VikingReviews of viking.com

Dreadful, time spent on one of their river boats in Germany ended up with explosive diarrhea and having to endure rude, arrogant staff. I'd rather be rowing up s-creek without a paddle than going on a cruise with Viking.

The deception was the major issue The Rhine River water levels were too low to cruise Viking told us this by email only a few days before departure We would have happily accepted a full refund and traveled on our own from Basel But were told it was too late to cancel and if we chose to we would forfeit 100% of the cost So we had no choice but to accept a bus tour based around a river ship Not what we purchased

We just completed our first excursion with Viking to the Balkans. Never,ever again...Our river boat cruise turned into a nightmare because of poor planning and lack of transparency.Upon arrival in Bucharest,we learned our boat was stranded on a sandbar because it went out of the navigational channel. This was confirmed by the Bulgarian police and printed in the Maritime newspaper. Viking left us in a hotel for 4 days while scrambling on what to do with us..nasty reps who communicated nothing...they told us to call customer service who thought we were on the boat...they provided us with cafeteria style food,lines of 180 people scrambling on a buffet line..and daily full day traveling from city to city on a bus once they figured it all out. There was no boat swap or trip cancellation which is what they really needed to do since they knew in advance of the condition of the Danube.The Travel Mate insurance that Viking recommends declined our claim and Viking offered no cash refund. Think about it. They are in cahoots with the insurance company and they have all our money for trip and excursions upfront. The trip was hell for a mostly senior group with no consideration for our well being. The excursions and experiences were superficial and boring.There was poor communication throughout the time...do not be fooled by their slick advertising.( They are now a publicly traded company who is only interested in making money).They are hiding behind the media and advertising. And, by the way, we are very experienced world travelers so this was all so shocking. Do not use Viking!!

My wife and I travelled on Viking Venus from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand from 30 November to 14 December 2025. Including our premium suite, Silver Spirits Beverage Package, hotels, transfers, flights and insurance, this holiday cost us around AUD $60,000, with approximately 90% of that amount relating to arrangements made through Viking. For that sort of money, we expected an exceptional, premium experience. Unfortunately, Viking fell well short of those expectations. We booked Premium Suite 3001, one of only 12 suites of its type on the ship, with only the Owner's Suite being a higher category. The suite itself was excellent and most crew members were friendly and helpful, but the premium treatment we believed we were paying for simply was not there. Our transfer from Sydney Airport to the Marriott was by private limousine and was excellent. However, our transfer from the Marriott to the ship was on a bus with more than 40 other passengers. There was also no priority boarding when we arrived at the terminal. We stood in a lengthy queue like everyone else. To make matters worse, when we finally reached our suite, our cabin keys did not work, meaning another wait at customer service before we could even enter our room. Despite paying for one of the highest cabin categories, there was no private butler service, something we have received on premium cruises with other cruise lines for considerably less money. Dining was another major disappointment. We had pre booked several dinners at Viking's premium restaurants, yet repeatedly found ourselves seated at less desirable tables away from the windows. We were told window tables were simply allocated on a first come basis. For passengers paying a significant premium for accommodation, this was disappointing. Our experience at the Chef's Table was particularly poor. We had the Silver Spirits Beverage Package but wanted drinks other than the matched wines. My wife asked for her preferred Pinot Grigio and was told by a waitress, "Good luck with getting that." On two separate evenings I ordered my preferred Scotch whisky and it simply never arrived, despite those drinks being readily available elsewhere on the ship. We became so disappointed with the premium dining experience that we cancelled our remaining reservations and instead ate at the World Cafe or ordered room service. Ironically, the World Cafe was one of the highlights. The food selection was extensive and generally very good. The Explorer's Lounge was also excellent, with friendly staff, a pleasant atmosphere and a very good selection of drinks and snacks. Unfortunately, things deteriorated again when we arrived in Auckland. Instead of a premium transfer to our hotel, we were again placed on a bus with more than 40 passengers. The bus was going to undertake a lengthy Auckland tour before dropping passengers at the hotel, even though we had already completed that tour the previous day. When we said we did not want to do it again, we were told our alternative was to walk to the hotel ourselves. So, as a couple aged in our mid 70s, we walked uphill through several city blocks in Auckland carrying two heavy suitcases and hand luggage. We arrived at the hotel at approximately 10:00am only to discover that our room would not be available until 3:00pm. We then had to make our own arrangements for several hours. Our final transfer from the Auckland hotel to the airport was again by bus, and we were dropped at the airport approximately four hours before our flight. We have travelled with several other cruise lines and have experienced significantly better premium service while spending considerably less money. For approximately AUD $60,000, this should have been a once in a lifetime luxury holiday. Instead, we regularly found ourselves asking what exactly we had paid the premium for. A beautiful ship and some excellent staff cannot make up for poor organisation, lack of priority treatment, disappointing premium dining service and transfers that felt anything but premium. We will not travel with Viking again and cannot recommend Viking to family or friends. When a company markets itself as a premium luxury cruise line and charges accordingly, passengers should receive a genuinely premium experience. In our case, Viking simply did not deliver.

We found out the day before we left we were going on an 11 year old ship versus the brand new ship we had booked. Upon entering our room we saw blood stains on the drawers, a stained comforter and blood stains on the sheets when the comforter was removed. We missed several excursions which we specifically booked this cruise for and couldn’t do because of the water levels and time constraints due to taking buses. We don’t know if we will ever be able to see these places for ourselves again. The food was just ok. Our extension to Prague was supposed to be 4 1/2 hours from our location instead of the 5 hours we were told when booked. We ended up being on the bus for 7 1/2 hours with a stop for lunch at a truck stop. Not at all what we expected! We had booked this river cruise to celebrate my husband’s 75th birthday, however this was not what we had envisioned! We anticipated being able to visits the towns at night at our leisure but there was only one place that we stayed overnight in the 14 night cruise. We had to change ships 3 times and the last ship wasn’t prepared for us in fact the doors were locked when we tried to enter. We had to wait over 10 minutes after a long bus ride for the doors to be opened. The staff didn’t seem very pleased! Breakfast on the last day wasn’t served in the dining hall. Instead we had to eat in the lounge where the was only a few tables or couches to sit on. We don’t recommend taking any Viking Cruise. Totally disappointed!

Told “full refund,” then charged $200 afterward This review concerns Viking’s booking and Guest Services process for a fully paid November 2026 cruise. We have not yet sailed, so this is not a review of the onboard experience. Viking advertised a Premium Paris post-cruise option at Sofitel Le Scribe. I booked the standard Paris extension and called about the Premium option. Viking said it was unavailable for our itinerary. I accepted that availability can vary, canceled the extension, and booked my own hotel for the same Nov. 15-18 period. At the start of the cancellation call, I was told the extension would be fully refunded. I authorized cancellation based on that statement. Only after Viking processed it was I told $200 would be retained because keeping our already-scheduled Nov. 18 return was now an “air deviation.” I did not request a change to the return date, flights, carrier, routing, or fare. Viking retained the same Nov. 18 return and later confirmed the flights were not ticketed. In its written response, Viking stated that the $200 could not be removed while we retained the Nov. 18 return. Viking also stated that it would remove the charge if we canceled the “deviation” and changed our return to Nov. 15. In other words, Viking’s offered solution was to remove the charge only if we gave up the existing post-cruise return date. I made five calls involving agents and supervisors, then sent three written complaints. I asked for the policy supporting the $100-per-person charge, where it was disclosed before cancellation, the transaction that triggered it, review of the cancellation call, whether Viking disputed the full-refund representation, and written supervisory review. Viking’s final written response did not answer those questions. It attached an updated invoice and repeated that the $200 remains because the return is Nov. 18. Viking publicly describes its air process as transparent and says changes or cancellations can be made without penalty. If a booking-specific exception applies, customers should be told before authorizing cancellation, not after it has been processed. My request is simple: remove the $200 while preserving the Nov. 18 return, or identify the policy, advance disclosure, cancellation-call findings, and transaction record supporting the charge.

I went on one cruise in 2025 and did not find it to be my cup of tea. The other passengers were snotty. There is very little to do on the ship, The scenery is relaxing but after several days of river cruising I was bored. The food was good and the ship was pristine. We were appalled that at one stop in Germany the tour guide glossed over the atrocities of the Nazis and gave us the impression that his family were in the SS. (who tells tour group members NOT to believe everything the have been told about Nazis) we were shocked ,especially as our grandmother was a member of the French resistance and spent 3.5 years in a concentration camp. Viking needs to pick better tour guides. My main complaint is that this company WILL NOT leave me alone. I have called time after time to be removed from their mailing list and I keep getting brochure after brochure. They will NOT STOP harassing me. I have been really polite but I am ready to call again and ask them to leave me TF alone,,,,,maybe they respond better to profanity but that is not my style. Be prepared to be hounded by these people for life if you contact them. I did not like their cruise and I like the harassment even less.

In early August 2026, my family and I booked a river cruise from Bucharest to Budapest. What we got instead was a bus tour. River levels were too low for boats to travel along the Danube for most of the itinerary. While Viking cannot control water levels, they can control their response — and that’s where the experience completely fell apart. Viking knew weeks in advance that the river conditions made the cruise impossible. Other cruise lines were canceling or rerouting, but Viking sent only a vague email a week before departure saying we “might” need to bus to the first port. There was no option to cancel, rebook, or receive credit for a future cruise. No alternatives were offered. If we wanted a bus tour, we would have booked with a company that specializes in bus tours — not a river cruise. Midway through the trip, when they finally began sharing more information, the cruise director admitted it would take three weeks of solid rain to raise the river enough for the ship to pass. Clearly, they knew long before we boarded that there was a serious issue. Here’s what actually happened: We bused from Bucharest to the second stop on the itinerary. The boat departed as soon as we arrived. We managed to cruise to the fourth stop, spent two and a half days there, and then were bused all the way to Budapest. Instead of the 3.5 hour trip the cruise director promised, it was a hot, 12 hour bus ride, including detours through construction zones to go to lunch in Croatia. My husband and I love exploring new places and had planned activities in each port. Five of the scheduled stops were either skipped entirely or only accessible if you joined a Viking bus tour. At one unscheduled port, the boat docked too far from town to walk safely, and Viking provided no shuttles until 2 PM — and even then, only allowed two hours in town despite the ship staying overnight. We had so little autonomy on this trip that I genuinely felt like a prisoner. Communication from Viking staff was awful. Anytime we asked what was happening, we were told they “didn’t know yet.” It felt like they intentionally withheld information until the last minute so passengers wouldn’t have time to make alternate plans. If I had known they intended to put us on a hot bus for 12 hours, I would have looked into taking a train to Budapest instead. Service on the boat started out decent, but once they announced we’d be bused for the remainder of the cruise, it deteriorated rapidly. Drinks took 45 minutes — if they arrived at all. My in laws sat down for dinner after my husband and I ordered drinks, and their drink orders were never taken. I stood in front of the cruise director for half an hour waiting to ask a question about bus logistics, and he turned and walked away. He later claimed he “didn’t see me.” It was insulting. And after all of this — the missed ports, the lost autonomy, the long hot bus rides, the poor communication, the declining service — Viking didn’t offer any apology, refund, credit, or gesture of goodwill. Nothing. This was my first and last Viking river cruise.