My wife and I were invited to join family members for a July 2020 Viking Romantic Danube Cruise. We were looking forward to it until the COVID outbreak in early 2020. We were optimistic that it would all over with by then. Of course, we were wrong, and our cruise was cancelled. We re-booked for later that year, even though the rest of the family was no longer going and it was just us. Then THAT one was cancelled, and we hung on with Viking and didn’t accept the cancellation but re-booked for 2021 and talked some friends into joining us. Then THAT was cancelled, and Viking announced their daily testing protocols. Our friends (wiseley, as it turns out) took the cancellation, but we re-booked for August of 2022. Then at the end of 2021, Viking announced that all passengers on all cruises in 2022 would have to be vaccinated. THAT changed the terms of the deal. My wife and I cannot be COVID vaccinated for personal religious reasons and would never booked the cruise in the first place if that had been a requirement. I immediately began the process of trying to cancel our booking and getting a refund, only for the monies paid, not for any extra voucher credit. I agreed to go ahead and book after the last cancellation because I was assured it was safe due to Viking’s “Risk Free Guarantee.” Now I am being told that I cannot get a refund BECAUSE I booked. If I had just left the money “on hold” I could get it back, but because I put it towards a cabin, it is considered committed. Now they want to wait until April of 2023 to see what the situation is like. Well, they are already saying that all passengers have to be vaccinated in 2023, so the situation is not changing. They want us to sail in another year, but I have told them repeatedly we are retiring at the end of 2022 and will not have the spare budget for the extras to go on a cruise like this. They’re just earning interest on my money. One Customer Service rep offered me a 50% refund and told me “that’s the best we can do.” Obviously not true. If your policy is that I can’t get anything, but you’re giving me 50%, then you are already outside your policy. Go ahead and give me the rest. My position is that when they imposed the requirement for vaccination, they changed the terms to which I agreed to condition to which I CANNOT agree – under no fault of my own. Don’t believe it when they say, “Risk Free Guarantee.” It only means “Risk Free” for Viking.
