Viking River Cruises
Reviews and Complaints

My recent customer experience with Viking challenges the notion that they provide the “award winning” customer service they claim. My story begins with the purchase nearly 18 months ago of a two week Viking River Cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. After the $16, 000+ purchase, we received frequent emails about the countries we were going to visit. So far so good as the emails were informative and helpful. The emails also instructed us to complete a Guest Information Form online as soon as possible which we did. When we moved a few months ago, I promptly updated the Guest Information Form to reflect our new address. I assumed they would use this information to verify our address before sending our travel documents. Wrong! When some friends received their travel documents last week but we had not, I contacted our travel agent. The travel agent contacted Viking. Viking indicated their systems do not work together and essentially it was too bad but we were out of luck. Yes, we had filed a forwarding address with the Post Office but the mail was delivered to the old address anyway – but that is another story. I contacted Viking myself through email and they sent me what appeared to be a form letter, not addressing my concerns. They said they could send the documents to the new address if there was sufficient time and for a fee (they didn’t say how much) but I would need to contact my travel agent. To be fair, they assured me that the documents were not needed to board the ship but that is beside the point. According to my friends, the travel document package does provide some important information about what to pack, our specific stateroom and some items like luggage tags. In my opinion their failure to verify the address before sending it is really a process problem on their part. It was not my error. Further, their unwillingness to simply remedy the problem by sending it to the proper address is more akin to substandard rather than their self-proclaimed “award winning” service. There is more than six weeks before we embark on our trip and I am asking that they correct their error and send the documents to the correct address.

Denise Harrison
Customer number 2592764

We paid approximately $13, 000 for a veranda suite room with a balcony aboard the Viking Jarl on July 24 for 7 days (booking number 4171516) and have now been docked next to a boat or wall 3 out of 4 days and have been told that will be the case for 5 out of 7 days. This is not "occasional" dual docking as the Viking hotelier employees say is disclosed in the company policy -- it is the majority of the time the boat is docked in port. By the way there are at least 3 other Viking ships (Modi, Vili, Freya) in each port that have no other ships parked besides them. Also, the crew (Captain, second in command)informed us this morning that this problem happens to the Viking Jarl each and every trip it takes when it travels this route as nobody ever explained this to us when we booked the trip. This is fraud plain and simple as nobody ever explained this practice would happen a majority of the time. We tried to resolve the dispute directly with the hotel manager (Ms. Jdranka Brajkovic) aboard the boat by asking to switch to a more expensive room (which was empty) for the last 3 days and her answer was that they (she) could charge us more for that if we wanted to do that. Unfortunately, we now plan to contact Visa and process a chargeback dispute, which any consumer can do with Visa for valid reasons for up to 6 months. We will also be contacting the Better Business Bureau and District Attorney in Connecticut and California. Fortunately, my wife is an attorney so we know how to pursue our legal rights. Obviously, we will never, ever travel with Viking again as they are dishonest people and never informed us of the practice that our boat would be docked in such a way that our balcony that we paid for would not be usable for a majority of the time. This is such a shame as we saved for and anticipated this trip of a lifetime for over a year and are now obviously very disappointed.

In August 2015 my wife and I along with three other couples from Savannah booked a 7 night Viking River Cruise from Amsterdam to Basel for $15, 491.00 per couple. At the same time our local travel agent found $4200.00 per business class flights from Savannah to Amsterdam with one stop in NYC for a 14 hour total flight time. Viking Cruise Agent Igor S. told my wife that Viking could get us from Savannah to Amsterdam in business class for $3800 per ticket with flight details to be arranged later. In order to save $600 my wife agreed to let Viking Cruise arrange our airfare. We have a September 2015 email from Viking/Igor confirming that fact. In March Viking Cruise flight team called my wife and told her that leaving from Savannah we had several choices of flights. We could go through Chicago, Detroit Washington DC or NYC. She told them to go through NYC. In May our tickets came but did not include any flights from Savannah to New York. We had business class tickets with Iberia from NYC to Amsterdam via Madrid for 12 ½ hours of flying. When I called Viking Cruise to ask about the error in ticketing they steadfastly refused to help arrange for our travel from Savannah to NYC. They claim that my wife instructed Viking to leave from NYC and not through NYC. Viking claims that the telephone call recorded my wife saying that she wanted to leave from NYC and not Savannah. Despite multiple attempts to hear the recording we were left hanging. We had already paid Viking Cruise a non refundable $23, 091.00, so my wife and I bought tickets from Savannah to NYC and had to add $850 on top of the cash we had already paid. It took 24 hours of flying in order to get from Savannah to Amsterdam. The Jet Lag was awful. Viking wrecked our cruise even before it started.
From our experience Viking Cruise does not have a customer service department. They have a customer harassment department. They made a dumb mistake and failed to correct it. By not allowing us to hear the recording that Viking Alleges has my wife asking to begin our trip in New York, they are quilty of a simple coverup. In response to an email I sent Viking, their customer service offered us a $100 on board credit at their gift shop. Stated another way, Viking caused us to pay an extra $850 for the discomfort of 10 hours of additional time spent in transit so they could sell us overpriced merchandise from their on board Viking apparel. NO THANK YOU!
NEVER AGAIN VIKING.

We booked two years in advance and paid in full prior to the Viking Star being built. We purchased the Vikings Homeland Criuse and sailed June 12, 2016. There were eight people in our group and we booked four cabins, Junior Suites. We requested that the cabins be adjoining. We arrived to find that our cabins were not adjoining and that two of the four cabins were designed for handicapped individuals, fortunately none of us are handicapped Thus, there was no sitting area nor was there a second flat screened TV as advertised. We tried repeatedly to address the issue on-board. We were told to address the issue at the end of the cruise, which we have done with no success. The accommodations lacked drawers, no storage in the bathroom, no shower enclosure, shower stool jutting into the shower space, handheld nozzle. We were unable to dine in as there was nothing to sit the trays on. It was the bed or nothing. No way this was comparable to the non-handicapped cabins. I won't be sailing with Viking again.

We have cruised 5 times on Viking. We made a booking for 14 months out with friends to travel with. Friends had an issue with the date and had to cancel.
We also cancelled ours... This is the problem. First they retain 20% of the deposit and then market that the 80% will be refunded in 30 days. We have cruised 6 times on Oceania and any refunds for anything takes 48 hours to hit the CC.

#2 - Viking expects full payment 12 months from date of cruises. No other lines do that.

I think it is a nickel an dime operation that is cash strapped and uses other peoples money to cover gaps.
In the past I have written and sent Prioity Mail to Torstein Hagen on issues with safety and quality of the Star, and NEVER received a response. VERY RUDE
Very unhappy and will NOT cruise again on Viking..

August 2015 booked a Viking River Cruise for June 26th 2016 to July 3rd 2016 -- Paris to Normandy Beaches. Paid extra for a stop in London for my mothers 90th birthday celebration via Viking. Received good airline arrangements initially via email. I called Viking to check the airline arrangements in March 2016 and the agent said that the arrangements in the email I received were incorrect and we hadn't actually paid for the London stop over -- this was wrong since we had proof we had paid. The agent was very helpful and did get everything sorted out after about 4 hours on the phone. She then suggested that we pay $50 each extra to use the Air Plus system and get slightly better flight times, which did work much better and changed us from Newark departure and returns to Philadelphia departure and returns including the London stop over. All was great, then we get another email which said that we would be returning to Newark, not Philadelphia -- a problem since our car would be at Philadelphia. Spent another tow hours on the telephone sorting it out -- we seem to have two booking now for air. Hope this works out, I am not confident in their ability to get us there and back.

My husband and I were to leave for a 2-week cruise on the Danube Thursday April 21 from Amsterdam to Budapest. A week before we were to leave, we received notice that due to low water levels we would not be going through the locks and that we would be scheduled to disembark from the ship with our belongings, spend a day in Nuremberg and then be loaded on to a bus and deliver to another Viking River boat and continue on to Budapest.
We had already done this trip before and the reason for the trip was my husband's interest in the locks. I had absolutely no desire to spend one minute in Nuremberg, for very personal reasons. We immediately contacted them for
1. A refund the answer was NO
2.A credit to be used at a later time either at full/partial credit the answer was No
3. In an attempt to salvage something we asked to stay on the boat and return to Amsterdam and the answer was NO
Since we had done most of this cruise before, my plans had been to walk along the river at each stop and not to do any of the tours, a quiet, stress free trip.
WE never heard directly from Viking. Viking only talked to our broker. In the meantime I couldn't sleep, develop lower digestive complaint and broke out in a rash which increased my lack of sleep. I did not trust the Company to understand my severe reaction to going to Nuremberg. We are very experienced travelers which includes several cruises and riverboat cruises. I feel personally violated what had occurred and hope others will think very carefully about taking a cruise with Viking.

RE; BOOKING #2874853 My husband, John Caufield and I (Nancy Cooney) booked a trip in July, 2015 on river cruise Paris/Normandy and three day pre trip option to Paris, to depart 4/25/16 to 5/6/16. I received our airline ticket information and we are now booked to leave Phila, fly to Atlanta and then on to Paris. The departure from Paris ticket is Paris to New York with a five hour layover and then fly from New York to Philadelphia. We live in Cape May County, New Jersey. We could rent a car from JFK and be in our home within 3 hours. This is insane. When I booked trip, I spoke to a girl named Christina and we discussed flights and I paid for the Air Plus Service. I made it very clear that I wanted a direct flight and have written on my notes that we were going to fly on 4/25/16 from Phila via American at 6:15 PM direct to Paris, arriving at 7:55 AM. And on 5/6/16, we were to fly direct from Paris to Phila, leaving at 1:20 PM and arrive Phila at 3:50 PM. I called today (4/7) and spoke to Victoria and was told that my flight information was faxed to me on 2//24/16 and I should have called then. I told her that my father passed away and I buried him on 2/5/16 and have been overwhelmed. I told her that I would fax over a copy of my Dad's death certificate, but she did not want that. I asked to talk to her supervisor and after being on hold for a very long time (the entire time on phone was 29 minutes), she came back on the line and told me that the supervisors were away from their desk. I asked her for the names of her supervisors and she said their names are Jacqueline and Mia. She said that they were both out to lunch as this conversation began at 2:50 PM and she said that they were located in Calif. It is now 6:50 PM and I have not heard from anyone. I told her that I couldn't believe that this is how they treat customers. Why would anyone book a trip from Phila to Atlanta (approximately 800 miles), then have to catch a flight from there to Paris when there is a direct flight from Phila. And the return flight is ridiculous--fly to New York, have a layover of FIVE HOURS for a flight to Phila. Like I said earlier, I could drive from JFK and be in my home within 3 hours. Don't your bookers know their geography or do you just book the cheapest (if that is the case) without consideration for your customers?
This is our first Viking River Cruise and I am EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED. We decided to go on this cruise because our friends Frank Spendlove and Cynthia Black asked us if we wanted to join them on this trip. They had taken one previous trip and enjoyed it. I asked Frank if I should book my own flights and he said that he had a good experience with Viking booking their flight. His recommendation is why I did not book my own flight. I then asked our friends, Robin and Albert Otero, if they would like to join us and they are joining us on this trip.
I have travelled the world, Africa, Dubai, Galapagos, Ecuador, Peru, numerous locations in Mexico (Merida, San Bruno, Tulum, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, Maya Riviera, etc), Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice, Amalfi Coast, etc, ), Ireland, England, the Caribbean, all throughout the continental US and Hawaiian Islands, Montenegro, Croatia, etc and have never complained. WILL SOMEONE RESPOND AND CORRECT THIS STUPID FLIGHT ITINERARY?

Have traveled with Viking River Cruises twice before and had no major complaints. Always considered them a top-notch company. We put down a deposit for the Castles & Legends Cruise aboard Viking Prestige for Oct 26-Nov 6. 2016 (first 4 days on land with Oct 30-Nov 6 on the actual ship). Just got an email from our AAA agent that the ship is going to be re-deployed then and our reservation has been cancelled. Our refund check is in the mail.
They didn't really give an explanation on what's up or even offer another cruise date for a different ship or give us any additional $ back for our possible next cruise. Really bad PR from Viking. Guess they have gotten "too big for their britches."

After three calls to correct incomplete statements — that don't include the Nile cruise of (I believe) 2009 along with eastern European Odyssey & China Yangtze
And being told each time that it was taken care of... I received latest statement INcomplete again.
Since Viking seems unable to correct such a simple error over much time and customer contact, I ask to be removed from Viking mailings, emails & postings.

Customer number on statements — [protected]
Thank you, marilee smith

We had traveled on Viking previously in 2014 aboard the Viking Idun from Budapest to Passau and then took an extension to Prague. It was our second river cruise, having sailed with Uniworld on the Volga from Moscow to St. Pertersburg the year prior. We found both cruise lines offered excellent service and we were very satisfied.

Because of our prior satisfaction, we booked another trip with Viking including promotional airfare scheduled to depart Orlando, Florida on November 20, 2015; fly to Frankfurt and then on to Basel to board the Cruise ship Kvasir. Our flight from Orlando was leaving at 8:10 PM and we left for the airport at 3:00 PM, living only 2-1/2 hours from the airport. Much to our dismay, there were several traffic accidents along the way and major routes were shut down; in spite of our best efforts, we arrived at the airport 30 minutes before our departing flight and were denied boarding. While at the airport, we called Viking and explained in detail what had happened. They suggested we take the next flight which was not scheduled until 24 hours later and then upon arrival in Basel, find local transportation to catch up with the ship which would have been 40 miles away in Breisach, Germany. In addition, we were going to lose the promotional airfare and have to pay an additional $2400 in airfare, not to mention securing transportation on our own when we got to Basel a day late. We asked if Viking could extend a credit toward a future cruise and were told no! We called the insurance company who also declined any reimbursement, as our circumstances simply did not meet the criteria.

Having already spent some $6600, we could not justify adding another $2400 to miss a day and then chase the ship on our own, so the trip did not take place nor were any funds or credits offered. I sent an e-mail to Viking's Ms Karine Hagen providing all of the details and expressing our great disappointment. That e-mail was sent on December 16th and I never received a reply. The entire episode certainly contradicts Viking's own words that they publish in their many brochures: "... no detail escapes our attention. It is what sets us apart from our competitors. And, we never forget that looking after you well is how we became the world's leading river cruise line. It's why our guests return again and again." Really? By the way, just three weeks after our missed trip, Viking announced they were offering risk free trips on all 2016 river cruises with cancellation for any reason protection. Had that offer come along before our trip, it seems we would have been okay, I mentioned that in my e-mail to Ms Hagen, but again, no reply was forthcoming. Viking may be a great marketer of cruises, but losing past customers does not seem to matter to them. Next time, we'll look elsewhere.

On a return trip home from a Viking river cruise, traveling with my handicapped wife, my confirmed airline seat on Air France was given to another person. Air France requested my handicapped wife fly alone, because the airplane was over booked. Later I was offered a seat of lower classification, in a different section of the plane and on a different deck. We elected to fly the next day, but Air France refused to pay for room and meals. We phoned Viking for help, and was told there was nothing they would do. We had taken advantage of Viking travel insurance, thinking we then would get reimbursed for this travel delay, due to the airline. The answer from Vikings insurance was no. My advice to anyone thinking of taking a Viking cruise is, contact a lawyer before you agree to their contract terms, and read all the fine print, and then ask how they will verbally interpret there trip interruption insurance wording. They now refuse to pay, because I should have taken the seat offered, even though my handicapped wife needed my assistance.

After four contacts on 17 January 2016 about 1360 hrs. Constantly asked for my booking number which I did not provide. I saw no reason to provide that as the information was generic. I was unable to obtain the arrival time in Amsterdam of Grand Tour of Europe departing 4 June arriving 18 June 2015 in Amsterdam. Now at last another person provided the information. He stated arrival is shortly midnight on 18 June 2016. I find this a bit short on a 14 day cruise. Boarding late afternoon on day on and returning back early 17 June with 0900 to 0930 departing from ship. This is a bit short on days.

This was our second Romantic Danube River Cruise with Viking. Our first trip was wonderful and we had bragged and suggested to many of our friends and family etc. they they go. We asked our children since that they were old enough if they wanted a traditional Christmas at home of if they wanted to go on a river cruise as their gift. The were thrilled with the idea of seeing all of the things we had told them about a year prior, so we set up the Romantic Danube Cruise over the Christmas Holiday Dec 19-26, 2015. Since we had many travel miles on our first trip we did not book our airfare before and after same with the either end cruise extensions on our first trip and had wonderful direct flights both ways. We met several people on the first cruise that said the bookings through viking's air and extensions were a nightmare and wished they had just paid and handled it themselves, so we listened and even though we did not have the miles this trip we took care of all of this ourselves again. Which, after meeting many people on the 2016 cruise we were thankful we did. Several people we did not get to say goodbye to as they had to get up at 2 am to drive and drive to catch a flight to go home. We had watched the river issues for months prior to our dec 2015 trip as we knew there we issues with the levels along our route. This is no fault of Viking, we just wanted to be aware of what to expect and be able to make alternate plans if necessary. I chatted online with Viking several times and connected with customer service via phone several times for a few months prior to check on the river situation. I also wanted to let them know we would like 1 stateroom with twin beds and 1 stateroom with a double bed since we had paid for 2 rooms this trip. We were assured the room configuration would be no problem, but they could not tell us until closer to the cruise what the situation with the river was. Okay, we understood that. I did make a few more chats and calls as it got closer to verify the room configuration which they guaranteed would be correct, but still would not be able to talk about the status of the river but to check the website http://www.vikingrivercruises.com/my-trip/about-my-cruise/current-sailings.html which I checked daily. There were no changes to our cruise except that we were moved from the Freya to the Lofn which didn't matter to us. Just to be on the safe side, and knowing that we did not want our family to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day on a bus we had a family meeting and agreed to go ahead and make a reservation at the Sacher Hotel in Vienna for the 24th and 25th and purchased train tickets from Vienna to Budapest for the 26th as we had already booked our hotel at the Corinthia for the 4 days after the cruise since there is so much to see there. It looked like the only issue we could possibly have with low points of the river would be the stretch between Vienna and Budapest. We are not "bus tour" people and after the cruise director almost died from the bus wreck on the Idun cruise we were on the first day of our 2014 cruise, we for sure were not taking the bus tours this time. We enjoyed venturing out into the city and it worked fine for us because we could move faster and see more and since the schedule for the next day is given to you the night before we could plan our day accordingly. The first night on the ship David, the cruise director and Harry the Hotel Manager made an announcement that they were very excited that we were going to be able to make the entire trip as planned to Budapest since the river had gone up with the recent rains. Everyone on the ship was thrilled! We did not have to cancel our reservations until the 23rd to get a refund so just to be safe we waited and checked daily with the staff to make sure that there were no changes. They assured us multiple times that all was on schedule and so on the 23rd we cancelled the reservations at the Sacher and our train tickets. Back to Day one of the ...cruise We were supposed to disembark from Nuremburg but at the last minute we got notice that we would be disembarking from Elengen instead. Okay fine. We arrived on the ship before 3 pm with the anticipation of eating the lunch which they said was offered up until 3 pm, but when we got there everything had been put away. okay... Well we saw a few staff members on the ship that we knew from our previous cruise. We went up to say hello. Of course they cannot remember everyone they meet but they did their best after we told them we were on the Idun trip in 2014 with the bad bus wreck where all of the people were injured and the director hit the windshield of the bus and was hospitalized for the remainder of the trip. Long story short it helped them remember us. George saw that we were hungry as we had been on a train for about 3 hours from Heidelberg, and so he rustled up some sandwiches and salads for us and another family which arrived around the same time and was surprised to see the food gone. OK... thats fair. they fixed it. Then Harry the Hotel Manager of the ship who was also on the Idun with us in 2014 took us to our state rooms. We immediately noticed that both rooms has been set up with twin beds. Harry apologized and stated that he would have the problem corrected immediately. We came back to our room after dinner and the beds had not moved so we moved around the night stands, shoved the beds together etc. etc. OK... we were just so thrilled to be there we overlooked it. They never said anything to us about the room. We were to spend the night in Erlengen and the itinerary which was provided to us that night stated that the tour bus would be departing for Nuremberg at 8:30 and the ship would leave the dock at Erlengen at 9 am and the tour bus would pick everyone up in Nuremberg at the end of the day then during dinner, we would shove off to the next destination. We had requested a taxi to take us into Nuremberg through the concierge for 8:45am so we could take our kids to the Nuremberg castle and hit a few of the shops that we saw last time we were there. This also would give the bus tour people time to be gone and us not be in their way and the ship wasn't departing until 9am according to the itinerary we were given. As we were heading to to door to get off the ship and meet the taxi (that apparently was not called) we felt the ship shove off from the dock at 8:45 am. We were stuck on the ship for the entire day and our kids did not get to see any of Nuremberg. We did not realize that what was a 15 min car ride would take the entire day via ship because there were 5 locks which are cool, but take a long time to go through. We were very surprised that the ship would leave early and trap us on the ship especially since the previous cruises were always on time and followed the schedule given. Our kids were very sad that they did not get to see Nuremberg at all except the cab ride from the train station to the boat. But they are troopers, and again we had such a great trip the last time we convinced them they would see lots of castles along the way. At this point I was starting to get frustrated, but kept my chin up for my kids. We made it Regendburg, passau and Melk with minimal issues and we kept asking the staff and crew is everything still going along as planned because we have these expensive hotel reservations at the Sacher and we want our kids to have a nice Christmas etc.etc. oh yes yes yes no changes. We promise no changes all is good... Once we arrived in Vienna is when everything really started to go bad. On the 23rd we went ahead and cancelled the Sacher reservations and the train tickets because we were told again and again that we would make it to Budapest. One evening I stayed up late as there were several young people on this cruise and visited with the bartender to make sure the kids were supervised while they played a game of spoons. We had a nice chat and he told me of a Serbian restaurant that is very good in Vienna and wrote down the information and what to order since he knew we were one who liked to go off the beaten path. We took a taxi and arrived for lunch at this restaurant around 11 am. Sitting in this tiny hole in the wall restaurant was the director David, The hotel Manager Harry, the bartender, the head of housekeeping, the Mater'd, the chef Ronald and several others we had known previously and become familiar with. Apparently they had been there for quite some time as they had had several drinks and finished their food. They all said hello and were happy to see us there and helped us order the food etc. and we ate at the table next to them as a few of the other crew members arrived. Then one of the crew members ordered a round of shots. at that point we were finished eating etc and left them there and headed back to the ship as we wanted to find an Anglican Church in Budapest online and plan our christmas day mass and communion. We have pictures of all of us at this restaurant also. We headed to that nights briefing, remember this was christmas eve and about an hour after we shoved off David the cruise Director got on his microphone and informed the travelers that the waters had receded and we would not be going to Budapest, but could only make it to Komorado, Slovakia. Knowing that we had made arrangements months in advance to ensure we did not get stuck for Christmas in some nowhere place looking at dumpsters in slovakia, we were extremely upset to hear that David promised that he had been working on this all day with the captain to try and figure out a way around it but it just wasn't going to happen. That was lie number one, because we know he and a large part of the crew had spent the day in Vienna drinking at a bar and we know this because we were sitting right next to them. (we also have photos) They knew all along that we were not going to make it to Budapest and lied right to our faces. My husband and I of course were very upset as we had made many surprise plans for our children for christmas and had asked over and over and did not want to spend christmas on a smelly tour bus for hours on end. We had absolutely no intention in asking viking to pay us back for the days we would leave the ship early, we were prepared to just end our cruise early and spend one of the most holy holidays in a beautiful city and be able to go to church and have a wonderful european family christmas and communion on Christmas Day. Instead we were lied to. Of course I cried and cried as this was not the way I planned on my son to learn that santa was not real, and all of the work we had put into pre planning. We did not even have anything to put in their stockings except what I could scrounge from the galley and the maid carts. The rudeness from David was out of control also which just added fuel to the fire. When they offered to let my husband speak with the captain so to possibly understand better (my husband is an Ex US Naval investigative Officer) the situation he of course wanted to do so. My husband requested this over and over and over and was continually denied. Each day they kitchen sets out the leather bound menu for what is being offered that night and there is a section on the right of the menu you can always have should the speciality not be to your taste. That night there was no leather bound menu. Also, even though there is no assigned seating for dinner people usually meet up and sit together at the same table over and over. This night everyone was confused and we got sat away from our regular waiter that we had had since the cruise started and the waitress we had had the worst attitude. We wanted to order from the menu that was available every night because we are not fans of sea bass and risotto. She told us no. My husband was adamant that they find some chicken as promised. One of our new friends ordered the sea bass and said it was inedible and the risotto looked like maggots. The next night it was the same issue, and not only was it Christmas but it was her husbands birthday too. the poor man. We also purchased the silver drink package as we had learned that this was a pretty good deal for people who like to have drinks and talk with new found friends. the scotch which was introduced in 2014 by a viking bartender was once again on the ship but ran out and we were informed that they would not be refilling the bar since it was the end of the year and they were working on their end of the inventory. The silver package therefore was a disappointment for the extra cost. The captains dinner is usually the last night on the ship. The captains dinner was moved and the captain did not show up. He was a cold Ex Soviet Navy man who clearly had much abhorrence for Americans. He never smiled, never said hello and that was when we saw him. My husband asked again several times to speak to the captain regarding how he river could possible change that drastic over night after being promised every day that we would be making it all the way to Budapest. He over and over was declined. The very last night we were informed that we needed to have our bags out the night before so that they could be loaded on a bus and be taken to a hotel in Buda and that we would have to find our own way to the Corinthia from that hotel. I refused to accept this especially since we were staying on the Pest side. I requested a taxi that would take my family from the dumpster drop (literally, Our christmas view for two days was nasty dumpsters in Komoramo, Slovakia.. I have a pic of that too) the hour and 1/2 ride to Budapest to our hotel or at the least to the place where were were supposed to disembark the ship. This taxi ride cost us $160 euros. We made a complaint to Viking and I got a call in the middle of the night from a woman named Valerie Kepler. I told her I was sleeping, and she returned with a rude email stating that she was sorry she interrupted my nap. It was the middle of the night in Budapest I wasn't napping. She then had multiple conversations with my husband and they offered to negotiate with us some vouchers in the amount of $1250 per person if we sign a non disclosure statement but would not let us see it until we agreed to the voucher. We felt that what they had done really could not be corrected with money or vouchers, but looked over the prices and locations of the 2016 cruises. They have raised their prices so much this was a drop in the bucket. Then they offered us $1250 in cash if we signed the non disclosure. We refused again. We feel at this point it is more important to us that we get the word out to those of you who are thinking of going on a Viking cruise that there are many people like us who this has happened to. Viking has since blocked me from their facebook page and they delete anything negative and block users from seeing anything negative. They lie and entrap. When we only asked for honesty from the very beginning I would not have to spend all of this time putting these stories out there. We have found many lawsuits and settlements and loads of people who were offered similar things like us. Please don't fall for their commercials, pounds of mail they send you and the emails. They are not what they say they are. Here is an article where the Executive of Viking was indicted for Corruption. Remember a Fish stinks from the Head Down. http://www.cruiselawnews.com/2015/10/articles/fraud/viking-cruise-executive-indicted-for-corruption/

We got stuck on board because they did not follow the schedule twice... Food was not available as promised. Bought the Silver Package but refused to buy liquor once it ran out due to end of year iventory, Beds not properly put together (paid for 2 staterooms. We moved the furniture ourselves. Lied to about making it through ports until the boat has left port and we were stuck. Worst Christmas of our lives. Kids found out Santa wasn't real cause of the lies we were told. We had made alternate plans with no request for extra costa to Viking, just wanted a beautiful Christmas for our children. We couldn't even make it to church on christmas day. Captain hid from passengers. Didn't even come to farewell dinner. Obviously Ex Soviet... wimp. Ran away from me when I questioned him, and pretended to not speak english when I heard him 5 min before speaking clearly. Got stuck looking at dumpsters on Christmas day in slovakia... After we saw crew drinking in bar in Vienna then David aka "Julie"the Cruise director lied after we were trapped on he ship? He said he worked all day to resolve the problems. We understand low water and acts of god, but not lies. especially with our children. We hope we don't have to sue them, but they just think they can compensate with cheap vouchers that will never be used. Companies like this go out of business... for a reason. They are liars. Christmas was ruined. Has to swipe rotten oranges and tiny Tabasco from galley to fill stockings. So sad. Apparently all they spend is on Fox new ads. Shame on them. Karma just like krampus comes back.

Several weeks or more ago I sent an e-mail asking to be removed from their mailing list. Now they've added my sister's name (same address) and we got two catalogs each in 2 days' time, Jan. 5 and 6. Please...we'd like to save the trees! Patricia Turner, customer #[protected] Sarah Parslow, customer # [protected] 2215 River Ridge Rd. DeLand, FL [protected]

I was on the Romantic Danube trip from Budapest to Nuremberg 11/14/2015 to 11/21/2015. I will never travel with Viking again! Viking's management only cares about filling out the capacity of the each cruise ship. I have listed a few of my issues with the company below... 1) Safety on board is a huge concern, especially since the audience for these cruises is largely American. No checks for identification when entering the boat. 2) Food handling is another concern. All passengers are allowed to handle the serving utensils. On other cruises, within the first 48 hours, all food is served in individual servings or served by staff. This alleviates any viruses brought on board by any passengers to be passed on to others. So many passengers on my cruise got seriously ill with the norovirus. The hand-sanitizer located outside the dining hall does not work against the norovirus. 3) Withholding information about the itinerary for the week was very frustrating. Passengers were told only the night before when we were to change boats. On my trip, we were on 3 different ships! Packing up after dinner and then having to get up early to get on a bus is not my idea of a relaxing vacation. I am only in my 50's and I came back home exhausted! 4) The 2 meals provided off-ship were horrible. The first one was at a 5 star restaurant. What you find out when you get there is you are in a banquet hall upstairs of the 5 star restaurant. The food you are served is worse than a 1970's mid-western athletic banquet. The second meal I skipped, but I heard that a number of passengers were seated in a basement for their luncheon meal. I was happy that I had made alternate plans for my mid-day meal. 5) One night we were docked/tethered to another Viking cruise boat. My veranda looked directly into a stateroom of the other ship. Nice to see an elderly man passed out on his bed. He was obviously too exhausted from all the shuttling around that he could not bother to close his curtains. Poor thing. 6) Staff if poorly trained. A lot of eye rolling and rude comments to the passengers. (just another whining passenger)! Our tour director was terrible. He was always on his computer or phone playing video games. Never a nice greeting. And he has been with Viking for 13 years! 7) I paid way too much to be transferred by bus and then in Nuremberg we were docked so far out of town (in a shipyard) where there are no taxis or public transportation. I have e-mailed the company and I have called to voice my complaints. All I got was a small credit for another cruise! I am told that is their good-will gesture! I did meet some passengers from another cruise line that had a wonderful experience on their trip even though the river was low. They were put up in nice hotels in the cities that were on their original itinerary. Viking's excuse about the water level is just that...an excuse.

We are in our 70s and were caught with the Viking TV commercial with promise of easy, no worry-travel. We used Viking twice before for flight booking and the cruise and it was good. We recommended them to friends and relatives. This time we booked an Ocean cruise for 2016 thinking we will get the same worry-free experience. After all, that's a lot of saved up money for this worry-free travel. Viking help us book our cruise and our flights from Calgary to Barcelona. To our amazement, they booked us with 2 stops instead of 1 stop to get to Barcelona. Viking booked: Air France: Calgary -> Amsterdam -> Paris -> Barcelona (more expensive ticket and later arrival to destination) It could have been: Air France: Calgary->Amsterdam->Barcelona (early arrival and flight is cheaper) When we asked who booked our flight and why it was booked like this when there clearly a cheaper and efficient way to get to our destination with same airline. We explained that this is causing unnecessary physical and emotional stress for our travel. Not to mention, Paris is under terrorist threat. Viking wanted us to pay $300++ for change fees plus ticket price difference to change flights. They did not acknowledge what so ever that they booked a bad flight for us. They do not care if we get stressed or aggravate our health nor care about terrorist threat to a place. We even called Air France directly to get the flight changed. They said we have to go through Viking as 'BULK discounts were applied' with Viking so pricing is not the same if Air France changed our flights directly. Maybe Viking is looking at their own pocket book instead of passengers safety and interest. I wish we had known this. Definitely not worry free travel. We are super stressed and angry with Viking. You are handcuffed with Viking and all they want is $$$ with every move.

We just returned from a November 8, "river cruise" with Viking that turned into an expensive bus trip. Viking was fully aware of numerous prior cruise problems caused by low river levels yet failed to notify it's customers of the serious impact. Corporate tells me that they only notify customers when the nautical crew alerts them. The crew obviously knew as it was a sister ship we boarded because our ship could not sail to the port we started from. I sent a letter to the President and CEO outlining the numerous issues. 13 hours of bus trips, reduced time to tour major cities such as Vienna and Budapest, packing and unpacking etc. The response was for a Customer Relations rep to call me. I documented the call and sent her my understanding of it and asked for any changes so it was correct and complete. She declined to comment. To date, Viking has not responded in writing to anything. I am asking Viking to update their communication policy to alert passengers of potential problems with their itinerary and to provide a cash refund for a portion of the cruise. They have refused to change their policy and offered a 20% voucher for a future cruise. I do not want to spend thousands more dollars with Viking and potentially have a repeat of the unsatisfactory experience. I have written a second letter to the CEO and filed a complaint with the BBB.