Selecting Excursions for Our Cruise

For the last several months, I have been researching possible tour options for our Viking Homelands-British Isles Explorer cruise. I have read Rick Steve’s Scandinavian and Northern European Cruise Ports for an overview of each port and scoured hundreds of posts on Cruise Critic for recommendations on specific tours.

Viking offers one included shore excursion in each port, usually an overview tour by bus or a walking tour. Quite a few optional paid excursions are also available. My Viking Journey is Viking’s web portal that allows passengers to create an account, manage documents, and view and book shore excursions for each cruise. When the final list of excursions became available on My Viking Journey last month, I began to narrow my focus to our top choices.

My Viking Journey

The window for booking excursions for our cruise opened on March 14. After learning how quickly excursions sell out, Tim and I were at the computer at the appointed hour and were able to select quite a few of our preferred tours. Some were already sold out by then, however.

Over the next week, we kept checking back and found that some tours had become available, so we quickly booked those. We went through quite a bit of booking and cancelling and rebooking this week. Unfortunately, a few of the tours I really wanted never opened up. We also knew that we could make changes while we were on the ship.

During my research, I also learned about independent Norway in a Nutshell tours. That tour was tops on my list, and I spent quite a bit of time figuring out how we could take one of those tours while we were docked in Bergen. A full-day, round-trip tour would work with our schedule, so I also booked that one.

Norway in a Nutshell

We will probably continue to make changes, but the majority of our shore excursions are booked.

Winter Park Express Train

Tim and I loved taking Amtrak’s California Zephyr last fall from Denver to Glenwood Springs and back. The Rockies were gorgeous with their autumn colors, and we thought it would be cool to see the mountains in their winter finery.

On winter weekends, Amtrak runs the Winter Park Express ski train. According to an Amtrak spokesman, “Whether you’re skiing or not, you’re certainly welcome to use the Winter Park Express — it’s not limited to skiers.” We certainly weren’t planning to ski. We just wanted to enjoy the scenery.

We got up in the middle of the night and drove to Denver’s Union Station for our 7:00 am departure. The scenery from the train was beautiful, and we arrived in Winter Park two hours later.

Early Morning Light after Leaving Denver

Through the Rockies

Frozen Streams

We had no plans for Winter Park. We wandered around the town, watched the skiers, and got something to eat.

While we were walking around, we discovered that we could get a great view of the entrance to the Moffat Tunnel. The Moffat Tunnel cuts through the Continental Divide and is the longest of the many tunnels on the route at 6.2 miles.

Tim and the Moffat Tunnel

Sarah and the Moffat Tunnel

We reboarded the train at 4:30 pm and had another gorgeous ride back to Denver. We really lucked out with the weather today – bright blue skies and not too cold. It was a fun day.

Back through the Rockies

Expansive Views

Lots of Tunnels

Back in Denver

Viking Homelands – Revised Itinerary

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, cruise lines reacted quickly. On that same day, Viking cancelled all 2022 departures of its Ukraine river itinerary. On March 1, Viking made the decision to cease all operations in Russia in 2022. “We are deeply opposed to the unfolding conflict in Ukraine and are heartbroken for all the people who are impacted,” the company said in a statement.

We, therefore, knew that our Viking Homelands cruise itinerary would be affected. There was no doubt that St. Petersburg would be eliminated, but we could only guess what else might change. Although I was initially disappointed that I might never see St. Petersburg, I fully supported Viking’s decision.

On March 14, we received an email from Viking advising us of the revised itinerary. St. Petersburg, of course, was pulled, as were the stops in Helsinki, Finland, and Tallin, Estonia.

We would now have an overnight stay in Oslo, Norway, which made me very happy. That’s one city that I had hoped to visit. Viking also added two new ports of call: Mariehamn on the picturesque island of Åland and Bornholm, a historic Danish island. I wasn’t familiar with either one, but that didn’t bother me. It might be fun to visit places that are off the beaten path.

In recognition of the changed itinerary, Viking added a $250 shipboard credit to our account for this voyage for each guest. In addition, upon our return, we were offered a 10% Future Cruise Voucher based on our paid cruise fare. I really wasn’t expecting anything, so these offers were a nice surprise.

In just over two months, we’ll be on the Viking Venus. I’m really getting excited.

Viking Homelands - Revised Itinerary

Finalizing Flights and Hotels for Our Cruise

With our Viking Homelands-British Isles Explorer cruise just two months away, I had a few loose ends that still needed to be dealt with. Those I tackled after settling in following our return from Texas. Back in August of last year, I started looking for flights for our Viking Homelands-British Isles Explorer cruise. I had two main criteria. First, I wanted a nonstop flight, even if it were more expensive. Second, I hoped to use airline miles. 

Of course, there were no nonstops from Denver to Stockholm, but British Airways seemed to offer the best option with just a change of planes in London Heathrow. I had heard horror stories about the airport but decided to take a chance. I was able to book premium economy seats with points transferred from Chase. Unfortunately, I learned that British Airways tacks on huge airport fees on award travel. 

In looking for return flights from London, British Airways also seemed to be our best option, especially when I realized that I had almost enough American Airlines miles, which could be used on British Airways. I was able to transfer Tim’s AA miles, use the AA shopping portal to purchase something I needed anyway, and then book two premium economy seats. Again, however, the add-on fees were quite high. 

When I went on the British Airways site to select seats this week, I learned that seat assignments are not free, even in premium economy. Since the premium economy configuration is 2-4-2, I was not willing to take a chance in getting stuck in a middle seat, so I forked over even more money to British Airways. 

In looking back on my experience in booking flights for this trip, I realized how rusty I had become. Yes, it made sense to use up my American Airlines miles, which had just been sitting in my account for way too long, but I should have explored more options on the outbound flight. Even though we were able to use miles for both flights, we ended up spending way more than we probably needed to. Good lesson for next time. 

I did much better with booking hotels. Last October, I had found a perfect hotel in London, the Great Scotland Yard, and was able to transfer Chase points to Hyatt for a four-night stay. That was a definite win – 100,000 points for a stay that would have cost $3,436. I had similar good luck with booking a hotel in Stockholm. 

Last October, I didn’t have enough points for another hotel stay, so I booked three nights at Hotel Reisen at a promotional rate. This week, I cancelled that reservation and rebooked the hotel with points that we had earned in the last few months. We even splurged and picked the Stockholm Suite. The main reason we did so was to have a water view from our windows, and possibly a view of the Viking Venus once she docked. In this case, we transferred 72,000 Chase points to Hyatt for a stay that would have cost $1,848. Not quite as good a deal, but I’ll take it.

Hotels Are Booked (Photos Courtesy of Hyatt.com)

Goodbye Texas, Hello Colorado

We left LYJO on March 2 and spent two nights on the road. Luckily, we had an uneventful drive and arrived home on March 4.

Yes, we could see snow on the mountains as we approached the Rockies, but our home was nice and warm, and we didn’t have to worry about freezing pipes.

Getting Close to Home