Viking Cruises

This is a follow up from my several phone calls to customer service, we are still awaiting any type of resolutions or response from Viking;
*Our Viking representatives at the Corinthia Hotel in Prague were very unorganized and would give very little information. This is the first time we heard about the possibilities of low water and being put on a bus instead of cruising the river. We heard this from fellow passengers when we asked the Viking representative we were told she didn't know that we would get an email. I finally called customer service and was told that yes this could happen and they would keep us informed.

Once on the ship this possibility was not mentioned again until we were in Bratislava. The night before we docked in Bratislava we were informed it was possible but not probable that we would be taken off the ship and bused to another ship. Boris, cruise director said they could get the boat into port but might not get it out and Viking wouldn't want their ship trapped. Was this really our problem!

The morning of our short scheduled stop in Bratislava we all left as usual for our tour of the city, still no word that any schedule change was about to take place. We were all told to be back on the ship by 11:30 am for our beautiful leisurely travel to Budapest. (we were told at the beginning of the trip by the cruise director Boris that this leg of the trip was by far the most beautiful we would see!)
We all arrived on the ship on time and then were informed oops sorry we are now not leaving until 7:30. Why we were not told this before leaving that morning so that we could have enjoyed a slow paced and enjoyable day in Bratslava I simple cannot understand. We were told we could all walk back into town but who would want to do that after you already hurriedly saw everything so you could be back on the boat. We were all looking forward to the beautiful relaxing trip up the river but instead we all just sat around on top of the boat. No drinks or anything special was offered. No information was given, when we asked Boris said he didn't know any additional info and would give us an update that evening. Finally right before dinner we were told we would need to get off the ship in the morning at 8:15 and be bused to Budapest 1 1/2 hours or so away. We then spent our evening packing instead of a relaxing cruise into Budapest. We again called Viking customer service and the person that answered couldn't believe they did not add any activities or offer any drinks or anything for the time just sitting in port. We were told they would email the boat and let them know.
We were told we would get on the bus and once in Budapest we would be taken to our Ship for a quick stop then on to a tour of Budapest.
Once on the Bus the guide told us no sorry we aren't going to the ship first. We arrived in Budapest after 10am then did a bus trip around the city after first stopping at bathrooms for 30 min. The tour of Budapest was supposed to be from 8:30 until 12:30 so we did not get the tour we were promised.
We then arrived to our new ship and spent time unpacking and getting settled back in only to have all the electricity and water to fail. We spend hours with no electricity, no water, no bathrooms... Because of all of this dinner was finally served at 9pm but we were not allowed to choose we just had to take what they gave us, really?
*very unorganized, thankfully we were the young ones on the trip. The older clients were not taken care of at all, they were on their own to figure things out...
* poor communication throughout the trip and before. Cannot understand why we were not informed before going on this trip that low water was an issue and cannot understand why during the trip no one thought it was important to keep us informed or answer our questions.
*poor service while on the ship (we were told when we got to dinner 8 min after 7pm that our friends need to hurry and get there) On the top deck no service is available at all. Tables were full of dirty glasses etc. for hours until someone finally came up to collect. Didn't see this in your marketing...
*we paid for a balcony which is a joke. only once in the whole trip could we use the balcony and that was at 6:00am. By 6:30 another ship pulled up and again you could not see. Nowhere do you say or show that when docked (which is almost always when it is daylight, that you can't see out your balcony because you tie up another boat up next to it! So instead of beautiful views you have to keep your blinds closed.
For this once in a lifetime very expensive trip we literally lost 2 days of the 7 day trip with no compensation. We never mind paying but we definitely feel like Viking did not hold up to their end of any of this trip...………………...

Hello
To whom this may concern,
My friend and I have a trip booked with you on a River Cruise this November ...we booked it way back in the summer of 2017.
Booking number 4603803
We just up graded our flight from business economy to business class, last week .
Little did we know that all flights are computer generated ..no humans involved...we had just received the flight info.
It was horrendous ..
1)It left a day earlier...than original itinerary, which was not mentioned when we made our upgrade, no info of any kind was mentioned concerning flight itinerary .
2) This also meant that I had to rearrange care for my animals a day earlier..lucky I was able to do so.
3) Besides that we had u.s. Continental flights ..strange since were are flying from Los Angeles to Asia ...why would we fly backwards..to Chicago to again come back to l.a.?
Adds approx. another 10 hours to an already VERY along flight ( going in the wrong direction)
As so as the information was emailed to be, I immediately emailed (Cooper the fellow I spoke to for the upgrade) that this was unsatisfactory .
Never got a response . All this was done in the time frame that was permitable.
4) We had paid for business class..so, on top of the insane flight schedule your automated system put us on ...originally ..you were going to put us in economy coach to fly us with in the UNited States.
..when we called to see what and why these flights were so irrational, we were told that to change them to logical flights..(which your company should have done) that it was going to cost the two of us and extra $300.00. ( 150.00$ ea.)You had us over a barrel.
5) I call to discuss this charge with a superior in your
‘Viking Extra Care' dept. twice. The second woman told me that she could reimburse us the money, but ( the flight itinerary) would go back into the " generated flights' and could not guarantee that the new flight schedule would remain the same.

That's VERY INSANE..and so not customer service friendly /considerate...we're saying to ourselves, can this really be happening ? ..not logical.
It would be like playing Russian roulette .
We didn't want to change our destination..nor did we want to add on any stop overs, or etc. we just want to get to our destination . A human being should have said something to us. You have it written in stone before we can even be aware of what you have booked..we're stuck... can't even question it, and then a slap in the face by charging more..CRAZY
Seems It's a win win for your company to make extra bucks, at our expense ...in this case!
All in all, because of the lack of communication ..the most you should charged us each is $50.00...I personally think it shouldn't have cost us a dime.
Wouldn't you have felt the same way?
Thanks for your consideration
Lorrel Launer

Sent from my iPad

June 5 2018 my husband and I started our 8-day Rhine River cruise from Basal, Switzerland aboard the Viking Herja. This trip was booked for our 45th wedding anniversary as a gift to each other. June 6th was the date of the safetyt drill. Our cabin was on level 3 and we were told to get our life jackets on and head up to the sundeck. As I topped the stairs to the sun deck and asked where I needed to proceed to I could not see a 4-5-inch diameter hose that was strung across the sun deck. There were no caution markers either. The life vest limits one's visibility when looking straight down. I turned to go to the directed assembly area tripping and falling over that hose. I sustained considerable injuries in that fall. My husband and a Viking crew member got me up and took me down the stairs to level 3. A Dr. came aboard and told the ship to call an ambulance and I was transported to a local hospital in Breisach, Germany. I knew my nose was broken and my knee badly bruised without confirmation from the local Dr. as I not only felt but heard it break as I landed. They did X-rays and confirmed the break at the hospital. We returned to the ship from the hospital where no one greeted us nor even asked if we needed lunch or something cold to drink. We did go to the lounge at one point to get a coke and ginger ale and asked for some peanuts as we were thirsty and hungry as we had missed lunch due to being at the hospital. We were charged for these drinks as it wasn't "dinner time or lunch time". I was able to "continue" the trip but not enjoy a trip that cost a considerable amount of money. Our Captain did not speak to me for any reason. Since this is basically the Captain's "house" he should have at least inquired about my condition. The only inquiry Viking made directly to us was to ask us to fill out an accident report which we did. This was done by the front desk staff.
After our return home our travel agent gave us a contact at Viking Customer Relations. Two different times I spoke with them. The first customer relations person, Kayla, informed me she had to stay late to call me. After a few minutes I could tell the conversation was going nowhere after being told again it was my fault she had to stay late so I told her it was probably best to terminate the call. I then wrote an e-mail to Stephanie who is supposed to be a VP of customer relations. A few days later I got a call from Marsha offering me first $500 off another cruise, then $750, then "final offer" of $1000 off another cruise. I was also told by both customer relations staff members that there are no supervisors to talk with me as they are all the same position. They also said Vikings executive staff does not call customers that encounter problems. I have been told by Viking that they do not owe me anything as far as they are concerned. That includes medical expenses, refund of the cruise or even another cruise to replace the one that was totally ruined by their carelessness. I would love to be their best spokesperson rather than feeling like I do.
I'm not real sure why they have customer relations staff except to sell cruises as they showed no real interest in resolving my situation. One can call me too trusting but I really thought Viking would actually care about an injury that occurred on one of their ships due to a totally avoidable incident caused by them. I have found out from may other travelers that life boat drills for 3rd floor guests usually take place in the lounge when a ship is docked due to the hose across the deck. I even overhead our tour director questioning that order as he was discussing it on a tour with another passenger not realizing I was 3 rows behind him on a bus. For 7 days each time I met someone they immediately knew I "was the one" that fell. I, like most people, am not comfortable with that kind of notoriety but with a badly broken and bruised nose no one could miss it. I was very fortunate that each of our fellow passengers were kind and supportive. Each and every one thought, as we did, that Viking would make some kind of overture towards us to make the situation right while we were still on the cruise. At this writing the injuries are still not healed and more care is pending.

My husband and I are not novice travelers. We had intended to book at least two more Viking River Cruises as we travel several times a year and most of those trips are a cruise of some sort. The disappointment and frustration, not to mention the physical pain of such a fall that I experienced has been great. I would love nothing better than for Viking to contact me and make this situation right. This is the first negative review I have ever written, as I much prefer to tell others about our wonderful times. Viking states in their terms and conditions that they aren't liable for any injuries and so forth that is caused by them. Anyone considering booking a cruise just read all the fine print real close and weigh the risks and benefits. I never thought I would be the one hurt on a trip.

Flying with Brussels airlines was the worst flight experience of my travel. We went on river cruise from Porto on the Douro. Our return flight was on the 6th September with Brussels airlines from Porto to Brussels with a connecting flight to Birmingham. The plane left Porto at 2.pm instead of 12.30. This resulted in us missing our connection From Brussels to Birmingham. We were them offered boarding passes for a flight to Frankfurt with a connecting flight to Birmingham. This resulted in a delay of 5 hours altogether at Birmingham UK airport. We were offered a 5euros each for food and drink at Brussels airport. This was completely unacceptable. There was no apologies offered. We then had to pay extra 52 pounds in taxi fare as our driver had to go away and come back to collect us. When I booked with Viking cruises I did not expect to fly with this budget airline and the substandard service throughout. We have travelled with Viking before and had wonderful experience. The holiday experience in Portugal was exceptional spoiled only by the return appalling flight.

This is the letter that was sent to Stephanie Maldonado on September 10th. The response today from Evan Sterling was $0 compensation and no apologies.

My husband and I recently went on a Rhine Getaway Viking River Cruise on the Alruna (ALP18018). We had heard very positive reviews over the years from family and friends and were excited about our first river cruise with a company whose reputation was built on river cruising.

However, to say that we were disappointed with the week-long cruise would be an understatement. We have numerous complaints, thus am outlining these grievances along with requesting compensation from Viking. I will attempt to be brief and provide concise information, however given the problems we experienced, I appreciate your indulgence to read this letter through to the end.

TRIP PLANNING
- With several phone calls to your Customer Service area and our flexibility on dates, it was disappointing to find out that EVERYTHING is closed on Mondays in Cologne. This ended up being the one and only day in which we were in city during the day and early evening. We only saw the Cathedral and could not visit anything else. It would have been helpful to have been advised this when we were planning our trip.
- As we had booked the Amsterdam pre-cruise extension, I wanted to find out how the embarkation day time table would work so we could plan our day. I was told before trip that the bus would pick us up in Amsterdam hotel at noon. It ended up being 3pm and I could have booked another time slot at a museum that day. (We were told at the Hotel that morning that the time would be 3pm, so the day was not wasted.)
- We were told that we would be docked in every port and able to walk to/from the ship. This was only true in Cologne - in which everything was closed, as stated previously.

CHANGING SHIPS
- We understand that the weather was not under Viking's control, HOWEVER -how things were handled and communicated were under your control. Both were abysmal!
- On the embarkation date -18 August - we were not told until late that evening that we might have to change ships. Thus, we and many, many other passengers had already fully unpacked. When we were getting on ship, there should have been an announcement that there was a strong possibility of changing ships, thus don't unpack everything.
- Due to changing ships from the Alruna to Tialfi on Tuesday, August 19th, we missed 150 miles of the Rhine. We were shuttled onto a "day" tour ship for 3 hours of the boat change. The commentary during our "river cruising" was a single statement made by Sebastian (title?) who stated at one point, "This is my favorite castle". That was it! We also were told (and you'll find that this is a pattern of Sebastian's) that we'd be on the "day" ship for 1-2 hours. It ended up being 3 hours with no shade on the upper deck.
- On getting on to buses after our day trip, the bus drivers and Sebastian were outside talking for more than 20 minutes while final coordination was made with the bus drivers and the Alruna staff who had come with us to serve lunch. (These ladies did a great job!) One bus had to have someone ask the bus driver to close the doors and turn on the AC given how hot we were just sitting and waiting.
- We were then told, by Sebastian, that the drive would be 1 to 1.5 hours. It took us over 3 hours to get to an industrial park in Strasbourg.
- The staff of the Tialfi were standing outside to greet us, which was nice. And Sebastian announced that there was an open bar for the 30 minutes before dinner. However, there was a single bartender and we were charged for our wine. Again, another false statement/promise!
- The staff on the Tialfi except for the room service staff, were not friendly nor provided good service during meals. The only night they seemed happy was the last night before everyone disembarked.

Heidelberg, Germany - August 22nd

-This was the worst day of our river cruise and another example of Viking representatives "just not thinking".
-Given that we had to change ships, we then had to drive 3.25 hours BACK to Heidelberg. This left us with a 25-minute castle tour and a 1.5-hour lunch in a restaurant with only 2 servers and no A/C. Lunch should have been announced that it was optional and an end time of when to be back on the bus announced in the morning. Sebastian could not be found during lunch to ask how much time we had in the afternoon to explore Heidelberg. We ended up leaving before dessert just to walk 1-2 blocks to see something of Heidelberg. We then drove 3 hours back near Strasbourg. In my opinion, Viking owes us a day in Heidelberg.

Change in the end of our trip

- After the horrible day in Heidelberg and my husband getting sick, on the afternoon of Thursday, August 23rd, we asked the customer service desk to book us on flights going home on Saturday versus staying in Basel for the extension. In the early evening, according to Evelyn, Viking flights/customer service that supports the ship staff told her that there would be a $400 per person change fee to take the exact same flights with British Airways on Saturday versus Monday. That evening before dinner we confirmed in person that we would like to go ahead and have the flights changed. We were told that documentation of the change would be sent to the ship.

- On Friday, in Colmar, we were the first tour group to leave the ship at 8:15am for the WWII memorial tour. When we arrived back at 12:45pm, I checked in at the customer service desk to inquire about our new flight reservations for the next morning. Igor and Evelyn talked to us and stated that now the airfare would be $5, 200 per person for business class (on top of the $3390 that we'd already paid when we made our initial trip plan). Igor said that he had tried to find us in the morning to tell us about this change, which I do not believe given that we were at breakfast and on the tour. I stated that this was unacceptable and felt like we were being held hostage by Viking to continue our extension in Basel. Igor and Evelyn had me so upset that we missed the last tour of The Black Forest. About 2 hours later, I checked back in with them to find out what the Viking air/customer service area had found for us. We were told to be patient, even though it was going on 5pm Friday evening. Igor did get on the phone with us with much prompting and eye-rolling by Evelyn to find him. Leo Munsalud said that he was working on finding us something via business class or premium economy.

- We went to dinner that evening at 7pm and my husband checked in with the customer service desk around 8:30pm to see if flights had been finalized. They had not. It was not until after 9pm that Igor knocked on our door to let us know that flights had been found and documentation was being emailed directly to us from Leo. Once confirmed, Igor then told us that there wouldn't be any change fees assessed and finally seemed to get in gear to assist us with luggage tags and a taxi in the morning.

Again, one of the worst vacations we've ever taken! Viking's business model seems to only support "when everything is normal". Once "something" occurs that is out of the norm, the business isn't adequately prepared to ensure a pleasant cruise nor assist with changes.
Given that nearly fifty percent of our trip was either interrupted and/or did not meet the experience as outlined and documented by Viking's website, brochures, and ship representatives this is the refund amount that would seem fair to us. However, I realize that Viking's business model will not sustain a 50% refund, thus I am asking Viking to provide a cash refund that you deem appropriate via our credit card. An amount payable via a Viking future cruise credit is not acceptable to us. The $500 "token voucher" that Viking sent to everyone after the cruise is only 4% of our total cost, not transferable, and expires within a year. This makes it an empty gesture, in my opinion.

My wife and I recently returned from the Romantic Danube River Cruise. Pre-Cruise 8/21-24, Cruise 8/24-31. Booking #4847366. We began our journey with a pre-Cruise package in Prague. It was a disaster. The Hilton Hotel in which we were booked was under construction. The noise from construction: constant hammering and power tool noise was unbearable...it began early in the morning and lasted until evening...lasting until 8:30 one night. The noise was loud and obnoxious. It sounded as if it were just above us. We asked hotel management to be moved. We were told the hotel was sold out and could not move to another room. The night before we were to leave the hotel, they finally told us we could move to another room...at 10PM. We contacted Viking customer service, we were told they had no idea the hotel was under construction...yet the hotel management told us the hotel had been under construction for 2 years and would be under construction another two years. They told us all users had been notified of the construction...someone isn't telling the truth. Two of the three days we had to use the stairs or service elevator. My wife has a leg injury that doesn't allow for her to climb stairs; our travel companion is in a wheelchair. Viking having known about this construction should have been pro-active and booked us in another hotel in Prague. My wife became physically ill because of the noise. We also booked excursion tours in Prague. We always book "easy" because of physical limitations. The first was Panoramic Prague. We went to Castle Hill and were able to tour there, when we returned to the bus for the next segment, the tour guide Hanna strongly suggested we return to the hotel and not continue on. Hanna said there would be about 20-25 steep steps to acess The Charles Bridge and then a 4 1/2 mile walk over heavy cobblestones to get where the bus would again pick us up. We went back to the hotel. That evening we were booked on the excursion Prague by Night. The tour guide was very weak. But again, the two stops each had 25-30 steps to acess the sights. So once again, we stayed on the bus. During this tour the guide described how beautiful it was to see Prague light up at night...beginning at dusk an area of the city turns on it's light, then in 10 minute intervals each area of the city turns on it's light until the city was lit up. She said it was an amazing sight...but that amazing sight wasn't part of our Prague by night tour?
The following day we hired a private car/tour guide so we could see Prague.
During our stay in Prague we were notified that the river levels were low on the Danube and our cruise would be impacted. We were told to prepare for possible hotel stays and ship changes. After the fact, we learned that Viking had known this information for several weeks, maybe months. We we should have been notified before we left the USA and given the opportunity to re-schedule or cancel. The morning of our departure from Prague even the the tour guide did not know where we would meet our ship until the bus driver told her. We did have to change ships. We had to pack and unpack again. A 3 hour plus bus ride to the new ship. Not what we signed up for. We chose the river cruise to unpack and be settled in for the week. The crew on the first ship was outstanding. The second ship the crew was not us to par. The dining staff seemed to be understaffed. We would be seated for meals for quite a long time before anyone came to offer drinks or take our orders. This was after we "flagged" them down.
We spent more time being bussed to cities than seeing the cities. We had less than 1 1/2 hours in Vienna and less than an hour in Budapest. Lots of time on the bus, but you don't get to see much when you are on the bus.
Viking has given us a voucher for 25 percent off the cost of our cruise to apply to another cruise with them, which at this time we would not chose to ever cruise with them again. There has been no offer of compensation for the nightmare in Prague.
We would like a full refund for our pre-cruise in Prague, plus the excursions we paid extra for; and a 25 percent refund of monies from the River Cruise.

FROM: Leesa Morgan-Baker
2100 Valley View Drive
Woodland Park, CO 80863

TO: Viking River Cruises, Inc.
5700 Canoga Avenue
Woodland Hills, CA 91367

[protected]@vikingcruises.com;
[protected]@vikingcruises.com

Danube Waltz - Budapest to Passau (August 5, 2018- August 12, 2018)
RE: Booking Number: 4773582 Service Recovery

Dear Viking River Cruises:

I am writing to request additional service recovery of an additional 25% on the trip we booked with Viking River Cruises as referenced above. This trip was intended to be a multigenerational, once in a lifetime event with my 84-year old mother, niece, sister-in-law and longtime friend.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. Due to low water we were bussed from Budapest to Bratislava. The compensation offered at this point was 25% toward another cruise. It seemed adequate compensation. We boarded the ship in Bratislava and sailed in the dark to Vienna. We never left the port due to failure of the generator on the ship in Vienna.

We were repeatedly assured that the generator would be fixed so waited patiently as we were bussed to our tour destinations. We only sailed on the Danube for one evening. We never sailed the Danube in the daylight and were moored between two ships so couldn't even avail ourselves of the French Balcony windows we selected purposely for being able to view the Danube while sailing.

To finish the tour we were bussed again to a resort outside Passau where we spent the remaining time. Once again we had to unpack and then pack up again we went to Passau for the end of the tour. I can't call this a cruise as we were on land the majority of the time.

The compensation requested seems fair and I am so disappointed that Viking has not lived up to their reputation as the best cruise line in the world. A multinational, multimillion dollar company has failed to extend a fair and adequate compensation of $1800. It seems your good will and reputation would be at least worth that.

I have been promised that someone would call me back in 5-7 days after speaking to a representative on the phone and am still waiting on day 12 for that callback. I look forward to your prompt response to this letter.

If my request has not been honored by September 30, 2018 I will feel feel compelled to utilize various social media outlets to inform the general public of your lack of adequate response.

Sincerely,
Leesa Morgan-Baker
[protected]

I had purchased Viking Cruise for May 2019 on August 15, 2018. I was ask to pay Travel Insurance which I did. 18 days later I had to cancel the trip. I was not aware I was going to lose over 2000 for the insurances. I called Viking to see if they could stop the cancellation and put the $3028 over to another trip that did not cost $28.000. They would not accommodate my request. The person that answered my call was rude and not willing to help me. I then called my salesman Nolan. He did try put was unable to get them to help me. Viking customer service lacks for the high prices charged for their cruises. We have traveled with Viking and yes it was a memorable dream trip. I just felt I need to tell consumers my bad experience. Beware do not buy Trip Mate Insurance. Read their reviews rate 1 star. I will never travel Viking again. I was willing to pay for another trip but no they chose to not see how we could come to some agreement

This trip was a once in a lifetime trip for my mother, my aunt, myself, and my 82 year old grandmother on the Danube. We were not made aware, prior to our departure from the U.S., of the low water issues happening on a continuous basis on the Danube River and the management of mechanical issues that proceeded to follow are unacceptable for the caliber of cruise line advertised by VRC. Had we been made aware in a timely manner, we would have been able to use our VIKING provided travel insurance to opt out of the trip and reschedule. Instead, Viking waiting waited to inform us until everyone was already in or en route to Budapest. We were offered a 25% voucher for another cruise (to be used within a year), and $100 of onboard ship credit (which we weren't able to use because we only spent 2 days on the boat).

We were set to board the ship on Sunday, August 5th, and were informed on the evening of August 3rd, the water level was too low and we would be spending extra unplanned days in Budapest.

 On Tuesday, August 7th, we had to pack and board motor coaches to Bratislava, where we boarded the boat around lunch time.  We toured the town that afternoon and sailed early in the evening for Vienna.  We woke up on Wednesday, August 8th, in Vienna and the day proceeded as planned.  That evening we learned the ship had suffered a mechanical failure and we could not sail. At times, our toilets wouldn't flush and the power had to be shut off.  All the while, we are docked between 2 boats so when we opened the windows to our "French balcony" we were staring at another boat. These 2 boats were also cooking all the food for our ship as we had no power to cook anything. We were told the ship would be fixed shortly and we would be sailing at some point during the night.  

When we awoke on the morning of Thursday, August 9th, we were still in Vienna docked between 2 boats.  Viking Cruises was again forced to bus all passengers to our Krem tours (which was supposed to be our port that morning).  We didn't see the city but were able to do our tour of the Gottewig Abbey.  At this point, we were waiting on a part to arrive to fix the boat so we lost an entire afternoon being stuck on the boat in Vienna "waiting" .



On the morning of Friday, August 10th, we spent the whole morning on board the ship (which has no entertainment) awaiting further instructions.  At about 11:30 we finally learned that we would AGAIN need to pack our bags and be off the ship by 2pm that afternoon.  We would board motor coaches and be bussed to just outside Passau, Germany for the remainder of the trip.  This was a 3+ hour bus ride.  We stopped and boarded a public sightseeing boat for a tour of the Wacchau Valley that we were supposed to see on our cruise.  Due to the rain and the inability of a sight-seeing boat to accommodate weather circumstances, we did not see much in our 30 min cruise. We arrived at the hotel in Germany and although it was a nice hotel, they were not prepared for 180 passengers from a cruise ship and the food was sub-par at best. Viking did cover all drinks and mini bar purchases while we were there, but this was yet another unpleasant experience in an endless chain of continuing events. 



On Saturday, August 11th, we were bussed 30 min into Passau for our scheduled tours. We skipped the port of Linz all together which was an advertised port of call for our itinerary.  The evening, a piece of paper was slipped under our door offering us a 25% refund on our cruise as well as the 25% voucher for a future cruise. Mind you, this was a $7k trip, just for me. Plus all the extra expenses that were spent using public restrooms and buying snacks/water on our bus transfers.

Sunday, August 12th, we were shuttled to the airport where we left the resort late and barely made our flights out of Munich, Germany.  We were literally the last ones to board the plane. We spent more time on alternate ground transportation than we did being able to relax, in one home base location, on the boat.

All of this to say, the biggest disappointment, is Vikings refusal to rectify the situation. I have sent emails, and spoken to representative many times to no avail. I was literally told once that 25% refund + 25% voucher equaled the 50% refund that I was requesting. Viking has also REFUSED to acknowledge the broken ship. I have spoken to 2 different representatives who both continually told me how the low water is beyond their control and the best offer I could get was a 35% voucher on another cruise. It's as if they have been coached on what to say. As if, I would ever set foot on another Viking cruise.

I am so disappointed to see a company that touts themselves as being a 5 star vacation destination refuse to actually serve the customer. A company's true colors are revealed in a crisis, and my friends, Viking revealed theirs. A company that thinks nothing more than the bottom line of their financial report. They could have made this right from the beginning and had a customer for life.

I am a travel agent and booked my first Viking River Cruise for Danube Waltz
Booking #4924292. Sonny and Pearl Levitt.
Our Friends Cheryl & Nelson Ferreira also booked the same trip. She is now a Travel Agen.
All was well until we received our flight information. We all upgraded to the Premium Economy seats.
When printing out our Air Itinerary all seats were listed except flight Air Canada, Flight 6210, Saturday Oct. 27, from Toronto to Vienna...and...Austrian Airlines Flight #6196 from Vienna to Budapest, Oct. 28.
Having been told that we will get our seat numbers 2 days before and that we might not be sitting with our spouses, which we find unacceptable, we called your air dept and found out that the aircraft that we are taking only has 3 rows of Premium Economy, 10-12, and we have researched to find out that row 10 is limited legroom and row 12 is limited reclining.
The Agent also told us that the only seats available to Viking are D & G in row 10 and 11.
Needless to say we feel that we are going to be stuck with unacceptable seating on the longest leg of our trip and we want some resolution now.

Joining the outcry of disappointed people who have had the misfortune of 'cruising' with Viking Cruises this summer. Our dream vacation, the first ever 2 weeks long, was disappointing and very stressful. We came home tired and exhausted. Our vacation was NO vacation thanks to being misled and in our opinion deceived by Viking over and over again. We are very dissatisfied with the overall ‘cruise' experience and the compensation offered by Viking to make up for the changes in our anticipated vacation.

Our group of three couples was aware of the low water situation a week prior to the scheduled sailing. We contacted Customer Relations and spoke to Megan Miulli on the Monday, August 13th requesting an opportunity to cancel our trip and plan our own itinerary since we were all committed to non-refundable airfare. Customer Relations refused to allow us a full refund prior to the trip and requested that we travel to Europe, embark the ship, and then file a complaint within 24 hours if we were still dissatisfied.

Our trip was scheduled for August 18th. We were officially notified by Viking Tuesday, August 14th at 6:16 p.m. that water levels were low and that the itinerary had been changed. We again reached out to Megan and left a voice message that we were interested a refund and scheduling our own trip. We did not hear back from her before it was time for us to travel.

We flew to Europe and took the train to Nuremberg. Fortunately we took an early train or we would have missed the bus to the ship. We quickly realized how disorganized, stressful and disappointing the trip was going to be. The refreshments at the Le Méridien Grand Hotel Nürnberg were second-rate and were depleted when we arrived. We received mixed instructions from the Viking representatives on hand, an apparent foreshadowing of the days ahead of us. The bus left earlier than we were earlier told, we had no time to explore Nürnberg. After a 2 hour bus ride, with no comfort stop, we arrived in Passau and embarked the Egil on August 18, 2018.

Upon arrival we discovered our cabin's view was blocked by another ship. We did however have a great view of the other ship's guests dirty socks drying on their deck chair. Eventually the ship moved and we had a view, sadly our friends who were on the other side of the ship now had a blocked view.

The night of the 18th the on board crew relayed to us the itinerary changes for the next day. They said they were unable to tell us about the rest of the cruise days because conditions downstream were volatile and changing. We were told that the excursions the next day would be leaving at 8:00 a.m. by motor coach. Unlike most of our fellow passengers we are not retirees. We are employed individuals who came on vacation to relax and get away from the stresses of our busy work lives. We anticipated relaxing evenings on board, cocktails in hand, long restful nights of sleep, awakening leisurely in port before excursions in the adjacent port. Getting up at 6:30 a.m. was not any of our ideas of a good time. None of us wanted to get on a bus first thing in the morning. We therefore skipped the excursions on the 19th and filed an official complaint, as your brochures instruct passengers to do, within the first 24 hours of embarking. Hotel Manager Davis Thomas relayed our complaint to Customer Relations via email that day.

On Sunday, August 19th, Mr. Thomas relayed to us that because the water levels were out of the control of Viking Cruises, no refund of our expenses would be given.

We were very disappointed and frustrated with the lack of refund or financial compensation offered. Viking's offer of 25 percent off a future cruise was completely a slap in the face. We wanted to get off of the boat, not think about planning a return cruise! We wanted to get off and derive our own itinerary. We are very capable of doing so and it would have allowed us to have the relaxing, stress-free vacation we anticipated. While we realize that the water levels are out of control of Viking, what was in Viking's control was the forthcoming communication of information and/or the opportunity to offer financial compensation that would have helped to make us feel less trapped and less taken advantage of. It was very difficult to have our itinerary communicated to us piecemeal by the crew and we feel strongly that this was done intentionally. When we arrived in Budapest we saw a Viking ship that we were told had been stuck there for a month! So, Viking was aware of the water conditions downstream and was not forthcoming with that information.

Our trip was not relaxing. We spent many hours on motor coaches. We spent only 1½ days cruising. We were deprived of hours of relaxation on board that we had looked forward to for over a year. We came home stressed, frustrated and feeling that we had been taken advantage of by Viking Cruises. We've reached out to Viking via their Customer Service phone line several times and at great length. We, and our fellow passengers have been offered 50% off of a future cruise. We've also been offered $500 compensation, if we agreed to sign a non-disclosure agreement. We have declined to accept any of these offers. Instead we will do our best to share our experience with others so that they will not be as unfortunate as we were. Viking has refused to offer decent compensation for a trip that was no where close to what was advertised.

I've attached a photo I took on a bus - that was my view for most of the trip.

Booking Refernce 4601922

I will write at greater length when we are somewhere where the Wi-fi works better but I must say how incredibly disappointed we are with this holiday.

We are a party of 6 (3 separate bookings) and have now been on board the vessel Foresti since Saturday at 2pm. In this time, the ship has moved on only one occasion with us on board which occurred on Monday afternoon when we were in motion for 6 hours. I do not know how you can call this a cruise when the ship does not move!

The rest of the time we have been stationary. Moist of that time we have been double parked with another ship so that we are either looking at the bank (some 10 yards from the window) or at the Sid elf another boat parked right alongside us., There is no bview of the river unless we walk to shore and see it from the land.

The staff on board are lovely and helpful but even they are saying "it is unusual that the ship does not move very much".

On top of that, we elected to upgrade to the premium silver wine pack openly to be told that the ship had exhausted suppplies of Rose by the second night and would not restock for 2 days and then last night it also ran out of the better white wines on the menu. This is very very poor indeed.

The town at which we are moored for last night and tonight is mor like a village with almost no facilities and very little reason to get off the boat.

If you read the advertising material accompanying this holiday put out by Viking (which was obviously our motivation to book the trip in the first place) you would not believe the five days we have just had. For what we have seen, it would have been easier to rent a car and stay in hotels along the way.

I will write ore when less annoyed.

Simon Davis

copy of letter sent to Viking River Cruises
28 August 2018

From: Patrick Stapleton
3785 NW Loma St.
Poulsbo, WA 98370
Patrick.m.[protected]@gmail.com

To: Viking River Cruises, Inc.
5700 Canoga Ave
Woodland Hills, CA [protected]

Dear Sir or Ma'am,

My wife and I just returned from our "Romantic Danube Cruise" (Booking no. 4735439, Aug [protected]). Like all the other passengers aboard, we were greatly disappointed. The river cruise turned out to be more of a bus tour (with stops at autobahn gas stations as highlights) with occasional water travel. We did not simply unpack and relax, we unpacked, packed, unpacked and re-packed several times occupying a total of three different Viking ship, used more as floating hotels than for cruising. Tours were canceled, rushed, combined or forced to choose between actually cruising, or seeing a tour. Not at all relaxing, certainly not "romantic".

During the tour we heard that the problem with Danube water level had been affecting cruises for two months. Yet, the first we heard about it was an e-mail dated the 16th, when we were already in Europe. The e-mail itself did not seem to indicate the problem as being serious and tried to brush it off as a minor inconvenience. While our tour director did her best, the overall feeling was that Viking had lied to us by failing to tell everyone the severity of the situation and that they already knew we would be traveling so much by bus before we even arrived. If we had known this, we would almost certainly have rescheduled or changed plans in some fashion, but we were not given that choice.

Vikings' offer to compensate us by allowing 25% off on a future cruise (if used within the year) was rejected by just about everybody aboard as being totally inadequate. Vikings offer stands in contrast to what we heard when talking with people on other tours, using other lines, some of whom said they had been offered $80/day compensation for their troubles, and still felt slighted. All things considered, my wife and I would prefer receiving a 25% refund on our wrecked vacation rather than some nebulous future offer. Please consider this missive as a formal request for that compensation.

Copies of this missive will be posted online to cruise review sites, and shared with other interested parties.

Sincerely,
Patrick M Stapleton
Leslie M Stapleton

We booked a Danube River Cruise for our 50th wedding anniversary. When we arrived at the cruise line they informed us that the river was low and that we might have some problems. What was supposed to be a river cruise turned into a bus tour. We were unable to dock in several of the cities that we were supposed to dock in and we had to take long bus rides to get to the tours. We really had only one afternoon of a nice scenic cruise, the rest of the time we were bused around to various sights. My wife is handicapped it this was very difficult and stressful to her.

My biggest complaint is that it is very obvious that Viking new of this issue well before we embarked from the US for the tour and they failed to notify us and give us a choice to cancel. They waited until we got there and had the never to tell us that we might have some issues knowing all along that we would definitely have issues and would even have to change boats half way thru the cruise.

My wife and I have had several communications with Viking asking for a full refund and we have been told we would hear back from someone with an offer. As of this date we have not heard back. Viking likes to advertise that they are the number one rated cruise line. In my mind they showed our tour group a lack of integrity and honesty by not giving us a chance to cancel the cruise and now they area stone walling us on our request for a refund. I would highly recommend anyone wishing to take a cruise that they avoid Viking Cruises

Stay away from viking river cruises. They are intentionally dishonest and will cheat you if anything goes wrong. Here is what happened to us. We just returned from what was intended to be a 7-day danube waltz cruise from august 5-12, 2018. The day we arrived in our embarkation port, budapest, we got an email from viking telling us that low water levels prevented the boat from getting there and we would have to be bussed to our boat in bratislava. We learned later that viking knew about the water issues over a month before we arrived, but of course never told us because they wanted us locked into their hot mess of a cruise so we couldn't demand a full refund before we flew to europe. When we finally got to the boat and a shortened stay in bratislava, we had only 1 night cruising. The next morning they told us the generator broke down. We had no toilets and menu items were unavailable since the kitchens were down as well. They told us to use the public restrooms on the boat docked next to us. We also had a high pitched screech in our room from midnight until about 3:30 am and the room smelled like old socks. We spent several hours on a bus each way to see the abbey in krems. Never got to see the town, and the next day were told the generator couldn't be fixed and we'd be bussed to our disembarkation port of passau. We spent 6 hours on a bus. They did stop so approximately 100 of us could pay to use the restrooms in a gas station. Then they put us up in a hotel 30 miles outside of town. We got a letter shoved under our hotel room door the night before the "cruise" ended telling us we'd get 25% of the base fare back. Because this didn't include airfare and our extension in prague, we got back $1, 724 after spending more than $12, 000 on this trip. Viking's concealment of the low water levels was intentionally deceptive - commonly referred to as fraud. This was our worst cruise experience on many levels. Viking is only concerned about its bottom line. It cannot be trusted. We wrote a letter to the chairman and got no further compensation or apology.

Be very careful booking Viking river cruises. We bought the 7-day Danube Waltz from Aug 5 - 12, 2018, and spent one night cruising. Viking gave us a bus tour with hotel stays. Their boat broke down - couldn't flush the toilets a lot of the time - and their compensation is 25 percent of our paid cruise fare, not including the airfare we had to pay to get there. We had low water at the start in Budpest and no boat, but even tough the water had been down for a month, they didn't reschedule the cruise. For the low water, they gave us a 25 percent future cruise voucher that expires in one year. But the rest of the nonexistent cruise was Viking not taking care of its boat. I feel as though Viking is the car salesman who sells you a Mercedes, but delivers you a Yugo, and then says he will give you a discount on your next Mercedes. By withholding an appropriate refund, Viking is asking us to cover the cost of its repairs and to pick up the tab for a cruise they failed to deliver. I wrote the chairman, Torstein Hagen, but Viking said the 25 percent refund is the best they will do. Sounds like a bait-and-switch scam.

I understand that the low water levels in the river forced the cancellation of this trip. However, Viking knew of this on August 6, yet waited until Aug. 16 to inform myself and my traveling companion. This was most inconvenient and expensive since we had both planned to travel on to another European site after the cruise. And we had made plane reservations to do so. No refunds for those reservations are possible. Furthermore, Now we must pay premium rates for our flights and hotels since they are being made last minute (August 20 by the time we finished). I had learned to trust Viking since I've made two previous trips with them. However, not only could we not keep our plane reservations to Europe and back, but we must pay much higher fees for new reservations. I am disillusioned with this company.
Paula Drewek
booking # 470058

My husband and I were on the France's Finest cruise that began on 7/22/18 and ended 8/5 and were due to begin the Elegant Elbe cruise on 8/6. We understand that the Elbe cruise had to be cancelled, Viking is certainly not responsible for low water levels. The problems are: 1) we were offered a full refund plus a 25% voucher based on the 'cruise portion' of the Elbe. Viking doesn't consider 4 days in hotels as part of the cruise, just the 6 days on the ship (although the cruise is booked as a 10 day cruise--figure that one out) thus the 25% voucher was very small indeed. Our cancellation letter said we'd get a full refund in 14 business days; an email sent a few days later said the refund would take 30 business days.
2)here's the upsetting part. We booked what is called a butterfly cruise, going from one Viking cruise to another, so that we would only have to pay for trans-oceanic air tickets (business class) once. When we called to rebook the Elbe cruise for next year, the cost was almost double the cost of the cancelled cruise mainly because of the business class air tickets--now we have to pay for air tickets that we did not need originally. Again, that's why we booked 2 back to back river cruises, so that we wouldn't incur separate airfare cost. We received a call from Viking 8/16 and after much talk and time spent, were offered next to nothing even when I explained the whopping difference in cost for the very same Elbe cruise.
I asked for a callback by another representative and was told by a now cranky Viking rep that I'd get one by today. Didn't happen. We've had 2 river cruises and 1 ocean cruise with Viking so far and they've been truly wonderful experiences, but I'm going to cancel this re-booked Elbe cruise rather than pay double what it was this August. I'm sure any Viking staff reading this complaint will have all the documents necessary. What I'd like is for Viking to pay for the round trip business class airfare for the re-scheduled Elbe cruise next June--I should not have to pay for that airfare and would not have to pay that if the cruise hadn't been cancelled. I think that's fair. Thanks, Judith Kamykowski Booking 4920814

reservation 4639017 - Banot, 4639020-Schlottman, 4639028-Casterton, 4639024-Lamka
The hotel for the Paris portion was the Hilton and less than satisfactory. The check in took 3 hours and rooms weren't ready until after 6pm. The refrigerator in the room didn't work and we called 3 times and no one ever fixed it. We had medicine to store and it needed refrigeration. We told the Viking rep at the hotel and they did nothing about assisting to get it fixed.
The return flight we booked with Viking was a disaster! We had paid the Viking air plus so we could all be on the same flights, which was the case. The last day on the ship we said we wanted to run our boarding passes and the girl at the desk said we didn't have to as Viking is taking care of everything for us. We believed her. When we got to the airport they said they had no seats for us on the plane, even though we had checked them numerous time prior and we all had seats together! They gave no explanation and put us all in center seats all the way from Munich to Chicago! It was horrible. If the Viking rep on the ship had told us correctly we would have run our boarding passes and discovered they did something with our seats. THe Viking rep of course was no where in site at the airport and we received no assistance at all! It was a horrible way to start our trip in Paris and even worse way to end in Prague. We feel Viking owes us some compensation for these problems as we were told Viking was the best, so if you are the best then why wasn't our trip perfect! Please respond asap as we aren't happy at all.

We just returned yesterday from a week on your Viking Delling Cruise from Marsielle to Lyon. Our stateroom was 321. The cruise itself was nice, However the air transportation we were assigned was inconsiderate, cruel and inhumane. These reservations were made for the customer without any thoughts, consideration or regard for the passengers travelling., The trip to Marsielle was prolonged but not as horribly as the return. For our return voyage We were made to leave the ship at 330AM to board a 6:10am flight from Lyon to Amsterdam. Our next flight was not until 1:35 in the afternoon. That gave us 5 and half hours to hang out in the airport after having no sleep the night before. There was however a DIRECT flight at 10AM from Amsterdam to JFK. Of course once at the airport we were told we could not change our flight. WHY was this arrangement not made originally. Why did we have to spend 20 hours travelling for an 8 hour flight. Why does Viking make arrangements that are so inconsiderate of people, .These arrangement were really cruel. You offer FREE airfare but you don't mention that it is for flights that are totally inconsiderate for the customer. Due to the travel arrangements mentioned I do not think we will ever travel with Viking again. I called and had asked for direct flights with the original booking but was never given them.
Due to this horrendous return trip both my husband and myself are feeling ill today because we are so fatigued from lack of sleep (for no reason) from our 20 hour excursion. We feel like the enjoyment of the trip was negated by your poor arrangements with no regard anyone but Vikings ability to secure the least costing flights. As mentioned the idea of doing another cruise on Viking will just not be our choice.