Beware of Viking

[CWRob]

I will chime in with my positive feedback. We were on Viking grand European tour last Oct/Nov. Boat was stopped for over a day with electrical malfunction and as a result we didn't see re windmills at kinderdyke(sp). I emailed Viking, they called, we got a fair credit and are sailing with them in October. As has been said s*** happens. BUT I didn't air my dirty laundry here. otherwise a great cruise except the stampede at dinner lol

 

Sent from my SM-T310 using Forums mobile app

[Host Jazzbeau]

I will chime in with my positive feedback. We were on Viking grand European tour last Oct/Nov. Boat was stopped for over a day with electrical malfunction and as a result we didn't see re windmills at kinderdyke(sp). I emailed Viking, they called, we got a fair credit and are sailing with them in October. As has been said s*** happens. BUT I didn't air my dirty laundry here. otherwise a great cruise except the stampede at dinner lol

 

If the boat has a malfunction and the crew is obviously doing all they can to cope, I would completely understand. The recurring theme in the Viking horror stories is that the things that happened either were or should have been known to Viking before the cruise even began and Viking kept this information from the passengers to prevent them from canceling. If that happened to me, it's hard to imagine what compensation could turn me into a happy camper since I would be in dread until the end of the "make good" cruise that the same thing would happen again.

[lady girl]

Well said Huffy2K and CW Rob.

 

There have been only 150 replies to this topic and 16,231 views. That alone should tell you that this conversation is getting out of hand. You were offered 25% off of a next cruise. That is a generous offer since your whole cruise was completed. You yourself said you got a great deal to begin with $3999 counting the flight! That being said............................

I do not work for Viking, nor represent them, nor have I even taken a Viking cruise YET.

[Mark_T]

The recurring theme in the Viking horror stories is that the things that happened either were or should have been known to Viking before the cruise even began and Viking kept this information from the passengers to prevent them from canceling.

 

I think you missed out the word 'allegedly' :)

 

We don't know if that is or was Viking's motivation or if perhaps they judged (or misjudged) that what they had planned ranked only as a minor inconvenience that wasn't worth worrying people about.

 

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.

 

I've experienced similar (and worse) planned and unplanned maintenance stops like that and I don't recall ever being told about them before the cruise started with any company I've been with.

 

These ships are scheduled pretty much back to back through the season so it is inevitable that someone somewhere is going to have a disturbance to their cruise schedule, but I'm not sure that, if what was planned involved a less than convenient arrangement for one day, that it would warrant advance notice and letting people cancel.

 

Now in this case it cascaded into something much worse and that is what has given rise to the understandably deep level of dissatisfaction, but on reflection, I still wouldn't have expected advance notice of something that was planned to cause issues on part of one day only.

 

On the other-hand, the reports of Viking giving advance notice and cancellation offers on another cruise where it sounds as though 2 days were going to be disrupted out of 7 sound entirely proportionate.

Edited August 18, 2014 by Mark_T

[wwinfl91]

I am the OP to this thread and contacted Viking today with a long email detailing out all my concerns. If you are interested you will be able to see them on CC soon when I do a complete review of the disaster, oh I mean cruise. I think my title will be Viking cruise, the Good, Bad and Ugly. I will include the good, the waiters and cabin stewards as well as the decent food and service in the dining room. But I will also include rude behavior by some of their front desk staff and a case when we were on the sun deck and my wife asked a waiter for a glass of ice tea. His answer was the self service station was just one deck down where you can get one. Then there is the ugly which I talk about again below.

 

My major purpose in continuing this thread is to educate people considering a Viking cruise what they may end up experiencing. We had great expectations and had done all kinds of checks on the river conditions before we left.

 

It is my argument that Viking knew they were going to be putting the boat in dry dock and that they also knew they would be forcing us to switch ships. It is also my argument that they should of informed of these facts before we left home and given us a chance to cancel with a full refund or another cruise without the problems. They did NOT do this and in fact did not inform in a timely fashion of any of the problems we encountered. I do not consider telling someone at 9:30 PM that you have to pack everything up and have it out in front of your cabin by 7:30 AM so you can leave the ship and take a 3 hour bus trip to the ship you were originally scheduled to be on.

 

Unless you have went through what the passengers on this cruise went through for well over half of the cruise then you aren't qualified to tell me I am wrong in keeping this thread alive. We were on our first river cruise and we chose a highly rated and expensive (to me $4000 a person for a 145 sq ft cabin is expensive) cruise line because we wanted a good experience.

 

We did Not get one. I have over 5000 posts on the CC boards and believe one of its main purposes is for individual cruisers to post their experiences. I'm not sure why this thread has upset so many people. If you don't want to read it then don't but quit trying to make me quit posting.

 

I asked Viking to have one of their customer services managers contact me tomorrow morning after they have had a chance to read my comments. I will be posting to this thread the results of that conversation which I hope provides me with sufficient satisfaction and I am not talking about 25% off on a future Viking cruise.

 

Have a great next cruise.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Missouri1014woman]

Well said Huffy2K and CW Rob.

 

There have been only 150 replies to this topic and 16,231 views. That alone should tell you that this conversation is getting out of hand. You were offered 25% off of a next cruise. That is a generous offer since your whole cruise was completed. You yourself said you got a great deal to begin with $3999 counting the flight! That being said............................

I do not work for Viking, nor represent them, nor have I even taken a Viking cruise YET.

 

What is your point? So 16,231 people viewed it...good. Since you have no dog in this race and minimal cruise experience why did you post at all? I was on this ship and it was not a good deal at any price. It was a BUS TOUR not what we paid for, why would I ever want to use their offer of 25% on a future cruise. I am not a masicist.

[gentlemancruiser]

Vouchers for reductions in future cruises are not really compensation, because they require you to buy the companies product again and that is also assuming you would use that company(cruise lines) again.

 

I have recently experienced problems with my first and long awaited European river cruise and the experience has left me seriuosly wondering if I will take ever taken a river cruise again. I've taken many ocean cruises and I LOVE to travel, it's why I go to work every day. I really enjoyed my very brief time onboard our recent Danube River cruise.

 

River cruising is also a very expensive form of vacation and I can certainly understand the costs involved with operating river boats, however when I have to weight the costs against losing my very precious vacation time, I'm not entirely sold and that really bothers me.

 

If a cruise line is going to adjust your vacation they need to provide as MUCH information and options as possible.

 

I realize that sometimes circumstances are beyond everyones control, however what happens after the 'incident' really tells the good companies from the bad ones. Basic business is that companies are in business solely to make money otherwise there is no reason for them to exist. Very few companies these days realize with the increased competition they must DO MORE for their customers. Customers have every right to voice their concerns to the company and social media (Thank You Cruise Critic) has an enormous impact on consumer efforts and loyalty.

[Missouri1014woman]

I think you missed out the word 'allegedly' :)

 

We don't know if that is or was Viking's motivation or if perhaps they judged (or misjudged) that what they had planned ranked only as a minor inconvenience that wasn't worth worrying people about.

 

 

 

I've experienced similar (and worse) planned and unplanned maintenance stops like that and I don't recall ever being told about them before the cruise started with any company I've been with.

 

These ships are scheduled pretty much back to back through the season so it is inevitable that someone somewhere is going to have a disturbance to their cruise schedule, but I'm not sure that, if what was planned involved a less than convenient arrangement for one day, that it would warrant advance notice and letting people cancel.

 

Now in this case it cascaded into something much worse and that is what has given rise to the understandably deep level of dissatisfaction, but on reflection, I still wouldn't have expected advance notice of something that was planned to cause issues on part of one day only.

 

On the other-hand, the reports of Viking giving advance notice and cancellation offers on another cruise where it sounds as though 2 days were going to be disrupted out of 7 sound entirely proportionate.

 

What planet are you on? A minor inconveince"? You were not there for this horrible experience. One day we spent over 8 hours on busses, when we were supposed to walk ashore for a tour. It was not only one day that was bad, it was 8 really bad days. We spent over 30 hours on uncomfortable, boring bus rides...wasted over 6 hours packing and unpacking because they made us switch ships. Our return flight was messed up! I call that a major fiasco, which ruined my vacation. I suppose the Carnival Triumph that had to be towed back into port was just a minor inconvenience by your standards.

[CPT Trips]

This thread is nowhere close to being out of hand.

 

I'm willing to take OP at his word . . . I wonder whether Viking would have made an apparently generous offer if the OP didn't shine a light on his experience.

 

I have to agree that a future cruise is always, OK almost always, unsatisfactory compensation. The cruise line is compensating because they screwed up big time. If this is my first time with the line, I'm going to be concerned that SNAFUs like this will happen again on my make-up cruise. If I have had good experiences with the line, then the extra money from a refund in my vacation fund will likely go back to them.

 

I've seen my favored cruise line deal with glitches, similar to but thankfully less disruptive than OP's twice. They communicated well, give us unique substitutes for what we missed and had two great parties. Obviously we were satisfied as we still travel them.

 

ETA . . . That will teach me to take close to an hour to do a post :)

Edited August 18, 2014 by CPT Trips

[remydiva]

What planet are you on? A minor inconveince"? You were not there for this horrible experience. One day we spent over 8 hours on busses, when we were supposed to walk ashore for a tour. It was not only one day that was bad, it was 8 really bad days. We spent over 30 hours on uncomfortable, boring bus rides...wasted over 6 hours packing and unpacking because they made us switch ships. Our return flight was messed up! I call that a major fiasco, which ruined my vacation. I suppose the Carnival Triumph that had to be towed back into port was just a minor inconvenience by your standards.

 

Missouri1014 you are clearly upset and given your relatively few posts on CC i am guessing...only guessing...that this was one of your first cruises..aka bus trip in this case.

 

But "attacking " Mark _T is not serving any purpose.

The OP says he has received a phone call to his wife's cell, he returned the call to Viking at a more convenient time to him and they listened and responded with the 25% offer.

He has since emailed again and requested they phone him...if it were me...and its not... I would have phoned THEM at his convenience so he could be prepared with his check list of issues and what HE thinks would be a fair compensation

( which he hasnt said so far that I can see).

 

He will have to be prepared to accept something less than 100% cash refund since Viking did actually complete the cruise albeit not in the way planned ( by them or OP). He will not get a full refund ..that bar is set way too high.

 

So I wonder if you, Missouri1014 have phoned Viking? Emails get lost, filed, trashed, shuffled...a phone call is where YOU have real leverage as you can keep asking to speak to someone higher up to better resolve your issue.

 

But "attacking " fellow CCers doesnt help anyone.

[1SGCruiser]

What planet are you on?

 

I realize you are upset but this type of personal attack will not help your case with Viking or your fellow posters - who are also entitled to their opinions, even if they disagree with yours.

[Missouri1014woman]

Missouri1014 you are clearly upset and given your relatively few posts on CC i am guessing...only guessing...that this was one of your first cruises..aka bus trip in this case.

 

But "attacking " Mark _T is not serving any purpose.

The OP says he has received a phone call to his wife's cell, he returned the call to Viking at a more convenient time to him and they listened and responded with the 25% offer.

He has since emailed again and requested they phone him...if it were me...and its not... I would have phoned THEM at his convenience so he could be prepared with his check list of issues and what HE thinks would be a fair compensation

( which he hasnt said so far that I can see).

 

He will have to be prepared to accept something less than 100% cash refund since Viking did actually complete the cruise albeit not in the way planned ( by them or OP). He will not get a full refund ..that bar is set way too high.

 

So I wonder if you, Missouri1014 have phoned Viking? Emails get lost, filed, trashed, shuffled...a phone call is where YOU have real leverage as you can keep asking to speak to someone higher up to better resolve your issue.

 

But "attacking " fellow CCers doesnt help anyone.

 

This was NOT my first rodeo! Talk about attacking other fellow CCers, what are you doing here? You obviously have not read any of my other posts or you would have seen that we have taken over 30 cruises. We take about three cruises a year, plus other trips. I have talked to Viking for over an hour and they came back with that paltry offer of 25% off a future cruise. We are seasoned cruisers and travel extensively all year, as we are retired.

[remydiva]

This was NOT my first rodeo! Talk about attacking other fellow CCers, what are you doing here? You obviously have not read any of my other posts or you would have seen that we have taken over 30 cruises. We take about three cruises a year, plus other trips. I have talked to Viking for over an hour and they came back with that paltry offer of 25% off a future cruise. We are seasoned cruisers and travel extensively all year, as we are retired.

 

Sorry you feel that way but i see your first post as aug 7 on this thread and with no past cruises listed in your signature, i have no way of knowing how much cruising you have done. Your CC join date was July 8, 2014 so i am not sure what you thought I should be able to " see".

 

In any case, I am just saying that obviously you and the OP are not satisfied with the initial offer of 25% off a future cruise but in my piddly experience, you are likely to do better fighting this battle in private, on the phone with high level Viking customer service reps vs trying to force Viking to ante up through pressure from CC...it likely is a tactic that wont work to your satisfaction.

 

Here on CC, you can only detail your experience ( thank you), Vikings response and then listen to others suggestions.

Edited August 19, 2014 by remydiva

[Huffy2k]

The complaints about the cheap wine, the malfunctioning lights and the noisy cabin lead me to believe the OP expects perfection and will not settle for anything less. river cruising is a gamble, sometimes the weather cooperates, sometimes not. There is never a guarantee.

 

I admire Vikings diligence in responding to complaints on this forum but if I were in charge of their customer service I would stop that practice. Do you think it's a coincidence the other cruise lines don't have much of a presence here? As the largest operator there will always be a small percentage of unhappy customers, addressing their complaints in a public forum only encourages the vocal minority to seek recompense here.

[jiminyC_fan]

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...

 

The complaints about the cheap wine, the malfunctioning lights and the noisy cabin lead me to believe the OP expects perfection and will not settle for anything less. river cruising is a gamble, sometimes the weather cooperates, sometimes not. There is never a guarantee.

 

I admire Vikings diligence in responding to complaints on this forum but if I were in charge of their customer service I would stop that practice. Do you think it's a coincidence the other cruise lines don't have much of a presence here? As the largest operator there will always be a small percentage of unhappy customers, addressing their complaints in a public forum only encourages the vocal minority to seek recompense here.

 

I agree.

[remydiva]

The complaints about the cheap wine, the malfunctioning lights and the noisy cabin lead me to believe the OP expects perfection and will not settle for anything less. river cruising is a gamble, sometimes the weather cooperates, sometimes not. There is never a guarantee.

 

I admire Vikings diligence in responding to complaints on this forum but if I were in charge of their customer service I would stop that practice. Do you think it's a coincidence the other cruise lines don't have much of a presence here? As the largest operator there will always be a small percentage of unhappy customers, addressing their complaints in a public forum only encourages the vocal minority to seek recompense here.

 

We have just learned because of our early flight out of Amsterdam we will need to leave the ship at 4:30 AM. My wife is not a happy camper.

 

Good thing the OP didnt fly out of Budapest like we did...330 am off the ship...in January,,,in the &$@€£^% cold!

 

And for those wondering, NO, I don't work for Viking, YES i have cruised Viking twice and YES i do have a horse in this race in the form of a credit towards a future cruise.,,something I negotiated on the phone, in private with Viking.

[followyourheart]

The OP says he has received a phone call to his wife's cell, he returned the call to Viking at a more convenient time to him and they listened and responded with the 25% offer.

He has since emailed again and requested they phone him...if it were me...and its not... I would have phoned THEM at his convenience so he could be prepared with his check list of issues and what HE thinks would be a fair compensation

( which he hasnt said so far that I can see).

 

He will have to be prepared to accept something less than 100% cash refund since Viking did actually complete the cruise albeit not in the way planned ( by them or OP). He will not get a full refund ..that bar is set way too high.

 

So I wonder if you, Missouri1014 have phoned Viking? Emails get lost, filed, trashed, shuffled...a phone call is where YOU have real leverage as you can keep asking to speak to someone higher up to better resolve your issue.

 

But "attacking " fellow CCers doesnt help anyone.

 

Remydiva, I could be wrong, but based on several of their posts, I think that Missouri1014woman is the wife of wwinfl91. I'm sure she will let me know if I am wrong.

[remydiva]

Remydiva, I could be wrong, but based on several of their posts, I think that Missouri1014woman is the wife of wwinfl91. I'm sure she will let me know if I am wrong.

 

Ok THAT made me laff! Darn near spilled my lovely white wine!:D

[wwinfl91]

Yes I do expect close to perfection if I have been promised it. Watch Viking ads, the perfect vacation. If you want a perfect vacation try cruising on Seabourn and learn how a great cruise line does things.

 

Viking is getting into ocean cruising and they are trying to price themselves into the luxury cruise line range. Unless they do a lot better on the 7 seas than they did on our river cruise they are setting themselves up for failure if they try to compete with Seabourn, Regent, Silverseas or even Oceanic or Amaza. Right now as far as I'm concerned their river cruise equates to the worst ocean cruise I was on which was Carnival. And no I wasn't on the one that got stuck in the Gulf for 5 days without power.

 

Have a great next cruise on Seabourn, RCL, HAL or Princess.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[SeaTheWorldBySea]

My major purpose in continuing this thread is to educate people considering a Viking cruise what they may end up experiencing. [/tQUOTE]

 

I think you have done a fine job of educating people. The title of your thread is a warning and you have done a good job of telling your story. Thank you for sharing your experience. I do not understand your need to keep the thread going and don't understand why you are so anxious for others on your cruise to come to Cruisecritic to jump on this bandwagon. You don't need anyone to corroborate your story. We believe you were disappointed in your cruise and you feel that Viking is liable for your disappointment. You do not need to negotiate with Cruisecritic members.

 

I think we all hope Viking is able to find a solution that will satisfy you and look forward to hearing the end of your story. It is in fact YOUR story and we don't have to understand everything the same way you do.

[Missouri1014woman]

I realize you are upset but this type of personal attack will not help your case with Viking or your fellow posters - who are also entitled to their opinions, even if they disagree with yours.

 

They were not there! Their opinion is not worth much, since they did not experience the "Cruise from Hades".

 

I wonder why they choose to defend such an obvious Fiasco?... Before I retired I owned a very "successful" business and my number one priority was keeping customers satisfied. Viking has failed this on so many levels, too many to count on this cruise.

 

I am in contact with 25 other couples who are dissatisfied with Viking through email. These couples just are not interested in posting on Cruise Critic. I have not posted on CC in the past, but Viking has me so dissatisfied I felt I had to be proactive. These are some of the people who have looked at the posts but did not make any!

[nana541]

Good grief I am beyond the outrage, for gods sake go see an attorney!

You are losing what ever sympathy this board had by attacking folks who just wanted to offer advice and kind words.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Missouri1014woman]

Good grief I am beyond the outrage, for gods sake go see an attorney!

You are losing what ever sympathy this board had by attacking folks who just wanted to offer advice and kind words.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Thank you, kind words would have "been nice" I wish that was all we got. ! I think we will call our attorney, she is quite tenacious!

 

Still please beware of Viking!

[Mark_T]

What planet are you on? A minor inconveince"?

 

Read the post again, I said that what they had planned might have been considered a minor inconvenience, but what actually happened "cascaded into something much worse".

 

why would I ever want to use their offer of 25% on a future cruise. I am not a masicist.

 

I would exercise some caution in following that line of thought when negotiating with Viking. The clearer you make it to them that you have no intention of ever sailing with them again the less interest they have in trying to retain you as a customer and less likely it becomes that they will offer anything beyond a future cruise credit.

 

You have some valid complaints, concentrate on those and don't clutter up the discussion with the little stuff that really has no bearing on the core of your complaint.

 

I always try to maintain balance in my posts but please permit me this one question as it relates to something that has been cited as a key issue several times now and it has been bothering me as it gives an odd impression ...

 

wasted over 6 hours packing and unpacking because they made us switch ships.

 

The cabins are not large, the baggage limits are not excessive, how on earth do you spend so long packing and unpacking?

 

For us at least, an hour would seem like a long time to pack, 30 mins to unpack at most.

 

I wouldn't mention it if it didn't keep coming up as a key part of the problems you experienced and while other parts of your compliant are easy to understand and easy for Viking to recognize as problems, this one just doesn't feel in the same league as the other issues.

 

I apologize if there are physical reasons why this is something that takes a long time for you and there is no need to explain further, but if that is the reason then make sure Viking understand why having to pack and unpack is far more of an inconvenience for you than it would be for other guests as absent such a reason it just lends a tone of exaggeration to the whole complaint which is clearly something you'd want to avoid as it taints the otherwise clearly valid potions of your grievance.

[pully8]

really feel for the op and believe its important for others to know that such experiences happen and also to see how concerns are addressed.

 

many unfortunately may not be regular uses of the internet and therefore not aware of potential problems. we like to read travel info and will seek it from many sources, some are not as fortunate.

 

long may people tell their experiences, good, bad and the ugly.

 

re the dry dock issue... not seen that done/reported during a season?? anyone else?

 

packing and unpacking on a river cruise would not be what many would expect. we have done 6 and certainly not had that experience.

support and understanding goes along way in providing a quality travel experience.