Viking Cruises

This is my second complaint.. I just read a similar complaint on this platform.. and viking responded with contact [protected]@viking.com... I did that only to hear the same responces that they had already given me... after serval tense phone calls they agreed to take it to the "BOARD".. They came back with a goodwill gesture of a little less than 50% credit.. they wanted an answer right away.. I asked for time.. gave me 48 hours... they called and I asked for more time and after a little tense conversation.. I told them I needed more time.. gave me until this tuesday.. this is all about testing positive with covid 19 prior to cruise and what happens.. plwease read page 10 section f in booking terms and conditions... clearly states that we will be denied embarkation with positive covid 19 test.. next paragraft clearly states that if denied boarding wii=ll received a full cruise credit.. William Forsythe [protected]... [protected]@msn.com

The problem started as soon as we arrived at the airport in Istanbul. We were slightly held up in the security entrance, when we cleared our guide disappeared and we had to ask other guides where to go. We found her at the check in baggage area. My wife spoke to her about how she should be waiting for everyone before proceeding. Once we arrived, we boarded the bus and were taken to the open museum. The crowds were very large. We are senior citizens, and my wife is a little slower in moving. By the time she got to the entrance, the group had gone in and she was stranded outside, I alerted the guide to the situation and she hesitantly came to the gate to let her in. In leaving the open aire museum we all met outside. Again the guide rushed off and was nowhere to be found. We asked another group for directions to the bus. The leader allowed us to join their group and she led us to the buses. When we arrived at the hotel, by the time we got off the bus, the group has disappeared. 6 of us were stranded not knowing where to go. Finally a husband of one the stranded guests came and found us and directed us to the lobby. The lobby was a steep climb especially for seniors. By the time we arrived at the lobby the rooms had been given out. Our room was right at the bottom, meaning we had to climb 68 stairs to get to breakfast, dinner and the lobby. Apparently there was a shuttle, but we were not informed of it, and were not told how to contact it. The other 4 people who were stranded with us changed groups. The next day we went to the underground city which again was very crowded. Our guide told us that we could expect to stay in a crouched position for an extended period. Both of us are seniors, and overweight, this was not an option so we decided not to go in. Our friends who were on the same trip, told us that their guide took them to another underground city where there were no crowds. As we were leaving the next day, the plane was delayed 2 hours and so we missed the panoramic tour of the city. We were planning to take the panoramic tour of Istanbul while we were on the cruise but decided against that as it was supposedly included with this When we arrived in Istanbul, once again the guide rushed off, and fellow group members stayed behind to direct us,

This was the worst tour we were ever a part of, we were not adequately informed by Viking about what to expect as to steep hills, crouched position, etc. The trip leader should never be hired to deal with seniors

Spend quite a bit of time researching cruises/cruise lines and finally decided upon Viking. Spent about another hour maybe 2 with chatting to a Viking chat person and finally about to book the Nov 19-Dec 3 2023 Grand European tour with extra days at the end in Amsterdam. So excited as I've wanted to do this trip for Years. The very last thing your employee said to me is that the Passengers have to be VAXXED before the cruise date! What?

This is an ABOMINATION that you are forcing passengers to get a shot that: 1. Contains graphene oxide a bioweapon. 2. Contains PEG which is Antifreeze. 3. Alters your DNA. 4. Doesn't Prompt a healthy immune response AT ALL! 5. Seasonal flu is 99.6% survival, covID is 99.8% survival, so duh, another strain of flu. 6. Here is a basic MATH problem that nobody can refute. 330,000,000 people in the US at 99.8% survival means only 2/10 of 1% will die (.002) So here is the MATH. 330,000,000 x.002 = 1/660,000 will die. To put this into perspective how miniscule this is - What are my Odds dying by a Meteor or Lightening? 1/250,000. Signed a former scientist with medical certifications.

Viking ocean cruise Empires of the Mediterranean, Oct 29, booking 6173397

Viking cruise ship and service was fine but their logistics were not good. Viking never bothered to get us seat assignments for our return flight even though we booked two years in advance. KLM over booked the flight and denied us boarding and told us we had to get our Denied boarding penalty fee via Viking. Viking said that their low discount fares are exempt from EU overbook rules. They stranded us for a day until a flight became available. Viking accepted no responsibility and refused to offer compensation. I was able to get KLM to pay us the denied boarding penalty fee. Given Vikings very high price, I would try another cruise line.

My wife and I booked a river cruise (6918899) on viking for november 30th flying out of new york on the 29th.. We both tested positive for covid on the 26th.. Called viking and also emailed them letting them know... Was told to take photo of positive test results which I did.. But they said no credit because we didnt have insurance.. I called customer service on the 28th and also the next couple of days.. Spoke to a supervisor named annette (sorry for the spelling) and denied my request for a credit.. She said we were not denied embarkcation..According to her we would have had to fly to europe and try to board and then we would have qualified for credit... Crazy... After checking vikings booking andsale terms and conditions page 10 section f.. It clearly states that if we tested positive for covid 14 days prior to cruise we would be denied to embark.. Next paragraph states we would get a credit.. I tried several times to inform customer service of this.. But they just keep saying my claim was denied.. Please help me straighten this out...

In 2019 I made reservations for Australia and NewZealand. It was completely paid for and then got cancelled in 2020 due to covid. It then was automatically renewed by viking, and resheduled again for 2021, cancelled and resheduled again for 2022. BUT a vaccine is required now. We will not be taking this vaccine. So I have, after 3 years of viking having our money, am asking for a refund. Now I am told, viking will give me 2 years more to take this trip. BUT are still asking for the vaccine shot. This does me absolutely no good what so ever. And if I dont rebook, viking is telling me that I will forfeit my money! Im sorry but this is not satisfactory at all. I want my money back after all this time. I dont feel that after waiting 3 years and then being forced to take a shot to go on a trip is right. If their customers want it this way then fine, I understand, but give the people who do not want this shot, their money back. I would go this 2022 trip except they wont let me because of the shot. Therefore I am asking for my money back.

When we booked a Paris to Normandy trip Viking had a risk free guarantee, which I mistakenly thought covered this trip, but because we’d originally booked it in 2019 for 2020 and rescheduled it for 2021 because of Covid, and which they again cancelled we rolled it over to the Norway Northern Lights trip we took in February. We scheduled the Paris trip while on that ship, and unbeknownst to me it wasn’t covered. I did not buy the trip insurance because of all the complaints about how little it covers. 7 days before the cruise my husband had emergency surgery for a detached retina and could not fly for at least 2 weeks, and I contracted Covid, but Viking refuses to give us the majority of our money back even with doctors' notes. They also refused to just let us change the dates. We are previous customers having sailed twice before, and we had a 4th trip booked in May. I have since canceled it due to this poor treatment. The Paris to Normandy Booking Number is 6668316

We booked the Rhine river cruise with Viking prior to COVID for our honeymoon. Because of COVID, we had to cancel the cruise, and received a voucher from Viking. We used our voucher prior to the expiration of the voucher, to book a cruise for March of 2023. We were informed by the booking person at Viking that we could change the date as necessary for as long of period of time, even years down the road. We were never verbally informed when booking that the actual voucher would expire even if we rebooked again. I specifically mentioned this scenario when I used the voucher and we were told as long as it was 120 days before departure we could rebook using our voucher. This was told to me by two separate employees. Viking refused to admit to us that we were misinformed, and did not apologize, but their policy will not change. I even requested they review the phone call and they refused. They are just taking the thousands of dollars we gave them from us and we are getting nothing in return. They refuse to let us rebook with the voucher and actually suggested if we want to rebook we would have to pay them all over again. This is insulting and is clearly bait and switch type behavior. We were given misinformation by their employee, to which their supervisor stated that verbal statements do not count. I believe this policy and practice is clearly unfair and rather reckless.

I brought 5 other couples to Viking Cruises and they "rewarded" me with a $100 per couple incentive to use prior to the projected cruise. I was not able to use $300 of this due to their unfair policies. Unbeknownst to me, the $500 could only be used by me only. Though my wife and I were in the same cabin, it didn't matter, I could only use it in my name only. I couldn't share it with my wife or purchase anything that involved the room/cabin because both parties had to purchase the offer (gratuities, drink package, etc). So even though I had this money to use, I couldn't without paying extra money for my wife. They would move the money to be a shipboard credit either. Really unfair and deceptive. I asked them to just move 1/2 over to my wife, and they would not do that either. I would hope that they would reach out and present a satisfactory solution, but all I got was hung up on when asked to speak with a supervisor. Pretty poor customer relations.

My husband was always dreaming to take a Grand European Tour with Viking River Cruises and in 2019 we booked the cruise that was set to sail in April 2020. Due to Covid pandemic our cruise got cancelled. We were issued the vouchers that had an expiration date October 2022.

We are not in a good health. I am on disability and my husband has heart problems that resulted in a heart attack very recently. We couldn't possibly sail in 2022 and were looking for the same cruise we originally booked but for 2024.

But schedule was not available yet.

Booking number: 6906981

On July 10th, 2022 my husband called Viking to inquire when the schedule becomes available. A sales representative Nick M. took the call and told us that schedule wouldn't be available most likely till January 2023. "But this is not a problem at all" - he said, because all we need is to make a booking for any date, just as a placeholder. He was assertive and very confident, pushy and eager to make the booking. This 'placeholder booking' means nothing he assured us. It will take of the expiring vouchers and the booking can be changed with no problem whatsoever once a schedule for 2024 becomes available. Nick said he would monitor the schedule and will alert us the very day it comes out. He will call us immediately - he said. Had we known that he was a liar... but we trusted Viking River Cruises and couldn't imagine that anything goes to make a sale and earn the commissions. We were dead wrong. Not only that he never called, but when we saw the schedule and called him, he didn't pick up and we were connected with a customer service representative who said that change is not possible at all because vouchers have expired and we now have to sail on the date of this placeholder booking. We were shocked. Service representative escalated our complaint that we were misinformed, tricked, lied to, defrauded - because we cannot sail on that date, we are not healthy and can't sail in the fall or 2023! But our plea was denied. Nick called finally, apologized and said that he 'misread the rules', misunderstood the rules and this isn't a big deal (his attitude). Really, what is a big deal here? He made the commissions, we will not sail and lose 14,000 dollars. Not a problem for him at all. But it is for us. We were routed to resolution manager who was extremely obnoxious, rude, disrespectful, wasn't listening to the issue, saying 'yes, ok, sales rep make a mistake, mistakes do happen. But there is nothing we can do, your vouchers have expired'. I can't believe such people are employed by Viking. It appears that Viking selects worst of the worst for their workforce. My husband got upset and very sick right after which is what happens with heart patients due to stress. He is currently sick, stays in bed, can't work and I need to take him to the cardiologist to make sure that this stress is not going to result in a second heart attack that might be fatal. This should have not happened. Viking resolution manager is responsible for that.

I called later again and now our cursed booking is again escalated to the management.

Why are we paying for wrongdoings of pushy sales of Viking sales rep Nick M.? Paying with our health and our hard earned $14,000? How arrogant, irresponsible that is on Viking part? Is this is a pleasant experience for which we paid so much money? It is a shame that Viking operates in this matter.

My husband and I were to fly out to begin our cruise on the 17th of November 2022. My husband started feeling sick 3 or 4 days before our departure so we both were tested for COVID as a precaution. On the 16th of November my husband received a positive result for his COVID test and by that time he was really not feeling well. I called the Viking customer service line @ 7:55 pm Eastern standard time. I explained the situation to the young lady and she told me that we would loose all of our discounts and cruise fees. I asked her about the COVID Claus in the Passenger contract in addition to the COVID rules. The young lady told me that they only applied if we were denied boarding on the cruise. I questioned this.. I asked her if, I understood what she was saying was that I needed to take a knowingly sick COVID person on an airplane full of people (exposing them all to the COVID iris) go to the final destination, expose everyone between the airport and the ship with COVID, and only if the crew noticed that my husband was sick and turned us away would we be allowed to re schedule our travel for a later time? The young lady simply said yes. I asked if she understood what she was saying and she said it does sound strange but that is Vikings policy..

I read through all viking policy’s and regulations again, and they clearly state that we are to notify Viking of a positive COVID test before travel. I called viking again thinking maybe the first young woman was mistaken. All was explained again to another representative ant the first thing out of their mouth was that I will loose all of my money. I asked specifically about the COVID policy. She read through it with me and she understood what I was asking. I was put on hold, 20 min later she came back saying her supervisor was calling her supervisor. Finally 35 min later the original representative came back on telling me that the COCID clause only applied if you had travel insurance. No where does it say that this clause is dependent on travel insurance. Then it was that even though it says to notify before travel, that meant travel on the River vessel, therefore we would need to fly to the vessel to notify them so they could turn us away. I explained again how reckless this policy was and we were trying to do the right thing and they wanted us to intentionally put others in danger. They said no they didn’t want that. Well then how can we reschedule our cruise for a later date and they said sorry you can’t, you loose all vouchers and cruise fairs. Totaling over $8000. We saved a very long time to save money to go on this trip and because of some double talk and hazardous policies Viking took all of our money, after we followed all of the policies and contract requirements that we signed. Do those contracts only apply to the people paying and not to the people receiving the money? I want an answer!

date of incident October 13,2022 on Viking VAR. My husband and I were told be owed a balance for items - drink package, tips, and 1 excursion totaling $662.79.

I explained to the Viking rep that we had SBC transferred from the other 2 itineraries that had to be changed due to covid. She said it would have to be resolved after the cruise because she had no way of seeing these accounts, etc.The original cruise booked for 2020 was rescheduled and because a port of call was dropped from the original cruise, we were given a SBC of 500.00 each which was not applied to our cruise.

Family booked cruise to Japan, which was cancelled by Viking. We rebooked a different cruise. The overpayment from the first cruise (over $2500.00) was not refunded nor would credit be applied to another cruise. Our daughter who booked separately has still not been notified of the money she will be losing. Three agents we spoke with parroted the same reply. We must use the credit on the second trip, (which has already been completely paid) or we will lose it.

The conditions are buried in 17 pages of legalese which would take a trained lawyer to interpret. Other cruise lines we have delt with would either refund or carry the credit to future cruises. This may be legal, but is the worst business decision I can remember in 50 years.

On November 2,2020 is booked a cruiseRef #6171261) for September 26,2021 on December 14, 2020 I had to cancel due to my husband's Doctor;s orders,

I had paid $1,082.00 for myself

I had paid $1,082.00 for my husband

We had purchased Travel Protection.

That gave me a travel vouchers in the amount of $2,164.00 to be used in 2 years,

Expires 12/17/2022 12:00 Am

I have tried to get a cruise on the Mississippi for 2 years to no avail

All dates for 2022 had been sold out .( They had some availability in 2023.

However,

My husband's health has deteriorated and we can no longer plan a trip

So please refund me my $2,164.16

On October 22, my husband and I ended our Mediterranean Antiquities Cruise with an extension in Istanbul. The evening of the 22nd we went out to dinner from our hotel The Conrad. When we returned to the hotel we had to go through an X-Ray scanner for security. When I placed my bag on X-Ray Scanner I tripped on a piece of metal over some wires. Two poles holding up a velvet rope fell on me and knocked out my front teeth. Luckily, the hotel took me to a 24 hour Dentist who fixed and restored my front teeth. Viking was no help at all. The Viking Representatives were no help and neither was their AIr Flight Reps. The next day I was in a terrible pain from my fall and my teeth being restored. I was in bed all day. Viking never called and asked if we needed anything, Food etc.. My husband ended up going to Mc Donalds for our dinner. When we returned back to Atlanta where we live no one ever called us from Viking. I had to call them and they were no help at all. They could have cared less.

My husband and I were invited to join our friends, frequent Viking cruisers, to go on a British Isle cruise in May of 2024. We called our agent to book and were shocked that we had to put $1000 down, but ok. After that we were told we had to pay it off a year in advance! What? We have cruised with several cruise lines and never had to pay in full that far out. We have a cruise booked with Norwegian for 2023 and our final payment is due the same day as the Viking curise is required. We cannot budget two cruises in that short of time. It was a hard decision, but we had to cancel the Viking one. Now I find out that the cancellation fee is $100 per person. I've worked as a travel agent, been on numerous types of vacations and I've never heard of penalties for canceling before final payment. I will never be able to use this money and am sick that it cost us $200 for a whim of a dream.

Complaint is with Viking Air, KLM and Lufthansa. October 17th, 1 day prior to departure for 2 day Budapest extension/Romantic Danube cruise, KLM cancelled the connector flight from Amsterdam to Budapest. KLM separated our group of 5 - 2 were put on the 10:25 flight Amsterdam to Budapest. The rest of us were assigned the 2:25PM Amsterdam - Budapest flight. This resulted in an 8 hour layover at the Amsterdam airport. When we asked KLM if we could spend the time in the KLM lounge, we were rudely told no. When asked for meal vouchers, again, rudely told no and that Delta should have provided vouchers. We had paid and extra $50/ per person to fly together - but not on that leg of the trip. We paid extra for upgraded seats - except on the Europe airlines flights? A bit if deception. In addition, due to the flight change, 1 afternoon in Budapest was lost. We paid $499/person for the 2 day extension - we lost the equivalent of $60/per person. We were not allowed to choose seats - despite filling out the Viking Air preference information.

On the Munich to London flight, on 10/28, we were scattered ver the plane - in middle seats. Very unfavorable impression of Viking Air. I spent a lot of time on the phone with Viking Air - and was told “ we have no control over the airlines” more than once. I would prefer not to hear that again.

We booked and paid for our cruise through our travel agency - Tripmatters, in Dec 2021.

The trip was scheduled to depart on Oct 18, 2022.

On the evening of Oct 15, I had an accident, and broke both of my wrists, naturally I was unable to travel. I spent all day of Oct 16 in the emergency room.

I notified the travel agency on Oct 17 and they cancelled the trip.

The travel agent has told me that Viking will not give me future travel credits due to my accident. I have traveled with Viking in the past and have throughly enjoyed the experience. I certainly did not plan to break my wrists and was all set to travel, even had my mail ready to hold. I am not asking for a refund, simply future travel credit on Viking, after all, they had my money for almost a year and did not have to pay anything due to my accident.

I booked a cruise for spring 2024. Right after I booked, we had a family emergency and I did not have a chance to look at the booking, plus we decided it was too expensive. I called to cancel about 12 days after booking. I was told we would not get the trip insurance money, $1400, because I only had 10 days to cancel. I do get my booking fee back, $50.

I have not canceled the trip but will.

My wife and I booked a cruise (booking # 6762829) to Panama Canal & Central America for February 21, 2023. Unfortunately we had to cancel (October20, 2022) because of medical issues. Which is approximately 124 days before embarkation. I don't mind Vikings $100/person cancelation fee.

What I have an issue with is TripMate's Travel Protection Plan Fee (plan GR425V) and their refusal to refund the $1,238.00. Yes, I have reread the plan and under "Schedule of Benefits" part A. Initially if looks like you're covered for "Cancel For Any Reason Waiver" with the little asterisk after the "Up to Trip Cost". When you read the fine print it states that the Cancel For Any Reason Waiver "is not an insurance benefit underwritten by Generali-U S Branch". Yet when you read section titled "Benefit Summary" trip cancellation it sounds like they cover it.

I contacted Generali about the $1,238.00 premium refund for the TripMate plan because they provided no services and/or accrued any expense and we canceled the trip 124 days ahead of embarkation. I spoke with Customer Relations (Trevor) and then Customer Services (Kyle) and they both said it is a non refundable fee but perhaps I should speak with Viking.