VikingReviews of viking.com

I understand when you book a cruise and you don't sign up for their insurance you take the risk of losing your money. However, with Viking I think they take it to a whole other level. My son's wife suffered a serious heart condition and was hospitalized. She is now unable to go on the cruise they had booked with Viking. Because it was within 30 days of the departure they had to forfeit all of the money they paid for the cruise - close to $14,000 dollars. This we understood, however, even though the trip was paid for, they would not allowed someone else take her place. To add insult to injury, he then decided he to go by himself since I was going to be on the cruise so he could be with me. This is the part I don't understand - to travel without his wife he has to pay an additional $2500 on top of the $14,000! I get the single rate is higher but he has already paid well above the single rate and more. We've had to make changes with other cruise lines and they have been much more accommodating when issues arise. We had planned another family trip for the eight of us next year but never again on Viking.

Purchased upgraded airline seats because my husband is large. Even though we paid and were assured we would have aisle seats in business or first class, we got stuck in economy. Still trying to get my money back.

Viking will do every sneaky thing they can to steal your money. I purchased 2 $200 vouchers while on a Viking cruise that they stated had no restrictions or limitations. I recently applied them to a future river which I had to cancel well within the cancellation period without penalty. They kept my $50 deposit but also kept the vouchers so they could not be applied to a future booking. This is completely dishonest and unethical. Avoid this tour operator at all costs.

Had a Iceland Cruise in June 2026. I needed to cancel due to personal reasons. I contacted Viking and explained my particutar situation. I was giving Viking over a 2 year notice so the cabin can be resold. Viking denied my request for a refund of the "BIG" $50 Deposit. There are always exceptions to the rules that Viking could have made in my case. NOT CUSTOMER FRIENDLY.

I am writing this review before the cruise. I hope I can return and review this with a higher rating. So far it has been a cluster $&@“. Air management team has been a nightmare. They had my traveling companion on a different flight to Amsterdam. Not good. 3.5 hrs on the phone to get it straightened out and of course more $$ out of pocket. I finally just said I will get myself to Atlanta you get me to Amsterdam and back to Atlanta. So one leg of my prepaid trip is paid by me a second time. No ONE travel consultant assigned to us so absolutely no consistency. Lack of communication has also been a big problem. This is to be the Cream de la cream, cruise travel company. I am not seeing it. Hope it changes with the cruise, but they have a lot of work to do in the front end to be given a top rating.

Customer service is no help at all. We booked two cruises at the same time .. they said we can not have transfer in between the cruise to the air port unless we fly back to USA and fly back to Europe?? Secondly we pay for air plus to book the flight we wanted and they changed our flight from directly to transfer to Canada.. so why we pay for the extra 100 ??

We gave Viking $8999.00 toward a future cruise. Due to illness we were unable to book a cruise. When we requested to use that deposit for another cruise and or return the money, they denied the request. Dealing with Miller Rubio was a lesson in duplicity and deceit.I would strongly encourage Ocean travelers to find a more honorable company.

I apologize for posting this review almost a year after the cruise. I spent a great deal of time writing a 20-page report with feedback and recommendations to Viking Cruises, thinking that they would want to know how poorly their business performed and thereby make changes. I spent time searching for the email addresses of Viking’s Chairman and his Assistant, sending them my report, followed by slow mail posted to the Vice-President of Corporate Communications & Customer Engagement in Woodland Hills, CA. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. It was shocking that I never heard from any of them, not even an acknowledgement of receipt of my report. In addition, the poor experience was at the level that I did not want to relive it by writing about it again and again. Nevertheless, it felt wrong not to share our horrific experience with future and fellow river cruise guests. As customers and clients of services, we are reasonable and understand mistakes can happen anywhere and anytime. The essence is how these mistakes, once known, are dealt with by the upper echelons of the business. In this regard, Viking failed miserably. The message I received is that we are only two customers and it really does not matter to Viking that they lost just two customers. The only Viking person I heard from was a customer service agent who called after my travel agent complained to the local manager. And this customer service agent claimed he was an executive level Customer Agent who dealt with escalated cases. I have submitted complaints to all kinds of organizations – Retail, Banking, Tourism, Communications. The executives all responded to me personally and introduced me to their personal assistants to make amends. This Viking agent commented that he could not offer me more than the standard $250 pp refund to compensate for the sewage smell in the cabin because 'we did eat the food and we did sleep on the ship'. He offered vouchers for future cruises but why would we have any confidence in pouring more money to another cruise when Viking had not given any indication they valued our feedback and took our complaints seriously? He was also not able to give me any feedback of how the executives reacted to my report. If anyone is interested in my report, respond here and I will email a copy to you. So as not to take up pages on this forum, I will just provide highlights of some of the problems. Note that Viking will likely explain the poor service as caused by this being a new itinerary and first cruise of the season (Viking’s Capitals of Eastern Europe). Regardless, it is how the problems were dealt with, or rather, not dealt with. • Sewage Smell in Cabin – the steward knew about it before we boarded but did not deal with it. We later found out there were empty cabins but the guest services staff did not offer for us to move. • Absence of Dining Room Etiquette + Errors + Rudeness – Servers, experienced and new, were rude and made mistakes through the entire 14-day cruise. • Misleading Advertising of Excursions – guests who signed up for this all thought they were going to the famous Szechenyi Baths in Budapest based on the photos shown. Not so. • Poor judgment in resolving issues – there was a delay in arriving at a port due to the country’s customs procedures. All guests understood this was not Viking’s fault. But continuing with excursions such that we didn’t get lunch till 3pm (seating, not eating) was absolutely thoughtless. The prudent resolution would have been an early and simple lunch followed by excursions, or have the kitchen prepare packed sandwiches for delivery to the buses where we could eat on the beach. Some guests took to eating candy to sustain themselves. • Unprofessional Tour Operators – It is Viking’s responsibility to vet their contractors. These tour operators had us standing in strong winds listening to them talk and then return to the bus without having seen the actual sights! Some guides did not know the sights were closed for the day, causing unnecessary walking up and down hills in cold and snowy weather – when most of the guests were elderly! Further, the buses had their toilets locked so they did not have to clean them. There were many guests who were loyal Viking guests and even they complained that this was a most unacceptable cruise experience. But the reason why this was the first and last Viking cruise for us is how they handled – or rather, not handled – the feedback we submitted with sincerity.