Question About Check In Day Timeline

[NanciEA]

For our upcoming Viking cruise we have booked the two night pre-cruise hotel and tour package. All the itinerary lists on embarkation day is "After breakfast check out of your hotel and we will transfer you to your ship". We are wondering about possible transfer times and if we can do any touring on our own that day. Do all cabin categories transfer together? Does Viking ever transfer your luggage and you can arrive later on your own? It seems like somewhat of a "lost" day if all you do is transfer and check in. The port is Hong Kong. We still have time to cancel the pre-cruise package.

[CharTrav]

If I dare use our own experience doing the pre-cruise extension to Viking Homelands in Oslo and then starting VH in Bergen. We traveled from Oslo to Bergen via train and checked into our hotel late aftenoon. The following morning we checked out. Viking gathered all our luggage to go onboard the ship that morning. We then met our Viking tour guide who took us on a tour of Bergen. The tour ended around noon in time for all of us to check into the ship where we congregated in places like the World Cafe to eat lunch waiting for our cabins to become available. Some went off the ship to stomp around Bergen that was an easy walk from the ship and then came back later.

 

If you wanted to go touring on your own that morning instead of doing the organized tour you were free to do so. And then just board on your own schedule.

 

Basically - since you can't go to your cabin any earlier than 11 (the earliest if you're in an explorer suite) to as late as 3 (Veranda) - you're free to do what you want. It's not a lost day at all.

 

Does that help?

 

 

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[CharTrav]

Btw - I just checked out your cruise and the hotel. Was worried that the hotel was a long way away from the cruise terminal. And yeah it is. Not walkable. It's about an hour by public transit (very indirect routing) and 20 min by car (more direct). But I can't imagine that Viking would trundle you over to the cruise terminal first thing in the morning. They'll schedule it appropriately. Of course if you want to send your luggage over with them and come later, I can't imagine they'd say no.

 

 

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[Cape Hernlopen]

Dear NanciEA:

 

We are on the Viking Orion out of Hong Kong on 7 October and have booked the pre tour. Currently the Orion is scheduled to dock at the Ocean Terminal. It is approx. a ten minute walk from the Kwoloon Shangra Lai Hotel. Of course the dockage location could change. But as of now the location of the hotel and pier is perfect. The Viking Sun had docked at the new terminal at the old airport site and thus the confusion. If you are on the Orion on 7 October please join our new Roll Call.

 

Joel Barry

[CharTrav]

Dear NanciEA:

 

We are on the Viking Orion out of Hong Kong on 7 October and have booked the pre tour. Currently the Orion is scheduled to dock at the Ocean Terminal. It is approx. a ten minute walk from the Kwoloon Shangra Lai Hotel. Of course the dockage location could change. But as of now the location of the hotel and pier is perfect. The Viking Sun had docked at the new terminal at the old airport site and thus the confusion. If you are on the Orion on 7 October please join our new Roll Call.

 

Joel Barry

 

 

Thanks. I just did a google search for the ocean cruise terminal in Hong Kong and asked Google maps to chart a route to it from the hotel. Clearly out of date re the new terminal.

 

 

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[Cape Hernlopen]

Dear CharTrav:

 

I was not as specific as necessary in my earlier response. There are two cruise terminals in Hong Kong. The October 7 Orion is scheduled for the Ocean Terminal located in the "heart" of Kwoloon and close to our Hotel. The newer Terminal is located on the old airport site and is relatively far from our Hotel. For Google maps you will need to be specific regarding which terminal. Best if you check the Hong Kong website for ocean cruise terminals and directions/transportation.

 

Joel Barry

[NanciEA]

We are not on the Oct. 7 voyage. I checked and our cruise next spring is out of the Ocean Terminal, so very close to the hotel Viking uses in Hong Kong. We will plan to give them our luggage to transfer and then tour on our own.