VikingReviews of viking.com

On board guest services were atrocious , house cleaning were great ,the ship was clean , food was ok , coffee was terrible . Too many elderly people making excursions and even getting around the boat was a nightmare , included ecursions were lackluster to say the least . 2 days at Shimizu (a nothing to do tiny port ) and 1/2 day in Osaka was a joke . A zimmer frame seemed to be a requirement , Restaurant staff were either really good and professional or just terrible . Guests were mainly Americans . We did not feel we got value for money . We will not repeat this experience with Viking ever again

I'm writing this in advance of our upcoming cruise on 10/19/26. Due to low water level on the Rhine River, our upcoming cruise, on 10/19/26, will be interrupted by being busses around the low water points. I understand it's out of Viking's control. What I don't understand is why Viking will not offer cash back in lieu of a voucher that I WILL NEVER USE!!

We took a Viking river cruise a few years ago and were satisfied. My wife likes having everything planned out, so we figured we'd do another cruise for our anniversary. She showed me the river cruise she wanted, so I used the chat feature to begin the process. Big mistake. The person who answered was polite, and he soon suggested he could call me to make the process easier. I agreed. Once connected, he asked for the cruise and date information. He then asked what offer codes I had. As a past customer, I get Viking brochures multiple times a week. I started by giving him the customer number on one of the brochures, but he said he had no access to that information (?). So I started giving offer codes, and he's say either "I don't see that one" or "that one has expired". I eventually found one that worked, to which he said "that one's pretty good", as if I were leaving money on the table. I asked if he know of any others, and he said "do you have any others you want to try?" As I later learned, chat agents are not allowed to provide offer codes. They are also measured only on their ability to book a trip. So despite the fact his email signature claims "Providing personalized customer service to meet your needs is my highest priority", that only extended to the initial booking. When I later had questions or requests, he was thoroughly unhelpful. While later looking through the stack of brochures, a page titled "Viking Inclusive Value" included a line item "Past Viking guest travel hotline for planning future travel". If ever I consider another Viking cruise, I will try that 'hotline'. They would have to better than the chat experience.

Maybe my expectations were too high, and perhaps this falls into the "You never get a second chance to make a first impression", but I was only moderately satisfied with my cruise experience and our air experience through Viking are was a completely fatal flaw. We traveled with a group of 24 and several of us paid for Air Plus to travel together. Never happened. While 20 of us were booked to fly home together, our SAS flight was cancelled and we were scattered to the wind all over Europe, now scheduled to get home over a 28 hour period. We are currently still stuck in Bergen, Norway, along with 6 others hoping to start our journey home tomorrow. Further complicating matters is we had a shuttle scheduled to take us from Chicago to Milwaukee which we could not longer use as planned. While Viking Air happily took our money, seemingly promising a seamless vacation experience, when we called after the flight was cancelled, it was "Sorry - it's not our fault that SAS cancelled your flight." When you take somebody's money for a premium service experience, you should step in and make things right when there is a problem with that service.

We recently traveled from Amsterdam to Budapest with Viking. We were told three days prior to departure that there may be some inconveniences with low water levels. What we experience was not some inconveniences but major inconveniences. We traveled on three different boats several different bus rides to different cities, missed destinations that were on the route and very disappointed in the food. They would never tell us in advance what to expect so that we can make other arrangements to just go home. They also made it clear you were on your own if you wanted to go home. This destination trip was two weeks and a lot of planning and saving. We will never travel internationally again because of the experience by Viking.

Luxury Price, Economy Experience Our Viking Ocean Cruise was extremely disappointing and did not come close to matching the luxury experience we expected for the price. The food selection was lacking, and the limited dining hours made matters worse. There were times when finding something to eat felt unnecessarily difficult for a cruise marketed at this level. The spa and pool also had very limited hours, which made it difficult to enjoy amenities that should be a major part of a luxury vacation. Entertainment was another disappointment. There simply was not much to do onboard, and the entertainment became repetitive very quickly. Much of it consisted of group singing and lectures, with very little variety from day to day. I do want to give credit to the housekeeping staff, who were wonderful, professional, and hardworking. Unfortunately, our experience with Viking’s main customer service office was the complete opposite. We found the representatives rude, dismissive, and unwilling to genuinely address our concerns. That was especially disappointing considering the premium price we paid. Overall, this felt like paying luxury prices for an economy-level experience. The limited food options and dining times, restricted spa and pool hours, repetitive entertainment, and poor customer service left us extremely disappointed. Based on our experience, we would not recommend Viking Ocean Cruises and would not choose to cruise with them again.

We are writing about our recent Chateaux, Rivers & Wine cruise, which we booked with the Paris pre-cruise extension and purchased in full through Viking, including airfare and Trip Protection. We saved and planned for this trip for a long time and traveled with family members to share it. We are in our late sixties and early seventies, and we chose Viking specifically because of its reputation for taking care of guests from door to door. That is not the experience we had. During the bus excursion to the chateau dinner, i became violently ill, most likely from food poisoning. It was the chateau's staff, not the Viking staff present, who helped us. We had to arrange and pay for our own taxi back to the Forseti at a cost of 90 euros. Back on board, my husband asked the crew for electrolytes for Me and was told no, they were available only for crew. He then asked whether he could get a sandwich or soup, since he had missed dinner caring for his wife, and was told nothing was available. A single kind crew member later quietly brought us electrolyte tablets and soup on her own initiative. We are grateful to her, but a sick 68-year-old guest should not depend on a crew member breaking the rules to receive basic care. On a ship whose guests are overwhelmingly seniors, this is unacceptable.Our cruise took place during an extreme, well-forecast heat wave. We understand Viking does not control the weather. What Viking does control is its response, and there was none. No cold water was available on any walking or bus tour. Room-temperature bottles were offered only at debarkation, and none were stocked on the buses. There were no wheelchairs on board, and we heard guests told that two days' notice was required to obtain one. For a company that markets primarily to travelers 65 and older, the absence of basic heat and mobility protocols put guests at real risk.Our cruise took place during an extreme, well-forecast heat wave. We understand Viking does not control the weather. What Viking does control is its response, and there was none. No cold water was available on any walking or bus tour. Room-temperature bottles were offered only at debarkation, and none were stocked on the buses. There were no wheelchairs on board, and we heard guests told that two days' notice was required to obtain one. For a company that markets primarily to travelers 65 and older, the absence of basic heat and mobility protocols put guests at real risk.When our Viking-booked return flight was canceled, we were first told these things usually resolve themselves and to be ready for the 4:00 a.m. airport transfer. Hours later we learned we had been rebooked two days out. When we asked the front desk what to do, we were told to get a cab, book our own hotel, save our receipts, and file later. No one could tell us where to file them, and to this day no one has. After we pushed, a Trip Protection representative rebooked us for the following day, but again the only guidance was to save our receipts. Viking dropped us at the Air France counter and left. We then spent three hours waiting for the airline to arrange a hotel. The vouchers did not cover our actual costs: we missed the lunch window and paid for lunch ourselves, dinner ran 17 euros plus tip over the allowance, and because breakfast and the hotel shuttle both started after our required departure time, we paid for a taxi to the airport. We also paid for food during a long delay in Lyon. We have receipts for every one of these expenses. Viking sold us this trip as a fully managed, worry-free experience and sold us Trip Protection on that same promise. When things went wrong, Viking's answer at every turn was that the problem was ours to solve. That is the opposite of what we paid for • We did not want to write this letter. We wanted the trip Viking advertised. There were so many moments when Viking could have stepped up, and the one person who did had to do it quietly.

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!