cruising denise

Wow, yes, that is a great thing about continuing on to NYC! No, we didn't have that option this year! Now it will be our turn to follow you all! I just found the roll call today and have started "lurking" (and butting in 😁). Jealous!!! Glad you enjoyed our blog....as with posting here, I've fallen a bit behind and still have to finish up the last several posts over the next couple of weeks! Eddie has stayed very faithful with the photos but I guess I've been the lazy one!

I've been meaning to share this info for a while. But geez...turns out that life gets busy when you get home - you have all these foreign activities to do, like grocery shopping, housecleaning, cooking...etc... Anyway - I wanted to share some thoughts about how Viking treated us despite the "bumps in the road" (er, waves in the sea??) with our itinerary and the changes that became necessary given world events. 1. Credits. Although nothing was ever shared in writing, we were told that we would be given a future cruise credit based upon the # of days we gave up by disembarking early, as applied to our cost for the cruise. With nothing in writing we were a little anxious but they were good to their word. Although the wording in the email which we received a few days after disembarkation says "This voucher can be used on any new Viking river or ocean cruise and will be applied at time booking.", it was automatically applied (a few days later) to the cruise we had booked while onboard. I had understood (verbally) that I would not have a problem applying it to an existing booking, and I preferred that it be applied to our next cruise, with payment due this December. I had to jump through a couple of hoops but they did come through within a few days and transferred the credit to the cruise with the soonest payment. 2. Yellow fever vaccine and malaria pills: I really credit Viking with quickly reversing course on their initial position that they would not cover these treatments, once the new itinerary had been announced. We were able to obtain, on board and at no cost, both the yellow fever vaccine and malaria pills (to cover us while on the safari excursion). I am grateful to Viking for doing the right thing here. 3. Credits for excursion bookings cancelled due to itinerary change: This was done automatically and expeditiously. A+ on this. Except for the following problem. 4. Pre-boarding credits being "shuffled" inappropriately: A number of us learned that credits available pre-boarding are treated inappropriately in the Viking accounting system. (See a number of prior posts on this topic from a few months back) We used ALL our pre-boarding credits when initially booking our shore excursions, which we did last September. We took ALL of those excursions. In late November, a new excursion (Sri Lanka overland safari) was made available. We charged this on our credit card. With the itinerary change, this very expensive excursion (I think $1700/person) was reduced from two to one game drive, and would have chewed up all our port time in Sri Lanka. They were offering only a $200 credit for this change. We decided to cancel and assumed that we would receive a credit to the charge card. No. It turns out that their system "shuffles" these credits (their words, not mine). The pre-boarding credits magically had been moved to this safari and the credit upon cancellation appeared on our account as nonrefundable credits. Which, with a few weeks left, we never could have spent. As it turns out, we did apply them to the African overland safari so in the end it wasn't an issue for us. But it remained an issue for others in similar situations. I wish I could remember the user name for the guy who finally found a contact to help sort all this out but it took him a lot of perserverance, legwork and effort to get it resolved. This is really unacceptable on Viking's part. It's probably specific to a long cruise with very expensive multi-day excursions but still, buyer beware. IMPORTANT CHANGE: They have made a policy change that if you signed up for one of these overlands, involving planes, hotels, etc, it is now nonrefundable. This is understandable since Viking is on the hook once they book this stuff on our behalf. And they had trouble with the India overland initially in this regard. However, when we booked the Sri Lankan overland this policy was not yet in place. Viking needs to get its act together on this. On the whole, Viking dealt with all these issues fairly. Obviously I still have concerns about the "shuffling" of preboarding credits. My other concern is that even though all our concerns were ultimately resolved, it can sometimes take a while to find the right person to help you. It shouldn't be this hard.

I'm only weighing in because Clay invited others to weigh in - Clay deserves #1 headlining here as he has kept this forum so lively and engaging - thanks so very much, Clay! @Groovybusybee: My own musings on your questions which will have a slightly different perspective...we took a slightly different path than Clay and Mike (and many of our other friends aboard). We decided to disembark in Cape Town and spend five days there. We were to receive a prorated credit for the days we didn't complete. Since we have two other cruises already booked, with payments coming due starting this December, when we did the hard math we decided it was a better financial decision to apply the credit towards the balance for our next cruise, than spending it on the itinerary following Cape Town. I had lots of second thoughts in the days leading up to our disembarkation, mostly because I hated leaving the ship and our friends, but ultimately have felt very comfortable with our decision (especially now that our next cruise is almost fully paid for!). We are so happy that we completed as much of the world cruise as we did. Although we wish we could have completed the original itinerary, the places we have seen on this cruise were so worthwhile, and many are places we never otherwise would have seen. So it was a wonderful and fulfilling experience. Not a single regret about taking the cruise. That's a really long-winded partial answer to your first question. Here's the rest of the answer: as your adventure comes towards its end, what are your emotions?: I had second thoughts about leaving the ship as Cape Town neared, but came to peace with it. Having five days in Cape Town was a gratifying experience for us. I can't say how I would have felt had we stayed aboard, although my thoughts over the past few days have been with my shipboard friends, some of whom we will undoubtedly remain in touch with, and continue to see in person. I know they are feeling quite sad about this ending. Are you ready for home and your own bed? I will admit that it felt very good to be home in our own bed. I will also admit that it took a day or so till I consistently went to the right drawer/cabinet for utensils/glasses, etc 🫢 (Old age or long time away??) It also felt good to resume some of my regular activities when home. I got so many hugs at Pickleball 🥰! What will you miss the most? Being able to just go "upstairs" (to Explorer's Lounge) at the end of the day and hang out with good friends for an hour or so before bed. Because many of us were together for so long, with shared experiences, it was like living in a small town where you get to know most (but not all) of the people. Some you like and want to sit with when you see them at World Cafe, or at least have a chat with them, some you like a lot and make an effort to spend more time with. Some you're not so fond of and just tend to, well, sit on the other side of the World Cafe from them 😂. Like any small town! I love small town living so this suited me well. Would you do it again??? Not sure if we would (though not totally ruling it out). As we look back at the last four year's world cruises (beginning with 2019/2020), three out of four have had significant disruptions to the itinerary. We're not just talking a couple of missed ports. Since much of the attraction with the cruise was the itinerary, we realize that not only do you have to be flexible and adaptable to the changes that will inevitably come, but it may mean you don't get to see a number of places you had your heart set on - i.e., the changes may be very significant, as they were in our case. We have two more cruises booked now so yes, we will still cruise. And I still prefer longer cruises. But I think for targeting specific destinations, we may be doing more land-based travel. Was there a point when you were home sick? Never!!! Hope this helps. I'll be including a post in our blog (see signature below) talking about life onboard for such a long cruise, since so many of our friends have asked about this. Probably posting it in the next couple of weeks in case you have any interest.

Thanks so much for posting these beautiful pix and the guidance about visiting Giverny in future. I love Monet's work so much and your photos look like the paintings (I guess no surprise). When we originally booked our excursions last September, we were tempted but had not signed up for this. We thought that by this point in the cruise we would not be able to handle the long bus rides any more 😁 and wanted to do the Giverny visit another time when we are land based and closer. So your comments are very helpful! ENJOY THESE LAST DAYS! What a voyage! Even for us who cut it a bit short!

Clay - belated happy birthday, and THANK YOU so much for sharing your wonderful pictures. I've been following along since we disembarked in Cape Town. While I don't regret our decision at all, you gave me the chance to see where you all went after we left the ship!

I am so happy to see my ship friends cashing in on LCR! Miss you guys! The Lindas - and Cathy-Linda! and Clay-Linda. And is that Debbie-Linda I see way in back? and Holly-Linda?Hi to everyone - we have been home for one week now, and happy to be home, but miss all our friends on the ship! And hi to Clayton-Linda - he is always fun to have around, too! Enjoy the rest of the trip!

Haha, sorry I shouldn't have responded to your earlier post till I finished reading through the rest of the posts. Thanks so much for all this info, not for us as we are okay now, but for everyone else, especially anyone who is still fighting this issue. Really happy you were persistent enough to find this person. It is astonishing to me that a company as big as Viking does not have established policies and procedures with which the right people are acquainted. Sometimes it feels like they are playing telephone using paper cups and string....

We were able to use our credits because we did the overland 2-night 3-day safari which soaked them all up. However, the issue really was never resolved in that they never honored the request to change the cancelled Sri Lanka credits from "nonrefundable" to "refundable". I'm not fighting any more because we're okay since we used them on the safari. But it still upsets me just on the principle of it. I'd be very interested in hearing whether you got your issue resolved. I think we emailed offline if I remember. We are now off the ship in CapeTown for 5 days before heading home, with plans for every day, so prob won't be checking email too much. But I am interested in hearing what happened for you.

Just wanted to bid farewell to my Viking Sky traveling partners, some of whom I have been in communication with since fall of 2022 (when we booked this adventure!). @Penspack Debbie: you know who I'm talking about!!! Eddie and I are disembarking in Cape Town on April 8th, where we will spend five days exploring, then heading home on April 13th. Although we have made this decision and feel confident it is the right one for us given our own situation, those of you who stay on will have a wonderful adventure ahead of you and I will be following these posts to see what happens! It is bittersweet, this saying goodbye after embarking on Dec 20th, which right now seems eons ago! To those of you who we first met in person in Ft Lauderdale prior to embarking - we have a special connection, and to those of you who embarked in LA, it has been an amazing journey. Despite the missed ports and changed itinerary, in the end, it has been incredible, and we have been places, met people (passengers, crew and residents of the many ports we've visited) and seen things we never in our lives would have seen otherwise. We are truly blessed to have undertaken this journey, and don't regret it for a second. Thank you to all who have shared this with us, who have helped make our adventure more fun and enriching, and Godspeed for fair winds and great adventures ahead of you. You will always be in our memories.

Clay, thanks for posting this. We have heard this very sad news, too. Mark has been an absolutely wonderful entertainer. The number of songs he has added to his repertoire during our time with him has been incredible. We, too, wish him all the best for a speedy recovery and ability to return to music soon.

So not true, Steve!!!! I will always remember you and your spreadsheets fondly! You saved us many hours of work!

Haha I guess I should have thought of consulting Mr Google! 😁

I would love to know how to contact Torstein's office. If you can share any info with me offline at: denisedld@att.net I would really appreciate it. It is sad that this company, to whom I was prepared to be loyal for the rest of my cruising life, has been raising these doubts about how well we will be treated from a business perspective, and whether or not I should remain a loyal customer. But glad you two are enjoying your time in Mauritius! Looks lovely! See you soon!

I apologize for the very negative tone of my recent posts. Everything I have said here is true. We will wait and see how this ultimately all plays out before final decisions about sailing again with Viking, though it is leaving a bad taste in my mouth that we have to fight for things that should obviously be right. However I really apologize for giving the impression that it has completely spoiled our World Cruise. Despite all the twists and turns it has been the trip of a lifetime and we are so glad we decided to do it. We have been places, seen things and met people we never otherwise would have a chance to do. It really has been a wonderful, lifechanging experience and people who are considering next year's should not turn away solely based on these bad experiences. I also stand by my statement that the ships are lovely and the crews are great. But they should take very careful note of what some of us are going through from a business practices standpoint. Be aware and protect themselves as much as possible. Keep printouts of everything especially as you go signing up for shore excursions, using credits / cash / cc.

The shoreside team is not helpful. And that is putting it nicely. I agree with you, make as much noise as you need to while you are on the ship. It is sad that such a fine company has come to this. I have to wonder if Mr. Hagen is aware of all of this.

And indeed, why were they able to refund (as refundable) the portion of the Luxor tour that they "shuffled" to nonrefundable in December, two+ months after we applied all our nonrefundable credits? It is really inexplicable.

Cruise Critic is also social media for a lot of cruisers. Personally I don't have a FaceBook account but I give permission here for anyone who does, to copy any of my posts and alert people on FaceBook. If I were you, I would be troubled. What itinerary are they selling you? Are they assuming that the MidEast troubles will be resolved? One would hope so, but it does not appear that this go-round of war will be resolved any time soon. If I were you, I'd be asking now what your recourse is if the planned itinerary cannot occur. And be VERY wary of how any pre-boarding nonrefundable credits get applied. Keep hard copies of everything. We have cruised with Viking since 2018 and have completed four cruises so far (not including this). In addition, we had three booked which got cancelled: 1. due to pandemic 2. due to pandemic-related supply chain issues (Mississippi River Cruise - ship was not completed in time) and 3. Russia's war against Ukraine (Moscow to St Petersburg River Cruise). In every case, they treated us very fairly and probably stepped up before any of the other cruise lines to refund every last penny, or give us the choice of 125% of FCC. They also treated their crew very well from what I have heard. They did the right thing all around. This is why we are now so shocked to be treated this way. There has been a sea change in the management of this company, from very honorable and doing the right thing, to well, how do I put it....kind of sleazy???? I NEVER expected this from Viking in my wildest dreams. And as I said before, I love the ships, the crew are great, but this may be the tipping point for us.

@Pappri But I do encourage you to take this up with Sam. This behavior on Viking's part is really unacceptable business practice. The only other thing I am aware of is that they have instituted a policy stating that overland excursions are nonrefundable. I can understand this, as they are making commitments for flights and such which may end up being nonrefundable for Viking. But this was not the case back in Nov/Dec when I booked the Sri Lanka overland.

Yes, we are having the identical issue. I think you may be thinking of Danushka, who is in Guest Services and reports to Sam. I'm also working with Sam on the identical issue. We used up our $4K in preboarding credits on Sept 14th booking our shorex. I have the printout showing which excursions were paid by credits. Late Nov/early Dec, they offered the Sri Lanka overland safari for $1799/each. We gulped but said "it will be our only time in Sri Lanka - let's do it". Paid for it by credit card, which is clearly on our CC statement. Final printout of shorex before boarding shows that they had "switched" the credit from the many excursions we paid in Sept, to this very expensive one, with the balance put onto the Luxor excursion (which we had also paid by CC in Dec). I didn't pay this much mind at the time. We have received back to our CC all the cancelled shorex including Luxor (for which they had "switched" a few hundred from our cc to nonrefundable credits - though we paid the whole thing by cc). Once we got notice that the Sri Lanka safari was being reduced from two to one safaris due to the itinerary change, but from $1799 we would only receive a $200 credit, we cancelled it. And assumed it would be refunded as a refundable credit which would ultimately end up on our cc. No such luck. It's still sitting there as a $3398 nonrefundable credit. In our case, we plan to apply it to the African safari we're doing but I'm still fighting it. If something hiccups with the African safari and let's say Viking has to cancel, I'm still left with a large nonrefundable balance. And we're disembarking in Cape Town so no time to spend it even if I could. I have worked with Aman (Financial Officer who sits right by the Guest Services desk) and Sam. First answer back from LA was that they could not make it into refundable. These preboarding credits get "shuffled" by their "system" onto other excursions than what you actually intended. These are the actual words that Aman relayed to me, which he had been told by the idiots in LA corporate. "Shuffled". I escalated back to Sam (waited until after Singapore since I knew they had a lot on their hands then), who got the same answer back again. It is a "system" problem. They can't do it but they will contact me after I get home (and my $3400 nonrefundable credit is wiped off the face of the earth). No go - I pushed back to Sam, who has escalated to the Director of whatever incompetent department in LA this is. I have not heard back yet but I suspect my next action will have to be the CC dispute. Probably a total waste of time in my case since I am hoping the African safari does happen in which case the credit will get used. But now it is a matter of principle for me. And I agree about loyalty to Viking. They are losing mine with these shenanigans. I have two more cruises booked with Viking. We invited two friends to come along on the first one, and three are joining us for the second one. But if this is how they treat us, I will not be booking with Viking any more. Which is a shame because as so many have pointed out, I love the onboard experience. We are also upset about the difference in treatment compared to Neptune although we paid the same amount as we would have on Neptune. There is no question that in several places they got preferential docking locations. They also had a world cruise with same passengers all the way after LA; we did not. No disrespect to those who purchased segments. We've made friends with some of them and wished that some of them had been on for the whole time. But it is a different vibe. And most importantly, we were explicitly told when we decided to purchase this cruise that after LA, no segments would be sold - people would be on together all the way through. They should have been more truthful about the fact that segmentation was probably always on the table. They were not.

Oh so happy to hear good news on the Bruce front. It's so sad not to have had a chance to say goodbye or wish him well.

Thanks for the info, Diana. They started selling the segments on the Sky maybe in October or so, once it was apparent they could not sell it out as a World Cruise.

Wow, I'm surprised to hear that Neptune wasn't fully booked with world cruisers. Did you also have segments, as the Sky did? We had sizeable groups disembarking in Sydney, and then new ones embarking in Sydney for the Sydney to Singapore segment.

Clay, you are correct. We are staying on through Cape Town, and Viking was very accommodating in helping us get great business class flights home. We will stay in Cape Town for five days and get to see as much as we can. We will only miss the two African ports which remain after Cape Town, and have seen or plan to see nearly all the remaining ports. I'm surprised that they have included Dakar, as I heard it was removed from some of the other itineraries due to political unrest concerns. It was the long string of sea days which was not of interest to us.

From the Sky: We did embark what I hear to be 30-60 passengers for what was the original Singapore-London segment which was sold on Sky. (The Sky did not sell out the WC - thus sold segments from LA to Sydney, Sydney to Singapore, and Singapore to London.) We've heard that some cancelled out due to the itinerary change, while others are on board now.

Hi! We are getting off the ship for 3 nights in HCM and won't be back on board until Friday. We can try to meet up then but yes, Viking is handling our disembarkation. We have been told it is not yet approved by the port authorities but it is actively being worked. We were informed we would have to have the YF vax, which we now plan to do. They have already switched our flights to the ones we wanted out of Cape Town on Apr. 13th. So far that is what I know. I was told that we should know about approval for disembarkation within the next few days. Keeping fingers crossed as there are no good disembarkation options after that. If we got as far as Morocco there wouldn't be any point in disembarking, and I'm not anxious to leave before CT.