VikingReviews of viking.com

My mother and I did a Viking river cruise through Germany to see the Christmas markets in 2017 and were grossly misled, along with the rest of the cruisers, into thinking we would see a Christmas market at all of the stops along our journey. Those cruising had flown on Thanksgiving night to arrive and board the ship the following day. That night, we were informed that most of the markets would be closed and we would see only two on our week long cruise when we had been led to believe it was more like 7 from brochures and the marketing materials. Why would we fly and spend all that money to visit towns where we could see the markets being set up, for the following week? Also, during this time it rained non-stop, the water was high, and our boat could not pass through. I learned that it's a terrible time to cruise in Germany during winter when it rains and water rises they can't clear the bridges. Typically, you are bused anyway on these trips - we were thinking you would get off the boat in these charming little towns and walk into Christmas markets but that is not the case. It's hours on long bus rides, away from the comfort of the cruise ship, and hours back. Often early and late, entire days away and crappy food out in town. The flooding was so bad we eventually had to pack up and be bused off the boat for good and spent 2 nights in a hotel near Cologne, our final port. This meant hours on a bus, packing and disembarking, hours lost of our trip, long lines for buses, hotels, check-in, etc., missed excursions, and missed meals on the cruise ship. So, when we returned home, I requested a refund of most or part of the $10,000 I paid for our fancy suite we didn't get the use or stay in and the hotel we were in was not at all comparable to the suite we paid for on the ship. The majority of the cruise passengers were very elderly, my mother and I were not being 35 and 50, so we noticed quite a bit we did not enjoy about this cruise and the way they seem to take advantage of older clientele by offering up measly $400 vouchers for future cruises when we did not get what we paid for. That means Viking would make more money off people by giving them a free voucher towards another cruise. What? Almost as bad, or worse, than the cruise being a bust was the horrible customer service I got when I got home. Dismissive, rude, unhelpful. They only offered a paltry refund amount and began to negotiate when I began to publicly shame them on social media in various ways, mostly Facebook and Yelp which got a lot of traction. Still, years later, they continue to spam me by sending about 5 magazines to my home weekly though I have called and emailed numerous times telling them I will never, ever cruise with them again.

They have great cruises but their payment policies suck! Your full payment depending on the cruise has to be made 1 to 2 years in advance yes I’m not joking. They keep your money for 1 to 2 years before you ever get to use their product. Then to add insult to injury if you cancel they keep your money for additional 30 days. Their greed is like no other in the industry. Shame, shame shame Viking! I guess you forgot about how bad business was after 911 or 2008, once again Viking, you’ve got a great product but your corporate greed is typical of this day and age and extremely disappointing.

Emailed Viking Cruises to ask about their recent polluting cruise ship outside my flat. I was very polite but no response at all. Shame.

The main idea of my post is that I strongly recommend you to refrain from taking Viking Cruises. I was dreaming of a round-the-world cruise and decided to a 3-month journey with Viking Cruises. It turned out into a total disappointment. Beautiful website descriptions and vivid manager speeches have nothing to do with reality. I have huge experience in sea journeys and have traveled with almost all well-known companies, thus I have a lot to compare with. Personnel qualification level is very low and does not correspond with the one declared by the company. The crew is occasionally rude and careless. Throughout the whole journey I felt discriminated against basing on age and nationality. From my personal observations, the company focuses its services on aged clients but there is nothing to learn this information from and managers will not inform you about that. The quality and variety of meals is very poor: the menu barely differs from day to day and it’s not tasty at all. Meal courses are mean and thrifty, quality of service is very very low. Here’s an example, we were given an apple (a single one) and were constantly stared at, harassing us and signaling us to leave. Here’s my story: My acquaintance with company started with my personal manager almost ignoring me shortly after I purchased the voyage. Later on, he totally disappeared. It turned out occasionally that he quit the company and forgot to hand over me to another manager. It was almost impossible to verify the status of my special requests before the start of the journey. And that’s what they call and individual approach to every client. The first day on board ended up with room service team breaking all the buttons on my new suit, which was quite expensive and purchased exactly for the trip. My friend faced the same situation. The only thing offered to us as compensation was to attach black buttons used for the crew uniform. As soon as we boarded, we informed guest service about food allergy. Despite this, kitchen crew ignored this information and served dishes with products we are allergic to during 2 months of our journey. Guest service never intervened and helped us, we were able to fix the situation only after a huge argument. Soon after leaving South America, the entire ship was left without internet. Guest service managers made up various excuses: something broke down, no signal and many else. The connection was restored only at French Polynesia islands. This information was published in daily bulletin along with new excuses for the situation. Be aware that cafe waiters are very tardy and lazy. You may spend an hour or two waiting for your order to be cooked. The guest service explained the situation in a way that cruise focuses on elderly customers and thus everything is done slowly on purpose for the convenience of aged people. That is a real problem, instead of making the crew work faster the guest service justifies their lack of action. Moreover, the waiters behave themselves very unfriendly. Another serious problem faced throughout the whole journey - dirty dishes and cutlery, in all of the ship’s restaurants and room service as well. Dirty spots and leftovers from previous clients were noticed on a daily basis. Waiters never reacted to this situation! After contacting officers, the only answer received from them was an explanation of the factors that may lead to these leftovers not being completely washed off. This is not the information that I am willing to receive as a guest. I require proper service, not the explanation why the dishes are dirty. Sanitary conditions were a very serious issue, so keep this in mind while booking a cruise. Be extremely careful while ordering chicken eggs during trips on Viking ships. It was a common issue to receive dirty eggs for breakfast while ordering room service. There were several occasions when eggs were messed up in something black or had feathers stick to it and something else, supposedly feces. Multiple complaints to guest service ended up in nothing, Ana, the manager, set it off and stated that she doesn’t know whose fault it was. Fish dishes were of low quality, the fish itself was literally old and tough, absolutely impossible to eat. It felt like fish was frozen several times killing all the taste and flavor. I faced certain problems with Australian visa and turned to officers on board for help. Officer Rodrigo pretended he was helping me. I was made to pay for new visa with no guarantees for success, and I felt that Officer wanted me and my friend leave the ship. We got lucky that my friend found a way to solve the problem and Officer had nothing to say against us. Discrimination was also present during this journey. Me and my friend felt being discriminated against every time we went for dinner. Waiters were extremely friendly and gallant with Americans and blatantly ignored other guests. Furthermore, we faced negligent attitude as we were the youngest on board. Discrimination against nationality and age is present and it is unacceptable for international company! Shame on Viking company. The entire crew of Viking’s ship turned our journey into a nightmare with constant problems arising due to their actions or inaction, and nobody except us tried to solve those issues. Financial issues are not properly solved by the personnel. As the journey started, I was told that residuals on my on board account will be refunded at the end of the cruise. The day before the journey ends, I was told that residual funds will be sent to my credit card. Two weeks later I discovered the fact that residual money will be sent to me in check via mail services. This is a total incompetence of the crew and purposely misleading. I’d also like to pay your attention to the uniqueness of cruises declared by Viking company. Small ships used for Viking’s voyages should be able to visit unique ports as it’s claimed by the company. This is a trickery. During our 3-month trip the ship often made stops far from main city ports forcing the passengers to spend 50-60 minutes each way to reach the cities. There were several occasions when the stops were made in absolutely uninteresting and empty ports. The way Viking company contacts its clients after the trip requires special description. All my inquiries are being ignored and none of my e-mails were replied. Official complaint took very long time to be replied and in the end the only thing Mr Cohen could offer me was a 250$ refund for the spoilt 3 months or discount voucher for further cruise. This sounds like mocking rather than serious approach to problem management. I encourage all readers and those who traveled with Viking to write reviews and leave comments on things thaw went wrong during your trip! Currently, the company services are just overvalued and its ratings are absolutely unreasonable!

We did Vikings Grand European River Cruise from October 25 to November 9, 2018. That part of Europe had had a drought all year. Viking knew the water levels were too low for their river boats but continued to bring passengers onboard. This was a very expensive bus tour. Viking extended time in ports when it was convenient for them and cancelled ports and excursions when it was convenient for them. We were on three different boats and numerous busses. This vacation was a huge disappointment.

These cruises used to be good, what happened? Read trip advisor reviews before booking, lots of info on there , non of it good.

Review on basis of customer support only. They got my details and ever since have bombarded me with emails on a daily basis. Despite requested not to which are now in double figures nobody seems to act. I would feel sorry for passengers if they were treated in the same way.

Ordered an item - said it would arrive in 5-7 days. After 16 days no delivery - contacted customer services .... Oh we miss-priced the item - we cancelled your order ! ..... They might have bothered to tell me !! Useless company.