PlatinumMan

Dead horse has been significantly beaten

Thank you for the best response yet!

1) My experience was my experience, and tye replies are mostly judgment and not providing solutions 2) Why else would you ever prepay then? "Convienence" is not a suitable answer. If anyone would read the OP. my searches all saved I would be billed reregardless, so my only intent was to avoid a bill at thecend of the cruise that I was under the imprethat I had no control over. 3) I 100% agree that this was a newer crew that was yet fully trained. Many young and French, and that culture has a distinct cultural difference from the Viking's very short meal times.

EXACTLY!!!

Again, we tried different sections of restaurant and aquavit. It was no different. Same servers were 50/50 if ever came back to refill water, much less any other drinks.One night was so bad we left the Aquafit to get reseated in the restaurant. The Matre De took care of us that evening, and I explained what had been happening. We received no apology, but finally got water refills for dinner. I researched for weeks before the cruise and found none of these discussions you profess to be on these forums. Maybe you read every thread, but if, like thus one, it goes off topic, then it is not searchable beyond the thread title. Or maybe this was long ago and locked from searching. Please provide links to these "talked about forever" posts, because I could not find them. Or don't, since due to our poor experience on viking's bus tours with a luggage boat, we will never use them again.

Unfortunately their prepaid amount for tipping is very high and NOT adjustable from their set prepaid amount ($280)

Please google the definition of bribe, nothing dishonest nor illegal is occurring. Do you work a job not knowing your salary? Most cruise workers work almost entirely for the tip money and are paid little or nothing else. How hard would you work if you were told this month you'd be getting a bonus versus you might not get a paycheck at all? this would be more akin to a work contract than a "bride". "You keep using that word, but it does not mean what you think it means" --Princess Bride

100% wish we would gave known. We absolutely got no better service by prepaying gratuities. DON'T FALL FOR IT LIKE WE DID. SHAME ON YOU VIKING!

Same, they seem very inconsistent in how they operate

Agreed, and major reason I'd not use Viking in the future. American style add-ons for everything except the included tours. NTW,no tours on extensions and they charge double the hotel house rate. You "can" book extensions on your own, but if you use their air booking they charge an extra few hundred $ to do so. Also, the same applies if you wantvto book your own air. They cater to 70-90 yo Americans, and it shows in their time wasting slow tours that rarely actually go jnside the attractions ( unless an expensoptional) and in their brand unseasoned food. I will be sticking with UK and Austrailian based cruiselines.

Drink oackage NOT included on USA bookings in 2023 for our 2024 cruise

Please re-read my OP. From posts here on CC, I read that the tips would be automatically charged at end of cruise. I prepaid under this misinformation. REGARDLESS, the point of my post is to clarify this for any other first time Viking cruisers. For us, one and done, too much bus time that we never saw coming. We'll stick with Seaborn, thank you very much! They communicate much better, much higher level service, and best of all, one price, no surprises, no misinformation...ever

if only 🤦

Not always, and not all crew do their job well....at least not on Viking.

This wasn't even the subject , but it cost us an additional $280