VikingReviews of viking.com

I had a fantastic experience on my first Viking cruise down the Douro—the food was exceptional, the service was top-notch, and the excursions were truly memorable. Because of that, I recently encouraged my parents (ages 78 and 80) to book a trip of their own, which they did. Unfortunately, their experience leading up to the trip has been frustrating. They’ve found it surprisingly difficult to make even simple changes, including spending over 90 minutes on a support call that didn’t resolve their issue. Based on this—and seeing similar feedback from others—it seems clear that pre-trip support is a weak point, particularly when flights are bundled into the reservation. The added complexity creates unnecessary headaches. While I still believe Viking delivers an excellent onboard experience, the challenges my parents have faced have definitely diminished the overall brand appeal for me.

Romantic Danube river cruise far from romantic! Quality of food very poor, no variety, and amount limited! Entertainment boring and service poor as well! Paid extra for balcony but couldn’t use it because other Viking ships were docked right next to it, so lacked any privacy. Safe your money!

We are very frustrated with the Viking customer service --- or lack thereof!! We've done 4 Viking cruises and had 2 more scheduled. In August 2025 I called our Viking travel agent to change an Atlantic crossing cruise to a different Atlantic crossing. He said he would save it with the same booking number as the original one. Five days later we received an email reminder that payment was due on the original booking. So I logged into Viking.com and found that he had saved the Atlantic Crossing cruise over our Mediterranean cruise (booked Oct 2024). After discovering the error I called the Viking agent. It was an honest mistake which I expected Viking to handle. Who knew that it would take an act of Congress to get back the original Med cruise. Because the prices were now different it took upper management approval to restore our reservation at the original cost. By the time they approved it (a week later), there were no cabins available in our category so we got a guaranteed cabin. This is unacceptable because we specifically booked a Port cabin over a year ago for the best scenery. Then, they sent a cabin assignment but it was on Starboard. I kept periodically checking and found a cabin available on the Port side but it was 3 categories higher. On the website it cost $400 more per person for the upgrade. So I called our agent and offered to pay the additional cost ($800) to upgrade to get this settled. BUT, he told me if I made any changes we would have to REBOOK the entire cruise at the current rates, which was about $6000 higher. So frustrating!! This cruise is paid in full or we would cancel the whole thing. I contacted Viking tellus email and received a call a couple days later. The new agent offered to allow us to upgrade for the difference of $400 each with a "generous" $50/person discount, but there were no port side cabins. She promised to keep checking every day and nab one when it opened up, and to get back in touch. I didn't hear from her again. About 2 weeks later, I happened to check again and there was a port cabin open so I called her. She returned my call the next day and thankfully the cabin was still available. It ended up costing us another $700 to get back to something equivalent to our original booking. We are very disappointed in Viking's handling of their mistake! It's ridiculous that we had to stress over this issue for months plus pay more money to get something equivalent to our original booking. This is not the Viking experience that we have previously seen. It feels like Viking is totally uncompromising, even when it's their own error. For that reason, we cancelled our other cruises that we had scheduled and don't plan to give them anymore of our business. And, we're making sure we spread the word to friends and social media.

The cruise was as expected, but the poor handling of our 2 additional family members who used Viking Air and did not give them a flight to the cruise before it left the US and were then asked to get their own hotels for 2 days and make their own arrangements in Jamaica for transportation to the ship was unacceptable....so they were unable to come and Viking has offered little response or concern and a small credit for another cruise. Very poor customer service, very disappointed in Viking.

This is a truly superb operation. We’ve done four river cruises and two ocean cruises and have never had a bad experience. We’ve only had super experiences. I really don’t understand the bad reviews I see here. The only thing I would recommend is to book your own air. They try to accommodate your preferences, but they probably have contracts with a few airlines and will try to fit you into a mould that you won’t like.

My best friend and I took the Rhine River Christmas Market trip. All-in-all, we had a good time but we probably would not do another cruise. Pros: The boat was in good shape and clean and well maintained It works well to travel mostly at night and have the daytime to explore Most days, everything was well organized Our fellow travelers were very nice The guides for the included tours were funny and knowledgeable Cons THE FOOD I was terribly disappointed in the food. As someone else stated, "The display is better than the food". Food quality is a big thing for me. Expensive The Christmas markets were so crowded you couldn't move at some of them (not Viking's fault} The Christmas markets had very little unique or handmake items I felt ripped off by the taxi the staff ordered for us at the end. The taxi to the airport hotel was 80 euros but a Uber back to town was only 22 euros The staff were nice but at times not very helpful due to lack of local knowledge. Some of the next day briefings were too long and unnecessarily convoluted. The only outing we paid for was disappointing, I think because it was winter and the Fort was partially closed, it lasted 1/2 as long as it was supposed to.

We have traveled with Viking two previous times, both were excellent European river cruises. We booked a third cruise last year that includes Iceland and the British Isles for this May. We were planning a fourth cruise in Asia in 2027. That is now NOT going to happen. We just received our pre-paid flight itinerary for the upcoming May cruise. In the past, we had always been able to fly out of our local regional airport which is serviced by four major airlines. This time, we are being required to drive 10 hours round-trip to a hub airport instead. The rationale is not cost, but rather an inflexible internal policy. The policy was explained to me in great detail as to why "this time" we could not use our regional airport. The policy is apparently inflexible, even if it defies logic and common sense in this particular circumstance. The multiple customer service agents and the supervisor I spoke with were pleasant and patient, but ultimately my issue was not satisfactorily resolved. I am not big on hearing it is against our policy, even when the policy is a one-size-fits-all that clearly should not be applicable under the given circumstances. I informed Viking that it is my policy that I will not travel with a company that does not value its customers and who's policies are so inflexible that they can't accommodate common sense. We will hopefully enjoy the upcoming trip, but have no plans to travel with Viking again. I estimate that at least three future trips we were seriously considering will now not be with Viking.

Viking refused to refund cruise fares for three passengers (including my 90-year-old mother) who never traveled or received any cruise services. After an Air Canada strike was announced, I secured viable alternate flights, but Viking Air instructed me twice not to proceed and to wait for cancellation. I relied on their guidance. When the flight was canceled three hours before departure, Viking’s remaining options were unsafe and unreasonable for seniors. Viking refunded the airfare in cash but kept 40% of the cruise fare and offered only future vouchers, which are not usable for a 90-year-old with uncertain future travel ability. BBB complaint was filed and Viking confirmed refusal in writing. This was a once-in-a-lifetime family trip, and retaining payment for services never provided is deeply unfair.