Viking Deeply Offends and Insults Their Most Loyal Guests

[Los_Pepes]

I said this on another thread and I will say say it here.

 

I hope all of you "offended, embarrased and on the verge of tears" were not counting on empathy from all. The "incident", while marginally embarrassing, is certainly not worthy of the shrill hysteria conveyed.

 

If being uninvited to dinner on a cruise ship was the worse thing to happen to me on any given day, I would sleep soundly that night.

Edited May 18, 2015 by Los_Pepes

[juliesaddiction]

From past experience Vikings response to anyone that has been wronged by them who was bold enough to get the experience on social media has always been a monetary credit. This credit could never pay for the experience you lost. And yes we have figured out for ourselves that Vikings management is not good. Yesterday we were coming back on board when those VIPs were leaving and waited to be able to scan back in for a few minutes till we saw the size of the line then I butted in and asked to scan our cards and was treated rudely so I was rude back and our cards were scanned. Felt like a low life.

One scanner for entrance and one for exit would be much better.

[Di Princess]

Yes, most cruise ships have one scanner for ON the ship and another scanner for getting OFF. :confused:

 

I would take the $500 OBC. ;)

[Lady Chew]

Mr Chew & I have been following these threads fairly closely, since we have some friends who are on for the entire 50 days. (You know who you are ;) )

 

We've been amused by the people who are not even on the ship, or were on for just the first 10 days, or who just got on in the last day or so ... who say the things that have been happening (or not been happening) are no big deal, or that you're getting hysterical about them ... it's true that a few of the things the 50-days have been complaining about might be considered minor, but when they're not fixed, and when there are so many of them ... that is a pretty poor showing by the cruise line.

 

It really doesn't seem as though they or the ship were ready for this cruise.

 

Mr Chew, who has just a little experience with international corporate business practices, thinks a lot of this, particularly the dinner dis-invitation, is an example of corporate arrogance. We've been discussing what might have happened.

 

Obviously the invitation was not a mistake. Letters were addressed & delivered. You all sat in the lounge waiting for the activities to begin for quite a while. Our guess is that there was a problem that they did not discover until after people began to arrive. What could it be?

 

Perhaps they realized that the 50-days were mixed in with the guests, and did not want you to mention any of the problems you were experiencing to any of the VIPS? Perhaps the people from "corporate" did not realize that you all were invited and hadn't arranged enough food/etc? Perhaps corporate did originally invite you, later changed their minds, but this was not communicated to the staff on ship?

 

At any rate, Mr Chew is going to write about all of this on his blog ... which is connected to twitter & fb & elsewhere ...

 

As for whether or not you are making lemonade, I think that fact that you are still onboard & trying to get the most of your cruise shows that you are, indeed, making lemonade!

[Jancruz]

Unbelievable that Viking handled things so ineptly. I just cannot imagine what is was like to have to stand up and walk out after being "uninvited".

And the attempt to redress the problem by offering $500 is really insulting.

 

In some respects this seems to personify the way that Viking perceives its guests...when we first heard of the rigid hierarchical structure imposed on the booking system for dining and excursions we were really appalled but it was simply a harbinger of things to come.

 

They say they are going after the Oceania, Azamara and Regent past passengers. If so they seem to have no idea what types of guests typically book on those cruises.

The way you were treated today you might as well have been in steerage.

 

Im so sorry everyone is upset and I dont blame you..but having been on Viking River in the past and spoken to their office many times , what they did does not surprise me at all..the favorite word that is in Vikings vocabulary is NO..fo that reason I will never again travel on any of Vikings ships..river or ocean..too many other cruise lines to choose from..

Jancruz1

Edited May 19, 2015 by Jancruz

[CrusinSubMan]

Hi Everyone,

Here is my report on the resolution of the May 17th incident and my final thoughts on it.

Yesterday, the 18th, Star management steadily worked on several offerings as a means of apologizing and making up for the humiliation and offense they subjected some of their guests to. Primarily this consisted of a $500 credit and special session in the Theatre last night at 8:30 PM where Tors stood up in front of a crowd of people and talked about the ship and the incident and took comments and feedback (both positive and negative). We then enjoyed a personal performance by a Norwegian violin virtuoso that was very moving.

 

Overall, I feel satisfied that the Star has done most of what they can do to apologize and make amends. Tors himself said "I am sorry" three times. Offending and insulting people is like ringing a bell. Once done you really cannot undo it. So, for the most part, this incident is behind me and I probably won't post on it any further, but will instead go back to the other threads to talk about good and and things on the Star. But I will make a few comments about this now:

1) There are still a few kinks being worked out on the $500 credit because, as I noted in an earlier post, the group that was invited and dis-invited is not exactly the same as the 50-dayer group. Invites went to many premium cabins also, for example, regardless of how many segments those persons were doing. But they appear to be adding those persons that come forward and identify themselves.

2) The audience and nature of comments last night was interesting. There were a mixture of both praise and complaints. Also interesting was that there was a bit of a division in the theatre with some guests really wanting to keep a positive message and some guests really wanting to express their frustration. It never got out of hand, but there was certainly some tension between factions of the crowd itself. It is clear there are plenty of 50 day guests that are having a great cruise (we are in that category) and some of them really do not like the negativity that comes with complaining. They wanted a positive session last night.

3) While this was not a "complaining" session per se, it included a chance for feedback and Tors got to hear the primary complaints that guests had or have. I think that was a very good thing.

4) Tors himself worked the audience pretty hard to keep a positive theme and a majority of those in the room expressed their overall pleasure and enjoyment of the cruise. I say that based on the clapping mainly and my sense of the tone in the room.

5) Mostly, Tors and management acknowledged issues last night and that was nice to hear, finally.

 

As I have noted, one of my biggest criticisms has been the nature of communication, both to the guests, and within the management itself. One guest that has been struggling to get their bill fixed for more than a month now makes a great example of that. Last night they got a chance to tell Tors about it and he connected them with a senior manager who I suspect will fix it promptly. But that should not take a theatre session with the owner to resolve.

 

In a good management system, issues and complaints are dealt with in a very accountable manner with reporting and accountability going up and back down the chain of command. That has not happened yet but I am still hopeful that they are gradually implementing procedures such as that. Last night was really not just a product of the May 17th incident, but a product of a new management team having to develop its communication and interaction culture on the fly. Having the owner have to stand in front of all of his 50 dayers and hear about their experiences, both positive and negative, probably has created the best chance for the whole team to go through a good learning experience about how they can do things better. And that, for me, was the best aspect of the theatre session last night.

[WilliaFr]

Thanks for the update CrusinSubMan.

 

It would appear that things will improve before I get on board next year.

 

Looking forward to now reading your great feedback on the ship and destinations visited.

 

Enjoy your time in Oslo.

 

You still get my vote re: the position of Director, Customer Advocacy :)

[CrusinSubMan]

Thanks for the update CrusinSubMan.

 

It would appear that things will improve before I get on board next year.

 

Looking forward to now reading your great feedback on the ship and destinations visited.

 

Enjoy your time in Oslo.

 

You still get my vote re: the position of Director, Customer Advocacy :)

You are most kind! Fortunately, I like the day job I have now :)

I assume you have seen my blog "Travelinsubman" at Wordpress right?

[WilliaFr]

You are most kind! Fortunately, I like the day job I have now :)

I assume you have seen my blog "Travelinsubman" at Wordpress right?

 

Sure have ... been reading it since day one!

 

Well written ... well balanced ... well done!

[TERRIER1]

Thank you CruisinSubman for reporting on the meeting and all the other informative data you have provided. My real concern is what happens when Tors and Company departs the ship? Is it business as usual? Does it have to take an "incident" and public meeting to rectify issues? Shouldn't these problems have been resolved on the ship with the ship board management?

[Mr Top Cat]

Sure have ... been reading it since day one!

 

Well written ... well balanced ... well done!

 

CrusinSubMan

 

Ditto above! Got to thank you for your post as well. They are always well written, informative & balanced. All of the future cruisers on Viking Oceans thank you for the updates as well as a balanced approach to positive and negative issues. We continue to look forward to your posting and have a great time on the remainder of your cruise. We especially appreciate your information on excursions both included as well as extras. They will help us to hopefully make some wise and prudent decisions in the future on which ones to take. God Bless!

[LadyVol1]

A letter addressed to me and my husband from Torstein Hagen (Chairman, Viking Cruises) inviting us for a personal “thank you” on May 18 at 8:30 was in our cabin when we returned on May 18 at 4:30 PM. We cancelled our Manfredi's dinner reservation and attended. It started 11 minutes late. My take on it was that if this was an event that had been on the master calendar for several weeks (i.e. Torstein knew he was going to be on the ship and wanted to get the 50-day passengers together to thank them for being on the maiden voyage), it was poorly executed since I really didn’t feel like it was any kind of a thank you event. And if it was thrown together at the last minute due to the dinner fiasco that happened the night before, it failed on that front, too. Here’s why, in my opinion:

Torstein was talking for at least 2-3 minutes before he even introduced himself. He also appeared to have had several “G & Ts” (his words) prior to the event and had one in his hand on stage. (The rest of us were only offered glasses of champagne. I don’t drink alcohol and had to find my own water.) He did apologize three times for the fiasco of the night before and explained that there was only space for 340 guests off-site and the invitation letters went to too many people and so that’s why Cruise Director Paul Reynolds told the entire room Sunday night that only the VIPs could attend. On Sunday night I thought it would have been very nice if Torstein, CEO Jeff Dash or the Owner’s Representative would have disinvited the group while giving this explanation rather than Paul Reynolds.

Torstein shared several rambling stories. One was about the fact that he just realized a couple of weeks ago that he needed a suit for the Christening so he bought a Brioni suit in Barcelona but the belt didn’t work when he put it on in Bergen. I guess the point of this story was that he doesn’t plan in advance in his personal life.

He also talked about how he likes poached salmon with cold cucumber salad like his mom used to make and was amazed that the ship’s chef was serving it with hot cucumber salad. He met with the chef and thought everything was understood but two days later Torstein was served salmon with hot cucumber salad. I guess this story was to show that even Torstein can’t break through the communication barriers that are on the ship.

He also talked about how the purpose of having an off-site dinner for the 340 guests was so that they wouldn’t infringe on the paying passengers’ onboard dining experience and that was why there was an off-site dinner (and not that it was going to be a special dinner). However, during the same story he talked about how a wife of a VIP mistakenly wasn’t on the invitation list for this “special” off-site dinner. So, I’m not sure if the off-site dinner was special or not, but I sure think it was. I'm thinking that the 340 off-site guests weren’t eating off the menu from The Restaurant which was from the normal 14-day cycle with three regional additions (starter of steamed king crab [available most nights in World Café], main course of poached salmon and dessert of Strawberry Symphony [which was very tasty]). By the way, most port nights in The Restaurant there are three Regional Specialties added to The Restaurant’s 14-day cycle menu. After being on the ship since April 11, my husband and I really do know these menus since we are on the third iteration of them.

Then Torstein said he was happy with the ship, its square leather trash cans, the shampoo container with big letters on it and the great internet. That’s when a man said “No, it’s been bad since Gibraltar” and other passengers started chiming in with how slow it’s been. Torstein said he had no idea about this and Jeff Dash (CEO) seemed to say he didn’t know about it either but as more passengers started bringing up the issue, Jeff Dash said that a different provider was being used and he was looking into the problem. Meanwhile, Torstein seemed totally surprised that there were internet problems since it was fine when he got off the ship in Barcelona. (And it was fine then.) So, I guess the point of this is that Torstein’s own team is either not informing him of issues or he doesn’t ask for status reports.

A passenger got up and said that the crew was wonderful and another passenger commented about the excellent food. And another passenger thanked Torstein for his vision.

At some point a passenger got up and said that in his opinion a major problem to-date has been with the communication or lack thereof. He said that there seems to be disinformation or no information or changing information (depending on whom you ask). I totally agree.

A passenger asked how he could get his bill fixed that had been wrong since Day 3 and still showed a $7,000 balance due to being double charged for shore excursions. Torstein giggled and responded not to pay it. The passenger appeared to be frustrated (I would have been) and said that Torstein already had his credit card info. Torstein then started talking about a dirty window and how Karl Eckl cleaned it and told the man to talk to Karl since he can do anything. The man didn’t know who Karl was and Torstein pointed to the back of the room. The man then asked how to get to meet with Karl and Torstein basically said that Karl would get it fixed. Personally, I think Karl should implement the proper processes to prevent this type of billing mess. I had to spend the first five days of the cruise dealing with a similar billing problem until I was told Karl would fix it. The Hotel General Manager should not be the only person capable of fixing billing errors.

After that a violinist (not from the ship) and accompanying pianist played some songs.

I didn’t feel like it was any kind of thank you. It was just handled weirdly.

By the way, at least two couples received their letters regarding this May 18 8:30 PM “thank you” event today (May 19)… (Another example of Viking's communication problems.)

Edited May 19, 2015 by LadyVol1

[howiefrommd]

One of our excursions in Debrovnik was cancelled by Viking. We had prepaid for the excursion online. We were told that the cost of the excursion would be refunded to our credit card within 10 days. Well I am sure you know where this is going. If you think communication is bad on the ship, wait till you try to handle something with the Woodland Hills, CA office afterwards. I emailed several times to no avail. Have called (put on hold for 20 minutes) but still not credited.

[jlp879]

.... At any rate, Mr Chew is going to write about all of this on his blog ... which is connected to twitter & fb & elsewhere ...

 

Lady Chew, is this by any chance another travel blog that might follow Viking Ocean's saga that we should add to our reading (and following) list?

[twinkletoes4445]

Viking sure has its fair share of issues when it comes to their customers. I wouldn't even accept a free cruise on Viking. If it's not one thing, it's another with this company.

[lil dot]

UPDATE... My husband and I attended an apology gathering at the Star Theater the night before last where the owner of Viking, Tors, apologized for the celebration fiasco. After his apology many in the Star Theater, responded with positive remarks about how great everything is, while others expressed concern regarding the WiFi, and billing issues, etc.

 

Yesterday my husband and I were able to meet with the General Manager of the ship, Karl Eckl and the Pursor, Anyka regarding our on board account and its many issues. Karl expressed his personal apology for not only the celebration issue, but also the accounting issues. Never once was he defensive, and his sincerity was much appreciated. He listened and took notes. He understands that the biggest issue regarding the celebration was the embarrassment and humiliation we all felt that evening. He knows that the error cannot be retracted, he has taken full responsibility, and will live with his own humiliation over the issue for a long time. Karl, my husband and I agreed that on a future cruise with Viking, Karl and his crew, we hope to have a glass of wine together and look back on this time positively.

 

Another issue that was discussed with Karl and Anyka was our disappointment with many of the excursions and Karl assured us that Viking is addressing ours and others' excursion input and concerns. He was unaware that for some reason the Viking staff has not been accompanying many of the excursions on the last two legs of this trip. He agrees, a Viking employee's feedback would be invaluable for addressing the positive and negative input for each excursion. Karl is looking into this.

 

As far as our bill, Anyka worked with us patiently and our issue is being resolved as of this writing.

 

The ship is beautiful, the crew is awesome, entertainment and lectures have been very good, the spa is unbelievable, food is very good, restaurants are also good with one exception, the Chef's Table. The concept and venue for this restaurant needs to be reworked. The menu does not change and is course specific without substitutions for a determined length of time (only changes every nine days). Many of the passengers, including us, choose to bypass this venue and there are open tables there many evenings.

 

Overall, this trip continues to be a trip of our lifetime and one we will look back on with wonderful memories. We have met many amazing friends, visited amazing places, and experienced many new cultures. We look forward to someday sailing again with Viking either be it on the ocean or a river.

[lil dot]

A letter addressed to me and my husband from Torstein Hagen (Chairman, Viking Cruises) inviting us for a personal “thank you” on May 18 at 8:30 was in our cabin when we returned on May 18 at 4:30 PM. We cancelled our Manfredi's dinner reservation and attended. It started 11 minutes late. My take on it was that if this was an event that had been on the master calendar for several weeks (i.e. Torstein knew he was going to be on the ship and wanted to get the 50-day passengers together to thank them for being on the maiden voyage), it was poorly executed since I really didn’t feel like it was any kind of a thank you event. And if it was thrown together at the last minute due to the dinner fiasco that happened the night before, it failed on that front, too. Here’s why, in my opinion:

Torstein was talking for at least 2-3 minutes before he even introduced himself. He also appeared to have had several “G & Ts” (his words) prior to the event and had one in his hand on stage. (The rest of us were only offered glasses of champagne. I don’t drink alcohol and had to find my own water.) He did apologize three times for the fiasco of the night before and explained that there was only space for 340 guests off-site and the invitation letters went to too many people and so that’s why Cruise Director Paul Reynolds told the entire room Sunday night that only the VIPs could attend. On Sunday night I thought it would have been very nice if Torstein, CEO Jeff Dash or the Owner’s Representative would have disinvited the group while giving this explanation rather than Paul Reynolds.

Torstein shared several rambling stories. One was about the fact that he just realized a couple of weeks ago that he needed a suit for the Christening so he bought a Brioni suit in Barcelona but the belt didn’t work when he put it on in Bergen. I guess the point of this story was that he doesn’t plan in advance in his personal life.

He also talked about how he likes poached salmon with cold cucumber salad like his mom used to make and was amazed that the ship’s chef was serving it with hot cucumber salad. He met with the chef and thought everything was understood but two days later Torstein was served salmon with hot cucumber salad. I guess this story was to show that even Torstein can’t break through the communication barriers that are on the ship.

He also talked about how the purpose of having an off-site dinner for the 340 guests was so that they wouldn’t infringe on the paying passengers’ onboard dining experience and that was why there was an off-site dinner (and not that it was going to be a special dinner). However, during the same story he talked about how a wife of a VIP mistakenly wasn’t on the invitation list for this “special” off-site dinner. So, I’m not sure if the off-site dinner was special or not, but I sure think it was. I'm thinking that the 340 off-site guests weren’t eating off the menu from The Restaurant which was from the normal 14-day cycle with three regional additions (starter of steamed king crab [available most nights in World Café], main course of poached salmon and dessert of Strawberry Symphony [which was very tasty]). By the way, most port nights in The Restaurant there are three Regional Specialties added to The Restaurant’s 14-day cycle menu. After being on the ship since April 11, my husband and I really do know these menus since we are on the third iteration of them.

Then Torstein said he was happy with the ship, its square leather trash cans, the shampoo container with big letters on it and the great internet. That’s when a man said “No, it’s been bad since Gibraltar” and other passengers started chiming in with how slow it’s been. Torstein said he had no idea about this and Jeff Dash (CEO) seemed to say he didn’t know about it either but as more passengers started bringing up the issue, Jeff Dash said that a different provider was being used and he was looking into the problem. Meanwhile, Torstein seemed totally surprised that there were internet problems since it was fine when he got off the ship in Barcelona. (And it was fine then.) So, I guess the point of this is that Torstein’s own team is either not informing him of issues or he doesn’t ask for status reports.

A passenger got up and said that the crew was wonderful and another passenger commented about the excellent food. And another passenger thanked Torstein for his vision.

At some point a passenger got up and said that in his opinion a major problem to-date has been with the communication or lack thereof. He said that there seems to be disinformation or no information or changing information (depending on whom you ask). I totally agree.

A passenger asked how he could get his bill fixed that had been wrong since Day 3 and still showed a $7,000 balance due to being double charged for shore excursions. Torstein giggled and responded not to pay it. The passenger appeared to be frustrated (I would have been) and said that Torstein already had his credit card info. Torstein then started talking about a dirty window and how Karl Eckl cleaned it and told the man to talk to Karl since he can do anything. The man didn’t know who Karl was and Torstein pointed to the back of the room. The man then asked how to get to meet with Karl and Torstein basically said that Karl would get it fixed. Personally, I think Karl should implement the proper processes to prevent this type of billing mess. I had to spend the first five days of the cruise dealing with a similar billing problem until I was told Karl would fix it. The Hotel General Manager should not be the only person capable of fixing billing errors.

After that a violinist (not from the ship) and accompanying pianist played some songs.

I didn’t feel like it was any kind of thank you. It was just handled weirdly.

By the way, at least two couples received their letters regarding this May 18 8:30 PM “thank you” event today (May 19)… (Another example of Viking's communication problems.)

 

 

Great summary! Spot on. Thank you from one of your fellow 50 Day Crazies !!!

Edited May 20, 2015 by lil dot
Finish thoughts

[Lady Chew]

Lady Chew, is this by any chance another travel blog that might follow Viking Ocean's saga that we should add to our reading (and following) list?

 

"The Purple Muse.com" is not a travel blog. There is a section on cruising that is (mostly) about my husband's & my travels. The bulk of the material on the site is related to politics, economics, history & philosophy. My husband does a lot of book reviews and the website even has a library.

[cruisr]

he was with Seabourn as HOTMAN for years and I sailed with him many times. I feel bad that it looks like there is not the communication on Viking that there was on Seabourn.

 

Based on this thread I am afraid I would not set foot on their ships, Sad treatment of loyal guests.

[applecruise]

Has anyone had experiences with tour companies in St. Petersburg?

Thanks for sharing and giving advice.

J & J

[seniorladycruiser]

We have cancelled our cruise on Viking for next year and jumped shipped (literally) to Azamara. This is not the cruise line for us.

[id4elizabeth]

We just had a great experience with TJ Travel. Very easy to work with, very flexible, great guide, new Mercedes car. Ver, very happy with them.

[juliesaddiction]

Has anyone had experiences with tour companies in St. Petersburg?

Thanks for sharing and giving advice.

J & J

 

We too had a great experience with TJ Travel, a small group of 8 for two days, couldnt recommend them higher.

[cassandra44]

We went with SPB Tours and they gave us a really excellent 2 day tour. Our guide was Maria and she gave some very clear interesting information about all the major sights while skilfully steering us away from being stuck in large groups. One of the best tours we have ever had in any port and i would highly recommend that company. In this case we had a very small group of 4 but the max is just 16...

I am going to write a fuller review of the ship and our St P excursion when we get back but so far we are having a wonderful time on the Star.

Btw we breezed through immigration in St P...waited by the gangway and were allowed off with no fuss ...even before announcement made about clearing the ship.

It was on deck 1 for St P but normally deck A....

[CTLeeA]

So the latest is a letter that has apparently arrived on some (but not all) beds saying oops we are sorry and please accept a $500 credit. And this is before the ceremony has even gotten going.

 

But its not throwing money at the problem that people want. They have been doing that over and over again. What people want is for them to acknowledge their problems and commit to fixing them instead of not talking openly about it and continuing to just do business the same way.

 

I'm sorry. This was obviously important to you. But am I the only one shaking my head and thinking, ' some people have real problems'? If Viking wishes to invite me to dinner and then give me $500 credit because they made a mistake, bring on the mistakes...really...it...was...just....a....dinner.