Viking Cruises

My parents purchased a Viking river cruise to leave in April 2017 booking # 4408979. My mother had to have EMERGENCY surgery yesterday which lasted 7 1/2 hours. Her doctors informed her that she absolutely cannot travel, especially out of the country, and they would be happy to provide letters stating that fact for her. She is not going to be able to go on this trip in April. This is the very first time she has not purchased any type of insurance with her cruise. When I called Viking to ask them if there was anyway I could change, not cancel, but change their booking to another time I was told absolutely not. they are totally out of luck and will not receive any type of refund for the 4000+ dollars they spent nor can they pay a fee and change their booking. I do you understand that insurance was not purchased, but I am totally and completely baffled by the inability from Viking to take into consideration literally a life-threatening situation and not letting someone change their booking. I clearly I'm not happy about the situation and was not happy speaking with the agent on the phone. When I asked who I needed to go ahead and speak to above her I was just told a manager. She came back on the phone saying that she had spoke with the manager and there was nothing they could do because of the bike and cancellation policy. I totally lost my temper and just hung up because I am getting, and understand but I may still get nowhere. You can rest assured that my parents will not be traveling with Viking ever again if I cannot get a resolution, nor will anyone that I know or even talk to. As a dental hygienist you can be be sure I will share this story with everyone I come into contact with and the lack of customer service and compassion shown by this company. I am sure I will get a whole explaination about the cancellation policy and insurance, but warn you to not even respond if that is what you are coming back with. I would have truly appreciated talking with a manager, but was not given that opportunity. I am cautioning people like my parents who worked hard and saved so they could take these types of trips in their retirement to find another cruise line or option.

My mother and mother in law have gone on two wonderful Viking River Cruises in Europe over the last several years. Last summer they took my 14 year old daughter on a river cruise in France. They are both in their 80s and planned to take my younger daughter (who will be 13) on a cruise next year. It took a lot of coordinating to figure out a cruise and date that will work. You can imagine their incredible disappointment when they were told they could not book the ocean cruise they wanted because Viking has a strict policy of 18 and over on ocean cruises. This information is not listed anywhere in their catalogues or website. In fact on the website it says minors under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. This is discriminatory and an example of non-disclosure. Agents in the complaint department were not helpful - they could't even say why this is Viking's policy.

I am the owner of a travel agency for over 30 years. We book with Viking Cruises often. These clients are loyal customers of Viking. They were booked on the Viking Star #4223057 sailing 11/7/16. They paid us a total of 7446.00 including cost of insurance by check (to save the 3%). We paid Viking the net amount of $6281.11 keeping our commission. The clients were forced to cancel for medical reasons on October 27, 2016 well within penalty. They filed a claim with Viking's insurance for the full amount they paid less the cost of insurance. They were refunded the amount they paid us minus the cost of the insurance minus our commission. When I spoke to "customer service" I was told that because it's " Viking's insurance" they will only refund the amount that was paid to Viking and not what the customer paid. I thought it was the customer's insurance, not Viking's. When the customer questioned the amount of the refund, I had to refund my commission directly to the customer because they paid for full coverage. I just spoke to inside sales Mia who confirmed that insurance will only refund what was paid to Viking and NOT what was paid to the travel agency for the cost of the trip. I was also told that if we would have paid the booking gross, then we would have received a check for the commission at a later date? Why would a travel agency EVER book Viking's insurance? The customer made the claim based on the cost of the trip which is how every ever insurance claim works. If our commission is protected, it should be protected and have nothing to do with whether or not the booking was paid net. Basically, I lost my commission because I chose to pay a booking net. I am very disappointed with the customer service that I received from reservations to sales rep Dianne Pearson (who never returned my call) to inside sales Mia. Very disappointing...If you are a travel agency BEWARE of Viking's warped policy!

I just booked my 8th river cruise with Viking and was very disappointed to find out they have discontinued their "Past Guest Travel Credit". What incentives do their loyal repeat customers now have to continue booking with them other than the cocktail reception for Explorer Society members? We are planning to book additional cruises, including ocean cruises in the future with our travel companions but what incentives does Viking offer to continue to earn my loyalty and that of the other 10 travelers that I have referred? Please consider reinstating discounts for your repeat customers.
Thank you-
Kerry Sullivan
Viking member #[protected]

I have been a fan of Viking River Cruises until now. Three friends (Nancy Stegon, Sue Sheppard, and Helen Glenn) and I are traveling to Portugal this April and our airline reservations are ridiculous! We are on three flights coming and going which means a loss of time in Portugal. We have plans on April 2, but we're not getting there until 4:00 p.m.! We've called you prior to this email and you keep referring us back to our travel agent. She has done what she can, but it's still a Viking problem since you are the ones who booked our flights. We don't want to incur fees, we just want better flights. Sue Sheppard and I are traveling together from Orlando; Nancy Stegon and Helen Glenn are traveling together from Dulles. No one contacted us to see if those flights were ok with us. They are absolutely not! We all have global entry so staying at one airport for 5 hours is not an option. Please provide us with better flights so that we can enjoy our time in Portugal.

The last time we took a Viking cruise, two of us received travel documents for four of us. We are requesting you send individual docs to each of us. Otherwise, we end up mailing the docs to our friends which makes no sense.

Claire Hirata
[protected]@aol.com

My husband and I were recently aboard the Viking Skirnir for the Grand European Tour beginning September 26 and ending October 10. This was our “Swan Song, ” because due to our age, we knew we couldn’t take another trip like this.

When we arrived in Vienna, my husband became suddenly and extremely ill with what we later learned was pneumonia. The doctor that Verona, the concierge, called came to our stateroom, observed my husband on the floor and said, “I’m a doctor. I don’t pick people up.” Then he charged me 100 Euros, leaving me with three Euros. I asked him to call an ambulance, which he did, because my husband was feverish and unable to rise from the floor. He is nearing 90, so of course, I was extremely worried about him, and I was sick, too. Verona did nothing to help us in any way. She told me I would have to find my own way back to the US. I asked her how I should do that, and she said to call my travel agent. Viking was my travel agent! She also said I would have to find a way to get to Budapest to pack up our things and get them back to Vienna. She told me that a taxi would be too expensive, and I should take a train, but didn’t tell me where I could find a train station. She made no suggestion where I might find a hotel in Vienna, or anyone I could call to get some advice as to how I might manage alone in Vienna. Nor did she call my emergency number to notify my daughter what had happened to us. Why do we give emergency contacts to Viking? Our children were terrified. Meanwhile, on the third day, Verona called me to say I could pick up my belongings when the ship made its return trip to Vienna. She knew all along that the ship was coming back, but she let me worry over how I was going to get to Budapest to get our things. My blood pressure was 228/110 and I had to make two trips to the emergency room for IVs to try to lower it. I’ve never been so alone and so worried in my life.

My husband was in the hospital for 10 days, when we were finally discharged to return home, but unfortunately I have only the memory of being an old woman completely helpless in Vienna without even a hint of concern or assistance and unable to speak the language. Would Verona have wanted her mother to have been put in this situation? My letter to Viking about this was sent a month ago, but it has has gone unanswered. No one takes a cruise thinking there would be an emergency, but Verona surely could have recommended a hotel in Vienna or had someone accompany us to translate.

We will never be able to take another cruise, and I will be insulted if I'm offered a coupon for dollars off another trip that we can't take.

We took this Viking Var Romantic Danube River Cruise for my husband's birthday and our 25th wedding anniversary, from Nuremberg (well actually Erlangen) to Budapest. Having seen the beautiful Viking commercials on television for years, we were enticed. It was our first ever cruise and we wanted an 8 day river cruise due to the fact that we are both easily sea sick. However, the ads do NOT show the whole picture and the experience was also spoiled by no air conditioning for 3 days on our side of the boat, because they could not get the right part. No A/c in August meant 2 sleepless nights, as they could not provide us with a fan. One night we left the balcony door open for cool air but ended up with a cabin ceiling covered in black gnats! We went to the front desk as we did not know what to do with them and they brought a vacuum to suck them up expertly-obviously they had done this before!
Our Romantic Danube cruise actually starts out on the Main Am Danube canal which is not very attractive (although interesting when you go through the 27 locks) -certainly not the vine-covered hills we were expecting to be looking at as we sat on our balcony. The first day we were tied up at an industrial dock opposite a recycling plant-see pics at Erlangen-half an hour from the pretty city of Nuremberg. We had paid extra for the balcony room, but did not use it that day as we did not want to sit looking at a corrugated iron fence for a whole day. It soon became apparent that the balcony was a waste of money as we could not use it 4/7days due to being tied up next to another boat which were exactly aligned so you could see into each other boat's cabins and no doubt touch hands on the balcony-hardly private and certainly not Romantic!
The cabin was cosy but well appointed, with plenty of storage so that we could get our things put away. The bathroom was very compact, but again had good storage and sufficed for us, though we are not sure how large or tall men got into the shower! Although it was described in the brochures that wifi was available-it really was only available when docked and pretty sketchy at other times, although we did find one corner of the lounge (beneath the captain's bridge!) with better reception. Other indoor areas of the ship were attractive, which was fortunate as we were unable to sit on the sun deck for most of the trip due to the high water and the inability to get under bridges, unless they laid everything flat, which took the crew 3-4 hours to do apparently. Again something not really described in the brochure.
Meals on board were indeed fine dining, but as big time foodies, we could not really classify the dinners as gourmet. For example, they never asked you how you liked your meat and at the first dinner they overcooked everyone's steak and fish. Moments of excellence however were the pastry chef's creations for tea and dinner and the breakfast and lunch buffets, with interesting salads, fresh fruit, and freshly prepared egg dishes or sandwiches and soups. The first day buffet lunch was a particularly nice welcome. Service was generally good and we quickly learned who were the best servers and most friendly. There were a few who were obviously in training (reaching across your plate when you were still eating etc) Meeting new people at dinner was one of the best aspects of the trip. We had thought at first, it would rather be like middle-school, trying to find someone to sit with in the dining room, but we found nearly every passenger to be open and friendly and we could easily find a topic to discuss.
The tours were generally well run and interesting and we only had one guide (on a rainy day in Vienna) that was tiresome and confusing with his spiel about the Hapsburg dynasty (even for a history major like myself). Everyone else seemed to balance out the history and interesting facts about the area and country. The expensive optional tours, we chose: Cruising the Danube Narrows, Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna and the Apricot Dumpling making at the Gottweig Abbey, were excellent. However, we felt the organization of the first days' tours were poor: we would have liked to have taken the optional tour of the Nuremberg WWII history but it was at the same time ( Saturday morning) as the included City tour, because we had to sail in the afternoon to get to the next dock. However, if, as we reported, we had spent the first day tied up in Nuremberg and started the whole cruise there, instead of Erlangen opposite the recycling plant, we could have Saturday afternoon to do the optional tour. We could have then sailed in the evening and night. We know this fact as we met a couple from California on the Sunday who had missed the first 2 days due to their plane from LA being cancelled and they had to try and get to the boat at Nuremburg, but the boat was not there and they had to be bussed on again to Regensburg-and they might have been able to join the boat on Saturday evening in Nuremberg. It should also be noted most of the tours left at 8-830 which did not invite a leisurely morning. In addition, since the boat was not docked in center of city (except for Budapest), it meant a bus ride of at least 30 minutes to get to the attraction. Due to the high water one day we were bussed 1 1/2 hours to the city of Regensburg- and then another 1/1/2 hours to rejoin the boat which finally was able to make its way down to the correct dock after sailing all day. My husband was so frustrated to have yet another long bus ride-he actually picked the option of staying on the boat, but of course missed his already- paid for tour. In fact, the commercial’s voice over "Spend more time being there and less time getting there..." kept going around in our heads through out the cruise!
Entertainment on the boat in the evening was low key, but enjoyable with talks about the EU, the Canal, and coffee houses of Vienna, music and trivia quizzes and delightful musical entertainment from an opera group and Bavarian band, as well as the resident Sonya, singer and piano player. Tatiana, our program director kept the up beat spirit going through out the trip.
Our last night in Budapest was probably the epitome of the commercial, when the captain took us for a "romantic" cruise around the illuminated sights of the city, narrated by Tatiana. The views were spectacular and we were glad that we ended with Budapest, rather than taking the cruise in the opposite direction, otherwise we would have felt we had gone from the "sublime to the ridiculous."
We have travelled to Europe for over 25 years, due to having family still there, so have experienced many aspects of traveling abroad and while this cruise was enjoyable, it was certainly not the once-in-a lifetime trip that was advertised in their commercial and that we had long awaited. We feel that Viking should elaborate more on the exact details of the trip and the inconveniences of being tied up, alongside other boats, in industrial areas requiring a bus trip to the attraction. When we contacted Viking customer service on our return, they only would give us a future credit of a $1000 off another trip for the lack of air-conditioning for 3 days-so really not compensation for the most expensive and disappointing trip we have ever taken. We are not sure we will repeat it for my decade birthday next year…..

My recent customer experience with Viking challenges the notion that they provide the “award winning” customer service they claim. My story begins with the purchase nearly 18 months ago of a two week Viking River Cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. After the $16, 000+ purchase, we received frequent emails about the countries we were going to visit. So far so good as the emails were informative and helpful. The emails also instructed us to complete a Guest Information Form online as soon as possible which we did. When we moved a few months ago, I promptly updated the Guest Information Form to reflect our new address. I assumed they would use this information to verify our address before sending our travel documents. Wrong! When some friends received their travel documents last week but we had not, I contacted our travel agent. The travel agent contacted Viking. Viking indicated their systems do not work together and essentially it was too bad but we were out of luck. Yes, we had filed a forwarding address with the Post Office but the mail was delivered to the old address anyway – but that is another story. I contacted Viking myself through email and they sent me what appeared to be a form letter, not addressing my concerns. They said they could send the documents to the new address if there was sufficient time and for a fee (they didn’t say how much) but I would need to contact my travel agent. To be fair, they assured me that the documents were not needed to board the ship but that is beside the point. According to my friends, the travel document package does provide some important information about what to pack, our specific stateroom and some items like luggage tags. In my opinion their failure to verify the address before sending it is really a process problem on their part. It was not my error. Further, their unwillingness to simply remedy the problem by sending it to the proper address is more akin to substandard rather than their self-proclaimed “award winning” service. There is more than six weeks before we embark on our trip and I am asking that they correct their error and send the documents to the correct address.

Denise Harrison
Customer number 2592764

We paid approximately $13, 000 for a veranda suite room with a balcony aboard the Viking Jarl on July 24 for 7 days (booking number 4171516) and have now been docked next to a boat or wall 3 out of 4 days and have been told that will be the case for 5 out of 7 days. This is not "occasional" dual docking as the Viking hotelier employees say is disclosed in the company policy -- it is the majority of the time the boat is docked in port. By the way there are at least 3 other Viking ships (Modi, Vili, Freya) in each port that have no other ships parked besides them. Also, the crew (Captain, second in command)informed us this morning that this problem happens to the Viking Jarl each and every trip it takes when it travels this route as nobody ever explained this to us when we booked the trip. This is fraud plain and simple as nobody ever explained this practice would happen a majority of the time. We tried to resolve the dispute directly with the hotel manager (Ms. Jdranka Brajkovic) aboard the boat by asking to switch to a more expensive room (which was empty) for the last 3 days and her answer was that they (she) could charge us more for that if we wanted to do that. Unfortunately, we now plan to contact Visa and process a chargeback dispute, which any consumer can do with Visa for valid reasons for up to 6 months. We will also be contacting the Better Business Bureau and District Attorney in Connecticut and California. Fortunately, my wife is an attorney so we know how to pursue our legal rights. Obviously, we will never, ever travel with Viking again as they are dishonest people and never informed us of the practice that our boat would be docked in such a way that our balcony that we paid for would not be usable for a majority of the time. This is such a shame as we saved for and anticipated this trip of a lifetime for over a year and are now obviously very disappointed.

In August 2015 my wife and I along with three other couples from Savannah booked a 7 night Viking River Cruise from Amsterdam to Basel for $15, 491.00 per couple. At the same time our local travel agent found $4200.00 per business class flights from Savannah to Amsterdam with one stop in NYC for a 14 hour total flight time. Viking Cruise Agent Igor S. told my wife that Viking could get us from Savannah to Amsterdam in business class for $3800 per ticket with flight details to be arranged later. In order to save $600 my wife agreed to let Viking Cruise arrange our airfare. We have a September 2015 email from Viking/Igor confirming that fact. In March Viking Cruise flight team called my wife and told her that leaving from Savannah we had several choices of flights. We could go through Chicago, Detroit Washington DC or NYC. She told them to go through NYC. In May our tickets came but did not include any flights from Savannah to New York. We had business class tickets with Iberia from NYC to Amsterdam via Madrid for 12 ½ hours of flying. When I called Viking Cruise to ask about the error in ticketing they steadfastly refused to help arrange for our travel from Savannah to NYC. They claim that my wife instructed Viking to leave from NYC and not through NYC. Viking claims that the telephone call recorded my wife saying that she wanted to leave from NYC and not Savannah. Despite multiple attempts to hear the recording we were left hanging. We had already paid Viking Cruise a non refundable $23, 091.00, so my wife and I bought tickets from Savannah to NYC and had to add $850 on top of the cash we had already paid. It took 24 hours of flying in order to get from Savannah to Amsterdam. The Jet Lag was awful. Viking wrecked our cruise even before it started.
From our experience Viking Cruise does not have a customer service department. They have a customer harassment department. They made a dumb mistake and failed to correct it. By not allowing us to hear the recording that Viking Alleges has my wife asking to begin our trip in New York, they are quilty of a simple coverup. In response to an email I sent Viking, their customer service offered us a $100 on board credit at their gift shop. Stated another way, Viking caused us to pay an extra $850 for the discomfort of 10 hours of additional time spent in transit so they could sell us overpriced merchandise from their on board Viking apparel. NO THANK YOU!
NEVER AGAIN VIKING.

We booked two years in advance and paid in full prior to the Viking Star being built. We purchased the Vikings Homeland Criuse and sailed June 12, 2016. There were eight people in our group and we booked four cabins, Junior Suites. We requested that the cabins be adjoining. We arrived to find that our cabins were not adjoining and that two of the four cabins were designed for handicapped individuals, fortunately none of us are handicapped Thus, there was no sitting area nor was there a second flat screened TV as advertised. We tried repeatedly to address the issue on-board. We were told to address the issue at the end of the cruise, which we have done with no success. The accommodations lacked drawers, no storage in the bathroom, no shower enclosure, shower stool jutting into the shower space, handheld nozzle. We were unable to dine in as there was nothing to sit the trays on. It was the bed or nothing. No way this was comparable to the non-handicapped cabins. I won't be sailing with Viking again.

We have cruised 5 times on Viking. We made a booking for 14 months out with friends to travel with. Friends had an issue with the date and had to cancel.
We also cancelled ours... This is the problem. First they retain 20% of the deposit and then market that the 80% will be refunded in 30 days. We have cruised 6 times on Oceania and any refunds for anything takes 48 hours to hit the CC.

#2 - Viking expects full payment 12 months from date of cruises. No other lines do that.

I think it is a nickel an dime operation that is cash strapped and uses other peoples money to cover gaps.
In the past I have written and sent Prioity Mail to Torstein Hagen on issues with safety and quality of the Star, and NEVER received a response. VERY RUDE
Very unhappy and will NOT cruise again on Viking..

August 2015 booked a Viking River Cruise for June 26th 2016 to July 3rd 2016 -- Paris to Normandy Beaches. Paid extra for a stop in London for my mothers 90th birthday celebration via Viking. Received good airline arrangements initially via email. I called Viking to check the airline arrangements in March 2016 and the agent said that the arrangements in the email I received were incorrect and we hadn't actually paid for the London stop over -- this was wrong since we had proof we had paid. The agent was very helpful and did get everything sorted out after about 4 hours on the phone. She then suggested that we pay $50 each extra to use the Air Plus system and get slightly better flight times, which did work much better and changed us from Newark departure and returns to Philadelphia departure and returns including the London stop over. All was great, then we get another email which said that we would be returning to Newark, not Philadelphia -- a problem since our car would be at Philadelphia. Spent another tow hours on the telephone sorting it out -- we seem to have two booking now for air. Hope this works out, I am not confident in their ability to get us there and back.

My husband and I were to leave for a 2-week cruise on the Danube Thursday April 21 from Amsterdam to Budapest. A week before we were to leave, we received notice that due to low water levels we would not be going through the locks and that we would be scheduled to disembark from the ship with our belongings, spend a day in Nuremberg and then be loaded on to a bus and deliver to another Viking River boat and continue on to Budapest.
We had already done this trip before and the reason for the trip was my husband's interest in the locks. I had absolutely no desire to spend one minute in Nuremberg, for very personal reasons. We immediately contacted them for
1. A refund the answer was NO
2.A credit to be used at a later time either at full/partial credit the answer was No
3. In an attempt to salvage something we asked to stay on the boat and return to Amsterdam and the answer was NO
Since we had done most of this cruise before, my plans had been to walk along the river at each stop and not to do any of the tours, a quiet, stress free trip.
WE never heard directly from Viking. Viking only talked to our broker. In the meantime I couldn't sleep, develop lower digestive complaint and broke out in a rash which increased my lack of sleep. I did not trust the Company to understand my severe reaction to going to Nuremberg. We are very experienced travelers which includes several cruises and riverboat cruises. I feel personally violated what had occurred and hope others will think very carefully about taking a cruise with Viking.

RE; BOOKING #2874853 My husband, John Caufield and I (Nancy Cooney) booked a trip in July, 2015 on river cruise Paris/Normandy and three day pre trip option to Paris, to depart 4/25/16 to 5/6/16. I received our airline ticket information and we are now booked to leave Phila, fly to Atlanta and then on to Paris. The departure from Paris ticket is Paris to New York with a five hour layover and then fly from New York to Philadelphia. We live in Cape May County, New Jersey. We could rent a car from JFK and be in our home within 3 hours. This is insane. When I booked trip, I spoke to a girl named Christina and we discussed flights and I paid for the Air Plus Service. I made it very clear that I wanted a direct flight and have written on my notes that we were going to fly on 4/25/16 from Phila via American at 6:15 PM direct to Paris, arriving at 7:55 AM. And on 5/6/16, we were to fly direct from Paris to Phila, leaving at 1:20 PM and arrive Phila at 3:50 PM. I called today (4/7) and spoke to Victoria and was told that my flight information was faxed to me on 2//24/16 and I should have called then. I told her that my father passed away and I buried him on 2/5/16 and have been overwhelmed. I told her that I would fax over a copy of my Dad's death certificate, but she did not want that. I asked to talk to her supervisor and after being on hold for a very long time (the entire time on phone was 29 minutes), she came back on the line and told me that the supervisors were away from their desk. I asked her for the names of her supervisors and she said their names are Jacqueline and Mia. She said that they were both out to lunch as this conversation began at 2:50 PM and she said that they were located in Calif. It is now 6:50 PM and I have not heard from anyone. I told her that I couldn't believe that this is how they treat customers. Why would anyone book a trip from Phila to Atlanta (approximately 800 miles), then have to catch a flight from there to Paris when there is a direct flight from Phila. And the return flight is ridiculous--fly to New York, have a layover of FIVE HOURS for a flight to Phila. Like I said earlier, I could drive from JFK and be in my home within 3 hours. Don't your bookers know their geography or do you just book the cheapest (if that is the case) without consideration for your customers?
This is our first Viking River Cruise and I am EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED. We decided to go on this cruise because our friends Frank Spendlove and Cynthia Black asked us if we wanted to join them on this trip. They had taken one previous trip and enjoyed it. I asked Frank if I should book my own flights and he said that he had a good experience with Viking booking their flight. His recommendation is why I did not book my own flight. I then asked our friends, Robin and Albert Otero, if they would like to join us and they are joining us on this trip.
I have travelled the world, Africa, Dubai, Galapagos, Ecuador, Peru, numerous locations in Mexico (Merida, San Bruno, Tulum, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, Maya Riviera, etc), Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice, Amalfi Coast, etc, ), Ireland, England, the Caribbean, all throughout the continental US and Hawaiian Islands, Montenegro, Croatia, etc and have never complained. WILL SOMEONE RESPOND AND CORRECT THIS STUPID FLIGHT ITINERARY?

Have traveled with Viking River Cruises twice before and had no major complaints. Always considered them a top-notch company. We put down a deposit for the Castles & Legends Cruise aboard Viking Prestige for Oct 26-Nov 6. 2016 (first 4 days on land with Oct 30-Nov 6 on the actual ship). Just got an email from our AAA agent that the ship is going to be re-deployed then and our reservation has been cancelled. Our refund check is in the mail.
They didn't really give an explanation on what's up or even offer another cruise date for a different ship or give us any additional $ back for our possible next cruise. Really bad PR from Viking. Guess they have gotten "too big for their britches."

After three calls to correct incomplete statements — that don't include the Nile cruise of (I believe) 2009 along with eastern European Odyssey & China Yangtze
And being told each time that it was taken care of... I received latest statement INcomplete again.
Since Viking seems unable to correct such a simple error over much time and customer contact, I ask to be removed from Viking mailings, emails & postings.

Customer number on statements — [protected]
Thank you, marilee smith

We had traveled on Viking previously in 2014 aboard the Viking Idun from Budapest to Passau and then took an extension to Prague. It was our second river cruise, having sailed with Uniworld on the Volga from Moscow to St. Pertersburg the year prior. We found both cruise lines offered excellent service and we were very satisfied.

Because of our prior satisfaction, we booked another trip with Viking including promotional airfare scheduled to depart Orlando, Florida on November 20, 2015; fly to Frankfurt and then on to Basel to board the Cruise ship Kvasir. Our flight from Orlando was leaving at 8:10 PM and we left for the airport at 3:00 PM, living only 2-1/2 hours from the airport. Much to our dismay, there were several traffic accidents along the way and major routes were shut down; in spite of our best efforts, we arrived at the airport 30 minutes before our departing flight and were denied boarding. While at the airport, we called Viking and explained in detail what had happened. They suggested we take the next flight which was not scheduled until 24 hours later and then upon arrival in Basel, find local transportation to catch up with the ship which would have been 40 miles away in Breisach, Germany. In addition, we were going to lose the promotional airfare and have to pay an additional $2400 in airfare, not to mention securing transportation on our own when we got to Basel a day late. We asked if Viking could extend a credit toward a future cruise and were told no! We called the insurance company who also declined any reimbursement, as our circumstances simply did not meet the criteria.

Having already spent some $6600, we could not justify adding another $2400 to miss a day and then chase the ship on our own, so the trip did not take place nor were any funds or credits offered. I sent an e-mail to Viking's Ms Karine Hagen providing all of the details and expressing our great disappointment. That e-mail was sent on December 16th and I never received a reply. The entire episode certainly contradicts Viking's own words that they publish in their many brochures: "... no detail escapes our attention. It is what sets us apart from our competitors. And, we never forget that looking after you well is how we became the world's leading river cruise line. It's why our guests return again and again." Really? By the way, just three weeks after our missed trip, Viking announced they were offering risk free trips on all 2016 river cruises with cancellation for any reason protection. Had that offer come along before our trip, it seems we would have been okay, I mentioned that in my e-mail to Ms Hagen, but again, no reply was forthcoming. Viking may be a great marketer of cruises, but losing past customers does not seem to matter to them. Next time, we'll look elsewhere.

On a return trip home from a Viking river cruise, traveling with my handicapped wife, my confirmed airline seat on Air France was given to another person. Air France requested my handicapped wife fly alone, because the airplane was over booked. Later I was offered a seat of lower classification, in a different section of the plane and on a different deck. We elected to fly the next day, but Air France refused to pay for room and meals. We phoned Viking for help, and was told there was nothing they would do. We had taken advantage of Viking travel insurance, thinking we then would get reimbursed for this travel delay, due to the airline. The answer from Vikings insurance was no. My advice to anyone thinking of taking a Viking cruise is, contact a lawyer before you agree to their contract terms, and read all the fine print, and then ask how they will verbally interpret there trip interruption insurance wording. They now refuse to pay, because I should have taken the seat offered, even though my handicapped wife needed my assistance.

After four contacts on 17 January 2016 about 1360 hrs. Constantly asked for my booking number which I did not provide. I saw no reason to provide that as the information was generic. I was unable to obtain the arrival time in Amsterdam of Grand Tour of Europe departing 4 June arriving 18 June 2015 in Amsterdam. Now at last another person provided the information. He stated arrival is shortly midnight on 18 June 2016. I find this a bit short on a 14 day cruise. Boarding late afternoon on day on and returning back early 17 June with 0900 to 0930 departing from ship. This is a bit short on days.