the resort city of Budva. This is their little riviera type town, and they do get thousands of visitors in the summer months. George explained how the country tried to recover, after the wars and to grow in their independence. They wanted to bring more visitors here, so they convinced the producers of the Bond movie Casino Royale (Daniel Craig version) to set the movie in Montenegro. Even though they didn't film it there, the setting is there. A major hotel in the Budva was behind this pitch, thinking it would help promote the area, and it worked! Many celebrities come to Budva for a getaway. After our return to the port, we walked into the Old Town portion. Again, with the cooler, rainy weather, and our already long day, we didn't do a lot. We would have loved to have climbed some of the higher points, but instead, we walked along the city walls for a bit. Also grabbed a piece of pizza! This was the first place where they gave me a slice, on a lightweight piece of cardboard, and you can basically fold it in half, walk, and eat it. They don't load their pizzas like we do, much more simple toppings. We got Margherita pizza in almost every port! It's a nice old town area, easy to walk around and to get back to the ship. We did go to the pool deck BBQ that night. They have like 3 different musicians throughout. Some acoustic, a duet, and the band. It does get a little loud at times, but some good food - brats, ribs, pulled pork... Sailing into the bay in the morning... At a stop along the way heading up Two bays, with the one our ship was in on the right Cetinje streets, pretty empty Castle Church Budva Kotor Cathedral The streets in Kotor weren't really busy either, it was later in the day and the rain had been falling for awhile. Another pathway in Old Town Kotor Cathedral Stairs in part of the city walls Amazing the old walls around the city. Clock tower in Kotor Kotor in the evening before sailing out.