Viking Star christening and the missing Flam port call

Wow, Viking finally used its email capabilities to share some information on the ship's christening and why Flam was dropped from maiden voyage leg.

Dear xxx,

Imagine being among the first to experience one of the most extraordinary ships in the world, at its exciting christening ceremony!

During your cruise, you will have the unprecedented opportunity to participate in Viking Star®'s christening, a once-in-a-lifetime event that takes place in Bergen, Norway, on May 17, Norway's Constitution Day. Colorful parades will fill the city, with the citizens of Bergen dressed in their bunads (national costumes). Included with the festivities, you'll enjoy a special evening concert and traditional dinner. As a highlight of the celebration, Trude Drevland, Bergen's Mayor and our ship's Godmother, will christen Viking Star.

To accommodate the grand celebration, your itinerary has been slightly modified. Please see the revised port details for May 17–20 below. The rest of your itinerary remains as originally scheduled. Although the cruise will no longer go to Flåm, you will visit historic Oslo, the beautiful capital of Norway. You will approach the city along the picturesque Oslo fjord, as an arrival by sea is the best way to discover this city. And, as part of the celebration, all Oslo shore excursions will be complimentary.

For a glimpse of what is to come, please view our video here: vikingchristening.com.

We very much look forward to welcoming you aboard Viking Star for this historic event. Our Norwegian friends tell us, “This day is very celebratory, and is hard to put into words. It will be the event of the century in Bergen!” We know it will be a truly memorable experience for Viking®, for the city of Bergen and for you as well.

Sincerely,

Viking Ocean Cruises®

Your Updated Cruise Itinerary Days:

aboard Viking Star

DATE PORT ARRIVE DEPART

May 16, 2015 Bergen (Overnight)

May 17, 2015 Bergen Christening Celebrations & Norway's Constitution Day 23:59*

May 18, 2015 Stavanger 10:00 17:00

May 19, 2015 Oslo 12:30 22:00†

May 20, 2015 Ålborg 14:00 21:00

Nice video and looks like an exciting change.

Which, based on my reading of these boards over the last few months, leads me to believe this thread should quickly fill up with conspiracy theories and paranoia, including, no doubt, dire warnings that we're being ripped off again, promises never to sail with Viking after this debacle, demands to sack the heads of marketing, and calls to take up pitchforks and storm the media with tales of the lies and incompetence perpetuated by Viking. :roll eyes:

"Please see the revised port details for May 17–20 below. The rest of your itinerary remains as originally scheduled."

Does that mean the two days for London and Paris are back in the itinerary?

I think that the invitation to the Christening was only sent to those people on the Bergen to Stockholm segment and that phrase only refers to that segment. I don't think they thought through the fact that many of us are on B2B cruises. Curious though if those passengers who are only on the Barcelona to Bergen segment got an invitation. My guess is they did not as they would theoretically be departing on the 16th. I asked the question on the Barcelona to Bergen thread.

What a memorable day you all will have in Bergen: parade, chistening of the ship, great dinner .:D

Enjoy, and I hope there are some good bloggers going on the Viking maiden vovage to share their journey with us on land.

I know there are some photograher cruisers on board.:)

cmassfamily....just curious....are you on the inagural cruise? If you are, and are missing out on a full port day in London and Paris....and now not going into Flam which by the way, is the cornerstone for all of Viking Marketing Materials Photos, and it doesn't impact you in a frustrated - at the least - manner, then I truly applaud you.......you are a unique individual. I on the other hand, am really and truly trying my best to remain excited, which I am about much of this trip. However, that said, I am frustrated that all of these changes have come to light after we all paid in full and were past the deadline to cancel with the minimum $100 per person charge, which would have been fair in giving us the option to choose to accept the changes or not.

Vineyard View, we also are on the maiden voyage and I would like to word the frustration you are expressing in a different manner. As I've posted elsewhere, my displeasure and sourness right now are due to the manner in which Viking Oceans has gone about planning and executing the run up to the maiden voyage.

These decisions about ports didn't come up just this month. Port changes and all the other deviations/clarifications being discussed here and on other boards have been in the works since summer 2013. Decisions also have been finalized for months but Viking chose to not communicate anything about these cruises.

I strongly believe if Viking would have kept the website current and shared their decisions about the maiden voyage there would have been cancellations. But I also believe others would have taken the place of those who dropped out - a sort of next passengers up strategy for Viking.

In hindsight, those of us booking the maiden voyage should have sought out more liberal cancellation terms given we were obviously not taking a well known and proven itinerary. Those of us most adverse to change should have taken cancel anytime, any reason insurance. But that would only cover the cruise.

With such late developing news about the cruise, we're now locked into business class airfare and post cruise commitments that are non-refundable. I don't think it is a tenable position to argue we should have waited until 70 days before the cruise to lock down those items. How were we to know the actual date for knowing what cruise we are going on is tentatively February 1st?

It simply comes down to Viking choosing a non-communicative style that guaranteed there would be misery for some or many customers during the pre-cruise period. It is a pity that Viking does not appreciate that the anticipation is as much a part of pleasure from cruising as is the cruise itself for some of us.

What's going on this winter of course should not prejudice us about the cruise itself. I hope all of us can be happy passengers, enjoy the cruise, and be generous with what I'm certain will be a hard working crew especially in bursar and customer service areas.

And for goodness sake, if there are really long complaint lines on the ship, please stand to one side so others can pass. And if the ship starts to tilt from the mass of people in line, please spread out :)

Just FYI - we did take out the "cancel for any reason" insurance, but on reading the fine print, what you get is a credit on future Viking Cruises - not your actual cash back. To add insult to injury, I called and asked about this when all these itinerary changes happened, and I was told we could only use those future cruise credits on Viking Oceans - not even their River Cruises. I was told they are "different" companies. So, so much for the cancelation insurance!

Altars/leo - you are 'spot on'.

100% agree with you on all points.

And yes, there will unfortunately be a lot of surprised customers who are not even aware yet of these changes. So yes, lines could be very long!

I just wish that there were something that Viking would do about all this.

Elizabeth - that 'cancel for any reason ' insurance clause.....that is stacked deck for sure.

Think I will have a glass of something on the rocks!!