What's up with having different dates for when excursions can be booked

[Pushka]

2 hours ago, zitsky said:

When Viking publishes the list of excursions, do they also publicize the times?  Or do you see that when you book?

Yes, once the excursions are loaded then all the times are shown. It’s when you go to book that many will have disappeared depending on cabin level. 

[zitsky]

My DH's complaint about our recent NCL cruise was that some days we were booked all day.  It will be nice having tours at different times.  Maybe we won't have to get up early every day.

[CharTrav]

22 hours ago, Dauntless said:

 

They publish what is being offered, how much it costs and what times will be offered.  When it is time for you to book, you ask for what you want and if it is sold out the site will inform you.  In many cases, there are other options available.  the included excursions usually have several time slots and they may have multiple excursions in groups leaving at the same time.  So if there are only four times, that does not mean that there are only four groups.

To amplify on your post - all the excursion possibilities are shown on the day by day itinerary for each cruise on the main VO site. The exact excursions offered, along with prices and times, for your particular cruise are shown in MVJ, which goes "live" a few weeks before your booking window goes live. Some of the excursions shown on the main VO site may not be available at all for your particular cruise (for seasonal reasons, for example) or they may add others not shown at all on the main VO site. If you use the main VO site as your source before MVJ goes live your thoughts as to which excursion to shoot for (along with back up options) should be mostly done. So the weeks before the booking window opens is enough time to fine tune your booking strategy.  Hope this helps. 

Edited January 16, 2019 by CharTrav

[Dauntless]

8 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

To amplify on your post - all the excursion possibilities are shown on the day by day itinerary for each cruise on the main VO site. The exact excursions offered, along with prices and times, for your particular cruise are shown in MVJ, which goes "live" a few weeks before your booking window goes live. Some of the excursions shown on the main VO site may not be available at all for your particular cruise (for seasonal reasons, for example) or they may add others not shown at all on the main VO site. If you use the main VO site as your source before MVJ goes live your thoughts as to which excursion to shoot for (along with back up options) should be mostly done. So the weeks before the booking window opens is enough time to fine tune your booking strategy.  Hope this helps. 

 

Good point.  I'm not sure why so many people have a hard time finding that info but I often see where they can't seem to find any info.  Too many think it's all going to be on MVJ I guess.

 

[Pushka]

4 hours ago, Dauntless said:

 

Good point.  I'm not sure why so many people have a hard time finding that info but I often see where they can't seem to find any info.  Too many think it's all going to be on MVJ I guess.

 

 

I think when you’ve been on different cruise lines, and make a booking, the excursions are shown immediately and are available to book. It’s only Viking that waits so long to put them into MVJ and then another gap before you can book them, that people think that something is going wrong or they are not looking in the right place. It’s quite a different way of doing things, and yes, Viking are entitled to do that, but it is confusing. 

[CharTrav]

4 hours ago, Dauntless said:

 

Good point.  I'm not sure why so many people have a hard time finding that info but I often see where they can't seem to find any info.  Too many think it's all going to be on MVJ I guess.

 

Don't know why folks aren't aware that the VO site is replete with info about their cruises. Every aspect of. You can't just use the printed catalog, which may be all that folks use to choose a cruise. 

[CharTrav]

3 minutes ago, Pushka said:

 

I think when you’ve been on different cruise lines, and make a booking, the excursions are shown immediately and are available to book. It’s only Viking that waits so long to put them into MVJ and then another gap before you can book them, that people think that something is going wrong or they are not looking in the right place. It’s quite a different way of doing things, and yes, Viking are entitled to do that, but it is confusing. 

You're missing the point. Except for prices and times, all the information about the excursions is there and available - on the VO site. You don't have to wait for MVJ to open up.

 

I will agree tho that it would be nice to share the prices on these excursions; not limit that knowledge to booked passengers and not make one wait until MVJ opens up. Before VO started up, VR published a very nice PDF for each cruise that combined a narrative for each city along with what optional excursions (with prices) were offered.  Of course, the number of optionals was pretty small. But basically, unless the variation in the cost of optional excursions varies widely from year to year or even season to season, I don't understand the rationale for maintaining such a close hold on it. I can understand why the times may be something they might not want to share on the open VO site (your MVJ site is essentially closed - limited to paying passengers). Too much variability including a dependence on the cruise direction. The best you get btw with VR on MVJ is an open ended morning or afternoon schedule for excursions, the actual times are provided your passenger packet after you board.  

[Pushka]

Dup. Deleted and reposted below. 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Pushka

[Pushka]

5 minutes ago, CharTrav said:

You're missing the point. Except for prices and times, all the information about the excursions is there and available - on the VO site. You don't have to wait for MVJ to open up.

 

I will agree tho that it would be nice to share the prices on these excursions; not limit that knowledge to booked passengers and not make one wait until MVJ opens up. Before VO started up, VR published a very nice PDF for each cruise that combined a narrative for each city along with what optional excursions (with prices) were offered.  Of course, the number of optionals was pretty small. But basically, unless the variation in the cost of optional excursions varies widely from year to year or even season to season, I don't understand the rationale for maintaining such a close hold on it. I can understand why the times may be something they might not want to share on the open VO site (your MVJ site is essentially closed - limited to paying passengers). Too much variability including a dependence on the cruise direction. The best you get btw with VR on MVJ is an open ended morning or afternoon schedule for excursions, the actual times are provided your passenger packet after you board.  

 

 

Well, on our Alaska cruise, as it’s a first, the preview excursions on the main site were completely different to those that were finally offered when MVJ opened them up for viewing. A couple of the included excursions were no longer offered - a duck tour in Ketchikan? from memory and one other. The additional excursions were very very different and most had not been listed on the main site. Perhaps that’s why they were opened up almost 150 days in advance. Maybe it’s a unique situation. 

 

Its no biggie at all for us as we usually book independent ones. It was just a curiosity. The only one I’ll book with Viking is one in Skagway as it’s a long day, and one in Valdez which doesn’t have any external providers. And I have some OBC to chew up. 

Edited January 16, 2019 by Pushka

[Cienfuegos]

My wife and I had a deluxe veranda for our November trip to Cuba.  We were shut out of initial choices of excursions.

 

After complaints from many travelers, Viking Ocean added additional sections of several tours.