Viking River Cruises
Reviews and Complaints

I had booked a trip on Viking Ocean Cruises for September 2018. I had also previously been on a Viking River Cruises trip up the Danube River and was very impressed. Having stayed in an Explorer Suite we were now part of the "Viking Explorer Society". As a member, I received a very nice invitation from the Chairman Torstein Hagen with a promotion to stay in the Owner's Suite for $17, 999 per person (a lot of money!). When I called to upgrade to the Owner's Suite, I was told they didn't have a price of $17, 999. I sent the agent a picture of the advertisement. The bottom line is they won't honor the price for me because I already had a reservation. They booked my reservation at $19, 999. I have spoken with several people and nobody cares about doing the right thing. I am still booked for my trip but will now need to take them to Court to honor the price. It seems that if they would give a new customer this price, they should honor it for us. I have never written a bad review for anyone, however, I will be writing one everyday and will be filing a Small Claims Complaint with the Court. This is one heck of a way to treat a good customer. I think there are a lot of guests like me out there, perhaps this should be a Class Action Lawsuit instead of a Small Claims Complaint. Too bad to have such a wonderful trip scheduled and need to deal with a ridiculous issue like this. Why do they spend millions of dollars looking for new customers when they already have me as a customer and they just aren't willing to do the right thing.
Disappointed,
Dan Philbrick

This is my third cruise with Viking. On my last cruise Viking made numerous mistakes in my airline reservations that I had numerous delays and got home a day late. Due to that Viking Customer Service gave me a $500 voucher each for my wife and I that I would have to use on my next cruise. I did thru a travel agency book a China Cruise almost a year in advance. They accepted my cruise voucher. However my travel agency cancel that reservation because they found the same trip cheaper. Because of that Viking will not honor my $1000 voucher. There supervisor was not sympathetic and would do nothing about it. in fact my Travel Agent and I were cut off the phone. I am very frustrated about the NO CUSTOMER SERVICE FROM VIKING.

My travel agent and I called back again and wanted to speak with customer service. We spoke to Abergale and she was also not very concerned about my lost of $1500. After much explaining and asking her to do something she finally came back after she saw I was a long term customer and gave me only $300 in Shipboard credits. She said she could not do anymore. This is terrible and you are going to lose not only my family cruising with you but my friends as well. Booking #s: 4752955, and 4982520. This is not customer service. I expected more from your company.

I am spending over $40, 000.00 (on Jan 21) and I have 5 cruises and I can't get the service rep or customer service to respond to me. I don't have the $39.60 I was promised on Feb 16. The service rep (Jeff Holden) told me that I would get $1200.00 on the initial order. I didn't get it. I got a check for $1160.40 on the Feb 8th. I e-mailed him on 21st of Feb. He said that I would get a check for $39.60. I have not. I e-mailed him on the15th, the 20th, the 21st, and the 22nd of March, with a blind copy to customer service. To-date I have heard nothing back. Even allowing for the 21 days they take for checks, even tho its their fault in the first place, let's be real!

In follow up to my recent complaint of Feb 6th 2018; this complaint was regarding Viking Cruise selling of my booking and refusing to return any of my fully prepaid trip money, thus Viking doubling up on their booking.

Summary: We had paid Viking $8, 588 for the trip. My wife got sick with bad flu. I called Viking and advised. They immediately sold our trip to another customer and also kept all of our full prepayment of trip for $8, 588. I know this as I called the next day to state I could get my brother to go.

The great news is that our Credit Card Company, Visa Chase Sapphire, via Card Benefit Services, refunded us the entire amount. I say thank you Chase for being so responsible and having good business practices.
The same cannot be said for Viking Cruises.

I will also advise other web sites regarding above incident as I think it's important to get the word out.

Thank you again Visa Chase Sapphire.

Sincerely,

Jon Fiscus

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
please see below.
During the recruitment of new candidates in Kyiv/Ukraine on February 13th 2018 I had an opportunity to have a face to face interview with Senior HR Manager from Viking Ocean cruises. I have applied for a job at Viking Ocean cruises via local crewing agency and after pre-screening interview with Ismira agency and their office in Litva I was invited to attend personal interview in Kyiv. During detailed pre-interview presentation senior HR Manager did informed all of us, that all our CV's were carefully revised and checked by Viking prior personal interview as well about Viking cruises criteria for personnel. At my face to face interview the Senior HR manager looked up at my CV in her hands and after we went through my employment history she raised her eyebrow, looked again in my CV and asked me in a loud and very unfriendly tone "Why you don't get a boyfriend and don't settle down? How old are you?" This attitude and question first made me speechless. Keep in mind, we were not alone in the room, another candidate had his face to face interview with Head Recruiter from Viking at the same time and I was simply shocked by the attitude and question I was asked while applying for a job. Indeed I did not had any job related questions (applied for shore excursion position) from Senior HR Manager at all. The final question from her side was " What the biggest challenge, I think, I would have at Viking cruises?" The biggest challenge from any job interview I had before in my life, was that a person who represents such a reputable company in the industry as Viking, was so non-ethical and non-professional to say the least. Obviously if my age is over for the position which I applied for, then I should not be invited to Kyiv to make 500 km one way to attend face to face interview. And none of recruiters is allowed to speak about candidate's personal life, especially in such a rude and harassing way and in public. I did not even called the agency for the interview feed back, as everyone knows "You can not make the first impression twice". The first impressin from Viking ocean cruises represented by their senior HR manager was simply way below expectations. Or probably the expectations were too high.
Best regards,
Tetiana Kyrylenko

Viking Southern Mediterranean Cruise - BOOKING# 4820646

For our 40th Wedding Anniversary my husband spent countless hours planning a once in a lifetime cruise for us on Viking. He opted for a Penthouse Junior Suite and selected amazing excursions for us. The cruise included airfare to Rome and the return from Barcelona. Everything was set and I was thrilled with the itinerary. He actually surprised me with these plans as it is the first vacation he coordinated entirely on his own.

The cruise is underway as i write. Unfortunately on the 29th of January I came down with what I thought was a miserable cold. With so much flu going around and knowing we were leaving for our trip in two days I thought it best to see our doctor. I was diagnosed with type A Flu which is highly contagious not just miserable. I could not in good conscience bring this virus aboard the ship. Right away on the 29th my husband sent an email to Viking indicating we probably would not be on this cruise due to my having the TYPE A virus plaguing so many regions of the U.S. He did NOT ask for money back as we had not opted for trip insurance but he did ask for a credit to take another cruise at a future date. No one from Viking responded that day or the next not by e-mail or phone.

The following day (30th) my husband reached out to Customer Service to indicate that perhaps his brother would join him on this cruise instead of me. Shockingly he was told our spot had already been filled by new passengers. This was less than 24 hours after his e-mail WITHOUT anyone from Viking having responded to his e-mail. Not only that, the only thing we were being refunded are the special Excursion fees. How is it possible Viking can in good conscience collect for the same room from two different passengers. Especially when we did the RIGHT thing and did not jeopardize passengers health. How could they have sold the room again so quickly when my husband had invited his brother in my place. It is unconscionable that Viking has so little regard for the health and safety of it's passengers. Where is their moral compass. I don't even know yet if this is Legal?

Until this point we heard nothing but rave reviews from friends and neighbors about the wonderful trips they've taken on Viking Ships. Am writing this when I'm still quite ill but need to vent and alert future and past passengers of this unjust Viking policy. Where are passenger rights? We paid for this room. How could they sell the room again without consulting with us by e-mail, phone or text first! At the very least they should have credited us for a cruise at a future date!

It doesn't seem they care about their passengers. It must be all about PROFIT at all costs! BUYER BEWARE!

Bluma Fiscus

On September 20, 2017 my husband and I reserved and paid in full ($10, 148.00) Viking River Cruise Magnificent Mekong, ) with an Embarkation date of December 14, 2017. While this was a very last minute decision we eagerly anticipated another extraordinary Viking experience and quickly arranged for required VISAS, immunizations and RX's, along with business class air travel. Less the airline cost, we incurred additional expense of approximately $3, 150.00--- due to aforementioned items.

On Friday, December 8, 2017 late morning while working outside cleaning gutters, my husband took an approximate 12ft. fall off a ladder. He was transported via ambulance to the local hospital.The outcome of eight (8) hours in the emergency room resulted in a diagnosis of head injury, severely fractured wrist (left hand), cervical sprain, shoulder sprain and bruised ribs. Upon evaluation by the on call orthopedic surgeon he was advised the break in the wrist required extensive surgery (2 metal plates were later inserted based on the severity of the break) with a prognosis of 80% full recovery at best. We were advised at that time that travel was restricted and under no circumstances could he opt to go on the Viking trip.

As devastating as this news was to us, we were left with no option other than to cancel our travel plans. Viking was notified via email of cancellation and acknowledged the cancellation. Upon reading the refund guidelines we sadly recognized we were not entitled to any refund of the $10, 148.00 cruise cost. As we explained to Viking, we booked the trip only 11 weeks out of embarkation date and at that point made a careless decision to opt out of travel insurance.

Due to the significant trauma incurred the recovery process has been extremely challenging for my husband and continues to the current timeframe. Being his primary caregiver I delayed reaching out to Viking to request they review our situation on a personal basis and consider providing some form of compensation given the fact of being loyal Viking customers, the significant cost of the trip, and the extenuation set of circumstances for the cancellation.

We have traveled previously with Viking and have, prior to cancellation of the Mekong cruise, a reservation for future travel with Viking (British Isles Explorer), Embarkation date of August 25, 2018 which we were looking forward to. Our overall experience with Viking has made it our cruise line of choice and we always recommend it to family and friends As my husband and I discussed, having to cancel the Mekong River cruise cast an even darker shadow over the trauma experienced. I

On 1/12, upon receipt of our email, a Viking representative contacted us. While they expressed empathy for our situation they basically offered us a $250 OBC. Needless to say we expressed disbelief at the "goodwill gesture".
A day or two later they came back with an another "goodwill gesture" as they reminded us they were under no obligation to extend anything to us.
After review of the offer, we asked Viking if this was the best they could do. They did come back to us with a slightly better "goodwill gesture" but felt they couldn't include a service (beverage) package in addition to the credit as we requested.

In my latest email I appealed to management for a case review and to date have heard nothing back. The loss of dollars was substantial but at this point we are more frustrated that Viking doesn't recognize the value of loyal customers. It seems we are having to convince Viking why they don't want to lose us as customer and there is something sadly wrong with that. Yes, we indeed learn a lesson the hard way on why you always get trip insurance. Yet Viking has a lot to learn from how you treat loyal customers. They way they are treating our situation leaves us totally frustrated and something we should not have to deal with as my husband's rehabilitation continues.

Ref. Booking # 4816543 March 2019 Pharoahs and Pyramids River Cruise

When received our bank statement I was shocked to see that you billed us once for this trip on Dec 12th, 2017($13, 913.20) and again on Dec. 13th $14, 844.61) I have made numerous phone calls to get this matter resolved, and there seems to be no one in your company that has the authority-or the desire- to do this. The only answer I am getting is that they are sorry for our "inconvenience", and that the accounting dept. will sooner or later get around to it- could take up to 3 weeks, but will try to expedite this. I am not only very angry that you seem to think that it`s OK to hold on to this money, essentially illegally, and how disappointed I am in the customer service of what I thought was a very reputable company. If I hadn`t gone to my bank immediately, and done all kinds of money juggling, I would have been seriously overdrawn. This whole situation is just wrong, and you need to rectify it immediately. Ruth Wolford

Hi, I am absolutely furious and so disappointed with Viking.
Four of us recently did the Romantic Danube cruise (16th Dec from Budapest). This was our first cruise and we had high expectations. Unfortunately, we were very disappointed when we first boarded as it was only at that stage we discovered that the ship was departing Budapest at 8.30am the following. We'd asked on more than one occasion prior to our trip what time the ship left as we wanted to determine if we had time to explore Budapest. We were advised it was an evening sailing and therefore we made plans. As it happened, our flights meant we didn't arrive on board until 5.30pm and therefore we saw nothing of Budapest. This was extremely frustrating and not a great start. However, the remainder of the cruise was exceptional. We loved every minute so while on board discussed with staff (after the talk on future cruises) about booking a further one. We were told we couldn't take advantage of the $100 deposit and $200 on-board credit as we were UK passengers? We were also advised that the offer of £1000 off pp was valid until the end of January.
So, we came home and right after the new year started exploring cruises for Dec 18. At this stage we were shocked to discover that the £1000 off discount expired at the end of December. So despite being on board one of your ships, where we could have used the internet to book a cruise and benefit from the offer, we had missed out. VERY disappointing and starting to take away from the very positive feeling we had been left with when we disembarked.
So, after much deliberation, we eventually decided that yes, we'd had a good experience on board and therefore we would give Viking another chance.
As we'd missed out on the 2018 offer we decided to consider 2019 cruises. We were offered the £1000 off person and an additional £200 pp past passengers discount, which resulted in the four of us booking for the Rhine getaway 14th December 2019. The price charged was £995 ok, we were pleased and have gone ahead and booked and paid our deposits. This was on 5th January.
Today, 8th January, I have requested to add my aunt to the booking. As a single passenger I knew there would be a 50% charge (which is excessive). However, based on £995 × 50% this makes £1492.50. Oh no it doesn't, not in Viking world anyway. Today I've been told that my aunt would only get the £100 past passenger discount and therefore the price would be £1592.50. I of course queried this. Had I have added my aunt at the time of booking (3 days ago!) she would have benefited from that extra discount. To make matters worse, the Advisor has come back to me and said "Instead its £1692.50 (difference of £100). You have made extra saving on yours and your sisters bookings J"
Forgive me, but it's only a £100 to Viking too and the difference between a booking or not.
Honestly, you have a great product but the inconsistencies with your pricing structure is awful. I have now gone from being a very happy Viking customer to an absolutely disgusted and very unhappy customer.
I welcome your comments.

Carla Malley

We booked a Viking river cruise on November 15, 2017 with assurances from our agent at Viking that we needed to book immediately to get the remaining room at our price point. When I asked about future promotions, I was told that there were none. We were given 24 hours to make a quick decision and we put down a deposit. The next day the agent called us back to say that we needed to buy the trip insurance now instead of later.

On December 1, 2017 I saw that the airfare for our trip had dropped to $0 which meant that we paid $800 dollars a couple more than we would have if we waited two weeks. And, there appeared to be many rooms available on our actual trip date, too.

I immediately called Customer Service to seek an adjustment since we had not yet made final payment (the trip is in August 2018, final payment due December 31) and I was willing to pay the customary $200 change fee. I was told that it would actually cost us an additional $1500 because changing the price of the airfare would affect the travel insurance policy we bought through Viking, even though we did not want to cancel the trip, only want take advantage of the free airfare promotion.

There must be some way for the booking agent to adjust our reservation without negating the travel insurance. We don't want to cancel our trip. We want to be able to do what any other passenger who did not purchase travel insurance through Viking can do, pay the $200 fee to take advantage of the drop in price.

To be fair, Viking did give us a credit of $100 each to spend on the trip and a lot of excuses. I still think the policy is unfair and not customer friendly and I believe Viking could make an adjustment without affecting the travel insurance policy if they wanted to.

After years of traveling with Viking, and spending almost $100, 000 with them, we are very disturbed by our most recent trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. We booked a year in advance with Viking and paid for our airline tickets with them. From the beginning, communication about this Viking Cruise was almost non-existent. We kept calling to request information so we could plan accordingly. Four months before our departure we called for our airline information so that we could schedule seating/upgrades/etc. Immediately we noticed that something was wrong with our flight from Amman, Jordan back to the US. For 4 months we repeatedly called about that flight, only to be told "There is no problem. It will all be taken care of 15 days prior to the flight". It was NOT! When we arrived at the Amman airport, we were told that Viking had cancelled our flights back to the US and the only thing we could do was purchase tickets again and hope to get seats home. Of course, last minute tickets were far more expensive, we lost all previous upgrades, and were placed in the worst seats on the plane.
Upon return to the US, we applied to Viking for a refund of the tickets we had to re-purchase. After more than 30 days, we received a check from Viking for much less than the price we paid for the tickets we were forced to re-purchase. To date, there has never been an apology or explanation for the reason Viking had canceled our original tickets.
This trip was NOT the Viking experience we had come to expect. We were not even put on a Viking ship, but on a ship where half of the travelers were non-Viking guest. The food, staff and services were far below Viking standards.
I think what has disturbing us the most is that a company, who spends so much money acquiring new customers, spends such little effort to keep the long-time, loyal ones they have. When Viking projects out the next 5 years, they can leave off our next $100, 000 cruises budget from their bottom line.

Good day,

Hereby please see described my bad experience with Senior manager recruiting from Viking Ocean cruises. On 06.06.2017 I received an email being asked to do necessary to continue my application for HR shipboard manager position.
I received very clear instructions and guideline about all documents which I need for further steps. I sent them and due one missing document the application was on hold until 09.12.2017. The reply was :"Thank you for your e-mail and provided document. Well received.
I have taken note of your date in October and looking forward to re-connect upon your return home to continue with a skype interview." Due missing follow up I inquired about the application, receiving another requirement never mentioned before:"Thank you for your reply. Are you able to present your new employment offer."
I do understand any company can set their own set of criteria for their recruitment, but excessive personal data gathering made me suspicious about a tentative of fraud or lack of professional approach. In each case your brand may suffer. Kindly please investigate and hope you will come back as well to me.
With consideration,
Martin Alexandru Rusneac

My husband and I are currently on the Viking Var for a "Christmas in Germany" cruise which displays the Nuremberg Christmas Market on the cover of our itinerary. When we arrived in Nuremberg, we found out the Christmas Markets do not open until December 1st. In fact, only our last 2 stops will have open Christmas Markets however we were offered a trip to Heidelberg to visit their Vhristmas Market at a cost of $139 per person.
In addition, the ship was not decorated when we arrived. Upon asking our cruise director about the Christmas Markets, his reply was "I don't know what Viking sold you, but I'll note it in my report". I can tell you that there are a lot of upset and disappointed people on this cruise. Most have said they would have booked later but were assured by their sales agents that the Christmas Markets would be open now. This is not was we expected nor what we thought we bought!

Hi my name is Sarah Sorenson. My husband and I booked our honeymoon for the grand European and are currently on board. We have had two horrible experiences, 1 the thermal bath optional excursion was horrendous with smelly facilities, gross water smelling of bacteria infestation and dirty people smelling everywhere. We paid 79 euros each and spent 30 mins total as we couldn't get out of their faster. The worst of the two issues is our stateroom last night was so creeky it sounds like someone on a seesaw. When we notified the front desk and engineer came and said oh it's the boat and left after my wife couldn't sleep all night. This problem still has not been solved and we have one more night on the boat and to say this is luxury with constant noise in our balcony stateroom is hard to say. We would like an immediate response, we feel they should have offered us a room change since there are a few open ones to provide adequate customer service for the uncontrollable noise. Thanks!

My husband and I booked our third cruise with Viking September 2016 for Paris, Burgundy & Provence for an October 16, 2017 trip date. We also booked quite a few optional tours for the trip as well. Our booking number was 4310667. Unfortunately, while we were in Dijon, my husband was rushed to the local hospital for a medical emergency. He spent the entire day at the hospital and we returned back to our Dijon hotel around 11pm on 10/21. The tour was to continue to Lyon the next morning, but he was not in any shape to continue the trip. We also had an appointment to see a specialist back at the hospital on Monday morning for further assessment and care. I told our tour director we would not be able to continue the trip due to his illness. Everyone left the next morning. I contacted Viking and our trip insurance people to notify them of our plan changes. Our tour director (Lotfi Zoughlin, who was wonderful) called me on 10/23 to see how my husband was doing and confirm that our stateroom would be canceled as they were now on the boat. I told him trip insurance was working on our return home plans. We arrived home on Wednesday, 10/25.

I purchased a number of optional shore excursions, for a total close to $2000. When I purchased them, I asked if any changes could be made to the excursions and I was told that as long as we gave 72 hours notice PRIOR TO THE TRIP DATE, we could cancel the excursion for a refund. I would not have purchased all of these trips if I did not have the option to cancel any or all of them.

I contacted Customer Service and was told that the excusions had to be canceled 72 hours before boarding the boat. I notified Viking on 10/21 that we would not be continuing with the trip and again confirmed that on 10/23. Help me understand why my notice is not sufficient to get a full refund. This has been a very disappointing experience and I do not want a credit for another Viking trip.

Patricia Ahern

Y

We had to cancel our booked 2018 cruise due to recent hurricane damages. We canceled more than 7 months before the cruise, but I've still not received a full refund (less the cost of the travel insurance and small fee), and I've had no emails at all in response to my requests for clarification. While I was booking the trip, I always got a response within a day...getting concerned...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Deitrick Dj
Date: Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 1:09 PM
Subject: Fwd: Viking River Cruises Invoice: 4584610 Guest: DEITRICK
To: Kevin Compton

Kevin, can you help me understand the refund difference between the deposit and the credit amount on the invoice? I think there should have been a larger refunded amount.
Thank you,
Diana Deitrick

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Deitrick Dj
Date: Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 10:15 AM
Subject: Re: Viking River Cruises Invoice: 4584610 Guest: DEITRICK
To: Alice Gagnon

Dear Ms. Gagnon: I found a refund of $6769.89 from Viking dated Oct. 11, 2017. Per the invoice total, it should have been $9007.89. Will there be an additional refund coming soon?
Thank you,
Diana Deitrick

On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 8:17 AM, Alice Gagnon wrote:

This is an automated email. Please do not reply.
Your Viking Cruises Invoice
Paris & The Heart Of Normandy
Booking Status: Cancelled
Booking Number: 4584610

Dear Guest,

We are sorry to hear that you had to cancel your cruise with Viking. Please find attached the terms & conditions and a detailed invoice of your cancelled booking for your review. If a refund is due please allow 30 days for processing. Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,
Viking Cruises

Viking Cruises
Should you have any questions, please call Viking Cruises and we will be happy to assist you.
Ocean Cruises: [protected]
River Cruises: [protected]
Reservation Hours: (Pacific Time)
Mon-Fri: 4:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Sat/Sun: 5:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

We booked a trip on Viking to the West Indies for 12/5-12/16/17 on 6/29/17 prior to the hurricanes. Viking Cruises posted there new itinerary, 10/10/17, 2 days in Puerto Rico MAJOR DAMAGES, added 2 days at sea included a stop in St. Kitts & added Nevis: 42 Million Dollars in public Damages And other ports with Major Damages.
We called and talked to there Customer Services and explained that 1 person in the group had open heart surgery and needed to have some access to possible medical, 1 had a heart attack in Aug. 2016 and needs to have surgery when returning home due to a heart valve aneurysm measuring 4.7. When we booked this was OK, not after the Hurricanes!
Customer Service explain this was our problem and would only allow a 50% refund.
Buyer beware before booking with Viking, they are not customer friendly!

My husband and I recently took our first cruise with Viking Sun along the Adriatic. We chose Viking opposed to other Cruise Lines for many reasons but mainly it was considered "Luxury" which to us means quality travelers and destinations. We had no reservations in terms of cost and mainly wanted a nice room where we could relax. Also, our travel agent informed us of a free upgrade one week prior to departure! We were excited! However, our "upgrade" was a "downgrade" and we didn't know until we got on the boat. We were put into a room directly under a bar. It was awful. Noisy at all times during the day and night. Concierge on the boat was not willing to work with us and the cruise agent we worked with completely wrote us off. Although the food was great and we enjoyed our time off the boat, I will not be booking with Viking again. In addition, when we are asked by friends and family who to cruise with...it will not be Viking. Unfortunately.

I booked a Viking Cruise almost a year in advance on the Romantic Danube trip. Three weeks prior to our Sept 1 departure, my travel companion had to cancel due to a serious fall resulting in a broken shoulder.

Since I decided to go on the trip anyway, Viking charged me the now solo traveler fee. Bad enough, but they also charged me a cancellation fee since my status went from double occupancy to single traveler. Nutritional charge for these fees was $4100, over what I had already paid. I spoke to Viking Customer care and was told there was no way to avoid those charges since the reservation changed during the 100% cancellation fee period. The cabin that I was assigned is the same room #206 that was assigned early in the original reservation. Consequently, Viking collected, my original fee, my traveler companions fee, and my additional solo fee and cancellation fee for the very same room, ($11, 000). I find this exhibition of greed appalling for an organization with the reputation of Viking.

Hello,

I purchased the Christmas in Germany Viking trip for four in January, 2017. This will be our third Viking trip. We are planning our fourth trip for July, 2018 on the Danube Waltz. Up to this point, we LOVED Viking river cruises. BTW, I am 58 and retired and my wife and I are committed to taking at least one Viking cruise every year until we can no longer travel.

Long story short, I am very disappointed and frustrated in three (3) areas with the way Viking (especially Supervisor Paris) addressed my concerns regarding our scheduled Christmas in Germany trip.

1) Supervisor Paris did address the concern that I was recently made aware of on our Rhine Getaway cruise, that Christmas Markets would only be available to be visited on 12/22 and 12/23 in Cologne during our 8 day Christmas in Germany cruise. Although, I am requesting that in the future that Viking update their online literature and daily itinerary to clearly state that Christmas Markets will NOT be available in all ports after 12/23. After spending time in Munich last November and being introduced to their Christmas markets, that was the primary reason I booked this river cruise for my family. Paris stated that one could assume that Christmas markets would not be available after Christmas. Quite the contrary, when your literature and itineraries state otherwise and my scheduled travels to Prague and Vienna after the Viking Cruise includes Christmas and Winter markets. I really did not appreciate Paris' condescending toned interruptions to me during our conversations. I hope you record these calls so you can use our conversations as a training tool of how NOT to talk to a customer.

2) Second, I purchased AIR PLUS for all four family members for our flight from IAH - CGN. I booked the travel to purposely arrive early enough (12:15 pm) in Cologne so we could spend relaxed time visiting the Christmas markets. Our flight was changed without my approval to arrive 6 hours later at 6:15pm. By the time we get out of the airport and into our rooms it will be close to 8pm, assuming we don't have any delays. This will NOT allow us time to go out and visit Cologne's Christmas markets that evening. I attempted to change the flight back and was told it was fully booked. I looked on the United website and saw over 120 coach seats available as of 8/31/17. Your Air Group insisted the 12:15 pm arrival flight was fully booked and had no more availability. I don't understand why I was given this response when it is clear that their are so many seats remaining on Flight 880. I was given a refund for the AIR PLUS, but that does not satisfy me and my family as we wanted to arrive into Cologne six hours earlier. I would still like my family to be put on our originally scheduled earlier flight that arrives at 12:15pm in Cologne.

3) While on the Rhine Getaway river cruise (7/26 - 8/2/17) our cruise director Diana showed us a powerpoint late one afternoon on how we could save money on future Viking cruises. One of the slides clearly stated that if you book another Viking cruise within 30 days of this one, you would receive $400 per person repeat customer credit on your next river cruise, instead of the customary $200 per person cruise. I told this to Paris, she told me it was a "Gray Area" and went on to explain to me the reasoning using her cruise ship vocabulary. Her explanation was very difficult for me to follow, but I thought she said that she would make sure we would get the $400 repeat customer credit for booking another Viking cruise within the 30 days. She knew we would be speaking with Sergey that afternoon to book the Danube Waltz, and she told me to have Sergey ask her if there were any issues. As it turned out, Sergey was not aware of the $400 credit and when he followed up with Paris, was told that a $400 per person repeat customer credit does not exist. Although, Sergey initially told me that there was a $400 credit if you book within 14 days of your last cruise. There is a serious communication breakdown within Viking regarding repeat customer credits. Please clarify for me and let me know was the powerpoint we saw on the Rhine Getaway correct, is Paris correct or is Sergey correct? I shouldn't get three different answers from three employees within the same organization.

I look forward to you addressing and correcting my three concerns and communicating your response in a timely manner. Please do not have Supervisor Paris contact me regarding these concerns.

Thank You
Richard James
Booking #s 4426219 & 4426216