Deceived by Viking, Our Story of the Romantic Danube

[pully8]

some serious and disturbing stories being told on here and other social media. serious issues around consumer law and protection as well as duty of care.

 

with all these offers of vouchers for future travel...how much capacity will these cruise lines have to meet their promises and obligations?

 

social media is excellent to provide and disseminate information, but perhaps in view of this severe event the main stream media now needs to have a role to inform and warn about some of these issues and outcomes?

 

it has been a reminder to all to be mindful of the potential for things not to go as planned. to look beyond the glossy promotions.

[cbb]

I think it is also a reminder that travel insurance is very important.

 

We are already spending thousands to travel, why get thrifty over spending hundreds? Buy the insurance for "cancel for any reason" and it should help in making decisions about commencing or continuing a trip.

[Ship's Wake]

I think it is also a reminder that travel insurance is very important.

 

We are already spending thousands to travel, why get thrifty over spending hundreds? Buy the insurance for "cancel for any reason" and it should help in making decisions about commencing or continuing a trip.

 

So very true.

 

I know I will now purchase a cancel for any reason travel insurance policy for my next river cruise.

[G.M.T.]

You do realize that no matter how high the water gets your cabin would not go further under water. The boat floats.

.

 

Not always true. If the mooring lines are not properly adjusted, the non moored side could rise with the flood and so tilting the boat to allow water to enter on the moored side.

 

Ron

[G.M.T.]

Engineer wise, your fear of being below the water level as it rises is irrational! Put a rubber ducky in the bath tub and see what happens when you add water. Ships float!

 

Not always true. A boat could loose power and / or the flood is too strong and the boat is pushed outside of the shippiong channel and be holed by an obsticle or rock. Then a boat would not float.

 

Ron

[alpinista]

I began reading this message thinking it was from a shipmate from my recently competed Danube cruise. Imagine my dismay when I realized it was the same story, just a different ship, the Aegir. I, and a large group of equally unhappy people, were subjected to the same treatment from Viking on a "cruise" from Budapest to Bucharest. Instead, we were subjected to 6 hour bus rides on the first and last days with 6 more days of being tethered to another ship in Novi Sad sandwiched between, making the trip seem like being on a prison barge.

[Viking Cruises]

Dear alpinista,

 

We hope that you will contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com so that we may discuss your particular concerns—even if you have already done so previously we ask that you contact us one again. Our Customer Relations team is starting to return to normal levels of incoming calls and emails after a few weeks of very high volume, and so we are re-doubling our efforts to address concerns with guests who may feel that they have not been adequately heard. We hope to hear from you soon – and also hope that you will share this message with the other members of the group you mention here. We’d be happy to speak with them, too.

 

Very best,

Viking Cruises

 

 

 

I began reading this message thinking it was from a shipmate from my recently competed Danube cruise. Imagine my dismay when I realized it was the same story, just a different ship, the Aegir. I, and a large group of equally unhappy people, were subjected to the same treatment from Viking on a "cruise" from Budapest to Bucharest. Instead, we were subjected to 6 hour bus rides on the first and last days with 6 more days of being tethered to another ship in Novi Sad sandwiched between, making the trip seem like being on a prison barge.

[alpinista]

Dear alpinista,

 

We hope that you will contact us directly at TellUs@vikingcruises.com so that we may discuss your particular concerns—even if you have already done so previously we ask that you contact us one again. Our Customer Relations team is starting to return to normal levels of incoming calls and emails after a few weeks of very high volume, and so we are re-doubling our efforts to address concerns with guests who may feel that they have not been adequately heard. We hope to hear from you soon – and also hope that you will share this message with the other members of the group you mention here. We’d be happy to speak with them, too.

 

Very best,

Viking Cruises

 

I find it interesting that for the time we were trapped on the Aegir with mounting hostility between the passengers and crew (and even between passengers divided as to the extent of liability for Viking's decision to bus us to a point where they knew we would be locked in place), the apparent company policy was to stonewall the passengers. The tour director was arrogant, dismissive, and contemptuous; the hotel manager, when available, claimed ignorance of such information as water levels and rate of flow (something I'd expect a river cruising business to have at their fingertips); the ship's captain was simply invisible.

 

Only when faced with a petition from the passengers demanding action, did Viking offer grudging (and incremental) compensation, and even that remains undefined as to inclusive or not of expenses beyond the cruise (insurance, transit fares, compensatory expenses for those of us whose "balcony view" was of a ship tethered 6" away from us).

 

Yet, when this topic is raised on a public forum, it only takes a blink of an eye for the PR folks from Viking to show up. Yes, I will certainly be in touch, as I expect a very high percentage of other people from this cruise and we will have these questions: 1) When will we see TOTAL compensation and 2) Has the person who made the decision to create this unbelievably fouled up situation (my and my wife's 25th anniversary gift to each other BTW) been terminated?

[jpalbny]

So sorry to hear about your very not-fun experience. We considered ourselves incredibly fortunate that Avalon canceled our cruise (due to depart 6/10) with almost a week's notice, and reading through your report only reinforces that. Don't know what I would have done in your shoes, but certainly would have been very disappointed with my "vacation" as well.

 

I will say that it must have been incredibly difficult to accurately predict the day-to-day effects of the worst flood in >500 years - no one alive has personal experience with this, so I think we have to cut the planners / forecasters some slack if they were caught unaware, so to speak. It's hard to extrapolate when water levels go off the charts to levels that have not been seen before. It's difficult to know what tomorrow will bring, when levels change rapidly by the hour.

 

Consider, also, that the CD is certainly at the mercy of decisions made at the main Corporate Office, so if they aren't getting clear instructions from above, it's difficult for them to give clear direction to passengers. Is it possible that the CD's dismissiveness reflected their frustration with not getting clear signals from above? Who knows; they may have been just as scared as you were. Was the Captain's invisibility due to the fact that he was busy, closely monitoring the safety of the ship while it was tied up in a torrentially flowing river?

 

The conditions obviously changed very rapidly, and the full extent of the rising water levels must have been challenging to impossible to predict. There will be a lot of retrospective analysis, and hopefully much learning from this experience. I know that this doesn't change your miserable trip, and I don't blame you for being upset about how this turned out. But, consider that Viking was just as much at the mercy of Mother Nature as you were.

 

BTW, we also were in Regensburg on June 10th - what a coincidence! When our cruise was canceled, we extended our planned pre-cruise stay in Nuremburg until June 11th, and used the extra day to make a day-trip by train to Regensburg. Nice town - we watched the raging power of the Danube from the Steinerne Brucke, and saw that the waters had receded quite a bit from their previous levels, though the flood barriers were still in place just in case.

 

Best of luck with appropriate compensation, and I hope that you get to see this beautiful part of the world again under more cheery circumstances! Thanks for sharing your experience.

[franski]

The tour director was arrogant, dismissive, and contemptuous; the hotel manager, when available, claimed ignorance of such information as water levels and rate of flow (something I'd expect a river cruising business to have at their fingertips); the ship's captain was simply invisible.

 

Hi -

 

Just wondering who your tour (cruise) director was? We were on the Aegir in late April, and our CD (George) was outstanding. We have been on 6 river cruises so far - and he topped the list.

 

Now, I wasn't impressed with the hotel manager - and did voice my concerns and impressions with Viking - so would be interested to know if he lingers.

 

I have always said the the CD can make or break a river cruise.

 

Fran

[mathladyca]

I

 

Y1) When will we see TOTAL compensation and 2) Has the person who made the decision to create this unbelievably fouled up situation (my and my wife's 25th anniversary gift to each other BTW) been terminated?

 

I didn't know that there was a person who was responsible for act of nature? Are you talking about a god?

[alpinista]

I didn't know that there was a person who was responsible for act of nature? Are you talking about a god?

 

The boats we were tethered to had canceled their trips for the prior week, the current week, and the coming week, so think their management made the proper decisions. Our issue was not with the river or any act of God, it was with Viking attempting to meet the letter of their contract so that we could be charged as if the cruise took place. The idea that a river company and the river authority can not read water levels and rates of flow is not going to wash with me. Viking had canceled the trip immediately before us and should have canceled ours also. The conditions were not a surprise to anyone, other than Viking. The captain was invisible for 6 days. I don't think he was on the clock that entire time. The waters were not flowing torrentially, just widespread flooding with a current slow enough that people and their dogs were swimming off the embankment in Novi Sad.

 

The ship dissolved into factions in open conflict with each other as the problems mounted. George, referenced above, made it very clear that he was an inconsequential cipher at the bottom of the chain of command with no interest in doing anything other than charming the women who would be determining the size of his tip.

 

Viking made a reckless decision that should cost them both in terms of compensation and in future good will. If they had canceled the trip, my wife and I would have been disappointed, but we would have rescheduled for next year and probably enjoyed ourselves. I was an executive manager during my career and I found that if mistakes were made the simple path of being open and honest and telling the truth made things a lot better. It was very clear that Viking wanted to string us along from day to day until they could discharge us with either a 12 hour bus ride to Bucharest (if we didn't move at all) or a 6 hour ride if we did manage to get onto the river. The latter is what happened and they then expected us to thank them that we spent less than 24 hours under way out of an 11 day itinerary.

 

Viking made a huge mistake and then compounded it by treating us like idiots. The final straw for us was a tour guide in Romania responding to a comment "This must be really unusual to pick up passengers here" with "Oh, no....this happens all the time..sometimes the water is too high and sometimes it is too low" (as opposed to Viking claiming that all of our problems were of the once in a lifetime type).

[Mark_T]

The final straw for us was a tour guide in Romania responding to a comment "This must be really unusual to pick up passengers here" with "Oh, no....this happens all the time..sometimes the water is too high and sometimes it is too low" (as opposed to Viking claiming that all of our problems were of the once in a lifetime type).

 

The Guide was correct though, high and low water events are relatively common on river cruises.

 

Viking would not deny that either, but they would have been keen to emphasize that the extent of the problems you were facing was exceptional.

 

Either way, I hope you have responded to the request from Viking to get back in touch so they can try to resolve matters to your satisfaction.

 

Posting on here may be cathartic, but speaking direct to Viking is the way to get things resolved.