VikingReviews of viking.com

Don't use Viking for booking your flights. They seem to have direct relationships with some of the worst airlines- Air France and KLM being two. These flights were a catalogue of disaster from start to finish and, although not directly under the control of Viking, they must be aware that a lot of passengers are having problems. The cruise itself- Ancient Mediterranean Treasures- was fine, although some of the included excursions felt rushed. There is also some hard sell included, such as being taken to a carpet shop to receive a sales pitch. This did not feel appropriate for a cruise of this type. The food quality was inconsistent at dinner, and food was sometimes lukewarm when being served. All the staff we interacted with were fantastic, and the ship itself was beautiful. Due to the issues we experienced, particularly with flights, and due to the comparative high cost we will not be booking with Viking again.

Beware! Once you get on their mailing list, you can't get off! I've requested them to stop sending me mail twice and this week I got three pieces of mail. They won't stop!!!!!

Misleading promotion, zero accountability, and declining service. I am a loyal Viking customer with 6 cruises under my belt, so it pains me to write this — but what happened with our Egypt booking cannot go unaddressed. Viking’s own website (viking.com) clearly advertises “Offer A250” for the Pharaohs & Pyramids cruise, which explicitly states “FREE Beverage Package” as part of the promotion. There is no asterisk, no disclaimer, no mention that this perk doesn’t actually apply to Egypt itineraries. I booked this cruise along with 3 other couples. Not a single one of us was informed by our booking agent that the Free Beverage Package is not honored in Egypt. This was never disclosed during the sales process, despite apparently being Viking’s internal policy. When we discovered this after booking and contacted Viking, the response was dismissive. We were told it is “widely known” that the beverage package isn’t offered in Egypt — as if that excuses advertising it on their own booking page for this specific cruise. If it’s “widely known,” why is it still prominently featured in the offer? Why didn’t a single agent disclose this to any of us? This is the definition of false advertising. After 6 cruises and years of loyalty, I expected far better. Viking’s service and transparency have noticeably declined. Future travelers booking Egypt — beware of what you’re actually getting versus what is advertised.

This is our second Viking Cruise, we did the Rhine Several years ago and it was a great experience. WE decided to do the Danube with some friends (new to Viking) 6/25 - 7/3. To start off with, we could not start our cruise, as scheduled @ Regensburg due to river levels. This wasn't Vikings fault. However, for the last 48+ hours the AC has been out and there has been ZERO communication regarding it. Our stateroom is currently at 84ºF and the common areas are all well over 90ºF. No relief in site. Why did we spend so much for a premium line that has had such poor execution. Never again, try another line.

Only having taken one river cruise with Viking, Paris and the Seine, I had high expectations for an ocean cruise. Thus far I am disappointed. Small details add up after a while. Yes it's a much larger ship with more moving parts. As an American who drinks coffee, I searcged for creamers or half and half - present on the river cruise. Nope, not on the ocean cruise, milk available. Look maybe in Norway they use milk, but when your customer base is Anerican, it's disappointing. I heard others voice the same complaint. Staff at breakfast reluctantly brought heavy cream from the kitchen. I saved in a go cup and placed in our fridge. So an accommodation was made , but why need one? Being on an odd time schedule I awoke early. Traveled to the World Cafe for coffee. Disappointments again. Coffee machine was off and old cold coffee was in the carafes. Plus, they ran out of portable go cups. Sorry management, but that did not happen on the river cruise. My overall impression so far is is the ocean cruise is not up to the river cruise standards. 3 stars because staff are apologetic. Management alert. If this were my company I'd make changes.

Agents poorly qualified. This was a very different experience I had several years ago when I had one agent. Booked a Viking cruise to Germany. I got Viking's Travel Insurance - Tripmate. Each time I had a question I got a differnt answer. One was regarding an flight upgrade. I was told I needed to insure the upgrade and if I cancelled the upgrade it would revert to the original insurance. Wrong. Trip Mate is non-refundable. The Trip Mate "customer Service" was also poorly trained and inadequately qualified. This is just one example. I had to cancel the trip because my family member became sick. More hassels from Viking. Tripmate kept the entire $1500 for 2 people. No more Viking or Tripmate.

We are about to embark on our 4th Viking Ocean cruise. Until now we have not had a signifiacnt problem. This time when I went to arrange our departure transfer from ship (New York) to airport, I received no response. There is no number to call, you submit a form with your details (pay the transfer fee) and thats it. I have done this 6 times before! I tried to follow up with repeated emails asking for confirmation. No response. Finally I was notified that my request was denied because my flight home left too early (10:20 am). I rechecked the written itinerary that I had recieved from Viking. It clearly ststed that the only departure restriction was from Newark. You could not have a flight departing before 1:00 pm. It said nothing about LaGuardia or JFK. I thought that make sense since Newark is further. When I pointed this out, they did not acknowlegde that their inforamtion was misleading. They did not try to be conciliatory. They told me that I had to cahnge my flight! So I did, at my expense. We will find our own way off the ship, as I am not going to give tham an additional transfer fee. We are young cruisers, with many cruising years left. We were loyal customers, but now may look elsewhere. Viking cruises are not inexpensive, and they should try to retain their customers. VERY poor customer service!

What a waste of money and time. We took the Viking cruise to Southeast Asia - Including Bangkok, Cambodia, Vietnam and Hong Kong. My first issue is their false advertising about Cambodia. Describing a tour as a "Fishing Village" and "Monastery" was a flat out lie. We took the bus and were appalled to see a run down, filthy cement area with run down buildings. No monks, just a few beggars. They described the beach as "Following the footsteps of Jackie Onassis" . Well that too was littered with plastic bottles, broken glass and other garbage, a run down building and older masseuse ladies coming up to you and starting to rub your shoulders. It was a filthy inter city beach. The worst part was the trip described as a "Fishing Village". It was not a village at ALL ! It was a dirty, foul smelling dangerous cement pier where boats were tied up. There were families living in squalor and we were embarrassingly paraded through - A group of wealthy people. I am all for appreciating culture but these tours exploited the poor. The photo's advertising these tours were very misleading, photoshopped etc. Other tours were similar. When I went on another tour, there was a very sick couple coughing, hacking, sneezing and blowing their noses. Obviously very sick. They were in the second seat of the bus, so all of us passed them and their germs. There was no effort on the part of Viking to keep us healthy. This happened at the same time another ship was quarantined due to the Hantivirus. Then I see this sick, hacking, snotting couple again, this time with masks. Again on the second seat. Viking did NOTHING to keep the rest of us healthy. There were many employees they had to pass and not one person stopped them. I was horrified. Then, when I dined in the finest restaurant on the ship I dressed according to their instructions and although they noted a dress code they did not enforce it. So I dress nicely and sit next to slobs wearing flip flops, tee shirts and sweat shirts. When I called to complain I noted I would never take another Viking Cruise so guess what they thought would resolve this? A VOUCHER! A voucher on a cruise line I said I would never go on. I wrote back that is not OK and guess what? They said that is their final offer. So much for customer needs! Never again,