Australia and Asia Cruise

[Jamietravelstheworld]

I'm considering a 2020 trip on the Orion from Sydney to Tokyo. If you've been to Australia or Asia with Viking would love to know your experiences with the following questions:

--How far the ports typically from the cities? For example, I'm pretty sure in Bangkok, it's an hour or 2 from port to Bangkok.

--How are the included shore excursions? Are they mainly just overviews? If you paid for excursions, what were the prices like?

--Are there many overland tours available?

--What does "privileged access" mean on a shore excursion?

--If you're not in the suites category where you can book excursions for in advance, are you still able to get excursions or are they typically sold out?

 

Thanks,

Jamie

[Heidi13]

Have travelled those regions extensively, but not with Viking.

 

Sydney - Viking tends to get the White Bay Cruise Terminal, which is West of the Bridge. On previous cruises they have provided a launch service to Circular Quay

 

Bangkok - some smaller ships do dock in the river, but most go to the Pax Terminal at Laem Chabang, which is about 70 miles from the city

 

Saigon - Cruise ships dock in the river between Vung Tau and Phu My. Distance to Saigon is 40 to 60 miles.

 

Honk Kong - Our WC is going to Ocean Terminal, which is downtown Kowloon. The other option is the old airport Kai Tak

 

Tokyo - only been on cargo ships, so not sure about Pax Terminals

[Little Monty]

Jamie .. Viking Orion has just completed an Asian cruise. If you look up 'Cruise Reviews' at the bottom of this page then select that ship you can read all about it. Viking is fairly new to Asia and it seems there may be a few kinks to iron out. I think you will find Viking ships berth in Yokohama (on the southern outskirts of Tokyo). Some of the other ports on the itinerary (eg Bali) have not yet been visited by Viking (other than the Viking World Cruise in early 2018). You might find the old thread for the 2018 World Cruise if you search in this forum, but it is very, very long and you will have to scroll through until you reach the items of interest.  

[Little Monty]

... in fact Orion arrives in Bangkok ((Laem Chabang) tomorrow on it's way to Bali and then Sydney. Those on board right now may see your question and respond, but if not keep an eye out for further reviews when they post them.

[Peregrina651]

On 11/15/2018 at 10:13 PM, jamieandsam said:

I'm considering a 2020 trip on the Orion from Sydney to Tokyo. If you've been to Australia or Asia with Viking would love to know your experiences with the following questions:

--How far the ports typically from the cities? For example, I'm pretty sure in Bangkok, it's an hour or 2 from port to Bangkok.

--How are the included shore excursions? Are they mainly just overviews? If you paid for excursions, what were the prices like?

--Are there many overland tours available?

--What does "privileged access" mean on a shore excursion?

--If you're not in the suites category where you can book excursions for in advance, are you still able to get excursions or are they typically sold out?

 

Thanks,

Jamie

 

 

As someone pointed out, Viking Ocean has not yet really visited Asia yet except on its first World Cruise earlier this year. So, it is going to be very difficult for us to talk about the prices of the optional tours and other of the details because just don't know what Viking will ultimately be offering. However, you can get an idea of what they are thinking about offering by going to the Viking website, to the itineraries you are looking at.

 

Under the itinerary tab, if you scroll down, you will see a day by day list and if you click on one of the learn more buttons you will be taken into a new section of the website that gives one webpage per day about the port of call and the the tours that they are looking at (this will change over time and it will not be firmed up until about 120 days prior to sailing when it posted to your personal passenger portal on "MyVikingJourney" (which you won't have access to until you book and register  on the site)).

 

Here is a link to an example of what I am talking about. https://www.vikingcruises.com/oceans/cruise-destinations/world-grand/southeast-asia-horizons/index.html#itineraryday/2

 

Privileged access can mean getting into a museum before it open or after it closes or into parts of the museum that might not typically be open to visitors.