Viking River Cruises
Reviews and Complaints

The three of us - my husband, I and our son - took a Danube River cruise on Viking Baldur from Budapest to Passau the week before Christmas, Dec 17-25, 2023. It was cold and raining or pouring most of the days. However, despite the miserable weather, our overall experience with Viking was fairly good and I would give it 4 stars if not an extremely unpleasant event that took place the last night and a return airport transfer poorly planned by Viking.

Unfortunately, our on-board feedbacks and my on-line review sent to https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/contact/cruise-review.html have been ignored by Viking. This is sad and reflects poorly on the company's reputation.

1. About the event of the last night that resulted in three not-so-happy passenger feedbacks which Viking hasn't acknowledged in any way.

We stayed in Passau. Heavy rains caused flooding, so the ship was docked about 5 km (3 miles) from the city center. My husband and I went on a morning shore excursion and returned soaked through, so we rested in the afternoon. Our son was slightly sick, so he slept though the morning and then took Viking's shuttle bus to the city center in the afternoon. He planned to return to the ship with the last shuttle bus at 5:30pm. He was at the bus stop explicitly suggested by the bus driver 10 mins earlier waiting for the bus that never showed up. At 5:30pm he sent me a message saying that there was no bus and he was the only person at the meeting point. I immediately went to see the cruise director, Marco, who said "If there is no bus, he should take a taxi. It is only 10-15 euros". To my surprise, the cruise director didn't even try to find out what happened to the shuttle bus or call our son. He left me to deal with this situation and returned only when I asked the receptionist to find him.

It was our son's first time in Europe. He didn't feel comfortable taking taxi in an unknow location at night. He also didn't have cash, his phone was not on an international plan, and his phone's battery was about to die. All he knew that his foot could eventually take him to the ship as long as his phone was on. And he started walking. However, Mark insisted on taking a taxi. Our son sent a text with his location and asked Mark to call the taxi company they normally work with. Marco tried to call the taxi once but they didn't answer his call. Our son was waiting... The second time the cruise director called for a taxi because I asked to try again, and it was unsuccessful again. By this point I was told that Viking would reimburse our taxi expenses... Hmm.. Then Marco started insisting that our son was in the pedestrian area where a taxi could not go to. It was untrue -- our son was on the road leading to a bridge and cars were passing by. Then Marco advised our son to go to a cafe or the Christmas market and ask anyone to call for a taxi if there were no taxis. There were no taxis. It was dark and raining. The cruise director was preoccupied with anything but trying to get our son back to the ship. I was exchanging messages and tried to call. Marco kept insisting on getting a taxi and not walking to the ship because it would be unsafe considering the weather conditions, darkness and the need to pass a bridge and a tunnel separating the ship from the city. The least I wanted to hear from Marco was a threat to file a report on us for not following his directions, so Viking would not be responsible for our son's safe return. He was completely unhelpful.

Anyhow, our son walked back to the ship. He returned at 6:55pm, wet, tired, upset but just on time for dinner. The rest of the night went uneventful -- really uneventful -- because no one, neither the cruise director not the receptionist, bothered to apologize for this ordeal or check if everything was alright. A simple apology would go a long way here...

2. About a return airport transfer from Passau to Munich (about 3 hours) provided by Viking.

My husband and I were returning to our home in Florida, and our son was returning to his home in Wisconsin. Our son's flight was only 15 min earlier than ours but Viking put our son on the bus leaving at 6:00am while our bus was leaving at 7:00am.

We asked Viking to move our son to our 7:00am bus twice, so we would go together. Besides, our bus was not full -- there were seats available. However, Viking refused to move him to the 7:00am bus explaining this by a limited luggage space. "What if someone would have four suite cases?" said the cruise director. Well, each of us had only one medium-size suite case. If in fact anyone would have four suite cases, I guess, it may be possible to take one smaller item inside the bus.

On the other hand, it was possible to move the two of us to the 6:00am bus if we wanted to go with our son. And we ended up taking this offer, even though I am not a morning person and early wake-ups don't serve me well.

Well, unfortunately, this added an hour to our wait time in the check-in queue at the Munich airport because we had our first connection in Amsterdam and a check-in for a Schengen zone flight can be done only two hours or less before the flight. I guess, that could be the reason we were originally placed on the 7:00am transfer...

3. What we liked the best:

- very comfortable beds and clean cabins

- well planned shore excursions

- a very professional and nice receptionist

- some very friendly and with a good sense of humor personal in the restaurant -- Andrei was the best

- durable huge umbrellas provided by Viking

4. The food was ok, but not great though (this would cost 1 star under normal circumstances).

- We would prefer quality over quantity -- fewer choices but tastier meals. Not every dish was tasty, and some of them were definitely a miss. On a positive side, it was never a problem with ordering something else as long as the kitchen was still open.

- The Austrian dinner was kind of a disaster -- a never-ending long line to get any meat and not enough fruits. When I was ready for a desert and went to get fruits, the fruit plate literary had one slice of orange, 6-7 single grapes, and 5-6 small pieces of cantaloupe. When I ask if we could get more fruits, I was told "No, we already served two plates.". Hmmm... Btw, these plates were not big by any standards.

- It would be good to be able order a medium-done (not only well-done) burger. It would be good to get a medium-rare ribeye steak when it is ordered "medium-rare" and not "rare".

- It would be good to be able to order an espresso for no charge after a meal in the restaurant. Only regular coffee is served in the restaurant with no change. Btw, coffee machines in the hall by the lounge make much better regular coffee than the one served in the restaurant.

- There were no fancy meats (like lamb, filet mignon, etc.) or seafood on the menu, even once. These items could enhance the overall experience.

5. About shuttle buses provided by Viking.

It would be best to have Viking's representatives at the shuttle bus drop-off /pick-up locations, so no one gets "lost" and everyone can see where to go. We were on several cruises (ocean and river), and this is a very common practice.

I sent my review to Viking Cruises at https://www.vikingrivercruises.com/contact/cruise-review.html three weeks ago, and then I posted it as "Being left behind on the last day of a cruise" at TripAdvisor.com and CruiseCritic.com. I also contacted our travel agent and forwarded my review to her. So far, Viking River Cruises has been ignoring us. At this point, we don't have high expectations for Viking. However, I would say at least an apology would be more than suitable here.

We are receiving many promotional emails from Viking and have been asked to vote for Viking as the best river cruise company (https://10best.usatoday.com/awards/travel/best-river-cruise-line-2024/viking-river-cruises/). I wish they are more concerned about how to become the best one.

We have a back to back cruise to Iceland booked for June 2026. On Tuesday, May 13, we called customer support to inquire about the new specials available on our cruises - free drink package and prepaid gratuities. In the process of adding these to our bookings, the agent, Violet Adams somehow changed our cabin number on the second voyage. Immediately upon receipt of the email confirming the drink package and gratuities were added, I emailed Violet regarding the errors and I also called Daniel Herman and left a detailed message with him. No one returned my email or phone call. On May 15th I called Daniel again. Unfortunately by this time, our cabin was no longer available apparently. to get a cabin on the same side of the ship, we had to upgrade from PV 3 to PV1 and at the back of the ship instead of the front. Viking has charged us an extra $1600 for the so called free drinks package and prepaid gratuities. We were never told by Violet that apparently the air fare went up by $800 to get the "free" package and I don't believe we should be paying anymore for Viking's error..

Below is our latest email to Viking Cruises escalation team. It is has been two months, and again, no response. Thank you for your help.

Email to Stephanie.[protected]@vikingcruises.com, dated 1/9/25:

I am writing to you in hopes that you can resolve an issue we are having in getting refunds for our Viking 2020 prepaid fares.

Based on numerous issues (COVID restrictions, and personal unavoidable circumstances), my husband and I were unable to take our Viking cruise in the subsequent years. On 8/4/24, I spoke to Shane Kalideen, Customer Service agent, to request a refund for the tickets we purchased. Based on this conversation, my husband and I opted to get refunds on our 2 Platinum vouchers, and forfeit the 4 non-Platinum vouchers each totaling $319. Shane indicated on August 4th we would receive either a refund to the original payment or a physical check. You will see in the email dated 8/4/24, Shane clarified the “Platinum Vouchers” (plural) would be refunded.

Due to no notification of our refunds, I checked back in with Shane on 8/26/24 for a status update. Shane’s response on 8/30/24 now informed us that only one of the vouchers was Platinum and could be refunded - an obvious internal issue within Viking.

Subsequent emails to Viking to address this issue have gone unanswered.

It is now January 2025 and we still do not have any refund for the payments we made on our original fares nor have we received any response to our numerous attempts for updates. Based on the feedback provided by Viking customer service, we selected to receive our payments in full for the issued Platinum vouchers totaling $16,204.96. It appears there may have been some type of paperwork error as Shane attempted to explain in his August email below, however that is not our issue, and having our refund continuously delayed is simply unacceptable.

We are asking that you review this issue and please reply as soon as possible to arrange for us to receive our full refund of monies paid.

Thank you for your help and consideration in a prompt response to this issue.

Barbara Johnston
[protected]@mac.com

After multiple telephone conversations with a viking agent (last call was to confirm that their travel insurance was for “all reasons”, which she confirmed) we booked an elba river cruise with business class airfare, including the viking “trip mate travel protection plan” for $849 ea., which is confirmed on our “guest statement” dated 6/18/2024. We gave the viking agent our credit card information during our last telephone conversations. Our credit card was subsequently billed for the booking without the travel insurance premiums, which we assumed would be charged separately.
Due to my wife’s knee injury requiring replacement surgery, we called viking on 9/06/24 and talked to viking agent jenna woodmancy (jw) to cancel our booking. Jw advised that we would be subject to a 50% cancellation fee; I responded that our booking included trip protection plan coverage. Jw replied that we did not have coverage. I responded that my booking statement shows the protection plan for both of us. Jw said that we had declined the coverage. I said that we did not decline coverage. Jw said viking staff (elsi) would review the recording of our booking telephone to verify whether plan protection was declined and call us by wednesday 9/11/24; viking did not call us; it is obvious that viking cancelled our plan protection plan unilaterally, perhaps in error. Viking has illegally kept and stolen $7,328 from our credit card account

We booked a cruise and paid a deposit which I understand is non refundable. We were also charged $1498.00 for insurance. We cancelled the cruise three weeks later and were told that we still had to pay $1498.00 for something that we never used.This makes no sense and very unfair to do this.We received no service for this insurance and we should not have to pay for nothing.My recommendation will be to stay as far away from Viking cruise lines as possible .

This is our first time booking a Viking River Cruise, or any River Cruise at all. Viking's website explicitly says...

When can I book shore excursions?
"Your My Viking Journey account gives you all the tools necessary to tailor and personalize your complete cruise experience. This includes full access to your shore excursions. Guests will be notified via email when shore excursions are loaded for booking. There is no set timeline for when they will be available, as it can vary by region and season."

We have been waiting for an email, which has never been sent to us or to our travel agent. We were looking at our itinerary today just by chance and we noticed excursions are available to book. It is 102 days until our cruise.

Unfortunately, many of the excursions are already sold out, including excursions we were hoping to purchase. We informed our travel agent, who contacted VIking immediately and Viking said it was our responsibility to check for availability and no emails were sent out.

How would we ever know that this is their system when it clearly states on their website and on the MYVIKINGJOURNEY site that we will be notified by email.

We expected better service from Viking. To say one thing and then do another and give poor customer service while you're doing it, is unacceptable. They are OK with taking the large sum of money we provided many months ago.

Now we are not looking forward to this trip because we wonder how we'll be treated once we actually arrive in Europe.

Viking Invoice: 7830399

Joseph & Elham Cicippio
2732 34th street, NW
Washington, DC 20008
E-mail: [protected]@gmail.com
Tel: [protected]
Ref. Booking# 8135694
Trip Complaint
Dear Customer services team:
On May 29, 2024, we started what supposed to be an eleven days luxury river cruise, cities of light, on the Viking Alsvin ship. We were looking forward to an enjoyable and relaxing trip.
On June 4th due to the flooded Rhine River, Viking changed our destination and made us ride a bus for the entire day to get to Viking Mimir located at Wurzburg, Germany. We thought that it was going to be a transition and that we would continue our interrupted journey the next day.
Our new location however was on a swamfloating hotel/boat for almost three days without any clear plans for the upcoming days.
Your tour coordinator manager, Mr. Quin Cameron West had no idea how to deal with passengers. We were left in the dark until we inquired and learned that the Viking Mimir was going to remain at its location for the rest of... triggered the necessary concerns and avoid boarding passengers on a ship that could clearly not deliver the advertised cruise.
My husband’s health deteriorated due to injury caused by the unexpected bus rides that Viking subjected us to. Instead of the relaxing boat cruise we had purchased Viking subjected us to stress and much discomfort.
Additionally, all the luxury services included in the package we purchased were gone the minute we were moved off the original Alsvin ship. We even had to pay 238.00 Euro for our transportation to Frankfurt without any assistance to ease the handling of my husband’s wheelchair and airline check-in.
The shortened and highly hectic and unorganized trip we experienced was certainly not the eleven days luxury trip that cost us about twenty thousand US Dollars.
In light of the fact that Viking did not deliver the luxury cruise that we purchased, we demand the full and immediate reimbursement of the payments we made.
Best regards,
Joseph & Elham Cicippio

On Sunday, March 3, 2024, we were denied access to our flight from SFO and Viking was unable to satisfactorily resolve.

Re: Booking no. 7917202

The following is a timeline of events:

Saturday March 2, 2024

1) We received a text from Viking indicating our original flight from SFO to Frankfort had been cancelled and that we were rebooked on flight LH7996 from SFO to Munich.

2) I spoke to both Viking and Luthansa to confirm this change.

Sunday March 3, 2024

1) Upon arrival at SFO, we proceeded to the United counter (which was flying on behalf of Luthansa) and was informed by the agent that our reservation was not in the system and to contact the booking agent (Viking).

2) I spoke to Viking who in turn spoke to both United and Luthansa agents but were unable to access our flight. Finally another United agent was able to access our flight but United would not release the tickets as Vikng had not submitted funds to pay for the tickets.

3) By this time, United had closed its check in time for this flight.

4) The Viking agent did offer a later flight 7 hours later after the 1:40 pm original flight but this was unacceptable as upon arrival, there would be no guarantee that we would be able to check in the hotel at such late hour. Plus we were uncertain that this new flight would be funded by Viking.

5) Because of Viking's failure to get us on board flight LH7996, we therefore requested that our tour be cancelled and that we be given a 100% full refund. We spoke to Viking agent Stef who agreed to provide to us with a 100% full refund. However, Viking agent Stef had been less than truthful as we did not receive our 100% refund.

Thursday March 7, 2024

1) I wrote a letter to Viking addressing our concerns. See attached.

Friday March 22, 2024

1) Received email reply from Viking. See attached. Email did not address Viking's failure to fund the flight nor did it address that the alternate flight 7 hours later would not enable us to check into the hotel at such a late hour.

All we want is a 100% refund due to Viking”s breech of contract.



.



.

I'll try to be as brief as I can about this absolutely frustrating situation.

I do want to say, everyone I have spoken to at Viking has been professional and patient, although, in the end, not helpful in the least.

In January, I, along with my sister-in-law booked the Cities of Light trip for us and our husbands on a 3 way call with Hunter, from Viking. I am very fearful of flying and emphasized to Hunter several times that it was an absolute necessity that we are on the same flight and that we sit together. We paid extra for the air upgrade so we wouldn't have any problems getting that taken care of.

That is not what happened. My SIL got her itinerary and she called to ask if we got ours. We did not, so I called Viking and they emailed our itinerary to us.

(Not getting our itinerary is another story.) Their flights were on Delta and our flights were on Lufthansa! Thus began the saga of trying to get on the same flights.

They at first told me that we could be moved to the Delta flights, but at a cost of $800 per person. I said I would pay that to Delta, but wanted some kind of compensation from Viking because they messed up the reservations. Apparently, that is something that they will not do.

So began the 5 following calls lasting between 36 minutes and an hour and 28 minutes. Lufthansa finally agreed to move my brother and SIL from Delta without a change fee. All this time, even though Viking made the mistake, they refused to get us on flight together and absorb the change fee. So, hats off to Lufthansa! We thank you.

The big question here is, Viking is a global company, why in the world is there basically NO COMMUNICATION between the booking and air departments? We were told several times by various agents that they really have no way to communicate people's requests. I find that to be a pretty poor answer.

In this case, Viking made a mistake and they didn't want to do anything to fix it other than to shuffle us around because of change fees. That's not the right way to do business.

Viking charges an additional $100 pre person to be able to have “control” of your airline, seats etc. This is sold by the person who books your cruise and must be paid at the time of the booking. AND THEN there is the the travel department who has no communication with the agent who booked your cruise. In fact, several agents admitted that they are in totally different areas and have no direct communication with the booking agents. So to this end I would suggest a liaison between the 2 departments to let the customer know what is realistic and actually obtainable. Let them sit in on the call if necessary. And they are about as flexible as a stone wall.

My sister in law and I booked our cruises together on a three way call and stressed that we wanted to fly together. She is terrified to fly and would only fly with us on the same flights. Although she lives in Chicago, she is going to fly to Atlanta to fly with us at her own expense. As a frequent flyer with delta and I living in the Atlanta area, we prefer delta. We were sent out itinerary by Viking and had all delta flights. My sister in law was booked on Lufthansa. Since we purchased the “have control of your flight” package, she requested to be on delta with us. They said it would be an additional $845 for her husband and her to change. She said fine, I’ll pay that and you take it off the price of,the cruise. “Sorry mam. Can’t do that”. Over and over.

The only way they would allow us to fly together is if we flew Lufthansa one way and delta back. This is our 3rd Viking cruise and for the other 2 we booked our own flights. We decided to try the Viking travel and upon telling several people they all told us it was a nightmare and not to do it. I thought they were exaggerating. I expressed to our booking agent that I was skeptical about using their travel and he said as soon as I got my itinerary to call him and we would do it together. To his credit, he also tried to get it changed and had as much luck as we did. I have spent probably 20 hours trying to get this resolved.

Needless to say I am not happy. I want my $200 back. The whole thing is a scam. I will never use their travel again and may not use Viking since it’s all one company. What a disappointment. And no one suggested we talk to a supervisor to get it resolved. Let me stress that everyone has been extremely nice and apologetic. But that just doesn’t cut the mustard.

Booking Number: 7457903 dated 02-May-23

Short version: Booked trip with Agent Coaster Coe who no longer works for Viking and specifically informed him that our air travel preferences are Business class due to health issues. Apparently, he booked the trip indicating "Economy" despite our instructions and booking an AA-Veranda Suite with Viking Air Plus service. Today I called Viking Air to make flight arrangements and was charged a $2,100 per passenger "Upgrade Fee" for moving from economy to business class! I have spent hours on the phone with Viking Air and River Cruises with no resolution but have been well versed in their "policy"! This is our second similar trip with Viking and I feel I/we have been the victim of the front end agents failure. Please make this right Viking.

My wife and I booked the Viking Christmas on the Rhine and Moselle cruise (booking number 7310910) from December 20th to the 31st (with the actual cruise dates of the 22nd to the 29th). Vikking advertised it as a scenic river cruise with stops to visit traditional Christmas markets, historic sites, and medevial cathedrals. It sounded like a great opportunity to celebrate our birthdays and Christmas in a relaxing environment.

The day before our departure Viking emailed us that water levels might be too high for some portions of the cruise to take place as scheduled. Although Viking cannot be held responsible for the river state they certainly are responsible for their response. Instead of giving us the option of re-scheduling they stated there might be some modifications to the schedule. The modifications turned out to be switching us to another ship, the Viking Idi, and using the ship as a semi-mobile hotel for three days as they sent us out to do the tours on a bus. The day after Christmas they transfered the passengers to another ship, the Alsvin, which they continued to use as a base to conduct bus trips.

As it turned out, our relaxing cruise became a series of uncomfortable bus rides to abbreviated tours (40 min tours with 15 or 20 minutes of free time on to the end) before enduring another bus ride back to the ship. During the "cruise" we never had the opportunity to enjoy the scenic river as we generally moved at night.

Probably the best example was our Mainz tour where we took a 70 kilometer bus ride to the city for a 45 minute tour followed immediately by a 70 kilometer ride back to the ship. That night they moved the ship to Mainz where we were permitted to visit the Gutenberg Museum (it had been closed the day before) as long as we provided our own transportation and were back at the ship for its 12:30 sailing. Since the museum didn't open until 11:00 that left roughly 20 minutes for the visit. Two days dedicated to this farce!

Several of the Christmas Markets were closed (which Viking has to know in advance) and those that were still open consisted of sausage stands, beer and imported knick-nacks and woolen goods from China. Our scenic cruise through the middle Rhine consisted of a bus trip without the benefit of a guide.

The trip was made even worse by the poor food and spotty service on both ships. They ran out of several beer labels, diet coke and specific tea types no less than three times during the cruise (its a river cruise, re-supply shouldn't be so dificult). Viking knew many of the Christmas markets and attractions would be closed and they knew the cruise would not be even close to the experience advertised.

Vikings reputation led me to believe this would be a much better experience. I paid for a relaxing scenic river cruise and received a hectic, disorganized, third rate bus tour that left us more exhausted than before the trip began. I wouldn't even mention the confidence loss after the crew ran the ship into a bridge.

I booked a river cruise and then brought four new customers to viking with the promise of a $400 referral discount. Prior to the credit being applied I cancelled and rebooked a cruise to take advantage of lower airfare being offered to the very customer I referred - then later the referral discounts were denied. Note that the discounts had not been credited at that point which the salesperson confirmed, and the salesperson assured me they would be applied when the four entered their information. Today I was informed this had been reviewed and denied. In other words - I brought you $15000+ worth of additional business with the promise I would receive a $400 referral credit - and You never actually gave me the credit. I was lied to and misled. This needs to be corrected immediately.

Please refer to the email attachment. This way, you will be informed of the facts in the exact same manner as Viking.

I'm restating a few items because when I hit submit, I received a warning that my message was too short to be noticed and would likely be passed over.

The email describes:

My 1st attempt to resolve the matter via phone.

My 2nd attempt was to ask to speak to the supervisor.

My 3rd attempt was via email. To date, I've received no response from Viking.

The 2nd attachment verifies payments of over $12,000 to Viking.

Of the $12,000, $6,000 was unearned - $5,200 for the guest who had to cancel + $820 for the 2023 Christmas trip that was cancelled.

My husband & I paid for a river cruise on the Nile and a pre-cruise extension in Jerusalem for January 26, 2024.

First of all, Viking requires payment much earlier than the cruise.

Second, you are given so many days 120,90,60 etc. for cancellation and % lost.

Third, the company is working on the current month and will not allow us to discuss options in January.

Our issue is that we booked this cruise because of the Jerusalem pre-excursion and of course, Egypt. If we travel that far we wanted to see both of these places.

Now there is a chance that Isreal will be cancelled, we won't know until January 2024, and we are essentially held hostage and paralyzed.

We would lose credit for Jerusalem excursion because it was transferred from a cancelled European cruise and the policy is that you can only transfer once. However, we were told, if we wait then we won't lose this credit. Wait until when ?

Egypt is next to Israel where there is a terrorist war and we are not comfortable with traveling that close to the war.

We were unable to travel to Israel for our paid-for pre excursion as our flight was cancelled due to the escalation of violence on Saturday October 7. Viking is refusing to reimburse using the excuse that they had still had to pay their workers. We claim that we have paid for a service that they did not deliver. Our travel insurance says we can’t make a claim against an act of war. The money involved would mean little to Viking, but it was a substantial amount to us. Any ideas?

Dear Torstein Hagen, CEO & President of Viking Cruise,

We had been enjoyed every river cruises & ocean cruises in the past years.

But my last river cruise was extremely disappointing for the air departure, train transfer and finally departure from (Buri ship) 10/8/2023 to Marseille airport.

1. Last years 9/12/2022 we were on board on Octantis, 6 of us booked the finest of France, north & south France river cruise for September 20 2023. All six of us, (3 couples) travel constantly together and live in Los Angeles vicinity areas.

We all had booked business class ,but our departure time and airline were designated at different departure time with different airline. We contacted the Viking air department and client services stated in order to fly together it will charge $150 fee for changes of each flight.

2. After the cruise form Fjorgyn, a first-class train ride was from Paris to Lyon, but our seats were behind the luggage rack and seated opposite of the other two passengers and i cannot stretch my legs straight, it initiated my lower back pain to flared up.

3. I have two health issues, one lower back pain due to L4, L5 vertebrate calcium deposit & my left ankle. On depart day 10/8/23 4;00am from Buri ship to Marseille Airport, there were 28 passengers on the bus to the airport.

Arrived airport at 5:20am, it was pitch dark at airport Viking had only one client service personnel to oversee the transfer. We had to drag our luggage to the terminal for 500 yards without and help. Upon enter the terminal no one from Viking guide us to the airline counter for check-in. Ask many airport attendants to help except they do not speak English. Finally we were able to find a person who direct to the right counter to check in.

After checking in, we were told to go outside the terminal to find another building to the departure gate. Due to preparation for 2024 Olympic, the pathways were blocked, and all signs were in France, it was frustrating and finally found the entrance of the building.

There was no help from Viking's personnel at all to direct & helped us. As Viking in the past there were many personnel to take care of us and it also stated in Viking brochure. It was definitely a total disappointment. With this trip I had to ask my orthopedic Physican to help to ease my pain due to dragging the luggage on the uneven surface of the road.

It may be the last trip that we shall book another trip with Viking again.

Sincerely'

Clark Chow

email : [protected]@yahoo.com

TO: VIKING RIVER CRUISES; [protected]@viking.com

FROM: Customer October 23, 2023

ISSUE: Corinne T, agent of Viking; Fraud- misrepresentations of a material facts for “Anniversary Sale” tour;

REQUESTED SOLUTION: Refund USA for “Viking Travel Insurance” for myself and . companion.

Viking Cruises agent “Corinne T”, was specifically told that myself and a companion were interested in the “ANNIVERSARY SALE” included “free international airfare and all inclusive Voyages from / deposit” on the “Grand European Tour”. The booklet (see insert) of Viking’s 2023 & 2025 RIVER VOYAGES (Source Code: GEXIQE) and (Customer #xxxxxx) printed on the August 2023 (see attached photo) stated that the special price for a French Balcony room was (per person double occupancy). The small print below the banner stated that the stated prices were for November 2024 sailings, but the the sale price was to end on August 31st, 2023.

Corinne happily announced to us more than a few times how her “20 years experience” in Viking tours was very helpful. However, she did not steer us towards the November 2024 sailings, but for the nearly double priced August 2024 sailings that were not part of the discounted sale price that was to end August 31st. She was in a rush to sign us up for the required “Viking Travel Insurance”. This maneuvering was apparently to “bait and switch” us to a higher priced tour. Another words: what we wanted was the Anniversary sale (approx K/double occupancy), and what we got was the . deal of which the “Viking Travel Insurance” was approximately ( each) for a grand total of . paid at the end of September 2023.

Next Corinne was compelled to have ACH electronically transmitted from my bank, Capital One Bank for the required “Viking Travel Insurance” and . of [redacted] bank for the same reason. She never explained why we needed Insurance for a booking (#7695887) that had a . deposit.

Later I realized the small print for the sale was for November 2024 and on or about September 20th, 2023 I spoke with a Madison Silvernail, Viking Supervisor. Madison realized the bait and switch, but did not offer to refund our ‘Travel insurance’. She offered to change the booking, but not at the “Anniversary Sale” price….but at at increased charge (./double occupancy) for what we thought we were purchasing originally. The November 2024 sailing of the Grand European Tour in a French Balcony room. An increase of . Again, why were we required to invest approximately in insurance for a booking that was to take place more than a year in advance?

In conclusion, I have brought a dispute to Capital One Bank for the charge of because of fraud. I expect them to reject the electronic charge and have encouraged my companion to do the same with her bank.

I am requesting that Viking River Cruises do the right thing and refund our “Viking Travel Insurance” immediately.

In years to come I would like to consider a Viking vacation.

Sincerely,

Unhappy w bad faith dealings, bait and switch tactics, and fraud

Booked a cruise in July 2023. Made final payment in late September 2023. Was informed by travel agent on 9/30/23 that Viking sent notice to her (travel agent) that they would take more money from checking account. On same day, travel agent notified Viking they had been paid in full and were not entitled to these funds. On 10/03/23 money taken from checking account despite the fact they were told on 9/30/23 (the same day they requested the money) they were not entitled to these funds. Travle agent called Viking and so did I after funds were removed on 10/03/23. Throughout the call customer service agent repeatedly said a request had been submitted and it could take up to 21 business days to get my money back. Their mistake in taking money from my account and now no concern whatsoever in returning funds. They essentially stole it and feel they can hold onto it for a month. I recommended a wire transfer and they refused. Subsequent follow up by travel agent has met with negative results. They actually told her they would expedite the refund but it would still take about 3 days. How do you expedite a standard ACH transfer. I believe this was a lie. How is any of this legal?

In early September our daughter made a $100 deposit on Romantic Danube for me and my husband. Told we had thirty days to cancel before payment due. Elderly husband felt trip too much for him, so phoned Viking on 9/17 and spoke with agent Paul who told me that we would receive a refund of $698 out of the $948 billed. He went and checked during the conversation and confirmed that the travel protection and deposit would be refunded, with Viking retaining $250 of the the $948 paid.

On September 30 my daughter still had not received any refund. I phoned and spoke with agent "Royalty" who said no refund would be given. She then transferred me to "Saith", a supervisor?, who absolutely quoted the party line and would not budge an inch.

Definitely not great customer service, and removes any interest in future travel on Viking. There are too many alternatives.

Regretfully,

Mary K Dana [protected]@me.com

Reservation 7586383 for Viking Egil 30Mar2024

Hello. My booking number is 6989189. I purchased upgrade seats from Economy to Delta Comfort Plus as part of the Rhine Getaway Cruise i took from 6/26/23-7/3/23. While I received the upgrade seating on my departing flights, I was placed in economy during my return flight. Delta had cancelled my flight and put me on a flight where there were no upgraded seats available. I paid $1,295.25 for Air Plus and my upgraded seats. I contacted Delta and they sent the refund for the unused upgrades directly to Viking. Now I'm having an issue getting my own money back from Viking. I made several phone calls and today was told by Viking that I would be receiving $342.25 back via a check within 30 days. I am actually owed $647.63, which is half the cost of my upgraded seats. I want this amount credited back to my credit card on an expedited basis. I do not want a paper check and I should not have to wait 30 days. Very poor service from supposedly such a highly rated company.