Captain Hornblower

The saga continues, now more than half my excursions have had some change. So far 3 cancellations and 5 time changes. All of the time changes have a negative impact for us in some way or other. As an example we chose a four hour tour starting at 8:45, we have been changed to a start at 10:45 and a finish at 2:45, obviously we will need a packed lunch. What a waste of time between breakfast and the tour. This is what Viking calls enrichment.

I did respond to "TellUs" to email Viking (multiple times); I have had no replies from TellUs at all.

It appears from the earlier post from screen-gem, that the tour times are being managed on board day by day. Are the choices made in My Viking Journey and the priority reservations offered just a swindle? The really funny part is that many passengers would be in the dark about the situation until they board. I understand Henry Kissinger has been asked to man the Explorer Desk.

I'll take a tranquilliser and deal with whatever as it comes up in a joyful spirit once on board.

Of course we have now discovered another change, an included tour in Copenhagen has been moved from morning to afternoon. The six non-included day time Copenhagen tours are all in the afternoon, all these now conflict with the included tour. There is nothing on in the morning, ship arrives 8:30. Whilst we don't have an afternoon conflict, we now have a rush between the changed afternoon time and an evening event, and an empty morning. I am sure many others now have a conflict between the included tour and afternoon bookings.

So even the paper tickets don't count, plans are unclear until the night before. Thanks for the information screen-gem. We look forward to a nice ship, nice people, and will try to remain relaxed about the (in)ability to plan. And just when Viking "locked in" our shorex as we wanted after three system hiccups.

We're on board! (The ship is beautiful!)

 

Another surprise awaited us in our room. We found a stack of shorex tickets in an envelope, but the none have any times on them. There are tickets for each of the tours we reserved, but the Meeting Time field is blank. The instructions indicate to "refer to the Viking Daily for meeting time". So we don't actually learn the time of each booking until the night before when the Daily is delivered.

First I will endorse the comments from CharTrav about your blog. I liked it, great pictures and well written. Continuing system errors - I received my documents today. The cruise documents show the excursion that was cancelled by Viking as now not cancelled, but it remains absent in myvikingjourney. And one other excursion which is in myvikingjourney, is not showing in the documents, maybe a third cancellation, or just a system glitch. It would be great to know what was on and what was off, as there are options we could take. Anyway, I shall relax and sort it out on board. I think Viking need your technology skills.

I wouldn't count on the system errors with excursion booking to be fixed any time soon. The same types of "errors" happened this time last year, so the chances of them being fixed in the next month are slim to none. Take Hornblower's advice and check and recheck, and check again with your paper tickets once you board.

Hi screen gem, I am glad you had some success before the issue remerged. We have had just two changes (so far). The first was a major problem which we fixed ourselves by implementing a work around when Viking did not bother to respond to our complaint, the second occurred a week later, and it has been more than a week without Viking sorting anything. We have it logged with my local Viking office and now TellUs@viking cruises. The whole circumstances of the changes are very confusing. Whilst for us it is perhaps not life or death, it is an irritant considering we are dealing with a premium supplier and have paid for something better than is being delivered. I understand the ship is terrific, but I agree, let us hope the same people are not managing the navigation systems as are managing myvikingjourney.

When I created this saga, I should have titled it "Check, double-check, and triple-check your Shore Excursions. Then check again!".

 

If you've been following this topic, you'll know that I booked shore excursions some months ago, the day bookings opened for our cabin category. I selected the first time slot for each, and obtained written confirmations.

 

I subsequently discovered that Viking had unilaterally changed half of them, moving us to later times (as much as 3h45m later). As soon as I noticed these changes (on MVJ), I contacted Viking, and a helpful Customer Engagement Specialist reinstated us at the times we had originally reserved.

 

I thought that was the end of it, but sadly it was not. We fly out to Barcelona tomorrow, so this evening I thought it prudent to check on MVJ one last time. Surprise! Viking's done it again. They made a change to one reservation, moving our booking to another time slot an hour and a half later. This is a new change, not one of the reservations they modified before.

 

In the words of Jerry Seinfeld, Viking knows how to take a reservation. They just don't know how to hold the reservation. They stated that these changes "resulted from an internal error". It's become apparent this error is persistent and pervasive - as reported here and elsewhere, it's impacting multiple passengers at multiple ports on various voyages. One hopes that it doesn't migrate into their cabin reservation software, or the bridge navigation system.

CharTrav, I board Viking Homelands on 1 May, and my PV status enabled me to get confirmed bookings on 21 Feb at zero hour. Six weeks after I had the confirmations in B&W, Viking made the first change to my excursions (St Petersburg) - without notice. The Viking dictionary obviously defines "confirmed" differently to me. I could not get that first change fixed so, after a week of frustration, made a work around by moving multiple excursions to get a new set of options locked in. I was told on the phone the excursion was overbooked - yet as a PV status and first hour booker with confirmation, I am mystified how this could be the case. The included tour I booked has disappeared from my version of myvikingjourney (it must have been so overbooked it disappeared) yet I note the same tour is still shown on your spreadsheet and pdf.

A week after that first change, Viking cancelled another tour, the Aalborg City Walk (ACW), and placed us on a previously non-listed tour (without notice). In our version of myvikingjourney, ACW is now shown as a paid for excursion and booked out. Yet in your version of myvikingjourney, and in all of Viking's continuing advertising, ACW is still an included excursion. Mystery! I have my complaint logged with my local Viking office, and TellUs@vikingcruises. "Logged" means in the last week four emails and one phone call, yet there is no answer.

My quick calcs suggest you can get confirmed bookings next month, say 7 May to 21 May depending on your cabin status. By the time your cruise starts, just maybe Viking will have ironed out its system. But as you say, don't be naive. I first raised with Viking problems in myvikingjourney in early February.

Viking has acknowledged in a number of threads on this Cruise Critic site that the myvikingjourney has problems. What I am saying, is the problems are not yet fixed, so I say to all Viking Cruisers, check your Viking Calendar, check your tickets, and if necessary, when you get on board, line up at the Explorer desk and get your confirmations restored. I got dudded on the first change, I hope I don't get dudded on the second, or get any more changes. It is perhaps not a life or death deal, but it is not what I paid for.

Well done CharTrav on sharing your hard work. It is a useful piece of work for those with Viking Homelands cruises over the summer. Anybody can adapt the spreadsheets for their own level of detail required, and the pdf file with all the excursion details in one spot is a good tool. I am a meticulous planner and did something similar for my Homelands cruise, but not with quite your detail and effort. I note you board on 24 July and have outlined some kore of my story in the next post.

Thank you Peregrina651, just to be fair, I shall wait another day or so before going to HO via "TellUs".

Captain, IMHO, don't wait for your local office; take "tellus" up on their offer of assistance. I have worked with them in the past more than once and they are very good at getting things resolved.

Thanks Viking, I have already replied to similar posts on other threads. I appreciate your sentiments. Thank you for acknowledging the problem of confirmed shorex bookings being bumped. My problem remains logged with my local Viking office, however will use “TellUs” should time drag on more than another day or so. I thank you for your efforts thus far.

Dear Captain Hornblower & Peregrina651,

 

Please accept our apologies for any difficulties you may be experiencing with your shore excursion schedules. We are aware of the internal issue causing these unforeseen adjustments and are working hard to implement a solution.

 

Your feedback is appreciated and, if you wish to discuss your individual concerns further, you are welcome to contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com.

 

Captain Hornblower & Peregrina651, we apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding.

 

Kind regards,

Viking Cruises

Thank you and I appreciate your sentiments. Thank you for acknowledging the problem of confirmed shorex bookings being bumped. I did see the Viking “tellus” posting elsewhere on 4 April. As my problem is logged with my local Viking office, I think waiting for their response is best. I thank you in HO and the local Viking office for your efforts thus far. Alas, to this time Viking has proffered no solution to either shorex “bumping”. In February, I first raised with Viking concerns about the integrity of the My Viking Journey system. I appreciate you are working on a solution, but with just weeks until my cruise, I am still bumped off.

Dear Captain Hornblower,

 

We responded to your concerns on another thread but, at the risk of repeating ourselves, wanted to also reply to your comments here.

 

Please accept our apologies for any difficulties you may be experiencing with your shore excursion schedule. We are aware of the internal issue causing these unforeseen adjustments and are working hard to implement a solution.

 

Your feedback is appreciated and, if you wish to discuss your individual concerns further, you are welcome to contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com.

 

Captain Hornblower, again, we apologize for any inconvenience and thank you for your patience and understanding.

 

Kind regards,

Viking Cruises

Hi Carolyn, I hope you are enjoying your current experience on Viking Sea. You may like to look at my post today on the Viking Ocean forum, just below yours. If you get the chance with any management travelling with you, please ask them what is going wrong with their shorex bookings. They are bumping their good customers from shorex without notification or explainable reasons. It all seems a mess to me, I have multiple experiences of mistakes in the myvikingjourney system use, compounded by two different tour bumpings in consecutive weeks. I note your very complimentary view of conditions on board Viking Sea, thanks for your comments.

cmassfamily, yes you regrettably just see the unpleasant end of my demeanour caused by a long series of mistakes made by Viking with my cruise. And it does not stop. Just this morning Viking have bumped me from another shorex without notice. The selection had been on my "Wish List" on Viking's system for weeks before bookings opened, I had priority as PV1, booked and paid in the first minutes bookings opened. Got the confirming paperwork, booking then also appeared on system in my Viking calendar. Today, my booking has disappeared. Another booking has appeared for an unrelated and complexly different shorex which was never in the list of choices before today. Last week I had to compromise and change my shorex after I was bumped on another option, the reason being the tour had been overbooked. Yet again the story this week is as above, I probably booked in the first 50 passengers of a 950 person ship, the system said available, all was good for seven weeks, then I get bumped off the choice. After a week of Viking not solving the issue, I had to compromise and move around my choices to fit in with them. I am a frequent Viking traveller, current cruise is PV1 which gets near top priority for shorex bookings, I booked cruise in 2014, used the shorex booking system as expected,and in the most timely fashion, and I get bumped week on week. Grumpy is an understatement at the moment.

We are PV1 and booked all our excursions at minute one when bookings opened and naturally got all we wanted. We did observe that they booked out pretty quickly after DV opened a week later, though there is still availability today for a small number of excursions. BUT all the included shorex sold out very quickly. Please note, as expressed elsewhere on this forum, Viking has changed, without notice, shorex times for some bookings after passengers had them confirmed online. So monitor your account for changes. In my case, the change created a time conflict with other bookings. I have had a request with Viking for confirmation that the change is real, and if so, can I reorder things to fix it. It has been a week with no response. I do suggest considering, where it make sense for you, non-Viking options, as on this forum many people have expressed how happy they are with those choices.

Hi, my view here is that passengers on Viking Sea would have had a keen interest in the progress of their ship's completion and launch. The sister ship being built for a similar launch time was "postponed". So for those booked for April and May on Viking Sea there may have been a little concern with the progress of the build and launch - we have have asked was our cruise going to happen, because cruises on the other ship were canceled. Just as on this forum, when a response post occurs, we get an email as notice, rather than us having to search the forum for any responses, I just thought it would be good customer relations for Viking to keep its passengers updated via an outgoing email, rather than us having to find out for ourselves on their website or on forums like this.

What is this difficult situation? Thank you.

Traveler103, Thank you for this update and information

thank you id4elzabeth. Viking are providing shorex in St Petersburg, it is just they have changed one of mine leaving me with an empty half day, and at this late stage I cannot get an alternative, either with Viking or non-Viking. I do have a request logged with Viking but they have yet addressed my request for a reinstatement or an alternative. I am not the only one effected. As said elsewhere, I think having the two Viking ships in St Petersburg at the same time may have tested Viking's resources.

Thanks for your feedback Peregrine. It is a fact that Viking have changed my shorex without notice. It is a fact that I have asked Viking to rectify or suggest how to get a reasonable alternative. At this stage I am left with a half day in St Petersburg without an excursion which I had previously booked. I don't have options for a non-viking tour to fill in that gap. I have not yet got a response from Viking going direct to them. I do note Viking have just responded to my thread on this Forum, I am dealing with my local supplier.

Of course those in St Petersburg on May 18/19 will enjoy the sight of Viking Star and Viking Sea both in port on the same days; Viking Sea departs Bergen on 8 may and Viking Sea departs Stockholm on May 15 both on the Viking Homelands cruise. Perhaps this is why VIKING is dishonouring previous shorex bookings. Perhaps they are fixing their many challenges of two ships in port at same time at passenger expense by reneging on bookings. At this point VIKING Ocean Cruises are likely in Beta version at best.

it would be great if Viking actually told its future passengers of the situation with Viking Sea. Those of us who booked on Viking Sea have had a little anxiety about upcoming sailings, esp after the third Ocean ship was delayed. I think it would be great for Viking customer service if we had been told of the situation of launch etc, rather than discovering it for ourselves on the web.

Correct TruJeffie. Unless paying extra for the air option (viking plus?) don't expect choice, also unless flying into and out of major hubs, don't expect choice. Yes cruel and blunt, but you get what you pay for.

thank you screen-gem for your information in this thread. I think it is a Viking system problem, but I await a response from Viking

this is what I meant with Russian visas, it is my understanding that you either use the "restricted" Viking cruise ship visa, or get a sponsored one via a tour operator

Stuffing Up means making a mistake, getting it wrong, ruining the relationship with their customer, or in this case of VIKING Ocean Cruises, changing a booked cruise option without any notice to the passenger. The Viking booking system implies a high degree of booking integrity. The system sets out in considerable detail all the shore excursion options many months in advance of a cruise. It allows passengers to place an excursion on a Wish List, many months in advance. Viking would be able to see how many passengers are choosing what possibilities by analysing the Wish List data. Then Viking allows bookings in a staged process, with time priority by cabin price. When a booking is made (payment is required at time of booking) Viking issues an acknowledgement and an invoice/receipt for paid for options. Just as you would when buying any product on line, once the seller has taken your money and issued an invoice with a "product description" you would expect to receive the product as contracted for. Of course if the seller has a problem with supply, he would normally contact the buyer, and seek resolution, maybe suggest an alternative, or make a refund. In the case of Viking, they have just changed the product, and not bothered to contact the customer. The customer is left to discover the change for themselves by searching on the Viking website. Of course with most other Viking offerings now sold out, the passenger misses out, unless he choses private options. So Viking has stuffed up the passenger, stuffed up their brand because they, in my view, are having trouble transitioning from a river cruise business to a larger ocean cruise business.

Given that Viking are stuffing up their on shore excursions, esp in Russia, I suggest passengers avoid the Viking options and take their own independent choices as suggested above.

The problem with VIKING is their system establishes a contract, at least a promise, to provide a chosen excursion. VIKING sets up on line what excursions they can/will provide, the passenger chooses on line, pays if necessary, and then the passenger has a contract for that excursion. VIKING provide preferential bookings based on what is paid for a state room (cabin). Over booking is not possible (in theory). In my case, I had preferential booking in the top 200 passengers of 950 in total. I booked in the first hour bookings opened. The excursion had showed as an option on the website for many months. We had placed it on our Wish List some time before booking. In this way VIKING knows what the demand is. VIKING would have known that we and many others wanted this choice, way before the bookings open and way before the cruise. Then as bookings opened we "locked in" the booking. Some weeks after booking, VIKING moved the time of our choice from morning to afternoon, conflicting with other booked excursions, and after all other options were booked out. This excursion is the most popular choice in this port. The change was made without notice to us, yet they have our email. I think hundreds of passengers are effected but are not yet aware of this change. I don't know whether VIKING likes riots on their ships but they are doing a lot to create one. The system VIKING use should never require a change if VIKING has any management capability at all. Certainly to make changes behind the passenger's back is indefensible. VIKING is a luxury line, I have paid for a top of the lien state room. yet they treat my patronage with disrespect. The VIKING on line system seems to be crap. I think VIKING are struggling to make the transition from river cruise line to ocean cruise line. Be warned.