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New restrictions on Cuba


KathyA
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Wow, Viking really needs to get its act in gear.  As mentioned previously, after a snippy discussion we believed that we would be dunned $100 each for cancelling the Cuba Cruise and would lose out on a refund of our insurance.  The next day when we called because nothing changed on our cruise records,  Viking's response changed to "full refund."  Great. But why does it take 30 days when they were so quick to grab the dough from our credit card when we made the deposit for the trip? I realize they probably want to make this quarter look good on their financials but it doesn't take 30 days to process a credit.  It seems that they put the bean counters in charge of their customer service which is a bad model for this sort of business.

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We are booked on a February 2020 Viking Ocean cruise to Cuba.  I got off the phone today with Viking, as I was concerned that final payment is due in 1 week for a cruise that still has a TBA itinerary.  On the phone, they stated that the cruise itself is not cancelled, but they are still working through the itinerary.  They offered to extend the final payment to August 15th, and also said we can cancel for a 100% refund if we wish to do so.  I opted to extend the final payment, as we are really hoping they find a way to preserve some of the itinerary.  Political situations do have a way of changing, especially once we get a few months past the headlines.  Crossing our fingers...

Edited by esanders64
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  • 2 weeks later...

I cancelled on June 18 and received a full refund 7/8 including all our added air fare.  It does make me feel better about working with them.

 

Does make me wonder what will happen with the cruise.  It can't possibly be economically feasible to run ships that aren't close to capacity for weeks.  

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1 hour ago, Marykatesmom said:

I cancelled on June 18 and received a full refund 7/8 including all our added air fare.  It does make me feel better about working with them.

 

Does make me wonder what will happen with the cruise.  It can't possibly be economically feasible to run ships that aren't close to capacity for weeks.  

 

Viking wasn't due to run this itinerary until the fall, unlike some of the other cruise lines that had to gather up all of their passengers and high-tail it out of town on a moment's notice.

 

Viking has time to consider what it is going to do and they are not rushing into it. They are taking the time to choose an itinerary that they feel assured will be attractive to their client base.

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12 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Viking wasn't due to run this itinerary until the fall, unlike some of the other cruise lines that had to gather up all of their passengers and high-tail it out of town on a moment's notice.

 

Viking has time to consider what it is going to do and they are not rushing into it. They are taking the time to choose an itinerary that they feel assured will be attractive to their client base.

 

Agreed.  I'm curious what they will find.  Their client base is experienced travelers who have most likely been to the Caribbean many times.  In addition, they sell themselves as a port intensive cruise.  I can't think of other ports that would likely hold the same level of interest that Cuba was going to do. 

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I got my full refund today, including the cost of insurance booked through them. Looking forward to booking with them again.  Also curious about what they will do with this particular cruise.  Like others, we are widely travelled in the Caribbean and spend eight weeks there every winter, so were really only interested in Cuba in that area of the world.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We requested a full refund today, and the Viking representative was very cooperative.

 

Viking has officially changed the Cuba itinerary to Key West, Belize, and Mexico.  As we have visited all 3 of those destination before, we didn't see any value in going to them again on a Viking cruise.  If we do cruise with Viking again in the Caribbean, we'll likely look for a more enticing location, such as the Panama Canal.

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33 minutes ago, esanders64 said:

We requested a full refund today, and the Viking representative was very cooperative.

 

Viking has officially changed the Cuba itinerary to Key West, Belize, and Mexico.  As we have visited all 3 of those destination before, we didn't see any value in going to them again on a Viking cruise.  If we do cruise with Viking again in the Caribbean, we'll likely look for a more enticing location, such as the Panama Canal.

 

Thank you for letting us know.  Although I haven't been to Belize, I've already been to Key West and Mexico a few times.

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8 minutes ago, Marykatesmom said:

 

Thank you for letting us know.  Although I haven't been to Belize, I've already been to Key West and Mexico a few times.

 

If you do decide to stay on the cruise, we recommend the Mayan ruins in Belize.  

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