Viking Cruises

On March 21, 2022, I called to inquire about an excursion on my extension. I have booked an extension three days prior to arriving on the river boat in Paris. The representative, was rude and insisted with a smirk that there are no excursions with extensions. I informed her that I’ve been traveling with Viking for five years and there have always been excursions offered with the extensions, to check. I was trying to inquire about an excursion I saw on the website, but was no longer posted. I wanted to know if it was offered, no longer available and/or sold out. This representative told me not to be rude. I informed her she was being rude and not helpful. I asked if there was to be a customer survey after our call or could I have her name, she laughed and hung up!

Viking has always had the most helpful and professional representatives, this was a shock! I have never encountered anyone as rude, unhelpful, almost willing to try to be arrogant and obnoxious with the smirking and laughing. I never got my question answered. Where is Viking getting these rude people! I pay way too much to be treated with so much disrespect.

* On a positive note, I did call back and spoke to a really nice and extremely helpful representative, who was able to answer my question and offered his email, should I have any other questions in the future. This is exactly how Viking is and should be! The rude representative should be dismissed because Viking should not want them representing their outstanding company. I am booked on my third river cruise with them and had the pleasure of my first Viking Ocean Cruise last year.

To reiterate, I have never dealt with a rude representative for Viking. Shame on Viking for having someone like her answer calls, when she had no knowledge about Vikings excursions for pre extensions and how to be polite and resourceful.

On January 23, 2021 my wife and I paid Viking Cruises $21,072.86 for a Mekong River cruise, with a cruise date of February, 2022 with Vikings Risk-Free Guarantee. Due to Covid concerns in SE Asia we cancelled the cruise in October 2021 and we each received a voucher for $10,536.43. In November, 2021 we booked a Viking cruise through the Panama Canal using the vouchers. The problem is that the cost of the Panama Canal cruise was around $5,000 each and Vikings policy is the unused portion of their vouchers is lost. So my wife and I each paid for a $5,000 cruise with a $10,000 future cruise voucher and Viking is keeping the remaining "unused" $5,000. The Viking representative that I talked with in November to apply our vouchers to the Panama cruise did not inform me about losing the unused balance of the vouchers.

I called Viking customer relations on February 25, 2022 to inquire about the unused balance of our vouchers and spoke with an agent who stated "Vikings mistake and the the $10,536.43 vouchers should have been spilt in half and my wife and I each should have been issued two vouchers of about $5,500 ." The customer relations agent stated Viking needed time to review my request and he would contact in a few days. On Monday, February 28, the agent called and said Viking was willing to issue vouchers of one half of the amount of "overage". Viking trying to keep more than $5,000 of our money. The agent also said that I could have asked for the $10,536.43 vouchers to be split in half. How was I supposed to know that?

Viking Cruises used their advertised Risk-Free Guarantee to entice us to pay a very large amount of money in advance. In the information for the Risk-Free Guarantee there was no mention that vouchers could only be used for one trip.

Also, the Booking Terms and Conditions and the Passenger Ticket Contract did not have any statement on travel vouchers.

My wife and I feel we should be issued vouchers for the full unused balance. We paid for the Mekong River cruise cruise in advance in good faith and believed Vikings Risk-Free Guarantee.

All we are asking is for Viking to let us use the money we gave them for a future cruise. We paid Viking in advance when they were having to cancel cruises and needed the cash flow, now we are asking that Viking return the favor and let us use the money we gave them. We are senior citizens and feel Viking Cruises is trying to take advantage of us. It is very shortsighted for Viking to steal our money when they could make a lot more from us in profit if we were happy loyal customers.

In June of 2020 we, along with friends(two couples) booked and paid for the Grand European River Cruise to sail in June of 2021. In April of 2021 we were notified by Viking that our cruise was cancelled due to Covid. We were offered vouchers for 125% of the value to rebook for 2022 which we did.

In late 2021 we learned of your Covid restrictions requiring vaccines, testing and masks. I was vaccinated and had an adverse reaction and chose not to take a booster. My husband refuses to be vaccinated. We contacted Igor Solodukha at Viking and requested a refund. Igor told us we had “Redeemed” our voucher when we rebooked and we would NEVER be eligible for a cash refund. And all 2022 sailings would require vaccines, boosters, testing, and masks. We spoke with our friends and decided to rebook for 2023, hoping the restrictions would be lifted. On February 24, 2022, I contacted Viking and Keanu Meacham rescheduled our cruise for 2023. Our friends also contacted Viking and one couple was able to reschedule and the other couple was told our vouchers expired in December of 2022, at which time we would all receive refunds. They could not reschedule. We all decided to request refunds then Igor reversed himself saying we could not get refunds and we had to sail in 2022 or lose all our funds. Our friends, fearful of losing $14000, decided to go in 2022. We received nothing from Viking about the 2023 cruise, which we don’t want to go on because our friends are going in 2022 and we cannot go in 2022 UNLESS we get vaccines and boosters which we refuse. We also have other friends who booked the same time we did for the same cruise, different sail date. They too accepted the 125% voucher and rescheduled. Dave and Lou Whitemarsh also had issues with the vaccine and they, with the help of their travel agent were able to secure 50% of their cash returned and the difference issued in new Unexpired vouchers. When we accepted the voucher it was NEVER disclosed that we could never get a refund or that we would be forced to get vaccines that we believe are dangerous. Had we been armed with that knowledge in 2021, we would never have accepted the voucher. I I wrote Viking an email on March 3, 2022, sharing all this information and have still not heard from them.

In 2019 my husband and I booked the Viking Homelands Cruise and it was cancelled by Viking in 2020 due to the Pandemic. No complaints. We received a cash refund. We immediately booked a 2020 cruise but we cancelled in plenty of time and also received a full refund. In 2021, I booked a Viking Homelands cruise from 7/24/22 to 8/13/22, including the Iceland pre-cruise excursion, for six (6) people leaving in July, 2022 and I paid for it from my personal funds as a gift to my siblings. One of my siblings could not go on the cruise after a month passed, and so Viking arranged for a refund to me but charged unexpected penalties even though I had booked all three bookings under the no-risk policy. I understood that when one person in a cabin must cancel then the other person must pay as a single-person traveler which is expensive but accepted by me. In any event and fast forward to 2022, and the Russian outbreak occurred plus one other sibling has undergone various surgeries and was required to cancel. on March 9, 2022, I cancelled all three bookings because I had paid for the cruises which total amounted to $99,000. This cancellation was done more than the required 120 days and so, as in the past, I expected a full cash, less the $100 cancellation fee per person, refund as we truly intended to try to rebook again next year (2023). To my great surprise and dissatisfaction, various penalties were charged to the total amount of almost $9,000. I am so shocked as once again I was not told about this when I booked these bookings under the no risk policy and after repeated phone calls and emails to Viking, I have been ignored. I understand the $100 charge per person/cabin and I also understand a no refund to the travel insurance which is very expensive to begin with but the other penalties on my siblings bookings (not my booking) for excursion penalties are so unfair on the part of Viking. I am asking for Viking to respond to me and give me a refund which is fair and reasonable under the circumstances. I do not appreciate being ignored. Barbara Sloan. Booking numbers 6376177; 6399917 and 6399938. [protected]@aol.com

A group of 4 couples booked the Danube Waltz cruise in March, 2019 for a late May 2020 departure. Due to COVID, it was cancelled by Viking. Did we want to reschedule? Sure, we did, and we picked the same cruise for the same week in 2021. Viking again cancelled the cruise due to COVID, which was understandable. We were contacted shortly thereafter about rebooking a third time. Some of us were uncertain at that point; we are all almost 70 years old, and several of us have developed health concerns in the past few years. We were told that if we wanted our money back, we could do that, or, behind the other door, we could receive a voucher for 125% of what we had originally paid, and we had 24 months to rebook. We understood that if we wanted a refund, it was not the 125% We were told this was a "risk-free guarantee" and that we could cancel this trip up to 24 hours in advance of the cruise departure. We are 8 intelligent people with some travelling experience. In fact, this sounded perfect for our group, due to age, health and world situations, right? So, we rescheduled for May 2022. Fast forward to Feb. 2022, and the Russians have just invaded Ukraine. We do not feel comfortable being that close to what is now a war zone, and the frequent COVID testing, although perhaps understandable is, off-putting. I understand that COVID has wreaked havoc on Viking's business, but clearly many of us have been victims of the classic bait and switch tactic. The wording and meaning of "voucher" has been tossed around by Viking representatives to now imply that those of us who agreed to let Viking "keep" our thousands of dollars for 3 years were informed up front that by doing such, we'd lose the opportunity to ever be refunded. In fact, that is not what we were told. That is why it was a risk-free guarantee.

Viking cruisers are primarily an older population, and I believe the company is counting on them to remain afloat. That is simply bad business.

Booking numbers #[protected]), #[protected]) and #[protected]).

I have been a repeat, loyal Viking customer over several years. On this upcoming trip to Greece in April, I was flying from orlando fl to greece, but returning to VT. Because I am under drs care for surgery on my leg and need to return to FL after trip to see the Dr again before I go to VT for summer, I requested a change to my last connection from VT to FL. Because of some contractual problem, Viking would charge us $350 each extra for this change. The actual price for this American Airlines is $156 each! Very disappointed in Viking. It will be cheaper for me to make our own change! I think Viking should be more flexible and customer friendly. So disappointed in them. Hope something better is done for us.

several of my friends all booked a cruise for Paris and several other places and then covid hit the world, Viking cancelled this cruise in 2020 we were issued travel vouchers because we were looking to go on this trip, next trip was scheduled for August [protected] , my husband suddenly passed away with a massive heart attack on August 5th 2021 I advised Viking of this and also that i was not able to travel, again, Viking told me that they would issue travel vouchers , I tried again to tell them my husband was deceased and i would not be able to travel, they told me to contact TripMate , which i did they said that they were not going to issue a refund because i took the travel vouchers, Viking has been very underhanded about the whole situation, I can't afford to just hand them over $11,000.00 , bottom line, Viking does not explain their underhanded business practices when they want all their money upfront, it is not only a heartbreaking situation that i lost my husband but now i have to deal with this please help me get this resolved,

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.

My husband and I are scheduled for a Mediterranean cruise departing Athens April 30, 2022. We were informed via email on Jan 25, 2022 that we must now have the booster vaccination in order to sail. At the time we booked and paid for the cruise, there was no booster requirement. If there had been, we would not have booked the cruise. We booked the cruise while we were on a thoroughly enjoyable Panama Canal cruise in Nov 2021. We took 2 Viking cruises in 2021 and were anticipating our third.

We were informed of the COVID vaccination change less than 120 days prior to departure so could not give written notice of cancellation to accrue the least stringent cancellation fee. Both my husband and I have called Viking reservations and have both been told that our options are 1) to cancel now with a 50% cancellation fee and file a reimbursement claim with travel insurance or 2) get a voucher which will be good for 24 months.

Viking changed the requirements after we had paid our money in good faith and will not consider our suggested solutions 1) grandfathering us for the cruise since we booked pre-booster requirement, 2) accepting natural immunity since we have both had COVID or 3) giving us a full refund.

We booked a cruise in 2019, paid in full by June 2019, for a 2020 river cruise. The cruise was cancelled due to Covid. I called to see what the status was and was told that I missed the cut off date, a email was sent to me about the cancellation. I NEVER RECEIVED AN EMAIL! We were told that we could rebook and would receive 25 percent more in "Vouchers". We were not told that our original money was rolled into "Vouchers" and would become worthless. And we were not told that the Tripmate insurance we purchased did not work with "Vouchers". We rebooked for this July 2022. I had a bad knee injury in June 2021 and was told I needed both knees replaced. So after a lot of consideration my husband and I decided to cancel and get our money back. So to my shock I was told the "Vouchers" had no cash value and the insurance would not work. My only choice was to cancel and they would renew the vouchers for 24 months. I have been emailing back and forth for a month now! I can not understand why our initial cash investment was not just rolled over along with the insurance since we had no decision in the cancellation of the first trip. Viking is very deceitful and misleading. After reading a lot of the same issues I am surprised that there is not a class action law suit about this. Viking seems to have plenty of money for commercials but unwilling to take care of the customers. I wonder how long they will stay in business when treating people like this!

we had a cruise booked for 2020 and Viking cancelled the cruise because of covid, they issued travel vouchers, i also purchased the travel plan protection , we booked another cruise for August 14 thru the 24 and even paid for extra days in Paris, my husband passed away on August 5th 2021 and i sent Viking documentation to that effect, they sent me a e-mail that my vouchers had no monetary value, i then contacted the tripmate plan , got a e-mail from them 02-18-2022 after several months and calls , they informed me that they were closing the case and there was NO refund due, if death is not a reason for refund please let me know what is and also the plan plainly states that a refune will be paid in the event of death, this is already an emotional issue and Viking and Tripmate are making it worse, Tripmate is the protection plan company .

I booked an Alaska cruise in 2020 for June 2022. I was sent an itinerary and a "Risk-free Guarantee". I called viking in Feb 2022, 104 days before sailing. Due to circumstances, I needed to cancel the booking. I was told that I would receive either a voucher good on another cruise or a 20% penalty. I would be unable to use the voucher and had to accept the penalty.

The cancelation penalty was NEVER mentioned by the agent during booking.

This is theft by viking cruise line.

We booked the Rhine river cruise in 2019, for a 2020 trip. In 2020 my husband was diagnosed with stage 2 cancer with a 90% cure rate. The cruise was rescheduled for 2021 due to covid. We asked for our money back then but were talked into the voucher because Viking said it will take two years to get a refund so just reschedule your trip with a voucher. My husband's cure rate was 90% and we had every intention of taking the cruise so we agreed. We also purchased their trip insurance two times, once in 2019 and also in 2020. The 2021 cruise was also cancelled due to covid by viking. Again we purchased the insurance. In early 2021 my huusband's cancer went to stage 4, so much for 90% cure! We asked for our money back and were told we couldn't have it because we took the voucher. The voucher that they talked us into because they said we wouldn't get our money back for "two years anyway". In December 2021, my husband's kidneys started being attacked by the keytruda infusions that he is on for the cancer. AT that point his oncologist said you cannot travel especially out of the US, due to your cancer and now the kidneys. Viking will not give us our money back. They told me to file an insurance claim, which I have done but now I am seeing people that say the ins co won't refund it either.

It appears that alot of us were intentionally deceived by Viking for the purpose of minimizing customer refunds. As the pandemic was in its early stages, Viking offered nervous customers a chance to postpone their trips and receive a voucher. Then, ten days later after numerous scared people took the offer, Viking then offered a full refund, except to those who took the vouchers. ( that was our group) When asked, Vikings explanation was that voucher holders were not eligible for a refund, as though there was some insurmountable rule that wouldn't allow it. The fact is that Viking simply chose not to accommodate voucher holders, and now the reason is clear. The offering of vouchers was simply a ploy to reduce the number of refunds it would have to give. No other explanation makes sense. This short sited policy decision will undoubtedly cost Viking a lot of future business, as repeat customers like me book with their competitors and warn friends and family of their deceptive practices.

I understand Covid-19 threw the whole world into a state of uncharted territory but this is no way you should treat all your customers. Other customers who have expressed disappointment with this policy were told that a "service specialist" would contact them. This was simply another ploy to give the impression that the issue would be resolved, when, in fact, Viking has no intention of correcting this unfair practice.

We booked in 2019 for a Rivercruise down the Rhine for April 2020 from Basel Switzerland to Amsterdam. We also invited 2 other couples who have never sailed with Viking cruise and since we had we gave viking raving reviews. Now here we are 3 yrs later still trying to go one the cruise. Covid still a issue in Europe and all the different regulations in place. We must be Fully vaccinated that includes Booster if eligible, wear mask on the boat and off the boat, must have a covid test with negative test before you fly, before embarking plus stay in your room up to 3 hrs while you wait for test results. We did not sign up for this, this is not the Rivercruise we all purchased to celebrate my 60th and my friends 65th birthday and a honeymoon for the 3rd couple. I would love for a service Specialist to call me and resolve our complaints and issues.

Waiting now since 2020 to celebrate my 65th birthday. Since then my husband almost died from a blockage in his stomach this year I had to have a hip replacement and now we have a new complaint that we have to be boosted. We’re getting older we only want to take a Viking cruise because we heard so much about it and how wonderful it was and now I’m very disappointed that they have all these mandates. Time is running out and they are taking peoples money some people have even died and they won’t even transfer it to a family member what is going on with Viking and they will not replace I’m sorry they will not refund your money!

10-days prior to Viking cancelling our 2020 Paris-Swiss Alps River Cruise with full refunds, we cancelled due to pandemic fears. We received vouchers. After multiple attempts to convince Viking that under those circumstances, we should be offered a full refund, they continuously refused. We now are using our vouchers to go to Alaska. Today we learned that mask wearing whenever outside your cabin was required. Since my wife has trouble breathing when wearing a mask, they again refused a refund. If vouchers expire, we will forfeit our entire $12,000+ . Instead, more vouchers were offered. In our late 70s we hope Viking would reconsider, but NO DICE. #6495737

Booking #5988019 - Transfers from/to airport originally included with booking. After 2 years delayed (due t0 Covid-19) we hope to finally go April, 2022 to celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary (on our 42nd). We decided to extend our stay in Munich at the end of the cruise, on our own. Viking was originally supposed to transfer us from Passau to Munich airport (2 hours away) to fly home. We expected nothing different from them, they would take us to the airport that morning (as if we were flying out then) and we would be on our own from there (but flying home 3 days later). Because we booked our air through Viking, and did not book an extension with them, they now say they will not transfer us to Munich airport but are on our own in Passau (2 hours away). We greatly disagree with this "policy" as we are asking nothing extra from them and believe we should still receive the transfer to Munich airport on the same morning they originally were to take us. Viking giveth and Viking taketh away.

Issue is we are trying to obtain a refund through travel insurance. We cannot as they issued us vouchers when for medical reasons we postponed our trip. They never informed us when we postponed that this would in any way affect our insurance. If we had known we never would have rebooked. We even asked if this would have any affect on insurance and they said it would not. They are now saying with vouchers we can never obtain a cash refund. The medical issue is Parkinsons and doctor says he cannot travel. Viking will not give us our money back.

June 12, 2020 we booked the Grand European cruise. This was to be a family trip with my brother and sister in law and we booked as travel companions with the same trip number.

We booked through Brandt travel agency. We asked a lot of questions in the beginning regarding insurance as we wanted to make sure that should medical conditions change that the trip could be cancelled for a refund.

The travel agent was aware that my brother in law had Parkinsons and that factored into our decisions.

We made our final payment for the trip Sept. 17, 2020.

June 24, 2021 we rebooked our trip due to concerns over medical condition. We paid additional funds at that time to pay for insurance. We asked questions at that time about the insurance, any affect this would have on our insurance but no mention was made that this conversion to vouchers would void any ability to cancel the trip for a refund at a later date. We rebooked as we hoped at a later date he would be doing better and may be able to travel. We absolutely never would have rebooked if we thought in any way that was going to jeopardize our chances of getting a cash refund. If we had known that we would have cancelled the trip at that time for medical reasons and would have received a full cash refund less the cost of insurance. We knew it was always a possibility that he may not be able to make the trip and we would need to cancel. We always thought we could submit for a cash refund if necessary.

Now his doctors are saying his disease has progressed and that it is too risky for him to travel. We want to cancel the trip and be reimbursed.

We have tried numerous calls to Viking and Trip Mate. What we have been told to date is that Trip mate cannot refund vouchers. If we pursue an insurance claim our vouchers are null and void. We have been told it is very likely our claim will be denied and then we will also lose the vouchers and could end up with nothing.

We have now moved the trip into vouchers again and have been told that once we rebook we cannot change the date or lose everything. We are not in a position, given ages and his condition, to book a trip and know that it will be able to proceed. And now we have no insurance for this purpose.

We also feel deceived in that we always thought we had an ability under a medical condition to cancel this trip and receive a refund if necessary.

We entered into this with Viking being comforted by their “risk free guarantee”.

We thought we had purchased very good travel insurance that protected our trip as we are all elderly, this was meant as an experience together, and we are traveling with someone who has a progressive condition (Parkinsons).

We made sure we were covered in the event that his condition progressed to where we could not travel.

What we have been told is that we can postpone our trip. This is not possible as Parkinsons is progressive, if we can’t travel now, we can’t travel later.

We can transfer our trip to someone else. None of us have anyone who we can transfer gifts of that size.

We want to get a cash refund for our trip and Viking has made that impossible. We feel very deceived and that what they are doing is highly unethical. Thank you so very much for your help.

We just got back from an ocean cruise to the French Polynesian islands (Jan. 5 - Febr. 6, 2020. When we booked the cruise it was listed as a Hawaii/French Polynesian Islands cruise. Soon after paying for the cruise the Hawaii Islands were dropped because of Covid restrictions and Viking said they would pick up more islands in the South Pacific. We were disappointed but we justified it in our minds that we would be seeing more islands in the South Pacific. Viking also compensated us for this change with an on board credit voucher.

Sometime after this, some of the islands they picked up were also dropped and unannounced, the last stop at San Diego was dropped with no further explanation given. We were really looking forward to this stop. The 10 land days, 9 ports turned into a 8 land day, 4 ports cruise. We had to go back and revisit some of the islands we had already been to.

We realize that the Viking contract allows for such changes and we do appreciate the hard work of the Viking management and staff to make the very most of what they had to deal with. We rolled with the changes and still had a good time.

My friend and I booked the river cruise from Amsterdam to Copenhagen for 3/23/2020. The cruise was booked using my friends credit card. After the trip was cancelled due to Covid my friend received a full refund for her portion of the trip. After many calls and emails with Viking I only received a voucher. I have documentation with details that I have sent to Viking that they have not responded to. Due to underlying health concerns and a letter from my Doctor a voucher will not work for me based on the current state of the pandemic. I would like a full refund that my friend received for the same trip.

I am looking forward to a resolution to the issue above. Thanks