Viking River Cruises
Reviews and Complaints

Viking Cruises, Woodland Hills
5700 Canoga Ave Ste 200
Woodland Hills, California, [protected],

We just canceled our Empires of the Mediterranean cruise re-scheduled ……due to covid-19, from the first week of APRIL 2021 to mid MARCH 2022. When we booked for 2021, the itinerary was for the first week of April, Venice to Athens, in a DV4-Deluxe Veranda.

When VIKING re-scheduled us for 2022 we were told that we would receive 125% of our funds if we left them with Viking for the year. We took this option (as we had already done with a Portugal Duro River cruise).

After the October 2021 Portugal cruise it was time to get excited about Empires of the Mediterranean. When we looked, we found it to be in the reverse itinerary- Athens to Venice - a week earlier and in a V-2 stateroom. Not what we planned.

When we inquired, we were told that the price of this particular cruise went up since we originally booked and paid, and that THIS is what the money we had on account with VIKING (for more than year) would cover. VERY DISAPPOINTING.

If we had been able to take this cruise in 2021 we would have had what we booked: The Venice to Athens itinerary, the stateroom and the week we booked. And these changes are not up to our liking, nor does the change of week fit into our family calendars. We have been waiting too many years to go to Greece and Croatia and do not want to travel with a poor attitude and a sad face because of changes made for us by the cruise line without even a consult. People book, what they choose for many reasons. These personal reasons cannot be known to Viking. So, how can the entire booking just arbitrarily be changed.? So, we, very sadly, canceled.

We are currently awaiting the receipt of our vouchers so that we can
happily look forward to another promotion to celebrate Viking's 25th anniversary year and reschedule with happy faces and excitement.

Now to be fair, We had a completely different experience with our re -booked (from October 2020 to 2021) Portugal River cruise. After the covid cancel of 2020, for the rescheduled 2021 cruise, we received lots of perks for being valued and loyal Viking customers….Added a pre-and a post……added the beverage package, and prepaid gratuities.

So, you can imagine how disappointed we were when, for the Mediterranean cruise, our state room was downgraded… the week we chose was changed… And the itinerary was reversed.

And, with all of that, we were told that's what we could afford, even with the 25%, because the cost of the cruise had gone up since we first booked.

In my opinion, we still should have, AT LEAST, gotten what we paid for and gotten something additional for the 25%. That amount of money should not have covered the increase that happened over COVID. I agree that one can charge new bookings an increase..… But that increase should not affect the people who already booked….. paid in full…. And, left the money with Viking for all of COVID….as a matter of good faith for both parties.

While Viking is not responsible for Covid, neither are those who have paid for their cruises that were cancelled/rescheduled.
Viking should provide those customers, going through this difficult time, with, at least, the same terms as their original booking regarding accommodations, excursions, dining, etc. without qualification and with the "extras" that were promised for the 25%.

The goal here would be to keep this process as simple as possible while providing realistic solutions.
Additional charges or "less than already paid for" amenities won't do a company's reputation any good, especially coming out of a pandemic when everybody is trying to get back to "normal".

We've enjoyed two river cruises on Viking. We have recommended Viking to friends and relatives. And we were happy to be bringing two additional friends on the, now canceled, Mediterranean cruise. And though we have taken more than 50 ocean cruises on other providers, we were very excited for our first Ocean Viking cruise. It is a major disappointment to cancel this cruise. I am truly hoping that this situation can be settled in a mutually acceptable manner, so that we may enjoy many more Viking cruises in the future.


Jeanne M Macisco
757 Emory St #507
Imperial Beach, CA 91932
[protected]
And
Angela E. Lewis

I am very upset. Russell and I booked this cruise Budapest to Bucharest 6/14/2020. Due to Covid the cruise was cancelled. We were given an option of full refund or reschedule the cruise and receive and upgrade to our booking. Anticipating that the Covid pandemic would be lessened by October 2021 we rebooked the cruise for October 4, 2021. Both of us are seniors, Russell does have a heart condition and we found the Europe especially Eastern Europe continued to have a high number of Covid cases, primarily the Delta variant. We decided that we should once again postpone this cruise and left the vouchers, which we did receive with the upgrade, open for now until it seemed safer to travel in that part of the world.

Russell has decided that he does not feel that he should go. He has offered to give me his voucher so that I might take a family member or another person. We have attempted to explore this possibility in numerous ways with Viking. Each time we are advised that the vouchers cannot be transferred due to rules and regulations. According to management these official rules and regulations cannot be changed.

Both Russell and I are very upset and angry as he doesn't wish to lose the $5000 that he has invested to date, and he does not wish to take this cruise or any other for quite some time. He very much wants me to go with someone. I understand rules and regulations but this is ridiculous. Viking is not going to lose money on this, there is no difference in anything except a name change on a voucher. I would still like to go but not alone. I absolutely cannot understand your rules on this. It makes not sense. It would be different if it were a security matter but it is NOT.

I have to say, given this unpleasant experience and all the trouble that we have gone through in the attempt to accomplish this, it leaves a bad taste regarding ever booking another Viking anything. I WILL use this voucher and I'm not sure that I will be able to find someone who will go with me who can afford the cruise and I cannot afford to pay for another person.

I would greatly appreciate if you could possibly review this perhaps make an exception to the "rules and regulations". I am a senior and my time on this earth is valuable. I want to enjoy this adventure but not alone. PLEASE make an exception. I am requesting this as a major favor to me.

Thank you, Constance M. Engler

Have been patronized by numerous agents without reasonable resolution of incident. Our cruise was cancelled due to covid, we agreed to keep monies in account and receive 25% additional bonus for trip. Our initial bill was paid in February 2020, spirits package was purchased also with credit cards. We had zero balance and should have had 500.00 dollars in credit towards on board and trip packages. We scheduled excursions on September 8th, we are being told our Amsterdam extension was rolled into a voucher. Our money was entrusted to viking, with promise of 25 % on board credit, why are we not being refunded for the Amsterdam extension, since it was paid by American Express prior to covid. Each time I speak with representatives, they are not effective. This determination reflects on further use of viking.
Mary Claire Desanto
Booking number6044028

I recently booked The Magnifent Mekong Tour with Viking and I realized I would pay a large single supplement. Howver, The Pretrip to Bangkok was actually double. It went from 999 a person to 1998 for a single person going. I questioned it with Viking and I'm writing a letter to their chairman. The pretrip includes plane fare to get ot Bangkok, meals, and tours all of which they only have to pay for 1 person. I just feel it is vvery unfair to charge me double. My booking number is 6549410 under Paul Lubard.

Hello, we have traveled on Viking before and loved each adventure and your excellence in service. However we are dumbfounded to be in need of a passport for our next cruise with you on the maiden Mississippi Cruise. We have a passport of course, however, it needs to be renewed and that can take months now as I think you are aware of. The problem is that we would like to pick out our shore adventures that are being offered now, but without an up-to-date passport we are out of luck. Buy the time we apply for a renewal the shore adventures will most likely be taken. What is the logic behind us needing a passport? Your representative said that there was Nothing he could do about it!

I think I am one of many who were misled when we were told of the "risk free" voucher and cancelation policy. In 2019 we booked and paid for a France's Finest cruise for June 2020. Viking canceled that cruise and offered us a "risk free" voucher of 125% for a 2021 cruise. We accepted that offer with the understanding that we could cancel up to the last minute with NO PENALTIES. When the cruise was again cancelled in 2021, we rebooked for the same cruise in 2022. Again with the understanding we could cancel and get our money back for any reason. Since that booking and this is VERY important to us, Viking has changed the contract by requiring a vaccine in order to cruise. That was never stated upon booking. Now in order to cruise we must be vaccinated. If we knew that at the time of booking, we would not have done so.

I have contacted Viking customer service representative. After a two hour discussion, she agreed to cancel the trip and she would TRY to get so our vouchers could be treated and "not being applied" so that in 2023 years we could get money we paid 2019 returned. There is no indication that the trip was cancelled or that we will ever see the money returned. We feel since Viking changed the terms of the contract in addition to never fully explaining what "applying the voucher" means, our money should be returned immediately.

I made reservations for my husband and I for the Romantic Danube cruise with Jerry Maestas who assured me I would have no trouble with my arrangements or if I wanted to cancel . I paid in full by May 1, 2021. I asked him if we could fly out of Newark NJ. He told me there would be no problem with that. Instead he misspelled my husbands last name, booked us out of JFK in NY. (hours away), and we are sitting 20 rows apart. We are flying back on 12/1/21 instead of 12/5/21 and again 20 rows apart into JFK.
I called when I saw the mistakes and was told I could not change anything until 60 days before departure. I called from September 3-4 times per week begging Mr. Maestas to help me fix this. He has never called me back. I spoke with someone in the air department who said I could just cancel or pay $700 to rebook and fix the name mistake. He did not tell me I would lose 75% of the money Viking took so quickly. I am so dissatisfied with the handling of this. A woman named Laura #8642 who at least got the name changed.

I purchased a trip in the fall of 2019 for spring 2020 for my honeymoon with my wife. Due to the pandemic we ended up canceling the trip and accepting a voucher for our trip. We were not offered multiple options ONLY to be issued a voucher for a future trip. As the pandemic has continued (and will continue at this rate) our timeframe for rebooking is coming up fast. There are now EU countries that are banning people from entering the country. We contacted them many times trying to resolve and have only been given excuses. We do not feel comfortable rebooking with the current situation and we do not feel we would be provided with a comparable vacation we paid for. The audacity to blame the customer for canceling and accepting the voucher (no cash value) days before they canceled their own cruises and the shutdown of the country and only then offering a refundable voucher is astounding. We are now out 10.6k of our money and are being FORCED to use a voucher we had no other option to take.

We have booked a viking river cruise in europe for this upcoming november. We paid for the air plus to select our desired airline/arrival and departure times etc... We were notified of a major flight change within the 60 day window of our trip, and then our tickets were apparently finalized 3 days later without notice. We are being told that we can not change our flight without a 350$ per person change fee. However I never received any notification of final ticketing until today (10/2/2021) AFTER I contacted viking air services to try and change our flight itinerary. This seems like extremely short notice and slightly deceptive as there was no clear indication of final ticketing or notification that we needed to contact viking IMIDIATLEY to change flights. We have now lost about a day and a half of trip time due to the flight itinerary change from the original selected flights, and are no longer on our desired airline. Viking customer service has reiterated there is noting I can do unless I pay the 350 dollar change fee.

We purchased a cruise to Alaska and Viking cancelled the cruise. We requested a full refund because we were booked under their "risk free guarantee". The sales agent convinced us to turn our cash into vouchers and rebook. We rebooked the cruise and now Viking is changing the policies for traveling with them. We no longer have any desire to travel with this company. The vouchers were supposed to be a "risk free booking" as well however once they convince you to take their vouchers your money is gone. They claim that the voucher is no longer a cash value! Well what happened to the cash we paid for the cruise they cancelled?! They also convince you to pay with cash by giving a "discount". Don't do it! Use your credit card so you can dispute the charges! We are now out over six thousand dollars and after calling 4 times and being told by 4 different agents that they would send our request to upper management and call back we have received nothing. No call back no help no resolve. Do not book with this company! Unfortunately they are no longer a legitimate cruise line. If you choose to book with this company after reading all the complaints do not ever book with cash and do not ever accept a voucher or believe in the so called "risk free guarantee". That is a scam and they change the policies anytime they like. This is no longer a reputable company!

When my wife's mother died 5 days before our August river cruise, Viking told us the "Risk Free Guarantee" they gave us at booking no longer applied after they canceled our June trip. Now there could be no refunds nor rescheduling—we simply lose everything we'd paid. Rather than lose all, my wife and I decided I would go without her.
Then Viking called the night before I left to say I owed $6, 971 more for a single supplement—despite having already paid $13, 145 for two. Only after long phone conversations with multiple people only interested in collecting more money was I "allowed to go" without paying more.
When I (and at least one other passenger) got food poisoning from a meal onboard I had to skip two excursions. Their only concern was that I understood the excursions were "non-refundable."
We love travel and cruising and have even organized several groups to cruise with multiple cruise lines. None of them has ever treated us the way Viking did.
No more Viking for us!

My husband and I booked a sailing to Norway in December of 2019 (booking number [protected], paid in cash ) and Viking canceled it in December of '20 due to covid. Along with the cancelation notice they sent us vouchers good for 125% of what we had invested, with the promise in writing that using them to re-book was Risk Free. The voucher letter even states that if we used the vouchers to re-book that the Risk Free Guarantee would apply to our booking. DON'T BELIEVE THEM IF THEY OFFER THIS TO YOU! Instead of dealing with the cash refund offer that was also given, and then using that same cash to re-book the very same cruise for 2022, we ignorantly just used the voucher to immediately re-book. Same everything but the dates. (Booking number [protected], paid with resultant voucher.)

When we re-booked, the Viking agent assured us that we were taking NO RISK in doing so! We could make changes or cancel at any time up to 24 hours before departure without penalty and get a refund. The new paperwork all came showing that we had used the voucher as payment on Page 1 of the Guest Statement, the Standard Cancelation Schedule is on Page 2, and the Temporary Cancelation Policy that was also attached clearly put us into the covered category -- with choices of either a refund or a voucher again should we need to make any changes. All good, right?

Now our ability to travel has changed significantly due to covid restrictions so we need to cancel...and Viking 3 days ago tells us that our reservation now has NO REFUNDABLE CASH VALUE! They are standing firmly behind an UNpublished policy that they say states that since a voucher was used and no 'new money' was applied to this trip we can now get NONE of our money back! (Totally opposite of what all of our paperwork says!. And nowhere does it say that any 'new money' has to be used to qualify! In fact, it CLEARLY states in the voucher letter that using the voucher does qualify for the guarantee! And the guarantee CLEARLY has 2 choices!)

We might get a voucher (that now has no cash value) good for another 2 years -- but our ability to travel is unlikely to change in that time and then the voucher will be useless. And they will have had a significant amount of our money (about $11, 000) for 4 years by then, with no refund certain even then, and no services provided! Guest Services personnel hide behind the tiny little writing at the bottom of the Guarantee page that says 'other restrictions might apply'.

Again, DO NOT TRUST anything they say, even in writing it seems. We now have NO respect for this company and their underhanded and unethical business practices! It is a shame really as we had liked traveling with them before and had planned to do so regularly as long as we were able. Not any more...this experience has totally soured us on the whole company.

My name is Karen Kehm. I booked a cruise to Alaska (as did my brother and sister-in-law). My reference number is CRBK3014175. My booking number is 6321642. We were scheduled to sail from Vancouver in July 2021, but the cruise was canceled. We had also booked an extension to Denali (Pristine Denali). When we rebooked to sail in July 2022, we were told the Denali extension was already sold out and we could not receive a refund for that portion of the trip. As a result, we booked a second cruise to the Caribbean to use the $7, 000 worth of money we had expended for the Denali extension. Now as I am checking the Viking website, it lists the Pristine Denali as an available option. We wanted to cancel the Caribbean cruise in February 2022 and add the Pristine Denali extension (which is what we originally paid for). Viking claims "we cannot apply future cruise credits to a booking that's already paid for." My question is why not? Thank you in advance for your help.
Karen Kehm
email: [protected]@hotmail.com
phone: [protected]

Apparently, Viking can change the terms of their cruise agreements at any time? We booked a cruise, Viking cancelled the cruise and offered a voucher. We took the voucher and then Viking implemented the mandatory vaccine. We cannot take the vaccine and asked for a refund. They denied a refund and our "No-risk" insurance was not honored. Is anyone seeking a refund based on the new Viking vaccine policy? Is a class action suit indicated?

We had scheduled a Rhine River cruise with Viking for mid September 2021, plus pre and post cruise excursions. In early September the EU declared the US a high risk country due to Covid. As a result, the Netherlands imposed new stringent restrictions for people traveling to their country, including a mandatory 10 quarantine period if one stayed there for longer than 12 hours. Because we had booked a two day pre-cruise excursion, our firm flight arrangements took us into Amsterdam two days before the vessel was scheduled to disembark. Viking cancelled the pre-cruise excursion along with all other Netherlands activities, leaving a truncated and [censored]ized cruise. Nor could Viking offer any assurances that neither the EU or other countries would impose additional requirements. As a result it was simply not possible for us to take this cruise. We reached out to Viking, and tried get a refund, or at least a credit to enable us to reschedule for next year when hopefully the pandemic would have passed. Viking refused point blank. They said that because all this occurred within 30 days prior to sailing, we could not cancel or reschedule, and instead we were subject to a 100% cancellation penalty. I.e. they are keeping our money, and telling us too bad. This is despite the fact that there are exceptions to their policy if one were to contract the virus. The airlines and hotels that we had booked were willing to work with us, but not Viking. It is clear that Viking does not care about their customers, good will, or anything other than money.

After having a wondeful first Viking river cruise from Paris to Zurich in 2019 we booked booked a Portugal River Cruise for the summer of 2020. With the pandemic that trip has been rescheduled twice and now scheduled for November 2021. We were already concerned about any travel with ongoing Covid problems and then the recent CDC warning last week warning against cruises especially for older people has made us decide to cancel. Called today and spoke to an agent named Roslyn and were basically told no refund since we used the 125% vouchers. Viking has had our money for almost two years and we want it back. Since original booking we are two years older and not really wanting to chance our health. Have read other similar complaints on this site. It's time for Viking to step up and make things right instead of flooding our mailbox and TV with ads.

My mother and I finally booked our dream trip: an Egyptian Nile Cruise! We were supposed to go in Nov 2020 and it was paid in full, but we understood when things got too uncertain and Viking canceled. Our huge mistake was accepting the voucher, because it was 125% and we immediately booked again for Jan 2021. Again Viking canceled and we rolled with it, booking again for Nov 2021. But suddenly, now that they had us locked into vouchers, all pretense of caring about customer satisfaction was gone. Every simple issue was met with a dismissal that there was nothing they could do. Finally, they implemented the vaccine mandate, which excludes us from being able to travel with them at all. Surely they'd have to refund our original paid amount now? No.

Viking will never be transparent about this, so please let me warn you up front and clearly: do NOT accept vouchers from Viking if you (or they) cancel your cruise! Get a refund in real money and save it towards a later cruise. Once you accept vouchers, your money is gone. Viking can keep canceling your trips forever, or they can make up new requirements every week that eventually make you unable to travel with them, and you will never be able to get back the money you paid them. You know that part in the terms & conditions that say a company can alter the agreement in any way at any time without notice, but you always agree to it because you think it'll never happen? Viking will do exactly that - going as far as medical and religious discrimination - and there is no flexibility, no exceptions, no mercy or understanding in these difficult times. They will keep your money and act like it never existed before the vouchers.

Even before the 3rd cancelation/rebooking of our trip by Viking, the system was so infuriating to deal with. You can't look at your travel info while a representative is looking at it because you can't both be viewing the same booking at the same time. You can't use your voucher balance to purchase things for the other person in your cabin under the same booking number. They can't give you info to help fill out your travel visa. They won't try to match the value of the cruise they cancelled with the new one you've booked, where the same excursions are suddenly more expensive. There's no effort to try to be flexible, find workarounds, problem-solve, or make up for the trouble they've put you through. Every request is met with "our system won't let us do that, no exceptions." They do not care if the customer is satisfied or not, they treat every situation with robotic intransigence.

Maybe their ships are nice. Maybe the excursions are nice. I'll never know, because Viking is preventing me and my mother from traveling with them, and the thousands of dollars we saved up for a nice vacation are now gone forever.

We booked a river cruise back in January of 2020 for a trip that was planned for October of 2020. The trip was paid in full shortly after booking. Viking canceled the trip in August of 2020 due to covid. At the time they offered us the ability to rebook for 2021 and gave us 125% of the value for all our troubles. We quickly rebooked. Who wouldn't?
Now they will not let us go on our cruise this October because we have not been vaccinated. That is not what we agreed to when we gave them over$10, 000 back in January 2020. No vaccine existed back then. They refuse to give us our money back. This is theft, fraud, and deceit on the part of Viking.