Beware of Viking

[remydiva]

Juat curious to know if the OP has picked up the phone and contacted Viking directly given that a few days has passed since they first contacted him.

Perhaps there may be more information available to Viking, and the OP now.

 

Given that it has been reported here on CC that a 100% refund has been offered to an upcoming cruise, perhaps now IF the OP calls Viking ( as was suggested here a few times most recently by Mark_ T) rather than wait for them to call him, he will get a more satisfactory outcome to his situation.

 

CC is a great place to share experiences both good and bad but individual customer service issues are best resolved privately IMHO.

[Missouri1014woman]

Just want to comment here that if I were looking to hire a top PR person - it would be someone exactly like Mark_T. I don't believe for a second that he works for Viking but I am sure they wish he did. :)

 

I don't think he works for Viking, but perhaps for a firm that does the PR for Viking. This was obviously written by a professional PR person is my guess. Let's be realistic, we all know that a random Cruise critic poster would not write such a polished defense/rebuttal of Viking...point by point like this!

[wwinfl91]

Juat curious to know if the OP has picked up the phone and contacted Viking directly given that a few days has passed since they first contacted him.

Perhaps there may be more information available to Viking, and the OP now.

 

Given that it has been reported here on CC that a 100% refund has been offered to an upcoming cruise, perhaps now IF the OP calls Viking ( as was suggested here a few times most recently by Mark_ T) rather than wait for them to call him, he will get a more satisfactory outcome to his situation.

 

CC is a great place to share experiences both good and bad but individual customer service issues are best resolved privately IMHO.

 

Thanks for the idea. We were planning on contacting them again next week after we finish a short trip we are on currently. The news that Viking has extended that offer to other cruisers facing a similar issue give me hope that they will do the same for us and the other people that were on our cruise.

 

I still want to emphasis that the original and continuing purpose of this post is to inform other cruisers who may be considering a Viking cruise of the problems we encountered.

 

If I had read a similar post before I booked the cruise I would have never booked it.

 

The worse thing that has ever happened on 32 ocean cruises was missing a port because of high waves (we couldn't tender into the Cayman Islands where I had already been several times).

 

Anyway thanks for the suggestion to contact Viking again. I will do so once we get back home again.

 

Have a great next cruise.

Edited August 15, 2014 by wwinfl91

[Missouri1014woman]

Unless I missed it, we only know that the boat will be dry docked but not why or how far in advance it was known to be needed. You seem to be making the assumption that it was known previously but hidden until now and/or could have been avoided in some way. While that's certainly one possibility, it's certainly not the only one. I'm willing to wait to find out what the facts are. Currently, we don't know what the true information surrounding this is.

Obviously you cannot put a longship the size of the Skaddi in dry dock without previously making an appointment. I can't get my Honda serviced without one! They knew but choose not to inform the passengers. A few glitches happen on every vacation we take, but never such a string of issues which ruined our cruise. We take 2 or 3 cruises a year, this has been the worst experience we ever had!

[Stratheden]

I don't think he works for Viking, but perhaps for a firm that does the PR for Viking. This was obviously written by a professional PR person is my guess. Let's be realistic, we all know that a random Cruise critic poster would not write such a polished defense/rebuttal of Viking...point by point like this!

 

I don't think MarkT works for Viking either, nor do I think he works for a firm that does PR for Viking.

 

I do think that he is a very talented PR person and whoever he works for is very lucky. He does write extremely balanced, well thought out replies. JMHO.

[remydiva]

Thanks for the idea.

 

I still want to emphasis that the original and continuing purpose of this post is to inform other cruisers who may be considering a Viking cruise of the problems we encountered.

 

If I had read a similar post before I booked the cruise I would have never booked it.

 

 

.

 

You are not the first , nor will you be the last, to say that but sadly, there were plenty of posts here on CC about bad cruise experiences and the resulting good, bad and ugly PR from many of the RC companies including Viking.

 

I offer these CC threads as examples of unhappy pax during last June 2013 devastating floods and these are just a few.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1864482

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1855333

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1874972

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1870980

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=43767140

[1SGCruiser]

Obviously you cannot put a longship the size of the Skaddi in dry dock without previously making an appointment. I can't get my Honda serviced without one! They knew but choose not to inform the passengers. A few glitches happen on every vacation we take, but never such a string of issues which ruined our cruise. We take 2 or 3 cruises a year, this has been the worst experience we ever had!

 

 

To be clear, I was responding to (and I quoted it) a very recent post about the Prestige and its dry dock where Viking is offering a 100% refund or a 30% discount for a future cruise. I was not talking about the Skaddi and the OP.

 

Regardless of anything else, I'm sorry you had a bad experience. Good luck with future cruises on other cruise lines.

Edited August 16, 2014 by 1SGCruiser

[followyourheart]

I don't think MarkT works for Viking either, nor do I think he works for a firm that does PR for Viking.

 

I do think that he is a very talented PR person and whoever he works for is very lucky. He does write extremely balanced, well thought out replies. JMHO.

 

I agree that MarkT always writes very balanced, logical, well thought out replies. He sees both sides of the story, gets his point across eloquently, and never is rude or insulting.

[CPT Trips]

Unless I missed it, we only know that the boat will be dry docked but not why or how far in advance it was known to be needed. You seem to be making the assumption that it was known previously but hidden until now and/or could have been avoided in some way. While that's certainly one possibility, it's certainly not the only one. I'm willing to wait to find out what the facts are. Currently, we don't know what the true information surrounding this is.

 

Hey "Top,"

If you think that Viking will be forthcoming on how far in advance dry dock was booked, I have a bridge that mighty interest you.

:rolleyes:

[1SGCruiser]

Hey "Top,"

 

If you think that Viking will be forthcoming on how far in advance dry dock was booked, I have a bridge that mighty interest you.

 

:rolleyes:

 

 

Hey Sir!

 

No thank you ;-)

[Missouri1014woman]

Amen! Thanks for the support!

[Host Jazzbeau]

Amen! Thanks for the support!

 

I hope you won't give up on river cruising because of this bad experience. Try another river cruise line. Read this forum and you will see that many lines have a vast majority of satisfied customers, even when weather or locks don't cooperate.

[Mark_T]

Let's be realistic, we all know that a random Cruise critic poster would not write such a polished defense/rebuttal of Viking...point by point like this!

 

Only proving once more that 'what we all know' is often wrong :)

 

Thanks for the kind words from others on here, I am indeed just a random Cruise Critic poster the same as the rest of you.

 

I have no current ties to the hospitality/vacation industry since leaving the hotel sector about 25 years ago so no particular affiliations to promote or defend.

 

I merely aim to bring balance to these debates at times of stress so those reading them will have a chance to keep things in perspective.

[tml1230]

Only proving once more that 'what we all know' is often wrong :)

 

Thanks for the kind words from others on here, I am indeed just a random Cruise Critic poster the same as the rest of you.

 

I have no current ties to the hospitality/vacation industry since leaving the hotel sector about 25 years ago so no particular affiliations to promote or defend.

 

I merely aim to bring balance to these debates at times of stress so those reading them will have a chance to keep things in perspective.

 

I for one always find your posts thought provoking…..

[1SGCruiser]

Only proving once more that 'what we all know' is often wrong :)

 

Thanks for the kind words from others on here, I am indeed just a random Cruise Critic poster the same as the rest of you.

 

I have no current ties to the hospitality/vacation industry since leaving the hotel sector about 25 years ago so no particular affiliations to promote or defend.

 

I merely aim to bring balance to these debates at times of stress so those reading them will have a chance to keep things in perspective.

 

 

I find your posts rare attempts at balance and an even more rare bit of perspective. Thank you for your efforts. They are not unnoticed and I for one appreciate them and you.

[RatherBeCruisin2014]

As a veteran cruiser I certainly understand that sometimes things do not always go according to plan. However, by keeping the guests informed goes a long way to keeping folks happy. I sent the message below to my travel agent upon our return and she was "speechless" at the experience we had.

 

Anytime we asked the Program Director questions about what was going on, his normal response was, "I don't know."

 

Donna,

 

The arrival to the boat and the first day in Budapest was fine.

 

Then they announced that the boat would “have to take advantage” of an opportunity to spend the day in dry dock for a reason that was never explained. So we were met by buses to take us on a long ride to our tour upriver and the boat would meet us there. Unfortunately we had to take the buses back which put the boat’s progress a full day behind.

 

Then the rains caused the river Danube to rise enough that the boat could not pass under some of the bridges. For the next few days we were bussed ahead to our tour destinations with up to 3:mad: ½ hour rides there and back. Due to traffic the buses were often late or delayed. At one point when the boat could have continued it did not because there was no place to dock at our destination.

 

They finally informed us that we would be leaving the Skadi and would be bussed to the Lif to continue the cruise. This of course required packing and boarding more busses to our new accommodations.

 

At one point we traveled on the boat all day enjoying a “narrative” from the program director which was less than interesting or informative. I had asked the PD why they just did not let us off the boat to see sights where we were and he said the “company” had made that decision. So instead of seeing Mallenberg castle as scheduled that day we were offered an optional tour the next afternoon with the same bus ride time.

 

Once we got on the Lif things got better but we still passed up on some optional tours and opted for free time to wander around rather than ride a bus. The problem with all the time spent on buses or trapped on the boat was that it significantly reduced our “free time” ashore for sightseeing on our own or shopping.

 

About half of the tour guides were excellent and the rest just okay. If they had pointed out one more “flood level” from the middle ages to today I think I would have screamed.

 

Our PD was a Brit who did not speak German so he had a lot of problems communicating with drivers causing more delays and confusion. At one point we had to turn around and go back to the boat because he forgot the microphones for the tour guides. I think he was overwhelmed by the need to be resourceful and adapt to the changing conditions. Or to put it another way, ”A village somewhere is England is missing their idiot and I know where he is……”

 

Lee, the PD, was rude and short to me on several occasions and as a result I did not tip him. Nicola, the concierge, on the other hand was terrific and bent over backwards to help if you could talk to him away from Lee. We got accidently left by the boat at one stop because it was never mentioned to us that day what time we would return. Nicola rescued us and we took a taxi to catch up with the boat.

 

All in all the trip was OK but could have been excellent. I feel the company’s decision to dry dock the boat caused the problems to domino and a 25% discount on my next Viking cruise (which may never happen) is small consolation. If I had wanted a bus tour of Europe I would have scheduled one instead of a boat ride.

 

The crew, waiters, bartenders(especially), housekeepers, and service desk people were always great on both the Skadi and the Lif but more so on the Lif. I think that crew may have had more experience.

 

Anyway, those are my thoughts and thank you for arranging the vacation. The flight over there was cramped and hot. The flight back with the additional leg room was a pleasure.

 

Claude Bloom

[Missouri1014woman]

As a veteran cruiser I certainly understand that sometimes things do not always go according to plan. However, by keeping the guests informed goes a long way to keeping folks happy. I sent the message below to my travel agent upon our return and she was "speechless" at the experience we had.

 

Anytime we asked the Program Director questions about what was going on, his normal response was, "I don't know."

 

Donna,

 

The arrival to the boat and the first day in Budapest was fine.

 

Then they announced that the boat would “have to take advantage” of an opportunity to spend the day in dry dock for a reason that was never explained. So we were met by buses to take us on a long ride to our tour upriver and the boat would meet us there. Unfortunately we had to take the buses back which put the boat’s progress a full day behind.

 

Then the rains caused the river Danube to rise enough that the boat could not pass under some of the bridges. For the next few days we were bussed ahead to our tour destinations with up to 3:mad: ½ hour rides there and back. Due to traffic the buses were often late or delayed. At one point when the boat could have continued it did not because there was no place to dock at our destination.

 

They finally informed us that we would be leaving the Skadi and would be bussed to the Lif to continue the cruise. This of course required packing and boarding more busses to our new accommodations.

 

At one point we traveled on the boat all day enjoying a “narrative” from the program director which was less than interesting or informative. I had asked the PD why they just did not let us off the boat to see sights where we were and he said the “company” had made that decision. So instead of seeing Mallenberg castle as scheduled that day we were offered an optional tour the next afternoon with the same bus ride time.

 

Once we got on the Lif things got better but we still passed up on some optional tours and opted for free time to wander around rather than ride a bus. The problem with all the time spent on buses or trapped on the boat was that it significantly reduced our “free time” ashore for sightseeing on our own or shopping.

 

About half of the tour guides were excellent and the rest just okay. If they had pointed out one more “flood level” from the middle ages to today I think I would have screamed.

 

Our PD was a Brit who did not speak German so he had a lot of problems communicating with drivers causing more delays and confusion. At one point we had to turn around and go back to the boat because he forgot the microphones for the tour guides. I think he was overwhelmed by the need to be resourceful and adapt to the changing conditions. Or to put it another way, ”A village somewhere is England is missing their idiot and I know where he is……”

 

Lee, the PD, was rude and short to me on several occasions and as a result I did not tip him. Nicola, the concierge, on the other hand was terrific and bent over backwards to help if you could talk to him away from Lee. We got accidently left by the boat at one stop because it was never mentioned to us that day what time we would return. Nicola rescued us and we took a taxi to catch up with the boat.

 

All in all the trip was OK but could have been excellent. I feel the company’s decision to dry dock the boat caused the problems to domino and a 25% discount on my next Viking cruise (which may never happen) is small consolation. If I had wanted a bus tour of Europe I would have scheduled one instead of a boat ride.

 

The crew, waiters, bartenders(especially), housekeepers, and service desk people were always great on both the Skadi and the Lif but more so on the Lif. I think that crew may have had more experience.

 

Anyway, those are my thoughts and thank you for arranging the vacation. The flight over there was cramped and hot. The flight back with the additional leg room was a pleasure.

 

Claude Bloom

Thank you for so eloquently explaining how disappointing this cruise was for most of us experienced cruisers (our 33rd cruise). Hopefully more people will contribute to this thread so Viking knows what really happened on this trip. The Cruise Director was very rude and demeaning in a public forum to my husband. Unless you were there it is hard to believe the domino effect that tlhe 12 hour in dry dock caused. I too think 25% on a future cruise on Viking is offer is a paltry offer. Why would I want to go on Viking Again...maybe for a free cruise and a different Cruise Director?

[franski]

I read this (entire) thread just now... I was away for a bit - and just found this.

 

It is really too bad that the OP - and others - had such a miserable experience. And, I agree that communication - or lack thereof - can make or break your overall enjoyment of a cruise.

 

I have often said that one of the most important pieces of the puzzle in a river cruise experience is the Cruise Manager... and you have no control over that. The information shared - and the manner in which it is shared - is often personality-driven. The cruise manager on our Viking Cruise was very good.... The one on our AMA cruise was not, and yet many people on this board rave about AMA, and the cruise director(s).

 

My suggestion is to have another conversation with Viking. Their decision to put the boat into dry-dock was ill-advised - and they do need to understand that it seemed to be this decision that caused most of the issues on this sailing. They also should be informed about the issues with the cruise manager as this is something they can certainly address.

 

I somehow doubt that the OP (and others) will get a 100% refund as they did complete the cruise - but I do think that the first offer is probably not their "best" offer.

 

I really don't think it is any of our business what they agree on in the end - but I do hope that the OP comes back to let us know if Viking was able to work out a solution that he is satisfied with.

 

Fran

[purduemom1]

Seems to me that if ANY cruise line makes an operations decision that negatively impacts passengers, then that cruise should be offered at a reduced fare with full disclosure in advance as to what the impact will be. Those choosing to take advantage of that sailing will have made an informed decision. Of course this would not apply to unexpected situations or circumstances beyond the control of the cruise line.

[wwinfl91]

Seems to me that if ANY cruise line makes an operations decision that negatively impacts passengers, then that cruise should be offered at a reduced fare with full disclosure in advance as to what the impact will be. Those choosing to take advantage of that sailing will have made an informed decision. Of course this would not apply to unexpected situations or circumstances beyond the control of the cruise line.

 

I want to emphasis that had Viking told us before the cruise that our ship was going to be put in dry dock during the cruise resulting in many bus trips instead of river cruising and that in addition we would have to switch ships halfway through the cruise, we would have cancelled the cruise.

 

We were NOT told any of this in advance instead once we had flown to Europe and boarded the ship then we were told the night before that things were going to happen. One of the worse examples of this was the day we were bused 3 hours to and then 3 hours back to Nuremberg with an additional hour and half bus trip around the city. Then we were returned to the ship around 7 PM and after dinner we were informed in the evening "briefing" by the CD that we would be leaving the ship the next day. In addition we had to have our luggage packed and outside our cabin by 7:30 AM for another 3 hour bus trip back to Nuremberg to board another longship. We were up until 1:30 AM packing and then got up around 6 AM to get ready to have time to eat breakfast before leaving the ship for another bus trip.

 

We were extremely unhappy as during our time in Nuremberg we missed the castle and city walking tour due a bad thunderstorm. So we had spent 7 hours on the bus for a not very good lunch and 20 minutes at one of the WW II sites. Had we known we were going to have to leave the ship the next day we would have remained on the ship and packed our luggage during the day and wouldn't have been exhausted the next day.

 

Thanks for your comments as they reflect the way I feel about Viking's lack of planning and information sharing.

 

Have a great next cruise.

Edited August 18, 2014 by wwinfl91

[joanne2]

Correct me if I'm wrong but pre-cruise didn't Viking only know that there would be a dry dock of something like 8 hours which would mean 1 day of bus tours? The domino effect wasn't known because the water level issues only happened at the time of dry dock. So would you have cancelled if you knew there would be 1 bad day out of 14? Hind-sight certainly is 20-20. And I do not work for Viking, nor represent them, nor I have even taken a Viking cruise yet.

[SeaTheWorldBySea]

Correct me if I'm wrong but pre-cruise didn't Viking only know that there would be a dry dock of something like 8 hours which would mean 1 day of bus tours? The domino effect wasn't known because the water level issues only happened at the time of dry dock. So would you have cancelled if you knew there would be 1 bad day out of 14? Hind-sight certainly is 20-20. And I do not work for Viking, nor represent them, nor I have even taken a Viking cruise yet.

 

That is the way I read it too joanne2. I'm not sure there would have been a whole bad day. They may have disembarked at the dry dock area and had to take a bus to the city but the boat may have met them there later in the day - so 1/2 of a bad day. I have read many times on this board and elsewhere that river levels are not predictable by days or even hours. I do not work for Viking, nor represent them, nor have I even taken a Viking cruise YET.

[wwinfl91]

It is possible Viking was only expecting to have the Skadi in dry dock for part of the day and believed it would catch up with us in Passau. To me the key issue is you have to schedule dry dock time ahead of time for a 400 ft long ship. This was not done the day before but probably weeks before. In my opinion and in many of those on the cruise we should have been informed before the cruise and given a chance to cancel and get ALL of our money back before we flew to Europe.

 

We were not given this opportunity and YES my wife and I would have cancelled because we had already read the posts on cruise critic about the cruises that ended up bus trips. If we had wanted to do a bus trip we would have booked one for far less money than Viking charged us. We would have opted out and would have missed all the problems of the cruise.

 

I don't know if you noticed the post where I mentioned the Viking Freya was in port with us at Melk. They continued their cruise upriver without problems with the high water and we saw the ship and the passengers in several ports we visited by bus. I talked with one of the passengers and he said they lost the use of the sun deck but were able to make it under the bridges. If Viking had not put us in drydock our cruise would have continued as planned and I would not be spending hours on cruise critic trying to warn others about what happened to us.

 

I got an email from another passenger who is also trying to get Viking to do something about what happened. I won't post the whole email but here is one comment I think belongs here.

 

"I am really amazed at some of the postings on cruise critic - You speak for all of us on the skadi/lif, thank you for doing so."

 

I still wish others from the cruise would start posting on CC but until they do I will do what I can to keep this thread alive.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[remydiva]

I think it might be best if we all just wait until the OP phones and speaks to Viking customer service again.

 

Until then, it feels that this thread is a guessing game of when, how, who, what Viking did know, didn't know, could've and should've done.

 

I recall one angry CC poster during the June 2013 floods who eventually reached a satisfactory and fair resolution and she went from unhappy to actually booking another Viking cruise.

 

When the OP and others on that cruise reconnect with Viking, there may well be a satisfactory outcome for them too but it makes no sense to me to retell the same story over and over. PHONE VIKING! :eek:

[Huffy2k]

I recall one angry CC poster during the June 2013 floods who eventually reached a satisfactory and fair resolution and she went from unhappy to actually booking another Viking cruise.

 

My guess is that once this happens OP will be a happy camper. I think people routinely use this forum as a means to extract refunds from cruise lines...