First time, not a good time

[edmonton1]

My wife and I chose this cruise for the ports of call and complete transit of the canal. The fact that Airfare and silver drinks package was included in the price also made this cruise seem attractive. The advertised ports of call when we booked and paid in full as required were Cozumel, Cartagena, Panama city, Punta Arenas, Leon, Cabo San Lucas, Embarkation was Fort Lauderdale and Disembarkation Los Angeles. We also took advantage of a Viking pre cruise overnight in Fort Lauderdale staying at what we thought we booked and confirmed by Viking as being the Hilton turns out to be the Westin Beach Resort at a charge of $518 per night for a hotel that I truly wouldn't rate better than a 2 star motel. Às we were checking in a couple were checking out and paid $154 we heard the conversation. What we were not aware of this was a portion of a 137 day world cruise. Some weeks before Embarkation we were informed by Viking Ocean that unfortunately due to covid restrictions?..(I have serous doubts) Leon Nicaragua was taken off the itinerary, we were somewhat disappointed but willing to accept. So after boarding the ship we explored did our safety drill and had a drink. So we completed our ports of call in Cozumel and Cartagena , Panama city where we informed that due to time constraints and the extended time in Panama city we were no longer to visit Punta Arenas, Costa Rica instead we would be going directly to Cabo San Lucas. So to sum up this cruise it should have been considered a repositioning cruise as when we arrived in Los Angeles at least half the passengers disembarked and was then filled with world cruisers to continue the itinerary. After complaining to Viking customer service we were offered $500 each E-vouchers to be used on another Viking cruise, a gesture I accepted but not particularly happy with. All in all a repositioning cruise with very good service, good food, but cabins require refit. Would not recommend this as a Panama canal and Coastal Holiday

[SteelCity Cruiser]

I'm sorry you were disappointed in your experience.  I don't know why Viking continues to advertise Leon on the itinerary because they haven't stopped there at least since our cruise in March of 2022 - more because of the political situation than Covid I believe (safety issues).  We essentially missed Cabo (arrived at 5 pm due to a medical emergency diversion) on our cruise as well.  Was there a reason for the extended time in Panama City?

[CDNPolar]

Sorry to hear of your experience, especially for a first time.  You seem to have had some "bumps in the road" with a change of pre-hotel and then ports dropped.

 

This happens from time to time where hotels are switched.  We were also switched hotels on our Viking Panama and no where near the water in Ft. Lauderdale where we expected to be.  

 

Hopefully you will use the vouchers that Viking gave you and give Viking another go....

[Cienfuegos]

Nicaragua has had a lot of social unrest in recent years. It is prudent not to visit, but Viking shouldn't be advertising a stop that it is unlikely to make

[kctwinmommy]

This is why researching a cruise is important, IMO. When it comes to the way Viking does their cruises, I feel it's good to know that you might be on the "leg" of a longer cruise. I don't know if any other cruise lines do this, so it was one thing that was definitely unique to this trip. Also, when it comes to pre-cruise extensions, I've read quite a bit about them, and many people will say that you can definitely do this cheaper than what Viking offers it for. Still, many will do the Viking offer. We are doing it for our cruise, but that's because we're going to a completely new area & country, and the price is probably only like $200 more than if we did ourselves, and even that I'm not sure on. But ours is 4 days, plus our transfers, and 2 excursions out of the city and 1 day together in the city (the 1st day we're on our own). There's a level of comfort and convenience with ours, that we're willing to pay a little bit more for.

 

I'm sorry that you were disappointed with things that happened, but hopefully you'll look a little closer at other cruises they offer and be able to use your vouchers. Just make sure you read their terms for those too. Good luck!

[HUNKY]

edmonton1 - Welcome to Cruise Critic!  I don't know your cruise history, so may I suggest in the future to do thorough research beforehand?  Starting a cruise feeling disappointed is unfortunate.  You have learned several valuable lessons: cruises are sometimes legs of longer voyages, check hotel prices before booking with an unrelated provider, cruises miss ports of call, different consumers pay different prices, and Viking has excellent service and good food.

 

Also, past Viking cruisers receive a small loyalty discount on future cruises.

[Zippeedee]

Can someone explain why it is not optimal to book a “leg” of a longer cruise? Other than being jealous that I have to debark while others board or stay onboard, I’m not seeing a downside. Thanks. 

[kctwinmommy]

1 hour ago, Zippeedee said:

Can someone explain why it is not optimal to book a “leg” of a longer cruise? Other than being jealous that I have to debark while others board or stay onboard, I’m not seeing a downside. Thanks. 

So, the one thing I'm realizing that will add just a little trickiness to our planning is the way they allow excursions to be booked. We're getting on at leg 2 out of 4 on our cruise, and doing legs 2, 3, & 4. Now, we have a DV cabin so we book our excursions 67 days out. But, the people in the regular Veranda cabin below us book 60 days out. Because their embarkation is 7 days before ours, this means they'll be booking at the same time as us, if that makes sense. So for longer cruises, you're going to end up potentially having issues with getting excursions you want.

 

That's about the only thing I can see being a problem as of now. This will be our first Viking cruise as well, so I'm only going on what I've learned so far. Oh, the other issue might be that certain ports become chaotic with it being an on/off day, if you're doing like 2 legs of a longer one. So they sometimes limit the excursions or they don't post them yet, like ours, for Rome.

[CDNPolar]

12 hours ago, Zippeedee said:

Can someone explain why it is not optimal to book a “leg” of a longer cruise? Other than being jealous that I have to debark while others board or stay onboard, I’m not seeing a downside. Thanks. 

 

Personally I don't know why it would not be optimal to book a leg of a longer cruise.  We did the very first sailing of "Far East Horizons" and our segment was only 12 or 15 days, but we met people on board that were in the middle of 30 and 45 day segments.  We boarded in Hong Kong, and ended in Tokyo where others that were completing the cruise - if I remember correctly - were ending in Vancouver Canada.

 

We got every excursion that we wanted - both included and optional - without any concern or challenge.  I do remember that we booked in advance when the excursions opened on MVJ.

 

I think that what was very different about this was that when we boarded in Hong Kong, it was like any day that you get back on the ship.  The ship was humming with activity and people that were already settled in, because they were.

 

We did a Panama cruise last year that was the start of a World Cruise, so this one was different - we were only on for the first 12 days and then disembarked, but we started the itinerary...  

[philw1776]

I had a PV and lost out on excursions because we were a mid 2 week leg on a 6 week cruise. A serious disadvantage IMO. Gonna check with TA on future bookings.

[janetcbl]

24 minutes ago, philw1776 said:

I had a PV and lost out on excursions because we were a mid 2 week leg on a 6 week cruise. A serious disadvantage IMO. Gonna check with TA on future bookings.

And now with the new earlier excursion booking dates for trips beginning  after June 1, if you are on one whose  first part starts in May (under the old rules-later excursion booking dates) you are really out of luck.

[rmalbers]

On my last VO cruise they announced numbers for the excursions and it seemed like around 2/3 of the people took the included excursions, not sure if that is typical or not.  I was sort of surprised by the numbers.  It seems like they add to the included excursions if they 'sell out'. 

[kctwinmommy]

1 hour ago, philw1776 said:

I had a PV and lost out on excursions because we were a mid 2 week leg on a 6 week cruise. A serious disadvantage IMO. Gonna check with TA on future bookings.

Yep! That's the part that can be a problem depending on which leg and how long the cruise is. That's something I wish Viking would look at doing differently. Not sure the correct answer for it, but there has to be a different way.

[kctwinmommy]

1 hour ago, janetcbl said:

And now with the new earlier excursion booking dates for trips beginning  after June 1, if you are on one whose  first part starts in May (under the old rules-later excursion booking dates) you are really out of luck.

Oh wow! I hadn't thought of that! That would definitely bother me.

[Cienfuegos]

On 1/24/2024 at 12:24 PM, kctwinmommy said:

Yep! That's the part that can be a problem depending on which leg and how long the cruise is. That's something I wish Viking would look at doing differently. Not sure the correct answer for it, but there has to be a different way.

It would make sense for Viking to create excursion blocks for people boarding in week 1, parallel excursion blocks for people boarding down the line in week 3 etc. It would be difficult for places that are capacity controlled in season (Alhambra, Angkor Wat, etc), but it would be fair to each of the boarding group blocks.

 

Advertising Alhambra etc for people who aren't going to have a shot at going there seems fundamentally unfair.

[janetcbl]

I have been trying to get answers to this May/June different excursions booking dates all week….and keep getting the run around, phone calls not returned, tellus-us non answers, etc. About ready to give up and book private excursions which are available at most ports. This is not the Viking I have traveled with for the past 15 years. Very disappointing.

[FoggyEthan]

I agree with cienfuegos. If they opened up excursion bookings per-leg it seems like they would solve both problems. i.e. the problem of customers being lied to about the order of which cabins book excursions first. And also the problem from the new change to advance booking timelines which is disadvantaging some people on leg 1 of a multi-leg.

 

I just double checked to be sure, and I'm on legs 1 and 2 of a cruise, which would seem good except they are separate reservations. So my leg 2 will be booking 1 week late compared to people on the full-length sailing.

-- Ethan

 

[deec]

On 1/4/2024 at 2:29 PM, janetcbl said:

 

 

 

On 1/24/2024 at 11:08 AM, janetcbl said:

And now with the new earlier excursion booking dates for trips beginning  after June 1, if you are on one whose  first part starts in May (under the old rules-later excursion booking dates) you are really out of luck.

I must have missed that there are earlier dates for booking excursions?  What are they or where can I find that information?

[kctwinmommy]

32 minutes ago, deec said:

 

I must have missed that there are earlier dates for booking excursions?  What are they or where can I find that information?

They emailed people who have a cruise booked June 1st or later, their window now opens 40 days sooner. So if you can book 67 days out, like our current cruise, if it set sail on June 2nd, we'd be able to book 107 days out. It basically means excursions are being posted more than a month sooner than they have been.

[formernuke]

You can see the new dates if you click on any cabin category on the website. For example: a DV:

[kctwinmommy]

4 hours ago, janetcbl said:

I have been trying to get answers to this May/June different excursions booking dates all week….and keep getting the run around, phone calls not returned, tellus-us non answers, etc. About ready to give up and book private excursions which are available at most ports. This is not the Viking I have traveled with for the past 15 years. Very disappointing.

What are you trying to get answered? If your cruise start date is June 1st or later, your window will now open 40 days earlier. If the sailing date is May 30th, it stays the same. Or are you saying your concerned about being on different legs of a trip that overlaps that date?

 

I get the feeling Viking has grown in popularity over the years. This is our first for us. I wasn't sure that we'd ever do one, but here we are, thinking this will be a great fit for us now. We've someone been burnt out on the other lines.

[CCWineLover]

2 hours ago, kctwinmommy said:

What are you trying to get answered? If your cruise start date is June 1st or later, your window will now open 40 days earlier. If the sailing date is May 30th, it stays the same. Or are you saying your concerned about being on different legs of a trip that overlaps that date?

 

I get the feeling Viking has grown in popularity over the years. This is our first for us. I wasn't sure that we'd ever do one, but here we are, thinking this will be a great fit for us now. We've someone been burnt out on the other lines.

The issue that Janet is concerned about is real - We have it as well.

Let's say your cruise is composed of 2 legs.  Your first leg starts May 25th.  2nd leg starts June 8th.  That means ALL of your excursions for both legs fall under the old 67 day rule, meaning you don't get to book leg 2 until 67 days out from May 25th (this occurs if you have ONE booking number for legs 1 and 2 and not 2 completely different "cruises").

SO - the people who are ONLY doing leg 2 that starts June 8th will get to book their excursions for leg 2 WAY ahead of the person who really began the cruise on May 25th.

 

I saw this coming when I heard the announcement and foolishly thought - oh Viking has an answer for that.  Sadly, it appears they never even considered this possibility.

 

It is all due to selling cruises that combine legs along with selling individual legs.

[kctwinmommy]

4 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

The issue that Janet is concerned about is real - We have it as well.

Let's say your cruise is composed of 2 legs.  Your first leg starts May 25th.  2nd leg starts June 8th.  That means ALL of your excursions for both legs fall under the old 67 day rule, meaning you don't get to book leg 2 until 67 days out from May 25th (this occurs if you have ONE booking number for legs 1 and 2 and not 2 completely different "cruises").

SO - the people who are ONLY doing leg 2 that starts June 8th will get to book their excursions for leg 2 WAY ahead of the person who really began the cruise on May 25th.

 

I saw this coming when I heard the announcement and foolishly thought - oh Viking has an answer for that.  Sadly, it appears they never even considered this possibility.

 

It is all due to selling cruises that combine legs along with selling individual legs.

Oh 100%! I'm just not sure if that's the question she's trying to get answered.

[janetcbl]

47 minutes ago, kctwinmommy said:

Oh 100%! I'm just not sure if that's the question she's trying to get answered.

That’s the question/problem perfectly stated.

[kctwinmommy]

@janetcbl that's what I figured, but didn't want to assume. 😃 I hope you get some answers on how it will work.