Middle "turnaround" day in Athens

[shmabbies]

Does anyone who has done the three day port stay in Piraeus/Athens, with no excursions available to book in advance on the middle turnaround day, have a list of what ended up being offered on board, or have any recollection of what might have been offered?  Thanks!

[duquephart]

We arrive Athens at 7am one day and leave at 6pm the next day (Ancient Adriatic Treasures). Day 2 excursions are offered. Day 1 nothing! All day in Athens and no excursions?

[Peregrina651]

 

 

If there is a turnaround day as part of your itinerary (that is, when some guests are disembarking and others are embarking), there will be no excursions listed on MVJ for that day.  You cannot book ship excursions in advance for a turnaround day. 

 

Once you board, you will be given a list of excursions that you can book for turnaround day. These excursions are not open to arriving or departing guests. They will be chosen from the list you see on the website for tours offered in that port.

 

My suggestion is to narrow choice down to 2 or 3 and book one of them for Day2. Once you get the list for turnaround day, you can finalize your plans, even to the point of changing your Day 2 tour.

 

@shmabbies while it is fun to see in advance. it doesn't really matter what was offered on past turnaround days, as the list can change from sailing to sailing based on the number of continuing pax and the time of year. Whatever the list, it generally comes from the list of what you see on the website for that port.

[shmabbies]

9 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

 

Whatever the list, it generally comes from the list of what you see on the website for that port.

The devil is in the word  'generally.'  Last year in Chioggia, for example, Verona was offered on the "turnaround" or "middle" day, and that was not an offering on the other Chioggia days.  It was one of our favorite excursions.  I don't know if it was ever offered again, but I did post that it HAD been available, and hopefully this knowledge helped someone plan their middle day.

 

I think Viking should put their cards on the table and show us, and allow us to book, their middle day offerings in advance (not just Athens).  As many continually point out, their cruises are often filled way in advance, so they know darned well close to how many people are disembarking on that day and how many are continuing onto the next sailing.  While I'm not a computer expert, it seems their system can be configured to reject anyone who tries to book an excursion on MVJ on their own personal disembarkation or embarkation day.  It's sophisticated enough to not let you book two overlapping excursions in a given port, for example, so surely it can be set to not let someone disembarking book an excursion on disembarkation day.   

 

In Chioggia, we took a chance to see what was offered on the middle day.  I'm likely not going to do that this time, in which case I will book something private or buy ferry tickets or ???  In other words, I will probably not wait to see what Viking offers, thus reducing by two people the demand for Viking excursions on the middle day, which then is self-defeating going forward, because lack of interest may reduce the number of offerings going forward.  Not sure I'm explaining that well....

 

My request still stands, if anyone recollects what was offered on their middle day in Athens, I'd love to know what they were.  I have my big girl panties on and know that there is no guarantee of what will be offered on my cruise, but the knowledge will help me decide whether to book something on my own before sailing, or wait and take my chances.  

 

 

[duquephart]

14 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

 

If there is a turnaround day as part of your itinerary (that is, when some guests are disembarking and others are embarking), there will be no excursions listed on MVJ for that day.  You cannot book ship excursions in advance for a turnaround day. 

 

Once you board, you will be given a list of excursions that you can book for turnaround day. These excursions are not open to arriving or departing guests. They will be chosen from the list you see on the website for tours offered in that port.

 

My suggestion is to narrow choice down to 2 or 3 and book one of them for Day2. Once you get the list for turnaround day, you can finalize your plans, even to the point of changing your Day 2 tour.

 

@shmabbies while it is fun to see in advance. it doesn't really matter what was offered on past turnaround days, as the list can change from sailing to sailing based on the number of continuing pax and the time of year. Whatever the list, it generally comes from the list of what you see on the website for that port.

 

Something new every day. Thanks!

[MidnightSailingSam]

We did the Adriatic & Mediterranean Sojourn this past September and Viking offered The Acropolis Museum and Plaka District as their included tour and Ancient Corinth and Canal as a second tour which you had to pay for. We did the Museum tour and that was very good. The guide focused on the old items of the collection that included many of the items found at Mycenae which we saw as part of the Ancient Coastline tour. Another couple said the Ancient Corinth tour was also good.

[bookbabe]

Our upcoming cruise has empty days in Athens, Rome and Barcelona, since it’s a B2B of Iconic Med Treasures and Trade Routes.  I will happily post the excursion lists for those days when we get them onboard, but that won’t be until March and April.

[lackcreativity]

We sailed on the Ancient Adriatic Treasures itinerary in October, which has a turnaround day in Athens. For our cruise, the included excursion was the Panoramic Athens & the Archaeological Museum (covers all of Greece). Since the younger, more fit versions of ourselves had climbed up to the Acropolis on a previous trip, we opted for the included tour this time. 

 

On the extra day, I sadly cannot remember which excursions were offered. We chose to use the free Viking shuttle to go to the New Acropolis Museum (which covers just the Acropolis). The drop off spot for the shuttle was very convenient for that, at Hadrian's Gate. That's just a five minute walk (at Google map speed) to the museum.

[shmabbies]

Speaking of the Corinth Canal - can I brag about Mr. Shmabbies?  Many many years ago we crossed over the Corinth Canal on an excursion and he saw the people bungee jumping off the Corinth Canal bridge and said "I'm gonna do that someday."  Mind you he's NOT a risk taker and this was a surprise statement from him (we are no spring chickens either).  Fast forward a few years and the bungee jump was featured on an episode of "Amazing Race."   I was comfortable this meant that CBS had done their due diligence about the company offering the jump, so I made the arrangements for him with the same company (probably the only company) on a week we were staying at an AirBnB in Athens.  Because the instructions are very precise, and he was not allowed to wear his hearing aids during the jump (and is prone to nod "yes" to anything said to him when he's not wearing them), I asked to go with him to the jump spot under the bridge (which in itself was a little intimidating and more than enough for me) to be sure he understood the instructions.  He did it - and I know he counts that as one of the coolest things he ever did!

 

Back to reality - I can speak very highly of the Corinth Canal cruise AND visiting Ancient Corinth.  If I had to pick one, I'd pick the Canal cruise, because you will never see anything like the Corinth Canal FROM the Canal.  But both are very nice!

 

Thanks bookbabe and MidnightSailingSam and lackcreativity!

[Peregrina651]

10 hours ago, shmabbies said:

I think Viking should put their cards on the table and show us, and allow us to book, their middle day offerings in advance (not just Athens).

 

 

I agree with you wholeheartedly on this one.

 

I think Viking can't figure out how to put it on MVJ and still keep arriving and departing guests from booking those excursions. In other words, it is a software problem. I think that they have decided that it is just easier/cheaper to do it the way they are doing it than to figure out the coding.

 

Still, imagine how much easier this all would be if Viking explained on the Guest Statement or sent an e-mail to all guests booked on a named B2B itinerary.

 

We have done a B2B only once and we had our plans all set -- Tarquinia on our own on turnover day and the Viking tour to Ancient Ostia the next. No idea at that point that Viking would have tours for us that day. When we got on board and saw that Viking had tours for us on turnover day, we changed our plans. We moved Ostia to turnover day, because Tarquina wasn't offered on that day, and did Tarquinia with Viking the next. And let me tell you, Tarquinia on a tour bus was a lot easier than our plan to take the local bus to Taquinia and then try to figure out how to get to the Etruscan Necropolises.

 

6 hours ago, duquephart said:

 

Something new every day. Thanks!

 

You're welcome.

 

I keep thinking about starting a thread entitled "Viking's best kept secrets" and this would be near the top of the list.

[shmabbies]

40 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

I keep thinking about starting a thread entitled "Viking's best kept secrets" and this would be near the top of the list.

I totally agree except for the title of the thread, which maybe should be more like "Things you are going to learn after booking that are going to annoy you the most" or something like that??  Especially this one that you really don't learn until the excursions become available, which literally can be years after you book due to the early final payment issue?

 

 

[duquephart]

1 minute ago, shmabbies said:

I totally agree except for the title of the thread, which maybe should be more like "Things you are going to learn after booking that are going to annoy you the most" or something like that??  Especially this one that you really don't learn until the excursions become available, which literally can be years after you book due to the early final payment issue?

 

 

 

"Things you are going to learn after booking ----- "

Like "gratuities?"

[shipboy]

What about a same day turnaround, has anyone experienced Viking putting on an excursion for those remaining onboard?

[FoggyEthan]

Are you interested in suggestions of private guides / companies to work with in Athens? You didn't ask, so I don't want to presume. There are certainly many options of places to go and things to do. And heck the Rick Steves guide has lots of do-it-yourself walking tours.

[Peregrina651]

58 minutes ago, shmabbies said:

I totally agree except for the title of the thread,

 

Not everything on my list is post-booking. Some of it is website stuff -- like where to find the description of the drinks package.

 

Besides, "best kept secrets" makes it sound like "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." -- or what was in Geraldo Rivera's infamous safe.

[bookbabe]

19 hours ago, shipboy said:

What about a same day turnaround, has anyone experienced Viking putting on an excursion for those remaining onboard?

On our upcoming cruise, Athens and Barcelona are three day ports, but Rome is only a single day.  There was another recent thread that posted the excursion list for Rome, so it’s definitely something that happens.  What port are you looking for a list for?

[shipboy]

2 hours ago, bookbabe said:

On our upcoming cruise, Athens and Barcelona are three day ports, but Rome is only a single day.  There was another recent thread that posted the excursion list for Rome, so it’s definitely something that happens.  What port are you looking for a list for?

Fort Lauderdale

[bookbabe]

1 hour ago, shipboy said:

Fort Lauderdale

My guess is that, if anything it’s likely going to be one or more of the excursions regularly offered there.  It’s a pretty common cruise port, so lots of options there.  Are there any current roll calls for your itinerary?  Maybe a current cruiser could check with destination services onboard?

[shipboy]

1 hour ago, bookbabe said:

My guess is that, if anything it’s likely going to be one or more of the excursions regularly offered there.  It’s a pretty common cruise port, so lots of options there.  Are there any current roll calls for your itinerary?  Maybe a current cruiser could check with destination services onboard?

The second leg is a repositioning, so there aren’t any previous roll calls that I can see. FL seems to be a starting/stopping point, so I can’t see any excursions from that location. I will ask when we are on board, but we can always book an excursion on our own or enjoy the ship until the newbies embark when it isn’t as busy