Shore Excursion descriptions

[burnabyjean]

I had sort of hijacked another thread with this, so I thought I'd start a new topic. We have been disappointed with the amount of information given on shore excursions. Several people have suggested that more information is given at the port talk, but that's too late to cancel if we've paid for one. It hasn't happened often, but there have definitely been excursions we wouldn't have purchased if we'd known all the information ahead of time. At someone's suggestion, I sent an email to tellus@vikingcruises.com. I got a phone call today from a representative who said that my request would be forwarded to the appropriate department. He also said that my request was "logical and sensible", not like some requests they receive 🙂.

 

FYI, this is what another cruise line has readily available on their website (you don't even have to have a cruise booked to find this information):

Edited July 5, 2023 by burnabyjean

[Murt22]

Yes! I am starting to research excursions for our 3 week 2024 Adriatic and Mediterranean cruise and it is overwhelming. More information on everything would be SO helpful. 

[deec]

WOW...that would be great.

Viking has this information available I am sure.

Guest services once onboard can give a better idea what is involved on a specific excursion.  But who wants to wait until you board.

In the Spring of 2022 we were onboard the Jupiter for 4 cruises and there was a great guy in  charge of excursions ( i forget what they are called). His name was Max.  For a while he was presenting ports 2 days before the actual stop so that there was still time to cancel and rebook if the excursion was a bad fit ( too strenuous, bus ride too long etc).  I thought it was a brilliant idea but too many complaints that people were getting confused about which day was which so he went back to the traditional port talk of explaining excursions the night before.

 

Hopefully Viking will start adding the info like you have suggested!

[Moonlion]

7 minutes ago, deec said:

Viking has this information available I am sure.

The people at Viking who organize and contract the tours may have this information but, if you call Viking, the call reps don't know much more than the description provided on the website.  We had called Viking to get more information about an optional excursion we had booked on our 2022 cruise.  The call rep and supervisor couldn't provide any additional information beyond what was already published. They basically just read back to me the online description. I asked if they could contact the excursion organizers at Viking for the information, and they said that was not possible.  I ended up canceling the excursion. 

[formernuke]

I appreciate this topic. I did make comments on my last cruise survey suggesting more of this type of info in the descriptions. The type of information that would be useful also goes beyond what you described. For example, Trip advisor quite completely describes what places you will stop at, what you visit externally, what you will go into, approximate time on your own, how much time between stops, etc. This would be invaluable for planning! (You can deduce a little from their wording if you have deduced the 'secret decoder ring' of wording, but not much help.

 

Also, port talks are useful but often don't provide anywhere near the amount of detail one might want, and they vary immensely depending on who is presenting the information and their personal familiarity with those excursions.

[Azulann]

57 minutes ago, deec said:

Guest services once onboard can give a better idea what is involved on a specific excursion.  But who wants to wait until you board.

The person is called the excursion  manager. On my recent cruise she gave all the port talks. She was readily available next to guest relations to talk to any passenger  about any excursion.

 I find reading the trip reviews at top of the  Viking forum page sometimes helpful. Many of their reviews talk about the ship excursions, but it takes some research to find  a ship that did the  itinerary you will be going  on.  

 I do like the printout that the OP has posted ,it would be great additional information for future passengers.  Also  the Port of Call forum on
Cruise Critic is very helpful. Many of the excursion are similar to other ships  excursions.There are so real expert on those forums. 

[ropomo]

1 hour ago, deec said:

Guest services once onboard can give a better idea what is involved on a specific excursion.  But who wants to wait until you board.

This may be unique to Expedition ships, but on our recent Great Lakes cruise, when seeking additional information, Guest Services was only able to read back to us the information that we already had from the website/printed description. Our concern was an excursion that we got cancelled that was rated as Moderate, Viking unilaterally moved us to one was rated as Demanding. We opted to go and find out the reality. Turned out to be just Moderate. All's well, but you never know.

[Moonlion]

Given the big bucks for the Viking optional excursions, it would also be nice to be able to read customer reviews of the excursions, as you can for private tours.  But why would Viking promote this? Keeping clients in the dark as to the quality of the excursions is in their best interest (sorry to sound so cynical). 

[CCWineLover]

51 minutes ago, Moonlion said:

Given the big bucks for the Viking optional excursions, it would also be nice to be able to read customer reviews of the excursions, as you can for private tours.  But why would Viking promote this? Keeping clients in the dark as to the quality of the excursions is in their best interest (sorry to sound so cynical). 

I beg to respectively disagree.  Maybe I'm just not cynical enough and don't have much experience in conspiracy theories.

 

I truly do not think Viking is purposely keeping customers in the dark, particularly when it raises the complaint level  My experience is that they will try to do what's best for their customers.  The issue with Viking, however, is getting to the right person who can make things happen.  And this can be frustrating.

 

I hope that the OP's "report"/suggestion is taken to the appropriate people who view it seriously.  I have seen action taken before when something makes sense, so hopefully we will see some change.

Edited July 6, 2023 by CCWineLover

[Heidi13]

With respect to the shore-ex info provided to pax, the information provided by the OP is the same as we used to get when sailing with Princess.

 

Although I have never been involved in this part of the business, I'll suggest Viking Corporate/LA Office does not have this level of detail, probably because they don't request it. Based on the spelling in the shore-ex descriptions, they are most likely written by the L/A Office. However, since all cruise lines use mostly the same vendors, more details are clearly readily available.

 

When issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) for tours in any port, the boilerplate should include a request for the level of tour detail the cruise line wants to provide. The Princess RFP's are clearly more detailed than the ones Viking issues. Based on my dealings with the management in L/A, I don't find this surprising. If the L/A Management believe the current level of shore-ex detail is acceptable, I'll suggest it is further proof they don't know the customer, an opinion I have previously provided to the management level.

 

More information is available onboard, as shore-ex vendors provide a number of comp tickets to the ship, which are used for auditing tours and given to crew, lecturers, etc. Therefore, the crew know more about the tours than Corporate, as they have actually experienced them.

 

Therefore, it would be a simple process for Viking to provide a similar level of detail, as provided by the OP. The shore-ex management needs to update the shore-ex RFP boilerplate to include more detailed information, and design an online form to present the enhanced information for each tour. Any change clause in the existing contracts may even permit requesting this additional information, at a cost.

[burnabyjean]

2 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

With respect to the shore-ex info provided to pax, the information provided by the OP is the same as we used to get when sailing with Princess.

My screen capture was indeed from the Princess website!

[deec]

I am currently frustrated by Viking's inability to give me times of and detailed descriptions of included tours for pre/post extensions in Transylvania and Madrid.  They "don't know" what tours maybe offered by the 'hosts" on our free days.  We usually  do our own DIY pre/post but I was feeling lazy!  Guessing I will do Tours by Locals for our "free" time.

 

 

 

 

 

[BCHappyGal]

Tours by Locals provided us with a fantastic guie when we did Transylvania...  

[deec]

thank you, BCHappy Gal.

 

[island lady]

Viking is not alone.   One of the worst is RCI.   Very limited info, and they used to do reviews from pax with pictures, but no longer.  Even worse than that...many of the tour info RCI lists is wrong, and don't find out until you are on the tour.  

[shmabbies]

OP, thanks for sharing that screen shot.  I am truly amazed at what information we COULD get, if only.....

[PRH]

On 7/5/2023 at 7:20 PM, ropomo said:

This may be unique to Expedition ships, but on our recent Great Lakes cruise, when seeking additional information, Guest Services was only able to read back to us the information that we already had from the website/printed description. Our concern was an excursion that we got cancelled that was rated as Moderate, Viking unilaterally moved us to one was rated as Demanding. We opted to go and find out the reality. Turned out to be just Moderate. All's well, but you never know.

I was probably MOST frustrated on our GL Expedition cruise as the descriptions were often so light on information and in one case, absolutely misleading.  Not even the excursion manager had been on our excursions so she would not deviate from the description when we reported the huge discrepancies afterward.  I would hope that Viking would take guest comments seriously but I’ve learned that the descriptions are often fanciful and sometimes downright misleading.
 

On one, when we signed up it was an e-bike trip but once on board, when we checked with excursions because our tickets said bike, they told us that e-bikes were against the law in PEI!  We canceled and then saw an ebike rental shop within a few blocks of the ship!  He said Viking had contacted him but had not followed up.  And yes, e-bikes are most certainly allowed on PEI.  Friends who had been excited to try e-bikes decided to go anyway and the bikes were in poor condition, the trail was 6 miles shorter than described and the “delicious snack” turned out to be a stale granola bar.  They complained to guest services/excursions along with the pre-cruise receipt saying “ebike” and were told sorry, you should have noticed that e no longer appeared in the onboard excursion description!  This was one among 4 such description discrepancies for some expensive optional excursions.  It almost put us off Viking altogether.  
 

I’ve learned to ask lots of questions upon boarding and to keep asking—has any crew member actually been on this optional excursion?  Who provided the description and what have guest comments been like?  How many times has this excursion been offered?  By the same vendor?  I dislike being a pest but these excursions are not inexpensive and the Excursions Manager should be prepared to give accurate information.  Sure, there can be variations due to lots of circumstances but being taken to a hike and dropped off with no maps and told you would be picked up in two hours is not the same as “enjoy a guided hike in…..”.

[longterm]

I've wanted this since our first Viking cruise, when we took the Grand European river cruise (which we're repeating in October). 

 

We took an excursion from Regensburg to Munich; I was looking forward to it, until I realized that it was a 2-hour drive (or more) each way. To make matter worse, we had an awful tour guide--he actually managed to leave 2 women behind, until one of our group noticed they were missing, got the guide to pause our walk so that she (not the tour guide) could go back and find the 2 slow-walking group members. 

Had we known how long the drive was going to be, we would have stayed in Regensburg; we won't be taking the Munich excursion this time around, that's for sure. 

 

I have no doubt that Viking has travel time durations available; if they just chose to include this in the excursion descriptions, it would help us make better decisions with our limited time.  

[island lady]

Had the same thing happen with RCI tour in Naples last Fall.   One of the worst tours ever, and our guide left one couple behind, even after the bus left for the port.  They had to find their own way back to the ship.    

 

Totally agree that the cruise lines need to send a crew member on each of these tours when they first introduce the news ones to personally check them out.  At the very least to enable them to list a correct description.  

[deec]

longterm...we too are re-doing the Grand European as part of the European Sojourn this fall.  I usually try to "map quest" the distance to give me an idea.  Guides make or break the excursion IMO.

[OneSixtyToOne]

40 minutes ago, deec said:

longterm...we too are re-doing the Grand European as part of the European Sojourn this fall.  I usually try to "map quest" the distance to give me an idea.  Guides make or break the excursion IMO.

FYI On our Grand European cruise some friends took the Salzburg excursion and regretted it. It was a very long bus ride to spend very little time there. 

[mikenannie]

Great topic. 
We just completed our first cruise with Viking on the Saturn. My biggest issue was the lack of information provided about the shore excursions. It's interesting to me that they have more information because during the port talks, you learn a ton about the excursions you already paid for and some of that information may have been very useful to know prior to booking. And, as mentioned in the original post on this thread, by the time you see the details in the port talk, it's too late to cancel. Had we had the port talk information prior to booking, we would have save over $1200 by not booking.

For each excursion, I'd like to know how much of that time is spent sitting on a bus. An excursion that's 3 hours total time that has 2 hours of travel time on a bus is a lot different than the same excursion with 1 hour of bus travel. In addition, we found that some of the descriptions on the Viking website didn't match the experience - for example, what points of interest the tour visited and for how long.

I wrote about two of our excursions earlier today here.
 

Maybe the issue is that the tour companies contracted by Viking provide the descriptions and Viking does little to edit / proof them. Maybe Viking does this, but they should go on EVERY excursion and write the descriptions based on what they experience, not what the tour operator wants to write. I'm not sure what the issue is, but I think there is a ton of room for improvement. And how about more than one picture in the description?!!

Based on our experience this cruise, I'm very reluctant to book another excursion through Viking based on their write up. I think I'd get better results using TripAdvisor for my pre-booking information and booking via a 3rd party instead of through Viking. I've never done that before on cruises, but that might be our solution moving forward.

Edited July 8, 2023 by mikenannie

[deec]

We have never missed the ship but I have been nervous more than once.  I know I will never book a "boat" excursion DIY unless it is an overnight stop.  Boats are very hard to get replacements unlike Vans, autos or even buses.

 

Also I always leave in my stateroom information stating with whom we are going and the contact info in case we don't show up and have not been able to contact the ship.

Edited July 8, 2023 by deec

[longterm]

6 hours ago, deec said:

longterm...we too are re-doing the Grand European as part of the European Sojourn this fall.  I usually try to "map quest" the distance to give me an idea.  Guides make or break the excursion IMO.

I definitely look at it now before choosing excursions; having done the Grand European before, we're going to do more on our own this time. Are you by chance going Oct. 4th from Budapest? If so, you'll end up meeting 2 of my brothers and their wives as well. 🙂

[May B]

5 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

FYI On our Grand European cruise some friends took the Salzburg excursion and regretted it. It was a very long bus ride to spend very little time there. 

On a different river cruise line, we did Salzburg from Linz and it was a WONDERFUL day.