Weejohnw

In an earlier post, Viking invited me to respond to them and gave me an email address to do so. I did; they have not replied.

Urum- misleading, how dare you - you have no idea just what we had to endure that week!!! At the buffet section of the kitchen the only meat on offer was pork sausages.

The CD "A..." was getting it in the ear from every passenger that week and she new that what Viking was asking fare paying passengers to endure was wrong.

To those who criticise me - I ask you two simple questions:-

1 Where you on this, the first Danube cruise after the dreadful flooding to witness first hand what we had to put up with?

2 What is the name of this web site?

Just in case you are having difficulty, the clue to the answer is in the word "critic".

It does not suit us to self inflict another Viking cruise, no matter what the price.

We still contend that this cruise should have been cancelled too, until a proper schedule had been sorted out.

In 28 years and almost 150 holidays, we have come across many things that fell short of expectations, but you have no idea at all, just what this week was like, it was awful - from start to finish.

Thank you ozjohno.

We have just spent 3 weeks on the Rhine and the Mosel (not with Viking) and the experience was better than we had anticipated.

In the Viking News published on the web site on the 13th June 2013 during the flooding, Viking stated ".... to operate cruises with minor modifications. As an example, whilst Passau is still dealing with its clean up after recent flooding, the walking tour of this city will be replaced by a visit to the Bavarian capital of Munich ...where it is not possible to operate a particular sailing we have taken the decision to cancel it."

Every single day - the schedule was altered - I do not consider this as a "minor modification".

To people who have had a good experience on Viking, I am pleased for you. We did not. Nor or we "blowing we things out of proportion". We booked this holiday about a year in advance after a rather traumatic experience and were really looking forward to a relaxing time on the Danube. It was completely ruined. This was the first cruise to take place after the flooding and it too should have been cancelled due to the heavily altered schedule. To have been told the truth would have been a good start, but Viking chose rather to subject us to an experiment. It is rather strange that all - without exception - of the people we spoke with on board on this crusie/bus tour were of the same opinion.

One particular couple from Scotland were quite irate and said they weren't going to bother complaining officially as Viking were not worth the bother, they would just encourage their friends not to travel with Viking.

Regards

Quote from someone who thinks its wrong to complain:-

"Balconies looking into other balconies is a normal situation on river cruises, made worse in this case by a lack of regular movement along the river, but still a fact of life at times."

It's strange that this is not mentioned in the glossy advertizing, that you can experience the "Romantic Danube" by peering into another persons balcony. There is a term for this and it is not "romance"

To all those "happy" Viking River Cruisers who think I have no right to complain, in 28 years of married life, and taking 2 to 5 holidays a year, this is the very first time we have ever complained.

Our main point of concern is that we were given the wrong information from Viking regarding the boat at the "other side of the lock". I have a disability as a result of surgery and tire out quite quickly. We booked a leisure river cruise with short half day tours which we thought I could cope with. Instead of that - every single day - the schedule was changed. No t only was there a 4 hour bus trip to Vienna after a morning tour, but the following day, in order to retrace part of the river we had missed by going 4 hours to the "other side", it too had about 4 hours of bus trips. I missed meals on two nights due to tiredness from all the travelling. As for the food, not exactly as good as advertised.

If it was not for the fact that Viking have better staff than they deserve on the boats, the holiday would have been unbearable.

I have every right to complain about being delivered an experience that fell far short of what was advertised and Viking have no right to be complimented on feeding us misleading information as to where the "other side " actually was.

We should have been offered the opportunity to travel at another time or to cancel.

As for the "arrogance" of the person I was speaking to on the phone, it was the approach that they took, that 50% off until 2015 was what others had found to be a very good offer and that I should be grateful for it too as that was all that was going to be offered.

I have written to ABTA and a BBC consumer program and was told by the Viking representative to pursue my complaint through ABTA. I have the forms and cheque ready to send off.

And as for the food, we had to ask the Cruise director to have a non pork based meal prepared as there was nothing on the menu that was not pork based and the kitchen staff had already said there was nothing he could do - although the cruise director was able to have something prepared.

On the several days when we had to eat in a hotel rather than on the boat because of the bus trips - the set meal at one hotel was - pork - we had to ask the hotel senior staff to have an alternative. Also at the hotels, drinks at the meal was strictly limited to one. When we asked for a refill, no one ever came back - and others also experienced this. On the boat there would have been a menu to choose from and you would have had your glass refilled as required.

I have never had to complain about any other holiday in 28 years and yet some folks out there think that this is "tired".

What we are tired off, is Vikings response and their total inability to deal with our complaint.

Viking told us we would get off ship at one side of a broken lock and board an identical one at the other side. Only trouble was that the other side was a 4 hour bus journey to Vienna. We also clearly stated that we did not eat pork products and yet when we arrived late due to cancelled and delayed flights we were handed ham sandwiches. Our romantic Danube cruise started in a gravel carpark outside Nuremburg. Apart from the day we left, every single days schedule was altered. Go for a balcony and you can enjoy the views into other balconies that you are moored along side. Just got another phone call today 7th October and they still don't think they did anything wrong. Food not great and served on chipped crockery.

The amount of time spent aboard buses on this river cruise is just amazing.

It is true that Viking do not know how to deal with people when things go wrong. The arrogance of the chap I was speaking to in the complaints section is an experience in itself. To charge this amount of money and then to expect people just to accept any old thing that they offer is a disgrace. We were offered a 50% reduction until 2015 on any cruise or offer from Viking - but why would we want to subject ourselves to a bus tour again, when we thought we had booked a river cruise? There are other well documented accounts on this forum of just what the Romantic Danube cruise involved in June 2013 and like the others who have commented, we should have been given the option to cancel. Viking and the staff who deal with the complaints - I trust you can sleep well knowing what fare paying folks have had to endure, and you thinking it was acceptable.