An Update Regarding Viking Sea and Viking Sky 2016 Schedule Changes

Dear Viking Travelers,

We recently learned that construction and delivery of our third ocean vessel, Viking Sky, has been rescheduled for early 2017. In order for this change to impact the fewest guests possible we have rescheduled the 2016 July-September deployments for both Viking Sky and sister ship Viking Sea. Impacted guests from the rescheduled sailings have been alerted by email of their options. For guests who made their Viking cruise arrangements through a Travel Agent, we have emailed that agent.

Guests will need to be moved from the following previously scheduled dates and itineraries:

Viking Sea

July 31, 2016 – Viking Homelands, Bergen to Stockholm

August 14, 2016 – Viking Homelands, Stockholm to Bergen

August 28, 2016 – Viking Homelands, Bergen to Stockholm

September 11, 2016 – Viking Homelands, Stockholm to Bergen

September 25, 2016 – Passages through Western Europe, Bergen to Barcelona

Viking Sky

June 24, 2016 – Empires of the Mediterranean, Venice to Istanbul

July 3, 2016 – Empires of the Mediterranean, Istanbul to Venice

July 12, 2016 – Mediterranean Odyssey, Venice to Barcelona

July 24, 2016 – Mediterranean Odyssey, Barcelona to Venice

August 5, 2016 – Empires of the Mediterranean, Venice to Istanbul

Guests on the following departures originally scheduled for Viking Sky will now sail on sister ship Viking Sea. There are no changes to itinerary, departure date or staterooms – only a change to sister ship.

August 14, 2016 – Empires of the Mediterranean, Istanbul to Venice

August 23, 2016 – Mediterranean Odyssey, Venice to Barcelona

September 4, 2016 – Mediterranean Odyssey, Barcelona to Venice

September 16, 2016 – Empires of the Mediterranean, Venice to Istanbul

In the coming days Viking team members will be reaching out to impacted guests (or your Travel Agent) to assist with your reservation changes. Should you (or your Travel Agent) have any questions regarding your options, please contact the Viking team in your region.

North America

Redeployment Team

Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., PDT

1-855-358-4546

redeployment@vikingcruises.com

United Kingdom

Customer Services Team

Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., BST

0208 780 7900

customerservices@vikingcruises.com

Australia & New Zealand

Redeployment Team

Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., UTC/GMT

Australia: 1800 131 744

New Zealand: 0800 447 913

CustomerRelationsAU@vikingcruises.com

We thank you in advance for your patience as we assist all guests affected by this recent change. As always, should any Viking guest – whether or not on the above impacted itineraries – like to get in contact with us regarding a river or ocean cruise, please consider emailing us at TellUs@vikingcruises.com.

Sincerely,

Viking Cruises

Dear Viking Travelers,

 

We recently learned that construction and delivery of our third ocean vessel, Viking Sky, has been rescheduled for early 2017. In order for this change to impact the fewest guests possible we have rescheduled the 2016 July-September deployments for both Viking Sky and sister ship Viking Sea. Impacted guests from the rescheduled sailings have been alerted by email of their options. For guests who made their Viking cruise arrangements through a Travel Agent, we have emailed that agent.

 

Guests will need to be moved from the following previously scheduled dates and itineraries:

 

Viking Sea

July 31, 2016 – Viking Homelands, Bergen to Stockholm

August 14, 2016 – Viking Homelands, Stockholm to Bergen

August 28, 2016 – Viking Homelands, Bergen to Stockholm

September 11, 2016 – Viking Homelands, Stockholm to Bergen

September 25, 2016 – Passages through Western Europe, Bergen to Barcelona

 

Viking Sky

June 24, 2016 – Empires of the Mediterranean, Venice to Istanbul

July 3, 2016 – Empires of the Mediterranean, Istanbul to Venice

July 12, 2016 – Mediterranean Odyssey, Venice to Barcelona

July 24, 2016 – Mediterranean Odyssey, Barcelona to Venice

August 5, 2016 – Empires of the Mediterranean, Venice to Istanbul

 

Guests on the following departures originally scheduled for Viking Sky will now sail on sister ship Viking Sea. There are no changes to itinerary, departure date or staterooms – only a change to sister ship.

 

August 14, 2016 – Empires of the Mediterranean, Istanbul to Venice

August 23, 2016 – Mediterranean Odyssey, Venice to Barcelona

September 4, 2016 – Mediterranean Odyssey, Barcelona to Venice

September 16, 2016 – Empires of the Mediterranean, Venice to Istanbul

 

In the coming days Viking team members will be reaching out to impacted guests (or your Travel Agent) to assist with your reservation changes. Should you (or your Travel Agent) have any questions regarding your options, please contact the Viking team in your region.

 

North America

Redeployment Team

Monday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., PDT

1-855-358-4546

redeployment@vikingcruises.com

 

United Kingdom

Customer Services Team

Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., BST

0208 780 7900

customerservices@vikingcruises.com

 

Australia & New Zealand

Redeployment Team

Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., UTC/GMT

Australia: 1800 131 744

New Zealand: 0800 447 913

CustomerRelationsAU@vikingcruises.com

 

We thank you in advance for your patience as we assist all guests affected by this recent change. As always, should any Viking guest – whether or not on the above impacted itineraries – like to get in contact with us regarding a river or ocean cruise, please consider emailing us at TellUs@vikingcruises.com.

 

Sincerely,

Viking Cruises

Does anyone understand this announcement We are on Viking Sea 14 August 2016 and certainly have not received an email. Also the affected cruises were just about fully booked so don't know how they are going to get two ships passengers onto one ship. I shall now start looking at alternative cruise lines just in case.

We are booked on the July 31 cruise on the Sea and when I checked the website it has everything as NA for the calander. I also have heard nothing from them.

We are booked on the July 31 cruise on the Sea and when I checked the website it has everything as NA for the calander. I also have heard nothing from them.

I checked on the website and my cruise has disappeared from the My Viking Journey pages. I've already got an alternative lined up so just waiting to find out if we need to cancel with Viking as I'm not prepared to accept a lower grade cabin on a different Viking cruise.

We were on the June 24th Empires of the Med - can't imagine how they are going to sort this all out.

I guess it will be back to Azamara or Oceania.

Certainly a mess and disappointing.

But I wouldn't be surprised if they are able to accommodate most of the passengers; "Sold Out" doesn't mean that literally every cabin is taken, it just means they've stopped selling additional cabins (for example: temporarily; at the promotional price, etc). That's not an uncommon practice.

As we saw on the maiden voyage of the Star, which was sold out long in advance, they sailed at around 2/3 capacity to allow for an adjustment period. I hope that had cabins blocked on the 2016 sailings as a contingency for this sort of thing. Time will tell.

Appears we've been moved from the Sky to the Sea PS1. Booked 9/2014

August 23, 2016 – Mediterranean Odyssey, Venice to Barcelona.

We'll know more when we take our Star Sept 27 2015 Empires of the Mediterranean Venice to Istanbul with pre and post. We're so excited to get back to Viking!

Really enjoy the information coming from these CC posts. See you on board.

We were on the June 24th sailing - our travel agent has heard nothing! I phoned the UK number and was told not to worry as we had been transferred to a similar itinerary at the end of October. I did a similar itinerary on Oceania last October and would not choose this late in the year again.

I love the wording in the original notification on cruise critic. Nobody at Viking cruises has yet "reached out" to my travel agent or me.

We were on the June 24th sailing - our travel agent has heard nothing! I phoned the UK number and was told not to worry as we had been transferred to a similar itinerary at the end of October. I did a similar itinerary on Oceania last October and would not choose this late in the year again.

I love the wording in the original notification on cruise critic. Nobody at Viking cruises has yet "reached out" to my travel agent or me.

I am also still waiting for Viking to reach out to me. We were on the August 14 Viking Homelands cruise and certainly do not want to be cruising the Mediteranean in October so will ask for a cancellation with full deposit refund if this is all they can offer. At least they are letting us know well in advance and not wating for the week before the cruise as has happened to me in the past.

Our 31 July 2016 has been cancelled, we have been offered $500 credit plus $250 on board credit on a future ocean or river cruise or complete refund and $500 credit on future cruise. This was the cruise we really wanted to be on so guess we will try again for 2017.

At least Viking did this so far in advance no one could have made air arrangements yet. Oceania also had to cancel cruises on the Riviera when that launching was delayed. People on the original "maiden" were not allowed to bump those who had booked what became the new maiden.

We were on the June 24th sailing - our travel agent has heard nothing! I phoned the UK number and was told not to worry as we had been transferred to a similar itinerary at the end of October. I did a similar itinerary on Oceania last October and would not choose this late in the year again.

I love the wording in the original notification on cruise critic. Nobody at Viking cruises has yet "reached out" to my travel agent or me.

I am also still waiting for Viking to reach out to me. We were on the August 14 Viking Homelands cruise and certainly do not want to be cruising the Mediteranean in October so will ask for a cancellation with full deposit refund if this is all they can offer. At least they are letting us know well in advance and not wating for the week before the cruise as has happened to me in the past.

Dear Pugwash123 and Mrs. Miggins,

We have confirmed that all notification emails were sent yesterday to all effected guests, however some emails failed and/or bounced back to us. If you are booked on one of the affected sail dates and did not receive an email please contact us at redeployment@vikingcruises.com so that we may discuss in further detail.

Thank you,

Viking Cruises

I asked my TA to phone since they did not receive an email. We have now changed our booking to September 25th.

Dear Pugwash123 and Mrs. Miggins,

 

We have confirmed that all notification emails were sent yesterday to all effected guests, however some emails failed and/or bounced back to us. If you are booked on one of the affected sail dates and did not receive an email please contact us at redeployment@vikingcruises.com so that we may discuss in further detail.

 

Thank you,

Viking Cruises

Came home from work early tonight to sort out my 2016 August cruise. Rang Viking (before I’d seen this post) at 5:15pm and was put through to redeployment. The lady in redeployment said she was dealing with another customer and would ring me back in 10 – 15 minutes to discuss my options. 15 minutes later she rang back and then immediately apologised because she had rung me instead of the original customer who she had meant to ring but would ring me back as soon as she had dealt with the other customer. It I now 7:15pm (Customer Service closing time is 7pm) and still no call, if this is an example of Viking’s customer service I’m glad we took our river cruises with Scenic and Uniworld.

Came home from work early tonight to sort out my 2016 August cruise. Rang Viking (before I’d seen this post) at 5:15pm and was put through to redeployment. The lady in redeployment said she was dealing with another customer and would ring me back in 10 – 15 minutes to discuss my options. 15 minutes later she rang back and then immediately apologised because she had rung me instead of the original customer who she had meant to ring but would ring me back as soon as she had dealt with the other customer. It I now 7:15pm (Customer Service closing time is 7pm) and still no call, if this is an example of Viking’s customer service I’m glad we took our river cruises with Scenic and Uniworld.

Dear Pugwash123,

Please contact us at customerservices@vikingcruises.com so that we may put you in touch with a representative. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Best,

Viking Cruises

Happy to report that a satisfactory alternative Viking cruise has now been arranged, much to the delight of my OH, just waiting written confirmation.

Pugwash123

I was booked on the June 24th Viking sky, travel agent let me know I hope to transfer to 2017 as I didn't want to go in October.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

If Viking is monitoring posts here?? Can you tell us the date and time of the Star's christening in Bergen?

Viking should spend more money on customer service for paying customers and less on those TV ads.

We were contacted promptly by telephone - they offered us same itinerary 7 days later on different ship. They put our reservation on a 24 hr hold so we could contact travel companions.

6 hours later we email back to say OK. No response to email in 48 hours. I called and left VM. No reply. Now over the weekend. On Monday - call again - get routed to VM after 15 minute wait. On Tuesday I try a different number- finally get thru and this person seems to be able to figure it out.

Apparently they got my email and VM and confirmed my request internally, but never bothered to reply and tell me that they had received them.

We were going to try and book for 2016 soon since there were a few cabins available but it looks like we should hold off until this situation is under control. I can certainly understand the problem and don't fault them.

Viking, could you advise me when will be a good time to book for the coming year or two?

We were going to try and book for 2016 soon since there were a few cabins available but it looks like we should hold off until this situation is under control. I can certainly understand the problem and don't fault them.

 

Viking, could you advise me when will be a good time to book for the coming year or two?

Dear jiminyC fan,

Please contact us at tellus@vikingcruises.com so that we may put you in touch with a Travel Specialist who can best answer your question.

Thank you,

Viking Cruises

Viking - please review this thread - http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2208557

I would hope that those of us that had our 2016 cruises cancelled will have the opportunity to be first in line when the 2017 cruises come out.

Upgrade or else......I was offered the same cruise a week later but only if I bought a higher level cabin. I did get $1000 off but still had to fork over $1200 extra. What does that upgrade get you?

Same size room, but You can make reservations at speciality restaurant 60 days in advance. And get free soda in the mini bar....

But at least they require final and full payment 18 months in advance!!!!!

Upgrade or else......I was offered the same cruise a week later but only if I bought a higher level cabin. I did get $1000 off but still had to fork over $1200 extra. What does that upgrade get you?

 

Same size room, but You can make reservations at speciality restaurant 60 days in advance. And get free soda in the mini bar....

 

But at least they require final and full payment 18 months in advance!!!!!

When our 2016 cruise on Viking Sea was cancelled my OH was extremely disappointed. After talking over our options we decided that we would not accept a lower grade cabin or pay anymore per night than the price of the original cruise otherwise we would cancel. Fortunately, after a lot of communication problems, Viking were able to offer us the same cruise with the same grade cabin at the original price but on Viking Star on a different date. We are very happy with our outcome but can certainly empathise with the many Viking cruisers who must be sorely disappointed.

Pugwash123