Size of groups on excursions?

[Sparky333]

roberts2005 -- Have a great trip - we really enjoyed ours. Maybe the Viking response saying that there should be different tours offered (different paces would be key) on all of their itineraries means ours was just an anomaly and not the norm.

 

It wasn't a huge problem, but smaller groups would definitely be nicer and allow you to see more and not stand around waiting for others.

[pacmom]

We have been on 2 AMA trips where there were large groups--one from Australia--super company. Same trip also had a group from Canada who were very very party people to the extent that no one wanted to be near them. The second trip had a group of 40 from Texas--thought the ship was theirs and really not caring about the rest of us enjoying the wonderful evening entertainment. The group from Texas travels together every year--really hope they are not on another trip we take. On our first European river cruise there were 2 groups--one from California who mingled and were great traveling companions--the other was a group of about 12 from the Army-Navy Alumni group--never talked to anyone outside their group. There will always be groups and the CD is the one to keep them from being overwhelming to the rest of the pax.

 

As Franski always says it is the CD who makes or breaks the trip.

[Sparky333]

Hi pacmom -

Just to clarify in case I was confusing - I meant the groups that they put passengers in on walking tours each day - not really people traveling together necessarily, just random strangers walking with each guide.

 

There weren't any big groups on our ship. Sounds like that can really disrupt things for other passengers. Especially if a big group is loud or takes over the lounge or dining room. I hope to never run into that on a river cruise.

[CPT Trips]

Ooops! Never mind.

[Bill'sBride]

Just returned this weekend, and it seems that most of our groups were between 28-40 depending on the tour. They did offer the slower walker groups, but there were few who seemed to join them, I think for fear of missing out seeing something. I think the bathroom breaks were a bit long at times, but many locations would have only 1 or 2 stalls and with an older demographic they could take a bit longer. I never felt that there were too many people to get close to see things, and never had a problem with anyone in the group not keeping up with the tour guide.

[Sparky333]

From the feedback on this thread it sounds like it varies from cruise to cruise on Viking depending on itinerary and/or other circumstances. I didn't think 40 people in a group was horrible but it did impact what could be accomplished in a tour with x amount of time -- especially if the bathroom break took up a lot of the time.

 

I haven't heard back yet from Viking but their reply above made it sound like there were almost always smaller groups and options for faster/slower paced groups which was not the case for us. I'm hoping in the future we'll find that if we use Viking again.

 

Can I ask, Bill'sBride, which cruise you were on?