Viking River Cruises

We have been researching various River Cruises for fall 2023.

Today we received Vikings 2023 Brochure.

Cover

Viking -

2023

Rivers * Oceans * Expeditions

25th Anniversary Sale: Expires June 30, 2022

Free International Airfare

Page 1

Letter from Torstein Hagen, Chairman

Again, he offered the Free International Airfare

Bottom of page in Red …Again. Free International Airfare.

It does state expires June 30, 2022

Which one presumes one must Book by June 30, 2022 to qualify for the promotion.

If not … Why would it even be mentioned in the New Brochure - For sail dates in 2023. The Brochure is titled 2023

Imagine our surprise when I called to book 3 Staterooms for the City of Lights Cruise to be told -

No - that offer is not Applicable …. You must Sail by June 30, 2022 !

WHAT it is on the cover of the 2023 Brochure AND it was just received May 31, 2022.

Simply thought the young lady was incorrect… Surely it meant you must book your cruise BEFORE June 30, 2022

Needless to say - it gave us pause and at the moment do not feel comfortable continuing with the booking. It just feels - Bait and Switch sort of thing…

Booking Number 6525546

Explorer Suite 3095

Copy of letter to Customer Service: Stephanie Maldonado 5/20/2022

I am writing today to complain about the poor service we received from Viking Cruises last week. We upgraded our cruise to the Explorer Suite in part because it offered early booking of shore excursions which we highly value. We believe shore excursions are the heart of the trip and almost all of the excursions we wanted were sold out on the first day.

We tried booking shore excursions 90 days out from departure as was offered with our “priority booking” that came with our Explorer Suite package, but were unsuccessful. We contacted Viking about this problem but were told the excursions were not available yet. My wife looked every day for the shore excursions and she continued to converse with Viking’s customer service by using the chat feature on myvikingjourney.com for information, but were unsuccessful.

Apparently the booking were not available until 50 days from departure, 40 days late. My wife noticed this by her daily search for excursions. We tried booking at the earliest we could but were unsuccessful. We tried to resolve this by contacting customer service agent Randy, for assistance and then supervisor Francis. We never obtained the results we wanted. We never had the opportunity to use the priority booking that comes with the Explorer Suite. In fact, there was never even an apology for the delay of shore excursions or our inability to use priority booking.

I understand that problems arise that delayed shore excursion offerings, but I don’t see why Viking did not offer the priority booking on say, 50 and 49 days out and then open it up for everyone 48 days out giving everyone plenty of time to book and honor the priority bookings. This trip will be our 8th cruise with Viking. Previous trips were wonderful and we value and trust Viking to deliver, but this experience has been a huge disappointment.

We request Viking take the necessary actions to fix this problem, either by providing the shore excursions we desire or some financial reimbursement. We have spent over $40,000 on this trip. My wife has stage 4 cancer and she wants to travel as much as possible while she is able. Please respond in the next 5 business days so that we may consider other options if we cannot resolve this issue.

Respectfully yours,

Kevin and Tracey Lakins

To make a long story short, we had scheduled and paid for a cruise for May 2020.

Due to Covid, it was cancelled. Viking would only issue a partial cash payment (which took time to get to us) and a voucher to be applied for a future cruise, voucher which “expires” May 5, 2022. I called today, May 23, 2022, and was told the vouchers expire.

1) I would think Viking could extend the courtesy of “overlooking” this 2 weeks and/or compromise on the amount to be applied to the next cruise. After all, it is in the same month;

2) I was told “you had 2 years to reschedule”.

We are talking about a world pandemic here! Like most, I had other matters on my mind and Covid was and still is very much a reality so I was, as most, very hesitant as to what to do and when to schedule a cruise.

3) A general email should have been sent to customers the month of their voucher’s expiration to alert them.

4) I think Viking should have revised their policy during the Covid crisis and reassess the timing for most people to reschedule their cruises with more time offered as Covid is spreading very rapidly, STILL.

If Viking is hanging on to every dollar, that must tell you something about the state of the business.

My husband and I are first time customers, travelling first class, wouldn’t it make good business sense for Viking to meet us halfway rather than lose us (we will be using Tauck)and suffering (I hope) the effects of bad reviews, and possible legal action.

I am going to reach out on Instagram and Facebook to anyone who wishes to take the legal route, class action anyone?

For 2 passengers We are spending $17,000 dollars with you for this river cruise and passion play and you won't give us a ride to the Hotel Thursday morning?! And the friends I'm traveling with have a ride to the hotel for the same flight.

And your support agent Dione Gavlas seemed uninterested in helping me. She just kept repeating, and with a rude tone "That's not included in your trip" "That's not included in your trip"

When I asked to escalate she called supervisor Fabio Martin who wouldn't talk to us.

Dione said I have to escalate through my travel agent. If it weren't for my travel agent, I wouldn't even have a room Thursday night because you sent the hotel and packets out very late and I had no idea Thursday wasn't covered! It was for 8 other of my friends.

My travel agent is in Seattle and it's too early to conf her in. You do not consider how stressful it is to be working and getting ready to leave town. I don't have time to coordinate a three way conf call.

Dione made no offer to set up a conference call between the three of us so now I'm left with nothing!

We booked a Rhine River cruise along with another couple. We both added an extension in Amsterdam and The Hague. The day before we were due to fly home, I (along with the woman from the other couple) tested positive for Covid so we could not fly home and had to quarantine in our hotel for five days. We were told Viking would make rapid contact. This turned out not to be true. We had to call repeatedly and finally got some, albeit minimal, help. When my five days were up, I tested negative but Viking could not arrange an immediate flight due to the Easter weekend. The flight was booked for Sunday and we were told to test for Covid at the airport prior to boarding. Imagine our surprise when three of us tested positive. Again, Viking was of no help, just told us to arrange our own transportation back to the hotel where we again had to quarantine. Despite a promise to help us with medicine or errands, no assistance was given. Finally, we all tested negative and flew home. I contrast this with an article I read where a traveler to a conference tested positive and was well taken care of.

Since we've been home, I've made repeated attempts to contact Viking but no one has answered either our e-mails or phone calls. It is my understanding the other couple received a response and two vouchers for $599 for a future trip. We've received nothing but frustration.

We booked on the ROMANTIC DANUBE cruise for 4/28/20 to 5/5/20 (Booking # 5907723 at a total cost of $5,432. Via a letter from Viking dated 3/11/20 we were advised the cruise had been cancelled due to Covid-19. The letter offered a 125% 'bonus' voucher if we were to re-book on a future Viking River Cruise. And, the letter also allowed for a 100% refund if we chose not to book a future cruise, which is the course we chose. When advising Viking of this choice we were advised that said 100% refund would not be issued until 2 years had expired, which in our case made them issuable on 4/2/2022.

On or about 4/2/22, I contacted Viking to re-confirm our chose of the 100% refund and that they should issue it at that time. They advised that it could take up to 21 days for it to process, and I acknowledged that. Nothing was said about the manner in which payment would be issued (my bad for not pinning that down), so I assumed it would be via check, since we did not discuss what, if any, credit card said refund would be issued to.

21 days came and went and no check, nothing. I called Viking on 4/25/22 and was told it was not yet 21 BUSINESS days (never said that on 1st call), but all was still in order. So I waited until May 4, 21 business days. No check then either, so I called again. This call I was told that the refund would be going to the credit card I paid with (no mention of that in earlier calls). This concerned my as I have recently cancelled several credit cards and I was concerned they might send the refund to a card I had cancelled, which would be a big mess. But I was able to determine that the card they planed to send to was still valid and we conformed the account number on both ends, I was told it COULD take another 21 days to post as a credit on my card, at which time I will have to work with chase.com to get them to send me a check so I can get my money.

As of today (5/20/22) 15 calendar days have passed since I was told by Viking that the refund/credit had been sent to Chase for my credit card. Still, nothing has posted to that account yet.

I don't doubt Viking is overwhelmed with all this Covid stuff and has major money issues as well. But I just wonder what they are doing with my money, if they even have it anymore. In these times when I have a hard time getting even 1% on money I have in the bank, how much can Viking be getting on my piddling $5,432?

Is it just that the individual repeat customer like me is at the end of the line of creditors who want/need their money? I suppose we have to fall in line behind the ship builders, ship lessors, port operators, employees, food/wine suppliers, PBS programs, brochure printers and the USPS for mailing the not less than five I get every week!

RE: Booking number 6331044

Like so many of the complaints I'm seeing online, we also booked, cancelled and then finally sailed on Viking River Cruise in March of 2022

We booked a Paris to Switzerland river cruise in 2021 to sail on March 29 -Apr 10, 2022. We purchased a third-party insurance policy.

We were vaccinated and boosted as everyone else was, I suppose. We were given a PCR test daily, beginning on March 31st, the morning after we arrived in Paris.

All went well until Apr 5th when my husband's April 4th test came back positive with COVID. We were notified that we had to stay in our room and they would deliver dinner when we were ready to order. They asked if we had insurance and asked for our Passports and our credit card. They made copies and returned our originals.

The following morning on April 6th, our transport arrived to take us to a hotel in Frankfurt. Our driver Michael, was going to be our Viking representative and he gave us his phone number and told us to call him if we had any questions. He told us that going forward we would be tested every other day. After we tested negative or after being in quarantine for 10 days, even if we were positive we would be allowed to travel(with a letter from a doctor, that Viking would provide) since we would have met the quarantine guidelines in Germany. On April 7th, I tested positive. On April 17th we were both negative and allowed to travel back home on April 18th. Return travel was arranged by Viking. The hotel issued us a copy of the bill for $6021.00 euro

Upon arrival, we found a letter from the hotel telling us that we actually had adjoining rooms - 208 and 209. I inquired who was paying for this. The hotel did not know. During the week I received calls from other Viking representatives who told me that Viking had to pay for our room and our meals. I kept checking with the front desk at the hotel. They told me there were no charges. Both the Viking representatives and the hotel always called me in room 208. My husband never got a call. Finally, it occurred to me to ask them if there was a bill for room 209. Alas, the bill! At that time, it was around $3,000 euro.

We traveled with family from Chgo. They did not get sick. We learned from them that there was a couple on the ship who tested positive but refused to quarantine and continued to eat in the dining room. Subsequently, they were even seen in the lobby at the Swiss hotel having lunch. Why were there two standards? In all, I understand there were 9 passengers on the ship who got COVID but 2 who refused to quarantine. Is that how we got sick?Did they infect the rest of us? At the Hilton hotel in Frankfurt there were 150 people, all from Viking ships, all with COVID. This was quite shocking to me and I wondered why Viking was not letting guests know about the travel risk. I wonder how many people would sail if they knew that, particularly if they got a big fat bill at the end of the quarantine. By the time we checked out of the hotel on April 18th, the bill reached a whopping $6,021.00 euro. I spoke with another hotel guest who said her husband got COVID, but not her. They were in 1 room?

My travel insurance only covered a max of $2,000 for hotel and meals. I reached out to Viking last week and they told me I would receive an email within 24 - 48hrs letting me know that I would receive a voucher for the unused days of the trip . I asked for a refund for unused gratuities, port charges and taxes. She suggested I call the ports and ask them what they charge, because she didn't know! What about the hotel charges? I haven't received any communication to date. So today, when I called Viking, there was a 1 hr+10min wait! There must be a lot of people trying to get refunds.

The bottom line here is that Viking allowed infected people to move about a small ship without making the risk known to the rest of us, not even a letter in our cabin. After all, we were tested daily so they knew who the people were. They did not communicate responsibility for the hotel charges. I'm looking for some relief with this bill. I would never have stayed in two rooms had I known I'd be billed this way. The food was expensive and we were charged a room service fee with each meal we ordered. The charges of $6021 euro or $6500 US dollars is exorbitant and more than any insurance would have covered. I'm sure Viking has a preferred rate with the Hilton - particularly since there were 150 people in the hotel - all Viking guests with COVID.

You know you have a problem since we can't even reach you by phone. Do the right thing and live up to your reputation. That is the reason we decided to sail with Viking.

Sincerely,

Dr James Cisek and Diane Cisek

[protected]

Viking won't allow it's own vouchers be used for a deposit for a future cruise.

They require guests make a new deposit...before they will apply the guests existing credit.

It's a hostage situation. Give us more money or we won't allow you to use the money you've already given us. Their excuse is 'policy' . Great for the company, terrible for the guest.

We've booked and cancelled three cruises due to cancer treatment, pneumonia

hospitalization and Covid. Each new booking required yet another deposit of $1000 per person. Viking would never allow it's own vouchers to be used as a deposit.

My husband and I planned and confirmed a Viking River Cruise (France's Finest) on September 22, 2018 for a trip that should have begun June 30, 2020. At that time we were both healthy and excited about going on this trip. In the meantime, Covid-19 happened and Viking cancelled the trip. We allowed them to rebook us on the same trip for June 29, 2021. That trip was also cancelled due to Covid-19. A third booking was made for the same trip for June 28, 2022. Since the original booking, my husband developed end stage kidney failure which eventually led to kidney dialysis treatments three times a week. We still attempted to plan on going on this last scheduled trip. However, we were not able to arrange dialysis treatments for him while in France. He therefore is unable to go. Rather than cancel altogether, we requested that our adult daughter be allowed to take his place. This request was denied, with Viking saying that the vouchers that had been used to reschedule this trip THREE TIMES were not transferrable. I have contacted Viking several times to discuss this decision, with no further response from Viking. Considering that Viking has had our money for almost four years and that my husband was well when this all began, I feel that allowing our daughter to take his place is not unreasonable. The development and progression of his kidney disease was neither predicable nor expected. Both dialysis centers and hospitals providing dialysis services along our planned route through France are unable to secure and confirm appointments which would be needed 3x per week.

We have been traveling with Viking since 2009, spanning 8 river and ocean cruises. This is not the customer service we have grown to know and respect from Viking.

4/27-5/4 booking # 6593892

The itinerary from Budapest to Passat

5/1 we fell asleep at 10 am, suddenly worked up by very loud Disco music. We tried to be patient until the music stopped, thinking it was coming from a near by party boat of pub until 1 am when we went upstairs the front desk and realized it was on the ship. We asked at the front desk where the music was coming from. She asked us was it too loud and we told her yes! We can’t sleep. She said she would call and ask “THEM” to turn it down. We then went back to our room for 10 minutes but when it keep going, we went back upstairs again and told the lady working the front desk that we would wait there until the was over since we could not sleep anymore. We then found out that it was the crews making birthday party on the ship. We later learn the party was for the CAPTAIN. It is quite disappointing that the captain of the ship would show complete disregard for his passengers. It is also disappointing the Viking, a high end River Cruise company, would employ such a Captain.

Our room #101 why we booked this room? Because when we booked, the second floor were full, we only can book 1st floor which is the first time of 3 Viking river trips stay the 1st floor. This is the worse room ever and can’t believe Viking let employees make a birthday party to over midnight but without consider customers rest time. WHO in the ship allowed to do this? We guess right, it’s CAPTAIN. Wow! What kind of customer service?

Can’t believe this is Viking, we chose Viking due to previous 2 times experience the quality of Viking. 90% of the customers on the ship are silver-haired people. Not young people can handle you guys very loud heavy metal music.

The worse thing is no one apologized to us, some crews even had not friendly attitude to us next days. What did we do wrong? Why were we treated with such disrespect.

It is suggested that Viking should not sell room# 100, 101, 102 to customers, so that employees can do whatever they want make a BIG party for their boss - captain.

I received an insurance voucher for my cancelled Viking cruise. It was a very large amount. I want to use it on a future river cruise but have been told that because it is "insurance" money I have no flexibility in how I spend it. It is all one trip on me or nothing. I cannot split it to have a cabin roommate, etc. Since Viking has had my money for three years i think this is outrageous. It is my money.

Please advise on next steps.

Thanks, Lynn S

One and a half hours listening to endless advertising and "your call is important to us" nonsense. Repeated exercise on two different numbers, various options same result. Desperately poor customer service. Purpose of enquiry? To discuss a current reservation.

I am a travel agent that is beyond frustrated with Viking. Everytime I call lately I get different answers, whether it be pricing on airfare, pricing on vouchers, when vouchers need to be redeemed by.

Current issue I have is clients that rebooked a trip from 2020 due to covid, one of the ladies had almost 1800 in leftover funds, the other had 350 in lefrover funds.

6 days before the cruise we tried to add the beverage package. I was told that the vouchers needed to be used prior to embarkation, no one ever mentioned a specific date. The last call I had, I spoke with an agent who told me because they had already sent over the manifest to the ship, the clients would be able to add the drink package when they arrived at the hotel(they booked a 2 night pre pkg in Amsterdam) the viking Concierge would be able to add on the pkg there. I said to the agent-I thought they had to use the funds prior to embarkation and she said that they can make exceptions. Fast forward, my clients get to hotel. They say they can't add pkg, clients have to add it when they get onboard as their system was down. Clients get on board and they tell them no, they had to be added prior to them boarding. Front desk mngr called me from the ship to speak with me, gave me the email for the ship and said he needed something in writing from Viking. I called Monday morning and spoke with a Customer Service agent(Marsha) who told me there was nothing she could do. It had to be added on prior to embarkation. She didn't even know when a voucher had to be used by. She had to call reservations and ask them, and they told her 14 days. The agent I spoke with before going to her was named Matthew, who told me that it's 7 days for vouchers, 3 days prior for agents to purchase anything. So again, being told multiple things by different people. The Customer service agent Marsha I spoke with told me there wasn't anything she could do for my clients now. Viking is keeping over 2k of their money and they can't give them a 200 pp bev pkg.

She advised me to contact customer service once the clients returned home from their cruise to make a complaint to see if anything can be done. I told her I needed something to be done now. I don't understand how this business is run.

How are agents supposed to know when we are constantly being told wrong information.

Something has to change and until it does I will no longer be recommending clients to Viking and I will be sure to let anyone that asks me about Viking know exactly what is going on.

As an agent and the company I work for, If I make a mistake, I pay for that mistake.

I would expect Viking to be the same way. I kmow the calls are recorded, go back and listen to the call.

Booked a cruise and had to cancel it, I cancelled the cruise 1 year and 7 1/2 months before the cruise and still did not get back the full deposit. They say you can cancel for any reason and being that I was over a year and a half before the cruise, that should have been plenty of time. They are just stealing money from people. They have no customer service and by this policy you can tell that they do not care about their customers or retaining their customers.

Viking Cruise line cancelled our $28,000.00 US Dollar Cruise due to Covid and swindled us into accepting a "voucher" that is now worthless as they cannot provide us with the class of service we paid for and/or the dates of sailing we expected and have no other substitution available in 2022 and are telling us we lose ALL of our money. We gave then 235+ days notice of cancellation on an incorrect and unacceptable alternative cruise that an ex-employee booked us on using this manipulated voucher scam and are saying "sorry". We need to sue them to recover our hard earned money for a service we never received. We understand that others have been swindled as well. Please help us this is theft. Not acceptable. They have already sold our Passage to someone else and we are put $28,000.00 US Dollars. Criminal Corporate behavior!

I booked a France river cruise in 2019 to take in 2020. Due to the covid issues, I cancelled the cruise in April 2020. I received most of my funds back, except they gave me a credit voucher for $569.00. They said the credit was good until 4/28/22. I was in the process of lining up another cruise, but due to a personal emergency, I asked Viking to extend the expiration date. Even one month would help. They refused and said they could not. No real reason given. And they said I only really had until 4/27/22 to use it.

Note that the 2020 cruise I originally booked was cancelled by Viking in August 2020, and everyone, except me, was given a credit voucher for 125% of the cruise price. I was told that if I had that voucher, they would have extended the due date. But not the kind of voucher they gave me.

Also note that Viking has cancelled many of their cruises over the last 2 years and they are still not fully operational.

I am only asking for an extension of the expiration date.

I am writing regarding multiple complaints I have regarding my trip on the Rhine Getaway starting in Basel, Switzerland and ending in Amsterdam from April 3-April 10.

Although the cruise was in every way a delight, we also booked an extension to Amsterdam and The Hague.

Even though we tested each day for COVID on the cruise, we did not test the day we disembarked.

April 10: Our extension in Amsterdam included a canal tour and free time. We left Amsterdam by bus to The Hague for another tour and free time.

April 11: The following day included a walking tour in The Hague. We were scheduled to get COVID-tested in the hotel for air travel the next day.

Our travel guide confused the appointment time so the tester left the Hilton hotel before we got tested.

To obtain the testing, we walked to a COVID testing center in town and continued our day with a tour in Delft.

When we arrived back in the hotel, we were notified that I and a traveling companion tested positive. My husband and his wife were negative.

We were told at that time that we needed to stay in our rooms and that a Viking representative would contact us.

Our room did not have a working phone which my husband and I reported multiple times. We had two cell phones with us but at no time did anyone from Viking contact us on our cell phone to advise about the hotel stay, obtaining food, future testing, etc.

After multiple phone calls (each phone call was an international call on our cell phone since the room phone was not working), we contacted someone from who advised that we were in quarantine for 5 days and were not to the leave the room.

We were told that someone would reach out to us. We were advised to call room service for meals (also an international call).

Since my husband had tested negative, we decided that he should leave the next morning on April 12 using the original flight arrangements.

April 11-15: I stayed in the hotel room. Still no contact from Viking although the other couple had contact. They repeatedly reminded the Viking rep

that I was in the hotel.

Finally the Viking rep advised that a new person would be our Viking host and would take care of our needs (e.g., medication that had run out, aspirin, cough drops, etc.). That did not happen.

No one came to my room to check on me or my needs. When I heard the maid in the hallway, I would ask her for toilet paper, soap, shampoo, etc.

The new host claimed that he tried to reach me on the hotel phone and was never told that the phone did not work.

My email was disabled (I could receive but could not send) so I texted multiple times a day once I had a contact number for the Viking host.

On the 5th day of quarantine Friday, April 15), the other couple and I were tested in our rooms, and those tests were all negative. My certificates were wrong twice (wrong name, then wrong birth date). I had to wait for corrected ones.

We waited all day for flight information and were told that no flights were available on Saturday, April 16 because it was Easter weekend.

Flights were arranged for Sunday, April 17 but the COVID test from Thursday had expired. No testing in our rooms was available per our host, and we were told to go to the airport on Sunday morning and get tested there before our flights.

April 17: The 3 of us took a cab arranged by Viking to the Amsterdam airport and took the COVID test in order to fly. All 3 of us received positive COVID test results and could not fly. I called our host and was told we had to go back to the original hotel (40 minutes away) and re-quarantine. We were told to find our own transportation back, so we took an Uber.

The host advised that we would get tested daily until we had a negative test so that we could fly. My friend needed to quarantine for 5 days since it was her first positive result (my second).

April 18: The COVID tester was in the hotel on Monday, but since I was placed in a new room at the hotel when I checked in the second time, the tester could not find me (i.e., she knocked on the old room, did not check with the desk, and said Viking gave her the wrong info). I was told that no one was available to come back to test me that day.

April 19: The COVID tester came the next day, and I got tested in my room and tested negative. After many hours and many texts and phone calls, the host arranged flights for me to leave the next day.

April 20: I flew home.

I think you can see that there were multiple mistakes made on Viking’s part. I have no issue with being asked to quarantine for 5 days, but I do with being left in the hotel with no assistance or aid, the mistakes with testing or not being tested; the certificates in the wrong name, etc.; being sent to the airport to get tested; and leaving us on our own to return to the hotel in The Hague. None of these is acceptable in any way.

This is not the first cruise my husband and I have made with Viking.

Since we have travel insurance, our travel agent has agreed to assist us by requesting reimbursement for expenses incurred (e.g., room service, Uber, and 2 COVID tests for which I never received receipts after multiple requests). Reading the COVID exclusions in the insurance document, I am not sure that they will cover any of our expenses.

I respectfully request a response to our complaints and suggest that the communication between Viking and its “hosts” and the passengers be re-evaluated. This was not a good experience and has left us with many questions about traveling with Viking again which we had hoped to do.

Unfortunately our credit vouchers are due to expire on 22/05/2022 and as we live in WA Australia our borders have only just opened so have not been able to plan a trip until now. My husband is now 85 and will not be able to obtain travel insurance so I feel that our "non refundable" deposit should be refunded as we have been caught up in circumstances beyond our control.

Our Viking Danube River Cruise scheduled for April 13-25, 2022, including extensions in Budapest and Prague, was interrupted when my husband tested positive for Covid, I tested negative. The test was conducted on board, 5 days into the cruise (about half way through the entire trip. Results were disclosed to us under embarrassing circumstances and we were escorted to our rooms and told not to leave. He had no systems and felt fine. (FYI: Both of us received a fourth Covid immunization shop (double boosted) 2 weeks before our trip and wore masks religiously.) 24 hours later we were escorted off the ship and driven 3 hours from our stop near Regensburg, Germany back to a hotel in Vienna, Austria arriving at 8PM. We were told to quarantine in our hotel room for 5 days. Note: The hotel was substandard compared to the other Viking accommodations that we had on the first days of our trip (in Budapest and our onboard suite) that we paid dearly for. EX: older, worn room, no movies or entertainment of any kind, very limited room service menu with some inedible meals, etc. However, we were assigned a host in Vienna who left a letter with contact information.

Over the next 5 days I repeatedly asked for a second test to confirm if the first was a false positive along with an interpretation of the results including CT values, and the timing and necessity of a second PCR test for my husband. I also questioned the logic of quarantining me (PCR negative) along with my husband (PCR positive) and wondered if I was putting myself at risk. These questions were in emails, texts, and phone calls to our host, the emergency travel number, general customer number, Customer Relations, and the Viking Covid team. Many of the calls I made to Viking were not forwarded, or were dropped, and two to the 800 number were not answered at all. During one call, I was told to wait an entire day to call back even though it was an emergency line. And in another, I was told the Covid team would call me back the next day, and I never heard from them. The only consistent contact was with our Vienna based Viking host. I kept getting the same answers that we had to quarantine for 5 full days, no exceptions, as it was Austrian law. Everyone told me they would not retest my husband. And that in order to leave the country he had to have a negative PCR, and documents that approved his travel. I was told that his results had been reported to the local authorities and he could not leave without these documents.

On the 5th day, when we went to the city testing site, I found out from the personnel there, that we never had to quarantine in the first place, that anyone who got a positive test with a CT value over 30 was not considered contagious and did not have to quarantine, and that my husband could have received an antigen or PCR the next day after his positive test that should have allowed him to travel. It is the law. This was confirmed by our hotel concierge when I showed her the official documents with this information (they were in German and I needed help with translation). She said this had been the practice for a long time. I immediately called the emergency travel number and contacted our host. The Viking travel agent was ready to get us out within 4 hours, but the host was on a tour and felt he still had to wait for the PCR test results before issuing documents because his contacts (the Viking company), told him so. So now we are scheduled to leave tomorrow after 5 days in an unnecessary quarantine and a 6th day of waiting for test results, all with extreme stress and duress. I've cried more in the last six days than I have in 10 years.

Viking: 1) refused to retest my husband on the same or subsequent days as the first test, 2) refused to explain the test results except to say that PCR Positive means quarantine and they do not take into account CT values which the Austrian government does, 3) forced us into quarantine when it was not locally required and rigidly refused to look at other facts and official local information, and 4) provided poor customer service on dropped and unreturned calls; it felt as though I was being passed from one person to the other with either no willingness or power to help. Again, our local Viking host was responsive, kind and patient. He tried to be helpful but it seemed he was restricted by the company line.

James and Terri-Jean Brown Booking #6409583

We had booked a tour back in 2019 and paid for the entire trip which was to be taken in April 2020. Needless to say, that trip was cancelled because of covid as well as the trip in 2021. We opted to let you keep the money we had paid for a certificate of 125% of what was paid. I booked for the 2022 trip of Tulips and Windmills and proceeded to use up as much of the credit as possible using optional tours and prepaid gratuities. On March 10th I received an email from you stating that the excursion to The Hague and Rotterdam had been cancelled due to "operational issues" and would be added back to my credit. That was YOUR decision to cancel not mine. We had still an unused credit EACH of $300.95 plus whatever you added back for the excursion. Imagine our shock when we got on board and was told that we could not use any of that credit once the cruise started. That is just terrible customer service as your company had use of my money for over 2 years and your company would not even offer to have that credit available for a future booking. I feel that we are owed whatever was remaining as a credit to our account to be used for a future booking.