Viking Cruises Reviews
Year Started: 1997
Ships in Fleet: 18
Category: Upscale
Summary: Viking River; lovely and modern European river cruise boats also in Russia, China, Egypt and Asia. Soon to start Viking Ocean cruises with free tours.
Viking Cruises Cruise Ships
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: First-time Cruisers. Families. Group.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. Group. Families.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. Group. First-time Cruisers.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. First-time Cruisers. Families.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. Group. First-time Cruisers.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. First-time Cruisers. Families.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. Group. Families.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Group. First-time Cruisers. Families.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. Group. First-time Cruisers.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. First-time Cruisers. Group.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. First-time Cruisers. Families.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. Group. Families.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Seniors. First-time Cruisers. Families.
Regions:European Inland Waterways
Good for: Group. First-time Cruisers. Families.
User Reviews
This was apparently the last outing of the season and it showed. The crew was tired and testy. The food poor and lacking in fresh fruit and vegetables - several meals had no vegetables or fruit at all. Meals were served at differing times each day and the daily newsletter did not always have the correct time listed so we missed a number of meals - especially breakfast and lunch. The heating was often non-existent and at other times smothering. Some of the outings were great, others were very poor, but the crew never bothered to let us know when we could leave the ship and kept a chain across the gangplank until the outings occurred. After missing the opportunity to see Melk because we made the mistake of reading and believing the daily flyer and obeying the chain, only to have a crew member harshly scold us for wanting to actually do what their flyer recommended - stroll through Melk. - we began to simply remove the chain as soon as we docked. It turned out that others were equally as frustrated and they also began to leave as soon
as they saw us go.The area was beautiful, especially in all of the snow, and on the plus side we both lost several pounds on this trip. The New Year's Eve party was karaoke and not pleasant and other events promised did not really occur.
I would highly recommend that if you choose Viking, do not let them make flight arrangements. They routed us to Newark with a connecting flight out of JFK. We had similar problems on the return trip. The upshot of the airline debacle was the loss of a day on the return and having to spend an extra $500 and much anxiety to get home. Definitely not worth the supposed 'savings and convenience' of having Viking make the arrangements.
Viking's solution to our complaints was to give us a voucher for $250 each for travel on their cruise line - to be used within one year. They did not seem to understand that the last thing we wanted to do was waste any additional vacation time on another bad cruise any time soon.
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My grandparents booked this cruise in April of this year. My grandfather passed away this last week, unexpectedly. My grandmother called to see what could be done with the tickets, within 2 minutes of talking to someone, they had her in tears saying that it is not their fault that he died and showing a death certificate would unnecessary because it meant nothing to them. My brother took the phone and ask to speak to management on her behalf. When he got a response saying that their is no management, then got hung up on. We then called again to hopefully to talk to someone else. We then came to realize that the lady we were talking to was management, that told us there was no management. We are still waiting for a reply. We mentioned to get an attorney involved and they said it was unnecessary and would not give information to contact theirs.
It's too bad that Viking isn't better prepared to deliver what you purchase when the weather doesn't cooperate. As a river cruise line, they should have back up plans for when ships break down, rivers flood and lock are inoperable. And let's throw in a couple of destination docks that were unavailable necessitating docking in industrial sites. This was a very expensive trip for my husband and I and was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. We were changed to a different ship (with only one day's prior notice; some passengers received no notice at all). We did not receive the suite we paid for, but a standard stateroom. When we finally changed to the Var, the ship we were booked on, it broke down after one day. We then missed a town, received a shortened tour in two locations due to being bussed from the boat and eventually spent the last two nights in a hotel. When trying to resolve compensation with Viking, they ignore phone calls and emails. Unless you have a crystal ball and can guarantee that the weather will be good, plan on NOT
getting what you paid for. Their ads are what got us hooked on doing this in the first place, but their signature clip showing the ship entering Budapest didn't happen for us. We entered the city on a bus.
This was our third cruise with Viking and our last. When we arrived in Budapest we found out that the boat was moved out of Budapest due to high water. That should have been our first clue to cancel this fiasco of a cruise. We were held in a hotel for 6 hours and then bused over an hour to the boat. that was the first of many bus rides since the river was too high for the boat to move.
I have cruised with Viking before and had no problems. What an eye opener when we had problems. We were offered a paltry voucher to use on our next cruise. I tried to talk with Viking customer services but they were more interested in telling how much overtime they had to work due to the high water situation. I wanted to voice my frustration at this compensation but received stonewalling and "I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do". I paid a premium to sail with Viking but they are acting like the Dollar Store of Cruise Lines. I have waited more than 2 weeks for a
reply and so far none is coming. Cruisers beware of Viking.We were told misinformation, told things were going to get better, and given no option to being stranded on a floating hotel. Then as the water lapped over the banks of the Danube we were told we will be taken to Munich (a 12 hour bus ride). We can home exhausted from the bussing, and frustrated at the customer service of a cruise line that I thought was reputable. Vacationers beware of Viking. If anything goes wrong they will not be there to fix it.
Editor's note: this was two reviews from the same email address, it has been consolidated into one review.