VikingReviews of viking.com

June 4, 2022 Viking Octantis Great Lake Cruise -Milw. to Toronto. Much confusion right from the beginning. Told we needed a negative Covid test to be taken not more than 3 days pre boarding. We took 4 tests to be sure the results would be on time and Viking didn't even ask to see the negative result. A big part of the reason we took this cruise were the 6 man subs onboard. We were told, onboard, that the subs could not be used on our cruise since the US would not allow them to be used in US waters. Nothing was said about why Viking didn't use them in Canadian waters. They were featured very heavily in advertising for this ship. They were used on the cruise in which travel writers were passengers. Since the subs would not be used on this cruise, we were glad to get seats on the Special Operation Boat....however our reservation and the one following ours, were cancelled since the crew had difficulty getting the SOB back onboard the ship. Another disappointment. The lab was supposed to allow passengers the opportunity to participate in some clinical work. That didn't happen, either. We did get an informative lecture in the lab by Dr. Roz., but not what was promised in their advertising. We didn't expect a lot of entertainment, but the Entertainment Director did not join our cruise until the next to last day. On the plus side, the staff was awesome..the food was, too, especially in the buffet area. The cabin was very comfortable, but the 'Balcony Cabins' had no balconies...they had a floor to ceiling window which opened up halfway. The ports were new to us and we enjoyed the tours. Also, the lectures were interesting but the theater had stadium seating and no railings..none..I did complain to Viking and they offered me a $500 pp voucher.... less than 10% of what I paid for this 7 day cruise. This was our 5th or 6th Viking cruise and the first since the covid pandemic. It cost us a great deal of money but we regret having taken it and did not get our money's worth.

We had a cruise around the British Islands with an extension to Oslo and Burgan on June 3, 2022. Viking informed us we needed a negative covid test to join our group in Oslo and before boarding the ship. It had to be done no more then 72 hours before the first international flight. We were leaving the Sunday before the Memorial Day Holiday. It was impossible to get a test result back in time. I called Viking telling them I could produce the necessary test results in 74 hours they said no, you will not be allowed to join the group. I found an independent drug store that did the PRC test giving us the results in time for the trip in the required time. The cost $400. When we arrived we were NOT asked for the results nor were any other passengers on the extension or on the ship. Many people were upset about this unneeded cost. With a major U.S. holiday I would think someone in management would make exceptions to the 72 hour rule and give more time. We had a credit of $1200 from the cancellations and booked tours before we left home. We also arranged several tours while on board. I received a bill for $714 for tours that should have been paid for with the credit. When I called Viking I was told that only tours booked from home could use the credit. RIPOFF. In a specialty restaurant we placed the same order for diner. When the waiter brought our food and placed it on the table I told him this is not what we ordered. His reply, "I know" turned around and walked away. No I'' sorry or let me make it right, just go hide. We got up and walked out. The included tours were so-so some good some not. The topper was our guide in Scotland who insisted on singing her national anthem. She may have sounded better after a few drinks, No thanks. Time to leave the ship at 4a.m. for a 10:25 flight. Airport check in was done in 10 minutes since the place was deserted, Then a nice four hour wait that stretched to 6 hours with a delay. Most of the food was good, the buffet was like a crowded Walmart at noon time. The cabin stall was good. We have taken five Viking River Cruises and this was our second ocean cruise. They left a bad taste from day one. We will never take another Viking Cruise. There is a lot of upper class competition that no one has to stand for bad service like this. It is a shame that in my opinion a good company is headed down.

We had really bad shore excursions , cold food , and on top of this , when we got home we found they added $45 to my credit card ! I called and they could not tell me what it was for ! This was a all inclusive trip ! So why did they add $45 to my card ? We didnt buy anything on the cruise but Viking would not give us a refund for the $45. , or even a reason for the charge !!

We have done 4 previous River Cruises with Viking, never made a complaint to them before but feel that we need to complain about the 5th cruise we have recently returned from to Lyon as we are very disappointed at the response we have had from them regarding the problems we experienced. On arrival at Edinburgh Airport for our flight to Amsterdam, we found that the flight had been delayed for 4 hours meaning we would miss our connecting flight to Lyon. We found out later when meeting other passengers on board that another 2 couples travelling from Edinburgh had contacted Viking from the airport re a different problem and when mentioned the flight delay, were offered alternative flights so as to avoid to much delay disruption. There were 3 separate couples travelling from Edinburgh, we were the 3rd and would have thought that Viking knowing the situation would have contacted us to offer us the same arrangements as the other 2. On arrival at Amsterdam, we then found that there was a 10hour delay with our flight to Lyon. We received a phone call from a Viking agent asking why we weren’t on the original flight which had arrived a Lyon and if we had cancelled our holiday! Viking are supposed to check flights for delays etc but obviously hadn’t. I asked if there was any quicker way they could get us to Lyon and the reply was that maybe WE could try and get a train or spend the day in Amsterdam! No mention of arranging entry into one of the more comfortable Airport Lounges which provide food & beverage. We were given a €15 voucher by KLM to cover a 10hour delay, a burger alone was €18.95! We had to purchase a 2nd meal as being stuck for that length of time €15 did not cover food and beverages. When the agent phoned us she assured us that transport would be waiting for us at Lyon airport to take us to the ship, IT WASN’T, there were another 2 different couples also waiting. 3 phone calls to the ship and 40mins later transport finally turned up. We arrived at the ship at approx 1.30am, after 25hours in transit resulting in missing our 1st day of the cruise in Lyon, we could have driven to Lyon quicker! We finally got to bed approx 2.30am, up early next morning to go on an arranged trip, by mid day we were exhausted. I put in a complaint to Viking and received a reply today offering us a free drinks package of a future cruise! I want compensation for this cruise NOT a future cruise, if we ever go on another with Viking. We choose River cruises mainly because the travelling time is not as exhausting as Ocean cruises! I have replied to Viking re their offer and await their reply.

In January of this year I booked a river cruise for September 2023 with Viking. Earlier this week, a personal matter arose and I had to cancel. I sent my rep at Viking an email explaining the situation and asking for a refund under their published terms , full price less $100 per passenger , as stated in the terms. She replied that I would be receiving approximately $300 instead of the approximately $1,800 I expected. My Viking rep explained that the trip protection insurance, $1,600, was paid for in full from the deposit and the refund , less a $300 cancellation fee, would be sent within 30 days. When I saw this, I emailed my Viking rep in an attempt to reschedule but she said the cruise had already been cancelled when she saw my email and management would not consider reinstating it. No where in the 19 pages of ticketing documentation is it clearly spelled out that the insurance is treated as a separate item. The cancellation fee schedule makes no mention of charges or costs that are not eligible for refund upon request. The only invoice I received from Viking had all of the charges detailed , including insurance, which I feel should be refunded as well. My reasoning is that it is not clearly excluded from being refunded and is listed on the invoice as part of the total cost to the customer. As of today, we're 20 months from the planned cruise date so this isn't a matter of a last minute change. Be extremely careful in dealing with these folks . They will wave the agreement in your face and are not flexible at all nor do they understand customer service. Just an oily bunch, they don't understand customer relationships, just transactions. They are stepping over dollars to pick up nickels.

Our Viking cruise was good but they will not stop sending us printed materials, despite being asked five times. For a supposedly eco-friendly company, Viking is the ultimate junk mailer.

Booked the Romantic Danube cruise for myself, wife, daughter and son-in-law for late December 2021. With the sudden resurgence of COVID in the area, the cruise itinerary rapidly changed. Regensburg Christmas market closed, Nuremburg Christmas market closed, and all Austria ports closed. Duhhh! After considering, we decided to cancel and rebook on the Rhine Getaway cruise. Same dates, same number of days, etc., but in an area not affected by the closings. Viking was unable to directly transfer the payments made for the Romantic Danube to the cost of the Rhine Getaway, and they instead offered their future cruise vouchers (still can't figure out that little accounting issue). Because of limited availability on the Rhine Getaway, I went ahead and booked and then followed up by asking for a refund from the Romantic Danube as an exception to the Risk Free Guarantee, explaining that if I could have waited, I would have no problem using the vouchers as payment for the Rhine Getaway. However, I was now out the cost of two separate cruises for four people (not a small amount of money). My wife and I have been reasonably frequent pre-Covid cruisers on Viking; however, I found Viking to be unbelievably intransigent in their handling of the future cruise vouchers given the circumstances. While we have enjoyed our cruises with Viking and will eventually have to utilize as much of the vouchers as possible on Viking, I am also very aware that there are alternative cruise lines available and will be looking elsewhere once the vouchers are used. Customer care, not the cruises, is going to cost Viking a customer.

Response to Viking's brush-off. Thank you for your response to our recent communications which, based on the information provided by Viking’s website, cruise itinerary and documents, detail in our view the failure of Viking to provide a cruise that met our prior expectations. Sadly, we feel you have chosen to gloss over most of our observations and complaints. For clarity, we expand hereunder the specific reasons that this cruise failed to meet our expectations and this letter should be read in conjunction with our earlier communications. We invite your comment: • Excursions Let us commence with the Ackerman Fortress excursion, one of the serious failings of this Cruise, and which so many of our fellow travellers commented negatively upon. We were asked to pre-book this included excursion before joining the cruise. Our expectation was that this would be a highlight of the cruise which was strengthened by the description in your brochure which in part read: “At the Fortress, surrounded by walls stretching more than a mile and a 20 foot moat, you will tour three courtyards, the residential wings, the garrison and the arsenal. Use your free time to explore, perhaps taking some beautiful photographs of the serene Dniester lagoon from the heights of the fortress walls”. You must agree, as any reasonable person would, that, aside from in excess of five hours in a coach, 45 minutes would be insufficient time to tour the fortress as described above and be able to spend much free time taking photographs at all. Since you comment that this excursion is an integral site in The Ukraine, please explain how it is that, according to your Program Director, so many guests take the decision to avoid it at his suggestion. This was a serious misrepresentation in your brochure and relevant marketing materials. Yes, Viking does state in the Cruise Documents that the excursion duration is 5 hours but if Viking had added that only 45 minutes is spent at the fortress, we would not have booked it and possibly have decided not to take the cruise at all. The night before the excursion, the Program Director did tell passengers to avoid booking this excursion due to the travelling time and bad road conditions but that was far too late. He added that he could not understand why Viking had not withdrawn this excursion. We were left disappointed and annoyed right at the start of our voyage. Your comment that “guests do generally enjoy the site visit” is definitely not what those onboard the ship that undertook the trip commented to us which concurs with online reviews. Viking themselves have long realised the difficulties with this excursion and we therefore wonder why these seriously unfortunate issues have not been highlighted to potential guests earlier and why Viking’s efforts to improve it have failed for so long and why it has not been withdrawn. You mention that Viking’s UK office staff are always happy to answer any specific questions prior to departure. Are you seriously suggesting that potential customers should check with your office that there are no hidden nasties with the cruise before booking? … Really? Contrast this with Viking’s website which states “All you need included, with no surprises or hidden fees”. This was so far removed from what we expect from a Viking River Cruise, and we had undertaken three Viking cruises prior to this. Generally, the included excursions on this cruise were unsatisfactory in content and not a patch on those on the previous cruises we have taken with Viking and other cruise companies. It is apparent to us that The Ukraine is not in a position, yet, to accept foreign tourists and that really there is little of interest within a reasonable distance of where the ship docked. Consequently there are long coach journeys to visit something of debatable interest and which often turned out to be just another opportunity to buy souvenirs, which is not what we came on holiday for (indeed, Kherson ‘free time to explore the market’ was actually a contrived market; half a dozen stalls set up specifically for the Viking tourists visiting the memorial). This is the opinion of many online reviews too. ‘Poetic licence’ really is the order of the day on this cruise. Focussing upon your comments relating to the excursion to the Opera, please could you expand upon your statement that the date of the opera was changed for “operational reasons”. The news from guests was that it was due to a mistake by Viking. We should have left Odesa in the late afternoon, but we were kept in Odesa because of another unplanned optional visit to the opera which considerably shortened our planned visit the next day to the port at Kherson. We chose not to apply to join any of the optional excursions on this trip for, in common with all Viking cruises, the cost is totally unreasonable. Examples are: • The Opera. Viking charge £68 per guest. During that day, we walked to the Opera and found that tickets were available that evening for around £12 per person. • The Besarabsky Market. We also took the 20 minute walk to the Besarabsky Market which was obviously free to enter whilst Viking chose to charge £38 per person. The Metro system is very inexpensive. • The Shustov Cognac Museum. The most expensive ticket on the Museum’s website is around £20 per person. Viking charge £68. The museum is just a short drive from the ship. Viking have stated that excursions are sometimes provided by third parties. Just looking at the small sample above, we consider that either they or Viking are making hefty profits at the expense of guests. Viking say that there are no “hidden fees” which is debatable when considering over-charging. Is this something that Viking’s guests should expect? • The Ports In general, the ports themselves were unpleasant. Odesa terminal was deserted and we felt quite unsafe when walking in the early morning or evening. The ports were generally dirty and shabby with many hazards for guests, particularly the elderly/infirm. At one, Dnipro, we had to traverse steps leading up to a walkway on a half-built block, avoiding dog poo/human excrement and litter and then walk down crumbling steps to access the coach. It was dreadful and a health and safety nightmare. Not what we expected of ports used by Viking. • Entertainment After dinner there was very little to entertain us and when in port, we certainly did not wish to leave the ship and wander in the dark, particularly when the pavements were so poor. At Dnipro, our guide told us there was a pleasant walk along the illuminated river front. To get there it would be necessary to bypass a building site and walk quite a distance in the dark. Do Viking seriously expect their guests to put themselves at risk? We have enjoyed some great evening entertainment on Viking and other ships which is an integral part of our expectations. When there has been a free evening, at least it has been safe to walk from the ship into a town. When sailing in the evening, there has always been something happening onboard. Could we not have expected the Program Director to have organised more than the two pathetic quizzes? • Inappropriate behaviour by Viking employee We have previously made clear our view of the abysmal attitude of **********, your Program Director. In our view, he is not a company man, complained about Viking’s service in relation to excursions and his comments to my wife should have resulted in his immediate dismissal. We were both left upset and disappointed at the very beginning of our holiday. This regrettable action is definitely something that would be far less than we could ever have expected upon a Viking River Cruise. • Medical Services During the cruise, my wife had cause to visit the onboard Doctor. The service she received was cursory and not helped by the fact that the Doctor did not speak English. Surely that would be a drawback when discussing detailed medical issues. We would have expected that guest safety should be paramount for Viking. We cannot imagine how this Doctor would handle an emergency. • Viking’s follow up to complaints In your position as Senior Guest Services Executive, you will undoubtedly be aware of feedback posted on the internet and not just the feedback provided directly to Viking. Given your comment that Viking take all feedback very seriously and that it “is always followed up with action where necessary” we would be grateful to learn if you could have allayed any fears we may have had should we have read the negative reviews before booking this cruise. Conclusion: This trip was a terrible disappointment, far from Viking’s usual standard and perhaps why the marketing is so low key in the UK. Generally speaking, we have lost faith with Viking, especially after your deplorable response of 3rd September which left us with the belief that you just don’t care about customer service. We are unsure if we will ever book with Viking again which is a shame since we were considering Viking’s new ocean cruises.