Viking Cruises

My wife and I, along with friends, took a Viking Cruise on the Danube departing September 25th, 2015 from Nuremberg, Germany. It was planned to arrive in Budapest on October 1st. It did not. Our Viking Cruise was a total disappointment, with a significant under delivery in overall customer experience due to: 1) the excessive use of bus transportation with “claimed” low waters in the Danube, 2) Viking's lack of communication on this issue prior to our trip commencement and during its duration 3) a requirement to change ships (Viking Var/Tor) for the second half of the cruise, and 4) no completion of the trip in Budapest where we were promised an evening cruise to view this magnificent city by night. Viking well in advance of our departure knew of the low water levels. No option of canceling our trip was given. Here are the details. 1. We did not have a full and fulfilling River cruise, using bus transportation for the bulk of the trip to access towns and cities, including Passau, Melk and Budapest. Our cruise became the most expensive BUS trip we have ever experienced. The extent of our bus transportation reduced our time to experience these major cites to well below the quality that Viking committed to. One bus trip exceeded 4 hours. We even missed the first evening in Vienna and much more that was promised. 2. The extent of our river cruising on the Danube was approximately 90 minutes completing the Wachau Valley, disappointingly at the end of the day, in dark lighting. This was hardly the time to see this wonderful scenery, take great photos, and see the promised beauty of the rest of this leg of the river. This part of the cruise was promised to start at lunchtime. It did not. 3. Our trip was not completed. We did not finish our voyage with a promised evening River Cruise on the Danube in Budapest. Luckily, we had extended our trip, and purchased an evening cruise in Budapest with a local operator and experienced this magnificent city from the river, but incurred the additional cost. Viking could have figured out a way to deliver this end piece of the journey. We, as has many of our cruise colleagues have, informed Viking of our negative experiences with their Danube Viking Cruise, asking for refunds and credits. We have communicated via email to Joost Ouendag, VP Customer Relations, Jason Pashko, Head of North America, and Torstein Hagen, CEO of Viking. We have heard no replies after requesting for personal phone calls to better describe our experience. We have been left with Customer Relations Case Managers who have offered us a 25% credit on a future trip. Consistent with Viking's “divide and conquer” approach to customer complaints, they refuse requests for taking the issue to senior management, and have offered credits ranging from 20% to 35% on a future Viking Cruise for our cruise colleagues. This is ridiculous. Why would an organization the size of Viking offer differing compensation levels across customers on the same cruise, all experiencing the same shortfall in experience? How DISAPPOINTING!

Trip to Southern France on Sept 8, 2015. Three days into trip ship's generators broke down and stuck on the bank for 4 days. Replacement tours offered were a 3 hour bus ride for a 45 minute tour of a town and then a 3 hour bus ride back. Sat on the boat for 3 days, program director provided no other options-guests to discuss local products, tours to local areas, etc. Requested additional tours--only at additional price. Hotel Manager insensitive--"We didn't do this on purpose!" Offered "voucher" minimal amount that must be used in one year. Lack of sensitivity, caring, compassion by Customer Service-gave company line and run around. All they are interested in is booking and making money. Severe Acute Food Poisoning: Third day became very ill from food poisoning-ate no other food than what was on the ship-could not have contacted contaminated food from any other source. Several other passengers also became ill. Lack of sanitary conditions in food prep.

We just returned from a Grand European River Cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. Since we had heard rumors about water levels being low and some itineraries were being changed we contacted Viking several times prior to our departure. Each time we were told that out itinerary was NOT affected by low water levels and that we could be assured that we would sail from Amsterdam to Budapest. We even called the day before boarding and were told that our ship (the Mimr) was docked and waiting for our arrival the next day. When we arrived at the dock our ship was not there but a sister ship (The Vili). This was the first sign of trouble. Upon questioning the cruise director we were assured again that even though this was a sister ship there was no change in the itinerary. However, halfway through the trip we were told that we would be changing ships and would be bussed to our new ship location. This entailed packing, losing a day of the trip on the transfer bus and then unpacking on a new ship. Then two days before we were to end the trip in Budapest we were told that the water level did not allow us to go on. We were docked alongside 4 other Viking boats in a run down town and dock and spent 3 1/2 hours on a bus to Budapest and back to spend the night just to have to do it all over again the next day to disembark the boat. We understand that Viking has not control over the water levels but they should be honest about it so we could have chosen to take advantage of our cancellation insurance if we so chose. The ships and crew members were very nice and as advertised, but because of the deception and lies we do not recommend using this cruise line. Unfortunately we will not be taking the ocean cruise we were planning to take with them because of this experience.

We just returned from a much anticipated relaxing first River Cruise. We so looked forward to seeing the sights advertised by Viking not having to pack and unpack for a week. That didn't happen. The problem was low water in the Danube which caused us to miss many of the sights. No beautiful lit cities at night. No cruising into beautiful ports and having to change ships 3 days into cruise. We were not advised about the ship change until day before when they had to do this the previous 8 trips.After a total of 22 hours riding on busses in 8 days and very little free time (which was advertised) this trip was not so affectionately dubbed the "Romantic Autoban" by fellow cruisers. We had originally planned this trip for last April but were convinced by Viking sales that September would be better sailing. Wrong! Had we known we would have changed our date. (Trip insurance also)The staff was accommodating to a fault. They knew about the "deviation" but could not reply when asked about previous trips. Yeah, one day we got an extra free tour, a lunch and free wine/beer but it is our last Viking cruise. This was not a good value for the amount paid Viking. It is too bad that the highlight of the cruise was the three days prior we spent in Prague and the flight home. Very Disappointed! Feel cheated!

We returned on September 21, 2015 from the Budapest, cruise, post Prague trip and were very disappointed that we had to change ships midway through the cruise down the Danube. Not only did we have to pack all of our belongings, but we were subjected to another 4 hour bus ride! When we asked for compensation, we were basically ignored! The thing that is so disconcerting is the fact that this cruise was so expensive and the company knew well in advance that we would have to change ships. Upon reading complaints from other travelers, the situation has been repeating itself over and over. Deceit and dishonesty-we certainly will not be recommending Viking to any of our friends, nor will we be taking another cruise on that line.

We booked the Romantic Danube Cruise that departed August 28, 2015 from Nuremburg scheduled to Budapest. Three days prior to departure we were told of a vessel change but were not told that it was because the water levels were low and the boat could not get upriver. We had paid $12000 for one of the seven suites with balcony. The room was great but we were repetitively lied to by the cruise director about river conditions and the implications for the trip. Other than the Industrial Canal we had three one hour cruises in daylight rather than the promoted river cruising on our upgraded balcony. The boat never cruised south of Regensburg. The trip to Passau was an all day bus trip there and back. We had to pack and change boats from Viking Var to the originally scheduled Viking Tor which we met at Melk after another four hour bus trip. The next day we were told now we would also not cruise to Budapest but be bused in from 2 hours outside town and back again which meant almost no time in Budapest and no vaunted nighttime cruise under the romantic lights of Budapest. Every day the trip briefing was more bus tours and no cruising. All the bus trips also meant meals in moderate bus tour restaurants rather than the boat dining room The actual trip was nothing like the marketing. We had booked our own pre/post trip in Munich and Prague and they were great. I would have been happy to defer the cruise to another year or a different part of Europe had we been informed. The real disgust was finding out that the boats had not been down river for over a month-this was not some sudden change-it was avarice and disregard for customer loyalty. This was a bus tour not a cruise.

Booking #2357172. We are requesting a refund. We depart from 8/25/2015 at 11:25am on our way to krakow, poland for the 1st leg of our supposedly leisurely vacation. At 2:25 pm 8/25/2105 I received an email from, senior mgr, cust relations, viking cruises informing us that it would be unlikely that our ship would be able to sail, the itinerary changes and that is we wish to cancel our trip to call customer relations. Well it's is a little hard to cancel when you when you are inflight over the atlantic ocean. We later found out that the ships had not sailed for several weeks. Viking knew about this! Plus the fact the viking didn't even give us any notice until we had already left the usa. Viking can say well your cruise didn't start 8/29/2015 so we gave you plenty of notice by sending you the email on 8/25. We had booked with viking krakow pre-cruisetour extension... So doesn't viking keep track of us.
I'd say the problem with all of this is with viking cooperate didn't want to lose any money on this failed excursion and all the other people dissatisfied with being stuck in dry dock. It all comes down to the money!
Our flight out of chicago was delayed by 2 hrs causing us to miss our connection in frankfurt. We arrived at the krakow airport late. No one from viking to meet and take us to our hotel, transfers included. We tried calling different 800#s so that we could get someone to help us, but the numbers either didn't work or it was after hours. We finally found a lady that and she would call our hotel for us and the hotel sent out a car to get us. We wasted 2 hrs in the krakow airport! Again where was our viking rep?
Once we got to prague, we were told by our viking program director, that someone from viking would come and talk to us about our options and what was going to be done to make this trip right. We were told this many times and no viking rep ever showed! Viking never intended to have anyone come talk to us.
We spent extra money to have a nice room with a view and a sliding door that opened out so that we could enjoy the cruise down the river. Instead we were stuck in dry dock looking at brick wall on the beyla and on the astrild a muddy bank.
Also because you couldn't sail we had to get up early in the morning to go on these bus tours we didn't pay for a bus trip of germany... That is not a leisurely vacation in my book. If we had been notified in a timely matter I would have cancelled this trip and rescheduled.
The $1000 voucher each to spent on next years cruise. This trip cost us $14000. We are retired and how long do you think it took us to save up for this trip so what makes you think that we can afford another one next year!

We just arrived home from our cruise on Viking, from Nuremburg to Budapest. I have not yet contacted Viking or our travel agent with our complaints, but will be doing so later this weekend.

Viking was well aware of water levels for all rivers this season. There were postings on their site but were somewhat vague. I had been checking all sites about water levels before we left on our trip. Our travel agent also checked and assured us there were no issues. When we were at the airport in Boston waiting for our flight to Germany we received a call from our travel agent stating Viking just informed them we would have to change ships midway through cruise. But, no major interruption to itineraries. Ok, not too concerned, changing ships is not to bad, if we get the complete cruise experience.

We arrive at Nuremberg, ship docks in industrial area, ugly scenery. Ok, no worries. Tour of this area ok, ship staff ok. We start sailing, enjoyed sail to next port... this is when things got lousy. Had to start bus trip to and from ship, missed much of time we should have had in Passau. Ended up on bus for many hours to get to and from land tours. When we were docked we were "doubled" docked meaning a ship was next to us so our balcony view, which we paid extra for was the stateroom of the ship next to us. I felt like we were living in a cave.

When we approached Budapest we could not go into dock at Budapest, so had to dock an hour and a half away by bus, six hours cruise time. Saw hardly anything of Budapest, we were going to stay a few extra days to tour on our own but the cruise took the energy out of us, and we are young! We have traveled all over the world on our own, and realize one of our issues is we are not group travel people.

The food was ok, not superior. Staff was good, I would not want their job, especially when you have a ship of unhappy people.

One other issue, if you want a trip to meet people from other parts of the world this is not what you get. Almost 100% from northern America, which is fine, but not unique.

We understand Viking cannot control water levels or mother nature, but they can control notifying customers in a timely manner and giving options for later sailings. If we were aware of all the time spent on a bus and missing time spent in cities we would have rebooked for next year.

I would not recommend Viking. I feel like we wasted a lot of money. We could have had an exceptional trip in 5 star hotel's if we did a train or driving tour on our own.

Happy to be home!

Avoid Viking River Cruises. Failed to notify customers that its ships can cruise on the Elbe River.
Last year I booked a trip with Viking from Berlin to Prague for September 26. I selected Viking because of its advertising and supposed reputation.
Today, I was exploring their site and discovered a "change in itinerary" for our trip next week. The change is that their ships are docked and cannot travel on the Elbe River due to low water. The "river cruise" would have consisted of staying in a small floating hotel tied to a dock and bus trips across East Germany and the Czech Republic.
I was very disappointed that we were not advised of the water levels earlier in the summer when the problem first arose. Now that I have looked into it, it appears that the condition has existed all summer and Viking has not "cruised" on the Elbe River for a long time.
Viking "claims" that it had previously sent me a notification of the change in itinerary. That is simply false. However, I did get such a notification by email after I cancelled the trip.
A responsible company concerned with maintaining good customer relationships would have warned its customers of the expected difficulties at a time that would have allowed them to make other travel plans.
I am supposed to get a full refund but that doesn't compensate for ruining our long-planned vacation.

First I would like to tell you how disappointed we are with this. It started out that we did not receive your email on this until we were over the atlantic on our way to kraków. Second our flight was late leaving chicago due to mechanical problems so when we arrived in frankfurt we had missed our connecting flight. We called our travel insurance company who in turn told us to get in touch with viking. I attempted to contact viking, but it was 10 am in frankfurt so viking was not open yet. Third, when we finally arrived in kraków, no one from viking was there to transfer us. 2 hours later and several phone calls, someone finally came. Fourth, I contacted my travel agent in the states and she informed me that we were still sailing.. We did not sign up for land tour! Getting up and needing to have luggage out by 730, and on a bus by 8 is not a relaxing trip. This is not a relaxing trip. It has been stressful. If given the chance and time, we would have cancelled this trip, but since we were not notified in a timely manner, we were obligated to stay. Now you are offering a 1, 000 voucher on another cruise. This is unacceptable. We feel that since this has been going on for 6 weeks, a refund is in order. You have us pay for our trip 6 months before departing, I feel that you are obligated to give us more notice than days before we depart, especially since we added onto our trip months before we left. Please do not tell me that you wait until a few days in case the river goes back up. We all know that it would take days even weeks for this to happen. Now since we have changed ships, we are stuck in the middle of no where cannot walk into town, as it is 30 minutes walk! Stuck on a ship that is sitting on a smelly river until our motor coach comes to take us on the land tour.

We were informed that someone would be contacting us when we got home. We were also informed when we got to prague that a representative from viking would be at our welcoming meeting to visit with the people who were upset. No one from viking showed up except our program director. We have been home for 2 days and no one has bothered to call. This is also unacceptable. If I do not hear anything soon, I will be calling them! This was a joke of a vacation. We each spent $13, 944 plus (now tipping two boats staffs and bus drivers and tour directors) for a trip that was suppose to be a trip of a lifetime. I would have rather been on a land tour bus. This way we would have seen different parts of each country (and only would have to tip 2 people). But no, we were stuck on a dry docked hotel with a view of a cement wall at dresdan and a mud bank at wittenberg. Then with viking offering a $1, 000 voucher each. That is a slap in the face. I have to scrape and save for 2 years for a vacation like this. The land tours that they did do were all reptative. I could take a test on martin luther and ace it. There was also no time for shopping for souvieners. They did give us an opportunity on saturday in wittenberg from 3-430 pm to take us into the market, only problem with this is that the majority of the shops close at 2! The brochures that they print are very misleading, stating you have free time at the ports to do whatever you like. Bs! Maybe if we sailed this would have been true, but we were stuck at 2 ports, not several different ports. I am also upset that we had to pay extra to have viking change our flights, due to them not ticketing us for europe in a timely manner. You at least had us booked from des moines to chicago and back. If and when the contact us - or us contacting them, I will be asking for a monetary refund. This had been going on for 6 weeks, the boats had been drydocked since july, trying to move once and almost getting stuck. You can't tell us we are the only ones that are upset about this. I know of at least 90% of the passengers on the boat are just as upset if not more. It is not like the elbe dried up on our way to krakow. Even if it had started to rain the middle of the following week before we got there, it still would not have sailed.

ALERT! Before you go on a river cruise with Viking, hear my story.
Rhine river cruise from Amsterdam to Basel. Aug. 11th to Aug 18th on the Viking boat Hlin. My wife and I (and reportedly half the boat) got sick on Aug. 13th. We were both throwing up and I had diarrhea. My wife started to slowly get better after a few days but I didn't. I was in my cabin for the rest of the trip. I had cold shakes, but my body was hot. I started to hic cup with stomach acid coming up with every hic cup at 4 second intervals. My throat was burning along with my whole stomach. For 5 days I managed to eat a few crackers and drank a lot of water to try and relieve the stomach acid that was coming up. The Captain told everyone that there was an intestinal bug that was going around that their final report stated only lasted 24 hours. I got home and saw my doctor ( Aug.20th) and had blood work done. It showed that I had an internal infection caused by food poisoning. It has taken two rounds of antibiotics for two weeks to clear up this infection. Viking is taking no responsibility for the illness of their passengers. They are standing behind (with no doctor aboard) the Captains report of a 24 hour intestinal bug with only 5 percent of the boat getting sick.

I ordered a bottle of champagne for my 40th wedding anniversary and got a glass of lemonade instead! Our 'Romantic Cruise on the Danube' was a boring series of bus rides (as much as 3 and 5 hours a day) to look at another medieval ruin or church. Australians call this an ABC tour - another bloody church. I wanted to sail the Danube and get a view of Europe I had never seen without packing and unpacking for a week. In 6 nights I had to pack and unpack twice during the trip. It was also 92-95° the first four days, but I'm not blaming anyone but 'global heating' as my German guide called it.

But none of the above is my complaint. I bought trip insurance so I could canceled at any time for any reason - I would get full credit for a cruise in the future. Had I known the cruise would be replaced with a bus tour (we were on the water between two of six stops with one evening of viewing the countryside), I would have canceled. But Viking's website said there were "no alterations of our sailing". The day I got home they removed those words from their website. This had been going on for about two months. There were at least 10 Viking longboats stuck between Regensburg and Vienna so passengers would get bussed from one boat to a stuck boat, float for a day then get bussed to a hotel in Budapest (in our case). This was a simple case of fraud. They lied so I would take the trip despite the fact it would never turn out good.

This is a simple case of corporate fraud due to greed. Everyone in Europe during the trip bent over backwards to turn our lemons into lemonade and they did a reasonable job given the circumstances. But I paid for champagne and it was an expensive bottle at that!

We went for our anniversary July 2015 on a Viking Elbe cruise : Berlin to Prague.
THE GOOD: Boats are impeccable.Staff and food above reproach.

THE BAD: Viking convinced us to splurge for room with balcony, and also to pay extra for room away from engine.Well the water level on Elbe was low, and the " cruise" ended-up being a stay on a nice houseboat with frequent bus tour.
Boat could not move and we paid lots of money for a bus tour of East Germany

THE AWFUL, HORRIBLE AND Terrible: we found from boat staff, that no sailing had occurred in 3 weeks because of the low water levels, and therefore Viking knew about it 3 weeks before cruise departure.
They did NOT inform us till the evening before airplane departure, and it was too late for us to cancel and to get reimbursed from the insurance company[ insurance purchased through Viking !]

THE WORSE : Viking customer service basically laughed at us for asking for a partial refund.
Then a " senior" customer service rep called to offer a paltry $1000 voucher on a future cruise.
That would not ever cover the extra we paid for a room away from an engine that never fired.

These people are unprofessional, and basically it ended being a scam.

NEVER EVER GO ON VIKING: CROOKS AND THIEVES

In March 2014 we booked an "Elegant Elbe" Cruise starting July 4. On July 2 after we had arrived in Prague
we received an e-mail telling us about the low river and that our itinerary would be altered. This was a little late and I cannot believe that they did not know about that river until that time. (Rivers do not go up and down that quickly). This meant that we would be moved from one boat to another. This of course was another "pack up and unpack" deal.

All they have offered us is a $1000 voucher for each of us toward another cruise. Not sure that is going to happen as we are 78 and 80. Keep in mind that when we booked all we received was the 2 for 1 deal which really isn't a deal. Especially not now when I see what they are offering--Buy one, get one free plus $2000 toward air fare. We even paid extra so that we could have a veranda room to sit out on while we were cruising. It really wasn't worth sitting out and looking at the rock wall.

We would not have payed $12, 000 (-$1200 for insurance) for a bus tour. I think we are entitled to a larger sum than a $1000 voucher.

Please let me know if you need any other information.

Thank you,
Tom & Nancy Doherty

Viking's two low-draft ships have been grounded in the Elbe for months due to low water. Viking Cruise Lines is playing a deceptive game by not informing its clients. The 1-10 August "cruise" consisted of busing us about 300 miles total between the modified destinations. Some original destinations were eliminated. This is not what I paid for! They continue even into mid-August to subject passengers to this "bus cruise". I sent final payment in May, but was not informed until 2 days before we left for the trip on 27 July that the itinerary was now a bus tour. After talking to 3 customer relations people, it was learned that we could cancel for a full refund. But by then it was too late since all travel had been paid for. A "compensation" voucher, that amounts to enticement to spend more money with Viking, was offered. A letter to Torstein Hagen, CEO, rejecting the "good faith offer" and expressing our general satisfaction with the treatment rendered went unanswered. This shabby and deceitful behavior by Viking Cruise Lines should be condemned by travel agencies, and can be an alert for prospective Viking customers.

Francine and I cruised on Viking River Cruises this summer. We arrived in Paris on June 28th and were to meet our ship the Rinda at Ponte de Grenelle. This is almost under the Eifel Tower and walking distance to the city of Paris. Days before we were to arrive Viking contacted us to inform us they were not able to get dock assignment at the last minute and we were to arrive at our ship at the dock in Le Pecq 11 miles from the city of Paris. As we were leaving our ship, the next group informed us they had the same bad luck. At the last minute the ship had to dock outside of Paris. This is an inconvenience to the passengers hoping to visit the city. We also had a cabin room 237 which had a view of the underside of the dock for the two days before we left Paris on our cruise. When we returned for the last two nights, we had the same view of the underside of the wooden dock. If there are future cruises, we will get cabins above ground level. We paid a lot for this 8 day cruise and were disappointed that Viking docked outside of Paris at our cost. They docked blocking any view for those of us on our side of the ship below the 3rd floor. These are things to consider when booking a river cruise.

If I could provide 0 stars I would, based on Viking’s lack of customer service alone.

We were on the 15-Day Grand European Tour on Viking (Eisla ship) in March, 2015 from Budapest to Amsterdam. The staff in general was good, and the tours and food were definitely above average.
My extremely negative review centers around the consistent problems we had with our room, the double stacking of ships at docks (which left no view from our upgraded room and balcony), and the Hotel Manager’s personal problem.
We booked this trip with my parents 14 months in advance (with the paid cancellation policy), as my husband is in the military and never knows what his upcoming schedule will be. This was a “bucket list” trip with my 75 year old parents. We paid a lot of money (nearly $20, 000) for one of the suites with a nice balcony.
Unfortunately our room either had no air or no heat, depending upon the weather. Maintenance came in at least four times to fix it and nothing was ever settled. Our TV was completely non-functional in the bedroom for most of the trip. Our power outlets in the bathroom were not consistent with the hairdryers provided by Viking or any adapters we purchased (based upon what Viking suggested), so we had to get ready in our living room. Our bathroom smelled like stale urine the entire trip, even after it was cleaned each day. For approximately 40% of our trip, we had no view from our suite or balcony since other Viking ships were double stacked against us. I want to mention that we were told by several Viking staff that Viking saves money by double stacking so that they do not have to pay for extra docks. American Airlines did tell us that they have never been informed of this and was not aware that Viking was “double stacking”. Thus, if I wanted to enjoy our balcony or open our blinds, I was looking straight into someone else’s room. This completely ruined our trip to Budapest, Koblenz, Cologne, Bratislava, etc.
In addition, the Hotel Manager, who one would normally complain to, was unapproachable the entire cruise. All of the staff were complaining about him. My husband contacted Viking about this and their “executive team” contacted him for further information. They appeared to take this very seriously… at the time….
Boy, were we wrong. So, when we returned home, we contacted American Airline Cruises about our complaints, as this is who we booked the vacation through. American, as always, was very apologetic and willing to offer what they could as compensation (some miles). American has contacted Viking several times over the past two months and they have finally offered a discount on future cruises, even though we specifically requested for cash because my husband cannot plan months or years ahead for another cruise. And, after the horrible experience we had, why would we want to do another cruise with them? Again, my husband is in the military and can deploy or be transferred at any time. We were told Viking would not honor our request and indicated that military or not, we could easily book a future trip. It is very disturbing how uncaring they are about their military customers.
My husband has requested that American continue to deal with Viking cruises about this matter, but we have not heard a word in over four weeks from them. This is totally unacceptable and just shows how little they value their customers, especially those who are in the military.
Please, I urge everyone to not use Viking Cruises for the simple reasons that you will be overpaying for what you receive and that they have no customer service or concern for their customers. Please review them on BBB.org. They currently have an F from the Better Business Bureau due to their customer service.

Our 'Romantic Danube' cruise in May '15 was anything but! The last third was a cramped noisy coach trip due to high water. This evidently happens numerous times a year - so why build the barges so high? The advertized WiFi was non-existent, the advertized air conditioned cabins was non-existent, their staff internal communications was non-existent, their barges are constructed too high - resulting in abhorrent coach trips to scheduled ports-of-call due to barges being unable to pass under Danube bridges several times a year, communication between Viking staff on-board and shore staff is non-existent (hotel staff in Nuremberg had no clue cruise stopped several days earlier, incorrect information given resulting in cruise headsets being left behind,

This is not a complaint, I am amazed that friends of ours are getting a complete refund and 2K credit towards their next cruise. Their cruise was cancelled at the last minute, due to the ship being unable to leave dry dock. Way to take care of people Viking!