VikingReviews of viking.com

WARNING!!! To all Viking passengers traveling to Spain (or other European locations), if you are tested COVID-19 positive you will be mandatory quarantined for 7 days. This means that you will be “jailed” in a room with no reading material, no television in English or anyone who cares about your well being. You will be fed what and when they decide you will get. They can feed dinner as late as 10:30 P.M. Not sound so bad? It’ll seem bad if you were served lunch at 1:00 P.M. and you have NOTHING else in your space to eat or occupy your time. Viking intentionally doesn’t warn passengers of this pitfall. If you follow all their requests you still might be tested positive and be “jailed”. After I paid for the cruise i was then informed of their requirements. Within 1 day I asked for a refund but was denied. Remember, these requirements never warned of a positive test resulting in imprisonment. I believe that Viking realizes if Americans know of this detail that they would never option to cruise with Viking. They deceived me and others. Viking will tell you that you were informed of potential quarantine prison on page 7 of 19 in the standard terms & agreement fine print. However, this is not true. Page 7 states that you will be denied passage. It doesn’t warn about “prison”.

I just returned from the worse cruise experience of my life and I blame it on Viking River Cruises. Viking is not the image they advertise! Their management is a mess. Their website didn't work for months before my cruise. It took an hour to get through the phones. My flight back -which Viking arranged - was canceled and they never informed me (Luckily I looked at the airline schedule so I could find my own flight). The day after I arrived Eastern Europe closed down for another pandemic breakout. Surely they knew about the closedown 24 hours before. They should have told me the morning of my departure and I could have avoided the hell I went through. Viking mishandled 90% of my Elegant Elbe River Cruise. Viking boasts how they've does business in that part of the for years and are the best. Most of our advertised main river stops were closed to us. Instead, Vikiing took us on buses to dreary non-tourist cities and left us at repetitive small local Xmas markets; a few kiosks, sausages and candy every time. The ship was dreary, not a touch of a decoration or color, zilch entertainment except for an afternoon pian and the worst TV of any cruise I've experienced. "Happy Hour" was peanuts and a piano. Meals were not creative or interesting. When we had to use their metal gangplank there was no rubber mat to prevent us from slipping on the wet surface. One passenger was badly injured -- there was no doctor or medical kit onboard. Every excursion (except for Martin Luther & Prague) was about WWII, Nazis and walls from bombed buildings. NEVER could our guide come up with a recommendation for a place to eat or trip (haven't they heard of Trip Advisor?)! This was one of their most costly cruises. When I returned, I got a voucher I'll never use for 25% of my $12,000 cruise!

They STOLE my money!! Paid for the trip precovid. I can't be vaxed, medically. Mr. Hagen says I can't go. They won't refund my money. No trip-refund the money.

I'm writing this review because of the lack of customer service I have received from Viking regarding their business connection with travel insurance company TripMate, an absolutely subpar company. For those of you new to traveling with Viking, TripMate is the company they push to handle their travel insurance. Don't use TripMate under any circumstances. I purchased an Australia trip on Viking to depart in February 2020. Due to covid and raging fires we decided not to do the trip. We were traveling with another couple who did the same. Both of us purchased the Travel insurance that we could cancel for any reason. We both submitted our claims to TripMate at the same time. Their claim was processed and paid. Ours was not. For almost 2 years now I've been trying to get my refund travel voucher from them to no avail. Their customer service line is a joke. More often than not your call is dropped. I finally reached out to Viking to help me with this and they did for awhile. It even got to the point where Viking said that they would give me the credit and they would deal with TripMate on this matter. When that happened all of a sudden TripMate did respond to my claims and indicated that they had received all my information and that it would take 2 months to process. Before the 2 months was up I received an email from TripMate saying that instead of processing my claim that they were now denying it. Again I tried to call TripMate to find out the reason and I cannot get through to anyone. I also tried calling my contact at Viking and it seems than now Viking is also ignoring my calls. Viking basically promised me that they would take care of this mess and now they are totally ignoring my calls. Buyer beware of dealing with Viking and their Insurance carrier TripMate.

Our cruise for February of 2021 was canceled by Viking due to covid. They sent us 125% value vouchers to use towards a future cruise, with the promise in writing that doing so was Risk Free. DON'T BELIEVE THEM! Instead of dealing with the cash refund offered from the cruise, and then using that cash to rebook the very same cruise for 2022, we stupidly just used the voucher to re-book. Same EVERYTHING but the dates. The paperwork all came showing that we had used the voucher, the Standard Cancelation Schedule is on page 2, and the Temporary Cancelation Policy that was attached clearly put our reservation in the covered category. When we re-booked, the agent ASSURED us we were taking NO RISK in doing so. Now, our ability to travel has changed so we need to cancel...and Viking stands FIRMLY behind an unpublished policy that since a voucher was used and no 'new money' was applied our reservation now has NO REFUNDABLE CASH VALUE!! They say they are covered by the little clause "other restrictions might apply"!! Even tho all the rest of our paperwork indicates that we CAN cancel and get a refund, minus cancelation fees. We are going to be out nearly $11,000. We now have NO respect for this company and their underhanded and unethical business practices. It a shame really as we had liked them and planned to travel with them regularly as long as we were able. Not any more...this experience has totally soured us on the whole company.

Viking will never be transparent about this, so please let me warn you up front and clearly: do NOT accept vouchers from Viking if you (or they) cancel your cruise! Get a refund in real money and save it towards a later cruise. Once you accept vouchers, your money is gone. Viking can keep canceling your trips forever, or they can make up new requirements every week that eventually make you unable to travel with them, and you will never be able to get back the money you paid them. You know that part in the terms & conditions that say a company can alter the agreement in any way at any time without notice, but you always agree to it because you think it'll never happen? Viking will do exactly that – going as far as medical and religious discrimination – and there is no flexibility, no exceptions, no mercy or understanding in these difficult times. They will keep your money and act like it never existed before the vouchers. Even before the 3rd cancelation/rebooking of our trip by Viking, the system was so infuriating to deal with. You can’t look at your travel info while a representative is looking at it because you can’t both be viewing the same booking at the same time. You can’t use your voucher balance to purchase things for the other person in your cabin under the same booking number. They can’t give you info to help fill out your travel visa. There’s no effort to try to be flexible, find workarounds, or problem-solve. Every request is met with “our system won’t let us do that, no exceptions.” They do not care if the customer is satisfied or not, they treat every situation with robotic intransigence. Maybe their ships are nice. Maybe the excursions are nice. I'll never know, because Viking is preventing me from traveling with them, and the thousands of dollars I saved up for a nice vacation are now gone forever.

I made an initial enquiry regarding facilities for a family member that had mobility issues and may have needed to take a wheelchair on board. I was appalled at the response which was along the lines of, staff will not help you with moving the chair down the stairs even though the on-board lifts don't travel to all the floors. Also, it may not be possible to leave the ship on excursions in certain ports as you would have to disembark across several moored ships (not possible with a wheelchair) due to the way ships are moored to each other. Sounds like Viking are only interested in able bodied guests. Having read some of the other reviews I'm more than happy to spend my money with another operator that has a more positive attitude to less able bodied customers.

We booked a Viking Cruise for September 2021. This is a "bubble" cruise; in that one plane from USA to Malta, no pre or post trips allowed and no going ashore on your own. However the US federal government recently advised NOT to travel to Greece or Malta. Due to this advice and the fact: that if one of us were tested positive we would be put ashore to isolate for 7 days (Greece) or if we were near someone who tested positive, we would be isolated in our room for the duration of the cruise. We decided it is too much of a risk. We asked if we can transfer the $20K credit to our Antarctic cruise in November 2022. NO was the response, credits can only be used on NEW bookings! As everyone is booking cruises into 2023 it is nigh on impossible to find a cruise we wish to sail on. Looks as if Viking are hedging their bets that either the credit runs out or us elderly die. Now debating whether to cancel the Antarctic cruise, lose deposit and rebook to use $20K credit.